Sangfielle 16: The Candle Factory Pt. 3

Episode description[edit | edit source]

Sometimes you think you've got it all figured out, and rightly so. You've done your due diligence, crossed your T's and dotted your I's, asked all the right questions to all the right people. And its these specific cases when you are most taken by surprise with the truth of the thing. It goes without saying that the case Yellowfield Candle Company is one such endeavor. The truth slips through the fingers, and only one thing’s for sure: it’s a wax house, baby — we all just live in it.

This week on Sangfielle: The Candle Factory Pt. 3
Almanac of the Heartland Rider[edit | edit source]

Places[edit | edit source]

Yellowfield: Before the Panic this little valley of yellow flowers was the territory of a petty wizard and the subjects he frightened or beguiled. He called it his Xanthic Demesne, but these days we just call it Yellowfield. In the center of the valley, there’s a candle factory, and it is here that the old axiom refers: “All the candle light in Sangfielle was made with just twenty odd hands.”

Sapodilla: One of, if not the largest city inside of the walls of Concentus. Sapodilla is on the western shore of Sangfielle's inland sea, and its leaders have gotten very good at selling it as a postcard pretty, tiered seaside paradise where civilization and culture are defended unlike anywhere else in Sangfielle. Well. it certainly is right to say that the way they defend their culture is unique, but the rest of it? Call me a skeptic.

Facts and Figures[edit | edit source]

High Vicar Regan Alaway (currently he/him, changes over time): The de facto leader of Yellowfield, the vicar preaches daily in the Factory's churchfront. A charismatic figure with a bright vision for the future.

Gala (she/her): A young worker at the candle factory, Gala has grown increasingly concerned about the state of Yellowfield and the high vicar. Now, her concern grows to worry as her mother, Galena, has gone missing.

Eyes, Ears, and Mouth: These three Caprak—loyal to the full extent of loyalty to Alaway—are no talk, all action.

Subsolum: When a reporter passing east requested comment from the High Vicar on the distinguished deity worshipped at Yellowfield's only chapel, she was told only this: “My god is of the underneath, you see. The soil and the fertility in it. The deep soil, you understand. The soil that gives us these wonderful flowers.” Well that was a crock of shit, wasn't it? Not sure what to think about this one. Was there actually a Subsolum once? Is the Lord of Yellowfield Subsolum, self-proclaimed or in golden honesty? Is the whole thing a con? Who the hell knows.

Bucho (he/him) (mentioned): Whether you first hear of him as “Big Bucho” or “Two Step Bucho,” once you meet him, you’ll understand that no name does the gallant Shape Knight justice.

Rana (she/her): An lonely devotee of Kaitankro who now lives out her days attending to one of her chosen god’s many kite-shrines.

Organizations[edit | edit source]

The Shape Knights: It took people with clear minds, great ingenuity, and implacable spirit to face down and defeat one of the living trains of Sangfielle. In the time since, they’ve crafted armor from their slain foe, and with that have come to be experts of all things train. They herd, they breach, they redirect. But they haven’t yet killed a second.

Contents[edit | edit source]

Plot[edit | edit source]

The party heads back to the factory and sees Wayne at the loading dock who is focused at a desk with papers. The party sneaks inside past Wayne.

To get to the storeroom, Virtue takes the party through the Residuum, which is garishly yellow here due to all the candle making. The older yellow, from when the factory still used canola oil, is more pleasant and faded, while the newer yellow is more garish and has flecks of gray and brown in it. Also visible in the Residuum is some older machinery that no longer exists as well as around six people, who appear to be waxy and related, looking at the party but not acting. Also in the Residuum, there is something burning a hole through the ceiling in the main factory. It burns away a hole and a statue-sized inverted candle/spade falls through. To exit the Residuum, massive hands briefly shoot out of the ground and leave the party behind.

The party goes through the metal trap door in the supply room and arrive in a dark, industrial, Tier 3 Technology room. Big Mouth is standing in the back left corner of the room staring back at the party. Chine, who is able to see in the dark, waves at Big Mouth, who starts marching menacingly towards the party. Virtue becomes shadowy and helps the party sneak to the North door of the room, but parts of her shadows don't come back and she gets the major echo fallout "Eyes": her eyes become wide black orbs, and eyeballs blossom on the scar-lines where she was stitched back together.

In the next room, which is a temple overridden by technology, the egg sac is on the central altar, pulsating with tubes stuck in it. Chine takes a bite of a light bulb, gaining the Technology domain, and has visions:

Chine sees the history of the egg sac in reverse: the Vicar putting it on altar; when it was stolen and transported; it being in the nest and, before that, in the corpse of the Mother-Beast. It shrinks to the size of a grape seed. The Mother-Beast reaches up and a pair of hands is the holding grape seed. The Mother-Beast lifts its mewling pup. One hand lifts the child, and the other deposits the grape seed into Mother-Beast's hands.
Can the sac be hatched? With time and care it can grow and develop into something many-armed and legged and strange, but beautiful to Chine. There is also a vision of the vicar's ideal future, where lights in the streets across Sangfielle enable vampires to live more freely, and the world becomes more industrialized through a plethora of electrical devices.

Chine is disturbed by this, and guides Marn through surgically unplugging the egg sac. Es helps with her aura vision, as she can see when something moves in a way that causes existential risk. They succeed, and Chine takes the egg. The removal shuts down power to various processes throughout the factory and the Vicar starts heading to the party's location.

The party tries to leave via the Residuum but the hand that should emerge to grab Virtue is gets shot through with the wires attached to the altar. The hand calcifies and squeezed Virtue until it breaks, giving her the minor blood fallout "Limping."

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Cast[edit | edit source]

Other Characters[edit | edit source]

Locations[edit | edit source]

Gallery[edit | edit source]

Virtue failing to enter the Residuum by @mifhortunach