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The Old Gods

Dispatches to and from the field

Cream colored graph paper with blue lines; in the upper left are the words 'Handinote LEGAL' and a stamp with a shape of a lantern on it that reads 'SALVAGE INSURANCE BUREAU'. The main document title reads 'U.P. 003 - BUREAU EYES ONLY'. There are sketches of an elephantine creature with labels - 'Long snout like protrusion, Ears? horns? Most depicted with 2 eyes but 3 or more have been logged. Eight legs. Tail or other appendage? Always depicted upright.' Another note has been redacted with black. There's a color slide negative taped to the document that shows a painting of one of these beings on display in a museum. The placard reads 'D. C/10 4ACS, ZANDU HIGHLANDS, Artist Unknown'. There's a black and white photocopy of another painting of one of these creatures taped to the left side, and a large notepad that reads: ' Tamm, these are the exhibits we were able to get from the Archive office. The Zandu painting (top) is on display at the Coalition Cultural Center in District 1, and the other (left) is a CTS-transmitted copy of a painting found near the [REDACTED]. (Rougie sent it over for us, thank them if you see ‘em out there.) Ages before the war there used to be a coven of [REDACTED] and Beldian witches that worshiped these things as ‘gods’ but the post-war dig site teams only ever found statues - assuming that’s what you’ve encountered so far? We know it’s not part of your assignment but if you can send back any photos while you’re out there, it would be a huge help to both the ‘Bureau and the Science Corps. PS - the Director inisted that I include the sketches he made in the upper left - he made them before we realized we’d get the originals. He’s quite proud of them and wouldn’t let me send without. Good luck, Field Mage! - Chief Adjuster Galuk' At the bottom of the document is red stamped letters that read 'APPROVED 3/12 BY COMPLIANCE OFFICER 5883A'

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Dark graph paper - the upper left reads 'HandiNote Field' and on the top right is a field for 'NAME:' - handwritten is 'Tamm - SIB 48692J0473'. The document contains four images; three color depictions of a character with a green hooded coat, a yellow bird's beak, glowing green eyes and antlers sticking out the top. The fourth is a black and white film photograph (labelled 'RONKO PH9 06') of a large, elephantine looking statue in the middle of a forest with glowing eyes. The other three images all have various depictions of the same statues; upper left features the hooded character overlooking a massive wall-like temple of some sort that has a glowing door in the middle. There are several of the statues around, some in pieces. the lower left portrays the hooded figure talking to their glowing lantern companion; another of the statues is positioned on a large altar-like structure in the background. The lower right depicts the hooded figure walking across a shaky wooden bridge that crosses a gap where one of the statues looks to have been excavated out of a ruined building.

"Damn. The kid's got a point; did the last dig site check-in from the Science Corps. report anything about the eyes? I mean, no one's been out there in a while but I feel like that had to have come up at some point? Also, I feel like Tamm's maybe a little less worried than I'd be about the Eastern Rim gate in Zone 3 glowing the same colour our fucking familiars do. I've never seen that before.

Y'know what, next time just let me write the damn dispatch, you made me sound like an asshole. No respect for the work I did on the illustrations.

Oh and look, you misspelled 'insisted'."


Part of a series - The Ongoing Adventures of Magical Insurance Bureaucrats in a World Recovering from a Failed Alien Invasion

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#Magical Insurance Bureaucrats #Salvage Insurance Bureau #art #blaugust #mechs #microfiction