Daffcon Story Encounter: The Background

Malifaux Story Encounter Daffcon 2016

The following is the story that Martin Wodehouse (@MartinWodehouse) wrote for the story encounter that he and Luke Cocksedge (@Shakes1066) ran at Daffcon.

Have a read, send them a tweet, enjoy.

Chapter One: The Stranger

Tepes Road, one of the many overcrowded, filthy and generally unpleasant places to be in the slums Malifaux. Never the less, its proximity to Southgate Station makes it a popular hangout for smugglers and criminals needing a quick exit from the city. The numerous makeshift bars and brothels along its length are popular   despite the conditions and if you have ‘business’ to run without too much Guild    interference, then the primarily eastern European immigrant population have no love for authority.

The rain had been falling constantly for 6 days now, a solid downpour that      threatened to overwhelm the city’s sewer network. Even the ubiquitous rats had taken shelter against the ceaseless fall of water that ran, in small torrents, from every rooftop and gutter to form large puddles in the detritus filled streets below.

On the highest rooftop of Tepes Road, hidden in part by the dark of the New Moon and also by its absolute stillness, akin to that of a gargoyle, a large figure crouched, seemingly unperturbed by the rain. It surveyed the street below, watching the      occasional scurrying figure, futilely attempting to dodge the raindrops as it went from a doorway to a bar, a brothel or back from one. Weak greenish yellow light from the few gas lampposts still working, cast eerie shadows from the movement, seemingly distorting the owners of the shadows beyond all recognition of how they should appear. No one seemed disturbed by this. After all, this was Malifaux, here the strange was commonplace.

And then the rain stopped. No sooner had the last drop landed when a thick mist began to weave its way through the streets, almost as if the rain had been holding it in check and now, unfettered, it claimed the roads and pavements for its own. With feline grace, the rooftop figure leapt from its perch into the street some forty feet  below, barely making a sound as it vanished into the mist.

Chapter Two: The Servant

Dr Richard Noll lay on his cot, staring at the ceiling and wandering what the spider, crawling along its cold dark brickwork, would taste like.

Of course he had tasted spiders before, back Earthside, when he had first received enlightenment. Here though everything was different, the same… but yet not the same. This place had power, he could sense it. In time, if he performed his duties well, at least some of that power would be his. Who knows, maybe one day all of it?

In the meantime though, he just needed to keep eating the spiders.

Truth be told, he’d been here for three days now and hadn’t eaten a single one. It was starting to become somewhat disconcerting. It didn’t help that he was locked in a cell, with high ceilings and no way to reach them. The spider had also been far less than accommodating, by refusing to come down from the ceiling at all. Not even for that thirty second ‘age’ when Richard had actually pretended to be asleep. He’d even faked a snore but the spider remained unconvinced and sat, inverted on the ceiling, watching him intently with at least five of its eight eyes.

You might think that being awake for three days solid would be difficult, perhaps even dangerous to one’s state of sanity, but Richard Noll was no ordinary…

“Who said that?” Richard spoke aloud in alarm.

“What?” came an eerily voiced reply.

“Are you the spider? Why are you talking to me?”

“No, I’m not the spider”

“So who are you then? I’m warning you, I’m armed and very dangerous!”

“No. You are neither.”

“You are the spider! Come down here and I’ll show you just how dangerous I can be! I bet you taste delicious.”

“I’m not the spider. You’re delusional.”

“Ha! How can I be delusional? I’m the only one here and yet you’re talking to me even though I can’t see you!”

“Did you even think about what you just said?”

“Well… if you’re not the spider and there’s no one else here, who are you then?”

“My dear chap, quite obviously, I am you.”

“What!? That’s just insane!”

“Isn’t it though? But on the bright side, it does mean you can have some deep and meaningful conversation with someone that truly understands you and is… Ahem!”

“Sorry? Did you say something?”

“You’re not listening to me are you?”

“I was, honestly.”

“No you weren’t, you were thinking about eating that spider again weren’t you?”

“Erm… no… alright then, yes, I was! But he looks so delicious!”

“Typical. The Master said you might get like this. It’s a good job I’m around to keep an eye on you!”

“She’s my Master, not yours!”

“Idiot! She’s ours! Now stop your babbling, the others will be here to let me out soon.”

“Others? What others? Why are they only letting you out? Why not me as well?”

“I despair sometimes, I really do. The Master is sending someone to get me, US! I meant us! They should be here soon and then we can carry on with our true       purpose here and unleash the… Look! Will you pay attention when I’m talking?! That damn spider is not coming down from there anytime soon and this is important.”

“Sorry.”

“That’s better. Now, as I was saying…”

A loud crash and the horrendous sound of screeching metal interrupted the        conversation and the cell door flew through the room, impacting against the far wall and shaking detritus loose. Bits of rotting mortar fell onto the cot and Richard sat up in surprise.

“Let’s go Doctor! Quickly!” a voice came from the doorway.

Needing no further encouragement Richard leapt to his feet and was about to run for the door, when he spotted a spider on the end of the bed.

“Coming.” He said, as he scooped the spider up with his hand and popped it into his mouth on his way out of the door. “Mmmmm, juicy.”

Chapter Three: The Summoning

It had been an age. Hard to be specific but she estimated almost six thousand years (by Earth reckoning) since Lamashtu had last trodden the ground in Malifaux.

It was time to come home.

So much had changed. Although not surprising, as Lamashtu had witnessed      first-hand the way in which the Humans had changed things Earthside over the  millennia. Many times, she had slept for centuries in the Human World and awoken to new sights and sounds. New smells, tastes and untold discoveries and ‘advancements’.

Yet something about the change in Malifaux unsettled her. It was tainted. This would not do at all. Once the Ritual was complete and she had her full strength,  Lamashtu would put things right here. The Humans were a poison, slowly        strangling the life from the land without thought of consequence. Even those that were aware, lacked the strength to stop this so called ‘progress’. They needed to learn their place or be exterminated. A shame, as so many of them had been       interesting over the years.

Everything was prepared. The human Doctor was being escorted here; the magical sarcophagus was ready; all known copies of the ‘Texte aus der Umwelt des Alten Testaments’ had been destroyed, so once the ritual had begun there would be no way to stop it. It was time to take her place in the sarcophagus and await her       rebirth.

Lamashtu gave one final look around, breathed deeply and stepped into the       sarcophagus, pulling it closed around her. In the cool darkness, she relaxed and her mind began to wander. Back through the centuries; the recent conversations with John Polidori, which of course he then went and wrote a book about so she had to kill him; that time in Wallachia in the 15^th Century, when she impersonated a local prince and fought against the Turks, was a particular favourite; Those          unfortunate incidents at Alnwick and Melrose; time spent with Nero, he was fun; Santorini; Egypt; even back in Mesopotamia, when her journey Earthside had first begun…

Lamashtu’s reverie was brought to a halt by an overwhelming surge of energy. The interior of the sarcophagus swam with green light and energy poured into every   fibre of her being.

It had begun.