Sunday, March 26, 2023

Cento Epoch in 15 Items

  1. Lantern of pig-iron, wrought in smudge-covered, perfectly-fired glass. The flat top is inset with a disc like obsidian which captures the heat of the sun and casts light when the night steals around it.
  2. Hand-and-a-half dueling sword, handle recently rewound with rough scale-leather. Filling the fuller is Last Man script describing the deeds of the nation which forged it. Most these days call it the First Sword.
  3. Uneven belt so worn the threads holding it together form a strong lattice all on their own. Perfectly shaped for a 5' biped to carry a particular stone ax, a plugged skull full of tinder, a bundle of threads, a bone awl, and three plums. It is hopeless for carrying anything else.
  4. Clamshell of silicon that glows when its owner touches the concave side and, typing message into it, can do sums, serve as a compass or level, and record audio. One day soon it is said these palantirs will be able to communicate with each other on their owners' behalf.
  5. Glossy brown cube with a gel-like face. Inserting your hand through the face is immensely painful, and will make the old morlock men who offered it to you guffaw and call you a simpleton.
  6. Blazing purple silk headband. So vibrant it seems to be more real than anything else.
  7. Flint knife, coated in a thin lair of mud mixed with a poultice that stops blood from clotting.
  8. Copper leg splint, etched with simple depictions of birds and mountains.
  9. Stone spear, haft shining from long and careful use. Small, unpatinated bronze ball on the end to correct the weight.
  10. Copper wire twisted around a wooden dowel. In the time of the Morlocks, this totem repelled mind goblins.
  11. Matts of a witch's fur, soaked in perfume and soda water. Used for fertility, or to aid pregnancy, or to help children grow, or to act as a decoy for summoned assassins.
  12. Loft bed with a frame of cedar branches and filled with rags. Two small silk pillows. A break in the branches allow two people to spoon without the big spoon's arm falling asleep.
  13. Slate board, inscribed in yellow chalk "COMET ✹ CHURCH"
  14. Battered, faded tin holding a plastic thermometer-like instrument, safe in custom-cut foam. Intended to detect any living souls within 100 yards of the user, but for some reason all such instruments, calibrated in the distant future, now report as though there were 13 fewer people than there are in the radius. Runs from 0 to 256, blocked by lead, valda, and dense radiation of all forms.
  15. Speaking and Signs, a phrasebook for Mannish and ancient languages, conferring mutually-unintelligible phrases such as "Servants, passion takes my hovel" and "One twelve of fish but at what cost?" Published and popularized by the Morlock translation guild.

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