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Post by Dr Carnivean on Jun 8, 2009 12:33:54 GMT -5
Through the spyglass he could see them coming for him once again. From all sides now. The fiend known as Dr. Shellendrak muttered as curse as he lowered the scope and peered out with his altered and bulbous eyes at the lands surrounding his estate. Carnivean and his Circus Chimera had failed to raze Shadygrove to the ground. His recent ally Frantisek Markov had reported that much to him after observing the battle while in his bird form. Apparently he watched several bands of warriors swarm Carnivean’s mutated elephant beast and topple it, slaying the circus master in the process. Now they were all coming for him. Nearly a dozen warbands from all across the known world from the looks of them. All converging upon his ancestral home. “Intolerable!” he spits through the waving mass of tentacles that now make up his lower head. Beside him hovers the disembodied head of Horrificus’ envoy, turning in place as its owner scans the horizon in all directions. “There are ten different forces,” his bodiless companion says finally, and Shellendrak glances at him curiously, suspecting the monacle he wears must be enchanted in a way to allow him such magnification. “I see orcs, ogres, undead, humans, elves and even the man-lizards from the lost continent. Amazing that they do not fight each other. What do they suppose-ed they can accomplish in this valley?” “A great deal it seems,” says the doctor thoughtfully. “Markov reports several armies gathering throughout the Forsaken Vale in the past weeks. They may make continuing my work unhindered somewhat ...problematic.” “Bah,” Count Brocken retorts, his floating head shaking with disgust. “My Lord Horrificus will destroy all of them with his armies when he arrives. In the meantime I would enjoy seeing these fools crushed before your wonderful menagerie of beasts.” “As would I, dear count. Let us adjourn to my laboratory. We will be safe there while my minions deal with this current threat.” “A most excellent suggestion doctor. I have taken the liberty of preparing your ingenious machine so that we may view the battle.” The twisted and horrible figure of Dr. Shellendrak and his bodiless companion move across the roof of the manse now to a particular spot over the eastern wing. Pressing down on a hidden pressure plate with his foot, Shellendrak activates a mechanism that causes a five by five section to detach and descend into his private laboratory below. Like the moving platform itself, the cavernous chamber it descends into is powered by forces both scientific and supernatural, and is a humming and crackling labyrinth of machines, cables, vats, tanks and strange otherworldly devices. As he steps off the platform, Dr. Shellendrak notes Brocken’s headless body busily flipping switches and turning dials on a panel, causing a strange machine made of orbiting rings to begin to rotate and turn, the rings moving faster and faster and eventually causing a strange supernatural orb of greenish light to appear in their place. In a few moments, images begin to play within the flashing sphere, showing the manor’s front courtyard. Dr. Shellendrak watches with satisfaction as the topiaries lining the front walk animate and bound towards the outer wall, leaping over it and into the woods beyond. He had rebuilt his defenses since the last time his home was invaded, and added new ones as well. They would all pay now for disturbing him and interrupting his work. They would all pay dearly
To be continued..
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Post by Dr Carnivean on Jun 10, 2009 10:35:37 GMT -5
Dr. Shellendrak knew most of his creations existed only to defend the mansion, and would automatically attack any unwanted visitor who got near them, but for his more free-willed minions, he would need to give instruction. Speaking now into a brass tube, his voice echoes through the halls of his manse. “We are under attack. I trust you all know how I wish such intrusions to be dealt with. No survivors. Destroy them utterly.” Within the walls of Shellendrak there is now a bustle of activity. The surviving members of the Circus Chimera tramp and cavort through the central corridor toward the western wing, eager for the opportunity to avenge their fallen. In the second floor corridor, a dwarf begins setting up the doctor’s reanimation device while another pushes a cart full of fresh corpses down the hall. At the same time, the stable of psychotic murderers that the good doctor has cultivated over the years all gibber and mutter to themselves while they find places to hide and ambush unsuspecting victims. In the dining room, the ghouls stop feasting on carrion flesh and turn their gore streaked faces toward the windows looking out on the graveyard beyond. The sadistic brutes in the torture lab on the first floor pause in their brutalizing of a group of Bretonnian prisoners and arm themselves with weapons more appropriate for foes able to defend themselves, their sneering faces hidden by their dark leather hoods. Within his private chambers Frantisek Markov looks up from the poor animal he had been attempting to vivisect with his clumsy gorilla’s hands and moments later shifts his body into the form of a large wolf and bounds out the door. To be continued...
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Post by Dr Carnivean on Jun 10, 2009 14:12:22 GMT -5
“The humans and elves have cleared the outer perimeter wall,” Brocken warns as they witness the changing images in the great flickering globe above them. Shellendrak simply nods, nonplussed, and continues to observe the events depicted within the sphere. He usually chooses to keep the crumbling eastern wall of his estate unguarded, so as to allow trespassers to enjoy a false sense of security when making their way through the decaying farmland between it and the mansion proper. The two demons bound to the pumpkin patch are typically more than enough to deal with any threat, and if not, Putrivich and his scarecrows are there to lend additional support. Even now, Rotpatch and Fellgourd have emerged to engage the elven group, summoning their hallow knights from the earth to attack the invaders. The two villains watch as the men on horseback penetrate deeper into the farm, approaching the cornfield guarded by farmer Putrivich. The lead knight easily cuts the cadaverous cornfield guardian in half with his sword as he passes. In retaliation, every scarecrow in the cornfield animates and swarms about the knights and their escorts. Count Brocken cackles at the image of one of their number being cut down with a rusty scythe. Now the globe is showing the swampland to the north of the mansion. Dr. Shellendrak sees that two groups of undead and a band of aquatic lizardmen are approaching from that direction and have already triggered the defenses there. His crypt piper has appeared and begun raising skeletal warriors from the muck and a pair of grotesque carnivorous trees have revealed themselves and begun attacking the intruders. The doctor can also see that Frantisek Markov has gathered the hounds and is now leading the pack into the swampland to engage those who were not intercepted by the swamp’s guardians, and notices that the grave elemental has surfaced as well to swat back one of the smaller lizardmen who had somehow made it near the mansion proper. “I see,” he murmurs as the image of the wounded lizardman shimmers and disappears only to reappear behind its own lines, “there is a mage in the group.” “The undead are using magic against us as well,” reports Brocken after noticing one of the robed skeletons within the sphere restoring a fallen minion to animation. “Ah,” says the doctor now after the image in the orb darkened and shifted to show the large graveyard behind the mansion, “the zombie engine has been triggered.” Eager to see his newest creation in battle, he watches closely as the towering mass of animated body parts begins lumbering through the field of tombstones toward the large band of approaching orcs. At the same time, a much smaller band of armored chaos warriors can be seen giving the unruly greenskins a wide berth as they head for the northern gate with their pair of trolls loping along behind them.
To be continued...
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