Long it had been rumoured that among the jungle covered vines and amid the myriad islands of the thousand mouths of the great Mungoda river, leagues upstream from where it exhausts rich muddy silt into the Deeps of Rasakna, there stood crumbled stones, white marble blacked with mould, a single pediment opened to the steaming sky, fallen Doric columns receding into the jungle decay...
A sudden an violent tropical storm clears, water dripping from the trees and sending cicadas into a piercing shrill. A chuckle of laughter, and a tinkling of female voices: Here strides Pan, piping a merry tune as he leads his band through the jungle, far from the high Emphidorian plain where they normally carouse. There, writhing their way through the trees, sinuous and green, the Dryads follow the sweating, grunting form of the Minotaur, as the man-bull plods wearily through the jungle . A thump of hooves on the rich creeper-clad soil foretells the Centaurs as they trot through the ruins, lured by their god to this forgotten outpost. The steady but ominous padding of the great three headed Cerberus - far ahead, sniffing the verdant green boles completed the oddly misplaced war band.
Across a burbling forest stream, darting with fish, stole those who would deny Pan and his Arcadian host free reign of this jungle for their licentious cavorting: scuttling in the dark shadows were a chitinous tangle of giant scorpions, bright blue in scales marked out an open order company of lizardmen creeping across a glade, wicked stone clubs and menacingly daubed shields signalling their readiness for combat. Fluttering above the canopy a giant multi-coloured macaw-spirit, screeching indignantly at this invasion. Along the creek, eyeing off Cerberus, a Giant Puma scowled. Finally, stomping along, crashing trees and bending ferns - a fearsome Tyrannosaurus king and God of the ancient forest, manifest in terrifying green.
In the jungle-choked ruins, the forces of Pan and the Lost World eye off the sacred precinct:
The lizard horde resent this violation:
**************
Pan, exhorted by the sweet song of the Dryads, strode forth to claim the broken stone temple-precinct. The Puma leaped across the river. From within the dank fallen blocks swirled a brief but angry essence, which enveloped the Puma in maddened anger of abandoned an lonely spirits. Unseeable claws tore at the puma-flesh, shredding it until the only movement were the flies buzzing the golden-furred corpse. His warband violated by this intrusion, the Tyrannosaur crashed across the river in two strides and breathed a jet of flame at Cerberus. The drooling dog-beast roared in pain, and sank to its knees, fatefully stricken by the unholy flame.
Meanwhile Pan strode forth, angered by this impudence. Tyrannosaur and Goat-god roared and smote, the giant reptile gaining the upper hand as the ruin was smashed by flame and wrestling gods. Pan burned and was gone, the Dryads keening with dismay as they shrank back from the field. With a bellow, the Minotaur surged forth, swinging a block of stone on a rusty chain. The Macaw swooped in a flash of feathers, it’s beak and claws tearing at the sinews of the bull. In the fight, both were mortally wounded, staggering and fluttering no more.
Macaw and Minotaur in a death-grasp:
Perturbed but unyielding, the centaurs circled around even as the Tyrannosaur-God bore down upon them, and gave up a desperate ululating call. From his distant mountain-home, Pan flew back to scene, emerging in a flash beside the Lizard God to fight again. Earth clods were thrown up, and fire flashed across the scene, burning leaf and setting the earth a-smoulder. This time the dinosaur was banished, and the centaurs thundered, whooping into the sacred ruin and waving their specs in boorish triumph.
Despite the loss of their God, the Centaurs taunt the Lizard God:
Pan returns to wrest the prize from the scaly horde:
But the jungle-horde had not given up, and in a moment the Tyrannosaur was back, summoned once more by the fearsome clicking and croaking invocation of his mortal minions. These splashed across the river, bearing down upon the temple complex, in time to witness the angered banishment of Pan for a second time. The centaurs shrank back as the lizards scrabbled up upon the stones, casting them down and scattering forever the æons old remnants of the once-proud temple into the darkened gloom of the ancient jungle canopy…
Pan's last stand:
Their God banished once again, the centaurs make their last stand...:
...but once more the jungle horde reclaims it's green and tangled domain.
*******
Of Gods and Mortals last night at
Perth Miniatures Gamers Group: my Emphidorian (Greek)
Host of Arcadia destroyed by my brother Anthony’s
Lost Worlds list. Set in a ruined temple in the Mungoda Jungle inspired by the incomparable near-earth world of Legend created by Dave Morris in the 1980s
Dragon Warriors RPG.
Welcome, Guest. Please 
April 23, 2024, 11:53:26 PM
