They camp within a sinister whispering glade, and late at night they hear a roaring and crashing - an enormous carnivorous Baobab tree crashes towards them. They leave a horse behind to distract the creature and flee while it gorges itself on the poor creature. Renko is slowed down by his porcelain armour and quickly peels himself out of it as they flee into the night.
By dawn they reassess their position and supplies. It is obvious there is very little to forage here and they are running desperately low on supplies. They decide collectively that they are very disappointed in the forest of meat.
They push through and finally the fetid dripping wood thins out and they find themselves on the other side and fare ahead they can see the great black sea, and on the shore of it, the Black City. Scattered all over the landscape are deep black cubes, of varying sizes from human sized to enormous Stonehenge like monoliths. As they come over a rise they see, flanked by giant monoliths, two black knights guarding the path. They weild jet black swords adorned with stars. Beyond them they can see the black sea and on the edge of that the Black City - set above the city are seven great mirrors, or perhaps portals, sitting in the sky about half a kilometer in the air. Within them there can only be seen black stars set into an endless void. On the ground by the shore are set seven great monoliths, each one aligned to a portal.
They descend the hills and enter the city...
Both Renko and Sissy are badly hurt from the fight with the Black Star Knights. In the city they find a hospital - they check int here for a week while they sell one of their walkers for $12,000 - they were nearly out of cash. As they wander the city one of Sissy's polybodies disappears - and reappears 1 minute later with no sense of time having passed. The time code mismatch causes a weird psychic jarring in sissy but eventually the two polybody minds merge again. The effect is weird and unsettling. Time and space seem to be damaged and torn here.
They ask around and find that they must place an offering at the altar by the black wall to gain entrance to the sea. Expecting to be at the end of their quest they load the offering bowl with gold and gems - and wait, and wait, and wait. After about 50 minutes the offerings disappear. There is a short wait and a doorway opens in the wall.
They pass through and see seven platforms on the edge of the sea - each one lined up perfectly with the sky portals above them. Carefully, they go through the sky key dances. They finish the last one and wait.
There is a huge crash and an enormous black pillar shoots up from the sea into the sky, and then meets another pillar shooting downward, making a black cable stretching into space. As they watch a disk like vessel traverses down the cable and lands before them. The doors open and a thin neo-neanderthal in a jumpsuit stands before them.
"Why have you summoned me here?" he asks, "And who are you?"
"Although we don't look it, becuse we have new bodies, we are like you, neo-neanderthals. We have travelled across the Ultraviolet Grasslands to fulfil a prophecy to save the world from fire and darkness."
They recite the shaman's prophecy and the ancestor neo-neanderthal strokes his chin and say, "Well all right I suppose you'd better come with me then."
They step into the elevator, and the doors close behind them. They ascend into space....
Bravo.
ReplyDeleteI've enjoyed reading your writeups on par with reading through UVG. Sorry I'm late to the party, but I'll be following along. Thank you for sharing.