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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 4803735" data-attributes="member: 3285">To Drakmar: Part 1 – The Plateau of LengThey stood in the middle of a vast, featureless plain. The landscape beyond the gate was unexceptional in every way.  Scanning the terrain, there was nothing to interrupt a vista of flat, frozen earth.  It was very cold, and there was a dusting of snow on the ground but mercifully, no wind.  “I think we’re back in Kadath,” said Kham.There was no sign of the portal they had stepped through.  The keening had stopped.  No features marked the edge of the tundra; no trees or mountains stained the horizons.  It was night and thousands of stars were in the sky, each pure and sharp, a beautiful sight.  Sebastian looked up at the night sky. “Those are Arcanis constellations, but their relations have subtly changed.” The orange star Aldebaran was visible low, low in the sky, sitting just above the horizon.Livius stood surrounded by the squatter tcho-tcho cannibals, a father amongst his warped children.  He was tall and slim with dark hair.  Despite being the progenitor of a play that had killed thousands, he looked normal, clean and shaven, and wore a white chuba.  He smoked a cigarette.“Hello again,” Livius addresses Kham.  “I see you’ve come to stop me.  Or have you been converted the One True Way?”Sebastian stepped forward.  Livius seemed unperturbed by the dark-kin’s more demonic appearance, complete with forked tail and bat wings. “We have come to join you,” he said.  “After the deaths of so many, we welcome our new master home.”Livius took a puff from his cigarette.  “Really?  I remember you throwing my play into the dirt of the arena.  You didn’t seem so sure then.”“We weren’t,” said Sebastian.  “It took a lot of trials for us to comprehend His majesty. But if it will save Onara from itself, we will gladly welcome the King in Yellow.”“And yet you’ve murdered so many.  Montague Edwards, for all his misguided attempts.  Lucius Roby, who only wanted to live in Carcosa forever.  Even Talbot Estus. He was a gifted playwright.” “You forgot Elijah Quelch,” added Kham.Livius chuckled.  “Did I? And what of you, Kham?  Are you not here to murder me in cold blood?”Kham kept his arms folded.  “If I was going to do that, you’d be dead already.  Don’t you worry, Livius, I plan to see this through to the end, just like you.”The tcho-tchos were nervous and anxious to move.  More spear poking encouraged them towards Aldebaran. “I think we’re bound for a temple or town,” said Livius. “I wonder if others might already be there.  When we arrive, I will of course summon the King in Yellow.”“Of course,” said Sebastian.“You spoke of war,” said Livius.  “Then war has finally come to Onara?”Sebastian nodded.  “Coryan is in the middle of a civil war.  The Emperor accused Felician val’Mehan of conducting secret negotiations with the heretical priests of the Dark Triumvirate of Canceri. Calsestus branded the Patriarch a heretic and a traitor.”“Ah yes.  Then it is done.” He smiled to himself.  “Hastur appeared to the masses.”“In one of his guises,” Sebastian spoke carefully. “A valinor said: Let none doubt that Calsestus’ will is the will of the Gods.”So the conversation went as they marched across the unchanging and bleak landscape.  The tcho-tchos led silently but betray an urgency and edginess, constantly scanning the horizon and sky. With time suspended under the stars and no change of night to day, they grew tired, hungry, and thirsty.</blockquote>

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