InVinoVeritas
Adventurer
"Alek..." Pigglemorth spits.
"Alekalargo is a Combledorn, and that is most important. The Combledorns specialize in all manner of disgusting, foul goods and practices, all the things that bring disgrace and failure to good society. The family motto is We have what you want. You want what we have. Addiction, greed, sex, dark magic, you name it, the Combledorns deal with it.
Alekalargo was the worst of the bunch. His parents vanished a few years back, and he took over the mantle of family patriarch. His sister Breechalgandigroot always preferred working behind the scenes, and little Templeton was too young yet, but oh no, Alekalargo craved the spotlight. He opened up a few clubs catering to twisted pleasures, and made sure that he always had what people wanted, for a price. That price, of course, usually ended up in some form of slavery."
Pigglemorth locked eyes with Ru, his old flinty determination returning, nourished with rage. "You can understand just how mortified I became when I discovered that sweet, innocent Adalavas, my daughter, my love, my life, was infatuated with Templeton. Oh, my loving daughter..."
He sniffs in sadness, but continues. "I had worked with clocks all my life. I loved my profession. It takes a real skill, a true dedication to precision, in order to make such a beautifully complex mechanism come to life. Certainly, you believe in the law. Father, you believe in fate and the importance of a carefully lived life. A clockmaker's passion is no different. In understanding the simple motions of each part, the individual actions combine into a complex whole, and a careful life leads to success. I had become interested in expanding this concept into a fully automatous being, someone capable of going through the motions of life, breaking down each decision into precisely defined rules and laws. I dreamed of a clockwork being."
Pigglemorth grows oblivious as he continues his tangent: "Still, the secret of life was not something easily attained. I could create toys that obeyed simple rules, but nothing on the scale of a gnome. So, I enlisted the help of my good friend Edditomas. His forays in alchemy gave him great knowledge, and he was the one who came up with the concept of alchemical vampirism. Blood holds the key to life, and thus by boiling the blood under the right conditions could the life be extracted and used to power a clockwork being. However, there remained obstacles that, at the time, I considered insurmountable--the alchemical reagents needed a heart to provide the proper environment for the blood, and a head to manage the rules of life."
The gnome snarls. "Now, I wasn't the only special customer for Edditomas. Not to be outdone, Alekalargo had been working on another pet project of his own. He required of him the secrets of love. Not merely satisfied with using our baser instincts and proclivities against us, Alekalargo wanted to tap the source of our most sublime joys, and sell that. When I first heard reports of this thing called "Love" on the streets, there was no doubt that it was just the latest of Combledorn's loathsome products. Furthermore, the more I forbade Adalavas to see Templeton, the more she defied me, and the more she would return with lurid details of how Templeton's brother was designing some new product, adding to the family's wealth.
Oh, how this behavior destroyed me inside! My daughter could scarcely stay away from that... that Combledorn! I am convinced, she was a victim of this Love, this alchemical monstrosity that Alekalargo and his kin were determined to use to tear apart the last vestiges of my family! I had to ask Edditomas about it. If anyone would know how this singularly destructive mockery of spirituality came to be, he would know. I went to ask him about it, and that's where I saw one of Alekalargo's trollops making a delivery."
Pigglemorth's eyes grow wide, fueled by rage. "At that moment, I knew what I had to do. I knew what the purpose of my clockwork vampire would have to be--the death of all Combledorns. And I knew that, in Edditomas' betrayal to all of gnomekind, he had to die.
The death was planned to the second. His head would be removed five seconds before midnight, and his murder would be left in the old year. The vampire would be his new face in the new year."
The gnome's voice grows in volume, reverberating off the small walls of his cell. "The instructions were simple. Arrive at Combledorn Manor at the 18th hour. Slaughter all Combledorns at the manor. Defend himself as necessary. Alekalargo was supposed to be there! He is supposed to be dead! Adalavas should still be alive!"
Pigglemorth falls off the edge of the bed, crumpled in a tiny pile. "Evidence... Yes, evidence... Combledorn Manor should have evidence. Edditomas' store should have evidence. Alekalargo's hideouts should have evidence. Find that Love... and destroy it."
"Alekalargo is a Combledorn, and that is most important. The Combledorns specialize in all manner of disgusting, foul goods and practices, all the things that bring disgrace and failure to good society. The family motto is We have what you want. You want what we have. Addiction, greed, sex, dark magic, you name it, the Combledorns deal with it.
Alekalargo was the worst of the bunch. His parents vanished a few years back, and he took over the mantle of family patriarch. His sister Breechalgandigroot always preferred working behind the scenes, and little Templeton was too young yet, but oh no, Alekalargo craved the spotlight. He opened up a few clubs catering to twisted pleasures, and made sure that he always had what people wanted, for a price. That price, of course, usually ended up in some form of slavery."
Pigglemorth locked eyes with Ru, his old flinty determination returning, nourished with rage. "You can understand just how mortified I became when I discovered that sweet, innocent Adalavas, my daughter, my love, my life, was infatuated with Templeton. Oh, my loving daughter..."
He sniffs in sadness, but continues. "I had worked with clocks all my life. I loved my profession. It takes a real skill, a true dedication to precision, in order to make such a beautifully complex mechanism come to life. Certainly, you believe in the law. Father, you believe in fate and the importance of a carefully lived life. A clockmaker's passion is no different. In understanding the simple motions of each part, the individual actions combine into a complex whole, and a careful life leads to success. I had become interested in expanding this concept into a fully automatous being, someone capable of going through the motions of life, breaking down each decision into precisely defined rules and laws. I dreamed of a clockwork being."
Pigglemorth grows oblivious as he continues his tangent: "Still, the secret of life was not something easily attained. I could create toys that obeyed simple rules, but nothing on the scale of a gnome. So, I enlisted the help of my good friend Edditomas. His forays in alchemy gave him great knowledge, and he was the one who came up with the concept of alchemical vampirism. Blood holds the key to life, and thus by boiling the blood under the right conditions could the life be extracted and used to power a clockwork being. However, there remained obstacles that, at the time, I considered insurmountable--the alchemical reagents needed a heart to provide the proper environment for the blood, and a head to manage the rules of life."
The gnome snarls. "Now, I wasn't the only special customer for Edditomas. Not to be outdone, Alekalargo had been working on another pet project of his own. He required of him the secrets of love. Not merely satisfied with using our baser instincts and proclivities against us, Alekalargo wanted to tap the source of our most sublime joys, and sell that. When I first heard reports of this thing called "Love" on the streets, there was no doubt that it was just the latest of Combledorn's loathsome products. Furthermore, the more I forbade Adalavas to see Templeton, the more she defied me, and the more she would return with lurid details of how Templeton's brother was designing some new product, adding to the family's wealth.
Oh, how this behavior destroyed me inside! My daughter could scarcely stay away from that... that Combledorn! I am convinced, she was a victim of this Love, this alchemical monstrosity that Alekalargo and his kin were determined to use to tear apart the last vestiges of my family! I had to ask Edditomas about it. If anyone would know how this singularly destructive mockery of spirituality came to be, he would know. I went to ask him about it, and that's where I saw one of Alekalargo's trollops making a delivery."
Pigglemorth's eyes grow wide, fueled by rage. "At that moment, I knew what I had to do. I knew what the purpose of my clockwork vampire would have to be--the death of all Combledorns. And I knew that, in Edditomas' betrayal to all of gnomekind, he had to die.
The death was planned to the second. His head would be removed five seconds before midnight, and his murder would be left in the old year. The vampire would be his new face in the new year."
The gnome's voice grows in volume, reverberating off the small walls of his cell. "The instructions were simple. Arrive at Combledorn Manor at the 18th hour. Slaughter all Combledorns at the manor. Defend himself as necessary. Alekalargo was supposed to be there! He is supposed to be dead! Adalavas should still be alive!"
Pigglemorth falls off the edge of the bed, crumpled in a tiny pile. "Evidence... Yes, evidence... Combledorn Manor should have evidence. Edditomas' store should have evidence. Alekalargo's hideouts should have evidence. Find that Love... and destroy it."
