The Kitin scriptures

[komissar]

Chapter I

“We are a myriad minds forming one… We are a myriad footsteps, leading in one direction… we are the rustle in the night that makes the unworthy tremble, we are the mandibles on which their blood never dries… we harness the powers of fire and lightning… we are the true rulers of Atys… we are the Kitin. Fear us for none can stand in our path… Resist us and be eliminated… Embrace our rule as you would embrace death – willingly… The time will come when the many will rise and sweep through the land, cleansing it… returning it to it’s primeval state… freeing it from the lethal desease – the abominable horde of pests that keep borrowing into the heart of the land, sucking it’s sap dry, tormenting it, robbing it of it’s riches… the alien invaders will not walk Atys again… all of hominkind will be put to far better use… will serve a far greater purpose… will finally return what they have stolen… once their dead bodies decompose and fertilize the soil… This will come to pass… So say the “Many in one” – the Kitin.”

… when I first read this I simply couldn’t believe my eyes! True, at first I thought it’s not more than a joke when an old zorai quietly sipping his dandellion wine at the very back of ol’Thesos bar beckoned to me and looked me in the eye silently when I approached, never uttering a word. I thought it intriguing when he bared his forearm and on it there was a hardly visible tattoo – a string of zorai symbols. I am always so very proud of having deciphered most of them on my own. Just imagine – a matis unraveling those sacred zorai mysteries that the masked people themselves have long considered lost. I sat closer and peered into it. It read: The greatest truth of the greatest enemy is to be found here. Then it gave opaque directions to a certain cave in the deeper prime roots and hinted that the answer was to be found above ones head. I looked the old homin in the eye but the ivory mask did not betray any emotion… the dark slits that the blueskins have for eyes remained totally impenetrable. Was he mocking me then? Was that all a test? Or was it a gift – that one real adventure of my whole life that I was craving for since first I trod the blessed streets of Yrkanis? He didn’t give me any time to think of it then – he slowly rose – and walked out mysterious and dignified. I smiled then, dismissing this accident and addressing some other immediate concerns, but the thought crept away to the backstreets of my mind and kept gnawing there relentlessly like a worm, until I just couldnt stand it any longer.

It must be in our blood. We, Matis simply can’t allow something to remain out of reach, out of control. A craft we can’t excel, a knowledge we can’t grasp, a beauty we can’t enjoy… we will lose sleep we will think of little else until the goal is reached and or inner peace restored. The fyros and even some trykers call us “control freaks” and I agree that’s partly true. But is it a curse, or an advantage over everyone else, who will judge? I guess that racial trait was the main driving force behind my decision to give it a try one day. I donned my favorite extra dodge tryker MA, took my best amps, my sword and dagger, packed the traveling necessities in my mount’s saddle bags and set off…

I have never been a great fighter – the poets will never compose ballads and songs about me. I didn’t crush enemies at Outpost battles, I didn’t nuke their protective jewelry away, though I can proudly say I have never missed a good fight when I was able either. I was a healer – a backup for my friends and family and my heart always leaped with joy to see them charge into battle and I have always seen it as the most vital of tasks to keep their sap and stamina high, to help them up once they were stricken down to give others life until my own dying breath. But when you venture into those realms where the sun doesn’t shine, when you pass through the deepest bowels of Atys – be you a champion of karavan or even a hero of the nation – you simply won’t last longer then a couple heartbeats if you don’t possess stealth, speed, cunning and above all the knowledge of that wondrous place they call prime roots. A place where you can’t win by fighting, a place where you hug the walls as if they were your dearest kin a place where danger lurks everywhere and where the true enemy lives… The “many-in-one” as they call themselves… The Kitin…



(to be continued...)

[meloner]

*poke* *poke* *nudge* *nudge*

[mashed]

Can't wait to read more

[mwdowns]

This is cool. And when Ryzom comes back to us all, you better continue this. Nah, screw that, you better continue this now!

[rundll32]

That was great komi, hope you and your family are well mate

[komissar]

Runnie! We miss you so much - where have you been?
OOTN is all together again - get on 24h skype chat with us at least
contact numaa1, Ciridemarr, or emjayitch (Mish)

We have: Siela, Arc, Danga, Quiggie, Lexsi, Ciri, Komi< Lachlan, Numaa, Paashaas, Mish and Zan and Gill all in there chatting all day round like good old times

[komissar]

Chapter II

Prime roots, the sheer beauty of it! The magical trembling melodies of the dripping sap, the eery glow of magnificent plumash, the silent flight of mystical apparitions - the plun, the herds of snow-white bodocs, armas and meck, grazing so peacefully that you almost miss a varinx – black as night, a ruthless hunter of the deep. One can never get enough of this place. The danger, the excitement and the joy, the pure welcoming darkness, that envelops you and drives you on ever deeper and deeper… This is the place that always called out to me, the place where I have returned over and over, the place that I will never forget wherever the roads take
me.

I was making my cautious progress along the wall, hugging it, keeping all around me in my minds eye: there the two giant vorax have found themselves a victim – it won’t take them long so I better sprint … aha and right behind that column-like structure a pack of hungry varinx might very well be awaiting my arrival… let me just go round a bit here to check out and see – huh that’s exactly the case, let’s leave this welcoming committee safely away. A couple of times I fought – with my fear enchanted sword and dagger of zorai make. You cast fear from the enchant on one and quickly deal with the other – dispensing seemingly weak but precise hits to the head to stun them for a time, the legs to make them slow, the eyes to make them blind. Jena is my witness, more than once have I seen fragile tryker girls dressed in provocative zorai light take out heavily armored top level melee tanks with just such a technique – dodging blows, hitting with a surgeons precision, feinting and evading counter-attacks. But it’s not the fighter skills that save my hide in the roots – the speed, the stealth and protection auras is what one really needs there.

Remembering the old zorai’s tattoo and it’s rather opaque instructions I drew myself a kind of a map – I must admit the matisian royal libraries really helped aswell… And judging by this map I was just about to… ah! That’s why I never noticed it before, even though I remember visiting this place – the small tube-like entrance to the cave was concealed by a floral tapestry – an intertwined mass of root vines and dense vegetation. Let’s just brush it away a bit… aha there. Now even a matis can squeeze through here. I was wondering how on Atys could a stalky zorai get himself through that small aperture when I noticed a rather crude but well-visible pictogram on the ceiling… It read: “The home of many in one”… Hmm… Many in one…I have never heard that name before. Maybe it was the way some ancient zorai scholar sect called themselves? Or maybe it was something even more interesting. The professional curiousity of an explorer ignited me and I started creeping forward with a determination of one obsessed. Oh If I only knew then where that road would take me, perhaps I would think twice and retreat before it was not too late… Making my slow progress down the tunnel, first thing I found was a really old zorai dagger half buried in the moss covering the floor. It bore the usual symbols telling of a warriors virtue and had nothing that would catch my attention but for a fact that it’s tip was broken off. Right above it on the wall was a hastily drawn inscription in zorai pictograms – “Danger, go forward for a test of spirit, follow marks”. The very first “mark” – a rectangular zorai style arrow was drawn right there and pointed the same way I was going. Alas the inscription was just as informative as it was precise. What danger? What test? And why should I go forward following marks if the path was really that dangerous? I didn’t hesitate much then – I just kept going overwhelmed by an excitement that leads many an explorer towards lethal traps. My spirit was soaring then, a fool, I imagined great discoveries, I even envisioned the way I would present them before the gathering of the matisian royal academy. Little I knew what awaited me in the dark passages, what remained there for so long, not really wanting to be found…

[komissar]

Chapter III

The passage dimly lit by occasional young plumash and luminous fungi twisted it’s way onward, the “marks” clearly visible on the right wall. I passed a couple of right and left turns - the zoraï arrows were insistently pushing me forward. I was so carried away that I almost missed the second dagger embedded up to the hilt in the tunnel wall. There was a piece of parchment and a small satchel attached to it. I carefully took the dagger out, picked up the parchment and read a line of zoraï text: "Important – inside you find the one thing that will let you survive here, rub this thoroughly into skin." Now that was something really interesting – I fumbled with the satchel laces while wildest thoughts were flashing through my mind. Survive? Can it really be that bad? Finally the laces were undone and a pungent stench struck my nostrils. Inside was a chitin sack full of sticky brownish liquid. The smell was absolutely unbearable. It looked like a gland of some sort most likely belonging to some kind of kitin. And this I was supposed to rub thoroughly into my skin? The thought appalled me then and I carefully tied the laces back and secured the satchel in my traveling bag. I simply wanted to press on to see what is there behind the next bend of the tunnel. But the thing I saw right around the corner chilled the
marrow in my bones.

First came the sound – the gradually increasing rustle and monotonous tapping with some awful scraping sounds here and there. It was the sound I knew well and came to dread in the dark bowels of the prime roots. It seemed to originate out o nowhere and envelop my whole being, gradually increasing in volume. I pressed myself against the wall and oh so very carefully peaked around the tunnel wall… The tunnel opened up into a vast cave, whose ceiling lost itself in the murky blackness and whose floor was totally devoid of any undergrowth. The only sources of light in this dark maw of a cave were a few plun silently floating in mid-air. And then I saw them – the beings that made the awful noise that pierced me to the quick – hundreds of them – moving in orderly columns along the cave – the kidinak. The rustle of their chitin carapaces was absolutely deafening here. I have never seen this many kidinak in my entire life. Even during a raid to Desertstock that I have undertaken with my friends- the "Whispers of Aria" not so long ago – when I had to heal so hard – my light skirt got almost destroyed upon me – torn by the violent coursing energies. But the impossible abundance of the hump-backed chitin I have encountered here was simply beyond comparison.

I should have taken the right decision there and then . I should have fled grateful to be in one piece after such an encounter – but no! As though Ma-duk the deceiver himself was whispering into my ear – an inner voice or that restless spirit some call “being an adventurer” something reminded me of the latest find – the gland with it’s pungent contents. Maybe, just maybe if I rubbed it into skin like the note suggested I would not be noticed by the kidinak? Maybe it blunted their senses somehow or made me look less likely a threat to them. I took it out, took off my clothes and pouring the gluey liquid onto my hand rubbed myself vigorously with it. Gradually I even stopped noticing the stench that seemed so horrid at first but still the fear that I felt in the face of such numerous enemy would not let me proceed any further. I waited for a small gap in the ranks of the passing kitin and darted across to the opposite wall of the cave feeling this might as well be the last moment before the magic seed Jena provides for her children spawns me at the nearest portal. Imagine my astonishment when upon reaching the opposite wall I have found myself not only safe and sound but also seemingly unnoticed by the insectoids. One of them passed so close to me I could almost touch it’s skittering chitinous legs and even that one showed no interest whatsoever. With great relief came also the understanding what an amazing opportunity has befallen me. Now I could venture much deeper into the kitin-infested passages and only merciful Jena knows what amazing discoveries await me there. Light-headed and dizzy with this miraculous turn of events I proceeded deeper into the cave. Gradually it narrowed down and I found myself in front of 5 gate-like entrances to other tunnels and caverns. Above the leftmost one a hastily drawn arrow – a clone of the ones I have encountered just before entering the cave was visible in the sandstone. Clearly this was the course I was supposed to take. I waited for another throng of kidinak to pass through that gate and boldly followed them inside. What was I thinking then – a young and naïve matisian adventurer carried away by scholar’s fervor… How could I let myself be lured into the very domain of an evil so ancient and so alien to hominity? Where were my instincts my sense of danger for Jena’s sake? The overwhelming curiousity brewed on a gnawing desire to find something as unique and miraculous as my very ability to venture within these halls unharmed, pushed me on and on through the tangle of corridors, chambers and caverns, with the unyielding zoraï arrows appearing around every corner. A fool – a dull-witted naïve and careless fool have I become in there – blinded and intoxicated by the greatest drug a scholar can come across – the heart-stopping call of the unknown…

(to be continued...)

[alisa112]

Please, Sir...may I have some more?

[komissar]

Chapter IV

The Kitin still seemed to look right through me. By that time I had become so bold and careless in my unthinkable endeavor that I would occasionally touch the smooth carapaxi, brush a hand past the hurrying chitinous legs or even poke the sacks hanging under the bellies of the kidinak passing by. They did not notice – they just went on about their business full of unknown purpose, concentrated and seemingly senseless like one of the metallic Karavan machines that I have seen in Yrkanis and other cities of my beloved Matia… I couldn’t but admire the smooth outlines of their bodies, the formidable mandibles now pointing downwards in seeming peace. However dangerous and hated these creatures were they were still a masterful work of atysian genius. Whichever diety was responsible for all of creation on the living planet it sure was a real masterpiece – every single bit of it.
Suddenly I noticed one odd thing – it almost escaped my attention caught in the corner of my eye but then something alerted me and I stopped to look at another arrow on the wall that was a lot different from the ones I have seen before. Distorted contours, uneven lines, as though it has been scribbled by a little child barely learning to write… Did the zorai hand shake and tremble when he drew this? Was he wounded? Did he encounter some terrible danger among these halls? Oh but what am I thinking! The worst of dangers – the ancient enemy personified was all around me! Seems I already started to forget where I was, intoxicated by this euphoria of invisibility. I had to be more cautious, not to let this unbelievable success sway me from the path and make me do something rash. So even if the zorai scholar was wounded, he still drew this arrow, he kept going on and that must mean that something extremely important and interesting lay ahead… I must press on slowly and try to stay alert.

Another corner – the walls of the cave were covered with throbbing translucent sacks of prime root algae. I must take some time in the future and classify them – what a shame that no matisian botanist has ever committed these static specimens of atysian life to the high science! So I thought to myself as I passed this hall and seeing another strangely crooked arrow on the righthand wall turned around into a wide and dimly lit chamber…

There was a damp moss growing all over the floor – so soft that I sank almost to my knees, staggering while regaining balance. Involuntarily I took a couple steps forward so as not to fall face first into this welcoming moss… Behind me I sensed some movement – I turned around awkwardly to see two kinrey – elite soldiers of the nest - blocking the entrance. They did not look at me, if the word “look” can be used when describing a kitin, at least I did not have a feeling of being watched or monitored, but they effectively blocked the only way of retreat. A cold shiver ran down my spine as I turned around – the ceiling was low, the light from the algae barely penetrating the vast blackness of the room – ahead of me was nothing but darkness – but I simply had nowhere else to go now. What now Mr. Naturalist? I asked myself then… just as I heared a hiss coming from the walls – the same kind of sound the steam makes when it escapes the boiling cauldron… A sweet and musky smell entered my nostrils, a slightly glittering greenish-yellow cloud engulfed me and I plunged into oblivion – a black limitless expanse that swallowed me without a trace…

I woke up suddenly, as though rising to the surface from within a deep pool of water for a single breath of air that means life. I was blind… either that or the darkness was so complete that not even the ever-present prime root algae could provide any light here… I felt all around me – same thick and soft moss on the floor – a smooth wall – even and cold as glass and… The voice that sounded in the darkness almost nailed me down! It was a husky old mans voice full of pain and tiredness, but so unexpected and sudden was the very fact of it’s existence in the lair of the enemy that I sank back onto the damp moss – as though struck by lightning…
- Don’t be afraid, young one, - it said – The blindness will pass… as everything passes in time… as everything… passes...

(To be continued)