Monday 11 August 2014

At Offalmongers' Folly

I'm going to finish the Arcane Dwellings table at Gorgonmilk entry by entry. This is the first. If you want to jump in, no need even to ask: post here.

Here it is then, weird and maybe a little gross. If it's a mealtime, you might want to stop right now.

Offalmongers' Folly

Those are no faultlines shaking our homes, nor true hills running with slides of mud, but the buried folds of the hide of a sleeping beast that lies across the worlds, a beast enclosed by skin on this side of the void, and maybe on the other; its viscera somewhere in between. We know because we climbed in - down the rabbit hole and out through one of the pores; we found the offalmongers' mark and copies in triplicate of the commission: to feed this world by teasing living tissue in from the beings of an outer realm. But the organs spilled, and flooded the land, and the 'mongers commissioned next a retaining membrane, fine and tight; and gave form to a new form of life. And what a growth spurt it's putting on! It's down there now, squirming and fit to burst. Brooding supervolcanoes? Interplanetary megaweapons? Nothing, our friend, to the bang when this goes up! In the meantime there's fine dining, and warmth all year round, not to mention that versatile pseudodermis, its delicate capillaries pumping otherworldly ichors. For research or revelry? You choose! Mining facility, manufactory and palace in one - what an abode! Might we interest you in a chamber..?

I'll keep at it, unless you get there first. If you're in, don't hold back - it's for UL after all.
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