Two Monsters: Delusion and White Pantera
Today I worked out an outline for draft number four of an Arthurian novel I've been working on since last September. In the process of writing, one of the major struggles has been between structuring the novel via the allegorical episodes of the romance tradition or the profluence of the realist novel tradition. Since inception these two poles have been a part of THE CAVALIER and the balance has shifted one way or the other over various iterations. I've come to feel that I would be able to write a stronger novel by nesting the allegory within a more plot-driven story, so draft four will cut some of the episodic portions in favour of a stronger unity of action.
Some of what will be cut are cool monsters. Here are two of them, the second of which did not survive the very first draft. Their details have been changed:
Delusion
She lives in a great pile of treasure:
- Three goblets fit for kings (1000gp each)
- Gnarled staff of a wise man (500gp for those who know its origin)
- Eight bottles of blood red wine that looses venom in those who drink it (200gp each)
- An ageless torc in helical bronze (50gp; 2000gp to an archaeologist)
- 1000 fat, somewhat misshapen silver coins that shine violet in torchlight and, when put in the correct order like a puzzle, display an image of a horde of headless men in a scrum over a head with dizzy look (Each is worth 3gp)
Touch the treasure and start to dream. Men dream of a white pavilion over a fountain that spews infinite wine. You are king under its shade and served by 1,000 virgins with translucent skin who offer you their bodies. Boys are terrified of this dream because it excites emotions they have not ever known. Women dream of becoming Christ. Girls hate this dream because it does not belong to them.
Regardless, it is now your dream forever. Take the treasure and Delusion lives inside you: it will make you make others die in pursuit of your dream, and you will be satisfied because it proves you are not alone.
Cut off the head of one who contains Delusion and the monster will spring forth. It has the body of the wolf, three necks long as snakes that end in the heads of old crones, cruelly hooked claws each a foot long appended to the wings of a bat. Her cry makes a horrible cacophony that makes those who have ever come near to madness kill themselves. Parents run in fear and virgins are unable to move from the noise. All bleed from their eyes and feel their hands quake.
She can only be killed by one as skilled as Lancelot or Tristan. All her heads must be cut off in one single stroke, otherwise twice more grow back as were cut. If left alive, she will find a new hoard.
White Pantera
A thalassic castle seen only under the moonlight sleek with vibrant clinging coral and sharp barnacles houses the White Pantera. It is a pale white panther with short, thin stinging tentacles in place of fur charged with electricity. Living beings swell up like a balloon when stung. Joints become so stiff with fluid that movement becomes nearly impossible. Those who try to retreat find their bodies refuse to move; those who fight on may only do so at the cost of great pain. It can only be killed by an attacker who sheds arms and armour and is completely willing to die.
A twisting stairway leads to a moss-clad chapel, half caved in, with an old man—the angel Abdiel, reduced to a cursed form as punishment for taking a neutral position when Lucifer revolted. When he tries to speak black ichor pours from his mouth. Beside him is a plain goblet made from yellow yew: the Holy Grail. Ask one question: what ails you? What is your sickness? Any other question and the old man will never again answer to you, even should you learn your error.
If asked the question, he returns to his former splendour with golden skin and four wings worn as a robe, and calls a train of cherubs and lesser angels from the mouth of the Holy Grail. The cherubs dance and play, while the angels decorate the chapel with garlands and rosebushes; where they point moss and seaweed is changed to golden shrubbery, and a great knot of coral is changed to a juniper tree. Abdiel will grant one wish in return for the end of his punishment. He will never deny God again.