Lords of Gossamer & Shadow

by Matt Banach
 Rite Publishing Presents:

Gossamer Worlds:
INK
Explorer (Author): Matt Banach
Seeker (Editor): Steven D. Russell
Searcher (Cover Artist): Bion
Trailblazer (Interior Artists): Bion, Camus Altamirano,
Sara Contreras, Tarakanovich, Marek Rakuč,
Kevin Yancey
Pioneer (Trade Dress): James “Devin Knight” Hazelett
Lost Boy (Layout and Publisher): Steven D. Russell
Special Thanks to Jason Durall for his help in developing this.

Based on Lords of Gossamer & Shadow by Jason Durall

Gossamer Worlds: INK Copyright © 2015 Steven D. Russell All rights reserved. Lords of Gossamer and Shadow Copyright © 2012-2013 Steven D. Russell All rights reserved.
Erick Wujcik’s Diceless Role-Playing and associated marks and logos are trademarks of Diceless by Design Publishing, LLC, and are used under license.
See http://Rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=1447 for more information on Erick Wujcik’s Diceless Role-Playing. Some Illustrations exclusing, banners,
and tradedress are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/
 scientific research, recreational collecting,
INK or religious obsession is a topic ripe for
speculation. It seems the Annunaki have
“The catacombs splattered out
perfected a technique to 'scan' two-
from the central cavern in a blot of dead-
dimensional works in other worlds and
end hollows and shallow alcoves, but in
then 'print' (or 'draw', or 'paint') those
time one of the myriad alcoves led to a
images directly onto the infinite sheets of
featureless tunnel boring straight on into
white space which are the basic fabric of
darkness. Before long I came upon a
INK's gossamer reality. It is important to
Door that seemed unreal – an off-kilter
note that the flat, blank whiteness of INK
rectangle of thick black lines scrawled on
isn't a sterile void – it's raw reality,
the dirty wall like graffiti on the very
pregnant with infinite potential, and it
fabric of reality. It was bloody red and
wants to be alive. These features make
too bloody red at the same time. The knob
INK the equivalent of a multiversal
was a perfect sphere of imperfect white.
doodle-book, not only recording
It belonged where it was, but it made me
illustrated material from a myriad of far-
feel like I didn't. I opened the Door and
flung worlds and alien cultures... but also
screamed a torrent of scribble-filled
imbuing those drawings with a strange life
word-bubbles as everything went flat
of their own.
and an entire dimension compressed
itself out of me.”
INK is segmented into an untold
number of distinct but inter-related
- Yaeger's Travelogue
sheets – geometrically flat planes of
existence with height and width but zero
Description thickness. The majority of these sheets are
rectangular planes ranging in size from a
INK is a two-dimensional gossamer
single room to the breadth of a small
world populated with illustrated life – an
country, but at the extremes some are as
entire reality filled with sentient scribbles,
small as microdots and others as large as
conscious cartoons, and proud portrait
galaxies. Some of the more esoteric sheets
civilizations, all imported from across the
are far stranger; I've heard of steeply-
multiverse and given room to roam on
slanted triangle-cells, curly-edged fractal-
INK's blank white sheets. This importing
cities, and even planes of insanity
is the work of the mysterious Annunaki,
scrawled on impossibly-irregular
those strange glowing diagram-beings
polygons. They're all flat, though. Because
who pop up and exert the will of the
the archetypical sheet is white and
Eidolon all up and down the Grand Stair.
rectangular, it is easy to think of these
The Annunaki have been using INK for
planes as pages of paper – I do. These
eons as a repository, habitat, and preserve
planes lay either next to each other along
for two-dimensional life – in other words,
a big zoo. Whether this zoo's purpose is

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a single dimension, end to end, or on top dimensional gossamer realities, and
of one another in a theoretically infinite viewers like us (I presume) are from
stack of infinitely-thin sheets. So, while three-dimensional realities ourselves. The
nothing has a thickness per se, it is practicalities of space and perspective are
possible to delve “deeper” in a conceptual different from region to region; some
sense by traversing up and down the sheets are drawn with a realistic sense of
dimensional stack through holes, doors, three-dimensional perspective, giving the
and gaps... so if you thought that illusion of three-dimensional movement
navigating a two-dimensional world and interaction, but others strictly
might be as simple as up-down-left-right, minimalist side-scrolling nightmares
think again. where you have to go over or under
everything, or blow it up in order to go
Describing how the translation of through. Most speech comes out as
movement and space work in two- balloon-like word bubbles, which is
dimensional reality is tricky, especially trippy, and can really mess with the use of
since many of INK's denizens and objects sorcery and other abilities if you've never
are drawings of things from three- practiced your arts that way before. You

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 Gossamer Lord entering INK for the first
time can expect the experience to be
painful, disorienting, and if you're not
physically or mystically strong enough to
keep moving as you adapt, you might just
freeze in place... trapped in still life
forever.

Half-Drawn Horror

Gossamer Lords and Ladies are

presumed to have enough psychic tenacity
and physical hardiness to endure the
rendering without incident... most of the
time. However, in situations of great
stress, such as undergoing the rendering
while injured, attacked, or cursed, the
rendering sometimes goes wrong, leaving
a person half-drawn – a smeared, motley
patchwork of off-color flesh and bad
rotoscoping. Being half-drawn is painful
and exceedingly dangerous, as it puts a
just have to get used to it, go with the flow, body out of synch with the illustrated
and try not to think too hard about what world around them, subject to potentially
you're perceiving, otherwise you'll break lethal contradictions in reality. A half-
your brain. drawn person might find themselves
impaled on the pointy caps of the
The Rendering is the reality-twisting unyielding waves when jumping into a
process of translating three-dimensional cartoon ocean, or get their head smashed
beings into their two-dimensional between two colliding word-bubbles. This
“illustrated” equivalents, occurring traumatic condition can be remedied by
whenever a being enters INK, and re- leaving INK, resting, and eventually re-
occurring whenever a visitor travels from entering, but repeated rendering mishaps
one sheet of INK to another sheet of a can lead to permanent damage. There are
different artistic “style” – e.g., from black- tales of pour souls who hastily left INK
line sketches to full-color paintings, from half-drawn... and remained that way.
side-viewed portraiture to top-down Moreover, the Drafters consider the half-
cartography, or from dot-printed cartoon drawn to be abominations, and will
to cut-out watercolor collage. I can tell appear before long to erase the mistake.
you, it feels super duper weird. A

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Typical Denizens

Sketches are the most prevalent type

of denizen you will find filling INK's pages
– an insanely broad and diverse category
of cartoon persons and line-drawn beasts
copied from the comics, illustrations, and
imagery of an infinitude of cultures from
all up and down the Grand Stair. On a
single cosmopolitan street in Panelopolis,
for example, you could encounter a pair of
talking finches pulled from one of
Darwin's meticulous expeditionary
sketchbooks, a chatty gaggle of grotesque
boardwalk-style celebrity caricatures, and
an entire army of happy little cartoon
toasters. You'll find plenty of bold comic
book heroes, wide-eyed manga-boys, and
no shortage of storybook characters.
There are also the stranger, “alien” works,
like the sentient diagrams of summoning
circles copied from the glass scrolls of life comprised of only the most detailed
Rigel IX, or the arcane tarot of another works. Talking to a portrait isn't the same
universe's fictional zodiac. Whether as talking to the subject of the portrait,
they're an illustration of a person, animal, because the process by which the Drafters
or anthropomorphic object, what makes a scan and reprint two-dimensional content
sketch a sketch is the level of “realism”, or gathered from across the multiverse
lack thereof, in its rendering. Sketches doesn't also glean the memories of that
which are “too” realistic might be shunned subject's life experiences. You might
by their peers as pretentious Portraits, encounter a portrait that bears an
and sloppy works which lack detail could uncanny resemblance to somebody you
be referred to derogatorily as Scribbles – think you know, but it won't be them, even
all social judgments borne out by the if the portrait insists otherwise. There are
denizens of INK themselves. To us, they're rumors of exceptions to the rule, but I've
all just forms of illustrated life along a never confirmed that frightening
continuum... right? proposition. Most portraits, whether
they're depictions of fictional subjects or
Portraits are the social and intellectual historical ones, make up grandiose titles
elite of INK – a rarified strata of and elaborate backstories based upon how
illustrated

4
they appear and what they wear. There's
the stern and blustery August Council of
Lords Chamberlain, filled with dusty
deans, steely CEOs, and grumpy
governors who gather to debate serious
business they know nothing about.
There's the heavily-guarded Gallery of the
Unseen Pantheon – a sheet filled with
depictions of gods whose depiction is
explicitly forbidden on their home worlds.
My personal favorite is the entire legion of
Dorian Gray knock-offs, each one a
different age and temperament, all locked
in a bizarre fratricidal (suicidal?) quest to
ritually consume all other Grays until
there shall be only one.

Scribbles are the downtrodden yet

dangerous underclass of INK – the stick
figures, the malformed aliens that look
like cacti, the whorls of messy spirals
obscuring something never meant to be
seen. Derided as half-drawn freaks and
shunned by most other denizens, on carrying out mistranslated echoes of
scribbles look simple but can have deep maternal instinct, mumbling creepy
and complex emotions. Consider the rhymes about snuggly-hugs but more
stick-figure man, wrought from a mere likely than not to rip your arm off and eat
half-dozen uneven lines – from his it in a burst of feral shrieking.
primitive and limited perspective, how
incomprehensibly grand is a rendering of Threats
a house; or, conversely, how terrifying is
the sight of a “real” face's subtle curves?
Drafters are the illustrators of this
Scribbles prefer to hunt and forage in the
illustrated world – a special type of
mostly-blank regions of INK, harvesting
Annunaki who have mastered the nuances
dots and spearing the occasional plump
of INK's peculiar gossamer reality to
circle, though some inhabit the corners
devastating effect. Drafters appear and
and niches of densely-populated areas like
disappear at whim, printing beings,
scuttling urchins (or vermin). Eerily
objects, and structures into existence with
common are the Thazyu Mummies –
laser-thin rays of icy blue light. Despite
shambling, spider-handed figures intent
what the name might imply, I don't think

5
 Drafters are advanced Annunaki
exploiting the unique rules of INK, and
have the following qualities:

Integral to a Power (Eidolon) [4 Points]

Immense Vitality [4 Points]
Double Speed [2 Points]
Teleportation [10 Points]
Tireless Stamina [4 Points]
Combat Mastery [4 Points]
Destructive Damage [8 Points] – editing
off foes' limbs, drawing horrific wounds
into their being, or simply deleting them
Resistant to Firearms [2 Points]
Danger Sensitivity [2 Points]
Psychic Barrier [4 Points]
Search Through Worlds [4 Points]
Mold Gossamer Reality [4 Points] –
capable of drawing nearly any creature,
hazard, or environment into being
the Drafters are artistic creators – I think Self Healing [1 Point]
they've traveled the multiverse scanning
images from trillions of hand-drawn If encountered outside of the gossamer
manuscripts or printed pages, and upon reality of INK, a Drafter is limited to the
return to INK they print what they've lesser qualities of a “standard” Annunaki,
collected onto the local fabric of gossamer plus Teleportation.
reality. All Annunaki are terribly
dangerous, but Drafters are especially so, pardon the pun – draw the line. If you
particularly in this gossamer reality. suspect that you might've smudged one of
Drafters can “summon” an infinite variety their favorite works, flee the realm
of minions and hazards by drawing them immediately and may the Stair help you.
around you, add a gaping chest wound to
your torso with a few quick lines, or Erasers are a particular form of the
simply vanish you by slicing open the reality-eradicating Erebi unique to this
reality beneath your feet and trapping you gossamer world. They're still rampaging
in a doorless sheet of blank white space. monsters of pure Shadow, but here they
So long as visitors don't disrupt the status tend to appear as howling voids of blank
quo of INK too much, the Drafters seem to space. In areas of INK where pure white is
consider lesser beings beneath their the background color, Erasers can be
notice, but you never know where they'll – damn near invisible until they're right up

6
on you and the foreground starts
dissolving. Erasers also seem to be able to
move through INK along dimensions
inaccessible to everything else, boring
through sheets like a lit cigarette burning
holes in newspaper. Once upon a time
these terrors were rare, but recently the
rates of sightings and attacks have
skyrocketed. I don't know if it is possible
for Annunaki to get worried, but rumor is
the Drafters are on the ropes trying to
contain the menace. That can't be good.

Major Maim is a comic book

supervillain turned existential nihilist and
all-around pissed-off guy. He's got super
strength, super toughness, and a super
bad attitude. In his origin story the Major
existential quest of revelation and
was a stock comic caricature of
liberation as an excuse to inflict brutal
Panelopolis, instinctively filling his role as
violence on anything he perceives as part
an over-the-top foil, but during a climactic
of the grand conspiracy. I have learned
battle with his do-gooder nemesis Stu
through personal experience that this
Straightedge the two supers punched a
includes well-meaning Gossamer Lords,
literal hole in the fabric of INK's reality,
and while normally I'm happy to educate
cracking open a Door. Oops. While the
newly-awakened beings on the mysteries
loose Door was swiftly sealed by the
of the Grand Stair, there's only so much
Drafters, Major Maim was forever
super-strong face-punching a guy can
changed by what he saw. He hasn't gone
take in the name of sharing the wisdom.
crazy, he's just gone sane in a very
Complicating matters further, the Umbra
dangerous way. Convinced that the gaudy
has chosen Maim as a champion, steadily
world around him is a meaningless sham
influencing his activities and increasing
and that invisible puppet-masters are
his power level with every passing day.
pulling everyone's strings, Major Maim is
Eventually Major Maim will break
intent on breaking out of this newly-
through the borders of this carefully-
perceived prison and taking the fight to
curated world of pages and print, and
powers that be. He's on the scent of the
when he starts stomping up and down the
Drafters but hasn't had any luck in
Grand Stair... we're going to have a
cornering one of them for questioning –
problem.
yet. While this might seem noble in the
abstract, Major Maim tends to use his

7
Major Maim is a terrible toon with the
following qualities:
Stupendous Vitality [8 Points] – the
angrier he gets, the stronger he gets, and
Major Maim is always very angry
Engine Speed [4 Points]
Tireless Stamina [4 Points]
Combat Mastery [4 Points]
Deadly Damage [4 Points]
Invulnerable to Conventional Weapons [4
Points]
Psychic Resistance [1 Point]
Psychic Sensitivity [1 Point]
Pass Through Door [1 Point] – Major
Maim has not yet embarked upon the
Grand Stair, but in theory he could.
Rapid Healing [2 Points]
Alternate Form [1 Point] – alter ego
Melvin Milquetoast, a struggling
cartoonist with a limp and a stutter. scrolls, tomes, and manuscripts from a
variety of gossamer worlds – some Earth-
Granted additional power by the Umbra, like, many not. There are gorgeous black
Major Maim can use the abilities of and white vistas of INK-brushed
Weakening Reality, Warping Reality, mountains, intricate illuminations of the
and Destabilizing Reality as if he wars of antiquity, and dark woodcut
possessed the Power of Umbra Mastery. printings of arching devils and
The Major believes these abilities are apocalyptic doom. One desert-like sheet
innate super powers – extensions of his the color of dusty papyrus holds
trademark “Raze Gaze” eye-beams. Use of innumerable cartouche-tombs of alien
these powers comes at a psychological pharaohs, each one simply-carved in
cost, triggering hallucinations and bouts appearance yet containing slumbering
of amnesia which serve to direct him lords of terrible power. Separating most of
toward targets of the Umbra's choosing. these country-like kingdoms are the
sepia-tone seas and relief-drawn ranges of
Greater Cartographia, a vast top-down
Notable Locations expanse of maps and charts both
historical and fanciful, where entire
The Scroll Kingdoms are a wide continents and imagined coastlines
tableau of sheets containing illustrations sprawl beneath your feet and the
from what might be considered “ancient” admonition 'Here There Be Dragons'

8
should be well-heeded. The myriad Wreathing the outskirts of Panelopolis are
domains of the Scroll Kingdoms are the Funnypaper Farms – sprawling
usually locked in perpetual repetition of suburbs of cartoons ranging in theme
the scenes they depict, so while you can from genial domestic humor to the mind-
visit an individual kingdom and interact bending symbolic philosophy of Hel'Urth-
with its inhabitants for a span, eventually 1603 (not my favorite reading for a
the kingdom's internal clock will reset and Sunday morning, but popular enough in
nobody is likely to remember the odd other sections of the Stair to warrant its
stranger who once came to visit. From my own bustling burg). Supermanhattan is
perspective this is undoubtedly a good the vibrantly-colored central-most
thing, otherwise I would have a few more neighborhood of skyscrapers and
cuckolded kings and disapproving fortresses-of-solitude, where 'BOOM' and
dragons to add to my ever-growing 'KAPOW' light up the towering skyline
multiversal list of entirely-undeserved like billboards and nobody seems to wear
enemies. The dark heart of the Scroll pants the right way. Supermanhattan is
Kingdoms is a single incredibly tall sheet the stomping ground of the ultra-
called the Tar'y'goth Tapestry – seven dangerous Major Maim, who rains down
hundred and seventy-seven vertical layers beatings from his habitual perch – the
of depictions of ancient cthonic gods and rooftop panel of The Weekly Wonder
sordid hell-raising ritual, each panel building.
depicting the historical roots of all
infinity's descent into madness. Creepy. The Weekly Wonder is the towering
central “newspaper” building of
Panelopolis is a mega-city built of Panelopolis, publishing meta-aware
stacks upon stacks of comic books, and it captions which report the current events
is every bit as weird and awesome as that of Panelopolis as well as frighteningly-
sounds. Thousands upon thousands of detailed historical footnotes and annoying
sheets the size of skyscrapers line up side advertisements. These quirky little
by side, each one presenting millions reality-sidebars can pop up anywhere at
upon millions of smaller panels depicting any time, usually accompanied by the
the adventures and tribulations of disembodied voice of an interjecting
dashing heroes and cackling villains. It's a narrator. Sometimes these captions
dense place, chock full of bustling, bizarre provide benign exposition or useless trivia
neighborhoods. Big Little Mangatown is a – like an obvious statement about exactly
tightly-packed inner-city neighborhood of what you're doing as you're doing it, or the
small black and white panels filled with specific time Major Maim last battled the
daily-life moments, wide-eyed Lightbox League – but sometimes the
schoolgirls, and an unsavory underworld sidebar will, eerily, tell you exactly what
of demons and tentacle-monsters lurking you need to know.
in the dark alleys of the back-pages.

9
 The Scrawl is the outback of INK – a they'll swallow you up as surely as a
vast array of very large, mostly-blank gravitational singularity. Sequestered out
sheets populated by predatory packs of in the most remote expanses are hidden
scribbles and odd nomadic doodles. While outposts of arcane sophistication – INK-
other regions of INK are well-organized, black obelisks of alien architectural
even tidy in their boxy layout and schematics, still-image prisons of
appearance, the Scrawl is far less intergalactic war criminals long captured,
regimented, tending to show the influence and one edenic enclave of illicitly-copied
of the Umbra in its spare, shifting terrain Wrighting icons where you might be
and oft-mutating denizens. Tribes of cave- shocked to see a familiar face or two. My
painted stick figures hunt ochre favorite sight in the Scrawl is the super-
wildebeests between strata of thin blue massive flock of fluttering hearts which
lines, and rough sketches haunt the roves the outback like a plague-level
wastes like half-formed ghosts. There are swarm of adorable locusts; each one of the
hazards – spiraling maze-doodles that millions of hearts has its own unique soul
choke the terrain like aggressive kudzu, – a translation of an echo of the melding
fields of razor-sharp pentagram-stars, between the pining hand which drew it
and splattery blots of color so pure that and the distant love which inspired it.

10
Somewhere in that swarm I wonder if understanding by daunting gulfs of
there's a copy of a little heart drawn for perspective. Also, INK makes me wonder
me, once upon a time, by a heartbroken about the phenomenon of life, and the
hand long lost. forms it takes; if a two-dimensional
doodle on a scrap of paper can, in this
gossamer world, achieve substance
Final Thoughts enough to seize life for itself, then what
does that say about us? Are we all just
INK is a strange place... one that simplified copies of fifth-dimensional
reminds me that the multiverse is not beings? Would we ever know if we were?
necessarily built for us – we're just But most of all, I appreciate INK for its
accustomed to moving around in the parts incalculable oddity, for after all – isn't that
where we fit. There are other places very what exploration is all about?
different from and just as real as the
three-dimensional halls and solid floors ~ Yaeger Zane
we traverse, yet separated from our

INK Domain Table

Technology Varies
Level:
Magic Magic is Known and Believed
Level:
Security: None
Type: Common Ground [2 Points] (current owners: the Annunaki; other
Gossamer Lords may hold minor personal domains)
Control: Control of Time Flow [2 Points]
Influence Eidolon – Powerful
on the Umbra – Average
Powers: Wrighting – Easily Used
Special: The Pen Is Mightier – Art is power. Drawing utensils which have been
imbued with some sort of Power have the ability to mold gossamer
reality in INK. Characters wielding such implements have the ability to
mold INK's reality by drawing new things or making alterations to
existing works. A character could bore a hole through a mountain by
drawing a tunnel opening, alter a creature's mood by drawing a smile
on its face, or even summon a thunderstorm by drawing a bunch of
clouds and raindrops. Such mystical drawing implements occur in
roughly three tiers of power, and depending on their strength may grant
the equivalent of the qualities Mold Gossamer Matter [1 Point], Mold
Gossamer Creatures [2 Points], or Mold Gossamer Reality [4 Points].

11
How to Use INK
• INK is a spectacularly strange gossamer world, fundamentally changing the ground
rules of what we take for granted as “reality”. It is one of many. Use INK as a reminder
that the infinity of existence is much more than just spherical dirt-balls and boring
cubicles for men of meat. Forget what you think you know.
• As an optional rule, any use of the 'The Pen Is Mightier' special ability mentioned
above should require the player to draw, sketch, or doodle whatever it is that their
character is attempting to draw into being. Effort and enthusiasm are much more
important than actual artistic merit, so don't judge harshly, however particularly
inspired artwork may be rewarded with advantages or Good Stuff. Alternative
mediums are also acceptable, depending on the realm they're in; a player might
compose a collage of a chimerical monster out of magazine clippings, or present an
ephemeral watercolor representing an emotion spell.
• Plots thicken as The Weekly Wonder's captions begin popping up with disturbing,
disruptive, and downright seditious messages. Xenophobic propaganda promotes
aggressive expansion of Panelopolis' borders. Revelations of past betrayals pit comic
book heroes against each other. Screeds against the world's hidden puppetmasters
incite rebellion against the Drafters. War is brewing – but to what end, and by whose
design? Is this Major Maim's doing, or is he just another pawn? Perhaps the
mysterious meta-intelligence behind The Weekly Wonder has become corrupted – or
liberated – by the Umbra. Even the indecipherable Annunaki seem worried that all of
INK might catch fire and burn.
• There's a theory that the overall shape of INK's gossamer reality is a super-colossal
möbius strip – a non-orientable two-dimensional manifold that seems perfectly flat to
its internal inhabitants yet, in totality, is something oddly twisted. The characters are
tasked with testing this heretical hypothesis by finding the edge of INK (where it falls
off precipitously into the abyss of Shadow), and then tracing that edge all the way
around until they reach their starting point. It's a trip the length of a universe, but
some wild-eyed mathematicians say it's possible.
• The Lenses of Cervani are legendary artifacts which appear to be a pair of red and blue
“3D glasses” (though no resident of INK is likely to know them by such a description).
The Lenses allow the wearer to see through into sheets which are “above” or “below”
their current position in the potentially-infinite layered stacks of two-dimensional
planes which make up INK's reality. While incredibly handy for navigating this world,
the local denizens consider the Lenses cursed because they tend to drive any wearer
insane with a maddening overload of information; any being with a Psyche score of 25
or more is strong enough to use them safely.

12
• Conceptualizing space and movement in a two-dimensional reality is an intriguing
challenge, but it means you can create “terrain” for this world out of flat stuff! Lay
down pieces of paper to model the planes of INK you're exploring; include blank white
sheets, pages of your own drawings, and illustrations of any type of landscape,
backdrop, or location. Entire books are fair game, too. Use the physical arrangement
of the papers as a planar model – when two pages are next to each other, characters
can cross from one plane to the next by crossing a border; when one page is on top of
another, characters must find a hole, door, or other way to transfer from one layer to
the one above or below them, and so on. INK is vast, with an untold numbers of layers
– so a layout of a region of INK could be a room-covering sprawl of notebooks, oceans
of loose leaf scrawlings, and deep stacks of gorgeous coffee table books. Spread out
and dive in!

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