LOST

"LOST" is the eleventh episode of The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity, and Mortality.

Characters:

* The Audio Tour Guide
* The Visitor
* The Clockwork Mother
* The Clockwork Girl (part of exhibit)
* The Little King (part of exhibit)

Exhibits:

* A Clockwork Girl
* A Wooden Crown
* Will-O-The-Wisp

## A Clockwork Mother

The Guide begins to tell the story of the Clockwork Mother, which it originally told in NASCENT, but stops when it hears footsteps. It turns out to be the Clockwork Mother herself, who didn't go into the shelters, presumably in order to protect her daughter. The Clockwork Mother is slightly damaged, suggesting that she's had a hard job protecting the museum. The Guide decides not to approach the Clockwork Mother, saying she might be able to strike the visitor down before they could explain what they were doing in the museum during lockdown.

## A Wooden Crown

### Summary

This exhibit is a wooden crown, clearly carved by a child. This child, called the Little King, was born hundreds of years ago on a small island in a large archipelago. The various tribes of the archipelago were always fighting, and the Little King dreamed of being able to unite them all to create peace. So he carved the wooden crown and announced to his village that he was their king. The villagers didn't take him seriously, but the Little King was determined. At night, he stole a canoe and tried to sail to the next inhabited island. He'd never sailed that far before, and his boat overturned. His life was saved by a fisherman from another island, which he brought the Little King back to. The Little King told the people of the island that he was now their king, and asked to borrow a boat. He was told that this particular island was home to the best boatwrights in the archipelago and they lent him a boat with the implication that his family would pay back the debt.

The boy sailed on to the next island, where he again told the people he was their king and received some food, which the villagers insisted was the best in the whole archipelago. He continued on in this way, going to islands, proclaiming himself king, and receiving such things as the best clothing, weaponry and instruments in the whole archipelago. As time went on, the leaders of the villages started to look more and more worried by a stranger turning up on their islands, and the Little King was told that a ruler from the mainland was intent on destroying the villages of the archipelago.

When all the leaders of the villages met up to decide what to do about this crisis, the Little King turned up. He found the leaders all yelling at each other, blaming everybody else for the fact that there was nothing they could do to save the archipelago. The Little King stood on a tree stump and made a speech to them all, telling them about everything he'd seen on his journey, about all the similarities and differences between the islands. All the leaders of the archipelago swore allegiance to him, and the Little King laid out his plan for saving the archipelago.

The plan was so cruel that The Guide refuses to say what it was, only saying that it was so awful because children don't have the lived experience to know what cruelty really is. The leaders reluctantly followed the Little King's plan, and it worked, but the people of the archipelago were disgusted by it. At first the Little King didn't understand why they seemed to hate him, but as he grew up he started to realise that he had committed a greater evil than anything the mainlanders would have done. He began to hate the people of the archipelago back, for their ingratitude. He remained their king, though, and later led them in an invasion of the whole world.

## Will-O-the-Wisp

The Guide and The Visitor come across an escaped Will-O-the-Wisp, which is described as a small ball of light hovering in mid-air. The Guide explains the common myth about Will-O-the-Wisps, which is that they use their bright light to lure travellers away from the path in a bog, leading them to their deaths. This particular Will-O-the-Wisp was rescued from a drained bog in Scotland, and, having escaped its enclosure, is now trying to lure people to their deaths down things like elevator shafts. Upon realising this, The Guide decides to take the stairs.