Treasures of the Civilopede 1 to 20

1# Wall Fragment, origin unknown

A shattered lump of pale and stained limestone. Smooth. Charcoal bison, rhinoceros and Oryx sweep past in a continuous flow of stained carbon These animals respond to the presence of weapons and will scatter if anyone with an unsheathed blade comes close.

2# Clay Aurochs, origin unknown

The animal is moulded by hand of unfired dry yellow-white clay.

Shown mounting a rock which forms the sculptures base.

If placed on right shaped rock, the stone will impregnate and transform into an aurochs of rock which lives for a day.

3# An Archean Lamp.

A tight, round blur of dense glass is made to be placed over the bright white light of a lamp.This done, the lamp casts upon nearby walls, the view of an overwhelmingly green semitropical garden. Wind touches the densely packed trees, fat fruit sway on the branch, birds wheel and perch.

4# Dancing figure, bronze, life sized.

This shattered almost human form retains only one full limb, the rest snapped off and lost. Held poised, torso flexed precisely in an eternal dance. The skull can be seen through a smashed gap in the finely moulded flowing hair of bronze. The other bones and flesh, caught when the body was bronzed in mid-flight, have fallen out or decayed.

5# Dark Cycle, Unknown Drow Male

Fresco over wood (removed from setting). Background; mushroom forest, slaves being hunted by hell hounds hide under mushroom growth. Midground; Drow fortification, only light scource in painting comes from inside. A river of ice and blood. Foreground; a group of six laughing high-status Drow form spikes balls from the river of ice and throw them back and forth. One male has been hit in the face, to the amusement of all.

6# Mural Fragment, ‘Glaive Of The Snakes’

Albino Yuan-Ti snake warrior wearing a helmet made from the skull of a gigantic ape or man, blunt primate teeth sweep around the snake mans face. The flayed skin of the same creature flows out behind as a cloak, the arms, legs, toes and fingers have been stiffened and splayed so they seem to reach out, grasping. Serpent warrior wields a large weapon or ritual object, ends carved like the faces of apes with tongues of fire

7# The Occasional Painting.

This empty space is a charming painting of a welcoming and amusing domestic scene the first time you walk into a room, and if you forget it is there. If you look at it directly, it is not there.

8# Head piece from a Sculptors Tomb

This painted oversized terracotta head at first appears to be a typical piece of monumental funerary art. On closer inspection, numerous tricks and jokes are revealed. The hair is a river, fish swim through it and crocodiles peek out from behind reeds around the neck. There are smiling faces in each pupil and each iris is a graceful woman curled. The lips are ships of closely woven reed, the ears are golems holding on to the head. The nose is a temple, the brows are condors.  None of this is noticeable from a distance. The bottom of the neck has this message in an ancient tongue “I Anemenon, sculptor to the king, make this for myself.”

9# Quiet Elysium/Punishment Stone

An eternally burning seated figure with placed features and a divine smile. Powerful vibrant blue and green flames surge endlessly up to three feet directly above the figure, they look like a field of green grass and blue water. Forcing someone’s face into the flame for up to a minute will either inflict damage or slowly burn their alignment away until only neutral good remains. The subject may decide between the damage or the change.

10# Ion Mask.

Heavy, grotesque, unwieldy mask, made from ruby, emeralds, topaz and gold.

Allows you to see, and negotiate with, any devil or daemon in the area, though it compels only that they reveal themselves, listen and treat your offer seriously, not that they accept

11# Atheist Heaven – painting, unknown Drow

An underground village in a vast chamber, through which flows a great river, unusual in that a sky, with natural light, is suggested but not shown. An idealised group of peaceful Drow of both genders in silk robes are gathered round an open building, inside are various beasts of burden The gods of the drow and other races are incarnated as these animals. There is a bounty for the destruction of this piece

12# The Bow of Death

Unremarkable black wood, two arrows remain. Each arrow caused immediate death on impact in all circumstances. Anyone picking up the bow is reduced to the image of death, skin falls off, organs rot and fall away in one or two minutes. When they put the bow down the remaining animated skeleton will fall apart.

13# The Hands on the Harp

Beautiful stone hands, broken off a lager statue, harp of wire and burnished fungal wood. Playing the harp animates the hands, they always produce the best advice available but are distressed and can communicate only by sign.

#14 Flower Bell; Celestial.

This bell is assembled from flowers of painted stone. Ringing it returns the dead to life, though, never in that location and never the same gender and never the same form and never with their old memories. They simply step into existence somewhere, the same age they were when they left. All records and memories altered to provide

a bedding in the reality of the word. Personality and capacities unaffected, negative effects removed.

#15 The Saint and the Maladies; painting.

The underground saint of an unknown faith is held down and tormented by numerous diseases given flesh. In fact the maladies themselves are trapped by the saints sacrifice. These are the original intelligent forms of those diseases. Touching them will awake the disease and it may be questioned to retrieve strange intelligences. However during the period of the questioning, all versions of this disease become exponentially more deadly everywhere as their primary mind awakes.

#16 The Rainbow Throne.

Blue, lapis lazuli, amethyst, colour of sky fading to night, hints of haematite. Expensive. Cobalt crystals. Still being sought by an Empire somewhere.

#17 The Figure in Wood

A weeping woman, cowl’d. Boldly and fluidly carved from a single block over a few hours as a city drowned below. Simple lines following the shape of the wood. Contains the ghosts of a drowned kingdom and is their marker in this world. Any attempt to damage the wood will result in disaster

18# Resurrection Angel

Knotsman Icon, made from barbed and knotted wire, unsupported other than by its own writhing’s. The Debt Angle is in the process of returning an unwilling subject (carved in snakewood) to life. The debtor has tried to escape their debt in death, and failed. Knotsmen will bow before this imge and resent its presence in your hands. However, they can only take it from you legally.

19# The Vast Crocodile

Darklight image in occultum-stained paint, eats light and infests darkness, visible as a stain inside the eye. A gigantic albino crocodile surges out of the water of an underground river. On its back rides an imperial blind Salamander-Man, surrounded by fawning sycophants in the forms of animals and spirits. (Almost certainly cheap allegory, no Olm would ever make this)

20# Boat of Night

Childs toy, or educational aid. A two dimensional image of a flowing river of darkness, bend in an arc. The river is of occultum-stained iron and a toy boat rides on top. A lamp-holder is placed behind the river. The boat can be moved up and down the river, along its length. Doing this causes the river to flow by unknown means. Round bubbles and gaps open up in the swirling black metal and move across the hemisphere of the rivers arc. One is larger than the rest. Careful observation will reveal that the gaps match the movement of the sun and stars.