| » | 3 Anonymous 2020-02-15T12:34:59 [ImgOps] [iqdb]File: Alexandria.jpg (JPEG, 313.47KB, 815x1173)  | Welcome to Alexandria, city of dreams!
This is our initial project. I first posted this on textboard but I'll be using it for the initial piece itt. Let's see what a bunch of wizards can do with it. Good luck, don't be shy and let's try have some fun.
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When I first arrived in Alexandria, people were concerned about a deep gorge slaves found while constructing the foundations of a builing. The smell, they said and indeed I could sense it when I arrived, was awful, like a mortifying stench of a million men vomiting all the contents of their stomachs night and day nonstop. One could not walk around the streets without a heavy piece of cloth over one's nose and mouth. All windows around town were closed and people were thin and sickly looking for their appetite was mostly gone, like my own. At night we could hear wailing coming from the Vomiting Gorge (that's how people called it then) and none of the locals would dare come near it.
There was a strange movement around town during those days. Alexandria's locals would abandon their homes and lands as they couldn't live near the gorge anymore and many would kill themselves, hanging on trees or anywhere high enough. You couldn't step out of your door without seeing a smiling cadaver. It's true what they said, everyday wheelbarrows filled with suiciders would parade around town, sometimes whole families would vanish this way. At first the king ordered graves to be dug for each person, then one for each family, then mass graves and finally, because the work would take a lot of men and men unwilling, and because the earth in this region is hard and packed, people began tossing all the corpses into the gorge itself.
Many saw this as a dangerous act. We did in fact knew nothing about the gorge then. Dropping dead bodies into the chasm was, it's true, a contributing factor to our doom later on. Others saw as an act of justice. There was a lot of talk about the dead ones, that it couldn't be considered suicide at all but murders carried on by the miasma coming out of the gorge, traveling around town like an invisible horror, making people mad and sick. A lot of people were leaving town and for good reason, but we also got lots of pilgrims, weirdly enough. People would come from all parts of the crumbling empire to visit the famous Vomiting Gorge. Later on it became a known pilgrimage destination point. Men and succubi would come all dressed in black with their heads covered in rags and pray on location, each to a different god or gods. They called it the throad of gods. The land itself began to die and nothing woud grow within several Lessa around it. That's when the King ordered to be sealed shut. Little did we know that was only the beginning of our problems. |
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| » | 4 Anonymous 2020-02-15T12:35:32 [ImgOps] [iqdb]File: Candle.png (PNG, 97.77KB, 669x317)  | In spite of the fact that the king set guard over the perimeter of the sinister place, pilgrims continued to reach the gorge. Of the entire city guard, only a few agreed to patrol there, and among themselves they decided that four people would be enough to carry the watch at night. Whatever the devilish essence hovered over that cleft, everyone clearly felt that it intensifies with the onset of twilight. And only at night there were sounds near it. The guards tried to stay away, only occasionally looking there through the gaps between the buildings.
So people in dark robes more often managed to make their way there at night. And strangely, none of them returned… until that nightmarish night, after which the guards agreed to carry the watch no further than the outskirts of the city.
At first they heard groans, wheezing. Bleating. They looked into the alley, and saw nothing but shadows crawling in the darkness.
Then came a light from the fire. Illuminated the figures, huddled around it, and when they stepped aside, the creature making all those sounds became visible.
In appearance, it was a child sitting on a goat. His whole body was charred. Only stumps sticking out of his shoulders. Somehow, an umbilical cord remained, dragging along the ground, while the goat slowly walked around the gorge.
And his skull was on fire. The figures waited for the child to pass by them and brought candles to it. When all of them had lit candles, they slowly began to diverge in different directions and disappear into the alleys.
The creature continued to scream unintelligible words and moving in circles around the pit.
The guards fled, and as the last of them stumbled on his way out of this nightmare, he heard "Mother!" among the groans and screams. |
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| » | 5 Anonymous 2020-02-15T12:36:35The cobalt-blue walls of the royal dining hall were lined with intricate gold patterns to compliment the many opulent, jewel encrusted chandeliers. The mighty room was built in line with the holy meridian discovered centuries ago by Alexandria's great cartographers. At the north head of the central table stood a beautiful gold throne that stretched skywards the height of ten men, adorn with rubies and sapphires and carvings of symbols that got more sacred as you got higher up. Slumped right at the bottom of it was the King of Alexandria, head on hand, utterly miserable.
"I saw summora dem cloaked jokers skulking about the courtyard last night". The voice came from the court jester, a disgusting little man wilding a sceptre, which he waved under the King's nose.
"Carrying a whole dead cow between 'em too, I watched 'em, and they still managed to get past your stupid guards". The King said nothing.
"You don't 'spect…" the fool scanned the crowd dramatically (a priest, the head guard and two nobles all huddled around the north end of the massive table avoiding each others gaze)
"You don't 'spect it's more pagans do you?"
"Who else would it bloody be" the king spat into the table.
The old priest, who had attended countless meetings with the King and his fool before, thought it best to interject.
"Well say this gorge is becoming a beacon for heathen worship. The church has dealt with barbarians before. With a little extra funding we could launch a campaign to end this stupid fad in a week. Temporary lapse of royal power is normal you know. Those churls can't even agree on a god, let alone launch an insurrection".
"Wot kinda lapse is that, shortknob? Lest ye ferget, Sire is the great great great great great great great great great grandson of the primordial architect wot was birthed from the sacred ooze and rules over all life, ent ya Lord?"
The King eyed the jester scathingly.
"In any case… we need to do something about the demon rumours. Albin, you said even some of your men got caught up in the hysteria? Eventually I want to send science expeditions down the gorge, once we get Hellensgard or one of the other academic provinces on our side. For now I want the city under quarantine. Turn away any pilgrims and arrest any emigres. I will not have Alexandria known as the portal to false worlds." |
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