Dawn. The sun struggles over the horizon, and in the brief moment before it
is hidden behind the heavy, oppressive clouds, A lone shaft of light
reaches out though the window of a crumbling 1960s tower block. For a
moment it illuminates the emaciated figure lying on a narrow creaking bunk,
lighting his features with long shadows, before the clouds clamp down for
the rest of the day.
It's time. He rises with an eerie smoothness to sitting, pulls on ancient boots and a mud-splattered and well-worn robe, pushes his mope of greasy black hair out of his face and looks out of the window across the green and brown field of Claverton Down. He pads silently down the deserted corridors and out into the chill morning air.
The acolytes were already present, and had begun to prepare the barren ground for the ceremony. Silently he ran over the words in his head as they finish the circle and began to form cabalistic sigils of various degrees of unpleasantness in the soft earth. There was a brief altercation as Colin and Barney debated the merits of 7 phonetic renderings of the word 'fish' against the Seal of The Elder Gods, which resulted, in a clear preference for protection against Those Who Should Not Be. The acolytes retired to the points of the triangle and begin to chant high and annoying.
The ritualist stands in the centre, and screams his prayer to the swollen, angry sky, accompanying himself with occasional animalistic howls and wild gestures.
"Ubbo-Sathla is the source and end of all things! From the Wells of Night to the Gulfs of Space, and from the Gulfs of Space to the Wells of Night, ever the praises of Great Y'golonac, of Tsathogguau, and of Him Who is not to be Named. Ever their praises and abundance to Ubbo-Sathla. Iä! Ubbo- Sathla!"
"By the most potent sign of Koth I open the Gates. With the dread sign of Voor I supplicate your aid."
He felt their attentions; vast, brooding intelligences filled with thoughts beyond sane human comprehension, gazing at him without sight from places as far away as the other side of his own shadow, as close as the cold depths of space.
"Ubbo-Sathla give power to this ritual! Those in this circle have Created, even as you did, yet their creations have been mocked; Humiliation Sedric Glen has given them, even those he judged best, still he derided. Strike him with uncanny madness we beseech you; let him suffer for what he has done, as is right in my sight."
"Wrong has been done to us; our enmity has been awakened, and it shall not sleep until sated with the blood of Sedric Glen! Give it form! Give it strength!"
Whatever they had hoped for, none of them really expected the shadowy, indistinct form that grew squat and loathsome in the centre of the circle hunched itself up and moved with a determined, if waddling gait towards the buildings. Colin hoped aside as it walked oblivious through the space he had previously occupied.
" All praise and honour to Ubbo-Sathla. Now depart this place, In the name of the Elder Gods I banish thee to the Nuclear Chaos, where blind, idiot gods blaspheme and howl forever."
Carefully they removed the last traces of the circle from the round, and left that place, each in his or her own direction, without a backwards look.
It's time. He rises with an eerie smoothness to sitting, pulls on ancient boots and a mud-splattered and well-worn robe, pushes his mope of greasy black hair out of his face and looks out of the window across the green and brown field of Claverton Down. He pads silently down the deserted corridors and out into the chill morning air.
The acolytes were already present, and had begun to prepare the barren ground for the ceremony. Silently he ran over the words in his head as they finish the circle and began to form cabalistic sigils of various degrees of unpleasantness in the soft earth. There was a brief altercation as Colin and Barney debated the merits of 7 phonetic renderings of the word 'fish' against the Seal of The Elder Gods, which resulted, in a clear preference for protection against Those Who Should Not Be. The acolytes retired to the points of the triangle and begin to chant high and annoying.
The ritualist stands in the centre, and screams his prayer to the swollen, angry sky, accompanying himself with occasional animalistic howls and wild gestures.
"Ubbo-Sathla is the source and end of all things! From the Wells of Night to the Gulfs of Space, and from the Gulfs of Space to the Wells of Night, ever the praises of Great Y'golonac, of Tsathogguau, and of Him Who is not to be Named. Ever their praises and abundance to Ubbo-Sathla. Iä! Ubbo- Sathla!"
"By the most potent sign of Koth I open the Gates. With the dread sign of Voor I supplicate your aid."
He felt their attentions; vast, brooding intelligences filled with thoughts beyond sane human comprehension, gazing at him without sight from places as far away as the other side of his own shadow, as close as the cold depths of space.
"Ubbo-Sathla give power to this ritual! Those in this circle have Created, even as you did, yet their creations have been mocked; Humiliation Sedric Glen has given them, even those he judged best, still he derided. Strike him with uncanny madness we beseech you; let him suffer for what he has done, as is right in my sight."
"Wrong has been done to us; our enmity has been awakened, and it shall not sleep until sated with the blood of Sedric Glen! Give it form! Give it strength!"
Whatever they had hoped for, none of them really expected the shadowy, indistinct form that grew squat and loathsome in the centre of the circle hunched itself up and moved with a determined, if waddling gait towards the buildings. Colin hoped aside as it walked oblivious through the space he had previously occupied.
" All praise and honour to Ubbo-Sathla. Now depart this place, In the name of the Elder Gods I banish thee to the Nuclear Chaos, where blind, idiot gods blaspheme and howl forever."
Carefully they removed the last traces of the circle from the round, and left that place, each in his or her own direction, without a backwards look.