A way to find the Giant Whirlpool - A reward to the Stage Play?

[Wumpair]

Currently there is no way to locate the Giant Whirlpool that leads to the Sanctum, so you just have to explore the ocean untill you stumble onto it.

Then, there is Charlie's Stageplay that has been used as a platform for lore exposition, but does not have any rewards for completing the play itself. 

What if the Stage Play would recieve some love, so that when you comple it (the original one with the doll masks, king, etc.) you get a QoL compass-item that lets you find the location of the Whirlpool? 

This would tie in into the lore, as the stage talks about the dall wanting to restore the broken mirror; which as far as I understand is Charlie trying to restore the Ancient Gateway. So it would make sence, since the Sanctum holds the new key needed to "fix" the Gateway fully. It would also be an indicator for players that we are going into Sanctum to retrieve the key for Charlie in the first place. And this would add more "progression" to the shadow ark, which a lot of players have been saying is missing compared to the lunar quest.

(Ups, I meant to post this in the beta-branch; not sure if there is a way to move it now. Well, I guess it's okay to be in here since, this is falls into general QoL and not too beta-spacific)

[Frosty_Mentos]

Could ALSO just add some environmental hints like monkey island does. Maybe animation or pulling of some things and items are towards whirlpool's direction if it's not far away now.

[Kacpert25]

Just like Frosty_Mentos wrote. Some environmental hints would be enough. 
For example, single waves moving towards the whirlpool or the distinctive movement of the water.

11 hours ago, Wumpair said:

Then, there is Charlie's Stageplay that has been used as a platform for lore exposition, but does not have any rewards for completing the play itself. 

Yes, I agree that it would be good to add some rewards for completing stage plays.
But these shouldn't be items that actually contribute to game progression. Not everyone wants to repeat stage plays every time they're play on a new world.
The reward should be purely decorative.
For example, thematic figure sketches after playing the stage play.
A Doll Figure, Heralds Figure, Elytra Figure, etc.

Edited June 1 by Kacpert25

[wormwood123]

Could have the Waymark compass point to it on surface and have the waymark compass get a blueprint (1 moon rock 1 compass) from archives 

[Wumpair]

18 hours ago, Frosty_Mentos said:

Could ALSO just add some environmental hints like monkey island does. Maybe animation or pulling of some things and items are towards whirlpool's direction if it's not far away now.

That's also a valid option that would make it easier to find! However, I feel like the reason why monkey-island rocks work well, is because you can see them on the map marked, so you can easaly keep track of where you saw them /detect them with pasive exploration tools like octo-vigels/roto-mappers. I think this "whirlpool-debree" would need a similar treatment.

13 hours ago, Kacpert25 said:

Just like Frosty_Mentos wrote. Some environmental hints would be enough. 
For example, single waves moving towards the whirlpool or the distinctive movement of the water.

Yes, I agree that it would be good to add some rewards for completing stage plays.
But these shouldn't be items that actually contribute to game progression. Not everyone wants to repeat stage plays every time they're play on a new world.
The reward should be purely decorative.
For example, thematic figure sketches after playing the stage play.
A Doll Figure, Heralds Figure, Elytra Figure, etc.

I do feel that waves as a whole are a fun but underutilized mechanic in the ocean. I can count it on my fingers how many times they appeared: Malbatross attack, Grass-Gators walking, that one Crabking attack, going trough the smal bootlegs-whirlpools and using the Narvail horn. It would be nice to see more of them in the sea and it makes scence if there is a current around the whirlpool.

As far as tying the location as a reward to the stage play, I already explained why I think it would make scence from a lore perspective; but I get your point. The "progression" that you need to complete every new playtrough, like wagstaffs quests, can feel a bit saturated at times; although I personaly like it, as it gives me a scence of progression and acomplishment. I just feel like lunar has more stuff going on for it, and the stage play seems like the perfect medium, since its Charlie related and aleary is somewhat progression-based, unlocking new masks as you go towards shadow engame; but maybe thats the whole point, that shadow you could speedrun it much faster than lunar where you need to do quests.

12 hours ago, wormwood123 said:

Could have the Waymark compass point to it on surface and have the waymark compass get a blueprint (1 moon rock 1 compass) from archives 

While in general I am fine with this idea, I feel like the archives are overutilized already - you get the thelecite bugnet from them (key for the story), the astral detector (key for the stroy), the ambrossia (also key), a turf station + ancient turf (just decoration), and thulecite furniture from the sanctum distield knowledge (also decoration). But it would also be a bit strange - You mean to say to me that the ancients constructed a secret vault with the key that could doom the world, and hided it away from the rest of the world, with the architects of said vault being buried alive in it for no one to find? And then what, they left the bluprint for a convinient compas that shows where the hidden entrance is in case you forgot, at their local library?! 

Anyways, thank you all for your replies, I think they are great proposals!

Crabking has a way to find him (astral detector), Monkey island has a way to find it (the rocks indicators), Pearl's location is revealed with the first bottle, Lunar Island can be estimated with the land shape / astral detecror, Frastjaw has the icebergs around them that are especially large in winter. Every major point of interest on water (excluding Malbatross spawners, salt formations, Watterlog biome and Sea Weeds) have some way to help the player find it. If sanctum is becoming a focal point of shadows finalle, it should have some way to locate it too!