Difference between revisions of "Ikulu's List"

Revision as of 10:41, 3 December 2008

A book found in the Tarot Dungeon contained the full text of Ikulu's List as follows:

  (Book with copious illustrations, Greek)
  
  From the round earth’s imagined corners the roguish boy king brought me what 
  I needed, the remnants of animals—plucked from them while they yet lived, 
  for the remnants of a dead creature have no power.
  
  Hair from the mane of a unicorn. This may be a gift freely given, for the 
  pure of heart have nothing to fear from a unicorn. It took me many tries to 
  wrest by force these hairs away. The unicorn represents goodness and purity 
  and all that is best among the forces of the earth. Alone among all these 
  remnants, the unicorn’s I acquired myself.
  
  Scales from a naga, a beast that can be found in India in the famous City of 
  Snakes. For the naga hath the face of a woman and the body of a snake. The 
  naga represents the formlessness of the sea, the undulations of the waves 
  encroaching on the land, for naga know not water. The snake and the woman 
  joined together are a metaphor for the enemy, and the scale is her armor, 
  which our spear must pierce. It is strange to write this.
  
  The skin of an amphisbaena, the most poisonous of all snakes. Although in form
  it epitomizes the enemy, a snake, multi-headed, and may be assumed to be
  associated with water, its bite desiccates and turns the victim, agonizing in
  thirst, into dust in a matter of minutes. Behold, too, how it cleaves the pure
  air in its flight. Such is the paradox of the amphisbaena.
  
  The feather of the marvelous phoenix, and the eggshell from a roc, the 
  largest of all birds, which is so large that it cannot attend the Parliament 
  of Fowls, one of only three birds not to go, for even the flightless ostrich 
  and other birds are brought there, when chicks or very small, by their 
  flying kin. Only the roc, the phoenix, and the king of the king of the 
  birds, the Smiargl, do not go, one because he is too large, one because he 
  is so frequently dead, and the last because it is beneath him. The mystery 
  of exclusion gives the remnants of the roc and the phoenix great power. The 
  roc is of great size, but may be contained in an egg as an oak in an acorn, 
  and the phoenix is immortal, but sheds its feathers as any bird does, and 
  there is power in this contradiction. I once had a cage that could have held 
  the phoenix, but no one was able to catch it for me. I lost the cage anyway.
  
  Stretchy membrane from the wing of that beast that is part lion and part 
  dragon. The vulgar call it a “gryphon,” but in truth the griffon is an 
  animal that is part lion and part eagle, and can grow to prodigious size, 
  that liveth near my homeland. The lion and the dragon are the two signs of 
  power; furthermore, the dragon is a form of the water serpent, while the 
  lion is king of the beasts on land, and acknowledgeth no master save his own 
  kings (the sabu of Libya, and of course the King of the Cats). They have 
  come together in a beast of violence and contradiction.
  
  Tooth from a Cynocephalus. The teeth of a Cynocephalus have long been lucky 
  totems; some have claimed that the universe was created by a man with the 
  head of a dog. This is ludicrous, but it points to the antiquity and power 
  of the tradition. In the East, such teeth are venerated as objects of great 
  power. These teeth therefore represent creation; they come from the mouth 
  because, just as weasels give birth from the mouth, so do humans bring forth 
  from the mouth a wondrous variety of sounds, while in the ocean deeps all is 
  silence. They are found only in the deeps of Abyssinia, in the great trading 
  kingdoms around the City of Silence.
  
  A paw from a rukh of the rakshasas, a powerful race of shapeshifters living 
  in distant India. The rakshasa represents enmity and strife, everything that 
  is vile and horrific and ever-changing about the beats of the land. And yet 
  they would not exterminate mankind. There is power in this trade-off, in 
  this enemy that seeks subjugation and not destruction. Our true enemy—the 
  People of the Sea—seeks only destruction.
  
  The eye of the dragon turtle, creature of steam—where water and air meet 
  in fire—, and, as a turtle, a creature of both the land and the sea, like 
  the victorious frogs in the allegorical Batrachomyomachia. And the eye is 
  the very image of multiplicity, full as it of more species than nature 
  itself. Every time the dragon turtle surfaces, the land is founded, and 
  every time it dives the land is destroyed, a miniature cycle 
  recapitulating our past and our future; unless we are very skilled or very 
  lucky or I am very wrong. This eye was, of all things, the hardest to procure.
  
  These remnants must be treated as described in my Book of Moons, named for 
  the days of old, when the enemy ruled the earth and two moons stood in the 
  sky. The Book of Moons I have hidden safely in Psoikanthe. The remnants 
  Nature has hidden batter than I ever could.
  
  Better than I ever could—almost. For once I hid something better.

A partial list found earlier on a ripped sheet:

         From Ikkulu is writt
    nine are the items requ
    skin of amphisbaen
    of a pheonix, eggshell
    roc, paw of rakshas
    rukh, hair off a uni
    scales from a naga, tee
    cynocephalus, eye of
    turtle, and membrane
    wing, before Drelzna
    octopuses defeated.

Obviously, all those unfinished sentences and half-completed words are located on the other half of the sheet.

There was another note that was copied out of a book found in the Duchess Anna Ivanovna's library that illuminated us on a few things:

    (Beginning of Page)
    ...exploits cannot be trusted. The chronicler claims she
    had visited the nine perilous cities, viz. City of Night,
    City of Snakes, City of Fire, City of Silence, City of
    Children, City of Dreams, City of Webs, City of Blood,
    and City of Pain; but the cities are scattered over such
    an expanse of the world that no one could possibly
    have visited all nine of them. More likely, the
    chronicler was just enamored of lists, such as his list of
    items needed to wake Baba Iakulu's daughter,
    fanciful items such as the hair of a unicorn, the
    membrane from the wings of a gryphon, eggshell of a
    roc, etc. In all probability Baba Iakulu is a confusion
    of the real historical personage Baba Iaga, whom the
    chronicler claims his subject knew, and who is more
    famous and better attested. Nevertheless, it is beyond
    dispute that she or someone like her traveled to India
    and brought back with the sages the worship of several
    hideous gods that possessed numerous heads or faces,
    such as Sventovit, and that certain people embraced
    their worship, forgetting their native gods...
    (End of Page)

We now know that, in order to save the world, we need to find:

• Skin of the Amphisbaen
• Feather from a Phoenix
• Eggshell from a Roc egg
• A paw from a Rakshasa Rukh
• A hair from a Unicorn DONE!!!
• Scales from a Naga
• Teeth from a Cynocephalus DONE!!!
• An eye from a Shield Turtle
• Stretchy membrane from a lion/dragon (not Gryphon) wing

Finally, a note on the cities: they are same in number to the items on the shopping list required to save the world. These cities, obviously, should also be researched:

• City of Night
• City of Snakes
• City of Fire
• City of Silence HACKED
• City of Children
• City of Dreams
• City of Webs
• City of Blood
• City of Pain