Sir Nicholas Lovecraft - Thomas K

Sir Nicholas Lovecraft Player: Thomas K
Rank: Knight (Rank 1)
Religion: Church of England
Email: nicholas_lovecraft@albion.chaosdeathfish.com

A student of magic, Sir Nicholas was educated at home and on Malta and is rumoured to have spent some time abroad, performing esoteric research. He has recently returned to take up a lecturing and research post as his alma mater, the Invisible College.

He is known to suffer badly from a withered left arm, and it is rumoured that the ailment stems from some magical accident during his travels.

Eternity

Duke of the Cliffs of Shattersoul

Extracts from “An Encyclopaedia of Practical Daemonology”, Invisible College Press, 1750

“…after certain terrible bargains with Baphomet, the newly-formed demon Nicholael acceded by force of arms and right of conquest to the Duchy of the Cliffs of Shattersoul, a mountainous region in the southern reaches of the Fifth Circle. Although the trials of a mortal man attempting to grow into his full power as a Duke of Hell are many and long, Nicholael maintained a ruthless cunning, a series of alliances among those Demons he had once dealt with as a mortal sorcerer, and a reputation for cruelty if crossed which stood him in good stead during those first, shaky years. Eventually, the Duke of Shattersoul grew sovereign over many and varied matters, including false accusations, scorpions, and unwary academics. The involvement of Infernal influences in the Volcano Wars of the Philippines is widely assumed to have some connection with Duke Nicholael, and he is one of the beings whom unwary Sorcerers are often warned against calling up without the strongest of wards and protections…

…ancient legends which suggest that the ritual which maintains Nicholael's potency is augmented by a banner from the Library of Baphomet, and that somewhere, hidden perhaps within his Duchy or even within the Mortal realm, is an ancient Magician's House with this Banner as its centrepiece. Budding demon-hunters and foolhardy adventurers have often sought to find the location of this object, with little success, and the modern Sorcerous academe is largely of the opinion that the item is entirely apocryphal…”

Epilogue

Extracts from the personal Log of William Blazeworthy, Captain of the Lancelot - First Lunar Expeditionary Force, Albion Space Exploration Agency, 1888.

“Day 3. Cavorite engines to full power, turbines running to speed. Two-stage angelic lift catapult separation complete. Amenadiel departed this morning, wishing us Godspeed. All readings suggest that we are on-course for a deceleration within +/- 0.5% of predicted scales.

Earlier, Riegler estimated that it was safe to open the blast-shutters. The sight that greeted us was truly astounding. Our home, the Earth itself, from space – naturally we took several good shots with the illusiphotes, though Wrackham is concerned that overexposure to the aetheric-theurgic anomalies in the atmosphere might cause them to develop poorly. I feel overwhelmed and privileged to have seen such a sight, even for only a few fleeting moments; even if there is no record. Rabbi Namictli led a small service before dinner, and I found myself bowing my head, despite myself. That the entire planet of our birth could appear in the compass of a quartz-crystal porthole…”

“Day 6. On final approach to moon landing. Wrackham is reading some very strange anomalies on the aura-detection valve harnesses, but Riegler has been tapping out Castaldi-code on the listening drums all day and assures us that Control thinks it's a glitch in the instruments, not anything to worry about. Visual survey of the moon's surface sees nothing out of the ordinary…”

“Day 12. Finally repaired the minor damage to the landing-struts. Control assures us that considering the risks, it was a textbook landing, which isn't exactly reassuring. Wrackham and I have been taking instrumental readings and rock samples all afternoon, and have discovered some deeply interesting caves which we intend to explore further. Riegler took the Clockwork Worm out early this morning, claiming he was going looking for that odd shadow he saw on our final approach. Frankly I think it's clear that the light side is completely uninhabited, and if he did see a banner or standard of some sort then it's from some long-gone civilisation who came, saw, conquered and left this rock as fast as they could…”

“Day 13. Riegler still missing. Putting together a search-party now. Stores indicate he only took enough food and water for three days.”

“Day 15. Interred as much of Riegler's body as we could find. Can only dig a shallow grave in this rock and dust. Wrackham wants to go back out there and try to recover the Worm, the Rabbi wants to try and find what killed him. Control says we need to abort immediately…

Can't see Earthlight any more. Everything red under the light of that hellish banner. God forgive me, I wish I had never seen the thing, I feel it will never leave me…”

“Day 17. They are coming. We can't hold out much longer. The fuel cells are damaged, and I found claw-marks on the aerofoil flaps when I went out for the inspection this morning. We'll never make it; we'll burn up on blast-off. I haven't told Wrackham. The Rabbi is still comatose, and the Clockwork Surgeon says there's something… incubating… inside him. Better we burn up than bring one of those things back to Earth.

I'm jettisoning this diary in a sealed canister from one of the Theurgic torpedo tubes, in the hope that it reaches home, someday, somehow. The listening drums have been silent all day. Control has to know what happened.

Initiating lift-off countdown…”

bio/nicholas_lovecraft.txt · Last modified: 2008/03/04 13:51 by helen