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I. Vix'ni-Aldru
In the blackest
depths of space
In the voids
unknown to man,
Science strove
to take its place,
The experiments
began.
The mystery, a
black hole -
To scan its
depths their hope.
Vix'ni-Aldru,
aeons-old,
On this they
trained their 'scope.
II. T'halu
They saw it
here in the glass,
Looming in
immensity.
That which
brought their doom, alas,
A dead and
nameless city.
But no - not
quite dead - not yet,
For beyond its
great walls there,
Beneath it
spires of jet
Crawled horrors
born of nightmare!
III. The Voorlak
Shapeless, yet
not without form
Those
inhabitants did be.
Lizard-like,
yet like a worm,
Forms born of
insanity.
Before an
eldritch altar
The nightmare
dwellers did kneel.
Their chanting
did not falter
As they turned
a monstrous wheel.
IV. Haiogh-Yai
The wheel, it
seemed, was a lock;
The unknown
chanting a key.
And though they
took no such stock
In things, more
they had to see.
They gazed
above the city -
Madness they
were on the verge -
Then gibbering
fools to pity -
As from the
door IT did emerge!
"The Outsider" : Reprinted from Eldritch Tales (#24) Winter 1990 with kind permission of the author.
1997 Peter A. Worthy
"The Outsider" © 1990-1997 James Ambuehl
