Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [DQ] On the threshhold of a . . . Message-ID: <1g1p2cINNgd5@uniwa.uwa.edu.au> From: cam@gu.uwa.edu.au (`Cameron Neylon) Date: 8 Dec 1992 09:14:52 GMT Admin: Sorry this has been holding everyone up but lifes tough when you work 7:30 to 4pm with no chance to get to a computer. Darkness . . . Silence . . . absolute nothing, until a laugh penetrates the . . . nothing Fools, . . You pitiful, pitiful fools. You still think you can win, now that a minor defeat has been dealt to my minions. Fodder all of them. Well now we reach the true game, you have bothing left but complete submission to MY will, MY wishes . . . You've already met my friend. A light appears, a curtain of inky blackness is raised, to reveal the Pyra-Cubic Diamond in all its glory. The physical representation has been stripped away to reveal the pure artifact, very nearly pure power, crystalized in reality only barely being held by the magic that constrains it. "Now you see what you fight, ahem . . _fought_ against." The voice had a source now that the room was lit. Lord Raven stood at one end of the room facing them. They stood arranged as they always stood, but now on a pentagram. "My power is enough to dominate its, and now is enough to destroy it, so I am absolute!" <signal(9)::Analysis::AlertState(SelfTerminationPending)>> "You want to _destroy_ the PCD!?", asked Lancos incredulously. "Yes," answered 'Raelf, "He thinks he can take its power into himself." Idiot, he thought, He thinks this mumbo-jumbo can destroy it. "Quite, my well-travelled friend. You have met the Entity. The power I will take from the ritual of destruction is enough to destroy It, leaving me as the uncontested ruler of the Realm of Darkness and incidentally, of several of the adjoining planes. The ritual began, a fire appeared in the centre of the pentagram, burning cold against their skin. A low humming emanated from the crystal. A pure single tone, without harmonics, without pitch and without sound. Human ears could not translate the sound. 'So tacky', thought 'Raelf, 'So, so tacky' "You can't do this!", screamed Sunstorm silently. (Quiet Amusement) "Oh yes I can, I can do anything I want now" The whole room took on a surreal aspect, it twisted, distorted, through five dimensions, then back into three, and two, . and one, . . . and, <> <> <> < End Branch: Input "New Priority=1/Sum" >> <> <> <> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "You are a fool." | A sound, undescribable in words, a smell similar | and a puddle appeared at Williams feet. "What! From you, that is | "What! No, this can't happen" |"What? One lost it almost funny", Raven | roared Raven, "You fool |already?", Raven practically spat at | you've . . .! |was amused. "And William. | |how long will the | But no sound was reaching |rest of you hold? The only way to destroy it| William. He was dribbling from| is for it to destroy it- | one corner of his mouth.Almost|He appeared near self. If you order it to | singing a nursery rhyme from |William and do that the result is ob- | between pursed lips, the light|kicked him in the vious", said William as as| behind his eyes replaced by an|stomach. A trace -cerbically as the vampire| insane gleam. |of blood appeared | |at the side of "What is obvious?", the | "You've disrupted the contain-|the mages mouth. Dark Master asked. | ment the Dark Master screamed | | "This can't be happening!" |'Raelf looked at 'Raelf looked sharply at | |William unhapp- William and muttered under| <>|ily, muttering his breath. | |under his breath. | A winding scream grew, and | "That the PCD will move | rose in pitch, it became too |The ritual cont- control to someone else." | loud to be real, too high to |inued, a rising | be heard and yet it was real |scream from the "It can't - the concept is| and audible to all those there|centre of the beyond it!" | as it rose towards a climax |room. | | "It can learn, Dude." | | | "PCD! Do you hear me?" |William twitched. Look at it now and | "Do you hear me, you . . . | start the ritual again. | |"I know its name Watch your pet Raven. | It has a name, its |now traveller. | called 'Tan Ru'", commented |You have given The vampire looked | 'Raelf wearily. |it away to me. crestfallen, but . . . | |Tan Ru, take he muttered . . . but . | The air screamed, or was it |control of the | the room itself stressing |mage." William turned to 'Raelf, | beyond its ability in the | drawing the archetype of | maelstrom created. |William rose and hope from his pocket. | |turned towards | William on, the floor in the |'Raelf grasping "Do you understand what | centre of the room suddenly |hope between I am doing?" | had hope in his hand. |vicelike fingers. | | The traveller nodded. | The scream rose higher |"William! Nooo!" <> <> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- William stood/lay at the centre of the pentagram. The glasslike ball of hope within his fingers. Darkness swirled, inpenetrable, complete, but somewhere was a point of light. The universe focussed on one small man as he held the last shred of hope in his hands . . . . The universe focussed on one small man as he held his last shred of hope in his hands . . . . And crushed it. Reality smashed like a glass window into thousands of fragments, each smaller than an atom and encompassing a universe within it. From the chaos, one point of order expanded until each universe was congruent to one integer, the same integer. Thousands of alternate universes predicted by one interpretation of quantam theory folded together into a single cosmos, rapidly growing to take the place of the vanished variations. Most didn't notice, only those beings outside of time _and_ space noticed a twinge as an infinty of alternates disappeared. [In the mages guild, in Generica, a closet in one room disappeared ] [A certain inn we all know and love suddenly had ne^3*(pi!) less corners ] [Somewhere, near the world gate, a Golden Elf said "Shit! Not _again_! ] -- Cameron Neylon cam@gu.uwa.edu.au I can't think of anything witty enough that people would really want to see it time after time after . .