weaving

3 days work, my first rag-rug

this is the rough side

Time away from staring at the computer, pursuing wholesome, earthy, natural creative endeavors. I love weaving. It is therapeutic. Cotton rag-weave feels good to be working with. Pure, clean, sensual. 

I am certain that a lot of this focus and energy comes from developing a Sorcerer's retinue for Sorcerers of Ur-Turuk as much as from the galactic alignment at the moment (virgo). 

Contemplating that Humans developed weaving before we harnessed fire. A loom can be portable; two poles with pegs on them tied to whatever suits at the time. Next step; braiding celtic knotwork.

SOUT2

See HERE for a review and introduction to Graham Bottley / Arion Games Classic RPG.
The following is my own manuscript.

City Aesthetic

In my imagination, my version of Ur-Turuk, the city I sculpt with my mind; all of the buildings are adobe (sun-baked or oven-baked mud brick) and most of them are between three and five stories high. To augment this height there are many buttresses between buildings, which usually have an alleyway between them on at least two sides. It is urban and this architectural type allows for many exciting adventures of rooftop chases and sneaking around at night.

The buildings are by and large based on square and rectangular shapes, with the exception of those which are round shapes, often with larger bases. Wherever possible, walls are extended upward on top of lower story walls or support pillars; pillars rather than walls are commonplace on upper floors which permits extended height, often with wattle & daub walls or simple trellis between pillars. These are often of elaborate decorative designs with sculptural features worked into trellis permitting exciting range of window shapes and air-vents. The typical arrangement for a block of buildings is ideally ziggurat; however with additional support pillars, buttresses and extensions growing over generations, many of the ziggurats have become immersed into a less regular structure; the city grows organically in accordance with simple mathematical principles.

After many generations it is the public road-ways which mark out the negative space between dwellings. So many of the chambers are unoccupied that their crumbling parchment deeds are the type of treasure urban folks seek only when in fear of the city militia acting as bailiffs. It is rumoured that a significant percentage of the population are of no fixed abode and squatting; the Dust is omnipotent and yet invisible here. Crawl-ways and escape routes are said to outnumber walls, doors and blockades. The citizens of Ur-Turuk must think vertically as well as horizontally in orientating themselves. This is why a city Guide is necessary for those not born or experienced here. The ceilings are typically high to allow air-conditions and mind-space, tall enough that you could not touch them by jumping and reaching up with your fingertips stretched to the limits.

The age of the city is such that many walk-ways have been bashed through between rooms and corridors, giving them an irregular shape and feel. It is something of a maze of gantry's and chambers on several stories. City is arranged into blocks, with wider spaces between. Obviously arches are common and often form the foundation of walk-ways on the layer above. Much of the lower area's are in the shade; necessary in the summer heat. Architectural designs exploit this, with trellis ceilings on which plants grow being a very common courtyard and upper story feature. A sort of inside-outside feel to cool and air rooms especially those with pillars and low-ledges for walls.

Mud is easy to sculpt and paint; there are many hand-crafted decorative adornments on the walls, so that most of them, due to aesthetic and age, are smoothed with rounded corners. Alcoves are a common feature; ledges, shelves and shrines. Domes are another common feature, providing support for the extended tiers of upper floor buildings and balancing the air within a space.

Wood is the second most commonplace building material. Ledges, walk-ways, walls, steps, stairs and ladders, overhangs, lean-to's, doors where there are actual doors and not dust-sheets. As a sprawl, Ur-Turuk resembles the eastern cities of dream, resplendent from a thousand and one nights. The taller towers, depending on the size of their base and any buttresses, often stand proudly and much taller, some as many as ten stories high. 

Because of the temperature, stone walls from quarries are rare, much more expensive due to the manpower involved in building them. The adobe buildings have a sense of age and yet incompletedness, often taking many generations to develop their individuality. Comparatively the stone dwellings are planned in advance. Many of these are constructed by hiring suitably knowledgeable wizards to float the rocks into place, or to draw the building up from below the dusty ground, fashioned of bedrock. It is preferable than the scale and man-power of alternative industries.

There are strong magicks occurring in the city oif Ur-Turuk which shapes the place more than anything, not only in its ever shifting physicality but also emotionally, perceptually, atmospherically, aesthetically, ecologically. In some parts, self-sustaining closed pleasure-gardens while in others, beggars and cut-throats. Some streets are blessed by forgotten Deities while others are avoided by the living ones.

Creating A Brat Pack

Learning this from the .pdf version, staring at a screen impacts on my ability to study and make progress with it. After scrawling notes on envelopes I typed them into a cohesion in the computer. This process inevitably led to making the following copy/past-able lists, for easier reference than scrolling through the rulebook. It also makes it easier to develop multiple characters at the same time, necessary for giving the unit the right feel because they more fluidly compliment one another.

copy/block/paste re-cap of major character sheet sections and character creation dice quota's:

SOLDIER     

14D for Stats (max 4D per stat) 3D for weapon Skills, 2D for other Skills, 1D any Skills, up to 3 Minor Perks

SERVANT    

12D for Stats (max 3D per stat) 3D serving Skills, 2D other Skills, 1D any Skills, 1 Minor Perk

SPECIALIST  

14D (4D max per stat), 5D speciality Skills (max 2D), 2D other Skills, up to 2 Minor Perks

MAJOR CHARACTER   

16D for Stats (min 1D max 4D), 7 other Skills (max 3D), up to 3 Perks

SORCERER     

16D for stats (min 1D max 4D), 7D Skills (max 2D), for magic controls 14D (max 3), up to 3 Perks

ATTRIBUTES

Might                

Wits                   

Toughness       

Agility               

Charm            

Perception    

 

SKILLS

PERKS

FLAWS

TROUPE

During the three days following unwrapping Sorcerers into my desktop, I came up with the following characters. I am still undecided as to specifically which of these characters I will use when introduced into a game group, this largely depends on what characters the other players bring to the Vanahm.

I keep coming up with ideas and so I have enough spare characters to begin a second troupe or to feature as NPC's in the first. As a gamesmaster I utilize this to the advantage of the story, integrating all of the threads.

I chose not to use the prototype tables, preferring to choose rather than randomly assign statistic values. I can see how useful the tables are for when a GM needs to quick-roll a non-player character. First I wrote the character concept, then I did the Stats, then I did the Perks and Flaws, then I did the Skills. After this was equipping the characters. Finally I am working on the Sorcerers Spells. There is a lot of back-and-fore to integrate the groups skill base and backstory as realistically and believably as a fantasy game can muster. The diversity and intrigue between the group forms the basis of its dynamic; understanding and working with this dynamic is integral for both the Player and the Gamesmaster, so it is kept simple and utilizes easy cliches which can be warped to suit our own needs, bringing Life to the collective.

SOLDIER  male, late teens

- young strong-arm. Picks nose flicks snot, bad personal habit. Always messing about, he fulfills everyone’s need to have somebody to take the piss out of, a necessary social figure.

ATTRIBUTES

Might                  2

Wits                    1

Toughness         4

Agility                 3

Charm                1

Perception          3

SKILLS

Brawling, Melee, Shamshir +2D +2 Initiative, Shield +2 pips Allows use of Block Reactions,

MINOR PERK Inconspicuous, Contacts (which faction?), Heals Fast,

MINOR FLAW Angry, Personality Flaw - Obsession (with the Servant girl), Impatient,

SERVANT  female, mid teens

- body servant, singer, dancer, ex slave freed by her master (wizard/major character). She is not a specialist, too young and untrained. 

ATTRIBUTES

Might                1  

Wits                  2  

Toughness        1

Agility                3

Charm               3

Perception         2

SKILLS

Dodge 1, Barter 1, Self-Control 1, Singing 1, Dancing 1, Seduction 1,

MINOR PERKS Attractive,

MINOR FLAWS Promiscuous,

SPECIALIST    mid-30s

- craftsman, weaver, owns a loom, cut to bed sheet size, lightweight fabric used as clothes, cloth, a market trade. Fine hemp. It takes a day to make one sheet (on average). loom workshop. owns dying buckets, dyes; indigo from leafs of a blue flower grown a trade route away. woad workshop.

ATTRIBUTES

Might                 1+1

Wits                   3

Toughness        1+1

Agility                3+1

Charm             2

Perception       3

SKILLS

Crafting - loom, Crafting - dying,

MINOR PERKS Fast Reaction (from using the loom), Common Sense,

MINOR FLAWS Tongue Tied, Illiterate,
NOTES:
The Weaver is exceptionally useful in bringing the rest of the group together, with regards the Sorcerers abilities to weave and record data as weaves; flying carpets are scrolls, requiring a library to be large enough to hang many scrolls in; smaller charms something aliken to an americanadian indian dreamcatcher's adorn the residencies rooms and hallways, are window-hangings and doors, are carpets, blankets and ceiling-throws. Artistic scrolls contain imagery appropriate to the particular spell they represent. Colour schemes; sand, tan, indigo, cyan, ochre, umber, black; follow traditional elemental associations. 

...and then it's a toss-up between the following two MAJOR CHARACTER's, one of whom will probably become a Contact for one of the other characters therefore an NPC. The backstory and relationships between the characters has yet to be developed, they are all to be further developed during the course of the adventures.
  

MAJOR CHARACTER mid-20s

- killer, hashashim, ninja assassin, very spiritually dedicated to her discipline which involves use of smoking a herb to achieve inner tranquility necessary to do her job, and for training. She was financially in debt to her dojo, and so instead of repaying her creditors, she discreetly killed them. As such she is, as far as she knows, one of the only two of the students of their master, to have received his teachings. She locked the door of their humble high-walled courtyard and dwellings, and left. After some minor adventure she joined the Wizards retinue.

ATTRIBUTES

Might                 2

Wits                   3

Toughness        2

Agility                4

Charm              1

Perception        4

SKILLS 7 (max 3)

Melee, Dodge, Stealth, Streetwise, Lore (martial arts discipline), Parry,

MAJOR PERKS

Natural Acrobat, Spiritual Guardian,

MAJOR FLAWS

Personal Code -  Has sworn an Oath to protect the life of the Serving Girl,

Personal Code - Ascetic Lifestyle of a martial arts adept,

MINOR PERKS

Danger Sense,

MINOR FLAWS Addiction - hashish, 

MAJOR CHARACTER   mid-40s

- merchant, owns a wide, low, cargo ship with blue sails.

ATTRIBUTES

Might                  2

Wits                    4

Toughness         2

Agility                 2

Charm               4

Perception         2

SKILLS

Sailing, Diplomacy,

MINOR PERKS Haggler, Well Travelled,

MINOR FLAWS Obese, Showman,

MAJOR PERKS Property (low, wide merchant ship), 

MAJOR FLAWS Greedy

And finally, the bit we have all been waiting for...

At this time I have not decided on all of the attributes of the Sorcerer for this troupe. A lot of it depends on which Main Character I decide upon for the troupe. Both have benefits.

SORCERER   age unknown, appears to vary greatly.

water element, wind element,

ATTRIBUTES

Might                  1+1

Wits                    4+1

Toughness          2

Agility                 3

Charm                2+1

Perception         3

SKILLS 7D (max 2)

CONTROLS 14D (max 3)

Scribe Calligraphy Brush Painting,

PERKS

FLAWS

NOTES:
That the Sorcerer is a Scribe means that his spell-scrolls are hand-painted onto finely woven fabric. These are easily portable and may be stitched into a book. There is a place where Art becomes Magick; and so given that a sorcerers magic dies with him; so too will his finest written works. Whatever is left will be less mystically constructed technical notes, which for many is exactly what the mainstream of magical interest are willing for. The Sorcerer, being intelligent, is aware of this. However his students are capable of copying his masterworks during his lifetime as a part of their own studies and by this means many levels of their knowledge and beauty will survive. Anything else enchanted into these works is of the Sorcerers whim.
Sorcerer wears cyan and indigo baggy hooded rag-weave and lined robe which is light in weight but heavy in defences against elements and blows.  It most certainly contains pockets and the weave contains many patterns and symbols, which are said to change like the night sky. It is by this robe which people recognize and remember the Sorcerer.





When creating a sorcerer, I follow the associations of the Hermetic tradition of elements.

Fire - action and passions
Earth - the body
Water - emotions
Air - knowledge

Therefore the types of magic a sorcerer specializes in, give a lot of information to his nature; conversely, to those who might not be aware the character is a sorcerer, his personality gives insight into his abilities. I utilize this in my internal referencing system socially and as a counsellor specializing in Jungian archetypes. My own personal data with this regard is Chinese Year of the Fire Snake and analytical Virgo the water-balancer which is actually an earth sign.

I found this during a google search. The dancer is called Elena Turuk. It is part of the Ma'jiq.

Sorcerers of Ur-Turuk is ©2015 Arion Games. I make no claim of ownership to this properties. It is common sense that online role-playing games for purposes of roleplaying may be utilized as such. Any apparent or alleged copyright infringement is to be regarded as fan fiction.

SorcerersOfUrTuruk

Sorcerers of Ur-Turuk is available from The RPG Drivethru

See The Rogue DM interview with Graham Bottley of Arion Games

Google+ Community

My Troupe

Sorcerers of Ur-Turuk - RPG Review

A lifelong love of roleplaying.
A life changing trip to Thebes.
An ongoing attempt at co-writing Herbertian Dune fan book 7 ‘Sorcerers of Dune’.
A few seasons in Al Raqis (SecondLife) helping develop the Desertborn culture.
An ongoing attempt at writing the ultimate magickal fantasy role-playing game to explore a world where ‘mind-over-matter’ type magick (manifestation of intent at quantum level) is used daily by the mainstream and how rapidly things could change in such environment.

A .pdf copy of Sorcerers of Ur-Turuk (justified as a birthday present to myself for breaking my breadline budget).

I feel qualified to write a review for this one. I glossed over the rulebook, struggling through dry heat to ignore the whispering that I should own slaves and train my party in seduction, possibly including a snake cult priest as one of my five starting characters.


People and Place

Character creation is intricate and complicated, requires study. I have seen versions of these and the system rules so many times that I will learn them more easily as a player rather than by GMing this rpg, at first. As a single-parent dad who introduced my 5 year old to dice-based Wizard and Warrior role-play only yesterday (he’s addicted), I simply do not get the time nor state-of-mind to dedicate to taking on something of such magnitude.

Having made that decision I sat back and enjoyed reading and admiring the art which reminded me of watercolour pictures I have seen made by explorers of ancient Egyptian sites during the late 19th century. There should be more art of Ur-Turuk. In creating any custom world, art which greatly enhances the atmosphere for a game, can be the most expensive and time consuming aspect to produce.


Vahnam

It seems imperative that a Vahnam (a collective of all the Wizards and their small retinue to which all players belong) should get their players heads together before they create their characters, to discuss the Vahnam, its nature and assets. This approach would strengthen the Vahnam’s holdings and potential future development due to foresight. It would also avoid glitches, for example; what if major player characters are from rival factions?

The chapter on creating the physical base for the group is succinct and well done, as this is one of the important aspects of the game. Developing the city of Ur-Turuk for home based adventures is necessary but scant, suggestive. I have a lot of questions and ideas from the summary overview.

There needs to be a lot more about home-based campaigns. The factions are easy enough to understand and improvise with. Activities which the players engage in will affect the life of the city they inhabit.


Artifacts

By contrast to the character creation process, the rules for artifacts themselves seem very basic and limited. While this might not be a bad thing, it is certainly mechanical.

How many artifacts are out there and why are they not already all acquired by sorcerers? Surely Ur-Turuk has a stockpile of such artifacts waiting to be disassembled by different Vahnam. Is there a council of all the Vahnam? A meeting site in the desert for the festival of the eclipse once every few years?

Since the core of the game is the Artifacts, why is there so little gone into this aside from some very limited random creation tables? At the stage where artifacts description is irrelevant and they become reptilian number crunching. The real excitement of role-play is outside of game mechanics, it is the story. A more elaborate backstory involving the source of the wizards power is befitting of this classic. I feel a well thought guide for GMing this rather than a few paragraphs of tables is necessary addition.* I can't wait for the expansion modules, my imagination filling with promise of eastern splendor.


Personal Experience

Create situations regarding integration of all the characters as the story develops. A simple rule that you cannot play the same character in two consecutive seasons / adventures would do this, and make for a busy Vahnam!
The big question; what did each individual character do in that time while the main ones were actively pursuing some adventure? As they are all living communally in the same Vahnam this is the secret flavour of the game. How does each character relate to the other characters in the Vahnam? Make it personal, this is the best way to squeeze the living juice out of this game. Force the magic to take a background role, albeit the ruling force of the groups lives. Game Rule; role-play a scenario of what every character is doing during each season, or at least make vague cover-notes outlining it. The Vahnam journal.

Description is everything. With this game, everything possible should have at least one adjective. This should be a game rule. Play to all the senses. 


Meditation

One question I had hoped to find out more about during reading the rulebook is:

What temperature is the desert at night? What temperature are the cities?

I was inspired by walking bare-foot on cold crazy-paving slabs, thinking about how easily converted to a heated under-floor system they could be with a shovel and a few bricks. The space should be large enough to crawl under and would make an excellent hiding place in any home or ancient temple. That's not to say I thought about burying Sorcerers in the garden.


Bestiary

There are some creatures here which changed my view of the world; riding reptiles! No mention in the rules for the simple exchange of mule packs and horses into raptor-racers and giant lizard mounts trained by an animal trainer. These should not be left to the cliche of ‘the vehicles used by the snake cult as alternative to equine mounts’.


Elephant In The Temple

I am disconcertingly saddened by the situation of facing that the wizards know magic to be a limited and dwindling force in the world. This is immediately the driving force of any wizard character I will ever play; to find out how to make magic more permeable, other than by leaving artifacts in protected storage for the future generations.

What does a Wizard do once having mastered all aspects of magic and maxed out in their ability at it? Surely by then their personal insight into magic might help to answer such questions. If it does, the GM is left entirely to his own devices as to how this might emerge. It does not have to be beyond the canon material. 

A belief that the Alulim will ever return is a religion which the wizards cannot invest energy into relying upon, and yet they must in case it should ever happen. They have to accept their lot; to choose between living a humble and forgotten life of research, a glorious and ultimately mythic life of legend or die trying, or the more altruistic approach to work hard toward the effort of making magic permeable. How else can we truly understand the study of magic than to pursue that specific goal? Learning more about the Alulim becomes imperative. The core rules limit the available knowledge of the Alulim to a few charts which do not even mention the possibility that they left decipherable texts behind; and to the GMs discretion.*


Abstraction

The players invest a lot of time and creative focus into designing their Wizard, retinue and how this integrates with the other players characters, in the formulation of their collective home address.

Personally I cannot put this amount of this type of work into a project without also becoming immersed in aspirations I have for my characters and the group as a whole; “what are the common objectives?”. Although it can be entirely left out of the game with no loss of enjoyment, to my way of thinking a lot of time must be dedicated to discussing this between the group and the GM. There is epic amount of scope to build on the foundations of this books simplicity. For that I like it.

This my sort of a game. It needs expansion packs which twenty years ago would have been integrated into the core rule book; a sign of how the rpg industry is developing.


Summary

The book is a rules system, complex to learn but easy once you know it, set in a promising world which requires a lot from the GM. It seems that the more experience and romanticism a GM has toward understanding and developing the setting is crucial in what will define memorable campaigns. It could be of the realms of 'card-quest permutations the board-game' or it could be Sinbad. It could be even better. 

A collection of proverbs which will characterize the culture begins with the famous;

“What is the world?”
"It is what we bring to the table."

Wizards of Ur-Turuk houses brilliant ideas which will benefit greatly from developing further, integration of some of the ideas; the world and its features. I cannot wait to see the expansion modules. I want to know more about the 7 Lineages. I want to work on the 2nd Edition.*

Next on my reading list is The Thousand and One Nights (again).





*
To address this; I intend to write Enchanted Dawn, a fan based book to re-create the Artifact creation table by giving Artifacts an ‘Original Purpose' which affects the progressive campaign by means of karmic continuum. It is an expanded rules series.

Artifacts are magic and they call to their owners, those who are to learn from them, ultimately unbind them and destroy them, to re-work their energies into their own. [i]But which way around does this flow?[i] Symbols of these connections are multi-sensory, worked into several levels of the storyline. Without making effort to do so, they are simply a pacman pill won at great risk.

What are the long term effects of using magic? In a world where limited artifacts exist and are regularly destroyed, their magic used up by a sorcerer but dies with that sorcerer; the game is established at a time in history when magic is still available. It will not always be so.

Finding out more about the Alulim, is this even possible? Is it possible by using magic?

A Council of the Vahnam meets to address these issues. The Council of Vahnam Library contains a lot of information regarding Artifacts and their origins. Different Vahnam also function as Factions; for and against one another.




Sorcerers of Ur-Turuk is available from The RPG Drivethru

See The Rogue DM interview with Graham Bottley of Arion Games

Google+ Community


ADDITIONAL: 21.9.2015
https://soundcloud.com/snakeappletree-white-lightning-gate/ur-turuk-snake-trance


Sorcerers of Ur-Turuk is ©2015 Arion Games. I make no claim of ownership to this properties. It is common sense that online role-playing games for purposes of roleplaying may be utilized as such. Any apparent or alleged copyright infringement is to be regarded as fan fiction.

UnicornHuntersE4

Preface
Chapter One  Chapter Two  Chapter Three  Chapter Four  Chapter Five  Chapter Six  Chapter Seven   
The Unicorn Hunters

Chapter Four

Meadow tames me with spring softness into an autumn comfort. Directs my skills to positivity. I need her. I cannot tell you who or how many who's i have been used against my will to kill by remote. I cannot tell you what other depravity I was involved in. When i began healing instead of harming, as my will and awareness grew stronger, when i began riding higher and with more positive light, the back of my heart erupted with light and i began to become invisible to the ones who were stealing me from my sleep and forcing dreamings upon me. These dreamings are not fantasy, they are really real in the really real real. It is far outside the bounds of Mental Health textbooks, what officially is known about it is classified military secrets. Meadow taught me a white light meditation, filling myself with white light as i breathe until my body glows with it. Inner tranquility.

Meadow is not on mental health henefits as she has avoided the system entirely throughout her whole life. For most of it she has lived in forests, on traveler sites, squats and her friends council houses, all across the country. What she needs comes to her and she goes where she is needed. She embodies freedom. Her journey has brought her to this place.

The garden centre has a converted barn extended by a corrugated metal shelter which we all hate despite it being useful, providing an outdoor place to sit in the dry and stare through the few plants left by its previous owners at the trees behind it from the road. After a few days here we had re-oriented our center away from coming in, into looking out. We discussed sky-places from where we project down our understanding of the place from the air, and decided to meet there tonight during dream.

My skill at astral travel, remote viewing and an ability to connect with others, riding hosts, to have persuasive powers as a voice in their head which many mistake for their own mind to be doing the talking because they cannot see; all this is why my role as facilitator. My focus. Its inner systems. Meadows gentleness takes us through into the dimensions we want to go. Her emotion. Its inner symbolism. Jake boosts my scope, we work together, with his ability to connect with frequencies which he hears as sounds. His harmony. Its rhythms. The music of our souls.

"When the others arrive shall we have a pentacle." Expresses Meadow. Her voice speaks the words not as a question, she talks backwards like that "from cider and origin." It sounds or feels like she says, festival rather than pentacle. She speaks on many levels and challenges us to accept. This is our riddle game. We all play it endlessly. What makes us the shamen is that we do so knowingly. Meadow most of all.

That night we dreamed intensely.

It took us a while to orientate; i was stuck in the forest until i remembered, upward! Meadow down by the river tho to her it appeared as a stream. Jake swooped in and two others, spirit guides or other travelers, perhaps but we don't like to think about that the shadow ones, lost guides turned nasty. We could all feel them and in the minds eye perhaps see them. United we function as one eye, usually we need time to orientate. We have done this a few times before but only once so powerfully, when we brought along the unicorn and vision-made this place into being. We do not all see each others spirit guides, though they are not always presenting themselves visibly anyway.

The presence of others took its effect as we mingled and accepted our relationship with the others at deeper soul level of understanding than is easy to write about in words. We settled into each other by making peace, sharing understanding, feeling their chakras insert into our own and adapting to the balance. In the balance often barter. Their powers became ours for the journey.

We flew over our landscape, seeing the ruins, a column of white so bright we could not look toward it, the stone circle, the spring. Fields and forests. Dreamers more conscious than human sleepers, animals in their burrows and nests, involved in their own Dreamings.

We saw deadlands beyond where industry, concrete and gaseous metal had closed areas off of the dream. We felt starlight like water upon us. We waited until the density above our heads had lifted, so we may rise. Waiting at the Gate until accepted, a natural sign will alert you to the opening of the second gate. To go through the first is to bring dust of your journeys with you. To go through the second is to enter cleansed that you may see the next crossing more purely as it truly is. A lighter frequency. And then to the next gate. A gate is a moment expanded through time. It can be depicted through symbol. We share common symbols, between us have a repertoire sufficient to deal with most crossings.

An awareness flows through us; it is because we said hello to the stones. The word for stones is also light. Crystal, but the emanation for which crystal is a conduit. It affects the light grid through which particles filter with such high refinement that sleepers cannot see it, only dreamers and the dead, and those of other realms who share this space for their passage or their home.

From the higher perception we did our work. When we awoke on a different wave of consciousness the next mid-late morning, we remembered as much as we can of it. Jake made voice recording, I wrote in my dream diary and Meadow told us what she had seen. We shared our information and extrapolated what we must do now. We had our mission for the time of us being here, tasks we must perform. It all works for the balance so that the paths of our lives and those around us can continue toward the highest frequencies possible. Gradually through centuries we are working toward a state of attaining higher and higher frequencies. This is the Ascent and it affects our consciousness. We awaken.

Except that night, for that dreaming, it did not go like that. The strangers were together, one like us a unicorn hunter and its spirit ally, although one could as easily call it the other way around, a spirit and the human with whom it travels. Often, so often it is human sleepers who are bound by spirits of the Otherworlds, we see this regularly.

The unicorn hunter was not from our time although in the astral and especially so close to a shrine, matters of time ceased to matter. We learn an alternate system of physics. Spirit sciences. Time is mass and mass is time. In the realm of conscious dreaming it is the self who creates an ephemeral version of mass, it is our lucidity and focus by which we create time. Our group enhances this, our balance unique and its own flow. The unicorn hunter and his ally were harmonic to our own flow, by desire.

He was excited to meet us. I visualized him as a short fat man dressed in steampunk attire, leather straps and breeches. His ally was deflecting the shrine light from behind him so that he did not cast a shadow, by this he was difficult to read, to know, to see. His presence was strong and assertive, we did not shift or scatter, we held with him. It felt important to do so.

Around the shrine, countless other dimensions shifted, a spine of kaliedescopic spokes rotating, through which energy rises. As other energy threads flow around the core, gates open through which other dreamers find their levels.

"How did you find us?"

"Unicorn."

We knew this meant it wants rescuing, obviously another unicorn hunter would have some sort of ability to hear its call for help, he would after all have been listening for such things.

His gesture, interpret that however you will, the symbol image of a ghostly smokey unicorn head in the space between us momentarily at chest height, his desire to capture one revealing his quest and beyond that his true nature, murderous black of his eyes, sureness of such volume and gravity it made dense of the particles around us, held up only by the hope of his aspiration.

We were at once accused, revered, and requested that he may invite himself upon us, through us to meet our unicorn, a wild power which we had enslaved for our mastery. The dreaming unicorn swept up through us.

"Who is this guy?"

His power was immense. He released the unicorn from our bond, using our guilt reaction and pride as a lever. Had he intended to do so was irrelevant; the will of the unicorn was far beyond ours. We were swept up with it. I felt Meadow beside me gripping it by its mane. Jake gripping its tail. Something dark flew up past us, travelling faster than the unicorn only by a degree and within its flow. The elation of that freedom and the fierce drive of the unicorns desire to escape its tether and run fast and far, we felt that too in its entirety. As the unicorn shed its attachments to that place, it shed us, as a snake sheds its skin. It shed us so powerfully that we also shed ourselves. And yet we fripped, sending one another bursts of energy to strengthen our bond. If one of us had fallen, we all would. It was a challenge we did not intend to face.

The unicorn slowed.

The spirit ally of our encounter was now projecting a shield to shadow all three of us from the awareness of the unicorn. It did not know we were there! It was relaxing, we all were. Shaking its mane and trodding its new ground. Its heart hardwired to its brain and beyond, it had gone home to a safe place. Around us... green haven.

We had to be quiet incase the unicorn heard us thinking. We knew that we had to capture the unicorn again: in case we got stuck here, even if not for our original purpose. And then the scene changed.

We were in a large luxury stable. The colours of the stable are the same as those on the ring which the cunning spirit ally had placed over the unicorns horn; a tether! Brown, tan and silver. The steampunk guy was waiting for us.

We were exhilarated, we met him with laughter despite we acknowledged him as thief.

"There are those who would not go to the liberty of preserving the animal; taking simply the tusk. Cutting it off. Killing the beast."

We climbed off the unicorn. It was standing still, listening, observing. Its heart flared out in reach to analyze the surroundings. Its tusk flared out for same purpose and to project its will into the particles from which the realm was constructed, to re-shape them. The projection failed, they remained as they were.

"It is a strong chain. Specially made."

He would have attacked us if he were hostile. He was confident. A thief bothering to open up conversation with the people from whom he had stolen, directly following the theft.

"Yet truly, the unicorn is not yours to keep. It having become property is now appropriated. Thus sealing the bond upon it. It escaped from you, its first gate. There are three with your binding and this is the second. It binds you also into its service. In course, I shall no longer be its master. What I do is a necessity, and a consequence of the path which yourselves started."

"Who are you?"

"You still seek to possess it. You have done your bit and may do so again in the full circle of time. This is the bind I have worked into my... it's tether. Already you have learned much, already you are experts at this chase. Welcome. There are some of us who have been doing this for some time."

"Are you Victorian?"

"We should find the third. The unicorn knows already what must befall it and what path it will shape."

The unicorn was looking pissed off.

"Worry not, we are a step closer toward capturing a unicorn."

"We had already caught it." Sarcastically.

"No, indeed you have not. There are planes and depths you do not know of, places where unicorns go, we can barely imagine."

"Where are we?"

"Within the ring, of course."

"What will you do with it?"

He smiled.

Back in the normal world:

"I can't believe we lost a fucking unicorn."


continues at: Chapter Five

UnicornHuntersE3

Preface
Chapter One  Chapter Two  Chapter Three  Chapter Four  Chapter Five  Chapter Six  Chapter Seven   

The Unicorn Hunters

 

Chapter Three

"Marlen bach, ke be mennid u wal?"
Translation: Merlin boy, can you be mending the wall?

Authors note; i am no expert in the tongue of ancient Britons. This is purely atmospheric purposes.

Merlin was fed up. He could feel and at times even see through the eyes of another Merlin, one yet to come. He was unsure was it himself in the future, perhaps his next life, with whom he had this strange connection. It had become an obsession for him, strengthening his understanding of what was happening with him, and finding out why nobody else around him was experiencing life this way. They called it his madness, at times such as he tried to describe it. He had learned not to.

His father and mother did not understand it, feared it. He had ran away and lived five seasons alone in the deep woods, a time during which his ability enhanced. Though he studied with the wise whenever he could, to such extent they were talking of sending him to the white monks except for the work needed doing here, even his idle hands were better than none; becoming a man of learning in their foreign culture seemed impossible and felt wrong somehow, deep within him where the dark guide dwells. He spoke with it, it came to him in dreams. He knew the imagery and memories to be those of living another life in another age. Carved stone coming to life through forms at once both pictorial and writing. Merlin had ambitions to construct of wood as his peoples tradition similar symbols. The elders directed him toward the tree script and stories of his own culture, should in education he find a way to explain his sight. Were it ever useful to his people would have been another matter.

They told him tales of the crone who died a generation ago near here. Merlin spoke with her also and surprised them by 'just simply knowing' the hidden meanings of the stories she had told them, which were passed on verbally; stories which enchanted and inspired the tribes. Merlin read the stories for their wisdom and he taught others. Soon reputation his madness was replaced by acceptance of his intelligence. He was sent as envoy of his people to the local lords castle, to learn and to work, to find his way onto the nobles council. He was sent on missions as a spy and a messenger.

Merlin knew that he was connecting with souls, some his own and others who were around him now and yet sleeping, sleeping because in their dream they had work to do, work which took lifetimes to accomplish. Unifying all of the tribes to end war and begin progress so as to improve the human condition. He saw the patterns of life changing all through the ages and he recalled its long-sighted lessons in times of his peoples need.

This is how we remember him.

This chapter of the story is for Paul, who taught me around a stone circle at the turn of the millennium, a festival attended by thousands of people and not all of them sleepers; the Celtic battle dress of war against the oppressor, purple combat trousers and a hooded shaman top. Who told me the mental health services had classified him as schizophrenic for believing himself to be Merlin. He explained to me how he had connected with the Merlin energy, so much of the ancient ways made perfect sense to him. Who showed me the oldest standing stone in the city, placed long ago before romans came. The stone was crystal, some weathered gray type of granite containing large chunks of volcanically created quartz. A piece of the heart of the earth. We placed our hands on it.

This was one of my initiatory rites into Druidry, it happened because the Great Spirit guided us. What amazed me about Paul is he seemed to have stepped outside of being a man with concerns of a man and was walking the path of myth, it was holy energy. A different fire burned in his eyes, starlight pure and kind. He transmitted information by the pace of his breath controlling the level of his heart, my heart received and the brain converted it to memory and knowledge. I transceived all the workings of a man puzzling all of this out and crossing over into a world beyond todays society. Chance meetings born of destiny.

Where he had began to remember, I began to remember. Once having seen, shared, experienced, merged with other selves in other times and places, integrated that picture as a continuum. One can never go back. Modern society has no concept of integrity.

The legend says Merlin was born backwards in time.

The next fifteen years were visits from future selves, stemming back because I was reaching forward with such clarity of focus. I was diagnosed as schizophrenic by mental health services of the same instructions manual and put onto long-term sickness benefits. Several years later they adjusted it to more accurate, schizotypal disorder. Reclusive due to traumatic experiences, inability to retain close personal friendships, possibly belief in fictional versions of reality, typically sensory hallucinations in extreme cases - the classic 'hearing voices'.

When was the last time you heard a voice? When was the last time you listened? When did you last listen to the silence so keenly that you heard what is really going on in there? Did you hear it? Did you hear us, dancing all over time and singing our colours, partying and fighting to blood and bone to keep going, to keep it going for all of us. Those who do not hear the song, those who do not sing. Those who cannot see and cannot read the flow of patterns. Eventually it makes sense. I am one of those who hears them so well, it is the mundane mind of the deaf to which I am deaf. Yes i hear voices, did you mean by asking that do I hear imaginary voices? I ask not to be elusive but for clarity. The sleepers are robots, they have not learned to use their minds beyond reaffirming the status quo of the sleepers. They are disconnected from the flow of life, they do not know who they are.

We seek others like us, so we journey. Our tribes are scattered and more so due to the prejudice against us and all the other missions we have going on. Those who scatter us through time cannot cause us to forget, for we have awoken. Those who sharpen our focus as they pitch themselves against us, well informed by ancient records and ancient mystic which the rulers damn well know to be the higher truth even though their footsoldiers and the masses are gridded into a system which serves them well.

We have eternity because we make it so. And yet, we change on the journey.

Agents require a certain kind of traumatized mindset. They use a lot of either-or scenarios to test, left or right, working ways around a problem. The art of worrying. The pressure tempo of such frets is a loop cycle at whatever frequency they need to grip you, and then they change it, bringing you with it, the rise or dip in frequency connecting with left and right. Over a few cycles, rhythms develop, the grip becomes tighter and enables room for accessing a deeper level of the mind. Alpha Beta Theta Delta Omega clones and several more classifications. Experiences traumatic to the target are used as scenarios to progress and manipulate the target through different arenas, in which he or she acts out and opens gates into different perceptions. Effectively the human organism is used as a circuit to access other abilities, people and locations. What it does to the individual who inhabits the body, ultimately is burn-out. A lot of hypnosis is involved.

I awoke during these processes because it was necessary for me to do so for them to access specific requirements. I awoke because after so many repetitions, the observer makes sense on a wider basis. I anticipate a form of electronic artificial intelligence must go through these progressive self awareness stages, that is what evolution feels like and usually it is painful as we ingest alien materials and they mutate us psychedelically, physically, mentally. They, the controllers of this abominable experiment by which we its victims learn, they are always a step ahead.

The window was open for long enough for me to see the clear picture of the other side, and I figured it out with the help of others who were in similar positions to myself. They link us together as crews to do missions because many minds are better than one in holding open the gates for them to send the bulk of information they send through. We are the stargates. When we awake we remember little of this. My crew found a way to get free and that's what we did, dwindling in our number as we went. I refuse to return to help the others because to do so I will fail in my intention to get totally clear of the ones doing this. It attracts attention. This was our rule, no going back. We know that eventually we will by laws of nature, great spirit, reconnect elsewhere. Now is a time of healing the trauma, a time which will take a lifetime.

What we know of the ones doing this is insignificant to how it connects with the knowledge of my ancestors, the cultural traditions of Celts and Druids, of the Mayans and Egyptians, so many others. Living knowledge that the myths are a living thing. These same evolutionary developments that occur when we start using more than ten percent of our brains, described in ancient stones, stories and songs, traditions we keep alive because they are our guiding symbols. The monocracy cannot prevent that, ever, despite their consistently trying for thousands of generations.

The pain sharpens the focus. The freedom release is to go in the direction of least pressure. At its edge, we pause for a moment and in this short gap we see both sides of the gate and decide, step through or turn back? We keep going. Knowing now enough to activate the gates simultaneously, all across time. Knowing that the change is coming, is here, and has been. Three sights at once into a single focus, piercing depths of time. We make our flow.

continues at:  Chapter 4