Thursday 30 September 2010

Entry 18 - An excerpt of the Secret Diary of a Middle-Aged Mad Scientist, by Artur F. Onzi

Concerning the early expansion of the Barbarian Empire.
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A'akr keeps demanding more links to attack. That damn barbarian can't understand that I need to look for low-tech or pacifist links that won't put up much of a fight.
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One of the scouts found a good link for us to conquer next. A little African village, complete with straw huts and everything. I will recommend it to A'akr later today.
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Have spoken to that incorrigible barbarian. He wanted to go in today, but I invented some bullcrap about the stars not being right. We will go in tomorrow, so I should have just enough time to finish the electro-axe. I think I can have some 20 ready.
--
The men are lining up on the courtyard, and I asked A'akr to select the top 20. I told him that they would be fitted with a new magic weapon. I was able to finish upgrading his sword too. A small electro-cell, interesting piece of technology, kinda like a battery but it auto recharges and generates some high-voltage low-current electrical discharge. Connected to the blade, it delivers a shock that renders the opponent incapable of fighting back. On the hands of such a ruthless army of fierce warriors, these are indeed powerful weapons. Can't wait to see the results.
--
The HyperLink on this place is located in the middle of the jungle. A small clearing, with skulls in spears in all sides. A good thing about pre-industrial links is that they have almost no contact with the other links. Just like the barbarian king when I first got there, here they likely believe this is the all universe. This small, tree filled island. The scout that found the place went ahead, trying to find a path to the village. The men are impatient, specially A'akr and the 20 elite with new weapons. If they don't find enemies soon they might just start killing off scouts to see the weapons working.
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The scout should be back by now. Sending the other one, this time with a two-man squad to protect him. A'akr said that if these don't return, we will all go after them.
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Reminder : ask G'utr for my bottle of wine when we get back to our link.
It's too easy to win bets with this guys. The scouts didn't return, so we will be going as a group, and I won a bottle! Not that I need it, but hey.
--
We followed the trail until we got to near the village. There, both scouts and both guards were waiting for us. One of the scouts had a short wooden spear piercing his head, and the other three barbarians had mortal wounds on them too. Yet they were standing, a void look on their eyes, arms dead on the side of the body, blocking the path. A'akr gestured to the army to stop, before ordering the wounded men to move out of the way.
They remained silent, non moving, although their king was ordering them to. A'akr himself lifted his sword and shouted them that he would kill them if they did not move. I could have won another bottle if I had bet that it wouldn't work.
Only when A'akr cut the first scout's head off with one blow, and the scout's body stood there, non moving, did it hit me : zombies. They had turned our scouts into fucking zombies. Now, if the barbarians were one of those races with ethics, morals or even a basic understanding of respect for their fellow countrymen, they wouldn't be able to do what they did next : 5 of them attacked and they destroyed the bodies of their dead friends. A'akr, as he always did when something he did not understood happened (and that is frequent) turned to me and said "What is this sorcery, wizard?". For once I'd like him to say "what is this wizardry, sorcerer?" but he never does. Unimaginative fool that one.
"I know not A'akr. It is unlike any another magic I have ever seen."
I advised A'akr to move forward in a defensive formation since our men had obviously been attacked. He is now positioning the men and getting ready to move forward.
--
We got to the village without encountering any more resistance. The 'village' was no more than some 20 huts, placed around a central open space. One of the huts was closer to the fire in the middle of the space, and it was from there that she came out.
She wore a dress made of many different pieces of clothing, all in different earth tones, and long sleeves hiding her hands. She was quite obviously a woman, and once again, if this was another normal race, the barbarians would have run away at this point, because instead of a face, the woman had a distorted tiger head, and her eyes were on fire.
But A'akr men praised a half-wolf, half-snake god, and did weekly sacrifices of human flesh to it's altar. So a tiger headed girl was nothing they couldn't take.
They moved, ready to kill the monster ahead of them, but she growled, a inhuman sound, and from the heavy gauntlets she had in her hands, a burst of lightning jumped to the first few barbarians, and those fell into the floor. A second burst, and 5 more barbarians were lying in the floor. From the trees, wooden spears start hitting the naked torsos of A'akr's men. They formed a circle around me and their king, protecting us.
The woman's gauntlet shoot lightning again, but a little less power in it this time. At this rate, two or three more shots and she would be out. The barbarians might be stupid, but they are amazing warriors. So when they saw that both me and their king were safe, they started running to the trees. Meanwhile, some were trying to get to the woman from behind, but she spotted them before and they too fell under the lightning. This time they just lost consciousness to regain it briefly after, but it was time enough for her to inject something into the bodies at her feet, with a syringe she had in one of the dresses many pouches . They got up, eyes void as the ones before, and positioned themselves around her.
Spears had stopped raining from the trees, and soon enough the barbarians were returning, with smiles on their faces, the blood of the enemies spread on their bodies. One of the Elite came to me and bowed, before telling me how awesome my new magic axes were. The woman was surrounded by her zombies, and the zombies were surrounded by A'akr's men. The fight was short, and soon she was alone in the middle of a circle of axes. A'akr was getting ready to give the final blow when the barbarians that were closer to the trees started screaming for assistance. The men they had killed were coming again, still that empty look on their eyes, but this time they walked slowly, with spears on their hands. They were able to kill a couple of barbarian warriors that were caught off guard, and I had time enough to ask A'akr to spare the woman, before the zombie warriors were defeated.
"Think of armies that keep on fighting after they are killed! We need the knowledge of this woman!" - that's what I said, but the reason I wanted her alive was a different one. I noticed one of the rags that composed her dress was a bit of t-shirt from my own college. This woman had traveled between links, and I was certain that she too was from my own world.

Entry 18 a - from a school book

From a book on the History of the Barbarian Empire, chapter 12, the Dark Wizard.

(...)
"The wizard had a magic pen, that needed no ink, and could sometimes write upside down. He had always with him a small book with blank pages, and he was often seen writing on it, in strange runes.
The whereabouts of such books are unknown, since the fate of the Dark Wizard is too unknown. Some say he took the books and ran away, some say he did meet his fate at the hands of the First Great Barbarian King, A'akr the Immortal God of War.
Although historians disagree on the end of the Dark Wizard, some facts are known. That he had a wife, a powerful wizard like himself, that without his help, the First Great Barbarian Empire would have never existed, and that it was him that built the magic doors that connect the many worlds of the Barbarian Empire."
(...)