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Tuesday, March 3

No Man's Land: Prologue

Jim Bean peered over Hammer’s shoulder. “What’s in the envelope?”

Hammer emptied the contents on the hood of his car. There was a palm-sized scrap of pale tattooed leather, a ten dollar bill, and a folded sheet of paper.

Jim-Bean opened the paper and read it. “Huh. The Earth Died Screaming by Tom Waits.”

“What?” asked Hammer.

“It’s a song. These are the lyrics. It’s on an album called Bone Machine, released in 1992.”

“Never heard of it,” said Hammer.

“You have now,” said Jim-Bean with a smirk. “It’s signed XOX, Palimpset. There’s also a bloody thumbprint on it.”

“Weird.”

Archive held the leather up to the light. It was about four inches in diameter and roughly circular. There was a stylized star tattooed on one side in red metallic ink that glowed faintly

“That’s not all that’s weird,” said Archive. “This is an Elder Sign.”

“The what?” asked Jim-Bean.

“The Elder Sign is a powerful weapon against the servants of the Great Old Ones and the Outer Gods, and can be used to drive them off.”

Hammer was staring at the bill. “This has to be a hoax.” He held it up so Jim-Bean and Archive could view it.

The bill was slightly larger than normal. It is made of some sort of plasticy material that didn’t crease or easily tear. It was rainbow colored and had a holographic portrait of Hitler on the front. The back contained barcodes, embedded circuitry and a U.S. flag with 57 stars. Text on the bill was in both English and German. The bill was dated "Series 2034.”

Jim-Bean frowned. “I can check this easily enough. Let me have it.”

Hammer handed him the bill.

“I wouldn’t do that,” said Archive. “If this has something to do with the Karotechia then it might be magically—“

Jim-Bean held the bizarre bill with between forefingers and thumbs and concentrated.

“OW!” He shouted, clutching his temple. “Damn it!” [MORE]

Labels: d20 modern

posted by Mike Tresca at 6:40 AM

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