Cluny the Peyote Skulled Monkey Sorcerer
art by @Adillemma
Two moons
have waxed and waned since the peyote spirits translocated Sorcerer Celah's mind into the body of Cluny the monkey familiar, and likewise Cluny the monkey's mind into the human shell.
Two moons and the peyote spirits whisper still, day and night. At night! Oh, at night... simian dreams are seeping through... Sorcerer Celah in monkey body, dreaming monkey dreams at night...
"Cluny! Call me Cluny!" the tiny monkey sorcerer declared upon waking one morning. "Cluny..." the peyote spirits whispered back. "Celah is no more. Celah is dead."
And indeed, although not dead, the human body was no longer quite alive either. Extremely frustrated by the physical limitations of the human shell, the monkey mind did not mesh well inside Celah's former body. The monkey mind was wracked with nightmares. An evil gallu demon drifting through the dreamworld possessed the body and destroyed the monkey mind. Celah the human body, now a mount for the gallu demon, separated from Cluny the Monkey Sorcerer (formerly Celah's consciousness). Gallu/Celah has sired many offspring in the short time since, as demons are wont to do.
"You must take this saw and cut off the top of your skull" whispered the peyote spirits. "Just the top. Cut it off. Your skull."
Cluny the Monkey Sorcerer picked up the small crescent saw and carefully removed the top of his skull. "Place the peyote in your skull," the spirits whispered.
Cluny the Monkey Sorcerer picked up the large peyote and placed it in the bloody cavity atop his head. The peyote swelled and fused with his bone.
Cluny the Peyote Skulled Monkey Sorcerer smiled, a twitching smile that gave way to a maniacal laugh. The peyote spirits had bestowed a vision. The many half human / half demon offspring sired by his former body called to him in the vision, and Cluny knew he had to find them. What ritual could so many demon wizard babies be used for? No doubt the peyote spirits would speak more of this later...
Entered by: 0x3457…6129 and preserved on chain (see transaction)
The Twisting Towers
Gentle reader, allow this humble apprentice scribe to pick up this tale.
The good Sorcerer Monkey Cluny - May the sun always shine at his back! - is no longer concerning himself with affairs of this plane of reality. But in his infinite wisdom - May his name always be remembered! - Cluny saw fit to leave a truly monumental pile of golden artifacts with my master as payment to transcribe his story as told by... -may the Spirits of the Desert strike me down if I lie! - a portion of Cluny's mortal soul trapped in a diamond, forever whispering what it has seen to anyone who holds the sparkling gem.
Upon consultation with my master - the finest scribe in all the desert kingdoms! - I have seen fit to abridge the story. Gentle reader, trust that I am sparing you the months of harrowing trials that Cluny the Monkey Sorcerer faced while wandering the deserts, brain half replaced with an enchanted peyote totem, mind half monkey, half sorcerer, and all bound to the whims of the peyote spirts - trust that I am sparing you these ordeals out of courtesy to your own sanity! This humble apprentice scribe is the only one who must grasp the diamond and be subject to these terrible visions and - By the Shining Sands let it be so! - no one else must bear this onerous burden.
Exalted reader, we resume the story when Cluny has regained some semblance of sanity. Cluny left the deserts on the trail of the gallu demon inhabiting his former human body Wizard #2623. The trail was easy to follow as the gallu demon left a string of conquests and half-demon babies in its wake. The demon traveled to the far north, to the frozen tundra and out to the edge of the ice where the battle penguins roam near the Penguin Capital.
There on a frozen island, a rise of ancient sedimentary rock is mysteriously free of snow and ice year round. The remains of an ancient keep, with stone walls encircling three towers, watches over the foreboding mass of rock. The penguins of the north call this place the Twisting Towers, for the three towers twist around each other and lean at precarious angles. The penguins say that on each expedition past the island they see the towers twisted into a new configuration, although no one has ever seen them moving.
Noble reader, the truth is far stranger still than you might imagine! In this case and many more I shall relate. The twisting towers were constructed before the dawn of time by two great wizards Blue and Green, who had ventured outside of the normal flow of time to leave their imprint in the past and future. The twisting towers are astronomical observatories, which can move themselves into different configurations to view the portents of the stars not just as they appear now in the sky, but also as the stars have ever appeared in the past and as they will appear in the future. May the Eternal Oasis ever run dry for my children and their children and their children's children if I tell a lie!
Entered by: 0x3457…6129
