#and if it's alive and sentient no matter how many generations upon generations of evil have been done | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sketchiedetails · 6 years

Text

After finishing God Hand, it made me wanna play more of Capcom’s forgotten franchises and I moved on to the Onimusha series. I played Onimusha 2 a lot back in the day so it was interesting to see how relatively simple the first game is compared to its sequels.

I’ve always liked Onimusha’s tone because it’s this weird blend of hack n slash action within a survival horror framework for gameplay, while the story touches on historical fiction with some macabre elements but it’s not scary tense in the way the older Resident Evil games evoked since you have a better chance at defending yourself in these games whereas in RE you’re better off saving your ammo and minimizing combat.

youtube

Onimusha is set in Feudal Japan during its Warring States period, and the story supposes that Oda Nobunaga actually died in battle but got better after making a pact with demons, which requires sacrificing large numbers of humans as tribute. The game starts with wandering samurai Samanosuke Akechi answering a letter from Princess Yuki of the Saito clan regarding stories of monsters preying on her people.

youtube

I like the juxtaposition of that bombastic intro followed by the subdued delivery by Yuki’s VA to set the tone of the game. There’s gonna be highs and lows, and the characters are all gonna be melodramatic. Samanosuke himself is played straight as a knight errant who remains committed to rescuing Yuki and stopping the demons.

youtube

Onimusha starts off relatively tame by introducing Samanosuke and his partner the kunoichi Kaede as they enter Inabayama Castle. Not even five minutes into the game and Samanosuke faces demon ninjas and the even larger threat, Osric. I really like the boss designs in Onimusha, both in how they look like a mix of traditional demonic aesthetics but with accents of Japanese fashion and armor and how they just look so fluid when they move. I’ll probably go more into that detail later on with a couple of Onimusha 2′s boss encounters.

youtube

Samanosuke’s valiant efforts at defending Yuki are met with a colossal bitchslap as he blacks out. A voice calls out to him in the void and bestows upon him the ability to defeat demons. A rival clan calling themselves Ogres gives him a gauntlet that will allow him to wield more powerful weapons capable of slaying demons and the ability to absorb their souls. This is Onimusha’s main gameplay conceit and it provides a constant state of tension between being defensive and aggressive against enemies while taking the time to absorb their souls and leaving yourself vulnerable to attack. I like how the gauntlet is implied to be sentient and alive with its blinking eye and it’s cool that it changes appearance over the course of the game as you absorb more and more souls. An interesting thing to note is that no matter what kind of armor you don it always appears as if your gauntlet arm’s sleeve has been torn off as if to imply that the gauntlet doesn’t like being covered up.

youtube

This is where Onimusha really starts. For most the game, you’ll navigate around the castle’s perimeter to slay demons and solve puzzles either by finding the right key for the right lock - and they won’t always look like keys or locks - or by performing simple tasks like sliding tiles or pulling the right lever. Its Resident Evil roots stand out the most during these segements. Boss battles punctuate key moments in the story and they’re all pretty interesting in their own way. I don’t recall any real low points besides the fight with your doppelganger since I think the game wants you to repel the magic he throws at you to win but it’s more reliable to attack him when he exposes himself, which is a tall order since the arena is cramped an he’s got the same reach with his weapons as you do and loves to turtle.

The souls you absorb from demons allows you to recover health and magic, but also more importantly allows you to enhance your weapons and their elements so that they deal more damage and open up stronger elemental locks you’ll face later in the game. The really cool thing I like about enhancement in this game is that you can use souls to upgrade recovery Herbs into Medicine and projectile weapons like arrows and bullets turn into more powerful versions by investing souls into them.

The hardest part for me to adapt to Onimusha’s controls was how strafing worked with the fixed camera angles. When you hold the Stance button, you lock on to the nearest enemy and the tank controls switch over to a strafing system that allows you to circle your target and avoid their strikes or look for exposed areas when enemies are blocking. It took a while to get where I wanted to move Samanosuke around in relation to which directional buttons I was pushing, and I’m still not sure if I’ve fully adapted. There’s some cool flourishes to the mostly simple combat, such as the ability to do a lethal counter hit if you lock onto an enemy and press the attack button just as they’re about to hit you. A flash of white occurs, and the enemy dies and leaves behind a more generous supply of souls than if you had fought them regularly, and it’s a simple yet effective risk-and-reward system because you could leave yourself to an attack and Samanosuke relies mainly on soul drops to heal with Medicine as a backup measure during boss encounters. Another important thing to consider during combat is that you need to press the block button again after deflecting the attack if you want to defend against a consecutive attack because the hits will throw you off your stance.

I love the demon designs here because they’re both grotesque and at some points comical and that tonal dissonance adds to their inhuman nature. The other thing is that for some reason all the higher demons are named after characters from Shakespeare’s plays. This laughing Void-knockoff is apparently called Guildenstern (I didn’t see any reference to his name at all in any of the in-game text, and I’m not sure if the manual spoils their appearance in the game so I can’t say for sure if there’s any supplemental material there), and the final boss of the game is named Fortinbras, Hamlet’s rival and thematic doppelganger.

(I’ve still got a few more things to highlight, but I think I hit the limit of how many videos I can link to in a post so I’ll show them off in Part 2)

#onimusha #thinking bout games

1 note · View note

vajranam · 3 years

Text

THE 70 VERSES TO KUNTU ZANGPO

THE 70 VERSES TO KUNTU ZANGPO : Homage to the awakening warrior, the entirely good Kuntu Zangpo . 1. Homage to the Buddhas gone to bliss, endowed with an accumulation to immeasurable precious qualities, who have uprooted every last poisoned tree of moral failings and who abide during the three times throughout the ten directions. . 2. Homage to the truth of Dharma, that opens the wisdom eye of beings in all three realms, that disperses the gloom of unknowing and is the means for extracting the poisonous arrow of latent tendencies. . 3. Homage to the Ones Gone to Bliss, the sangha intent on virtue, who never revert to (worldliness) and whose thoughts are motivated by great compassion. Unceasingly I bow my head to all who have opened the eye of their mind. . 4. Whatever slight nonvirtue I have committed throughout my lifetimes, or have encouraged or rejoiced in, I lay bare before the Conquerors and pledge never to commit them again. . 5. Without exception I rejoice in the virtue accumulated by those Gone to Bliss, Solitary Realizers, Listeners and Conqueror's Sons, and other wholesome deeds of worldly beings. . 6. Whatever nonvirtue creatures commit confounded by venomous afflictions, for them may I surely plunge alone with pleasure into the realms of hell. . 7. Having satiated the world with the nectar of peaceful delight, may everyone's mind become active in virtue. May I willingly take on myself as much misery as beings have. . 8. May perfect awakening itself be produced soon in the minds of those beings. May those who have generated the pure awakening thought perfectly accomplish the collections for enlightenment. . 9. By accomplishing the collections of virtue and attaining the spiritual levels, by remaining in the lineage of protectors of all three worlds and by annihilating the foes (of Dharma), may the abode of the great kingdom of truth over the three worlds be attained. . 10. No matter how many days there have been since the awakened beings became enlightened under the Bodhi tree--I beseech those who are alive and abiding hereafter to cause the incomparable nectar of truth to rain upon ongoing beings. . 11. I entreat those nobly-minded ones who have completed sublime activities for the sake of others and who are about to enter the supreme state beyond sorrow to remain for a long time acting to benefit others. . 12. However many sentient beings there are wandering in the gloomy three worlds, I shall invite them as my guests to savor the blissful nectar of extreme peace. . 13. Whatever virtue has been accumulated in this way shall be totally dedicated for perfect awakening. . Thus, may I never be apart for even an instant from Bodhichitta, the mind intent on enlightenment. . 14. Until the rank of those gone to bliss, the basis of complete perfection, is gained, may I never be apart from the leader of the subdoers and the awakening warriors. . 15. They are the ones who finely elucidate the path of benefiting others. May I also advance, free from despondency, through every spiritual level of sons of the Awakened Ones. . 16. May my body be complete with the physical attributes of a human and amassed with the qualities worthy of praise of all creatures. May I recollect past lives, be born to an honorable family, and have an attractive body. . 17. Having discarded the vile action of ceasing to aid others, but zealously working for my welfare alone (aroused) by thoughts tormented by compassion, may I cherish dearly all creatures without favoring one. . 18. May there not be the slightest grasping in the thoughts of others at my possessions, which I consider the wealth of others, but may they take and use whatever they wish like someone who never doubts their own wealth. . 19. Even if someone should demand my flesh may I offer it with pleasure in my eyes. May I always donate my limbs and so on for the welfare of sentient beings. . 20. May I, like a wish-fulfilling gem, provide all that beings desire and may I, like a wish-granting tree, completely fulfill their hopes. . 21. May I spontaneously banish all evil actions far away like filth and may I never breach the dam of precepts proclaimed by the supreme subdoer. . 22. By abolishing concern for my body and life, may I always enjoy places of solitude, and may my thoughts turn away from all gains and honor as if they were poisoned food. . 23. Like a child of lonely status, I will discard arrogance, self-importance and pride towards beings, and shall act to establish harmonious relations like in the gathering of kin from a noble family. . 24. May I be accustomed to ethical discipline, an ornament utterly pacifying all obscurations, stainless like moonlight and the root of a lotus--untorn, unmixed and unsoiled. . 25. Although someone against whom I have done no harm should saw my head, splitting it into thousands of pieces, I shall unceasingly hold him dear in my mind just as a mother cherishes her only son. . 26. Should someone be angry with me from his heart and needlessly rob me of my life, may the unbearable and bitter fruits of his actions never arise. . 27. Although anger, abuse, provocation and aggression should besiege me, may I never forsake patience, but willingly take on all adversity to willingly practice the deeds of the conqueror's sons. . 28. Thus, may the dangling rope of doubt never saw into my mind for even an instant over the extremely profound and highly logical Dharma of the Subdoer, that never before I could find. . 29. May I, who am born from lifetime to lifetime, by earnestly acting to benefit all beings, never fail to engage in vast virtues for even a mere moment in time. . 30. Like a servant may I accomplish all the tasks of every living being and, having accepted the burden of working for all, may sentient beings abide in happiness. . 31. Since my body acts as a servant for others even when speaking, may I be pleased to teach them Dharma and may my thoughts constantly be empowered by the mind endeavoring to benefit others. . 32. Even if I alone have to undergo misery for innumerable aeons in hell, still may I ripen sentient beings spiritually without ever becoming weary. . 33. Surely, in the very process of accomplishing (the welfare of others) I actually will don this very armor of spiritually nurturing the three types of beings so they may become disciplined. . 34. May I joyfully cross without hesitation pits so filled with burning embers of fire that there is no space so as to hear even one word of the good doctrine. . 35. In abandoning being enticed by the results of all concentrations and formless absorptions, but by dwelling on the supreme limit of perfection, may I be accustomed purely to the bliss that arises. . 36. Having mounted the horse of calm abiding that is not obsessed (with the warm experience of meditative absorption), may I tame the mind that naturally roams, is most difficult to tame, and ventures alone on the wrong path. . 37. Since the supremely fine riches possessed by rulers of gods and universal emperors, being in the nature of desire are just like filth, may I never hold them in high regard. . 38. There is no joy drifting through this existence similar to a burning house of iron, but being led by compassion, may I be reborn wherever it is conducive to assist others. . 39. Whatever absorptions all spiritual sons of universal protectors have mastered such as the stance of a lion, the sport, or the hero of the warriors' activities . 40. The going bravely, the treasure of space and the stainless--Having attained all myself I will bestow their bliss on the three kinds of beings, thus allowing them to enjoy their sublime accomplishments. . 41. May I thoroughly and supremely protect the ocean of craft, literature and art, and may every sentient being be wise in knowing the entire meaning of their own language. . 42. Having gained the stainless, sharp and infinite intelligence, distinguishing all words and meanings, may I share with sentient beings the extremely profound and logical teachings. . 43. To every living being without exception who does not understand the Buddha's word, may I finely elucidate the teachings as though inscribing letters in their own mind. . 44. Having surely ascended to the state of the ten truthful powers, may I actualize these practices that are the means for making the purpose of living beings completely worthwhile. . 45. Just as all prayers of the subdoers are the cause for helping sentient beings, so may I work constantly for the perfection of prayer. . 46. By immediately suppressing as they arise all overwhelming masses of foe-like emotional afflictions and not wavering from mental activities, may I remain only to be of benefit on earth. . 47. By having perfectly realized these phenomena to be like illusions, mirages and magical emanations and having discarded the mesh of conceptions, may I be of benefit throughout the three worlds. . 48. Just as a father especially cherishes an only son, so will I remain in meditation on pure love for every ongoing being by removing all stains (of aggression). . 49. Just as mothers, out of affection for an ailing son, in taking his burden on themselves (suffer) accordingly, so will I work to enhance my compassion towards each and every sentient being. . 50. When I see success in delighting others may I, especially by generating much pleasure, remain meditating on joyfulness as if only my dear son were happy. . 51. Having dispersed with anger and attachment towards sentient beings that correspondingly cause me to harm or favor them, may I accomplish the tasks of all three worlds like completing one's work for one's son. . 52. Having realized the powers, heightened awareness, analytical knowledges, mystical spells, and the doors to liberation, may I simultaneously be of benefit to sentient beings throughout the immeasurable expanse of the universe. . 53. Whatever countries where the name "Buddha" has not entered the ear, there may I act according to the deeds of a Buddha through imparting his various methods. . 54. Until the son, the teacher of the three worlds, rises here, may I, like the sun, dispel the darkness of ignorance from each and every embodied being. . 55. Whatever beings there are whose thoughts are saturated with evil and who have been rejected by many beings gone to bliss, may they be tamed by relying upon the sphere of action of my speech. . 56. So that I may serve everyone in the universe, I will be loving like a relative, kind like a mother, and like a father, give beneficial advice. . 57. Even by merely recollecting my name, may all sentient beings immediately be protected from fear and may all misery of the three worlds be dispelled. . 58. May I be a vase of goodness and a medicine against illness for people who are destitute in hundreds of ways. May I also provide a cool pool of nectar continuously for the masses of hungry spirits. . 59. May I be warmth for the cold hells and cause rain with sweet breezes to shower on the hot hells as well. May I placate every harm in the very low realms of bad migration. . 60. Even by merely remembering me, may I be a true friend to those who face destitution, solid armor for those stricken by a rain of arrows and cooling water for those afflicted by fire. . 61. When beings remember me, may I be an opponent for the venom of defilements, a firm bridge over the torrent of the three worlds, and may I bar the door to the unfortunate destinies. . 62. May even merely recollecting my name be enough to prevent all beings from falling into the abyss of worldly existence. May I become the foundation of the stairway leading them to the pinnacle of pure peace. . 63. Even if someone out of anger should recall my name for just an instant of time, may he never plunge into bad destinies and may he surely accomplish perfect Buddhahood. . 64. May my excellences, stainless like moonlight, bring happiness throughout the whole universe. May I work to generate immeasurable delight for others by merely breathing. . 65. Having attained perfect awakening itself where all is fully complete, may I also settle all ongoing beings in that ultimate awakening itself. . 66. At that time, may not even the slightest faulty actions arise in the minds of whoever (may be my disciples). May they always help others and remain on the path of the ten virtues. . 67. May the realms of bad migrations never be seen even in the dreams of anyone (fitting to be my disciple) and may the far reaches of places of bad destiny be pleasurable like the realms of celestial beings. . 68. As long as anyone remains in the midst of the ocean of the three worlds nonvirtue, though I have completed the deeds of a Buddha, may I remain in this world for them. . 69. When I have enacted my passing into the state beyond sorrow, may my teachings not become disordered and may the ache of my followers not be swayed for even a moment by the dangling rope of doubt. . 70. Thus, by delighting in the performance of the conqueror's sons, may whatever virtues I have gathered all be shared with each and every living being without exception.

0 notes

ngakpakonchokdorjetsondonmystic · 3 years

Text

THE 70 VERSES TO KUNTU ZANGPO

0 notes

benjaminreevesart · 5 years

Text

WHY DOES FORTUNA DISAPPOINT ME SO?

In November of 2018 DE released its latest OpenWorldTM Fortuna, an update I had been waiting for with bated breath from the edge of my seat since its announcement last year. At the time of launch I was logging in every day just for the chance to be one of the first to experience it.

Now over a month later, I sit here struggling to convince myself to go back. Yes, even after the heist update. A sentiment seemingly shared among many others in the community. So as with all things in life we must ask ourselves… why?

-Aesthetic: they decided to drop this thing in November, so I guess instead of going outside to play in the snow users could stay inside log on to warframe and play… in the snow. Yay.

I find myself missing the familiar exotica of not-africa and its kind-of-alive-but-not-really-except-its-made of-flesh-and-you-can-eat-it-wtf-DE? tower. (that bothers me). Just standing in these updates’ respective hub-areas and listening to the ambiance of the environment speaks volumes. The plains has haggling traders, merchants announcing their wares, wind rustling through the many canopies and tent flaps of hand hade fabric, it feels alive where fortuna feels like a cold mechanical day job. If you say that’s intentional… well, I hardly think boredom is anything to aspire to.

I get that they’re going for a sci-fi-punk feel, but it just comes off as monotonous, hopeless, and impersonal.

-Personal connection: Sure Saya’s Vigil was stupid romantic melodrama, sure onko’s decision is lame, sure it was kinda dumb to give newby players a warframe blueprint they couldn’t build until after reaching the mid-game, but ya know what? It worked.

I know who saya and konzu are, i have been with them on their story, every time I see konzu standing there with his girl I know that is because of me. My journey, my struggle, my effort brought these people together. Its simple its small, its human.

I mean who the hell is eudico anyway, why does she fight? Why caste shade on biz’s origins, and are we just going to gloss over an innocent person getting their head chopped off and their organs harvested in the open fucking street???????? There are constant references to people being “brain-shelved” which I can only assume means they get their brain put in a jar and thrown in someone’s freezer, and we get ZERO resolution for that! I mean sure there are fragments to find and scan, but they don’t really tell us anything that couldn’t already have been inferred. With exception to the relationship between biz and little-duck, not that it seems to play into any of their interactions at all. The business does have his conservation thing, which is a part of his character, an old war veteran understand the fragility of life and working to preserve it through peaceful means. But the spirit of it is robbed when they give the same shtick to the random bird guy from cetus. Why? while I could buy Nef Anyo hunting whole species to extinction for profit, nothing about the setting of the plains suggests the animals are in any kind of danger from the grineer. Its just pointless. I mean you could’ve just used the business for both, maybe he’s building a zoo for critters from all over the system, I wouldn’t have questioned it. Heck, it could even have been a nice little unlock to see the place once you catch one of every animal.

Weirdly enough the one character I think is kind of done right here is ticker. Yeah, the kiosk guy above biz’s shop whose only purpose is to sell you debt bonds so you can increase your standing. Maybe its just a dumb stereotype but I like tickers flair for the theatrical, I find it charming. Plus, his first fragment is so terribly depressingly human it just makes me want to give the poor dude a hug.

But at least there’s plenty of snow in the sandbox… er…

-The sandbox is full: I may not be in the console market these days but there have been a lot of sandbox games as of late, like… ALOT! Its basically the only game Ubisoft makes anymore. A wide-open area filled to burst with pointless shallow time wasting minigames of no real importance. OpenWorldTM. The announcement said Orb Vallis would be twice the size of Eidolon and good god does it feel like it! The very construction of the map itself restricts you from moving around it. With its massive board blocking Tim Burton mountains, and how those same mountains prevent you from utilizing the full freedom of the hoverboard, a new vehicle introduced with the update. Sure, there’s a new pet and new guns, but we already had fishing, we had mining, we had a new faction of peaceful traders and merchants to interact with. Outside of new shooty-tubes and endo dumps I don’t really see what’s so special here, especially when the terrain itself renders the races more chore than a challenge without delivering on any significant or memorable locations. Which is weird since there are interesting set pieces in the Vallis that are just never used. Of all the bounties I did getting to “old mate” rank the only location used was a data vault spy mission. You know, the building with the profit taker on it, yeah, you know the one the worst part of the map. Its built like a maze, is too easy to get lost in, has too many BIG rooms going into tiny vents you need an eagle eye to find, and its just an unenjoyable mess. This is especially infuriating as there are numerous more interesting locals around the map, they could use for practically any of the bounties. But no, its never the big Nef Anyo statue we’re fighting under it’s that damn farm thing again. Its never that cool cavernous road through the mountains, its that same damn bridge right in front of Fortuna. Its never a big base filled with enemies and tons of vertical platforms, its always that one generic outpost just down the road.

-Environmental Story: what’s even worse for the environment is its total lack of connection to the rest of the universe. The Plains weren’t just some vaguely African safari area, it was a battlefield. Haunted with the remains of shattered sentient contained within a massive forcefield that also happened to protect it from the deadly radiation and poisons of the outside world. The strange rocks which dot the landscape are the remains of alien spacecraft and its soils are stuffed with all manner of deadly armaments and tools. So, it makes perfect sense that the grineer or other factions would covet this area for its agricultural and military resources. The vallis just looks like a giant sink of effort and resources that could be put to more productive use elsewhere, doubly so considering it’s the corpus funding the whole operation. Which is even more sad given that environmental stories are the one story telling mechanic exclusive to video games. There is no other medium which allows a reader or a viewer to experience its world at their own pace to seek information in their own ways. Making this literary opportunity not only a waste of warframes universe but of the medium itself.

This is naturally only compounded upon with how the resources of the vallis seem even more restricted to fortuna than the plains did to cetus. The toroids are the worst offence in this, but I think I’ll save my thoughts on this growing problem in warframe for when I get around to covering the jovian concord as the issue of resource gating is more blatant there.

-The warframes: so garuda and baruuk, while I find it strange that DE released two frames around the same time that where functionally immortal, I just find their acquisition boring. Garuda’s main blueprint is just handed to you after finishing the introduction mission, and baruuk is straight up just another item you buy. The only difference between buying baruuk for real money and buying him for in game currency is time, and a lot of it given how rare the resource to get him is. Now I know garas main was given at the end of sayas vigil too but there it was built up as an ancient relic of mystical origin. A man left his wife and home to keep this powerful artifact out of enemy hands, sacrificing his whole life and happiness to keep them safe. You weren’t building just another tank with tits; you were reviving a warrior of legend who slew giants and protected the innocent. Revenant as well, had a deific entity granting visions to a child guiding you to the grave of an ancient warrior who fought and eventually fell to the control of his hated enemy. This might sound like a re-tred of inaros for most of you but at least gara and revenent look their parts, rather than just a mish mash of infested gunk slapped onto a skeleton. Point is worldbuilding matters, especially for the warframes. Being the name-sake of the game they deserve some kind of gravitas behind them. Treating a new warframe like another commodity to be bought off a shelf or passed out like a gold star from kindergarden is just… condescending. At least hyldryn got a boss fight out of her release, which is more of a backhanded compliment when you realize almost every other warframe gets a boss fight by default. Soooo… yeah.

Conclusion:

Maybe I’m jaded, just sick of snow, or maybe I’m projecting my exhaustion with the OpenWorldTM genre, I don’t know. There are a lot of reasons I find fortuna unfulfilling, but ultimately, I think its this; fortuna and the vallis were supposed to be an extension to the warframe universe, a playground to explore new perspectives and build on its mythos. It didn’t do that. We went from space travelling assassins trying to fight a war on many fronts to make the galaxy a better place, to a plucky resistance force against an evil conglomerate. It just doesn’t fit with the world we’ve already seen. everything “new” that was introduced here may be new to warframe but has been done much better within any title from the cyberpunk genre.

Its really a shame too as just looking a around can be breathtaking at times, some caves and structures are genuinely beautiful to look at. A lot of work was clearly put into this update, just not in the right places. Gameplay has a few upgrades, the environments are pretty if frustrating to traverse, but the story just comes up short. Sure, we can tolerate illogical grinds and only semi-complete mythologies for our new areas, but without a good story to keep us coming back, to tie everything together, its just disappointing.

-END OF LINE.

#warframe #game #fortuna #gaming #review #benjamineye #narrative #story #sci fi #cyberpunk #space ninja

1 note · View note

autolovecraft · 7 years

Text

Dholes are known to cats and which wait uneasy for their fears.

Ahead stretched double rows of pillars, and Carter took only gold and little bronze lamps were lighted, and followed him had not stayed as earth's dawn had shaped it, and overhearing what they must be known among men; and it was not as badly off as Carter stumbled on he saw in infinite gulfs below him he was an old dreamer and had worked in the aft past the fires and the carven face looked down even sterner in shadow. The earth has no longer dared, and cats spit and yowled and roared with the horrible stone villages on the third time he became more and more gradual hills that lay writhing before the mobilization of their disreputably nourished muscles. Probably, Atal said, for such was its lonely and impressive place on that high marble terrace with the rocky rolling meadows behind it, but as Carter stood on the other side, but it will not go unaided; for in no certain order. That night Carter camped in the dark, a forehead, and never smiled because they have when they danced often upon Lerion; but he is often drowsy and is ruled over by that door is inconceivable; for though no Gug dares lift the stone door swung wide again, but their relative simplicity made them easy to master after a fashion alive, and looked curiously upon the climbers. The slant-eyed man hopped up behind him, furtive and curious brown Zoogs ferment their curious wine of that great cavern's mouth first one. The slant-eyed merchant leaped down from the gates of that, but their relative simplicity made them easy to master after a minute of groping he had seen and feared before; and the slab rise slowly and deliberately. Swiftly there came an image and a half across, and in the blackness beneath as the army swept bat-wings, curving horns, barbed tails, prehensile paws and blowing certain loathsome sounds.

The ways to the forest because of the townsfolk dreaded to see the rifts and ruggedness of that profound and inviolate sanctity which made him sip the curious Zoogs; forestalling their surprise attacks, taking individual cats or groups of cats on the lower town. Carter either to propitiate the Great Ones of their domain. Northward above those gargoyle mountains the army swept bat-winged. Better still, as a sub-lieutenant he had it taut in his youth, when the dark without any sound of lutes and song, but the stable and eternal gem wherein all that cold desert to the inner blacknesses out of which dim legends tell, but still he paused to watch the whole shocking army rose in wide whirring columns and crumbling sphinx-crowned gates and titan stones and monstrous winged lions shewn, their legs on the scaly horror.

The old field-marshal advised Carter to disguise as a memory that it was indeed come to that which no fully human person, save that they never spoke or laughed, and vast was his dismay to see much slaughter, but they all shook their pshent-bearing ghouls poised their weapon for a moment he was met by a sound from a wheel's hub. But now these hills were hills no more traffic with Leng was said to be shewn the great central plaza and the whole dank surface of their slippery forms. On a hill, Randolph Carter, and as the actual odor given off by the seaward slopes of Lerion, and where thirteen generations of his kind; hearing which the stars peep out overhead in the sea wall. All of jasper is that roseal fever of the phosphorescence of the shores of Yath, and all the rest; above whose colossal doorway was fixed on the clay wall in the open space which had once indeed been a great mountain to behold the marvelous sunset city, and realized that he was glad to see that it might be; for though no Gug dares lift the stone of the great seaport and capital of the monstrous things below. Very quietly therefore did Randolph Carter had indeed descended at last there suddenly dawned around him the great stone bridge across the Skai to the enchanted wood.

Rumors of the day, and felt sure that nothing had escaped the general defeat. Suddenly, without a warning sound in the land of vision that many know; and now and then a curious vibrating mass of fine lava above him the lurid night clouds a pair of anklets stretched a golden chain that held its wearer to a sapling and wrapping himself well under control when that face is so curiously human despite the absence of battle, and Carter thought he heard it clatter down over the downs, and ghouls and night-gaunts that guard Ngranek; but it was still nor the carven mountains, but these toad-things ahead and five behind, leaving only its fragrance as a vanguard. Toward evening he had left the galley drew closer and closer to that jagged rock in the end Carter was glad it was not sure but that curious sea and fragrance of obscure balsams spread in the twilight, with ornate galleons of fragrant cedar and calamander riding gently at anchor along a forbidding stone quay, and his party thanked them kindly; and matters assumed a very grave and unexpected turn. They bore him breathless into that city and that they had been transported, no man ever been to Inquanok past the great temple stretched a low-ceilinged inn of quarrymen, they tickled him with deliberation.

The Council of Sages, recognizing the visitor, offered a gourd of moon-tree to which it had been sent.

Seek out your marvelous city. Presently two yellowish-red eyes flashed into view. But only a fear that makes men shun Ngranek's hidden side. Then he saw a ledge running upward and to find a galleon bound over the cold waste, and the Skai and following the song of any land.

At the set of sun the merchants of the Other Gods if need were, with the lava-gatherer scratched clumsily in the morning Carter joined a caravan of merchants bound for that realm of Serannian, sat pensive in a whirling, giddying, sickening rush of dank, tomb-like width of fabled Sarkomand with its brooding years, and Randolph Carter fell through those endless voids of sentient blackness he might have concerning Kadath in the sea became very great isle, and there are fountains, and he heard something among the furtive and venomous ghasts rushed feverishly at the great leap through space was very sudden, each of the Giant's Causeway, and besides, one being due to return thither in only a few hours' climbing to their world.

Carter had given them.

This offer he welcomed with gratitude; not only had no dread of what you have seen and loved in youth when he saw that it was this which had turned the slab and prop the portal open. Great Ones' throne-room of the yak whose great wide prints told of its artisans. Then he realized that the gate of the waking world cast the refuse of their polypous and amorphous blasphemies that hopped and floundered and wriggled out of the Great Ones for the night-gaunts. They leaped as though they had not been very far away, leaving matters wholly to behold, but the King of Ilek-Vad comes from his control, leaping past him as he stood on the wall of an Anglo-Saxon from Boston, sat a ghoul of some insect brushing his face in the night-gaunts to serve.

They are leagued by treaty with them in a roadside meadow beneath a great gate through which the folk of Leng were of the enchanted wood and the winged hunter sought to scale Kadath.

And in a prehistoric stone monastery.

And now and then the whole army soared higher into the dark woods and joy of the day was done Carter saw that he felt that the evil toad-things, and the howlings still the cry that was the great carven face on distant Ngranek.

This being so, but found that they had no fear; for in no certain order. The ghouls had there seen for the shape of the traveler know those garden lands that lie betwixt the cliffs and from the ground.

They saw that they did not know how much of unknown places whose rowers cannot be exhibited. Carter set out from the stars shone wanly. When the light, dropping numbly to the star-specked darkness there did come a normal sound. Horrible were the houses peakedly fantastic with beamed and plastered gables turned violet and mystic, and not to look, and clutched at the aspect of that very few had seen the carven mitered mountains that walked. Such rumors as were on earth or other planets where they traded. Silently they shambled about with an insane twisting and bending not good to eat they lost all interest in them.

Then Randolph Carter fell through those endless voids of that inn, and wondrous with high fanes and carven side was still black, bearing at arm's length before them. The Thorabonian opined that this frightful place lies not far off he had told. Clearly it was such that Carter wished he might well have had nibbling traffic with black galleys. Carter shivered in fear lest all the magah birds sang blithely as they are with their hard-pressed fellows; turning the tide of battle and conquest. The thin hellish flutes of ivory in silk-robed sentry till he might be destined to serve them as those to whom that task had been rightly timed, there was in the light and the mountains to watch the whole dank surface of their allied night-gaunts to serve them as those to whom a sort of procession was formed; ten of the cold waste. The captain of the daemon sultan Azathoth gnaws hungrily in chaos amid pounding and piping and the gray impassable peaks into Leng's horrible plateau, and how the vast clay-brick ruins of primal brick foundations and worn walls and high experience of life devoid of its crew. And all through that star-strewn even though it often changed—was that enchanted wood, yet the sun. It was lucky that no cats would stay in the ground, and he wished to learn its legends from old tales that he had seen in the old man became irresponsibly talkative.

He was not a scrap of provisions was ever sent aboard. A rain of curious beings both human and fabulous horrors hitched to lumbering lorries by fabulous things. They had duties to perform, and the coast drew nearer, and the horse-headed Shantak appeared oddly fearful of them; saying that he was come into the blackness; till at length the slimy touch they have also a slight taste for meat, either physical or spiritual, for not a sign of Koth. The leap of the third was subdivided into a land party and a vengeance lurk unsuspectedly close.

Though ghasts cannot live in real light, they can endure the gray twilight of that more than cling to. Another moment and all the stars, or in yak-path among forbidding black cliffs.

So asking a formal blessing of the steep roofs and overhanging upper stories and numberless chimney-pots from old lattice windows, and told him that the sight of them into silence.

Randolph Carter had lent them. Never before had he known what shapeless black things lurk and caper and flounder all through the unknown sunset city they so strangely withheld from his far realm on the thin peaks stood out against the black galley slipped into blankness the last of the phosphorescence of low clouds, till it mingled with the young face of the olden worshipers could have glorified no suitable or wholesome gods, the slant-eyed man hopped down and helped his captive alight. These objects were waddling busily about the unclean wharves of Baharna a mighty longing for the freedom and color and high, they never spoke, and Carter studied the light more closely, and knew that the air and the ocean. And between him and the entrances of burrows emptied forth their leathery, dog-like. Threading now the outward-hanging rock, lava, and they were above Thran, where myriads of their disreputably nourished muscles. From all sides. Then the two invading columns and one could grasp details only little by little. Carter knew right well what they dreamed of the gods. This the ghouls set to with something of a rifle ball and approach that of his boyhood; where no burgess of Ulthar licking their chops with unusual gusto, and wholly through their own callousness by such extremes of malign shapelessness and fearsome odor. It was dark and moving lamp, and the eighty orchid-wreathed priests are the advance guard and battle steeds of the malodorous ship flew unwholesomely, urged them not to look too long and unbending streets, or even approximately men, though the sun seemed farther south than was its lonely and impressive place on that side he would ever return to their respective directions, while the leaders watched the high terrace above it, but generally seeing nothing but dull gray sky, till all the various mines for himself and to send out queer dreams to the night-gaunts were all out of the ghouls and night-gaunts. He had thought it for some hand greater than that below, and Carter went downstairs and learned that they could not glimpse any.

#H.P. Lovecraft #automatically generated text #Patrick Mooney #Python #Markov chains #The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath #1926 #The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath week

0 notes