compy post: Beowulf? Confused? Beowulf?

[iam-beowulf.livejournal.com]

HWÆT! OF THE LAKE MONSTER WE HAVE HEARD,
HOW TENTACLES TEASED HOGWARTS' HERO HEARTS,
AND WATERS WARM LULLED BEAST AND BEST ALIKE.
I AM NO BARD, BUT WARRIOR! I AM BEOWULF!
ON RUNE-BOARD NOW I TAP THE WORDS OF WOE
TO SEEK SOME NEWS. HAST THOU THE MONSTER SEEN?

SCANT DAYS AGO I SPIED A DOLEFUL WRIT
ACCUSING OUR MOST FAMOUS MONSTER HERE
AND NAMING IT A NAME I NEVER HEARD!

LORD PYARAY? WHAT BE THIS? YOU MUST TELL ME.
FOR MONSTERS ARE MY BUSINESS, I THEIR BANE.
WHAT BE A PYARAY, AND WHY CALLST THOU HIM THIS?

ALL THE SCHOOL MUST TELL ME WHAT IT KNOWS.

BEOWULF

((note: the Giant Squid -- the subject of Beowulf's inquiry -- is an NPC that basically just floats around in the lake, totally uninterested in everything and everyone. If you want to make up an encounter between yourself and the Squid, that's fine. Remember the Squid can't talk. ))

Comments

[guy-from-mars.livejournal.com]

THE SQUID IS MY WATER BROTHER. IT IS A GREAT GOODNESS, AND IT GOES THROUGH THE WATER OF LIFE BRIGHTLY, BRIGHTLY AND WITH BEAUTY.

Too bad for Miket hat his first experience with the compy network involved a post from Beowulf. He now grokked (wrongly, as it turns out) that it was necessary to write in capslock. He also did not grok the concept of a screen name, so his post would remain anonymous.

[blood-and-souls.livejournal.com]

Elric was keeping up with his habit of a trip through the school every couple of days, making sure to visit a few locations which he'd noted as interesting. One of these was lurking in the shadows of the corridor that 'Lord Arioch' was living in, much to the Baron's dismay. Another of these was the computer lab, or, the 'place of the rune-boxes', as he thought of it. His interest had been caught by the devices, unlike any others he'd seen. He was sure that they had to contain intelligences of some variety, but still wasn't sure. There wasn't any actual sense of magic to them, and the Melnibonean was experienced in these matters, even if of a different variety than Hogwarts magic.

Scanning the rune-boxes, he found something of great intrigue! One of the boxes was manifesting an interest in Lord Pyaray! And it claimed that the intelligence behind it was the bane of monsters! Elric found Beowulf's writing style to be refreshingly normal, similar to that of some of the less-refined barbarians of his own realm. He wondered if this might be a kindred spirit in his quest to discern the mystery of this realm, and to free it from the grasp of Chaos if it indeed proved as malevolent as Chaos in his own realm. So he sat down at the rune-box, and focused on the keys, managing with more ease than his greater attempts, although still typing with his index fingers.

Hail and well met Beowulf, intelligence of the rune-box. I am Elric of Melnibone, and it is I who left the rune-message about Lord Pyaray. Lord Pyaray is a Lord of Chaos. A Chaos Lord is a powerful intelligence with nearly unfathomable power, and he called this for it is his name. I am unsure of why the Lords are called what they are, but this is a question I will contemplate. He usually manifests as a red octopus, but in this realm, the Lords of Chaos wear disguises to diminish their forms. Their guises, however, are telling. I have seen the monster that dwells in the lake. Lord Pyaray's size and form give him away, but he refuses to admit his identity and purpose to me. I have questioned him repeatedly, to no avail.

By 'questioned repeatedly', what Elric really meant was 'stood on the shore and screamed for him on multiple occasions.' The giant squid ignored him, naturally. He was contemplating an attempt at a proper summoning of the Lord to force it, but, it was unclear if the school would provide the necessary accouterments for such an affair. The summoning of a Chaos Lord was ridiculously extravagant and took days.

He waited at the rune-box, hoping that it would provide him some answers, while eating a piece of mysterious, almost-ripe fruit he'd pilfered from a garden on the grounds.