RuneScape Forum Archive | Shafts of Imagination

Dec

2023

Logan Shafts

Posts: 3,211 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Here is a copy of a 10-post story from my AoG Competition thread - which is now obselete.

I'm posting it here because I find it humorous, and I hope you guys do too. =p

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"In this instance, it had occurred to me..."

Chapter 1: An Uncivilized Funeral.

Memory has a way of making one desire nothing more than forgetfulness, if memory is haunted by death, destruction, and loss.

She smiled. Her eyes closed, and her hair blew back in the light wind.
Her small hand brushed my substantially larger one as she tugged on my sleeve.

"Daddy, are we almost there?" Her voice sounded frail, her breathing heavy, even though I had been carrying her, she felt it was hard to hold onto me as I climbed.

"Yes dear, we're almost there. Almost out of this wretched place, we need only go across the river, and we'll find our way quickly to Varrock to meet your mother."

Her eyes, now open, sparkled at the mention of her mother.

Her eyes, now gone, were barely noticeable sunken holes in the hard sediment of her skull.

I wept. My heart wrenched. Why had I insisted on seeing her body?

"I told you, she's gone, Mortimer. You had a mighty head wound, and have lost memory of the battle, but that doesn’t mean it didn't happen. Zamorak’s forces crossed the river Salve just after you did."

I slammed my hand down on the ground, and then rose from my knees. Zamorak would pay. The rage boiling inside of me would slay him of its own accord if I failed in mine.

"Mortimer! Don't do anything stupid, remember your wife? She's waiting for you, and has been waiting for a long time since you went unconscious, alright?" Sympathetic words, I knew this was my friend. But I couldn't heed them just yet...

"She can continue waiting. I can't return to her and say I let our daughter die, and survived myself, but didn't get vengeance." My blood felt like it was boiling.

24-Apr-2010 06:03:48 - Last edited on 24-Apr-2010 06:20:48 by Logan Shafts

Dec

2023

Logan Shafts

Posts: 3,211 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

"What a delightfully selfish attitude you have, Mortimer Harkeener!"
The voice was unexpected. It attacked me from behind, filled my ears with noise, and my thoughts with dread.

"And what are you doing here, necromancer? Come to pay for your own death?"

"On the contrary, I've come to ask you to pay for yours!"

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Chapter 2: Reformation Number 1.

Feet tread. Treading leaves footprints.

And footprints follow. I lead, this time. Soon, though, I would be following.
Following the footprints of a creature who deemed itself a God, a being named Zamorak, that I planned to murder.

Beside me, the feet of a necromancer tread, and left footprints.
I noted them, because someday I might have to kill him too.

"So you see? If I kill you, and bring you back as another, you can get close to Zamorak. Show him your power, your determination, but not your will. He will bring you in as a general, eventually. You can then strike at him once and for all."

"And why should I trust that you'll bring me back with my own intentions, and not simply as your minion?" My thoughts raced.

"I can acquire minions anywhere, the war has seen to that. I tire though of these petty games, I want something bigger. And you're the key to that. Once Zamorak is finished, I intend to take control of his forces and build my own kingdom in Morytania."

I looked off into the distance, contemplating my options.

"Besides"...His voice trailed. "You have no choice in the matter."

I felt a sharp pain travel down my spine, and darkness overcame me.

Thoughts continued to race. Whether they were mine or not, I don't know.
I felt my soul being toyed with. Destroyed, then reconstructed. Odd sensations fluttered through what I had to assume were my toes.

My eyes widened. I had toes! I had eyes!
But I couldn't see. They closed as vision of another kind permeated my view.

I saw Zamorak clutching his throat, crying out "Agh!"
He hadn't the time to call my name, I assumed.

24-Apr-2010 06:03:54 - Last edited on 24-Apr-2010 06:12:41 by Logan Shafts

Dec

2023

Logan Shafts

Posts: 3,211 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Chapter 3: Recruit.

"So you want to join Zamorak’s army, huh?" A wretched, slimy voice filled the air.

"Indeed." My eyes shifted between the Black 'Knight' before me, and the trail to Canifis below me.

"I assume you filled out the application form?" I could sense him smiling, somehow.

"What application form?" The smile broadened.

"Everybody asks that. Nobody thinks we're that formal, but we are. I will fill the form out for you, just answer my questions..." His voice trailed off and I saw him put his hand to his chin, contemplating the order of questions.

"...What are your qualifications? How do we know you're evil enough to join?" He looked at me directly, but I continued to glance at the ground and the sky, pretending to be deep in thought.

"Well. I feel quite evil. In fact, I hate everything. I would kill you, even, if I didn't seem to need your knowledge of the application. Besides, I have a very evil laugh."
I proceeded to demonstrate. In retrospect, that was probably unwise.

"That was possibly the worst attempt at an evil laugh I've ever heard. You sounded like a giant snake choking on an orc who had recently eaten a giggling schoolgirl."

I wondered if schoolgirls were always imagined to be giggling, even while being consumed for nutritional purposes...

"So let me show you a real evil laugh."
He proceeded to demonstrate. In retrospect, I recall my stomach churning.

"Anyways," He continued. "I'll disregard that. Have you ever stolen anything? Committed a substantial crime? Destroyed any villages, plundered any corpses, eaten spinach, cabbage, or fried toad tongue?"

"No? Of course I haven’t. And ew, are those serious questions for your application?"

"Yes! And you'll fail, at this rate. It's not up to me ultimately though, I will have to pass it on to my superiors. Anyways, all I need now is your name."

"Mortimer Harkeener."

"Really? What a positively evil name! Why didn't you say so in the first place, you pass."

24-Apr-2010 06:04:00 - Last edited on 24-Apr-2010 06:13:13 by Logan Shafts

Dec

2023

Logan Shafts

Posts: 3,211 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

"I thought it wasn't up to you ultimately?"

"Well, evil names are the exception. People with evil names are always evil. They don't always know it, but they really are. With a name like that you'll be higher ranked than me in no time! Of course, I might have to stab you in the back to stop that from happening!" He winked at me, and then chuckled.

I noted the possibility for future caution.

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Chapter 4: Betrayal.

I rolled over, groaning as I pulled the dagger out of my back.
I knew he would betray me, but this? Really?
He had actually stabbed me in the back. So blunt, and yet so sharp. I winced.

Luckily he was a bad aim.
I would get him back later, but I had to get on with business for now, like the normal kind of guy I try hard to pretend to almost be.

I knew that Zamorak thought the upcoming battle was important, or he wouldn't have sent me. So I would get on with it, regardless of the pain.

Soon the sun was setting over the ancient mage arena. I had arranged a meeting here, and I wondered if my informant would make it.

Sure enough the adorned robes of a mage appeared, silhouetted on the trunk of a tree.

"Hello?" His wispy voice echoed. This would be perfect.

"Ah, hello,"
I pushed myself to my feet, wiping the dagger off on the grass and acting as if I had simply been hiding. "The names Mortimer Harkeener. You're here to defect?"

"Uh, I've come to hear your terms. You said your army is far superior?" His voice got even wispier.

"Oh, indeed! My army is massive. You do well to defect. Simply go home and clear the east gate for us when the time comes, and you will be spared." I wondered if this man could pull it off. He certainly wasn't very bright, since he hadn't called my bluff yet.

It was vital that we conquered the arena before Saradomin's forces moved on it from the south...

"And my family?" He interrupted my thoughts.

"Ah, they'll be fine. I wouldn't ask you to betray your family."

24-Apr-2010 06:04:07 - Last edited on 24-Apr-2010 06:21:05 by Logan Shafts

Dec

2023

Logan Shafts

Posts: 3,211 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

No, only your principles, and the things you've worked for all your life...

...The battle came swiftly, and the gates were cleared. My 'defector' marched out with his family, met my troops and quickly passed them as they moved in to destroy his way of life.

I pulled out my dagger.

His family's cries were a fly, buzzing annoyingly around the conscience of a man locked deep in the dungeons of my soul.

Backstabbing was my way of life.

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[...Somewhere on the ethereal planes where Gods build their couches.]

Zamorak leaned back on his plush couch, grinning to himself. Mortimer would be one to keep an eye on.

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Chapter 5: Second Death.

Hollow. So very hollow. My heart? No. That was long gone.
Her eyes were gone too. Her body, hollow...

I sat up. The ground below me was hard. I heard men grunting and rolling over, trying to become comfortable enough to rest. War had a habit of following sunlight over the horizon as of late.

I stood.

The first beams of sunlight made their way down to the camp, changing the hue of the air around us from dark blue to light orange. The grass was wet with dew and sparkled beneath my feet.

Sometimes it was hard not to gaze longingly into the sky, and let my heart fill with joy again. Fortunately this kind of location was very rare in Morytania.

All I need do was look north to the dense fog around our goal, a structure looming mere miles away from us, a faint glow emanating from it, the only suggestion of life.

The Slayer Tower.

I looked down at my battered black platebody, and my sword, also black. Its shiny surface reflected the image of my scarred face.

Battle would ensue shortly. I woke the camp and we began march.

The steps of the tower grew nearer. Hellhounds patrolled the mountain edges, teasing our flanks. My troops were inadequate, but we would prevail. I knew somehow that we would.

24-Apr-2010 06:04:13 - Last edited on 24-Apr-2010 20:25:56 by Logan Shafts

Dec

2023

Logan Shafts

Posts: 3,211 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I had never faced a Gargoyle. The noise they made was so extraordinarily eerie that it made me think I would be far better off kissing a street rat than standing where I currently did - That being in their path.

The attack was quick and orderly. These creatures didn't wait to defend, they took the offensive quickly.

I saw gargoyles swoop and shoot my fellow knights, who promptly cowered on the ground.
Hellhounds and Greater demons attacked from the flanks, hitting the mages and rangers hard.

A sharp pain filled my chest as a gargoyle’s spell hit me square on.
His tail smacked me in the face. I brought my sword up to slice off that tail, and caught the image of my own grimace in its shiny surface.

A flash of light filled my eyes, and I fell to the ground.
Death was black, black oblivion, after all.

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Chapter 6: Reformation Number 2.

The wispy threads of my voice howled over the beating wind. Rain would have splashed across my face, had I not been entirely ethereal.

Before me lay a swamp full of corpses, writhing as if in pain. The realist portion of my shattered mind cried to me, shouting that it was only the gale causing them to move. But somehow I knew better.

As if to defy my death and entrapment, a seemingly eternal call beset me. It sat on my ears, pulling the leftovers of my hair through itself with a shrill voice.

I was needed. I was to be summoned. Could I bear yet another life, or worse, another death?

The world of my vision shredded before me, tatters of sight peeling away in layers before my eyes. Removal of sight had a funny way of destroying one's determination to hold on to one's spiritual position.

Existence faded into sight again, my eye lids framing it above and below, and the evil grin of my summoner filling the center, like a breathtakingly agonizing pie. As of that moment, I hated pie.

24-Apr-2010 06:04:20 - Last edited on 24-Apr-2010 06:21:47 by Logan Shafts

Dec

2023

Logan Shafts

Posts: 3,211 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

"Mortimer Harkeener...So you're alive again! Truly mortifying." A voice echoed, having emanated from the grin.

My reply was weak at best, my throat full of bile. "I know, isn't it dreadful?"

"Zamorak needs your services. You shall be his champion once more, as we conquer this God-corrupted land. Morytania will be a wonderful staging area for our invasion of Gielinor."

I sighed. Yet another job, another duty. Zamorak would never let me rest in peace, or even eternal torture.

I didn't know why he was so obsessively interested in me. Perhaps it was simply that he enjoyed toying with 'lesser' beings.
Either way, this would have to end eventually. I would come back and kill him. But how does one strike at a God?

My vision faded again. I was back in my body, or what was left of it. The clashing of swords filled newly awakened ears.

I rose out of the earth. This was my domain. Home of tortured souls.

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Chapter 7: The Hunt for Zamorak

I pulled myself up, rising off the ground.

My body felt dry, but strong. My fingers clenched the rock above me, and I climbed upwards, and rolled sideways over the edge of the cliff.

I had come to the scene of the battle; the clashing of blades filled the air below me.

Horrors, evils. My memory flooded with these, my thoughts were so full of sharp anger I thought they would slice the world before me in two.

Tired, so tired. My soul longed to simply rest, but I had a debt to repay, though I did*’t remember the details of it.

Desire released power. Power fueled anger. Anger longed for opportunity, and opportunity meticulously designed it into fury.

Revenge was the only thing capable of taming that fury.

Words echoed in my memory. "Zamorak is not invincible. You can reach him, you can kill him. He is a man, in a manner of speaking; he joined his army, and has taken a physical form".

24-Apr-2010 06:04:27 - Last edited on 24-Apr-2010 06:22:01 by Logan Shafts

Dec

2023

Logan Shafts

Posts: 3,211 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

A river rolled before me. My canoe was leashed, so I hopped in and grabbed the oars, cutting the leash with a sword that I suddenly realized I was carrying.

I heard battle following behind me. My canoe reached the other end of the river shortly. This would be fast, it would have to be.
I jumped onto shore, my feet sinking into the soft ground.

Time blurred my memory. I was hunting something. Something I hated. I was lead by instinct, and righteous anger.

There they were. I saw them, three of them, chasing innocent civilians. I ran to intercept them, to save the civilians.

That had to be him, a big man in front, wielding a large axe. He backed two peasants up against a rock-covered cliff. They had nowhere to run.

The axe came down towards the head of the unarmed man. He grabbed the little girl next to him, and held her up as a shield.

My eyes widened as I drew near the battle. How could somebody do something like that!? Horrid, wretched!

I lunged, plunging my now drawn sword through a man to my left, then spun around and sliced open the back of the axe wielding man. He toppled.

I stared at the unarmed man, holding the little girl’s tattered remains, his eyes wide. He would pay for that, he should have died, not her.

I brought my sword around to lop off his head, but he ducked. The girl’s body dropped to the ground ahead of him.

My sword hit the rocks behind him, and the rocks began to topple down, I saw one hit him in the head, and then he fell to the ground and was buried.

That was suitable. I looked down at the remains of the girl near my feet. A man would have to have the most evil of selfish hearts to do something like that. I felt pity for the girl, and pure hatred for the man.

I had killed the man. This was Zamorak, or at least what he did, what he represented.

My task was as yet unfinished, though. Suddenly I knew I still had to slay him somehow.

24-Apr-2010 06:04:36 - Last edited on 24-Apr-2010 06:17:01 by Logan Shafts

Dec

2023

Logan Shafts

Posts: 3,211 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Just then, a shining piece of metal slid out of my chest. I felt the blade impaling me from behind, and heard the snicker of some creature behind me.

Darkness enveloped me again.

--------------------------------------------

[...Deep in the dungeons of my soul.]

Gates opened. Deep inside of me, a ragged man found his way through the labyrinth designed to mock good nature. Forged of pain, wrought of loss.

The man was ragged, but he exited with a smile, and a dove perched on his shoulder.

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Chapter 8: Second Life.

Tall. Dressed in blue. A gray beard blowing in the wind, a white staff held out over me. The silver cross around his neck glistened in the bright sunlight.

"You have died before, haven’t you?" Speech! I heard him. That struck me as surprising, somehow.

"Surprised? Ah, you were thinking you were dead still, I see." Sound rung off my ears like a depressing symphony - those kinds which somehow make one happier.

"I wasn't thinking at all - hence my assumption that I was dead." My voice cracked. He smiled. A dove flew off my shoulder. I looked up at it and watched it rise into the sky and disappear into a cloud.

"If you can assume, you can think. You just weren't aware that you were thinking."
He smiled, I would have said in arrogance, except it appeared he was right.

"What do you want with me?" I asked plainly.

"I saw you wanted to go after Zamorak, and I found it amusing." He paused to catch his breath, and leaned on his staff for a moment before lowering it over me again.

"I am not amused often," He continued. "Since humor is often derived from surprise, and things are often far less surprising when you reach my age."
His speech was slow, or it seemed so since the words seemed to hang in the air.

He sounded like the sort of man who could inspire anybody with his words, without saying anything inspiring.

I shrugged. "I guess that’s understandable. Where am I, by the way?"

24-Apr-2010 06:04:44 - Last edited on 24-Apr-2010 06:22:19 by Logan Shafts

Dec

2023

Logan Shafts

Posts: 3,211 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

"You? That depends what you mean by you. Your self? Or your body?"

What? I looked down at myself. I seemed to have a body..."Very funny. I mean where this place is."

He shrugged. "You are the only one who can answer that. As for your body, it is back on the material plane. I am going to return you to it, and you can start a new life in Canifis. I will ask my friends there to protect you. Be well, young one."

"...Why Canif...?!"

His staff lowered over me.

A table appeared below me. I looked down, or up. No, down. I saw my feet dangling in the air, a rope wrapped around them and attached to the ceiling.

A hand grabbed my hair. "Dinner is served!" A claw sliced the rope. I fell, head first, onto the table.

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[...Somewhere in Canifis.]

Two young werewolves descended on me. Their maws opened and about to begin gnawing on my legs, when a man in brown robes bashed through the door and yelled at them to cease. They whimpered and cowered in the corner.

"He is under my protection. Leave now." His booming voice filled the room. The werewolves scampered off.

"I have been asked to keep you. So you can come and be my cook. In return, you can live and be taken care of." He continued.

I didn't feel particularly like being protected. "I only know how to cook shrimp."
He looked at me, stunned. "Really?"...

I would have preferred to be eaten, at least then my life could feed some hungry children. Werewolf children, sure...but I chose to ignore that part.

24-Apr-2010 06:04:58 - Last edited on 01-Nov-2010 08:20:30 by Logan Shafts

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Shafts of Imagination