Jeff Freels is an on-line friend of my mine. He lives in Washington state, and is a talented writer and game designer, but first and foremost an artist. He is also legally blind. He is cheerful, generous, and in all ways a gentleman. He often styles himself as “Grumlahk the Homunculus”, much as I style myself as a gnoll. I wished him a happy birthday, and then made a crack about his “decantation day”. This roused Faye from her usual stupor, and the following was the result.
(For the record: In some versions of the story, homunculi, like cockatrices, are best aged in a dunghill under the watchful eye of a brooding toad.)
Homunculus
Long years ago, on mounded dung, an old familiar sat,
And proud he was, to be a toad, not common cat or rat.
Within the dung, a bottle hid, and waited for the day,
When Master Mage would come again, and clear the dung away.
The day arrived, the wizard came, and loosed the flask enchanted.
The seal was cracked; the spell complete: Grumlakh had been decanted.
Paul Haynie
11/12/2010