Lutwidge Writings

"Oh magus, you have begun thy journey. Your master's temple has fallen but his work is not yet finished…" - Orrin Oscar Lutwidge This article falls within the scope of the BioShock Wiki:Something In the Sea Content Project. This project is dedicated to improving the quality of all content related to the viral website, "There's Something in the Sea." Would you kindly help the BioShock Wiki by volunteering on the project page?

Letter to Ryan 1

April 17, 1952

Warden Yarn Co.
___ Park Ave.
New York, NY

To Whom It May Concern:

After having made numerous previous inquiries by tele-
phone, and receiving no adequate response, apparently I
have to spell it out in writing.
    My organization accepted a contract to provide con-
struction materials and other supplies for your unspeci-
fied project in the North Atlantic. We cheerfully agreed
to some most peculiar conditions regarding confidential-
ity and consented to form partnerships with your organi-
zation. In exchange, we were promised long-term contracts,
as well as control and, eventually, full ownership of
several lucrative New York real estate properties.
    We are most dismayed to discover that our contracts
have been cut off in recent months without valid explana-
tion. Raw materials, purchased upfront by our organiza-
tion, rust and rot at our docks as we await contact
regarding delivery. We find ourselves most vexed by this
utter lack of response; not in the least because we have
exposed ourselves to undue risk in the implementation of
your particular demands.
    We have grown increasingly suspicious that your organi-
zation has used ours as a "shield" to obfuscate your
actual purposes. Perhaps your intent is to prevent the
government from ascertaining the true nature of your
unspecified project in the North Atlantic (op. cit.,
Q.E.D). We do not intend, as the popular parlance has it,
to be left "holding the bag."
    We fully expect you to come through in your obliga-
tions; or failing that, to offer us a sizable cash
settlement to compensate us for this ongoing frustration.

With increasing pique,

O.O.L

Orrin Oscar Lutwidge

Letter to Ryan 2

June 22, 1954

Page 2 (of 2)

IN SHORT, Mr. R. (if that IS WHO YOU ARE). I have deduced
who you are and what you are up to. Others will, soon -
all too soon. Despite your best efforts - a trail remains.
It is only a matter of connecting the dots. If you would
like to KEEP your secret. I would advise that
you contact me. Others are already finding the clues —
putting the pieces together.

   This irksome French heiress and various agencies of the
United States gov't. are moving in closer. Inch by inch,
they encroach upon the center of the secret. It is my
choice now. I could assist them - or I could cast chimerical
glamours to lead them astray. (I have already taken it
upon myself to destroy hard evidence of the
city's existence and to introduce false evidence to
confound & confuse these unworthies.) It is my understanding
that you sought to gather the brightest and the best
under your banner: yet you have left this very brightest
mind alone in the shadows.

   I advise you. kind sir: test not my patience. You
should reward your faithful servant, lest you taste his
wrath.

   I await the coordinates of RAPTURE.
Lutwidge never got the coords???
DID HE EVER FIND IT????

With mounting impatience:

O.O.L.

I.O.O.P Pamphlet

Title Page

THE
INTERNATIONAL
ORDER
OF THE PAWNS

________


An Introduction for New Members

[The motto reads "Agere, Auferre, Audere", Latin for "To Act, To Carry Off, To Dare"]

FIRST EDITION

1956

Page 1

To the Pawns:

In this world, a grand game is being
played. Its moves are secret, its
strategems complex. You have been con-
tacted because your have witnessed the
patterns that lie beneath the surface of
things. Unlike the blinkered herd, you
have recognized the secret sequence of
the squares! Thus, you have achieved the
First Degree. To achieve victory, one
must first recognize that the game's
afoot!

The White King (in his Ivory Tower) has
challenged us to play his covert game, to
find his hidden castle. But the game is
both intricate and global. The Queen
cannot be everywhere at once, alas; so
you must advance the agenda.

You may be asked to go anywhere -- to
participate in actions that seem, at first
blush, baffling. Your mind may be
strained to the breaking point by puzzles,
paradoxes & provocations. But if you
persevere -- if you prove your pluck and
probity -- if you aid us in uncovering the
hidden whilst luring the Unworthy off our
Trail of Truth -- then knowledge will be
granted unto you in a matter of degrees.

Dare, my pawns! Dare to accomplish
what few dream. But dare most of all
to be silent!

With respect and admiration,
your Red Queen:

O.O.L

Letter to the Red Pawn

June 17, 1958

My dear Red Pawn:

    Your assistance in the matter of the French-
woman was much appreciated; you replicated the hand
of her father with much skill, and your efforts to
plant the documents in the Gobi Desert enabled me
to be "in two places at once," as it were.

However, I must urge you to stop harassing her
immediately. I am given to understand that a
letter, apparently on my letterhead and in my hand,
was sent to the Frenchwoman on May 23. Its contents
echoed thoughts that I had previously expressed to
you, but it showed my our hand in a clumsy and
unnecessarily provocative manner -- and revealed
matters which I had repeatedly told you were of a
confidential nature (e.g. The Bellman's Chart).

  I suspect that you have taken it upon yourself to
continue the game.

  Understand quite clearly, sir: The operation has
been a success, and I have already taken steps to
eliminate all the forgeries we provided our quarry.
Now, possibly because of this idiotic note of May
23, the Frenchwoman has hired Private Investigators
to dog my steps -- even as I prepare for the next
and final steps in my own quest for True Rapture.

Please -- your involvement must not be discovered,
and the game is at and end.

Yours, quite piquantly:

O.O.L.

("which is me,"

INDEED!)

Letter to the Grey Pawn

TO: GREY PAWN
FROM: RED QUEEN
DATE: Sept. 1958
Re: Red Pawn / "Baskerville" Project

Grey Pawn:

Please know that your repeated (endlessly repeated)
warnings about the Red Pawn have not gone unheeded. Neither
have we failed to note the unkind aspersions that you have
cast upon the mental well-being of your Red Queen.

Unfortunately, the Red Pawn remains a vital component of
our "Baskerville" Project. We must ensure that all genuine
evidence is hopelessly intertwined with hokum (e.g.,
Atlantis, ghost legends, psychical phenomena, et cetera).
In the past, Mr. Lynch has appeared to be a useful idiot -
a "true believer" in occult forces. We now suspect that the
crafty Pawn may have other goals - namely, he seeks to find
ways to extract profit from the secret of "True Rapture."

If I seem to be gulled by the Red Pawn, know that truths
may lurk in unexpected places. In compiling his latest col-
lection of supernatural lore, Lynch has stumbled across
information that has value even if he does not suspect: a
seemingly supernatural tale may provide the final clues to
my ultimate destination. Surely you are not surprised, Grey
Pawn - you more than anyone have chased ghosts these many
years. What if ghosts alone could point the way to truth?

Soon enough, I shall go to the Red Pawn in person to deter-
mine the precise nature of his threat - and to determine
what actualities he has accidentally woven into his
tapestry of superstition.

Trust your Red Queen:

O.O.L.

Plans for the Metal Box Puzzle

Fig 3a. - 3rd CONFIG.

5x5 Lock

Refer to Knight's

Journey

SOLUTION ACTIVATES

GYROSCOPIC

SENSOR

THE SEEKER

MUST BE

SET TO

SEA!

Warning About Route to Rapture

The UNWARY will be swallowed by Watery TRAPS! → seek the safe havens

E'en though your compass
falters, ye may sail BLIND -
guided by the THIRD EYE
within the MIND.

IMPORTANT    ↓
induce sneezing
to release
PSYCHIC
PRESSURE!

THERE IS
ONLY ONE
TRUE ROUTE

FOLLOW the LEYLINES → Beware the VORTICES →

the ONLY WAY TO RAPTURE → The Phantom Lighthouse Beckons ...
V + V

I
II
III
IV
V
THERE IS AN ORDER!

VORTICES!!! LEY LINES!!!
UTTER INSANITY!!!!

OOLutwidge - too smart to buy into

Lynch's BS OR was HE???

PUZZLE BOX contains info
Lutwidge couldn't have known
before he left NYC in '58.

DID OOL REPROGRAM the Box in 1960?
After he returned from RAPTURE?        CAN I
  TRUST IT???

Utropolis Manuscript

(Fun Fact: The thumbnail version of the cover page that can be seen in the archives looks significantly different than the cover page when seen up close. Compare the pictures above.)

Cover Page

inscribed

this year of our lord

nineteenhundredsixty

OR

in the modern chronology

THE YEAR 15 A.R

   (Anno Raptus)

____________________________

One Ostracized Loner was delivered from the

depths by the bursting of the BATHYSPHERE.

He brought NAUGHT to show for his sojourn

in Wonderland save some sorrowful souvenirs of

that Civil SLAUGHTER. O, the BROKEN

FACES - trophies of the FOES!

(and mementoes of the FRIENDS......)

FOOTSOLDIERS in that MYTHIC WAR

to DECYDE THE FATE OF

THE CITY 'NEATH

THE SEA

MUST GET

IT ALL DOWN....

ONLY ADAM CAN HELP

preCIOUS JARS GROW EMPTY.....

Must PRESERVE MEMORY

of that

UTOPIAN METROPOLIS

Second Cover Page

KILL

I*AN

RØD

is ReD

KEBERiNNE?

TRUST

NOT

THE PAWN!

NOM. DE PLUME!!!

THE NAME SHALL BE A MASQUE

for the TRUTH to hide BEHIND

AHA!

the perfect

surname?

(arrow pointing to a taped on page fragment)

(the fragment-)

APRIL MARCH:

a novel

Copyright:1936

Written by Herbert Q(obscured)

THE UTOPIAN METROPOLIS - Ch. 1 - by 'Quain' pg 5

I beheld the chiseled face - the face of Great

ORION, cast in bronze. As some great artisan's hands

had shaped the mold, a vacuum to be filled with molten

metal - - so had ORION shaped my life. This man, who

had been my employer, my partner, my nemesis - had

taunted me with silence. By refusing to extend the

invitation to Paradise - he had goaded me to

Greatness. I had gone a-hunting for a Snark - and had

found my true self. "NO GOD OR KINGS." as he would

say - "ONLY MAN." "OR KNIGTS??"-^

I discovered what appeared to be a way down - an

elevator mayhaps? I pulled the brass lever. It

lurched - and down, down, down I went - plummeting

into the mystery like Alice. Then it was as if the

floor dropped out - suddenly my transport was

whisking through water. This was no ordinary

lift, thought I, but some bold new submersible!

The splendour of the city unfolded before me - a

vision of beauty, trimmed in neon.

THE UTOPIAN METROPOLIS - Ch. 1 - by 'Quain' pg 8

My bathysphere traveled through rings with

rings - a glidepath to my final destination. The

hatch opened. I steeled myself - expecting to face

a challenge - the sharpened lances of the Red

Queen's knavish army. I was greeted by naught but

silence!

I found myself walking through the darkened corri-

dors, strangely quiet - - littered with chaos. In the

soft glow of the empty store-fronts, I noticed

streamers on the ground and party favors. "Had some

grand celebration been interrupted in the midst?" I

mused. Glass crunched beneath my feet; I bent down

to discover the shattered stem of a discarded cham-

pagne glass. "Late for the party," said I, reflect-

ing upon the irony. I wondered where all the

revelers had got to - even as I heard scuttling

sounds in the distance; even as I felt unseen eyes

watching me.

The details remain - but there are fugues in the

score. Like shards of the Looking Glass. I feel it

is Urgent that I pin these vaporising truths to the

foolscap pages - ere all of it slips from your

humble narrator forever!

THE UTOPIAN METROPOLIS - Ch. I - by 'Quain' pg 156

see letter from J.S.

The one called Catherine helped me hobble into the

flat that served as the headquarters of my new compa-

triots. The walls were lined with canvasses - eerie

images glimpsed through the windowpanes of this strange

city, light filtering past sculpted pinnacles whilst

great-leviathans and eight limbed monstrosities whirled

above the rooftops - the pigeons of this subaqueous

Metropolis!

I stared numbly at the paintings - barely feeling

the blood dripping down my arm to the floor. The

accursed Madmoiselle had wounded me in the fray. (A

pox on all the French!)

Noticing my wound, Catherine sat me on a stool to

tend it. I found myself directly facing a portrait of

a young girl, fragile and innocent. Every brushstroke

spoke of loss. As she wrapped my wound with gauze,

Catherine noticed my gaze, "Eve," she whispered. I dared

not ask what had become of the child.

One of the Vanished!

Mother took her?

Note Suggests: went voluntarily

THE UTOPIAN METROPOLIS - Ch. I - by 'Quain' pg 157

OAKES???

The door burst open. There stood the brusque man

in the sailor's uniform, the White Knight who had

saved me. We were lucky to have him at our side - a

rare commodity, a soldier with experience in the War

and training in the art of strategy.

"Where have you been?" asked Catherine.

"Sinclair Solutions," he grinned. "I think we've

got a thing or two to turn this battle."

check on this

The Knight eyed. "Pal," said he, "I don't even

know where the hell you came from. But after the way

you handled that wrench out there - you're jake in

my book. We could use a mechanic."

I protested that my profession was invention. He

reached out his hand in comradeship. I accepted -

only to have him squeeze my grip and turn my arm

to expose the veins. To my shock, he raised a syringe

-like device, poising it in the air.

"Don't worry," said he, "This will only sting

for a second."

Before I could flinch - the needle plunged.

WHAT IS IT???

'splice of life'??

RØd Killian Quain's Journal

Cover

(A spiral consisting of the repeated words "RAPTURE IS REAL")

RØ(rrin)D

KIL(utwidge)LIAN

Q(scar)uain

The Testimony of

Øne Old Loon

Who Ran the Red Queen's Race

Page 1

To square the circle is a tangle...

yet a problem more easily subsumed

than to find the TRIANGLE within the TRIANGLE

Ye be lost unless ye find it.....

an' ye find it, ye be DOOMED

HERE

there

Be

MONSTERS

Page 2

(Alice in Wonderland book cutout -)

"...the pool of tears..."

In that sea of wreckage

gleams the golden eye

that leads the bold to

-RAPTURE-

and the rest to merely DIE

Page 3

DOWN THE

RABBITHOLE

and what ORRIN found there

(Alice in Wonderland book cutouts -)

"...Down down down. Would the fall never

come to an end? 'I wonder how many miles

I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud. 'I

must be getting somewhere near the centre of

the earth. Let me see: that would be four

thousand miles down, I think-'"

"'-yes, that's about the right distance-but

then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude

I've got to?'"

(Arrow pointing to the passage)

Wouldn't you

like to

know?

Such

nice

Grand

words

to

Say

Page 4

(Alice in Wonderland book cutout -) "'Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!'"

Always Late......

too LATE

1959 and the party's

ALMOST Over!

(poster from the New Year's Eve Rapture masquerade ball with white rabbit mask)

what

does

the

WHITE

RabbiT

know?

Should auld acquaintance

be forgot? (party balloon)

YES Y₤S 1000x YES

Page 5

(Cut out of the Mad Hatter's tea party with mask pictures glued over the characters' faces)

(Alice in Wonderland book cutout -)

"'No room! No room!' they cried out when

they saw Alice coming. 'There's plenty of

'room!' said Alice indignantly, and she sat down

in a large arm-chair at one end of the table."

Page 6

All these years, Orrin had been

SHUNNED by the Master of

Wonderland as if there

Was NO ROOM for him.

But there was PLENTY

of Room!

In his new home, Orrin found

people WONDROUS

STRANGE, of a like he had

never before encountered.

They were the BEST and the

BRIGHTEST and hid

their BEAUTY behind

a Marvellous Masquerade.

They looked Askance at Orrin

at first. But he soon proved

his worth with his

Imagination and Invention..

So they invited him to try

the TREATS

Page 7

(Alice in Wonderland book cutout -)

"However, this bottle was not marked 'poison,'

so Alice ventured to taste"

(Pictures of Plasmid advertisements and poster from Eve's Garden)

(Alice in Wonderland book cutout -)

"'Curiouser and cu-

riouser!' cried Alice"

Page 8

ELECTRO-BoLT and SONIC BOOM,

TELEKINESIS makes things Zoom!

TARGET Dummy, CyCLONE TRAP!

Unleash the ice of WINTER BLAST! (symbols of snow flakes)

INCINERATE will make you warm

as you release an INSECT SWARM.

ENRAGE a useless bloody fool

and make an enemy your tool

The Possibilities are rife.........

for VARIETY'S the SPLICE

of LIFE!

Page 9

THERE

ARE NO

HAPPY ENDINGS

'in the

KINGDOM......

FOR WONDERLAND

went to WAR!

(Picture of the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland covered in blood splotches. Also, a picture of Atlas holding up a globe.)

No DADDY No!

not the DRILL!

(Arrow pointing at Atlas)

WHO is HE?

(Got the whole World

on his SHOULDERS!)

THE MORE

THINGS

MUTATE.....

The more they

tend to

CHANGE!

Page 10

Orrin couldn't stay with his

new friends...For they had ALL

Gone

Quite

MAD

(Picture of Alice looking at the Cheshire cat)

(Alice in Wonderland book cutout -)

"'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat:

`we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'

'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.

'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you

wouldn't have come here.'"

Page 11

(Alice in Wonderland book cutout -)

"'It was much pleasanter at home,' thought

poor Alice,"

And so...

Orrin escaped from Wonderland

only to be betrayed by

EVERYONE!

LET THE

FRENCH

FRY!'

LET HER SEEING EYE DOGS

be BLINDED

and pity the seeker

who seeks in VAIN

Page 12

THE SECRET, sweet Alice,

LIES DEEP

For the checkered Journey

can be traversed

only by a KNIGHT

And none are left in

this game but

PAWNS

of the Broken-hearted

Prophet I have

SPAWNED

Not

Quite

(cut out from a book)

"The End"

Invitation

Title Page

Dear

JEREMY:

ORRIN OSCAR LUTWIDGE
cordially extends

An Exclusive Invitation



(Alice in Wonderland image -)

"I didn't know I was to have a party at all,"
said Alice; "but if there is to be one, I think
I ought to invite the guests."

Page 1

TIME is of the essence!

Your Red Queen

Ø. O. L.

Page 2

You and one (1) guest*
(should you know one worthy)
may participate in
the re-discovery of

TRUE RAPTURE

The Journey Begins
SATURDAY
February the Sixth
5:45 P.M.

Gather on MARY STREET
(between MINNA ST. & NATOMA ST.)
in the city of
San Fransisco, California

• Only persons of full maturity (age twenty-one or over)
  shall be permitted to embark upon our quest.

Back Page

BE ADVISED -
RAPTURE
IS NOT
FOR ALL

Bring this invitation as
your ticket or you will
be left behind

TO DARE - TO JOURNEY - TO ADAPT