“She had four knives and two morningstars…”
KNIFE ONE: A spider motif, webs on the blade, with gauze-spooled eggs hatching babies…
KNIFE TWO: A berry motif – strawberry, blackberry, raspberry; jelly-jar blade with seed-specked filling (blood-like)…
KNIFE THREE: An Op-Art blade; maybe Vasarely, Escher – reptilian eyes gilding the hilt…
KNIFE FOUR: Standard, kitschy butter-knife handle with whirling festoons, maybe a frigate, a mermaid clutching the blunt blade…
MORNINGSTAR ONE: A rope chain with a bejeweled ball, sparkles hoarding in halos up and down the device…
MORNINGSTAR TWO: Geode crystal clusters on the ball, a knotty wooden handle with diamond-studded chain, emanating lasers, limned by faeries…
Shadow Dagger of Bending Lights +55
The wall was crooked, blue, cobbled with irregular glass spheres – every other sphere contained a little terrarium, maybe some liquid, a tide pool…
Two shelves of potions, ordered and exactly the same.
Two shelves of potions, ordered and exactly the same.
I painted my face with each finger, tracing crude pictograms of my features in black ink. The pictograms were right above or below my actual features, giving my face a maddening doubling effect that denied focus. I wore outrageous earrings and a cinched ninja hood. I never forget my mother’s ancient necklace and its intricate vignette. This is how I pose, this is how I do battle.
The busy phantasmagoria, the absurd buildup of symbols encrusting every body in a desperate blitz for identity… it takes time to barnacle yourself in nonsense; even longer to represent it efficiently. Why torture yourself for such wild, senseless pleasures? Use the impulse to plan, to schematize (your real deficiency), to generate these beautiful monstrosities – fling them out into the world, onto the screen – and then illustrate your words (which are also illustrations) into creatures that have no right in being, but insist on becoming…
Cloak, flamberge, iron, onyx, wraith, photon, plague, pox, invisibility, disintegration, void, power, energy, glass, laser, pixie, demon, druid, portal, essence, unguent, potion, key, skull, shield, barrier, thorn, minotaur, ranger, broadsword, priestess, ankh, ritual, spell, hireling, combat, armor, teleportation, acid, backstab, dragon, virus, petrify, ghost, paladin, chainmail, quiver, charisma, cartography, vorpal, staff, stave, wand, hermit, dryad, caryatid, pillar, tile, overhead, statistics, map, toll, quest, wander, adventurer, party, hireling, locket, bracelet, opal, ruby, crossbow, triple, floating, skeletal, reflective, cursed, insanity, diseased, rest, lycanthropy, scaled, plated, gemstone, crystalline, bauble, bibelot, bracers, clasps, jeweled, radiant, cape, robes, hammer, scythe, specter, haunt, revenant, zombie, cluster, band, army, hoard, dexterity, monk, avatar, skiff, helmet, bolts, axe, zone, twin, elfish, endless, enchantress, flask.
Fiery Opalescent Studded Leather Full-Body-Armor of Siren’s Song, +4 vs. Transformed Nymphs
