Great details here: the velvet lumens, the red dust. The characters and equipment are McDowallian. Any reason not to have them just be the things they're disguised as? The image of the headless flame is excellent.
I very much like that the violet flame has other uses, and that those uses can harm the user or ruin the device.
The alien geometry is a nice touch, and I like that most of the encounters aren't combat-oriented... it adds to the atmosphere.
Hiya! First of all, thank you very much for the kind praises. To answer your question, I guess at the end of the day, I want the characters to still be the pathetic little humans they are. They're hopelessly fighting a war they could never win, and to make that sense of dread amplified, why not keep the characters the weak humans? At least that was my vision anyways. Practically? It's so that there's a baseline so that other stuff can be weird in comparison, I suppose?
I feel the same way about the lantern too! I wanted give more descriptions to the violet flame, but flat out describing it might be boring, so I opted to make it an item with some risks to be taken. I hope it can add more stakes to the game itself!
