Patchwork Universe

Snark Sinistre · Good Joined: 18 Jun 2004 Posts: 59 Location: Dark Towers

[From Kerya: 'A Wizard Flies Past']

From the mists to the west Snark Sinistre came flying. He wore robes of blue black, carried a black staff with a blue gem and was hatted and bearded in the manner of a wizard and enclosed in a glowing sphere of elemental force.

Looking down at the black lands beneath Snark searched for any sign of the taint of science, the stuff he of all things most abhored. But although he caught a whiff of strange alchemical reactions there was nothing of that vile 'technology' used by Brainstorm and his ilk.

"What is this place?" he wondered out loud, for it was one he'd never seen before and yet found strangely appealing. Descending from the heights he looked for something approaching to a main gate.

Lord Doomshadow · Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2004 6:41 pm Post subject:

Beneath him the Snark could see a pair of heavy, ornate doors, constructed from an unfamiliar golden metal and covered with intricate hieroglyphs. Noting that the doors were twenty feet high and set in the centre of the Mausoleum's longest wall, he concluded that, while they were not gates, they were at least unlikely to be the servants' entrance.

On either side of the doors were what the wizard at first took to be a pair of lovingly preserved skeletons of giant reptiles... reptiles that had walked on their hind legs, and had brains larger than a man's. As he descended, however, the fossilised skulls swung towards him on their stony neck bones, and he could hear their faint, whispering voices.

"Do not be afraid... come, join us... we, the extinct, welcome you... join usss... join usssss..."

The whispers echoed faintly back and forth from the stony walls of the Mausoleum, until they had entirely died away, and there was only silence.

Snark Sinistre · Good Joined: 18 Jun 2004 Posts: 59 Location: Dark Towers

The wizard fixed the skeletons with glittering blue eyes, raising his staff in a gesture of warding as he spoke:
"I am Snark Sinistre. Master of the Cold Flame. Magister Emeritus. Wizard of the Dark Towers."

Focusing his will on the doors he considered blasting them open but thus far this realm had done him no harm so he continued with a question:
"Who is the lord of this demesne?"

Lord Doomshadow · Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:35 pm Post subject:

The doors swung open in total silence, and a woman walked out between them. She wore a black velvet dress that covered her from throat to ankle, and was strikingly beautiful in the manner of a lady of experience who has invested considerable time in the creation of an almost perfect body.

"No lord, but a lady", she said, with a trilling, girlish laugh.

"Now put that silly thing away", she added, gesturing at the staff, "and come inside where it's comfortable."

At this point, she paused to look the wizard up and down in an appraising sort of way. "My, it's not often we receive such a striking visitor. Such an impressive sphere of elemental force... Dear boy, your arrival has quite made my aeon!"

Snark Sinistre · Good Joined: 18 Jun 2004 Posts: 59 Location: Dark Towers

As Snark's lips spread in a smile of appreciation his mind was racing through possibilities.

This was a new place, the second of such he had passed through, and one with distinct possibilities. It was of a certainty a wizard's castle and a puissant one. The Lady was without question an enchantress and her great beauty indicated that her powers were considerable. Snark found the thought of the magics necessary to create such a glamour at least as compelling as the Lady's more obvious charms.

However, a wizard's castle should not be entered lightly. Snark's own abode a telling example of this and the Lady's comment about his staff had put him on guard.

"Dear Lady," he said, sweeping off his pointed hat with his free hand and returning it swiftly to his head again (a wizard dislikes feeling unhatted even in the name of courtesy). "The feeling is mutual."

"Unfortunately, my errand is one that does not permit me to tarry. I am in pursuit of a man who I have taken an oath to destroy. A man who has polluted the elemental spheres with cold iron. A man whose very existence upsets the natural order of things..."

Snark saw the natural order of things as pointy, like his hat. Wizards were at the top and everyone else somewhere further down. Every wizard was therefore at the top of their own point, but with a necessary gulf of distance between each of them.

"But now that I know this magnificent structure is here..." his gaze flickered away from the Lady's bosom to the golden gates. "...I shall certainly return when my task is completed - which it will be very soon." Snark was nothing if not confident. "Until then may I know the name of she whose beauty shakes the spheres?"

Although Snark was not naturally a polite man, his books of wizardry and castle creation held a lot of useful advice about how to avoid an invitation to the home of a rival wizard and he was cribbing quite extensively from the Nimue Codex.

Lord Doomshadow · Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 1:36 pm Post subject:

"Oh, this old thing? Do you like it?", said the woman, giggling prettily and making a vague gesture in the direction of her bosom. "Really, it's just something I threw together last week... it's so hard to get the parts these days, you know..."

"The little people like to call me Lady Doomshadow. Such a serious name, don't you think? So difficult for a frail woman to live up to..."

"And what shall I call you? Is it Snark, or perhaps you'd prefer...". The woman stepped closer, and looked up at the magister from under heavy black eyelashes. Her voice dropped to a husky murmur. "...Sinistre?"

The wizard was almost certain he had seen something move beneath her skirts. Something that he was sure should not have been there...

Snark Sinistre · Good Joined: 18 Jun 2004 Posts: 59 Location: Dark Towers

What a woman, Snark though with admiration. Why she positively reaks of black magic and things man of which man was not meant to wot.

"Lady Doomshadow, your humility is second only to your courtesy," he said. "Your name conveys but a fraction of your presence."

(He would liked to have added "my friends call me..." but recollected that he didn't have any friends, and wasn't sure what they would call him if he had.)

"Alas, I may not tarry much longer or your manifold charms will seduce me from my purpose. But perhaps we might arrange a future... assignation. My own Dark Towers lie due west from here, past some tedious jungle terrain. I would be honoured to entertain you there once my mission is accomplished."

With a flick of his fingers and the kind of chicanry made possible by a robe with extremely deep sleeves, he caused a crystal gem to appear in his hand. At the heart of the crystal a deep blue fracture seemed to tremble like a flickering flame.
"Should you wish to have speech with me, dear Lady, look deep within the heart of this jewel and you will speak with the blue elementals who sustain my castle."

Flexing his magic, Snark levitated the gem to float across the small space between them.

Lord Doomshadow · Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 9:00 pm Post subject:

"Oh darling! How exquisite!", trilled Lady Doomshadow, reaching out to take the crystal. "I will treasure it always..."

"But you simply must accept a favour from me in exchange. So that you do not entirely forget me, left here all alone while you journey to distant lands..."

Reaching deep into her cleavage, she extracted a perfectly formed black rose, which she offered to the wizard on the palm of her hand. He could smell a delicate, enchanting fragance...

Snark Sinistre · Good Joined: 18 Jun 2004 Posts: 59 Location: Dark Towers

Snark extended a hand and a sphere of blue light enclosed the black rose. Floating it back towards him he took hold of the sphere and stowed it away in his robes.
"I'm honoured, Lady Doomshadow," he said, bowing again for good measure. "And now, if you'll excuse me, I shall take my leave."

Lord Doomshadow · Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2004 2:50 pm Post subject:

"Oh well", said Lady Doomshadow, sadly. "I suppose boys will be boys, I suppose."

"Do try not to die or anything, won't you, darling?"

Raising a hand to her scarlet lips, she blew a kiss at the departing wizard.

Snark Sinistre · Good Joined: 18 Jun 2004 Posts: 59 Location: Dark Towers

Snark levitated up into the air, waving goodbye to the lady. He was looking forward to investigating the magics of the black rose at a later date and felt a certain sense of smugness that he had not touched it with his naked hand. Roses, he had learned, were not always what they seemed.

As he sped towards the mist veil to the east he thought over his meeting with Lady Doomshadow. An impressive woman, he decided. What was the word... ah yes... a femme fatale.

Musing on this Snark flew forward through the mist.

[ooc: Snark moves on to Chimera: 'The Sky Was Good For Flying']

Lord Doomshadow · Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2004 4:01 pm Post subject:

Lady Doomshadow watched the wizard until he abruptly disappeared from sight. Then she turned to the skeletal reptile that had silently emerged from the doors behind her, and deposited the blue crystal within the strangely small sets of bones that hung from the ends of its long arms.

"Examine this thoroughly", she snapped. "Use the north wing. Should it prove to be a trap, I would not wish any valuable architecture to be damaged."

She paused to consider. That had not been the first visitor from nowhere in recent days, though he had certainly been the most impressive. She still regretted not having caught the pair who had come through yesterday. The man would have been good for a night or two's entertainment, she was sure. The woman, being incorporeal, was of less value, but no doubt she would have enjoyed watching...

Still, the important question was where all these various individuals kept manifesting themselves from. There should have been no living thing within half a continent of the Mausoleum, following the unfortunate incident which had forced them to make use of the egg cache.

It was probably all her idiot son's fault. He had been trying to open... gateways. Gateways to Elsewhere...

She mused for a while. The man had spoken of several worlds. New worlds to conquer... if only she could reach them.

She smiled. Things had been so boring, since the last war...