11th of Yorn, 128
The plan is simple, an illusion to make the goblins run away from the cave in fear.
The illusion cannot be so simple.
It has been so long since I’ve had the time to do something that's felt so academic. I could not comment on it at the time, but the academy in this world is a travesty. Much of what is valuable to learn has been trapped behind the red tape of status. What's left is shameless propaganda and vague folk tales. The classes are nearly all unhidden indoctrination and ignorant misinformation. If this world’s humans believe half of what I learned about medicine and science, they are in for a dark future. Perhaps magic has turned into a crutch they wield against the truths of the world.
The fact that my ill-advised contract stopped me from discussing such things was the reason I realized what an insidious grasp it had on my mind. It is hard to learn when something has a vice grip on your critical and analytic thoughts.
I’m rambling, I do not look forward to this next part.
Back to the illusion.
The illusion I have constructed is the first piece of art and research I have created on Elenteir. It will not be my greatest or my last, it is a wonder what danger can push me to create.
I had to build it in two parts. First the physical aspect, a dark horde of spiders. I need an unkillable enemy, and a wave of spiders does nicely. They are small enough it is reasonable for them to dig or crawl their way into the cave, and omnipresent enough that I doubt the goblins will notice that their strikes will pass right through the illusion. I found a primer on ooze type monsters and the creation of liquid effects in the files I have loaded on my ENT. It will take me years to go through it all, but I am glad to have gotten as many things as I could fit on the device.
That takes care of the look and control aspects of the illusion. Next is the pièce de résistance, the conceptual aspect. The people of this world may be scientifically illiterate, but with the proper understanding, the information they have gathered can be turned to better use. Some wonderful soul had gathered a list of mental weave patterns and the observed effect on human bodies. To the researcher, there seemed to be little correlation between weaves and effects. But to a medical professional? Child's play. Never before have I been so grateful to have memorized the human body for my medical degrees. Not like this, at least.
To make a long and technical explanation short, I have found a way to give my illusions the ability to impart a sensation of pain and, to a lesser extent, fear. No need to simulate a thousand tiny arthropod legs, if I can flood the senses with overwhelming pain where the illusion touches.
The last thing to do is to weave this in my mind and connect it to the power source of the carriage. Such a large and complex illusion is not something I can maintain on my own. This will kill the carriage– leaving it fully immobile, power source burned out beyond repair.
It's an exchange I’m willing to make.
Now that this journal entry is written, I should wait no longer. If I write no more– and you are reading this, I am dead.
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The illusion went off without a hitch, well, mostly. There were a few hiccups here and there, improvements I could have made. In any place other than a dark cave I doubt it would work. But here, in this cave it was beautiful.
It is a shame my plan was not as perfect. It's a shame I am so soft hearted.
At first It seemed to work. The illusion started with a small skittering noise, diffracted across the room. It needed to sound like it was coming from every angle to fool the sharp eared goblins and fool them it did. The group noticed immediately and huddled in the middle of the room unsure of where the danger was.
I had the spiders ‘dig’ their way up from the darkest corners, spilling out of cracks and crowding together just outside the light. The mass of spiders was more terrifying than I thought it would be. I will admit, I was uncomfortable seeing the light gleaming of the eyes and carapaces as they writhed together just beyond the light from the goblins fire.
Then, I was in control. I moved the swarm to reach out to the huddled goblins, the spider horde questing towards them with long tendrils of spiders climbing over their brethren to slowly advance, a wave of spiders following in the dark behind.
I had them trapped and contained, slowly backing away and retreating from the swarm. I pushed them back farther and farther, letting my spider illusion snuff out their campfire and plunging them into the dark. Forcing them to bat away at the ever-reaching tendril arms of spiders with sticks, rocks, and whatever else they had. I had them where I wanted them, right at the mouth of the cave.
Then they stopped. Right on the edge of freedom, the goblins would go no further. As if I had put their backs to a wall. I didn’t understand it, I still don’t. Something out there scared them more than the spiders actively threatening their lives.
Disaster struck; a brave goblin ran into the horde. He fell to his knees screaming, the pain would have felt like his skin being ripped off his bones; but still he crawled forwards.
I let the spiders cover him and hide his uninjured body from the other goblins. There was nothing I could do to hide his screams. I hoped he would pass out soon, if he kept screaming instead of dying the game would be up. I doubt my illusion would hold up against the whole goblin tribe rushing in.
Then things got both better and worse. The goblin, still screaming, began to manifest the Weave. He pulled at the underlying fabric of reality, twisting and knotting it around himself. The resulting magical fallout was inevitable. Eventually, he found a pattern that worked, a pattern that the world recognized. The weave began to shine, and so did he.
The magical light began to evaporate the spider illusion around him. It didn’t go far or last for too long, but it cleared the way back into the cave. The light shrunk back down to the outline of the goblin who summoned it, then he too disappeared.
More goblins ran into the gap left by the first brave soul. Risking death from the horde of spiders to try and replicate his sacrifice and save their families lives.
It was then that I realized that I could not do this. That first goblin– no that first person is the only person I have ever killed. Yes, there were others who I have led to death. None of their deaths were brought about by my hand. To kill another thing, another living, breathing, thinking thing. It does not– did not feel right.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I felt sick.
The goblin who ran forward was just a man fooled by my illusion. He ran to his death to save his family from a phantasm, a meaningless threat I had created. I could see that as the next wave of goblins ran forward without hesitation, they would do the same. Behind them, cowering in fear but watching with hope, were their families. Their grandfathers and grandmothers, sons and daughters; their friends.
I felt like a monster, more of a monster than humans claim these goblins to be.
I don’t know how the plan for this next part came to me, but somehow, I knew what to do. I grabbed out an emergency handheld flair and ran past the goblins camp to a small side entrance of the cave, while I baited the suicidal goblins deeper by having the spiders retreat.
Just before they began to manifest the weave I called out.
STOP!
I brandished the flare and ran in, letting the purple magical sparks spew out and melt away the spiders; much like the light of the dead goblin before me. I let the spiders retreat at my assault, reversing the illusion and seemingly pushing them back where they came.
I turned to the goblins there tired and weary gaze pierced my soul. I had caused this.
I told them I had seen a light and come running. That I had lost my companions running away from the empire, I had hoped to find them here when I saw the light. I asked if they would let me shelter in this cave alongside them.
We sit now as far apart as we could be, in an uneasy truce…
What have I done?
Hello, all Tim here, it's my turn to comment. Well actually this one was supposed to be Judy, but it's been another rough day. We'll post a video about it soon. I've attached a news article about what happened to give you a bit of a preview.
Now, it's not just Judy who's tired, I don't have too much extra energy either. So, no clever comment, I will say now that I have been in a real fight. Grandma Trinaday is tough as nails and deserves more respect for this whole account. I couldn't imagine going through that mostly alone.
One last thing before the news clip, someone forgot to remove me from the MFW email list. That or someone's being naughty and leaking internal documents. Take a look.
All Mail:
This morning:
[email protected]
To: [email protected] Topic: Find Her
Seer,
The girl has evaded me. You will find her.
--Harbinger Of the End, Part Owner - Multiple Worlds Foundation
~I will see no more worlds fall by my hands~
[email protected]
To: [email protected] Topic: I am not your dog
Herald,
Must I remind you that this is a counsel of equals? If there is any person you should be wary to offend in this governing body, it is the one who knows your future. You will not bully me Cormlus.
Still, I acquiesce the girl must be found. Here are the most likely routes for her escape. Allocate forces as you see fit.
52% Austin, TX. I-35
28% Pueblo, CO. I-25
13% Las Vegas, NV. Las Vegas Blvd.
7% Cleaveland, OH. I-90
--Seer of Aeons, Part Owner - Multiple Worlds Foundation
~The future is but a million different paths, in the end your fate is predetermined. I have seen all bend to probability. ~
Here's the new news about us. It's a rough one, a video about it will go out soon.
BREAKING NEWS
A mature woman in a loud blazer reports on the news.
Things got heated and dangerous on I-90 today by the shores of Lake Erie, just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. Eyewitness reports are confusing, to say the least, and footage of the attack gives no clearer answers.
The News Five helicopter is headed over to the scene to get a look at the aftermath of the attack, which is currently clogging up the I-90 freeway.
A bird's-eye view of the highway comes on screen.
While the footage is muted, the sound can almost be seen in the chaos of the disaster. First responders swarm the wreckage, firefighters and EMT’s helping wherever they can, and police officers cordoning off the highway. Emergency vehicles make a wall around the debris, lights flashing.
At first glance, the highway looks like it’s been hit by a bomb. Cars and bits of metal, twisted and deformed, litter the area. Some a good hundred feet from the road. The concrete barriers are crumbling and fractured a good radius around a massive crater in the middle of the road. Smaller craters and divots radiate outwards as well.
A second look at the chaos raises a few more questions. Most obvious is the color, if this was just a bomb, the creator must have been a brilliant artist. The destroyed highway is soaked in a rainbow of otherworldly hues.
A bright neon blue puddle, mixes with a cool mint green liquid in one crater, bubbling and hissing, vaporizing the highway where the two liquids touch. The reaction is so violent, the vapor can be easily seen, even from the helicopter.
A few feet away is a large puddle of orange goop, surrounded by a briar of deep red vines. There are large spikes growing out of the briar into the air above the pool of orange. The tips of these spikes are drenched in the orange liquid.
On the other side of the large crater, a thousand tiny splashes making up an odd crescent polka-dotted pattern across the highway. Each one producing off a flame of a different hue. The rainbow flames shift, dance, and change colors as the helicopter flies around the scene.
A ring of clear slime surrounds the worst of the damage, glittering in the afternoon sun and perfectly reflecting the emergency lights. It brings the whole scene of destruction together in a way; the two colorful pools and the swath of burning embers looking like the eyes and mouth of a deranged smiley-face.
An even more detailed obsessed observer might notice how oddly the cars had been damaged, and the fact that none of them are anywhere near the oddly colorful debris– well except for a pair of SUVs. Overturned in the middle of the chromatic tongues of flame. The rest of the cars are bunched against one of the concrete barriers or piled just off the side of the road.
Only a few obviously got off the road themselves, the vast majority of the cars in that grassy strip are crumpled and wrecked, with no obvious tracks through the grass leading to them. Those cars have gashes torn out of them, or are crushed like a soda can. Things that no explosion or crash could do.
A cut back to the news anchor.
The only footage we have found so far sheds no more light on this bizarre attack.
The video in question begins to play.
“Holy shit,” A man’s voice can be heard from behind the grainy old phone camera. The footage shakes as much as his voice does. “Are you seeing this?”
If he’s talking to someone else in the car, we can’t see them, and they don’t respond.
The car is pulled off the road, into a small ditch. Through his side window, we can see a silver minivan backing up down the highway. A familiar figure with red hair is standing up through the sunroof. She’s holding a middle finger out in front of her as the air around her glows in fractal threads. The minivan swerves as the fractal condenses to light then a compacted ball of fire above her hand.
The grainy and over compiled footage tears as the cameraman whips his phone around to track the object the minivan swerved to avoid. It’s a car, fully flying through the air. For a few seconds around the flying car, what Judy and her team are fighting can be seen.
Giant monsters, in a Japanese show they might call them kaiju. Megafauna that vaguely looks like animals from earth.
There isn’t enough time or pixels to see more.
The camera guy realizes what’s on a collision course with him and drops his phone.
“Fu-”
The video ends. The news anchor is still staring gravely into the camera.
As you can see, there isn’t much to go off. Our reporters in the field are looking for more footage of this attack. What we have managed to discover is the identity of the red-haired woman. She is suspected to be Judy Jubrie, a YouTube content creator, a serial arsonist, and now a possible terrorist. She is on the run for the suspected arson of her grandmother's estate, and should be considered armed and extremely dangerous. The police warn that if you spot her, you should call for help then stay both away and safe. Her assailants or accomplices in this attack are currently unknown.