The Darker Road – Read Along Script Extract
The script extract I published for The Thirteenth Wolf proved popular, so here’s another – this time for Asurmen: The Darker Road which was released this week.
The script below matches the audio extract you can hear over on the Black Library website, so you can follow the script, reading the stage directions as you listen along to the finished audio. See if you can spot the changes that were made between script and final recording!
SCENE 1a: EXT. APPROACHING ULTHWÉ – SPACE
[ATMOS: deep space; the faint rumble of a world-sized ship’s engines nearby]
[SFX: an alien warp gate shimmers with power, before opening with a burst of light; Stormlance flies through, setting its sleek sails]
Bathed in the spectral glow of the webway, Stormlance speared into reality. Steed of legendary Asurmen, the ship resembled a dual-pointed dagger. Opening up like a fin, the solar sail at the rear gleamed with energy as the starship slipped into the bathing energies of the local star.
[SFX: Stormlance flies past the POV towards the huge craftworld; continuing under narration]
Ahead of the Phoenix Lord, their destination hung in the freezing void. The craftworld of Ulthwé.
From a distance it looked like the spiraling shell of an ammonite made from silver and white, its surface blistered by shining domes that housed entire landscapes of cloud-swathed mountains, green fields and forests, icy tundra and desert wastes. Towers pierced the vacuum between these domes, linked by slender, arcing transitways and transportation corridors like the tracery of a web.
A cloud of starships followed the craftworld in a glittering trail, moving back and forth between the docking spires and the webway gate. Stormlance extended a secondary pair of solar sails from the flanks of its dark green hull, catching every particle of the solar wind that it could. The ship wove a twisting course, paying no heed to docking protocol or the niceties of berth allocation.
The craftworld seemed stationary against the backdrop of stars but was in fact moving ever so slowly, drifting from one edge of the system to the other.
[SFX: with a sense of dread, an evil warp-anomaly hangs as backdrop to the scene]
Amongst the stars beyond was a bruise against the void. A hungry red-and-purple eye that looked out into the galaxy, desiring to devour everything. A warp storm of such immense proportions it had swallowed the old eldar empire.
SCENE 1b: INT. STORMLANCE COCKPIT – SPACE
[ATMOS: continuous, POV moves inside Stormlance; a small, ultra high-tech bridge space, far beyond anything humanity will ever create]
Asurmen, First of the Asurya, the creator of the Path regarded the storm coldly.
ASURMEN (murmuring to himself): The heart of a god given semi-physical form. She Who Thirsts. The Heart of Death. The Great Enemy. The Womb of Destruction.
His armour was a deep blue, his scarlet helm crested from front to back. He leaned forwards in the inertia cradle that held him, seeing Ulthwé through inputs that owed nothing to biological senses – Stormlance was simply an extension of his immortal will, its suite of detectors more acute than even the hearing and sight of an eldar.
The ship was impressed.
STORMLANCE: It has grown much, since last we visited.
ASURMEN: The Womb of Destruction, or the craftworld?
STORMLANCE: Yes.
ASURMEN: It excites you, does it not? To come this close to all that was destroyed.
STORMLANCE: I am drawn to destruction, fated to bear you into war and strife. There is no greater monument to annihilation than the glaring eye of the god that devoured us. The future holds conflict, if the threads of destiny have brought us back to Ulthwé, which exists upon the brink of our ruin.
If you want to delve further into the world of Asurmen: The Darker Road, you can read my Author’s Notes. And if you’re interested in writing for audio, later this week I’ll be publishing a writing advice blog on the subject, so keep an eye out for that (you can find past blogs on the subject here). If there’s anything else you would like to know about writing audio dramas, let me know in the comments.
Buy Asurmen – The Darker Road
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