Shadowy Dissent

## Introduction

The Shadowy Dissent is a rare and powerful spell which can fall upon small port towns. Its effects can be long lasting and in some cases devastating. Consisting of increasingly dangerous effects and objects on the coast, towns can be oppressed into migration by this situation.

## Lucas Port

Lucas Port or Port Lucas rests north of Oil City, Washington. Nestled in an inlet high on the coast of the northwest, the city often holds freezing temperatures for more than half the year. The town's main economic providers are lobster, iron, and some tourist events. Small businesses within the town tend to sell antiques and hometown food.

The town's culture has long been one of adventure. Since its founding in 1845, the town has been a haven for young and brave adventurers. The california gold rush brough swaths of people from the east and south in search of their fortune – many of them found their dooms. All this changed when the gold dried up and the what's colloquially known as *The Incident* occurred in the town.

### The Incident

With all manner of adventuring folk about the town, the sky darkened. All at once, the air seemed to freeze where it was and the air was still, the temperature plummeting to what was later estimated to be 32 degrees fahrenheit. There are conflicting reports on the nature of the rapture which took this town but one thing is constant: a booming voice shattered from the sky in a tongue none understood.

What follows is an excerpt from the account of *The Incident* in the town's newspaper, the Daily Wave, from October 19th, 1853, submitted by Richard Smith after the death of his son:

> "It was a great cold snap and it came all at once. Without so much as a cold wind, the air seemed to wither and die all around the town, the sky grayed without a speck of a cloud and the sea seemed to fade into a purple hue like wine. The air was still and the town silent as the waves crashed into the peer. As they smashed into the gentle wood of the peer, they left broken parts of undead\* tentacles all along the peer. The wooden boats moored there were smashed upon some unseen rocks and the lone English galleon was swallowed by some monstrous whirlpool. It was all at once that all this chaos began – a howling of heaven and earth unlike any before it. Those who had been on the peers now rested at the bottom of the sea and those in the town now wished their fate had been that. After all this calamity, a single and powerful voice struck out as though it were above the town. A rattling, grating voice it was, and it screamed at us in a tongue we dare not decypher. Such power in those words! The town will be lost."
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-- Richard Smith, The Daily Wave, October 19th, 1853

Following *The Incident*, the mines in the town collapsed, leaving behind dust, bones and supposedly cursed gold. The town ever since has lived in fear of what's below. It is unknown whether the Acemodonian Dissent effected these people in Lucas Port.

\*Undead refers to the nature of the posthumous movement of the tentacles, not to any actual undeath, as is catalogued in the Case of John Baker of Los Angeles at the Klein Institute of the Unknown.

## Jules Klein

### Early Life

Born in 1992 to parents Eliza and Baker Klein in the small town of Lucas Port, her mother and father were each engineers at the only car repair shop in town - The Klein Shop. Here, she was taught the insides and the outs of cars of all stripes. She was a fast learner, yet her spirit seemed always inclined toward the sea. Her parents, while they were at work, would on occasion hear from a friend that Jules was found investigating a cave near the sea. This usually ended in a call to the coast guard, or a family friend with a boat, to fish her out.

What follows is an excerpt from a letter, sent by a friend of the Kleins' to his wife, written on a day that he was enlisted to rescue Jules:

> "Blasted Girl! She has no idea the trouble those caves can cause! Fishing with her bare hands, and catching lobsters without a trap! That girl is trouble, I assure you, darling. There is nothing good to be had in the sea, save for the fish. Even then, I've been considering ending this fishing rig for ten years. As good a catch as we're given by the sea, I'm sure it isn't worth it, yet I'm not sure what I'd do instead. That Jules girl tells me I should sail to Japan! At this rate, I'm not sure that's the worst idea..."
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--Ethan Smithen, 1999, November 31st, Port Lucas, Washington

### The Founding of the Klein Institute of the Unknown

As Jules grew, she listened to every story she found and investigated ever more. Discovering hundreds of tales along the shores of California, Washington and Oregon. With all this experience, she created a small team of she and her colleagues to catalogue, in a scientific manner, all these discoveries. She brought together some funds, along with good faith and credit from a bank, and created the Klein Institute of the Unknown in Los Angeles, California. It was then that she began work on her book, *Chasing Shadows,* published in 2015, when she was twenty-three.

## The First Instance of Shadowy Dissent

According to the Realmwell Foundation, the first instance of Shadowy Dissent occurred in Knotts Island, North Carolina, when several unidentifiable bodies washed ashore during a month long spell of fog plagued the island. This, according to proper research, is not the latest opinion of the proper scholars.

What follows is an excerpt from Richard Link, professor of history who has worked at the Klein Institute of the Unknown for thirty-five years. His book, *The First Fear,* catalogues the earliest possible instances of these supernatural events and locations. His book focuses on the possible rather than the concrete. It follows:

> "Though the held belief is that the Dissent of Shadows was first discovered at Knotts Island North Carolina in 1730, there is some evidence of there being an occurrence significantly earlier. The lost colony of England known as Roanoke was, if evidence is to be believed, attacked in a titanic-scale Dissent. The evidence is staggering...Firstly, the fact that the colony was lost – entirely – to history speaks toward its fate...A series of items found imbedded in the soil on the shore near where the colony was thought to exist point toward the Dissent's hold over the town.. A series of bones of fish, whales, and evidence of much decay, as well as cracked rock where the initial settlers would have had no access, all point toward the...fate of the colony."
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-- Professor of History Richard Link, *The First Fear*, 2004

## Other Documented Instances

### Corolla, North Carolina, 1992

A diary entry follows, from an anonymous resident going by the name of Ruth:

> "I have forgotten about [redacted] by now. He was a lousy boyfriend anyway...[Ruth goes on to discuss personal details of her life. This is useless to our file and has been redacted]... Today a dark cloud came over the town. All our wireless devices have shut down and we're not sure what to do. All the schools have closed - they've turned into hospitals for all the people who've come down with some weird cold. I've stayed in all week, except for getting groceries... And now I'm hearing about some noises by the shore, some sort of voices? I'm scared. I'm leaving this town as soon as this is all over, if it ever ends."
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### Marina Park, California, 2001

It is reported that Marina Park suffered heavy losses in their fishing industry. Instead of reeling in nets of the ordinary catch, the fishing boats hauled in hundreds of tons of tentacle - just one massive severed tentacle per boat. These tentacles proved too massive for the ships, and so they had to be abandoned.

### Hobyo, Somalia, 2002

A report filed by local law enforcement detailed the mysterious loss of dozens of ships related to the nation's recent piracy problem. One such report, translated, follows:

> "One surviving crewmate recounted a tale of a great storm which washed his boat ashore some maze-like island, where he lost all but his own life. All the time while fleeing tooth and claw, he heard booming, screaming voices telling him to leave. When he finally found his ship, it held murky water that he could not remove by any means. He could not identify the craft that picked him up, but told officers responding that the craft had english letters and an american flag. The Americans have been contacted but have thus far not identified any vessel or organization in the area and no island matching the description that he gave the officers reporting."
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### Norilsk, Siberia, 2004

As the northernmost city in the world, Norilsk has disproportionate unknown happenings. The most significant in recent history happened to occur when the water near the town frozen over in the winter - an ordinary occurrence. But as the winter wore on, shapes appeared in the ice. This has been catalogued in the Frozen Clean.