The Lantern of Low Hollow was a spell used to keep The Churning Storm at bay.
Description[]
The old story of The Lantern of Low Hollow says there was a blacksmith whose wife had become possessed, ranting and raving, hurting herself and other people. Cursing god and swearing allegiance to the devil. Her doctor wanted to perform trepanation. Their community wanted her drowned. Their friends and family abandoned them. Desperate, the blacksmith wrote a prayer, a poem, that he hoped God would hear. He hoped it would help reveal she wasn’t possessed at all, but as he suspected, being controlled by some physical force. Not by some devil, but by a vengeful person. With the poem he created a way to hear “voices on the wind.”
History[]
During the 1998 Ascender's correspondence with Mountaineers, he mentioned that a recruit named Luminor found a poem hidden in complication 3. Ascender had come across the same poem in a book about witchcraft and historical magic myth that had been given to him by Benefactor. The page had the illustration of a snake. The same snake that surrounded the Record of Loss poem in complication 3. The poem they found was The Lantern of Low Hollow. After Ascender had been attacked by Missouri and the other Mountaineers who had been taken by the Storm, he wondered if the Storm was controlled by something or someone else. To test his theory, he lured out the Storm and cast the Lantern of Low Hollow, which led him to hear a voice telling it to “seek them and take their minds until none remain who know.” Ascender continued to use the spell on the Storm, learning more with each lighting of the Lantern.
After a hint from the modern day Benefactor, recruits found The Lost Athenaeum to be updated with a new spell - one half of the Lantern of Low Hollow[1]. They soon realized that while they held one half of the spell, Ascender held the other.
In his next correspondence, Ascender told Mountaineers that he had a pen and paper near him when he lured out the storm, and also his laptop was open to the forum. He began automatic writing what the Storm was commanded to do, as well as several other bits of phrases that the modern-day Mountaineers were saying on the Basecamp 33 Forum, realizing that they were not telling him everything.
Towards the end of his communications with the Mountaineers, he was nearly caught by the Storm and told recruits that he had finally realized what the other voices were in the Storm. They were voices. The thoughts of other people it took. After having been given the other half of the Lantern spell by Mountaineers, he realized he could possibly harness it to control the Storm, but he decided instead to rely on the modern day Mountaineers and chose to erase his memories of them using the bastard hex so the Storm would never find out their plan.
In "Mr. Wideawake", Mr. Wideawake told Deirdre Green that The Monarchs used the lantern spell to listen in on the Storm's plans, but that they were willing to give up access, implying that it was the Monarchs who sent the spell to the Mountaineers.
Lost Athenaeum Description[]
The Lantern of Low Hollow – Incomplete
[Historical/Lost/Incomplete/Puritanism/New World Magiq]
Only a partial diary entry and the last three stanzas of this spell story have been found. Without the first half, the spell seems to be inert. The remains of the poem seem to infer its purpose was to first hear the “commanding voice” of a magiq user on the wind, and then take control or hijack the voice, whereupon one could either control the suffering, or break the malevolent hold over them.
This spell is steeped in the new world witch hunts of the 17th century.
| “ |
It has worked. Evelyn is not possessed. There is a voice on the air that commands her to do these things. To howl and hurt herself and those around her. I have heard it. Just tonight. My ears prick at its whisper. My pen scratches out its thoughts. I know now that someone has taken the reins of my beloved’s mind. There is a verse on the tip of my tongue and the edges of my fingers. A verse that might allow me to break the voice’s hold, to usurp its command. But though I have the wordly skills to bend its voice to me, I do not have the strength to break its will. I lack both skill and sufficient power to rid my bride of this curse. Some demented force beyond these walls seeks to drive her to madness, to drag me tooth and nail behind her, and all that I am able to do is listen as it tears her apart. What I would be, or break, to have rid of it. |
” |
Though it seems the second half of the spell story was finally designed (referred below), the first half of this accidental spell has never been recovered.
| “ | I cast all ill intent aside The song begins to wane I am become the voice aloft The reins are now belong to me |
” |
Ascender's Half of the Spell[]
| “ | It has worked. Evelyn is not possessed by some demon. There is a voice on the air that commands her to do these things. To howl and hurt herself and those around her. I have heard it. Just tonight. My ears prick at its whisper. My pen scratches out its thoughts. I know now that someone has taken the reins of my beloved’s mind.
There is a verse on the tip of my tongue and the edges of my fingers. A verse that might allow me to break the voice’s hold, to usurp its command. But though I have the wordly skills to bend its voice to me, I do not have the strength to break its will. I lack both skill and sufficient power to rid my love of this curse. Some demented force beyond these walls seeks to drive my wife to madness, to drag me tooth and nail behind her, and all that I am able to do is listen as it tears her apart. What I would be, or break, to have rid of it. |
” |
[Use a lantern with new oil and an unburned wick or an unlit candle to represent your untainted intentions. Find a dark and quiet place. It’s helpful to be near the person or thing you believe is being coerced. Light a new flame and repeat the incantation. If successful you will not only hear the disembodied voice but may also be driven to speak or write the words you hear spoken.]
| “ | The voice on waves of aether’s air Be drawn upon the light Whisper toward the lantern, mine That sullen song is echoing |
” |