The Temple of the Exploding Head

THE HOUSE OF WANT LEFT THE LEAGUE IN 000011AX.

The Sisterhood of Light had always seemed to have it in for the old Remnath House, ever since their great patriarch, Atrajak of Want, went mad and attacked them at their stronghold of Twilight 4. Atrajak was slain and branded a berserker and the House of Want was censured by the Sisters in the aftermath. Censured Houses often don’t survive, their currency is made worthless, they fall into ruin and disrepair and eventually go extinct.

The House of Want, frugal and modest, managed to survive and eventually regain a seat or two in the League Ex-Commons, though the Sisters had a long memory and never forgave them for Atrajak’s actions, even centuries later.

Little did the Sisters know that the House of Want would soon rise again in prominence and its name would endure the ages, not due to the exploits of the fallen hero Atrajak, but due to mind and hands of a gangly, rather misshapen man named Lord Revis of Want.

Lord Revis of Want was a genius, a man centuries ahead of his time. He was a prolific inventor of incredible skill and the things he created astounded the League. He invented the containment field, the holo-emmiter, the modern guidance system for the Fleet’s canister missiles and the sub-orbital to name a few. All by himself, he led the House back into wealth, and he did it without the approval of the Sisters–a thing unheard of in League Society. It was said Lord Revis discovered how to create Brightstones, which were objects of Elder-tech.

Such talk was bound to attract the attention of the Sisters. They took note of his creations and were suitably impressed. They visited Want in the rolling hills of Remnath to be given a tour of his workshop and discuss with him his future plans. Perhaps they might consider forgiving the House and forgetting the past, embracing the House once again.

And Lord Revis refused to admit them. They stood there, knocking on his gate, getting no response. Normally, such a rebuff would be the doom of a House–nobody ignores the Sisters when they come to visit. Lord Revis, though, had made a name for himself through his creations and his standing protected him.

The Sisters, fuming in their stronghold at Valenhelm, kept hearing more and more about the menagerie of incredible machines kept hidden in Lord Revis’ workshop and that he had developed an Elder-like knowledge. Nobody keeps secrets from them and they were determined to gain entrance to his workshop and see what was there to be seen, even if they had to make a scene of it–even if they had to break the law.

In 000011AX, they stormed Want Manor, looking for Lord Revis and hoping to drag him off to Twilight 4 and teach him the error of his ways. They found nothing there. Lord Revis, his Countess Mirvara and their ten children all gone without trace. Entering his fabled workshop, it too was empty. The only thing standing there was an odd silver arch-like machine known as the Oberphilliax.

Infuriated, the Sisters sent the oft-hidden sect of Torrs Twillinger after Lord Want and his family, and they took the Oberphilliax back to Valenhelm for detailed study. Their frustration only mounted. Torrs Twillinger found no trace of the House–they had simply vanished without clue and were beyond the Sister’s reach. The Oberphilliax also confounded them. It resisted their efforts to reverse engineer and discover its secrets. It was well-made, novel in construction and seemed to do something of great importance, though they never could determine what exactly that was. They conjectured it might be a time machine/looking glass type device, but couldn’t get it to function. They even managed to destroy its power stone during a feedback test.

The Sisters often said while testing the machine that it spoke “Evil” to them and they even grew to fear it somewhat after time.

Writing the Oberphilliax off as a novel “dud”, they catalogued it, broke it apart into three pieces and placed it into storage. They then tried the House of Want en absentia and found them guilty of sedition; a block of cells await them at Hagthorpe Prison. Those cells have been empty for centuries, though the Sisters continue to search. They are determined to locate occupants for those cells at Hagthorpe.

As for the Oberphilliax, the odd silver machine that seemed to do something grand but cannot be made to work, its parts were scattered all over the League and beyond.

copyright 2011, Ren Garcia and Carol Phillips