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.
All great, though the "The Saint and the Maladies" was my favorite.
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