It is written in the ancient legends... that high amidst the moon-swathed

peaks  of the great Mountain of Shadows, hides the aeon-weary threshold of the

Astral Gate... the portal from our world, to beyond... It is said that one who

holds  the key and knows the empyreal incantation may stand within the ancient

ring  of  stones  atop  the mountain when the stars are correctly aligned, and

unlock the mystic gate, summoning its sidereal sentinels, thereby attaining 



ultimate enlightenment and wisdom unparalleled...



[Part 1: THE INVOKING]



[The Aspirant Reaches The Summit]



Keepers  of the cosmic threshold, my ascent has been fraught with terror,

deathsteeped,  storm-hammered. (These grim mountains are strewn with the bones

of  the ill-fortuned dead.) O' Guardians of the Astral Gate, the spheres blaze

at  last  in  trine...  I  hold the Key! (The trinity of stars shall touch the

circle  of  stones once more...) The incantation of Xuk'ul is known to me, the

Orb  of  Summoning  earned  with  bloodshed! (The crystalline key to the Outer

Realms  and  the  arcane  rite  to  empower  it  are  at  last mine, Seized at

swordpoint from the citadel of the Black Templars. Enlightenment awaits!)



Many  years ago, the mystic Orb of Summoning was seized by the mysterious

Black  Templars,a band of sombre, plunder seeking knights from the kingdoms to

the  east  of  the  Great Sea. They wrested the sorcerous gem from the ancient

shrine  of  Azaimedes,  where i t had lain hidden for countless centuries, its

true  power and purpose known only to the dour shamans who tended to the elder

place of worship. It is said that the tapestry of slaughter woven that day was

unparalleled  in its ferocity, and that the marble walls of the ancient shrine

were,  and  still  remain, stained vivid crimson with the spilled blood of the

Orb's keepers.



Ka-kur-ra, I summon thee,

Zul'tekh Azor Vol-thoth.

Mighty Xuk'ul arise,

Kur'oc Gul-Kor, come forth.



I  hold  aloft  the  pulsing orb, astral spheres, empower the mystic key.

Ring  of  elder  stones entwined in prophecy, the Rite of Invocation enthralls

thine  power.  Replete  from  drinking  deep of darkness, black shapes dancing

'twixt  the  stones,  Lucent  beams  lancing  forth from the gleaming, cepheid

stars, a creeping mist ensorcells my tongue...



A   great  stillness  binds  the  moon-cloaked  mountaintop  in  glooming

shackles...  (High above, the myriad stars gleam bright against the night sky,

three  more  resplendently  bedazzling  than  the others, their sidereal auras

engulfing the stones...) And the central stone of the ancient ebon ring begins

to  pulsate  with  a  darksome  energy...  A  thunderous maelstrom ablaze with

writhing  celestially  spawned  power  then rends the stygian night... (A vast

shimmering  aperture,  a  vortex  of  heliacal  fire...  the pathway to beyond

beckons!)

The Astral Gate is open...

The Guardians have awakened...



[XUK'UL:]  Impudent  mortal!  You  dare  summon us? If 'tis elucidation you

seek, you shall have it!



Such  searingly  terrible  stellar  majesty... my sanity is lashed like a

vessel  on  a storm-wracked sea. What price this invocation? Shall the singing

stars claim my very mind?



To  countless  worlds we travel, riding the endless black seas 'twixt the

stars...  the  ebon oceans of infinity... flying through a thousand suns, then

watching  their light fade, as if it were but a flickering candleflame snuffed

by  the  wind.  As  beings  of  p  ure energy we become one with the vastness,

transcending  the  ethereal  walls  of  time,  spanning at once this celestial

eternity,  and yet existing as no more than a mote of dust within the vista of

its endlessness... Journeying beyond...



The  threshold  looms,  (the star-way between dimensions stretches before

me...)  The  Gate  To  That Which Lies Beyond yawns wide... Unspeakable forces

gibber  and  pulsate in the Outer Darkness... Elder horrors dwell here, things

which  were  ancient  and  revelled  in sublime galactic malevolence when even

Xuk'ul  was  naught  but a bloated cosmic maggot, writhing and suckling at the

breast  o  f  its  amorphous mother... They-Who-Lurk-And-Breed-In-Limbo... the

squamous sovereigns of the elder void!



Primal  terror  drags  my  essence screaming back from the threshold. The

ichor of pestilent tongues clings to me, tendrils probing, the ire of fiends!



The  ravening  black worms of madness are devouring the shredded remnants

of  sanity  as  I  return  to  my  slumbering  steel-clad  body...  but as the

dream-veil  lifts,  I  feel  my  limbs transform, flesh becoming cold stone...

enshrouded  by  a  dark mantle of obsidian . And the laughter of the Guardians

echoes,  carries  upon  the  winds  of this spectral eve. Such is the price of

enlightenment.  And  so,  a new brooding sentinel of stone joins the others on

the  nighted mountain top... Standing silently in the ancient circle of truth,

standing... waiting, Beneath the stars.



[Lyrics: Byron]

[Music: Jonny Maudling]