Completed Malediction: A Use For Rats

Corvus Practices Malediction in Private

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An undead citadel created before the cataclysm, Sahova is devoted to all kinds of magical research. The living may visit the island, if they are willing to obey its rules. [Lore]

Malediction: A Use For Rats

Postby Corvus Bubon on December 1st, 2016, 2:10 am

516 Fall 91

Corvus enters his room in the private quarters, leaving the door cracked, a shabby den without detail, a lonely cot sits against the wall next to a chest. He checks the snares he had hid under the bed, one had been triggered but hadn’t caught anything, the other hadn’t been triggered. Corvus walks over to the chest and begins removing item after item. First his engraving toolkit, set on the cot, then 2 dead rats, set on the floor. The first rat was in fairly decent shape, a snare had caught his leg, from which he bled out. The second had been luckier, the snare caught it in the skull right where his brain was, lucky for him anyway, not as lucky for Corvus as the skull was damaged and not as useful.

Corvus looked at the second rat, I should start with this one, the skull is damaged but the mouth is for the most part still intact. Holding the rat by it’s tail Corvus stretches the mouth to it’s limit, the jaw opens enough that the roof of the mouth is easily viewable and puts his finger as far it could reach down it’s throat, surprisingly roomy, he manages to get his whole finger down it’s throat. Laying the rat on his lap, Corvus removes his finger from the rat’s mouth and runs it across his neck, finding the shoulder blades. Holding his finger on the point where the neck meets the shoulder he retrieves a blade from the engraving kit and moves it where his finger was.

First things first, he presses the blade into the skin of the rat, piercing it, then runs it along the neck, the blood had already drained from the body while it was sitting, so the incision was clear to see. The blade hit the spine of the rat, and with a careful application of pressure, breaks through, Corvus finishes separating the head from the rat, cutting away the remaining flesh. Corvus places the body of the rat under his bed, and sets up another snare nearby, then takes the head in hand and brings it closer to inspect it. The top of the skull is damaged beyond use, however, the roof of the mouth should still work.

Without the tissue that would normally connect the head to the body, it seemed a lot more flexible, and corvus was able to stretch the jaw enough to fit his engraving knife up against the roof of his mouth. The first cut was important, if the circle was too jagged it would probably fail to bring out any djed. Corvus carefully sliced a circle in the roof of it’s mouth, not pressing into the bone just yet. The incision filled the roof of the rat’s mouth, taking up as much space as it could, nearly 1 inch in diameter. With the outer circle complete, the next step would be the inner engraving, starting with light designs, Corvus sliced carefully so that within the initial circle had 4 circles, each ¼ an inch in diameter coming off it’s edge, one every 90 degrees. The circles didn’t meet yet, but next came the lines that would connect them, one carving, which starts at the top edge of a circle, curved down to connect to the bottom of the circle opposite it. He did this for each circle, until the circles each had two lines connecting them to the center, one starting with themselves, one starting opposite.
Last edited by Corvus Bubon on April 5th, 2017, 4:09 am, edited 4 times in total.
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Corvus Bubon
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Malediction: A Use For Rats

Postby Corvus Bubon on December 1st, 2016, 2:12 am

I’m impressed with myself. Corvus thought, as this level of detail was beyond his expectations, Maybe all those years with a scalpel paid off, his hand wasn’t shaking at all.

After the outline was complete he moved on to applying pressure with the blade using the outline, first the outside circle, the initial carve into the bone was a little rough. As Corvus worked his blade around the outside circle, he pressed a little too hard, and ended up with a deeper mark into the bone than he wanted. The mark wasn’t too bad but he wasn’t sure the effect it would have on the djed. Corvus finished the engraving of the outside circle without incident, meeting back up with his initial rough mark.

Corvus took a moment to steady himself, the inner engraving was important, and a screw up like earlier could cost him all his work. Corvus picked a circle and started the engraving of the smaller loop, which was actually much easier than the larger one, as it was over quicker and left him second guessing his hands far less. Each circle afterward was completed with the confidence that he had gained in the first one, and soon the inner engraving was coming together. The last part of the engraving process was the inclusion of the connecting lines, which he suspected would bring him the most trouble as he would be cutting very close to the areas he’d already engraved.

The first cut of the line was promising, from one circle all the way to the one opposite it without a hitch. The second line was less promising, as the cut was fine, but when it reached the center, it became obvious that too much more cutting would break through the bone. Corvus finished the second line, as it had already been started, then moved on to the next two connectors. He would have to improvise, go around the center in a more roundabout fashion. The two remaining circles were the ones in the back and front of the skull, starting with the one in the back Corvus lightly marked the flesh from the left side of the circle, curving to give the center circle a ¼ inch margin, then moving on to wrap around and connect with the left side of the front circle. Corvus then reflected this with the front circle, starting on the right side, curving left giving the center a ¼ inch margin, meeting with the right side of the back circle. Corvus breathed a sigh of relief, Thought I had lost it there for a moment.

Corvus could activate it now, however he had one more step he wanted to complete before drawing djed from it, to embalm what remained of the rat and it’s head. Corvus walked to his trunk and retrieved a bottle of preservation salts, placed the head on his cot, then poured the preservation salts over it until the head was buried completely. Enough of the salts should have coated the rat’s head, inside and out, after all it was just a head, with many openings, some new.
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Malediction: A Use For Rats

Postby Corvus Bubon on December 1st, 2016, 2:14 am

Corvus considered starting on the next rat, the top of whose skull would be the location for the next circle, as it wasn’t damaged in the snare. I think I’ll put it off till this one dries and I activate it, I want to make sure that what I’m doing is working. Sitting on his cot, Corvus folded his legs, closed his eyes, and started to meditate. Or rather it would seem that he was meditating, in reality Corvus wasn’t clearing his mind, he was going over every detail of his last engraving, over and over. On thinner bones like the roof of the rat’s mouth I can’t be overlapping engraving or I’ll damage the piece, one engraving deep, that’ll be my limit.

Time sped on as he thought there quietly, one hour, two, all the while he traced the movements he had used to engrave the sigil in the air with his hand. The quiet is interrupted by the skittering of a rat’s footsteps. Corvus opened his eyes, the rat was at his door moving quickly toward the cot. Corvus slowly positioned himself so that he could stare down at the rat, when it arrived it started sniffing around the headless rat carcass, placed evenly between the two snares under the bed. I wonder if he’s afraid. The rat moved on and started sniffing the cheese in the snare that had yet to be triggered, and with a swipe of his tail, removed the cheese from the trap, setting it off, but not getting caught. Clever. The rat skittered back into a corner with it’s cheese and started to enjoy it, Corvus lept for the door, slamming it shut. Just me and you. The rat noticed this of course, but kept eating it’s cheese.

Walking slowly forward, Corvus kept an eye on the rat, in case it made a move, the rat too kept its eyes squarely on him, though it did not stop eating it’s cheese. The rat’s eyes glanced at the wall, noticing a hole that Corvus had yet to find, Corvus lept at the rat. Corvus was fast and landed just next to the rat, but the rat was faster, it sped for the hole, and he clawed after it, only barely catching the tail. Corvus yanked, whipping the rat away from the hole and into the air, the rat now dangling and flailing about. Wasting no time, he reached for his toolkit, took out a sharp blade, and held it in his hand. He grabbed the rat by the chest with his knife holding hand so that he could hold him more effectively with his other hand, then transferred it to his other hand. The rat clawing and biting trying to get free, Corvus brought this to an end quickly, pushing the blade deep into it’s chest and killing him. Corvus’s right hand and upper arm were covered in scratches and bite marks, some of which started to leak ichor. He moved his arm over to the severed head that lay dried upon the cot and let some ichor drip into it’s mouth, splashing onto the engraving, the final step has been completed.
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Malediction: A Use For Rats

Postby Corvus Bubon on December 6th, 2016, 9:32 pm

Corvus takes his freshly killed rat and hangs it by the tail on the edge of the cot, so that the blood would drain from it’s body, then grabs the severed head and slides it down the middle finger of his left hand, neck first, so that the rat’s teeth end up just past the beginning of his fingernail. The rat’s jaw hangs freely below his finger and weighs it down heavily, disapproving of the feeling Corvus goes back to his chest and removes a spool of thread, unraveling enough to wrap around the mouth of the rat and his finger 4 times over. Corvus wraps the thread around the mouth and his finger 3 times pulling snug but not too tight, with enough thread leftover to tie a secure knot on the top. I’m still unsure of what it is this thing will do, but I will test it and figure it out. Unless I can get someone else to.

Corvus wasted no time starting on the next rat. This one is pristine, I won’t be be forced to work within the mouth of the rat, I’ll be able to engrave right upon the upper skull. Concentrating, he starts to prepare for the next engraving, measuring the width of the rat’s cranium, Workable area of about a 2-inch radius from the top of the cranium, discounting the ears, I’ll have to remove them first. Corvus presses his trusty blade against the base of the rat’s right ear, then cut it off near-shear, with a calm slice from one side of the ear to the other. The ear fell to the floor without making a sound and Corvus moved on to the left ear, repeating the exact same motion, it too fell silently to the ground.

Corvus started on marking the skin of the rat’s skull, The large encompassing circle went over the curves of it’s skull, while a central oval would mark the top of the cranium. The central oval connected to triangles formed by the rat’s ear holes, each have their own triangle formed from 2 points equidistant to their respective holes which overlap the oval nearly ⅓ the way through from either side. In the remaining ⅓ of the oval, the center, lies a smaller circle. Together the image is an eye with hard edges that trace to the ear holes and a circular iris. The ear holes also serve as the starting points for the lower and upper curves, which flank the eye below and above it. The top of the encompassing circle is the start of a sliver which starts about ½ inch wide and narrows down to a point at the bottom edge of the encompassing circle, passing through the center of the eye, but not physically, as it stops just before the eye, and continues on just after it.
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Malediction: A Use For Rats

Postby Corvus Bubon on December 6th, 2016, 9:34 pm

There, finally completed the marking, time to start engraving. Corvus’s engraving blade steadily began tracing the encompassing circle, pressing down enough to mark the bone, which of course included the ear holes just shy of the edge.Without Incident, good. Next came the oval, which gave a little trouble when it came to the curves shallower curves, a slightly bumpy edge formed. The next step was the ear hole triangles, given the fragility of the natural hole in the skull, this was surely to be most stressful. The first mark came along well enough, from the ear hole to the marked point, the next mark from that point to the second marked point also came without problems, however the mark back to the ear was bad. When the knife reached the ear hole again, a piece of the skull between the two points chipped off, the triangle was incomplete, the tip was now missing. BLOOD DRAINED VERMIN SHITE! Corvus’s irritation had gotten the better of him. He needed to calm down, a small mistake wouldn’t damage the piece too much, he hoped.

Corvus moved on to the next ear triangle. I could either replicate the damage, or keep this side intact…...I’ll replicate the damage. Corvus cut with less attention to his carefulness now, the first cut went smoothly, from the ear hole to the marked point, the second, point to point went smooth as well. The return engraving started just as smoothly as the last had, until it reached the end, however this time, instead of simply chipping off, the skull cracked a bit deeper than the last had, Corvus shaved the skull with the engraving knife along the crack to replicate the missing end of the triangle. The crack went the length of the triangle along the eye, but did not pass into the center ⅓.

Corvus next started on the flanking curves, easy in comparison to the triangle, but hard considering the clearly fragile state of the ear holes. Nevertheless the curves came together smoothly, each was ¼ inch off the eye, and neither gave way to a crack or a chip. The iris came next, relatively smooth circle in the center ⅓, with only one bump in the curve. The final and easiest of the engravings was the sliver. The wedge on the top part came together smoothly, ending as it met the edge of the upper flanking curve. The lower wedge started shakily, on the lower flanking curve, as it produced a small crack in the lower half of the circle, but otherwise came together quite well. Corvus blew upon the skull, and bone dust went flying into the air. Corvus unwrapped his wound and let a small drop of ichor drop onto the engraving. Corvus then took some thread and made a talisman looping the thread through the rat's ear holes, cutting off enough thread that it could hang from his neck and reach his lower ribs.
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Malediction: A Use For Rats

Postby Languish on December 14th, 2016, 11:55 pm

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Your grades have been summoned
________________

Corvus Bubon
■ Carving: + 4
■ Malediction: +5
■ Trapping: + 1
■ Mathematics: + 2
■ Observation: + 2


Lores
Lore of Mathematics: Measuring Diameter
Lore of Malediction: Mistakes Can be Recovered
Lore of Malediction: Drawing Ichor Through Means of Attack
Lore of Malediction: Outcomes are Unpredictable
Lore of Malediction: Stringing a Talisman
Lore of Carving: Overlapping Causes Deeper Grooves
Lore of Carving: Too Deep Grooves Create Damage
Lore of Trapping: Traps Can Damage the Catch


Additional Information
Two Novice Maledicted Rat Talismans as follows:

- Rat skull with engravings on roof of mouth. When worn or held in any fashion, the talisman causes the wearer to speak at a higher pitch than their natural range. The pitch is still detectable by humanoids.

- Rat skull with engravings on top of skull and damage in ear holes. When worn around the neck, the talisman creates a heightened sense of smell for the wearer, but restricts the sense of hearing.

Feel free to let Corvus discover these abilities through your own methods, and at your own pace. They will be added to your Storyteller Secrets soon.
________________

Comments:
Try to keep your writing in the past tense. It's a sitewide rule, just to keep things uniform.

In the future, I'd like to see more work put into not only carving the symbols, but planning them. What do they represent? What does Corvus feel when he creates them- or does he feel at all? Could there be a specific outcome he desires?

The things I enjoyed about your writing were the level of skill. I felt like you had Corvus make mistakes realistically, and the recovery for them was creative. It showed a lot of Corvus' character in how he moved through them, and I'm excited to see where else you take Corvus' personality.

Don't forget to delete your post in the grading queue. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to PM me about your grade.

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