a nunnery! TO slay or not to slay, that
is the..." suddenly Conan's monologue was cut off by the
an unearthly howl emanating from below the docks. Conan paused
to listen. The slapping of the foamy ocean against the
rotten wood carried a sinister overtone, like a distant fluting
from beyond in the court of Azathoth himself. The ancient
languages had a word for this sound, but Conan couldn't
know. All Conan knew was that he was born on
earthly soil, and this sound was unlike anything he'd ever
made while slicing and decapitating his way across Hyboria. Just
then a huge octopus demon rippled up from below the
oil-filmed water. Its alien voice hissed evilly at the
Cimmerian. "Not tentacles again, I hate tentacles!" the bronze skinned
dark haired, blue eyed, lantern jawed, athletically built, savage warrior
overheard Red Sonja complain.
"This abomination is no threat to
us as long as we stay out of the water."
"Paugh! I'm a threat to it on land, in the
water, in the air - everywhere!" Conan leveled his crossbow and
misfired. The bolt was driven backwards into his front teeth.
Moments later, a barrel of stinking fish guts burst open
revealing a young child within. The girl opened her eyes
and began intoning a strange singsong chant.
"The Gods' plaything
.... errr." Then it paused, whereupon Conan clove her in twain.
"Whatever fortune awaits, I am no toy of the gods!"
...declaimed Conan. The octopus demon agreeing, dived hastily from sight.
Sonja glared at Conan. "How did you know that child
was only an illusion, induced by the noxious stench of
the sea demon?"
"I didn't," responded Conan laconically. "We should
go weave some more webs of steel before nightfall"
In the taverns of Hoon, hardened sea-dogs answered Conan's
erroneous move on the scrabble board. You can't 'nubian' with
tiles printed with Hyrkanian letters. You need Zingaran tiles, like
those possessed by the crazed Hyperborean necromancers in the tower
refuges they favored. "Enough of these games!" thundered
Conan. "'Nubian'. Ten thousand points, with these Zingaran tiles I ...."
could become king of Aquilonia! King! Think about it - after
all these years of serving doddering fops, I could be
ruler of all Hyboria and have trembling virgins for
breakfast,lunch and dinner as well as a midnight snack!"
"These tiles must be mine! But where can I find
a Toyz-R-Us that would sell them to a hardened slayer
and all-around n'er-do-well?" Conan had to think long and hard
until Red Sonja reminded Conan that they had already looted
by the accursed snake priests of the Temple of Set
in the dread city of Khemi."That deceitful sorceror Thoth-Amon
would add 'linguistics professor' and 'scrabble champion' to his already
infernal pedigree. When he summoned Quqzazox, the triple word score
would result in an eternity of darkness and plague, such
as the Nemedian Chronicles, Dictionary, and Thesaurus had never recorded
. And as I cannot even read, that much darkness is
|