Maharg67's Den (shorter works, short stories, poetry, etc.)

[Maharg67]

Missing the Moment

 

How many rich possibilities

have I missed in day dreaming

worrying about the future

reading

watching television

and

otherwise missing the present moment!?

 

Do I truly live if I do not live in the moment!?

 

I have no easy answers!?

Edited January 14, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Continued on from Post #100

 

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The Curse of Quamaire
One 8.1[8]{8}

 

The next few hours were taken up by moving through a series of tunnels, part of a large spread out maze of them. The trick was to continue following the Tooze with out becoming victims of various booby-traps and other threats, many not of Tooze making.

Tunnels changed in nature, they crossed through mostly bare chambers and often they had to provide their own sources of light. They produced enough light to give them safe travel but not enough, hopefully, to easily attract danger. As it was they had to repulse a swarm of savage cave-rats and carefully disarm a cunning Tooze venom-dart trap.

They found themselves plunging steadily deeper underground, which was not what any of them had expected would happen. They had expected that the Tooze had crossed the island using the tunnels and that they would end up at a tunnel exit somewhere, having staid generally closer to the surface. Now they were quite deep and getting deeper. The tunnels, and chambers, were getting increasingly older in make and stranger in design.

They came upon the first broken statue of a vampiric demigoddess, the identity long lost, looking both beautiful as a woman and yet somehow also very evil. She was lurid, naked except for chain-belts and held a kind of bizarre axe-spear like weapon that glittered unnaturally.

EllessTane grimaced. "Even Tooze do not like to speak of the Vampire Deities of the Bloodmare Realm. Once, it is whispered in some of their more obscure records, the Tooze worshipped the Bloodmarie but became sundered from them for reasons unknown to any Aratoro, as far as I know."

The voice spoke from the statue and was somehow both sweetly sexy and blood chillingly evil. "Even we Bloodmarie became tired of the extremes of the Tooze and their atrocities, their desire for forbidden knowledge and their challenges to our authority. We fear what ancient dark powers they might unearth but, more importantly, what ancient dark entities they might awaken or free from ancient prisons. Take my weapon, if you dare, for you will need it at least once against what you will confront. When you no longer need it, I will reclaim the weapon, which I left her for you to find. Yes, we Bloodmarie offer this service only for ourselves but in truth both our peoples must stop the Tooze from carrying out an insane plan."

Then the voice was gone and the statue crumbled, with unnatural speed, into dust. They took up the bizarre, deadly weapon, but wrapped it carefully in magic warded cloth before they did so.

 

Continued on in Post #104

Edited June 29, 2015 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Continued on from Post #92

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Conan of Tamriel #7
Conan's Growing Concerns

Conan, and his Northlander comrades took made their way through cave like systems might have once been natural but now looked too evened out to be so. Strange cocoon like growths sometimes revealed treasures of intruders who had perished in the Deadlands but, more often than not, held nothing.

Conan had been going over the series of events, leading up to the request to go into the Deadlands, in his mind and the more he did so, the more there seemed to be something wrong with the story as told by the Wizard Nordalf, of the Arazarans. Yet he could not quite put his finger on what was troubling him.

He sat, back against a warm stone wall and in red tinged light, and spoke to the she-shaman Sarsha. "A tingle in my spine, a lurch in my guts, tells me that Nordalf was not telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."

Sarsha was looking to him with a curious smile on her face. "What reason would he lie, would he want us to bring that artifact back to the Deadlands? It is a powerful daedric device and it 'smells' of MehruneDagon. That part of the story seems to be true."

A soft shudder went through the big cave chamber. Other shamans looked concerned as did warriors. They were strangers, in a very strange land, and they faced largely unknown threats even with the knowledge that the Northlanders had on MehrunesDagon and the daedra that served him.

Conan looked to the powerful daedric artifact and spoke after a thoughtful moment. "Perhaps the answer is there, right there in front of us."

Continued on in Post #113

Edited January 14, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Continued on from Post #103

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The Curse of Quamaire
One 9.1[9]{9}

 

Why did CaembraZiv, and EllessTane, go ahead with taking the cursed weapon? Because they 'sensed' truth in the terrible vampire deity's words and that they would need the weapon. Because EllessTane knew it was a very rare type of weapon as designed, and made, by powerful undead entities to destroy other powerful undeathly entities.

The maze of tunnels grew bigger, more ancient and a strange coldness arose that seemed to chill more than just the body but also the mind and spirit.

CaembraZiv became concerned that they had not brought enough food and drink for the expedition. They had planned to be back on the surface earlier than that, had not planned to be going deeper underground. He certainly did not trust to any local waters or any local food that could be gained by hunting, gathering or looting.

They were all surprised to find the great cavern chamber, a cavernland stretching out into the far distance, being one festooned with great, glistening mushroom like fungi, dotted with brackish lakes of water so cold as to give off a kind of mist and ancient, slowly crumbling structures. The buildings were not of the Tooze or even of humans. No, they were of the ancient cursed Mer, the Necromer who were a whole Mer people devoted to necromantic knowledge, power and unholy longevity.

EllessTane frowned hard as the group hunkered down for a rest and to have some food and water. “I would not believe it if I was not looking at it. Necromer here? There have been stories but we, the supposed learned and wise, refused to believe in them. I wonder how much else we have gotten wrong in our arrogance.”

The warlord frowned. “I would not call you arrogant, though I would not hesitate to say the same thing about some of your compatriots. That may be a Necromer city but clearly it has been abandoned long ago. Or at least by any more organized, skilled, form of society. I would not like to try to go through that city, not with out more people and more resources. I suggest that we backtrack and try to find a way around it.”

The wizardess shook her head, also frowning. “Something tells me that it will not be so easy as all that. If we try to retrace our steps, there will be obstacles in our way. We are badly wanted here, if not by one force, than my more than one. It would not surprise me if the Tooze, that we have been following, have also been manipulated off course. Then again, they could have gained what they were carrying from this underground area. They could have gained Necromer artefacts. That would be a most dangerous venture for I doubt that such would be left unguarded; I suspect necromantic magics, and undead creatures, would still protect them.”

It was then that the undead things attacked.

Edited June 29, 2015 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Continued on from Post #104

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The Curse of Quamaire
One 10.1[10]{10}

 

The undead things were skeletal creatures but not just former humans. There were former hounds, huge ones, bat like things that flew clumsily through the air and swarms of skeletal ex-rats. Thankfully they came at the newcomers across a great space to get at the expedition and they had time to go into a good defensive formation. Arrows were unleashed along with bolts of magical energies. Undead fell into true death, many crumbling-burning away.

EllessTane destroyed many of the undead but even a wizardess of her power could not keep up such a heavy use of magic. She ceased as the group began to fall backwards. CaembraZiv was a moderately powerful mage, which was not something that many knew. Yet he took to using his magical weapons as the fighting became close order dealing of death. Swords flashed and struck shields or armour. Arrows kept flying. The mages ran out of magical strength but the warrior-mages kept on fighting with their weapons.

The situation was growing grimmer with every passing second as increasingly more of the undead came at the defenders.

Which was when the other monstrous things struck as great glistening tentacles shot out of brackish water and struck with horrific power and speed. Yet they struck not at the mortals but at he undead, grabbing them up and pulling them into the waters with astonishing speed.

“Amazing!” EllessTane spoke. “I had heard they existed but I did not believe it. They are called tentaculars and they feed on the undead just as the undead feed on life. It is written, in the Beastery Tomes of AgustariO, that they lie dormant until they 'sense' the nearby presence of enough undead to make it worth while for them to strike. Clearly the army of the undead was enough to gain their interest.”

The warlord frowned. “We truly do dwell in a most strange realm. Were the undead summoned against us somehow?”

“I do not know!” The woman shook her head. “I would need to do a search of this place and to do a magical sweep.” She looked to him suddenly and focused on his chest in a sharp fashion that made him more than a little uncomfortable. There was an beautiful stone medallion hanging there with some meaningless but beautiful patterning on its face. “Where did you get that?”

He frowned softly. “DalentaTi gave it to me as a good luck charm. She bought it at a local markets, from a minor priestess.”

EllessTane moved with swiftness and grabbing the medallion, snapped it cleanly in half so two disks were made from one. She showed him what was exposed inside and he shut up in shock before he could say anything. The two exposed symbols were fairly weak 'undeath attractors' that while not so dangerous under most circumstances, could prove lethal when combined with other dark forces. The medallion burned away to dust in her hands.

Edited June 29, 2015 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Continued on from Post #105

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The Curse of Quamaire
One 11.1[11]{11}

 

EllessTane sighed. “You can cease looking distraught. This was no medallion made by any minor priestess in a local market though made to look like it. The vibes from this tell me that somebody replaced the real medallion with this one. I can 'sense' nothing with this new medallion to do with DalentaTi.”

At that CaembraZiv was relieved and it showed.

The armies of attacking undead kept on coming so that even the tentaculars became overwhelmed and withdrew from the battle, vanishing into their brackish pools.

EllessTane frowned hard and taking up the antiundead weapon, she carefully took off its cover. Then, with a look of wary disgust she took it up, aimed it at the oncoming hordes and focused with a grimace. From the undeathly antiundead device spat pale energies like phantom electrical bolts, fanning out across the undead hordes. The lesser undead began to crumble away in the hundreds as the terrible energies spat from victim to victim. In seconds the great majority of the undead were gone. Then the terrible weapon disintegrated into pale dust and was no more.

EllessTane was far from happy at having used such an antinatural device but she did not seem surprised that it had self destructed. “The undead would not want us to keep such a device so as to gain any knowledge from it for they like to keep their secrets. It has done its job. The way is clear of the undead and many souls have been freed. The weapon did try to claim some of them but I put a stop to that.”

The way was clear, at least of the undead creatures. They began to move further across the great, exotic chamber. Soon they were following a slowly winding stone raised walkway, complete with stone safety rails, that went out across the cavern. It meant fast going, and the avoidance of many obstacles, but it also meant the group was high and exposed. The Tooze had gone that way and, to catch up to them, they were forced to do the same.

They got about half way across the great, bizarre cavern when they reached a place where the raised walkway had totally crumbled away. It had been destroyed by no obvious means but EllessTane picked up traces of very powerful but unknown forms of destructive magic that had done the trick.

From then on they were forced to move through pools of brackish water, past crumbling statues half sunken into greasy mud, on great big leathery leaves that were amazingly strong and through an area dotted with big stone cylinder shaped towers topped with domes that were linked together by flying buttress like bridges.

Which was when an arrow flew to hit the ground with a message attached. The group reacted defensively but then went back to being less defensive as CaembraZiv read the message. The message was straight forward. There were people up in the network of towers that were friendly and wanted to negotiate to make some kind of important deal. The message ended by asking that the newcomers not to jump to any conclusions upon seeing the 'locals'.

EllessTane read the message, smiled, and suggested they do as the message asked.

Edited June 29, 2015 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Continued on from Post #106

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The Curse of Quamaire
One 12.1[12]{12}

Nombies, friendly zombies, were a strange contradiction of undeath and were uncommon compared to savage, ever hungering zombies. Skelets were friendly versions of skeletors. Nemphires were friendly versions of vampires. They were all to be found in the communities of the NetworkTowers along with tough mortals such as humans, orcs and even some peaceful goblins; that is more peaceful than typical goblins.

Then there were the Nocomer, reformed Necromer, who repaired and managed the ancient Mer technologies of the NetworkTowers.

For many centuries the cavern had been a reasonable haven for the peoples of the NetworkTowers but in the past years the undead had been gathering in force in neighbouring caverns and had been raiding with increasing numbers and savagery. Not even the tentaculars, or the amazing sunray magic of the Nocomer, had been able to hold them back from getting increasingly closer to the towers themselves.

They wanted to migrate but not too far; there was a safer haven, bigger and friendlier, more fertile and with its own version of the NetworkTowers. There were people there but they wanted more to join them. Trouble was the people did not know if the story was totally accurate, was actually true, but they thought they had little choice.

Except that is until now the newcomers had appeared.

A tall, graceful Nocomer Matriarch came, gracefully in long silken robes, to meet with the newcomers. She smiled and gave a quick bow from her waist. “We thank you for getting rid of that great army of the undead though you had to use such a dreadful weapon to do so. We were glad to see it self destruct once used.”

EllessTane smiled, nodded. “Your story is a fine one but it is not the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

The Nocomer Matriarch nodded. “How could one easily speak of the deep darkness of such. We Nocomer felt obliged to do something to make up for our evil past as Necromer. The NetworkTowers are part of a lock on a magical gateway that leads to the Dimensional Realms of Undeath sometimes known as the Great Desolation of Greater and Lesser Desolations. To our deep shame, eight of our kind betrayed the others and stole three of the KeyCrystals that keep the lock active, along with other artefacts of a great vault chamber. The traitors fled and then sold the artefacts to a large force of Tooze in exchange for the means to escape to the surface. Except that the Tooze betrayed the traitors and slaughtered them. Then the Tooze were attacked by many undead and most were destroyed. Enough survived to get away with the stolen artefacts.”

EllessTane told Krestyle, the matriarch, about the pursuit of the Tooze in order to find out what the Tooze had been up to and how the expedition had ended up going deep into the ground in a way that it had not planned to do.

Krestyle was puzzled. “I do not know why the surviving Tooze would return this way unless their minds are being manipulated, just as you suggested.”

Edited June 29, 2015 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

A Tragic Tale of Zombies Being Bad

 

Zombies zombies

Everywhere

Chewing on my ass (poor donkey)

Chasing poor Old Andy

Down a garden path

I would get my shotgun out

And blow a few away

But alas it's too late

For I have gone their way

Old Andy looks tasty

so I will go and have a bite or two

of his scrawny old body

Edited January 14, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Continued on from Post #107

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The Curse of Quamaire
One 13.1[13]{13}

 

EllessTane nodded, a thoughtful expression on her face. “All those mortal amongst you.”

Krestyle sighed as if resigning herself to something she did not want to. “Friendly versions of doppelgangers known as googlegangers. They are very good at looking like others but they do make many little mistakes when it comes to body language.”

“They are horrible actors and they would need acting lessons before any actors troop would hire them.” CaembraZiv spoke calmly but with a mild grin. “The two over there, pretending to be angry orcs, they look more like constipated orcs.”

The matriarch smiled more. “Yes and the two trying to look like petting lovers are most interesting to look at as they flirt with each other's knees.” She lost her smile. “Will you assist us to go to the other place?”

“Show me the message that they sent to you.” EllessTane was going on a 'feeling' she had.

She took a small, unusual crystal message-globe and held it in her left hand while touching it with the fingers of her right hand. After a few minutes she frowned hard, shaking her head.

“I 'sense' you have been wary of the message and those that sent it. You had good reason to be. The message was created, and sent, by a powerful vampire. Her real intentions were accidentally implanted into the fringes of the message. These ancient artifacts can be quite difficult to use, one has to be careful, but the vampire was amazingly over confident when she used it. Then again, many vampires become that way which is one reason why there are so few ancient vampires. What happened to the Necromer?”

Krestyle looked troubled. “We do not know much for we Nocomer were isolated cousin clans dwelling far from the major clans and the big Necromer settlements. That was where it happened, the great experiment that would make sure that the MerLink would be able to destroy powerful enemies, combine and swap resources and take back full control of Tamriel. They wanted most of all to exterminate all humans. It was an insane plan and not all Necromer were supportive of the idea. We were exiles, moderate minorities and those who preferred the relative freedom of being so far from the oppressive Necromer Oligarchy. The MerLink was made up of the Necromer, the Dwemer, the Ayleid and others unnamed for good reason.”

EllessTane sighed very softly. “Please name them.”

The matriarch was obviously uncomfortable with doing so but she did. “The GlimmerLords and their followers, the Azezizozu and the Zynemer.”

EllessTane was shocked, angry and deeply puzzled and made no effort to hide it. “All of those entities are extremely dangerous to work with, are criminally insane, are known in many realms as a great enemy, a great threat. To work with the three of them would be madness. What would drive the more normal Mer to do such a thing?”

Krestyle shook her head. “We were isolated, quite deliberately, from what was going on by the Oligarchy with their great network of collaborators, spies, assassins and death squads.”

Edited June 29, 2015 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Voyage of the Custard Voyager

Across the Sea of Custard
they sailed in a gingerbread teacup
driven by hard toffee oars
and brawny Cooking Apprentices
who spoke longingly of lemonade
sparkling in tall crystal glasses
bubbling as with the pressure of
a thousand sodapop fountains.

 

Chef the Captain, the Chef,

looked out over the rich yellow

waves that surged greatly

at about one kilometre per day

and was awestruck

at the swimming antics of

blue chees whales

devouring schools of chocolate

sardines.

 

It was a great voyage

a true moment in history

and it will never be forgotten

for it is written down in

a million and one

cooking voyage recipe books

 

PS Everything is true, in this post, except for the words above.

Edited January 14, 2014 by Maharg67