Re:
All right; once more into the haven, dear friends...
* * *
The Testimony of Alrak was reportedly written by the last known survivor of a Nesda, a small haven in the foothills of the Frenas Mountains. Nesda's wards were incomplete when the Vex hit. The abhorrent, Mujalabrin, easily slipped into the haven and ravaged its inhabitants.
Not really funny, up till "the Vex hit". 'Vex' could be short for 'vexation', which is a funny play-on-words. Still, i rate this as serious.
Mujalabrin took a special interest in Nesda's only champion, Alrak the Bard. Alrak's talent was great, but his will was not. In a desperate attempt to save himself, Alrak offered to immortalize the abhorrent in epic versus. Amused by the idea, Mujalabrin agreed to keep the bard alive until he could write no more.
Funny, if the tone is mocking Alrak as being a cowardly sort who would barter anything to stay alive. However, there's a sinister, unfunny aspect of being locked in a tomb with a demon, forced to write to save one's life. Tossup.
Scholars estimate it took Alrak 115 years to complete his 125,925 page Testimony. Alrak exhausted his limited supply of ink within the first year of composition. The vast majority of it seems to have been written in blood. After approximately 105 years, The Testimony of Alrak encompassed every scrap of paper in Nesda. Tests confirm that the last 8760 pages were crafted from exquisitely tanned and extravagantly trimmed skin.
Funny. i might guess this is where reph fiinds the preface to be exaggerative, and where detante finds it to be overwritten. The details just sound absurd... 115 years? Ran out of ink? Such a precise number of pages? The emphasis "every scrap of paper"? (i'm wondering what the poor fellow used in the lavatory, then.) Tanned human skin, words written in blood? (hearkens to the Evil Dead movies and their farcical Necronomicon, the Book of the Dead).
The original copy of The Testimony of Alrak resides in a carefully warded vault in the Great Library of Kurth. Abhorrence lore experts have long clamored for access to the Testimony. While Master Tinus agrees that it could provide invaluable information, he refuses to release any portion of the original document. Instead, he has elected to have to have the original copy transcribed to warded vellum, infused with True Wood using ink infused with True Earth. No scribe has been allowed to work on more than 9 non-sequential pages. Despite these precautions, 68 of the 220 scribes working on the Testimony have since gone mad. While incidences of insanity are to be expected when working with abhorrence-related material, experts agree this is a higher percentage than usual.
Uneven/funny. The tone starts out straight, then has mirthful elements (someone pointed the overly complicated scribing process). The last sentence is rather punchy, it bloody well does sound like Monty Python or Pratchett.
Further transcriptions were halted after the scribe Paltis created duplicates of his work from memory, using ordinary ink and paper. Paltis made a small fortune when he sold his copies to an amateur collector. Shortly after his purchase, the collector murdered Paltis in the middle of the Bazaar. The collector was in berserk rage, screaming that Paltis was a liar and a thief. It took an arrow to the chest to stop the madman from killing innocent bystanders. A search of the collector's office uncovered 8 blank sheets of paper that radiating a lingering astral aura.
Inconclusive.. It could read as a satire or as a serious (if dubious) account. Either the effects of the Testament are being mocked, or they're being played up as potent.
As of this writing, only 1800 of the 125,925 pages of The Testimony of Alrak have been reproduced. Master Tinus has made it clear that no further transcriptions will be created as long as he is in charge of the Library.
Straight. If it's supposed to be funny, i'm not seeing a joke. Mainly comes across as plain old exposition.
Chapter One
I have no fear of the underground. I spent my childhood under the mountains of Kurth. Usually I find comfort beneath the shelter of solid stone. But the halls of Kurth echo with vitality. There is a restless silence about this place. It is not the empty hush of a forgotten tomb. There is a palpable sense of malice lurking in this silence.
This utterly makes it too difficult for me to call the whole piece humour. When i first read it, i was hit by the POV transition, but it's more than that now; i see that part of the shock was that the elements that made me chuckle are gone. This feels straight, serious, and honest.
I was nine years of age when I first told my father of my wish to search for lost havens. In a futile attempt to dissuade me from that path, he reserved a three-page excerpt of the Testimony of Alrak for my edification. Given the documents reputation, he must have called in more than one favor to obtain it.
Since we've seen the "effects" of the Testimony in the preface, it's really hard to laugh at the thought of a child being driven mad. The father's action is sobering and even offensive. It could interpreted as black humour, maybe... but as it stands, i find it straight.
As chilling as Alrak's account is, it did not prepare me for my first contact with a living abhorrent. The estimation that this is a young abhorrent only deeps my self-deprecation. I can only assume that every member of the party is now marked.
Straight.
While I cannot be certain that my own faculties have not been destroyed, it appears my husband's mind is now a devil's playground because of my audacity. I should have taken his council when he suggested we return to town. But my pride was not content to face the condescension of Councilman Stark with the paltry amount of information we had collected. Thanks to me, most party members are severely injured, many are trying to kill one another, and the some are missing. My hubris may well be the destruction of us all.
97.3% straight. Thanks to reph, i can't take Councilman Stark seriously. Otherwise, this is a person confessing their sins; i don't see any humour in that (melodrama, yes; humour, no).
* * *
Overall score: i have no idea. i see the humour, but it would need a rewrite to truly be captured. The drama (melodrama?) stands out without a rewrite, Conan be damned.
And i still like it, but i'm starting to feel that the horse has been flogged halfway into mulch. i really, really want to move on to find out what happens next, to see if the drama progresses or falls apart.