Beacon Hall hosted a Picture Book event tonight. It was a splendid event idea, and certainly helped us collect some more books for the library of our future new Annex in WL with a total of three submissions. Kaldonis 'won' the event (as judged by the event's coordinator) so will also be getting a hardcopy of his book (well, I had it as a sheaf of battered-looking papers).
There will obviously be some QC from Luneth before anything is created, but I figure some of you may be interested in what I designed. Unfortunately Lord Vathon's teachings where scheduled to partially overlap with our event, though being in River's Rest small turnouts are typical anyway (and I doubt looking at the event calendar anyone would guess my character was submitting something like this, although it was advertised on the forums). In any case, the imagery itself is, so far as I know, almost wholly consistent with available documentation and the Enchiridion Valentia; you can challenge yourself to find the one point I specifically added if you like.
Submission of Kaldonis Harvest-Moon
Caveat (not included as part of the in-game presentation, but planned to be attached to any printings): As the authenticity and veracity of the contents of this work remains unverified, the following material is archived strictly under its possible value or interest in imaginative fiction.
PAGE 1
The life-cycle of a forest is sketched in a monochrome dark charcoal, although some of its finer details are smudged. Beginning on the far left side is a barren, sandy plain, with small grasses and blossoms that slowly burgeon into a lush meadow. The field eventually gives way to a sparse grove of small shrubs and then a thicket of evergreens. Down the middle of the page marches a dense colonnade of tall, mature trees, which cast a faint and unlikely shadow over a gnarled coppice. The further right members of the aging woodlands are afire, belching a thick plume of arid smoke upward. Smoldering trunks and ashes dwindle into the same desolate wasteland of the far side strewn with rocks.
A quickly penciled caption tentatively suggests the name Temporal Plants. It is signed K. H.-M.
PAGE 2
In the center of the painting stands a quaint mechanical fowl, which rather resembles a metallic tumbleweed surrounded by a halo of iridescent feathers. The spidery silvery strokes comprising its body suggest the material might be imflass, but it has an unnaturally strong indigo sheen. A sizeable scrap heap is depicted in fine detail in one corner, showing variously-sized cogs, wheels, springs, nuts, bolts, and sprokets. A number of clockwork chickens can be seen here or there, some rendered in the middle of action and others seated. Posed opposite and evidently of no interest to the birds is a grove of vivid violet trees with smooth-textured bark; a few sheer, boldly-veined leaves littering the canvas foreground are reminiscent of haon, only they are almost diamond-shaped instead of rounded. A few leaves in the corner have disfigured veins to resemble the letters 'K', 'H', and 'M'.
A plain caption indicates: Verlok nest
PAGE 3
The page is stained with a dull shade of chartreuse. Although the texture of many tiny brush-strokes can be seen in pain-staking detail within the yellow paint, the artistic intent is not evident. Only occasionally are there small whorls of a slightly lighter or darker tinge. In the center is a diffuse aquamarine haze; the lack of uniformity suggests it may be composed of many small individual clouds. In the upper right corner sits a rather smaller vaporous sea green blob.
A subtle caption in saffron paint reads, "Igaesha in the sky."
PAGE 4
The painting looks down from a knoll of amethyst grass and depicts an unusual basalt structure against a murky tawny skyline. What appears to be at least the footprints of four symmetric structures surround a porous obelisk like a pinwheel. The foremost is merely a foundation of sizable girth with a few completed archways and the beginnings of low walls. Going counterclockwise, a nearly commissioned edifice of black rock stands several stories tall, although a parapet of arcs with descending height terminates abruptly midway along the roof. A glimpse of the outer profile of what appears to be a completed version can be seen to either side of the focal monolith; a sprinkling of gold powder causes it to shimmer. On the left side, a small cracked dome sits haphazardly towards the central area amid a heap of sprawling rubble, apparently left neglected for what might be centuries of disuse.
A bold caption declares, "ABYRAN TEMPLE."
PAGE 5
Thick, hoary vines are depicted climbing and mostly obscuring a crumbling black stone wall. In the center, a hole has been ripped through the mess of tendrils, revealing an alcove. Young budding leaves and sprouts frame a thick ancient volume occupying the recessed nook. The book is upright and leans forward at an uncanny angle, as though captured in the moment of tumbling to the ground. Its unsettling cover is stitched together from splotchy, cured skin of a variety of tones, secured from opening by a seamless brushed metal clasp that appears untouched by time. A few unfamiliar yet detailed archaic runes are branded on the leather, serving as the title or perhaps components of a warding spell.
The anonymous artist has evidently provided no information on the subject, location, or date.
PAGE 6
Rough pencilings of various cages with the blank page showing between the bars are crowded about the edges of the drawing with no discernible pattern. For instance, in one corner, a large cylindrical cage with a hemispherical roof hangs from a thick chain. Segregated kennels, each much deeper than high, line one of the walls, stacked four tall. A chicken wire pen resembling a lobster trap is shown on its side in the foreground with a door on its bottom left hanging open. The area between the cages has been drown indiscriminately in a murky brown ink which bleeds through the page, warping it. In the center, a pentagram has been drawn with astonishing expertise in radiant white chalk. Perhaps a mere trick of artistic contrast or the grain of the chalk, the pentacle certainly looks indistinguishable from a functional summoning circle.
A bleak caption merely informs, "More horrifying than anything found in the three valences."
Naturally, anyone curious on the relation of the above with Shieltine's Ward or the Basilic is free to comment, but it certainly not a topic to which my character's backstory comes up empty handed. Or perhaps someone would inquire, "What's that book?" ...
>(OOC) Rozy's player whispers to the group, "Spiiiiiderhalfling!"
>Out of no where, a ki-lin gallops in.
