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<blockquote data-quote="fafhrd" data-source="post: 3040778" data-attributes="member: 18517"><p>There is a wonderful short story by Clark Ashton Smith called <em>The Double Shadow</em>, that might serve as inspiration for this kind of idea. The story is related through a scroll found on a shoreline. The scroll was written by an apprentice wizard and documents the events of the story. </p><p></p><p>It begins with the description of the apprentice's master, a learned old conjurer and necromancer who grew mighty and disdainful of the beings he summoned. The was no entity which he could not bind(or so he thought).</p><p></p><p>One day, the wizard and the apprentice found a odd fragment bearing strange glyphs that the master couldn't decipher. That piqued his curiosity and so he set out using his art to discover the nature of the inscription. With the aid of the apprentice, they summoned all manner of demons, undead, and stranger entities and questioned them at length about the writing. However, the wizard's frustration grew as even these ancient beings professed their ignorance of the origin and meaning of the tablet.</p><p></p><p>Finally, the wizard conjured the spirit of an ancient magus from the long dead empire of Lemuria. The Lemurian sorceror explained that the device contained lore from a prehuman civilization that predated even his, but he knew enough of the tongue to explain the basic workings of the spell inscribed therein. The Lemurian finally departed with a final warning against using the invocation. </p><p></p><p>Full of confidence in his power, the master took little heed of the warning and enacted the spell. He and the apprentice were mystified though when the spell failed to have any obvious consequence.</p><p></p><p>A few days later, as they strolled along the beach, the apprentice noticed that his master had an odd, darker shadow neatly trailing the masters own. He remarked on this to the conjurer who then noticed it as well. The master first studied the shadow, but then noticing that it was growing ever closer to his own shadow, he attempted to expel it. Yet the shadow remained, and followed, and encroached on his own. </p><p></p><p>Soon they noticed that a mummy that had been present in the summoning room had a double shadow of its own. It was the first to experience the meeting of its own shadow with that strange other. The mummy keened in horror as the umbral cloak <em>consumed</em> it and made it into something else. The master panicked and attempted every method of expulsion he knew, all to no avail. The bound demons and malevolent entities that shared the wizard's island abode fled to their planes of origin in terror. Then the master's shadow was overtaken to meet a fate similar to that of the mummy.</p><p></p><p>The scroll ends with the apprentice noting that he has no hope, for the shadow is now but a wand's length from his own...</p><p></p><p></p><p>I'm sure some of the details are off. It's been awhile since I read the story, but I've always been enamored of it and think it could be a great baseline for what you're looking for.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="fafhrd, post: 3040778, member: 18517"] There is a wonderful short story by Clark Ashton Smith called [I]The Double Shadow[/I], that might serve as inspiration for this kind of idea. The story is related through a scroll found on a shoreline. The scroll was written by an apprentice wizard and documents the events of the story. It begins with the description of the apprentice's master, a learned old conjurer and necromancer who grew mighty and disdainful of the beings he summoned. The was no entity which he could not bind(or so he thought). One day, the wizard and the apprentice found a odd fragment bearing strange glyphs that the master couldn't decipher. That piqued his curiosity and so he set out using his art to discover the nature of the inscription. With the aid of the apprentice, they summoned all manner of demons, undead, and stranger entities and questioned them at length about the writing. However, the wizard's frustration grew as even these ancient beings professed their ignorance of the origin and meaning of the tablet. Finally, the wizard conjured the spirit of an ancient magus from the long dead empire of Lemuria. The Lemurian sorceror explained that the device contained lore from a prehuman civilization that predated even his, but he knew enough of the tongue to explain the basic workings of the spell inscribed therein. The Lemurian finally departed with a final warning against using the invocation. Full of confidence in his power, the master took little heed of the warning and enacted the spell. He and the apprentice were mystified though when the spell failed to have any obvious consequence. A few days later, as they strolled along the beach, the apprentice noticed that his master had an odd, darker shadow neatly trailing the masters own. He remarked on this to the conjurer who then noticed it as well. The master first studied the shadow, but then noticing that it was growing ever closer to his own shadow, he attempted to expel it. Yet the shadow remained, and followed, and encroached on his own. Soon they noticed that a mummy that had been present in the summoning room had a double shadow of its own. It was the first to experience the meeting of its own shadow with that strange other. The mummy keened in horror as the umbral cloak [I]consumed[/I] it and made it into something else. The master panicked and attempted every method of expulsion he knew, all to no avail. The bound demons and malevolent entities that shared the wizard's island abode fled to their planes of origin in terror. Then the master's shadow was overtaken to meet a fate similar to that of the mummy. The scroll ends with the apprentice noting that he has no hope, for the shadow is now but a wand's length from his own... I'm sure some of the details are off. It's been awhile since I read the story, but I've always been enamored of it and think it could be a great baseline for what you're looking for. [/QUOTE]
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