This is a proposal for an island, it is free for use in Sunless Sea, I do not grant permission for it to be used elsewhere without my consent. Thank you.
Story concepts/options for exploring/proceeding:
Upon first approaching Nautilus, you were unsure this is an isle at all. There is a deep thrumming, like that of a thousand thundering zeez. Strikingly the port is completely mechanical in nature with a sharp crescent maw for mooring. Hesitant to enter the dock, any thoughts of leaving were cancelled when the crescent automatically embraced your ship from wake and wave.
The paths here branch out in dizzying Fibonacci spirals, succulent to the soul, maddening to the mind. Intriguingly, no one is around, yet the gardens are meticulously kept; a balance of jigsawed machined plates and organic life woven upon rock and metal.
Following the primary path brings you to the eyelid of the serendipitous shell’s inner city. Clearly some great work is at hand as you peer over glass houses shaped of zee zhells against ivory walls spiraling upwards toward a single glass pane shaded with a heavenly thought. You decidedly press on to the top completely possessed by awe, the window has captivated you and your intentions to capture its dream. Finally reaching it, your eye beholds not only the endless abyss of false stars and shadowed lavender, but this? A stairway to nowhere…
Perhaps it is under construction, or incomplete… or, no, a symbolic construct you wonder. Foot prints gleam in the extravagant light leading up the top of the staircase, but none return back down. How mysterious.
In bewilderment and in beautiful frustration you are driven to hurry quickly back down the spiral steps, which now from above you, eyes can see make a perfect spiral. A spiral with no end in it’s descent, it would frighteningly appear!
Peering further using the magnification of a nearby mollusc shaped house, you see rows and rows of fantastical roses all forming the descending spiral in a myriad of colors and paths. It appears one primary path is among them.
Attempt to follow the primary path:
As you try to proceed further, it becomes something else, the only thing comparable would be to suggest you are in a giant kaleidoscope! This may very well be a fractal of heaven and hell, despite the thought your unanswered questions of this place force you to carry on deeper.
Boldy and dangerously hungry for answers you plunge deeper down where you finally glint at some small tangible light at the core of this rosy mayhem.
Investigating it reveals to you that should you proceed you may very well become one with this place forever, but a silent drumming here at the source, you think it’s the source, pulsates a begging plea to look up, to question your existence, to…suddenly the entire zhell begins to quake. Your crew are yelling from above for you to return. Looking up you see a peacock sky, little zailors running away…
You manage to snap out of it. At your feet, you realize your standing on the edge of a cliff, and below is hell itself! You dash backwards and up the spiral as a glass houses shatter and dance to pieces above you, glittering into gently tornadoes of dust. Successfully reaching the eyelid you collapse.
You awake on the ship to learn the crew had carried you back. Were you hypnotized? Did you lose the primary path? Perhaps your mad quest for knowledge drove you to the brink of hallucination. All you know is you must return someday.
Attempt to follow the primary path:
As you try to proceed further, the illusion fades and you recognize a microcosmic pattern. The very neath itself is pictured in this spiral!
It will take many supplies, but you’ve charted the route to the center, or what you think may be the core of the spiral. Perhaps yet you will know it’s secrets.
(Undeveloped story line…intent is to reveal a single character named Captain Nemo who reveals with trust, his ‘base’ on the isle providing rewards and of course the Nautilus submarine! Yes, yes, high high hopes.)