This Headburro chap isn't as slow on the uptake as I thought. I've convinced him that using atomics to break down a dimensional portal is a bad idea. We'll be using good old-fashioned TNT and a Ward Seal instead.
I've been monitoring Darien's aether transmissions. No trace of Marcus. Marion went berzerk and had to be put down. I was apprehensive recruiting her for the escape plan from Erebus, but she served her purpose.
I took several steps into the jungle from wear Headburro slept. The foliage hid the meager light of the campfire. I made out the shine in her eyes as she watched me from an overhanging branch.
"Shall I follow you on your journey, Master?"
"I am no longer anyone's Master. And no," I said, "this is far too dangerous. Stopping the Old Ones must take priority. Even over our mission." I took a deep breath. "Mrs. Hilra has apparently discorporated the Ereb'ai soldiers. I believe it is time for you to reveal yourself."
"This will change everything."
"I know. I pray for the better." I wiped the beads of sweat from my face. The choking humidity and heat...
"No tears, Jeremiah."
"I know. I know..."
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Rendezvous
Meeting with Mr. Antfarm. I am not sure where he found Atomic Age weapons, but they may make the situation worse. I will try and convince him to use more conventional demolitions.
((Note: The role of the elder Dr. Mason will be played by Mr. Antfarm during European hours, for the purpose of recording this mission for prosperity. You may read on here: http://headburroantfarm.wordpress.com/))
((Note: The role of the elder Dr. Mason will be played by Mr. Antfarm during European hours, for the purpose of recording this mission for prosperity. You may read on here: http://headburroantfarm.wordpress.com/))
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
The Search for Dr. Burro
The trial was a fiasco. I am stunned Darien was not able to testify, but considering all else that happened I should be thankful he was not smashed to the floor and carried off to be made into cat food. Likewise, I am also relieved I was not called as a witness. The very act of establishing my identity would have been difficult in and of itself, if not dangerous.
The Labs received a parcel from a Mr. Headburro Antfarm, Esq. It contains the journal of Dr. Headonious Burro, a learned associate of mine from Miskatonic University. The journal was recovered from the shore of Mr. Antfarm's property. It contains a desperate plea for my aid, gone for some twenty years unheard.*
My first trip must be to meet Mr. Antfarm, to find out what research he may have found.
In the meantime I have authorized for Darien's release from Tamrannoch Sanitorium. There seems to be more trouble brewing in this community.
*The Journal's last date is 1909, however the lack of a common calendar among Grid Nations (aside from the Absolute Linden Time which most island nations ignore out of community pride and general disdain for the policies of those reality-engineers) means we must use algorithm just to convert the Miskatonic Valley calendar dates to Steelhead dates.
The Labs received a parcel from a Mr. Headburro Antfarm, Esq. It contains the journal of Dr. Headonious Burro, a learned associate of mine from Miskatonic University. The journal was recovered from the shore of Mr. Antfarm's property. It contains a desperate plea for my aid, gone for some twenty years unheard.*
My first trip must be to meet Mr. Antfarm, to find out what research he may have found.
In the meantime I have authorized for Darien's release from Tamrannoch Sanitorium. There seems to be more trouble brewing in this community.
*The Journal's last date is 1909, however the lack of a common calendar among Grid Nations (aside from the Absolute Linden Time which most island nations ignore out of community pride and general disdain for the policies of those reality-engineers) means we must use algorithm just to convert the Miskatonic Valley calendar dates to Steelhead dates.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Esau: Shallow Victory
I was willing to believe that Marcus was defeated, but for the fact that Sword of the Blood Wing Knight vanished along with his remains during the distraction is cause for alarm. What is most disturbing is that the exact nature of the sword's enchantments have been lost to history. Ash tells me that all records of the Blood Wing Knight (obviously a previous recipient of the Curse)were destroyed by the Founder himself. We do still possess the armor. Straight off we can tell it was not forged from metals native to this plane.
With most of the Mason family at hand to assist, we have transferred Darien's brain into what was left of his body, with some additional surplus. Regretfully, his mind has failed to adapt. He is convinced his delusions are real, and any who disbelieve them are in fact delusions themselves.
I am not surprised that he refuses to believe I am his father. By the time I decanted him and his brother, most of the man I was had drowned in that insidious compound. That realization does not lessen the anguish in any manner.
In this state he is still a danger to himself and others. We have no choice but to isolate him until he recovers. We have telegraphed Mr. Fourway. Tamrannoch Sanitorium will have a new Resident.
With most of the Mason family at hand to assist, we have transferred Darien's brain into what was left of his body, with some additional surplus. Regretfully, his mind has failed to adapt. He is convinced his delusions are real, and any who disbelieve them are in fact delusions themselves.
I am not surprised that he refuses to believe I am his father. By the time I decanted him and his brother, most of the man I was had drowned in that insidious compound. That realization does not lessen the anguish in any manner.
In this state he is still a danger to himself and others. We have no choice but to isolate him until he recovers. We have telegraphed Mr. Fourway. Tamrannoch Sanitorium will have a new Resident.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Your voice is like Jacob, but your hands are like Esau!
These are the words I shouted from the outside the property line of Mason Labs after the stroke of midnight. A few minutes later the violet lattice of death rays around the aperture of the entrance blinked out, and a small black robot with glowing yellow discs for eyes rolled slowly on treads down the stairs as the field rewove behind it. It clumsily levelled itself after descending the last stair, and stopped just short of the curb. It greeted me with the sharp squeal of feedback from a voice amplifier.
"Ah, I see," Crackled Darien's voice from a transmitter within the robot. "You're Miss Burton's farmhand. I thought Steelhead eliminated the position of Town Drunk. I'm rather busy at the moment. Go away before I summon the Sheriff."
"I know who you are and what you are! Come out and face me!"
"Yes, I'm a Spark and a Mage who commits multiple crimes against nature before tea break. Come back when you have the mob with torches and pitchforks."
"I'd prefer to keep the collateral damage to a minimum. Son."
"Oh! He's read the Chronicles! So you're not rabble after all! I heard you were a Spark, yes? So you're a blacksmith with a minor talent. You got lucky and survived an attack by a vat-grown ninja and now you have the delusion you're Jeremiah Mason? Perhaps you have shell shock from your battle. Since I am a doctor I'll take pity on you. I'll even pay for your airship ride to Tam-San."
The robot shot a ball of white fibers at me that expanded into sphere of gossamer threads, large enough to engulf me. But I drew my sabre and sliced through it with a flash of energy, and the fibers unraveled and dispersed in the wind blowing off the bay. I charged at the robot, and again my sword radiated with power as I cleaved the automaton down the middle in a shower of sparks.
"MARCUS! What have you done with Darien?" I shouted, my voice echoing across Port Harbor. The dogs in the property across the street ran terrified back to their kennels. I screamed in Ereb'ai, "FACE ME!" and stepped onto the dying grass of the property. It was a challenge that by tradition could not be ignored. I could make out the shadow of his wings from behind the violet light before it faded.
"You may be who you say you are, in a sense", I heard succinctly. "Jeremiah may very well have left a clone behind to carry out his revenge. But I would not mistake you for him. Mulling around as a laborer, then issuing a direct challenge with an energy sword? You must be a defective copy like the Chiss you fought. Perhaps you forgot who you were meant to be until the battle. No matter. I'll return you to your maker, shortly."
I levelled the glowing blade towards him as he descended. His face was Darien's but the scowl, like his wings, belonged to Marcus. He carried one of the family's relics with him. The sword of the Blood Wing Knight. He readied his weapon.
"You will not claim my brother! You will not claim me!" His sword erupted in a spiral of flames.
"I will send you back to Oblivion where you belong!"
He spread his wings and lunged at me from the top of the aperture like a bird of prey. I deflected his ancient blade with my sabre. The burst of energy from my blade countered his demonic strength, hurling him backwards to slam against the stark metal wall of the Labs itself.
I approached on guard, reluctant to destroy what at least partially was still Darien. "Marcus...I am no longer the monster I was. This body is free of that cursed concoction that makes a mockery of Life and Death. Were I a sane man I never would have ordered my servant to..."
"KILL ME?!?" He roared as he stretched out his hand. Energies coalesced into a glowing knot of hissing snakes that darted towards me. I folded space around me and vanished as the missiles passed through where I had stood and faded into nothing. "You raised me to be your perfect heir, then disposed of me when I became too much for you to handle!" His eyes projected rays of sickly green light that bled into otherspace, illuminating me as a translucent ghost as I charged towards him out of phase.
He shot upwards just as I phased back into view with my weapon slicing an arc through where he should have been. I looked up towards the cloudless night sky, following the flaming trail of his sword. He was preparing to cast wide effect spell, but before he uttered the last syllable his left wing snapped like a twig. It rolled back and forth like an Autumn leaf as it slowly descended, unlike Marcus, who tumbled helplessly downwards. His sword fell out of its curtain of flames as it spun earthward.
I winced when I heard his bones break the moment he hit the ground. I edged closer to see him trembling as his other wing fell off. He stared up at me through the pain in silent confusion.
"I brought marion back from the underworld with me," I told him as I sheathed my sword. "She convinced your new doll to help us get the real Darien back. She followed my instructions perfectly."
He raised his arm to conjure. He groaned as his flesh pulsed with the green glow of the reanimation serum and crumbled off his frame. "She recalibrated your disintegration field to project a deanimation field as you crossed the portal. All that serum coursing through your veins is now inert. "You've destroyed your lifecode! That patchwork of human and demon DNA is falling apart! Now we'll see what's left of you that's..."
I stopped when I realized his form had dissolved into ashes and bleached bone.
...real?"
TO BE CONTINUED
"Ah, I see," Crackled Darien's voice from a transmitter within the robot. "You're Miss Burton's farmhand. I thought Steelhead eliminated the position of Town Drunk. I'm rather busy at the moment. Go away before I summon the Sheriff."
"I know who you are and what you are! Come out and face me!"
"Yes, I'm a Spark and a Mage who commits multiple crimes against nature before tea break. Come back when you have the mob with torches and pitchforks."
"I'd prefer to keep the collateral damage to a minimum. Son."
"Oh! He's read the Chronicles! So you're not rabble after all! I heard you were a Spark, yes? So you're a blacksmith with a minor talent. You got lucky and survived an attack by a vat-grown ninja and now you have the delusion you're Jeremiah Mason? Perhaps you have shell shock from your battle. Since I am a doctor I'll take pity on you. I'll even pay for your airship ride to Tam-San."
The robot shot a ball of white fibers at me that expanded into sphere of gossamer threads, large enough to engulf me. But I drew my sabre and sliced through it with a flash of energy, and the fibers unraveled and dispersed in the wind blowing off the bay. I charged at the robot, and again my sword radiated with power as I cleaved the automaton down the middle in a shower of sparks.
"MARCUS! What have you done with Darien?" I shouted, my voice echoing across Port Harbor. The dogs in the property across the street ran terrified back to their kennels. I screamed in Ereb'ai, "FACE ME!" and stepped onto the dying grass of the property. It was a challenge that by tradition could not be ignored. I could make out the shadow of his wings from behind the violet light before it faded.
"You may be who you say you are, in a sense", I heard succinctly. "Jeremiah may very well have left a clone behind to carry out his revenge. But I would not mistake you for him. Mulling around as a laborer, then issuing a direct challenge with an energy sword? You must be a defective copy like the Chiss you fought. Perhaps you forgot who you were meant to be until the battle. No matter. I'll return you to your maker, shortly."
I levelled the glowing blade towards him as he descended. His face was Darien's but the scowl, like his wings, belonged to Marcus. He carried one of the family's relics with him. The sword of the Blood Wing Knight. He readied his weapon.
"You will not claim my brother! You will not claim me!" His sword erupted in a spiral of flames.
"I will send you back to Oblivion where you belong!"
He spread his wings and lunged at me from the top of the aperture like a bird of prey. I deflected his ancient blade with my sabre. The burst of energy from my blade countered his demonic strength, hurling him backwards to slam against the stark metal wall of the Labs itself.
I approached on guard, reluctant to destroy what at least partially was still Darien. "Marcus...I am no longer the monster I was. This body is free of that cursed concoction that makes a mockery of Life and Death. Were I a sane man I never would have ordered my servant to..."
"KILL ME?!?" He roared as he stretched out his hand. Energies coalesced into a glowing knot of hissing snakes that darted towards me. I folded space around me and vanished as the missiles passed through where I had stood and faded into nothing. "You raised me to be your perfect heir, then disposed of me when I became too much for you to handle!" His eyes projected rays of sickly green light that bled into otherspace, illuminating me as a translucent ghost as I charged towards him out of phase.
He shot upwards just as I phased back into view with my weapon slicing an arc through where he should have been. I looked up towards the cloudless night sky, following the flaming trail of his sword. He was preparing to cast wide effect spell, but before he uttered the last syllable his left wing snapped like a twig. It rolled back and forth like an Autumn leaf as it slowly descended, unlike Marcus, who tumbled helplessly downwards. His sword fell out of its curtain of flames as it spun earthward.
I winced when I heard his bones break the moment he hit the ground. I edged closer to see him trembling as his other wing fell off. He stared up at me through the pain in silent confusion.
"I brought marion back from the underworld with me," I told him as I sheathed my sword. "She convinced your new doll to help us get the real Darien back. She followed my instructions perfectly."
He raised his arm to conjure. He groaned as his flesh pulsed with the green glow of the reanimation serum and crumbled off his frame. "She recalibrated your disintegration field to project a deanimation field as you crossed the portal. All that serum coursing through your veins is now inert. "You've destroyed your lifecode! That patchwork of human and demon DNA is falling apart! Now we'll see what's left of you that's..."
I stopped when I realized his form had dissolved into ashes and bleached bone.
...real?"
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Esau: Preparations
Miss Burton has agreed to assist. Marion and sparky have conversed over tea at Miss Burton's. Sparky's report on "Darien's" behavior indicates the situation is more dire than I had first conjectured. Marion has supplied me the schematics, and I have supplied her with the programming cards. I must warn Steelhead of what is to come at the town meeting, then Operation Esau will commence immediately.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Affirmation
And I believe that we'll conceive
to bring this Earth closer to Heaven
Restore the world - the Promised Land
a Paradise of hearts and minds
until I see this Kingdom's time
I'll turn from Darkness to the Light
I'll heal the blind
God's will be done
until the day I see His Kingdom
has now come.
Do you think that I'll be saved?
to bring this Earth closer to Heaven
Restore the world - the Promised Land
a Paradise of hearts and minds
until I see this Kingdom's time
I'll turn from Darkness to the Light
I'll heal the blind
God's will be done
until the day I see His Kingdom
has now come.
Do you think that I'll be saved?
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