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The Ruins

The Ruins Steampunk Lovecraftian painting by Myke Amend

… Of these buildings, we managed only to explore the larger chambers, and even then, only those that served as entries. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the shapes and sizes of the doors in between rooms and tiers, as though access between levels was restricted according to the size and shape of those who once lived here. James, however, is resolute in his notion that our ancient hosts have neither a set shape or size, citing the absence of ladders or stairs between the floors of these strange towers. Of course this is nonsense. The large amount of human skeletons we have found here, indicate that these strange and seemingly pointless chambers must have been purely decorative, or of some significance to whatever primitive religions or superstitions they practiced. We’ve counted, documented, and graded what seem to be thousands of years worth of human remains now. For all the varying ages of the bones, and for all the time this settlement was here, it is strange to find the builders of […]

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“The Rain Maker” by Phillip Challis

Victorian Rainmaker

The Rain-Maker by Phillip Challis Published with permission May 18th, 2009 Morgan Booth looked up at a stretch of wide blue sky and waited for the miracle to happen. With the winds kicking up, little dust devils tumbled across the plains and scoured the land. Standing on the edge of town, Booth found himself surrounded by a sizable crowd of townsfolk. Their mood struck him as electric, like the static carried on dry winds that sometimes threw blue sparks off wire fences at night. That’s how it was with the people. They had an excited air about them. He could see a few had even gone so far as to throw coarse blankets down on the bare ground. Families tucked into their picnic dinners and children played in what used to be fertile soil now gone to lifeless powder. This town was just the latest in a string of used up little communities he’d wandered into and out of again over the past few months. The past few summers had seen withered crops and wasted […]