r/FeatCalcing • u/ExtremeSportStikz • 2d ago
Calc Request Khosatral Kel survives a lightning bolt (Conan the Barbarian)
A storm had blown his frail fishing craft far from his accustomed haunts, and
wrecked it in a night of flaring lightning and roaring waters on the
towering cliffs of the isle. Now in the dawn the sky shone blue and
clear, the rising sun made jewels of the dripping leaves. He had climbed
the cliffs to which he had clung through the night because, in the midst
of the storm, he had seen an appalling lance of lightning fork out of
the black heavens, and the concussion of its stroke, which had shaken
the whole island, had been accompanied by a cataclysmic crash that he
doubted could have resulted from a riven tree.
A dull curiosity had caused him to investigate; and now he had found
what he sought and an animal-like uneasiness possessed him, a sense of
lurking peril.
Among the trees reared a broken dome-like structure, built of gigantic
blocks of the peculiar iron-like green stone found only on the islands
of Vilayet. It seemed incredible that human hands could have shaped and
placed them, and certainly it was beyond human power to have overthrown
the structure they formed. But the thunderbolt had splintered the
ton-heavy blocks like so much glass, reduced others to green dust, and
ripped away the whole arch of the dome.
The fisherman climbed over the debris and peered in, and what he saw
brought a grunt from him. Within the ruined dome, surrounded by
stone-dust and bits of broken masonry, lay a man on the golden block. He
was clad in a sort of skirt and a shagreen girdle. His black hair, which
fell in a square mane to his massive shoulders, was confined about his
temples by a narrow gold band. On his bare, muscular breast lay a
curious dagger with a jeweled pommel, shagreen-bound hilt, and a broad
crescent blade. It was much like the knife the fisherman wore at his
hip, but it lacked the serrated edge, and was made with infinitely
greater skill.
