A Tunnels and Trolls® play-by-post adventure run by khara_khang
Common Tongue, ?
Formerly six feet under
"Night vision, Half-damage from edged weapons, regeneration, the ability to detach and reattach self."
The original Jack, who died about 25 years prior to the resurrection of his bones, had some modest commercial success on the stage and in the concert hall (as a balladeer) before his untimely demise from loose living and philadering. Known mostly for propagating populist crap, his critical acclaim was limited to a small but devoted following for whom his then avant garde interpretation of Phillipon Shrugg's "Outhouse Travesty" had no equal (typically this would involve him wandering on stage before his cues drunk and cursing having forgotten all of his lines and passing out by the second act).
After his death, his advocates formed a small society dedicated to the preservation and appreciation of the de Crampon style of acting as it was dubbed and the tragic works of Shrugg. They met regularly, got pissed drunk, and pretentiously read passages of mediocre poetry to each other while waiting for a true genius to arise from among their ranks to take on the mantle of their heroes. Naturally, it never happened.
The society continued on, dwindling in numbers as more and more of the aging membership was either committed to the sanitarium or to the morgue, until only two of the founders remained. One was "Slim" Jim Rutsalot, a writer of dirty stories for a local scandal sheet, the other Maxim Gladius, a blithe spirit and renegade spell caster given to seizures and partial to fortified wine. Fearing that the de Crampon/Shrugg legacy would probably die with them, they set about two projects to insure the cause's perseverence.
Rutsalot wrote and published a trite hagiography of both actor and playwrite, which shamelessly insinuated a lurid homosexual affair between the two (in fact they'd never even met) and other ear burning perversions which need not be mentioned in detail. The book had some popular reception while it was offered as a free gift for new subscribers to Rutsalot's dirty newspaper.
Gladius on the other hand thought to pursue more dramatic avenues and set out to resurrect the spirits of the two artists. Shortly after the publication of Rutsalot's biography, he went in to hiding for the span of about six months, presumably researching a spell or potion which might bring de Crampon and Shrugg back from the grave.
In actual fact he spent the time drunk and passed out in the corner of a local brothel where he gained a reputation for his gentleman's manners and excellent "physical condition". He awoke from his stupor three days before the 25th anniversary of de Crampon's death. Not remembering with any clarity the events of the previous months, Gladius assumed that he must have passed in and then out of a mystical trance and was possessed of vision.
Convincing himself that he must have found the way to breath life back into the dead, quickly contacted a worried, lonely Rutsalot and planned a memorial at de Crampon's plot in the pauper's cemetary. On the night of the anniversary, the two met as they always had, drank, read bad poems, and made their way to the cemetary with a case full of glowing potions and alembics. At the plot which was believed to be de Crampon's, the two set about their business of boiling, destilling, decanting and incanting.
Much to the surprise of both of them, the earth shook and quaked and coughed up it's dead in the form of a shiny white skeleton. They screamed in terror. The skeleton screamed in terror. It took Gladius by the throat and strangeled him to death (to this day it still argues that it wasn't murder but self-defense) while Rutsalot ran for his life into the night, dropping a copy of the biography with which he had intended to present the spirit as a token of gratitude.
The skeleton, completely dumbfounded by his newly aquired animation and completely lacking in self-awareness ("the bone, dust, and crap remain, yet the spirit passes on to other worlds..." 'Outhouse Tavesty' ActII, Scene 3), looked down to find the abandoned book on the ground. Having little else to do, he picked it up and read it all before dawn. It all seemed strangely familiar to him (with the exception of the naughty bits which just left him confused) and decided that since the person lauded in those pages was so noble and yet so dead, and that since he was so alive and yet nothing but a sentient tabula rasa as it were, he would give de Crampon his second chance at life and fame, taking on the name and pursuing his work and passions.
Thus Jack de Crampon returned from the grave. Since then, the neo-de Crampon has spent his time aquiring a luxurious wardrobe at the expense of local clotheslines, playing at cards with rummies who don't notice much different about him, and looking for opportunities to be publically saucy. His most notable exploit to date was an expedition into the demensional archipelago of "Oblique Streams" which he undertook as part of a bet to see who could come up with the most outlandishly foreign monographed shot glass.
Jack de Crampon is the re-animated skeleton of a classical actor of the same name.
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