The Seven Cryptic Books of Hsan
Mar 13, 2016 18:01:58 GMT -5
Admin Pete, The Semi-Retired Gamer, and 2 more like this
Post by robkuntz on Mar 13, 2016 18:01:58 GMT -5
While looking through mss, projects both past, present and future, I came upon this extract from the very old (but now partially written) Greyhawk adventure that I originally sculpted for campaign play in 1974. There's about 28,000 words written on it; and this reminds me as I approach releasing the RJK DVD project (more good news on that received today that I will be revealing here some time in the very near future) that I just don't have the time to complete all that I have started over the years, nor the publishers on hand if I were even to have the time to do so. This is why, IMO, that the DVD project will be so relevant, as it not only summarizes my works in a coherent way, but is a note for me of how much I've learned (and unlearned) along my writing/design paths. Enjoy the sample, which is a fiction piece inserted as a header to the DM Information/background section:
Though I set these words to vellum with a certainty of intent, just as the moons above offer themselves to the astronomer to be counted, as well as to be counted on, I do so with a darkened soul. I fill my space in time with the visions that accompany me now, and moreover when they depart from me to linger about the shadows of my camp, there to inform me of what memories cannot and should not do. These singe me like a fire not so close or far, yet tempt me to burn them none-the-less, burn them from my very eyes!
For I, the lucky-one, am the last one. And even as the mind guides my tongue to refute what I’ve seen, it sometimes allows the hand to move as a gesture to it all. But I still cannot inscribe that name, as the silence congeals about me then, just as the shadows do at those times. Beware! it says to me. And so said, I must again deny the images of courage and blood stamped out by the silent terror it knows I’ve seen within that crypt.
There are now more than moons that alight my path; there are more than shadows that conceal my thoughts; and there are more than voices now that I must heed, so near to the boughs of my home, to my womb in the Gnarled Woods… The Seven Cryptic Books of Hsan -- © 1974-2016, R. J. Kuntz
Though I set these words to vellum with a certainty of intent, just as the moons above offer themselves to the astronomer to be counted, as well as to be counted on, I do so with a darkened soul. I fill my space in time with the visions that accompany me now, and moreover when they depart from me to linger about the shadows of my camp, there to inform me of what memories cannot and should not do. These singe me like a fire not so close or far, yet tempt me to burn them none-the-less, burn them from my very eyes!
For I, the lucky-one, am the last one. And even as the mind guides my tongue to refute what I’ve seen, it sometimes allows the hand to move as a gesture to it all. But I still cannot inscribe that name, as the silence congeals about me then, just as the shadows do at those times. Beware! it says to me. And so said, I must again deny the images of courage and blood stamped out by the silent terror it knows I’ve seen within that crypt.
There are now more than moons that alight my path; there are more than shadows that conceal my thoughts; and there are more than voices now that I must heed, so near to the boughs of my home, to my womb in the Gnarled Woods… The Seven Cryptic Books of Hsan -- © 1974-2016, R. J. Kuntz
That is a fantastic intro!
