Origins of The Pagans -
imported_Epistemology - 02-18-2010
While on a routine tour through his favorite hunting spots, a weary hunter decided to take a much deserved rest. As he looked around the caverns trying to dicern where the floor started and ceiling ended, he wondered where his normal quarry was. He had been hunting these parts for many years, all the while learning all the routines of its inhabitants, he actually had come to make a profitable living on these trips. On this particular day though there was an eerie way about the caverns. Normally, this area was bustling with hordes of ghouls and witch-like creatures, he had even been known to run into a vampire or two on his explorations deeper into the caverns. For some reason unknown to our hunter something just wasn't right.
As Epist sat up from his rest he began to pack his equipment and set out to a new area of the carven, perhaps his quarry had decided to go deeper due to the warming of the air. The ascension down into this particular cavern was one of a risky nature, requiring all his focus and talent if he was to make it safely to the other side. Leaving a rope tied to a boulder would be a sure way for him to climb back out when he had explored all he could. On the way down into the carven he noticed a heavy shift in the temperature, it felt as if he was being pelted with ice cold rocks all over his body every time a breeze would ascend upwards from the crevice he was regrettably diving down. As he started to run out of rope he decided to light a torch and drop it to determine what he thought was a shallow entrance. After dropping the torch he realized he was only 15 feet from the bottom so he decided to drop the rest of the way. Once on solid ground and his rope tied off, he began exploring the maze-like caverns all around him. It didn't take Epist long to notice this was no ordinary area that had been created by nature and sheer chance, this area had been carved out tunnel by tunnel with crude tools, leaving piles of dust along the base of the walls. He also began to notice engravings of a unique nature along the ceilings, and at a closer glance he noticed an ink of some kind smeared all over the drawings.
At the end of tunnel off to the left, he noticed a bit of light coming through the wall. Epist made his way down the narrow corridor blindly following the light, which led him into an oval shaped room with a table in the middle. The light seemed to be coming from a tiny pin hole in the ceiling, but he knew this to be almost impossible seeing as he knew for sure they were maybe a thousand feet below ground.
Once inside the room, Epist quickly became aware that this room seemed to be the center of the maze-like chamber he had stumbled upon. The light was beaming perfectly onto a stone altar of some sort that hadnât been used in ages. He made his way closer to make a better examination of table and noticed the same residue or ink that was all over the ceilings. As well as many of the same markings adorned the altar. It was then he made his startling discovery, the residue on the altar was in fact blood. Epist wondered to himself what kind of place had he stumbled upon.
He made a dash for the entrance he stumbled on an old torch, sending him flying into a wall where he landed on a pile of discard clothes. The fall was broken by the pile of clothes and some object buried beneath them. He started rummaging through the clothes and noticed they were piles of shrouds, a bit dirty, but nonetheless a bright red color with a sort of silk fabric. Seeing as the area to be cold, Epist threw one on and began to pick up the object buried beneath the rest of the clothes. He noticed at once the object to be a book, a very old book indeed. It appeared to be bound in some type of leather, and though he did not believe it to be of human skin he did think it had some properties of a man. The book must have weighed more than 5 pounds but was no bigger than your average book.
Epist took the book to the altar to where he could use some light and began to flip through some of the pages. The book was littered with incantations and scripture of an earlier time in history. After a few minutes of examining he came to the conclusion that this was a religious book and he decided that this was a bizarre find but a find nonetheless. Once the book was firmly secured into his pack he made his way back to his rope and was glad to find everything the way he left it. As he began to make his way up the air he could of swore he felt something move past his legs as he was using the wall to climb up. After a few moments he began again to the top.
He made his way back to the town and to his shop where he unloaded the rest of his things and stowed the book away in his desk for safe keeping. At first he didnât think anything of it, but he could have swore the book weighed a lot less last he had carried it. But it was probably just his mind playing tricks on him. I mean after all, he did just climb in and out of a chamber covered in strange drawings and blood. He began to get ready for bed, started blowing out the candles, fed his dog, and made sure to check his door. He was about to pull the blankets over him when he realized he still had on the dirty robe from the caverns⦠odd he thought.. as he pulled the covers over him and drifted off to sleepâ¦
This is just one part of hopefully many more to come that will complete a story.