From: pcalvert@economics.adelaide.edu.au Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: ...sage [Arkham] Kron thread / Delves the Cthulhu mythos Message-ID: <1992Jun22.152325.1@economics.adelaide.edu.au> Date: 22 Jun 92 05:53:25 GMT Characters : ...sage, of interest to those in the Mother thread [with apologies to H.P. Lovecraft] It was twilight and the trees surrounding the ancient hill looked scarred and disfigured. The hill itself was capped with a balding pate of scorched earth and moss, making it slightly slippery underfoot in the misty early winter air. A slight figure climbed up the hill, wrapping himself in his mottled green cloak, closely, to keep out the chill air. Or so he kept telling himself. There seemed to be something else in the atmosphere here, it smacked of an eldritch evil, countless burnt sacrifices in long ages past. A moon waxing full glimmered faint through the misty curtain as the last vestige of sunlight fled beyond the horizon. ..sage sat down on the flattened peak and pulled back his hood. White hair shone as tiny beads of moisture deposited by stray tendrils of fog lodged on his snowy locks. Blank eyes closed and pointed ears pricked slightly as he heard the echo through the dimensions. Only poetry or madness could explain the noises just beyond hearing. A seeming jumble of meaningless phrases sought entry into ...sage's brain, almost seeking to cajole him into repeating them too. "Y'ai 'ng'ngah Yog-Sothoth H'ee-L'beg F'ai-throdog Uaaah" Again and again they assaulted his mind, but they dealt not here with the simple mind of a backwater New England farmer from Dunwich, or a sailor from Kingsport. Neither was it the mind of a scholar of Miskatonic University, that centre of learning in bustling Arkham, though that would be closer to the mark. "Y'ai 'ng'ngah Yog-Sothoth H'ee-L'beg F'ai-throdog Uaaah" came the call again. this time stronger and clearer. No, this time they dealt with a mind that had had literally centuries of learning. And not the safe learning that keeps most in the shallows of the mysteries of the cosmos. -=-=-=- It had seemed that time had stood still to ...sage, while buried beneath the books in the basement of the University's Library. They had almost not let him in, a small hooded figure clutching time blackened books and speaking with a voice that seemed somehow to bypass the normal means of communication. How he had laboured to learn that tongue ...sage mused. But to no avail. Telepathy was simpler and if tuned right they may not even notice that I am not making an audible sound. They _had_ been impressed with the books though. Buried for goodness knows how long, and decipherable only by magic, ..sage had found these curios of a bygone era buried in the Great Library of Generica's lowest vault. "Whereever did you get _this_!" was the reply, and "How much do you want for them?" invariably followed. "They are yours, if" said ...sage, and paused "if I am given unlimited access to your library inperpetuity." Hesitation, for the secrets contained in their library were of the darkest kind, and trouble had only ensued when others had been granted access. But Henry Armitage, the head librarian, had capitulated, perhaps sensing something in the strange figure that he trusted, though he did warn ...sage that only evil would result and most probably madness from studying those tomes. ..sage had laughed and said, "I'm more worried of what might ensue if I don't learn from them." and then was given a large iron key. Sparks flew from his hand as the metal touched his flesh and he pulled it away with a start. "Damn!" he swore under his breath. "I should have remembered this." For no elf can touch terran ferrous without it causing pain. "You have the original key?" inquired the drow, causing puzzled looks from the staff and a look of astonishment from Henry. "Yes, but it causes madness to those who use it." "I'll take it." said ...sage, for he knew that the original had been made from meteoric iron, from far, far, away and had not the earthly impurities that stung his elfin flesh. "Very well, but be warned of its curse" said Henry, with a touch of regret, though whether it was regret that he was losing the key, or regret that this person might suffer the madness of the key, couldn't be determined. "Thankyou" whispered ...sage, one of the few words he had learned, and the accent caused a shiver to run down the spines of those present. Then, with a barely audible sigh, he fairly tripped down the stairs and unlocked the door leading to the storage vault. -=-=-=- "Y'ai 'ng'ngah Yog-Sothoth H'ee-L'beg F'ai-throdog Uaaah" Lights were appearing in the thickening night sky, but these were no stars. The fog was growing thicker and these lights moved about in a way that no earthly phenomena could duplicate. "C'arn, get on 'ya" came a cry from far away, a farmer desparately coaxing as much speed as possible from an already skittish beast, anxious to get home before the spooks came out. ..sage grinned, the incident causing some of the sense of foreboding to lift. "I wonder how Kron is," he mused. "No messages so I'll assume the best." -=-=-=- His memory once again drifted back to the library and the tomes he had found there. The Necronomicon, the Grimorum Verum, De Vermis Mysteriis, Cultes des Goules, the Livre d'Eibon, the Pnakotic Manuscripts, he had devoured them all, and many more besides. He knew that had he read each with mortal eyes he would not have gotten through more than a small fraction of them by now, and that that would have been enough to reduce his mind to a shell of itself, feeding the entities that slept just beyond the curtain of reason, waiting for their triumphal return to a world that to them means no more than food. -=-=-=- "Y'ai 'ng'ngah Yog-Sothoth H'ee-L'beg F'ai-throdog Uaaah" quite strongly it came now, the phrase begging for admittance to the realms of man. "Ogthrod Ai'F Geb'L-ee'H Yog-Sothoth 'Ngah'ng Ai'Y Zhro" countered ...sage and followed it with "tell me about Shub-Niggurath". "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" came the reply. "Not Cthulhu!" said ...sage "Shub-Niggurath, the Goat with a Thousand Young!" "Y'ai 'ng'ngah Yog-Sothoth H'ee-L'beg F'ai-throdog Uaaah" almost pleading. "Shub-Niggurath, the Goat with a Thousand Young!" said ...sage through gritted teeth, his temples throbbing with concentration. "He spawns and spawned and lost her long ago" cried the voices, now please Y'ai 'ng'ngah Yog-Sothoth H'ee-L'beg F'ai-throdog Uaaah" "And" said ...sage, hanging on to sanity through sheer will-power. "He seeks her still, but she is lost beyond time and space" "Y'ai 'ng'ngah Yog-Sothoth H'ee-L'beg F'ai-throdog Uaaah" "Ogthrod Ai'F Geb'L-ee'H Yog-Sothoth 'Ngah'ng Ai'Y Zhro" cried ...sage "Ogthrod Ai'F Geb'L-ee'H Yog-Sothoth 'Ngah'ng Ai'Y Zhro" again and again, till eventually the voices subsided and ...sage, weary with the exertion, collapsed on the hill and slept, dreams of shapeless blobs and huge warped and horrible monsters sleeping in a non-Euclidian city, lost beneath the waves. -=-=-=- to be continued -=-=-=- ...sage