:: Random Location—The Lincean Lexicon ::

The Lincean Lexicon

by Wm Jay Carter III, 6/12/15

a zephyr

Attraction: Aviary

Nation: Leonian

Condition: Simple, Charred

Weather: Nor’wester

Color: Salmon

Keyword: Lexicon

Rubbing your head, you awaken to the howling of the wind as it blasts across the treetops, shaking the leaves in a raucous rustle much like the roar of the ocean. You discover that your bed is actually a large wooden platform swaying high above the forest canopy on a pole thicker than the trunks of the surrounding trees. There are no bars, no walls to hold you prisoner; only the staggering height and the blasting wind.

As you look around you see there are other platforms, other prisoners. One is a desperate siren with salmon-colored scales, busy pleading with her platform in a language you don’t understand. As she turns, however, you realize that she is not a siren but a zephyr whose wings have been clipped, explaining why she had not flown away already. Likely the blasting wind is her vain attempt to topple her pole and secure a gentler descent.

Another platform bears an actual córean, asleep, wings also clipped. A third is empty, but the charred black patch on it makes you think a phoenix might have been there once, its wings also clipped no doubt...before it burned itself alive and its ashes were scattered. Well, you reason despondently, at least it escaped.

:: Random Location—Pasture of the White Warriors ::

Pasture of the White Warriors

by Wm Jay Carter III, 5/23/15

Land Area: Pasture

Weather: Light Hail

Conditions: Unsettling, Charred

Color: White

Keyword: Warrior

An unsettling scene rolls out before you: all of the land from your feet to the foot of the mountains lays wasted, white with a thick blanket of ash. Underneath this covering, you know the pasture’s once-green grass is now only charred black soot. A light hail of volcanic rock still falls from the fume-black sky, thin flames trailing behind each marble-sized chunk. The sound of the fiery stones clinking against metal on all sides tells you of fallen warriors, entombed in their own armor and buried along with the pasture, the volcano having silently breathed white death into their bodies. Then, from under the ash, you see pairs of bright white lights, blown to life as if with a bellows...

:: Random Item—The Grand Design ::

The Grand Design

by Wm Jay Carter III, 5/19/15

Scroll: Diagram

Color: Tan

Conditions: Charred, Wet

Keyword: Grand

Extinguishing the fire at last, you look over what remains of the valuables in the room. Only the solid metal objects remain salvageable; everything composed of less-durable materials has been completely consumed. Everything, that is, except an ashwood scroll case. The tan case is charred from the fire, and the parchment that unrolls from inside has been completely soaked, but is nevertheless entirely intact. With astonishment, you find umber-ink diagrams on the paper that are not only clearly visible, but moving to display their subjects from many angles, and even expanding to reveal the interior workings.