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Fiction Spawning of Bob - Fool's End

Discussion in 'Fluff and Stories' started by spawning of Bob, Apr 2, 2016.

  1. spawning of Bob
    Skar-Veteran

    spawning of Bob Well-Known Member

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    “This is not right.”

    Slick Venom-Blade froze mid sneak. Aside from mumbling those words, the toad-thing remained inert. Did the cold-seers talk in their sleep? The assassin certainly had done nothing to wake him.

    “There used to be a smell.” The toad-thing spoke again, but its eyes remained resolutely shut.

    The muscles below Slick’s tail contracted involuntarily without effect. His musk glands had been cauterised in preparation for this mission. So much preparation. There was nothing that could go wrong. In the quest to eradicate the cold-blood enemy, everything that could go wrong already had.

    Millennia of costly strife had ended in stalemate. The Great One had even allowed a world to be destroyed and still failed to eradicate the last of the toad-things. The remnant had reappeared in the Mortal Realms, if possible worse than before. Their servants were known to have been obliterated in warp-fire, but they had returned also, summoned from the toad-things’ memories to tear at the throats of the Children of The Great Horned Rat.

    The scale-things could be slain, but they returned over and over. Slick knew for a fact that he had killed the same red-crest priest-thing three times. Its body had vanished in a painful silver flash each time, but as long as its toad-lord lived, it would never be beyond recall.

    The Great-One knew this also. For a time he threw his children headlong into the mortal realms in great numbers just to bait the toad-things into showing themselves. A meagre claw-full had been killed by the Great-Ones’ luck, but it was a costly exercise even among rats who had no heed for the losses of their brothers around them.

    The toad thing murmured again. “The musk of fear. That is what the smell was. This memory is not quite right.”

    Slick’s ruined glands involuntarily clenched again. I am not a memory, toad-thing. I am real and I am your ending.

    “This memory has a happy ending.”

    Not this time.

    “It ends how it ends. Happily.”

    I will show you diff-

    Slick checked himself. He was sure that he had only thought those word-things, not spoken them aloud. So why was he having a conversation with a slumbering slann? He centred his mind on the mission again.

    The toad-things could not be easily assailed in the mortal realms, but the Great One’s influence was not confined to that dimension. He had engineered a temporary truce with the secret-seekers, who were already scouring all realms for signs of their lost god. By their daemon-art they had found where in the Vaults of Azyr the toad-things rested between battles. Each one occupied a huge void-boat. A huge, isolated and otherwise empty void-boat.

    With the seeker-fiends’ guidance and the Great One’s power it was possible to quietly gnaw a warp portal in a void-boat. Just big enough for a lone assassin. The best assassin. Slick Venom-Blade.

    Slick patted his dark robes to confirm that he still carried his wards. He was laden with every available piece of warp-tech and seer-arcana which could make him immune to magical attack. Some of it had even been tested. Slick was barely a dozen paces from his dreaming target, he was all but invisible, unsmellable and magically invulnerable. He had nothing to fear.

    So, why did he suddenly feel such dread?

    “A silent approach on unwary prey? Stylishly done,” The toad-thing was babbling again, “and with the venom blade, good. One nick and it paralyses. The prey must live.”

    Slick quizzically looked at the green-oozing dagger he held in his claw. The venom kills instantly, lizard-dotard. The prey must die. All must die.

    “All must die, but not before they see the meaning of life.”

    The assassin had had enough of the strange discussion. He took another two paces forward as he decided where to plunge his knife. He had every nook and cranny of a mountain of clammy, unarmoured flesh to choose from. Slick ruled out the throat, if indeed the toad-thing had one, and moved on to speculating about whether his knife was long enough to reach the slann’s aorta. As he changed to an overhand grip on his weapon, he felt a sting in the low part of his back, near his right kidney.

    He would have twisted to see what had stung him, but his back and neck locked up in painful cramps. He lost the use of his arms and legs soon after and fell back into the arms of... what? He tried to squeal, but his throat had seized up. His lips curled back from his yellow teeth and his eyes bulged.

    The arms gently lowered him onto some kind of raised dais, and their owner stepped into Slick’s field of view for the first time. It was the familiar red-crest priest-thing, and the tip of its obsidian blade held a drop of red blood. The priest thing snapped his fingers in Slick’s eyes to ensure the paralysis venom had taken full effect. Then he sawed through the assassin’s clothing and armour to bare his chest.

    The black blade was sharp. It cut through fur and skin with ease. Cracking through the rats sternum took more effort, and the priest-thing had to put the blade aside to use two claws to lever the ribs open. Using the blade again, the red crest cut through the cords and tubes which secured Slick’s heart and he lifted it out, still beating, to display to him.

    “Blessed are you, warmblood. At its end, Holy Sotek has given your life meaning.” Slick’s vision faded as the heart’s regular beat began to slow.

    “For His Glory.” The whispered words were the last thing the assassin heard. Slick’s contorted claw relaxed and his poisoned dagger clattered to the floor.

    At the sudden sound, the toad thing jerked and snorted. As the red-crest watched his master awaken he began to gleam and fade, all at the same time. The skink priest became a silver vapour, and then nothing. The heart plopped onto the floor with a wet splat.

    Finally, the Starmaster’s ancient eyes opened.

    “I have just had the most beautiful dream,” he yawned.

    The echoes of the empty star vessel were the only reply.
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2016
  2. Bowser
    Slann

    Bowser Third Spawning

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    You know what's great about over confidence?
    Poetic Justice
    Also this would have made a great if not short entry into the latest short story contest. Anti hero I think fits the bill.
     
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  3. Killer Angel
    Slann

    Killer Angel Prophet of the Stars Staff Member

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    Very appropriate, I must say... :p
     
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  4. thedarkfourth
    Kroxigor

    thedarkfourth Well-Known Member

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    This is a superb story but I disagree about anti-hero - he's a clear villain who you want to fail.
     
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  5. Bowser
    Slann

    Bowser Third Spawning

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    I was talking about the slann!
     
  6. Killer Angel
    Slann

    Killer Angel Prophet of the Stars Staff Member

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    In this case, he's more an unaware hero... ;)
     
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  7. spawning of Bob
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    spawning of Bob Well-Known Member

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    I am just imagining when the Slann fully wakes up and looks around. Where did the dead rat come from?
     
  8. Killer Angel
    Slann

    Killer Angel Prophet of the Stars Staff Member

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    That was my thought as well.
    He will probably think something ala "curious. There was a dead rat in my dream, indeed. I should really reduce the amount of Itxi grubs..."
     
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  9. Y'ttar Scaletail
    Troglodon

    Y'ttar Scaletail Well-Known Member

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    Well at least he has a fantastic defensive system!

    Nice work, Bob! :D
     
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  10. discomute
    Terradon

    discomute Well-Known Member

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    That assassin should have paid more attention to Nike's marketing
     
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  11. spawning of Bob
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    spawning of Bob Well-Known Member

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    His excessive sneakery when finishing off was possible is an acknowledged plot weakness.

    I'm a little more surprised that no one has hammered me for "and then I woke up."

    The only reason why I let myself use that particular trope was because of the just-woke-up-and-the-Skaven-incursion-was-over. I might write a less lazy alternative ending some day.
     
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  12. Slanputin
    Carnasaur

    Slanputin Well-Known Member

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    ...if there's one thing in the English language that shouts "look at how unreasonable and flawed I can be!"....

    Pet peeves aside, I liked to think of how the Slann's memories worked as an immune system here, with the void-boat acting as an extension of the Slann's labyrinthine and expansive mind.

    This forum's pretty good at picking up the slack in GW's writing. As much as I enjoyed reading through Battletome: Seraphon it was repetitive and lacking overall. You might not be their #1 fan but I may request you do more Seraphon lore, Bob. Please. K thx.
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2016
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  13. Bowser
    Slann

    Bowser Third Spawning

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    The Mighty @Slanputin is correct, more AOS fluff from you Bob.
     
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  14. Slanputin
    Carnasaur

    Slanputin Well-Known Member

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    Oh, keep on calling me Mighty, you old charmer you :oops::shamefullyembarrased:
     
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  15. spawning of Bob
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    spawning of Bob Well-Known Member

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    Put that in your signature and I will write more AoS fluff.

    As for "had had." I experimented with the sentence with and without 2 hads - and with one was certainly wrong.

    The grammar is right and I can prove it, but I could rephrase thusly to suit you:

    "The Assassin had taken his fill of this strange discussion." substituting "taken his fill" for "had enough" which is fine, but Samuel L. Skinkson doesn't take his fill of nuthin'.

    [​IMG]

    I am now imagining Slick Venom Blade saying, "Enough is enough. I have had it with these memory-spawning Seraphon on this memory-spawning void ship!" It would be a very different story, wouldn't it.
     
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  16. Slanputin
    Carnasaur

    Slanputin Well-Known Member

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    It might be grammatically correct, but unfortunately the English language is such a hodgepodge of linguistic roots that much can be taken against it. I think its inelegant and awkward. In such occurrences I try and replace the verb "to have" with another to avoid it. Same goes for "is is" and over variations of doubling. The below sentence is also grammatically correct:

    "Tetto'ekko while Tehenhauin had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the Slann"

    But I'd be damned if I'd include something similar in any earnest prose. It's in sentences like these that the many quirks of English parodies itself. This isn't a slight against your use, it's more you giving me ample room to rant against my native tongue :p I wouldn't want you to adjust your writing style to one person's whim. As I said..."pet peeves aside"

    "Sotek's Snake on a Transdimensional Plane" - in which a foul-mouthed and furious yet plucky prophet summons sacred snakes in a dimensional digger to stop sneaky skaven. It has to happen - i put too much time into the rhyming for it not too.
     
  17. spawning of Bob
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    spawning of Bob Well-Known Member

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    Enough is enough is enough! I had had enough of this Latin / French / German-spawned Grammar in this Latin / French / German-spawned Grammar laden thread already, already.

    I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.
     
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  18. Slanputin
    Carnasaur

    Slanputin Well-Known Member

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    Well, you know what they say: time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.

    Roger Roger, roger? Roger.
     
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  19. Y'ttar Scaletail
    Troglodon

    Y'ttar Scaletail Well-Known Member

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    Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit Warpstone...
     
  20. spawning of Bob
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    spawning of Bob Well-Known Member

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    I'll never be over Mazchogrundi.
     
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