No..

No..
Tweet Topic Started: Sep 3 2011, 11:31 AM (381 Views)
Incog	Sep 3 2011, 11:31 AM Post #1
CHEERIO! Posts: 21,769 Group: French Member #6 Joined: December 13, 2007	No matter how many times you see the dead walk, you always forget just how rubbish they are when they really get moving. Sure, they look OK when they first break through the wall - they get points for shock value, for their gaping sockets and gnashing teeth, and sometimes (if the Reanimation spell is really up to scratch) for their disembodied screams. But then they start pursuing you clumsily around the temple, pelvises jerking, femurs high-kicking, holding out their bony arms in a way that's meant to be sinister but looks more as if they're about to sit down at a piano and bash out a honky-tonk rag. And the faster they go, the more their teeth start rattling and the more their necklaces bounce up and get lodged in their eye-holes, and then they start tripping over their grave-clothes and tumbling to the floor and generally getting in the way of any nimble footed djinni who happens to be passing. And, as is the way with skeletons, never once do they come out with any really good one-liners, which might add a bit of zest to the life-or-death situation you're in. "Oh come on," I said as I hung from the wall, "there must be someone here worth talking to." With my free hand I fired a plasm across the room, causing a Void to open in the path of one of the scurrying dead. It took a step, was sucked into oblivion; I sprang up from the stones, bounced off the vaulted ceiling and landed nimbly on top of a statue of the god Enki on the opposite side of the hall. To my left a mummified corpse shuffled from its alcove. It wore a slave's robe and had a rusted manacle and a chain about its shrunken neck. With a creaky spring it leaped to snare me. I yanked the chain, the head came off; I caught this mid-palm as the body fell away, and bowled it unerringly into the midriff of one of its dusty comrades, snapping its backbone with neat precision. Jumping from the statue, I landed in the very centre of the temple hall. From every side now the dead converged, their robes as frail as cobwebs, hoops of bronze twirling on their wrists. Things that had once been men and women - slaves, freemen, courtiers and under-priests, members of every level of Eridu's society - pressed tight about me, jaws gaping, gagged yellow fingernails raised to rend my essence. I'm a courteous fellow and greeted them all appropriately. A Detonation to the left. A Convulsion to the right. Bits of ancient person spattered merrily on the glazed reliefs of the old Sumerian kings. That gave me brief respite. I took a look around. In the 28 seconds since I'd tunneled through the ceiling, I'd not had time to fully asses my surroundings, but from the décor and the general layout a couple of things were clear. First, it was a temple of the water god Enki (the statue told me that, plus he featured prominently in the wall reliefs, along with his attendant fish and snake-dragons) and had been abandoned for at least 15 hundred years [To my connoisseurs's eye the style looked late Sumerian (circa 2500 BC), with just a hint of old Babylonian decadence, but frankly there were too many body parts flying about for a proper critique just yet.] Second, in all the long centuries since the priests had sealed the doors and left the city to be swallowed by the desert sands, no one had entered before me. You could tell that from the layers of dust upon the floor, the unbroken entrance stone, the zeal of the guardian corpses and - last but not least - the statuette resting on the altar at the far end of the hall. It was a water serpent, a representation of Enki, fashioned with great artifice out of twisting gold. It glittered palely in the light of the Flares I'd sent forth to illuminate the room, and its ruby eyes shone evilly like dying embers. As a work of art alone, it was probably beyond price, but that was only half the story. It was magical too, with a strange pulsing aura visible on the high planes [The planes: seven planes of existence are superimposed upon each other at all times, like invisible layers of tracing paper. The first plane includes everything int the solid, everyday world; the other six reveal the hidden magic all around - secret spells, lurking spirits, and ancient enchantments long forgotten. It's a well-known fact that you can reliably gauge the intelligence and quality of a species by the number of planes it is able to observe, e.g. top djinn (like me): seven; foliots and high imps: four; cats: two; fleas, tapeworms, humans, dust-mites, etc.: one.]. Good. That was that settled, then. I'd take the serpent and be on my way. "Excuse me, excuse me..." This was me politely ushering the dead aside, or in most cases using Infernos to strike them burning across the hall. More were still emerging, trundling firth from slit like alcoves in each wall. there seemed no end to them, but I wore a young man's body, and my movements were swift and sure. With a spell and kick and counter-punch i sloughed my way towards the altar - And saw the next trap waiting. A net of fourth-plane threads hung all around the golden serpent, glowing emerald green. The threads were very thin, and faint even to my djinni's gaze [A Trigger-summons such as this is always invisible to mortal sight, of course, but with time, faint residues of dust accumulate on the threads, giving them a ghost-like presences on the first plane too. This allow perceptive human thieves a chance. The old Egyptian tomb-robber Sendji the Violent, fir instance, used a small squadron of trained bats to suspend tiny candles above patches of floor he considered dubious, allowing him to trace the delicate shadows made by the dust lines, and so pass unscathed between the traps. Or at least that's what he old me shortly before his execution. He had an honest face, but, well... trained bats... I just don't know.]. Feeble as they looked however, I had no wish to disturb them. As a general principle, Sumerian altar-traps are worth avoiding. I stopped below the altar, deep in thought. There were ways to disarm threads, which I would employing, provided I had a bit of time and space. At that moment a sharp pain disturbed me. Looking down, I discovered that a particularly disreputable-looking corpse (who in life had clearly suffered many skin ailments and doubtless looked upon mummification as a sharp improvement to his lot) had snuck up and sunk his teeth deep into the essence of my forearm. The temerity! He deserved special consideration. Shoving a friendly hand inside his rib-cage, I fired a small Detonation upwards. It was a manoeuvre I hadn't tried in decades, and was just as amusing as ever. His head blew off like a cork from a bottle, cracked nicely against the ceiling, bounced twice off nearby walls and (this was where my amusement smartly vanished) plopped to earth right beside the altar, neatly snapping the net of glowing threads as it did so. Which shows just how foolish it is to go enjoying yourself in the middle of a job.
	Black tulip Tribute to the the greatest of the great.


gs	Sep 3 2011, 12:15 PM Post #2
Slow down Posts: 16,297 Group: Animals Member #1 Joined: December 12, 2007	what's thsi



Incog	Sep 3 2011, 12:25 PM Post #3
CHEERIO! Posts: 21,769 Group: French Member #6 Joined: December 13, 2007	did you read it?
	Black tulip Tribute to the the greatest of the great.


The_Fry_Cook_of_Doom	Sep 3 2011, 02:21 PM Post #4
:OOOOOOOOOOOOMAAANN Posts: 18,587 Group: A414A Member Member #35 Joined: January 11, 2008	What the fuck
	Jam It's okay to be mad at your fiends sometimes


Incog	Sep 3 2011, 03:53 PM Post #5
CHEERIO! Posts: 21,769 Group: French Member #6 Joined: December 13, 2007	you read it?
	Black tulip Tribute to the the greatest of the great.


The_Fry_Cook_of_Doom	Sep 3 2011, 04:08 PM Post #6
:OOOOOOOOOOOOMAAANN Posts: 18,587 Group: A414A Member Member #35 Joined: January 11, 2008	I read some parts of it, and I'm not sure what to think. If you wrote it, the prose is tolerably good, but... wtf.
	Jam It's okay to be mad at your fiends sometimes


Incog	Sep 3 2011, 05:08 PM Post #7
CHEERIO! Posts: 21,769 Group: French Member #6 Joined: December 13, 2007	why wtf and i didn't write it
	Black tulip Tribute to the the greatest of the great.


gs	Sep 3 2011, 05:11 PM Post #8
Slow down Posts: 16,297 Group: Animals Member #1 Joined: December 12, 2007	wtf because there seems to be no reason whatsoever why you posted this



Incog	Sep 3 2011, 05:29 PM Post #9
CHEERIO! Posts: 21,769 Group: French Member #6 Joined: December 13, 2007	i posted it, obviously, so you guys would read it
	Black tulip Tribute to the the greatest of the great.


_Saladin_	Sep 4 2011, 02:23 PM Post #10
Major Bullshit Posts: 2,763 Group: A414A Member Member #28 Joined: January 1, 2008	I read it. Still don't get where it's from.



Incog	Sep 4 2011, 02:38 PM Post #11
CHEERIO! Posts: 21,769 Group: French Member #6 Joined: December 13, 2007	It's from a book called The Ring of Solomon. Ie, something I recommend buying and reading. Else I wouldn't have been arsed to copy out 3 pages out of it to share with you guys. Is NO ONE asking their-selves what the trap is? lol
	Black tulip Tribute to the the greatest of the great.


_Saladin_	Sep 4 2011, 03:06 PM Post #12
Major Bullshit Posts: 2,763 Group: A414A Member Member #28 Joined: January 1, 2008	I thought the open ending was intentional. What is it?



Jack the IV	Sep 4 2011, 03:30 PM Post #13
The Gent's Club Posts: 7,869 Group: Mr. Pink Member #43 Joined: February 19, 2008	It's a trap.
	In battle, in the forest, at the precipice in the mountains, On the dark great sea, in the midst of javelins and arrows, In sleep, in confusion, in the depths of shame, The good deeds a man has done before defend him.


Incog	Sep 4 2011, 06:12 PM Post #14
CHEERIO! Posts: 21,769 Group: French Member #6 Joined: December 13, 2007	_Saladin_ Sep 4 2011, 03:06 PM I thought the open ending was intentional. What is it? Yeah, intentional in the sense that I wanted you guys to wonder what would happen, ask about the book, then buy it and read it and enjoy it. http://www.amazon.com/Bartimaeus-Ring-Solomon-Jonathan-Stroud/dp/1423123727 For its cost it's an incredible deal. imo Or if you're lazy you can download it. Though reading a book on a comp must be bothersome (this prolly ain't legal). http://howheal.blogspot.com/2011/03/download-bartimaeus-book-iv-ring-of.html
	Black tulip Tribute to the the greatest of the great.


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