5th of June, 2022
[The Flicker and the Fade]
The Deep Lantern and the Diver

The Flicker and the Fade by Nyessa: A game of drawing and erasing a constellation as an immortalised mythic being fades into darkness.

The Starfield #

Here's my starfield—a few dim and middling stars and then one brilliant jewel:

Starfield: Six dot-like golden stars drawn on a deep sea-green sky that's so dark it's almost black. One star has 18 rays of light around it, two stars have six rays, one has four rays, one has two rays, and one has no rays—just a single point of light.

My Constellation: The Deep Lantern #

What else could this be but the Deep Lantern, the little monster far below the sea who sometimes washes up dead on beaches and scares the wreckers and the combers?

The Deep Lantern: Lines are drawn between the stars, connecting them in the shape of an anglerfish with a huge mouth and shining lantern.

They say I was a diver, hungry and curious, and that I went deeper, deeper still than anyone who came before. They say I told stories that nobody believed; they believe them now. They say I lost my way in the black water and wound up in the black sky. That much is true.

Now I watch over the seas forever, and my reflection swims in them while I swim among the stars. It is a pleasant eternity. People look and see me and understand there are stranger things than they know. I am immortal, immutable, invulnerable…

The Death of the First Star #

Stars
1 3 5 7 7 19
Roll
2

…Or so I thought. I seem to have misplaced my jaw. Now they call me the Basker, a slow and patient creature who lives the good life. Not so hungry any more. I was complacent. I may swim slower now through the stars, but I still have eyes to see, to sate my curiosity.

The Basker: The star at the end of the anglerfish's jaw (0 rays) has faded away, leaving only a gaping mouth.

The Death of the Second Star #

Stars
3 5 7 7 19
Roll
1

I can feel my stomach weakening from lack of food. Too slow now to chase and eat, and the stars drift easily out of my maw. People say am starving. I will defy them. Strange things happen down below and up above, stranger than they know. I will live.

The Starving Basker: The star at the centre of the fish (2 rays), connecting the belly and the massive fin, begins to dim (loses 1 ray).
Stars
2 5 7 7 19
Roll
2

the Mouth turns back on its own flesh and eats itself. only morsels remain. i am a cautionary tale. the old folk tell the young not to follow my example, and when they young go out to play the old think of me and crease their brows as they remember their own mistakes.

The Mouth: The star at the centre of the fish fades away completely and the fish's belly, mouth, and lantern are redrawn as a single massive mawfacing the other way and chasing the last remnant of its tail, now broken off as a single star.

The Death of the Third Star #

Stars
5 7 7 19
Roll
3

the problem with eating all the time is that your jaw begins to wear thin at the joints cartilage against cartilage then bone against bone i am a warning do not follow my example do not swim up here it is very cold and the only thing to eat is yourself

The Breaking Mouth: The star at the hinge of the maw (4 rays) begins to dim (loses 1 ray).
Stars
2 7 7 19
Roll
11

Who am I again? I am the Unblinking Eye of the cosmos. I watch your plane of existence. I am and always have been a fish in the deep, one eye on the sea floor, the other in the stars. People say I am starving. The old go out to play. Stranger things have happened.

The Unblinking Eye: The star hinging the maw fully fades away and the constellation is redrawn once more, with the brightest star, once the lantern, now an eye looking down on the world-plane formed by the remaining two dimmer stars.

The Death of the Fourth Star #

Stars
7 7 19
Roll
15
The Diver: One of the stars forming the world-plane (6 rays) completely fades away and the constellation is redrawn for the final time. The brilliant lantern (18 rays) is connected to the last dimmer star (6 rays) by an unbreaking tether.

They call me the Diver. I chase the light, the light that is brighter than me and always out of reach no matter how deep I go. That much is true. I am mutable, vulnerable, yet immortal. I am the Diver. Far to the North, they get my stars the other way around, and I am trapped in eternal descent, never to die.

Never to die.

Post-play #

I don't think I realised it at the time, but I mistakenly dropped the percentile die from the set of dice. It's meant to be used as a second d10, both when making the constellation and when fading it.

Basic intuitive maths note: it's possible, but very unlikely, for your constellation to die. In order for it to die, every star needs to die in one turn each. I built a quick little Monte Carlo model and the results work out like this: ~5% of games end with 0 stars, ~35% end with 1 star, ~45% end with 2 stars, ~15% end with 3 stars, and a fraction of a % end with 4 or 5. It's super unlikely to end with 6 and impossible to end with 7 (the highest you can roll on the d4 is 4, but you'll always lose at least 7 rays because you roll 7 times and each roll loses you at least 1 ray).