Swirling Ashes

Some men took what they wanted from any man they pleased. Flags and laws be damned. What was at sea was available for the taking. The only laws they followed were their own. They feared no man and no ship. But Alyssa Martin wasn’t a man… and she scared the piss out of any man who sailed these waters.

The unexplored parts of Africa were once limited to what would turn out to be the Congo Basin and the African Great Lakes. This "Heart of Africa" remained one of the last remaining "blank spots" on world maps of the later 19th century. Some would risk everything for the fame of filling in this open space on the map.

Everett and Lucy arrived with a speed that would have astounded the primitive population. The two were eager to get going. New places, new worlds meant new profits. They had already done well this quarter, but they were hoping to do so much better here. Primeval worlds with untapped resources promised a market share of unparalleled proportions.

Louis sat in on his stool behind the counter staring out the shop windows. The street was filled with the cries of lamplighters and passing carriages. He was bored. He’d have given almost anything for something interesting to happen. But perhaps he should have picked some other day for this particular wish.

Beholders were immediately identifiable, being essentially a floating head with one single, cyclops-like eye surrounded by ten smaller eyestalks. Other than this, the main feature of a beholder's anatomy was its massive, gaping maw. Because of these features, beholders were occasionally known as "spheres of many eyes." – Forgotten Realms Wiki

Few things are more important than business. The interplay between corporations and clients. To a commissioned salesman there is nothing sweeter than the intercourse of helping people make the right choice.

The future, we are told, is not only strange but it is stranger than we can conceive. But at the same time, the past is just as mysterious – just as unknowable. It’s something where we have to use our best guess. Even when it tries to communicate with us.

This episode is one where we play with the concept of quiet… something you generally don’t want in your stories. It’s a little adventure.

Although the subject matter of Poe's story is a murder, "The Cask of Amontillado" is not a tale of detection; there is no investigation of Montresor's crime and the criminal himself explains how he committed the murder. The mystery in "The Cask of Amontillado" is in Montresor's motive for murder. Is it the search for wealth or revenge? Without a detective in the story, it is up to the reader to solve the mystery.

In the Horror genre, there is a terror of being locked in. It’s always the terror of you being locked in someplace, although there is that. No, the real terror is the Lovecraftian idea that something else is locked up… and it is about to get out.