Ludwig Wilhelm

The
Professor’s Memoirs
Chapter I
Paper!
It’s easy to ignore how all this started, civilization. Common folk go about their lives farming,
cooking, talking, playing, herding, crafting, fighting and other nonsense that they get up to. It’s easy
to forget where all this came from. How were the first tools made? How animals were first
domesticated? How did we hunt? How did we build? How did we think? How did we life? And this
and that and that and this. But not me, no sir. I has a curious one, a hungry one for all I could get my
hands on. Ludwig Wilhem at your service, Professor at the Museum of Natural and Unnatural History
in Zenial.

While the rest of my nation is obsessed with the pursuit of progress and industry, working all day
and night in their workshops creating machines and contraptions, big and small, but me, paper! Yes
paper! Paper and pen are my wrench and blowtorch. The duster is my hammer. The magnifying
glass is my, well, magnifying glass.

Bringing me to my point, I write things down of things I have found underneath the earth.
Underneath all the dust, sand and stone that everyone has forgotten about. But not me, I haven’t
forgotten, and I plan to decipher it all. History holds many secrets my friends. Yes, secrets of the
ancients hold power and knowledge. Paper! That is where my profession lies, in paper and dust.

Chapter II
Professional Rivalries
My profession has gifted me with many moments of joy and happiness. A new discovery always
makes me all tingly inside. But oh sonny is there one thing which grinds me the wrong way. Bloody
plagiarist…thief too! Egbert. PROFFESSOR EGBERT! Can you believe that? The scally wag doesn’t
have a single intellectual cell in his whole body! And they call him a professor. Bite me I say! Famous
they say, yes made famous by other true archaeologists’ discoveries! Makes me sick that little thorn in
my side.

He always gets away with it too! The little gremlin is like a ghost. One minute your notes are there on
your desk and then the next they’re gone! Poof! Just like that! He must be using some tricks or magic
or something of the like. I swear one day he’ll get his due.

Chapter III
The Greatest Discovery
Little over three years ago, I received a sealed letter, no name attached or signature signed, that held
the location of “something that may be of great interest” to me. Having hit a few dead ends myself, I
figured what harm could it do to investigate. In the back of my mind there was a slight suspicion that
this was some cunning ploy by Egbert to get me away from my desk, so I took all my notes on
everything with me just in case.

And by all the gods and guardians was that letter a gate to a whole new world of discovery! It led me
to a complex puzzle door after a few weeks of excavation. It took me a fair while to decipher the
cryptic code of the door, but I managed in the end. This was my first ancient puzzle and sonny was it
a doozy. After more digging of caved in tunnels and chambers, avoiding traps and triggering traps, I
discovered a room in almost pristine condition, minus the giant spiders. There I was given the
greatest gift a person in my profession could ask for. An ancient map! And more!

Before me was a 3inch black cube made of obsidian and gilded with some still unknown metal (no
metallurgists can tell me what it is) on a pedestal, and behind that, all over the wall in perfect
condition stood what I presume to me a map of some kind. It showed landmasses with little black
boxes all over, and one large structure in the middle. I think this structure could be a temple or city of
some sort. At least this was my theory with the evidence I was presented. So after careful
measurements and exceptional penmanship, I recreated the map in my notes for further study. I also
took the small cube with me, although foolish me as I removed it from the pedestal the chamber
began to collapse but that’s nothing to worry about, for I made my notes and retrieved what was of
any historical worth.

Now this cube, my oh my, was it something. Not a mundane art piece, but a small archive of
theoretical and arcane mathematical equations! Projecting it right into my mind! Amazing! Truly! Of
course this was something foreign to me so it made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. But I
wasn’t going to let that stop me on my journey of knowledge.

Chapter IV
The Great Game Is On
Up until now I have been educating myself on the matters of magic, as it seems this is what the
Greatest Cube was trying to tell me. To make sense of the equations in my head I studied for months
just to fully understand the basics, but I got there in the end. Overtime I was able to produce magical
flames, summon servants to aid my research and manipulate the earthen stone and ground with just
a thought! It was spectacular and empowering, I felt like I could take on the world. But I still had
much to learn and decipher from the Greatest Map and Cube.

Now two years into my Greatest Discovery project, I understand the power that the Greatest Cube
was storing. I suspect that this map shows others just like it! But the real prize and crowing jewel to
this discovery will be, but I have come to suspect, is a city in the centre of the map. The Greatest City,
an ancient one of an ancient people which I intend to learn more about over the coming years.

But damn him! Bloody Egbert. Could one guess, of course one could. As I was finalizing some
preparations to head out on a lead to another Greatest Cube, he stole my notes! How predictable!
Good thing I made more than one map and copied my notes, which of course I’ve hidden in places
he’ll never think of, just in case.

But not it’s a race against “Professor” Egbert. I see what he’s playing at here. But not this time. Oh no
not this time. This one is mine Egbert, mine I say! The Great Game is on!