The Holder of the Floods

In any city, in any country, go to any library you can get yourself to. When you find a librarian, ask to visit that which calls itself "The Holder of Floods". At your request, the human librarian will stop what they are doing; a change will fall over them. They will turn away just as their head twists around backward on their shoulders, watching you. At this point, it's advised not to turn away, just close your eyes.

When you open your eyes, you will find yourself in a great tomb. It will be dark and cold, the kind of dark and cold you never knew existed. In the infinite inky black, there will be a light, colder than space, and brighter than the stars. Follow the light through the dark, be careful where you step, do not trip, do not look around, you'd rather not know. Use the lone light to find a fissure in the wall, ascending through the stone and into a large vault-like structure where the light will expose the intricately carved walls, like marble, with a long and ancient frieze depicting destructions past, and creations still to come.

Quickly make your way through the long, hollow vault that surrounds you. There are people here, but those who inhabit this desolate place are pale, weak, and fearful to the point their jet-black eyes show no sign of other emotion. These are the souls, they're gaunt bodies, like tatters of skin clinging to a phantasm.

As you pass through the vault and into the surrounding halls and corridors, you shall see many more of them. Most of those who are trapped here, some perhaps even Seekers like yourself, have already succumbed to the brutality of this place. They cannot die, though many will simply forego life, eaten alive by the others who blindly struggle for warmth and food. Some will try and fight back, the constant conflict and strife simply adding to the pain of this place, but most are so terrified they would rather surrender to a death that will never come and the false hope of an end. As you walk this cold place, only you will know what is about to befall it.

You may try to save the souls, any that succeed with you shall be freed into the peace of death... Those who remain here through the cataclysm shall be held forever in torment.

Whatever you decide, you must not hesitate, time here is of the utmost importance. Deep, frigid, and abyssal waters already build around this vault. You will first only hear it as the creaking and cracking of the stone basin that surrounds you, by the time you hear it the tomb beneath you will have already filled. Those few souls who realize their fate shall simply break, weep, and beg for salvation as they hear the water rushing into the hall behind them. You must make it out of the vault.

As you approach the end of the vault's long, spacious and ominous hallway, you will likely be able to hear the cacophonous calling of clouds as the rain has been falling here since time's immemorial waiting for a Seeker to release the tide. The storm, finally freed from its endless cycle, shall be relentless as it shatters stone and shakes the structure itself. Make your way up the stone stairway into the great interior of the temple. The chamber here is held by a great and intricate arch. A monument to those terrified and pitiful souls who left the darkness of the vault only to find themselves unable to face the world outside. Here, the flashing litany of lightning and the violent veil of thunder, rain, and hail horrify the inhabitants. Those souls who inhabit this floor are fated to remain here, unable to return yet too terrified to move on.

Regardless of how they plea, you must continue forth venturing onto the docks where you shall see the looming figure of a great ship. The torrential storm of this place is paradoxical; the air remains cold as ice, yet the rain boils as if the clouds are on fire.

You may take the souls of the damned, to save them here is to let them finally rest. Know, however, that they will be fearful, trembling at the sight of the great ship, and inhibiting your escape. Most, if not all, shall refuse to move from these docks though their flesh scalds painfully in the rain. As they are unable to understand, pitiful and alone, they must be left to die in the rain, or washed away in their folly.

Only the structure of the great ship can save those brave enough to bear the rain and the waves, and as such you must reach across the stone docks and stay within the hull of the ship.

There is no instruction, no food, or warmth during this part. Without navigation, you must survive adrift until found by the great beast that dwells in these depths.

Emerging first as a shadow below, it shall throw your ship, as though it were nothing, into the mercy of its deadly waters. Steady yourself and finally come forth onto the deck of the ship, amid the boiling torrents of rain and the splashing waves of sin, to face the creature.

Know that this is one of the seven serpents; the great beast of the sea they would call Leviathan, or that was once named Rahab. A massive creature, only its back-breaking the waves. It is like a great fish, with fins edged as daggers and scales of rough-hewed stone. Iron hooks, that glow like embers, are embedded into its jaw and claw out from its maw-like teeth. Smoke with lashings of fire tainted by sulfur spill from the beast's throat. You must ask the Holder, "Why will they destroy us?" It will never answer directly; instead, a mightily bellowing laugh shall echo in the sky around you as the great serpent Leviathan swallows all of the sea, pulling the entirety of the world into a gut that blazes like the depths of hell. Upon the verge of your death here in this furnace, as if the secrets of the world are etched into the fires around you, the answer shall be clearly realized.

Once the nightmare has passed, you awaken outside the library. Here, a storm will have just subsided and a rainbow, clearer than any before or after, will mark the sky above you. In your hand will be an iron fish hook that burns like hellfire when piercing flesh.