(This was a vocabulary exercise for English composition. I may have enjoyed myself a bit.)

Nobody knows what menacing monsters lurk in the catacombs, but the rumormongers ply their trade ceaselessly, hoping to elicit a modicum of profit from it somehow. They say there is a panoply of riches hidden in a long-forgotten emperor's tomb. They have heard (from whom?) that the monstrosities with which the deeps are rife, are simply some paltry number of rats and maggots. They decry and deny the existence of the elusive flesh-eating ogres ubiquitous throughout the subterranean passages.

All who listen are fervently hidebound, of course. Who would so promiscuously propagate stories of these demons unless they had seen them with their own eyes? These hawkers of hope spawn a seed of doubt, however, and this chance of success, inchoate, draws them down, down, down, ineluctably, to the halls of the dead—most often to perpetuate their numbers.

Of such stock comes the quintessential treasure hunter, Iowa Smith. Propelled by desire, predisposed to disbelieve in devils, passive under greatest duress, will he be able to find the fabled Treasure of Caligula?

Daylight's End

The Solari shield-maiden pauses at the entrance to the cave. The sun is starting to go down and the evening chill is approaching. The cave is colder still. Should she light a fire and make camp for the night?

Her orders are clear. "Find the heretic. Protect the faith." She enters the cave. Its darkness soon envelops her, and she calls upon the sun for a little light. Her shield begins to glow. She sees that the cold walls are painted with crescents and blasphemies. She goes deeper.

Further in, she begins to hear a high, clear voice, chanting in worship:

The Song of Oryx

When I saw Oryx I was overcome with many thoughts
    I fled to a very High place
    Which was very Deep

And I said:

Aurash, Auryx, Oryx!

I don't know that much Spanish yet

              OVERCONFIDENT SPANISH
              STUDENT (subtitled)
    ¡Nosotros somos tontos! (We are
    stupid!)
       (The students eye him suspiciously.)
    ¡Pero! ¡Nuestro cerveza es musculosa!
    (But! Our beer is muscular!)
       (The class cheers.)
    ¡Nuestros madres son guapos! (Our
    mothers are handsome like men!)
       (The class cheers louder.)
    ¡Y nuestros corazones son trabajadores!
    (And our hearts are hard-working!)

The class's cheer becomes a ROAR. They carry the overconfident student ON THEIR SHOULDERS and SURGE OUT OF THE CLASSROOM.

PROJECT: Lucian

This was an entry into a fan-fic micro-competition for League of Legends. I just figured I'd cross-post it here because I'll never save the Boards permalink like I can this post. If you'd like more information, I'd recommend reading Lucian's background and watching the PROJECT: Overdrive video. (Lucian is a character in the game, while PROJECT is a line of skins for several of the characters.)

—

They know their foe—Battlecorp's latest monster, codename WARDEN. It doesn't seem a great threat; in fact, it looks mostly harmless. In truth it is a shell housing an anti-cybersecurity and hacking AI, armed only with ad-hoc trans-physical jacking ports and a datapad. It has hit other PROJECT installations, but agents had severed communications before it could infiltrate the main system. Now it comes for the system directly.