Docc Hilford - The New Invocation - N°62, Ultimate Magic eBooks Collection
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//-->L~II.,11:..--------•-fl,Iri11rl11iHomunculusBrother ShadowandMasklyn ye MageBrother Shadow took a long drink ofcognac to steady his nerves and lookedme directly in the eyes."It was the most startling exhibit of blas-phemy I've ever witnessed, Docc," hebegan. "I was visiting the couritrysideofFrance and heard tales of one Monsieurd' Astarac and his evil experiments inthe creation of life. After considerable searching,Ifinall~made the acquaintance of anold woman who had worked forthe mad priest."In a quaint cottage, before a roar-ing fire,Iasked her to relate to me .~twhat she knew. She looked at me.,. .with a troubled visage and then~,.wentintoher tale. 'What I have to .tellyou,myfriend,istrulyin-'IflflT.TIi.,r'rI'IIcredible. Yet, of it I am sure and certain: I will tell you then that Monsieur Hercule d'AstaracIcaredfor nothing but the putting of sunlight into glass bottles. It is not known how he set.about it, but of this much I am certain, that in the course of time, in these glass bottles, wellIcooked and heated in abain-marie,women were formed, very tiny and beautifully made, anddressed like princesses in a play.I•'You laugh, yet one cannot joke at these things when one sees the consequences.Itis a greatsin to make, inthisway, creatures who cannot be baptized and can never participate in thebliss eternal.For you can scarcely imagine that Monsieur.d'Astarac tooktheselittledolls, intheir bottles, and held them over the baptismal font! I hope, indeed,my dearBrotherShadow, that he has renounced these evil works, which could not beaccomplishedwithoutthe help of the Evil One.".'But I asked, 'Tell me, kind lady, did you see with your own eyestheseladies inbottles?''She replied, 'Not so. Monsieur d'Astarac was far too secretive10 showthesedolls.But Iwas always about at the chateau; and in a roomlockedfrom me,many timesI hearddelicatemusic.I swear these little people were let out of their glass prisonsand danaxl a minuet.'IIIIBrother Shadow continued,'The next morning I rode up themountain lD thecrumblingchateau of Monsieur d' Astarac. The road had not been traveledinmany yearsandtheIjourney took the betterpartof the day. At sunset I found the placein ruins. I litmy lanternand began to search the melancholy halls of the decaying abode.AtIeogdII found aheavytrap door. Clearing it of rubble, with great effort I lifted it byitslargerusIedironring.AIstaircase cutintothe rock foundation led to a cave-like openingwbere appean:d a huge,atitsmold-eovered oaken door with a formidable looking lock. ForseveralhoursIIdestruction, until at last it gave way. Inside I discovered what Ican hardly bring myselfdescribe. Although all this took place years ago, I have butto closemylD bringthatmoment back in vivid detail. The musky smell of decay, the strangelookingapparatus,andIthe horrible discovery of dozens of dusty glassjars containingsJcdco<onim1 remains ofthese tiny creatures. If the stories were true, these creatures,deprivedof sunlight, slowlydied, the flesh falling bit by bit from theirbodies, their clothingrottingaway.Onecan onlyIimagine their agony."be continued.IBrother Shadow paused to drink from his goblet.Having collected hisworked1e)'eStheCOiJl3ge,"Hereis Ole hideous part of my story. My gazewas stolen by one jar inputic:ular.Thoughthe miniature skeleton was in a sitting position,IcouldtellitwasDOlargertlum •foot high.Istoodas if inadaze, staring at the once beautiful creature, now long dead.TIlechamberseemed 10 grow black as did my mind; when, Iswear,as I lookeduponit.Jsaw alightemanate from the glass container and the tiny hand of bonereachup 10 try10free itselfbyfeebly pushing the stopper out of the bottle! The moreitpushedthe weakeritbecame, andthe light began to grow dim until all went dark."The rest is unclear. I must have dropped the lanternbecausethelaboratory went upinflames as I ran from that place of horror. Somehow I made myway out anddownthe roadbythe light of the burning chateau. I awokeinmybedas iffrom some horrible nightmare.As for Monsieur d' Astarac, no one knows what became of himand why he left his dancingdolls to die a death most foul. I can only pray that the giver of eternal justiceimprisonedhimto die of lack ofsunlight,like his accursed creatures.'Arcanum: First, I purchased from a hobby shop a kit that produced an excellent12'tallreplicaofa humanskeleton.1 then had to find a large beaker to put itin, and I found one at aIIIIII746~•I[••~:,~i~~i~ ~:u~~~ ~~~~n::;I~ ~es:t~~fe: :~o~a~nfl~: ~~~e~n~r~e~~d{t,~I••j•IIIIIIII·"applying a match to its leg joints) so thatitwould sit slumped, looking up. Next, I sprayedthe skeleton with rubber cement, and dragged a wad of cotton over it to give it theappearance of decaying flesh, which atJer an overnight bath in coffee looked pretty grisly. Ithen attached several long black hairs to the skull, to indicate a female homunculus.Following this, I articulated one of my homunculus' arms. After bending it about 30 degreesat its elbow, I reattached the arm to its shoulder blade with tanthread.Itwas to this arm theubiquitous invisible thread was attached with a bit of wax. It ran up and out of the jarbetween the jar and the cork, thanks to the rough texture of the cork stopper. The other endof the thread was sewn to a black velvet cover that fit over the entire glass container. Slightmovement of this cover would pull the thread, causing the skeleton hand to reach up towardthe stopper, and then breaking free of the wax and pulling out of the jar, leaving it gaff-free.Ian Ross, master mentalist and electronics wiz, based the lighting mechanism on a glowingorb toy that used to be available at novelty shops. He splitthejar's cork, hollowed out spacefor the small circuit board, and extended the skin contacts on the orb so that they can becontacted as the jar is lifted. When thecontactsare released, the tiny light, which shinesdown through a hole in the cork, will fadeup,light the jar for a second or two, and then fadeout. Ian notes that trying to wire areedswitch to the contacts and then using a PK gimmickto trigger the light will not work -theskin's resistance is part of the circuit!This quick, subUe animation of an obviously inert object is Magick at its besl.--IFly AwayHomeFriedhofferA single naked lightbulb illuminatedthewalls of thetom, brown canvas tent, and the aroma of animalsand popcorn filled my head to release forgottenmemories of carnivals long since past. I sat patientlyin a bent aluminum lawn chair awaiting the end of Dr. "Home's hypnosis show. Brother H81pCr had informed "me of an insignificant traveling carnival in the.Midwest that employed a very specialperformer.eadirect descendant of the justly famous spirit mediumD. D. Home. After much pleading I was granted ashort interview and hoped to discuss any memories ofthe doctor's great uncle.I heard a wave of applausedriftfromthemaintentwhere the ten-in-one was held and knew that the showhad concluded. Within moments a man in his earlyfiftiesthrewback the flap of the tent and touched me with his piercing eyes. The palegreeand pink fluorescent light of the midway cast colorful shadows upon his road worn face."You must be Docc," he said matter-of-factly. "I suppose you've heard I can levitateor sonsuch nonsense. I should have changed my name years ago, after the accident; then Iwould,be hiding out in two-bit flea circuses like this."Hecarefullvremoved his tattered eveninz iacket and huna it on awoodenhanaer,Strirmu••down to a stained undershirt he poured himself two fingers of cheap whiskey and gulpeditdown in one swallow.The color returned to his sunken cheeks as he added, "I've read some of your weird tales ofother bizarre people. Maybe you can help me remove this curse. You see, my great-uncleDaniel Home was known throughouttheworld for hisabilitytofloatinmid-air. It seems thatold Uncle Dan wasn't the only Home to levitate; many ofhisoffspring can do it, though wemay not wantto,and it has already cost me the life of my only son! I made the mistake, oneterrible night fifteen years ago, of teaching my young son the awful business. I left him alonefor just a few minutes and he tried it by himself. The boy didn't know how to control thepower and drifted away screamingintothecold arms of the midnight sky. When I got back Icouldfaintly hear his suffocating cries for help, but I couldn't see him. I was too damnedscared to move! I just stood there like some damned fool. It was me that killed him, Docc."Dr. Home filled his glass again, shot down a mouthful, and stood in the comer of the tent,looking up to the unseen sky. As I sat there watching him, not speaking a word, with pity inmy heavy heart, the melodyofthemidway filtered through the canvas and IswearI sawhisheels slowly leavethe ground!He gently lifted up four or five inches off the sawdust floor. Iscreamedin horror,and hefeU to earth, lost his balance, and landed flat on the seat of hisshiny pants."Get out!Getout!"hecried,pulling himself up by the center pole with one hand andsnatchingthebottle withtheother.I left the broken down tent show, but I also left a feelingofsadness behind for the miracleman who was held to earth by the weight of guilt alone.Arcanum: A letter in Tony Andruzzi's file hadno signaturebutcreditsthismethod ofimpromptulevitationto the late, great Friedhoffer. Iwas shownitseveral years agobyhypnotist TerryStokesand have had wonderful successwith it.TIle method is simple, but you must be careful of your angles. Angle your feelas shownsoyouraudience sees your heels and one side of one foot. Doit in a comer of the room andyousolveyour angle problems(thoughwith practice it can be done anywhere).When you are ready to levitate, rise up on the ball of the foot unseenby the audience.Ifyoukeep your heels together, the foot that the audience sees should remain perfectlyhorizontal10the floor. It's a good idea to tell the audience to watch your heels.ATIle illusion is perfect and you will momentarily appear to be suspendedin mid-air.Like most things, it gets better with each telling. I've heard observerssay,'Heraisedtwofeet off the floor!'I did it for one young fundamentalist female who thought I was possessedbyold scratch himselflIIIIlIIII111IAUDIENCESECRETIIIII,,~Sven-zalDoccHilh;rdpowers over women.•The Mage began by telling the assembled guests about Svengali's strange, He could use his psychic powers to hypnotize unsuspecting femalesresulting in their complete obediencetohim," the Mage explained.Apparently Svengali wasn't tile only one with such powers, for the guests were shown a tiny,black leather address book filled with the names of personal acquaintances. Many of thenames were those of young women, and a number of those were highlighted with red stars."Pleaseselectone of the ladies' names next to a star.Those are the young girls I can call ttme, as they are under my mental control."•IIIIIIIII•II,A name was silently chosen and the Mage began to concentrate on drawing her to himb~psychic means alone. After several minutes he decided totryagain later, as there was n,response. What kind of response he expected, the group wasn't sure, but they waited througltales of ancient cities long forgotten,The Mage put his fingers to his temples, closed his eyes and tried tocallthe secret subjecagain. Alas, nothing happened. As the night progressed, there were several more storiebetween the attempts to contact the girl. Finally the Mage asked,"What was the name yoselected?"He was shown the name Susan White from the address book. The old man's face instantlwent pale, His broken voice said that Susan White had drowned last year and he had avoideremoving her name from tile list for so long that he had forgotten about her,"Thankheaven she didn't come to me. Her arrival would have been a horrible nightmanYou see, her body was never recovered from the lake and that was over six months ago."Suddenly, there was a resounding crash at the front door. Everyone jumped at the unexpectcpounding on the knocker. No one dared answer, for what if this was Susan White returnirto tile command of tile Mage? After three deafening knocks the room was silent. The hostegingerly opened the door, only the tiniest crack ar'first, but upon seeing the step deserted sopened the door wide.Inthe dark foggy night the moonlight reflected from a puddle of walon the stoop. There wasn'tartysign of a corpse, save a delicate gold locket in the silvewater, And on it were engraved the initials...S.W.IArcanum: The address book has about 30 different names in it. 10 males and 20 females.of the female names have a red star next to them, Each of them has different initials andremembered with a mnemonic. A hidden assistant waits outside with a box of 12 gclockets. Each one has the initials corresponding to the 12 names in the book. The assist'also has a container of water and the receiving end of an electronic signaling device.(10Cornelius' "Hidden Assistant" is small and relatively inexpensive.) The Mage andIassistant have a simple code so the assistant will know which name was selected andtIwhich locket to leave on the doorstep. When the Mage asks what the name was, he signhis assistantwiththe device. She puts the correct locket011tile doorstep, pours tile water0'it,knocks on tile door three times and runs back to the car.
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