A beloved sculpture is stolen by an acid-spitting rock creature in Barcelona. A smart, brave thirteen year-old girl deals with her father’s ditzy girlfriends in Seattle. A doleful sandstone gome battles wolf hounds and guard geese at Cragganbogle Castle on the Western Isles of Scotland. When Finnley and Hadley’s Seventh Grade class is invited to spend a vacation in Spain these unlikely events are drawn together into an adventure filled with more danger, weird food, snooty popular girls, underground cave cities and evil bog witches than they could have hoped for. Can they survive the Rock Pit of Torture and Justice, attacks by a cloud of midges and divebombing bonxies, and the embarrassment of Hadley’s mother’s naked Druid dance under the Midsummer moonlight? Only if their scruffy, rude, bad-tempered companion, Wullie, can do the impossible.
Twilight Cave – Overview
In the second book in the Wullie-The-Mahaar-Gome series almost a year has passed. Finnley and Hadley are frustrated and bored at school. They have not heard anything from Wullie for months on end. Things at home are frustrating, too. They… Continue reading “Twilight Cave – Overview”…
Petraglifs
Petraglifs are the lifeblood of gome society. Petraglifs give gomes health and power. In Twilight Cave, Wullie describes it well to Hadley and Alina in a bedroom in Segovia: “Humans have always had a fascination wi’ rocks. They like to… Continue reading “Petraglifs”…
Gome Poison
Gomes make many different kinds of poison. In one of those they coat the tips of their ancient metal spears with a black sticky liquid. When a human is stuck with the spear some flakes of metal and the sticky… Continue reading “Gome Poison”…
Barcelunda – Physical Infrastructure
Lighting System Many gomes can see well even in low light but most of the city is so far underground and away from any natural light that artificial lighting is needed. In some locations they use torches that burn coal,… Continue reading “Barcelunda – Physical Infrastructure”…
Lapislutum
A Mudstone gome and one of the most feared leaders of the Barcelundan guard. His head is covered in strings of signet rings that he took from the fingers of dead knights in ancient battles. He can tie these back… Continue reading “Lapislutum”…
Nicomedes
This green slate gome works as Catalysmo’s main assistant. He is a pessimistic and gloomy character who bears a great grudge against Wullie-The-Mahaar-Gome because in some previous battle Nicomedes lost one of his feet and a hand. The damage was too… Continue reading “Nicomedes”…
Wullie-The-Mahaar-Gome – Twilight Cave insights
In Twilight Cave we learn that Wullie has lived for a very long time and has knowledge and experience of many things. He recognizes “Cave Bacon” and is comfortable with many aspects of caving. He knows how to suck gome… Continue reading “Wullie-The-Mahaar-Gome – Twilight Cave insights”…
Finn – Twilight Cave insights
In Twilight Cave Finn learns more about gome life than he ever imagined. He gets captured by wicked gomes in a Spanish cave system and is taken to Barcelunda where he is fed drugs and poisons to prepare him to… Continue reading “Finn – Twilight Cave insights”…
Midges
These tiny biting insects thrive everywhere in the Highlands of Scotland. Their real name is Culicoides impunctatus. It is the females of the species that bite to feed on blood to give themselves a good protein meal to help their… Continue reading “Midges”…
Mhairhidgh Dubh (“Varry Doo”)
This gome witch is also called the Weird of Calanais (a weird is an old word for witch or wizard). She lives out in the slimy peat bog near Cnoc Liath on the moors northwest of Stornoway. Here is how… Continue reading “Mhairhidgh Dubh (“Varry Doo”)”…
Cnoc Liath
This is Gaelic for small rocky hillock (of which there are thousands in the Outer Hebrides!). It is the home of the gome witch Mhairhidgh Dubh (“Varry Doo”). Two large boulders hide a cave between them. A stinking peat bog… Continue reading “Cnoc Liath”…
Cragganbogle Castle
This is the home of Richard Comyn, the Earl of Lochboidisdale, an aristocratic Scottish rogue. The castle itself sits on top of a high cliff on the west coast of Lewis. When seen from the sea it looks like a… Continue reading “Cragganbogle Castle”…
Gome Clans – Twilight Cave
Slate Gomes Although much more fragile and brittle than many gomes this clan makes up for their physical weakness by being smart and tracking on a lot of details. Slate gomes are often employed as bureaucrats, and accountants. They record… Continue reading “Gome Clans – Twilight Cave”…
Twilight Cave – Minor Characters
Here are some new gome characters that we meet in Twilight Cave: Malbeg Another Mudstone gome in the Barcelundan guard and a good friend of Lapislutum. Gneiss Gneisserson He is the chief of the Migmatite clan and a great friend… Continue reading “Twilight Cave – Minor Characters”…
Vas Animi
Most gomes would say that the vas animi is the rarest and most powerful of all petraglifs but in some ways it is the opposite of a traditional petraglif. The term comes from the Latin word vas meaning a vessel… Continue reading “Vas Animi”…
Desperandum
This evil and powerful character can do things that we have not seen other gomes do. His body is covered in strange black gome symbols that can be mistaken for graffiti. Because of this he is able to spend time… Continue reading “Desperandum”…
Jade-Tsi-Dong
Jade-Tsi-Dong is a very powerful Translator. His body is partly made out of polished green jade. He came from remote mountains in China and is also a longtime friend of Wullie’s. We meet him for the first time on Level… Continue reading “Jade-Tsi-Dong”…
Catalysmo
Catsalysmo-The-Great-Translator (as he calls himself) is a cunning and evil creature who hides his lowly background and aspires to become one of the most powerful gomes in all of Europe. We first meet him in Chapter XXVII of Twilight Cave… Continue reading “Catalysmo”…
The Venatores
The Venatores – This pair of silent gomes appear like clones of each other. They do not speak. They appear to have no personality. They can change shape so that they blend in and can look like white marble vases… Continue reading “The Venatores”…
Barcelunda – Political Infrastructure
Organization of Barcelundan society Gomes are argumentative, suspicious and territorial by nature and so disputes occur among them all the time. Because of this they have a very hierarchical structure to keep order. They organize themselves into Clans based partly… Continue reading “Barcelunda – Political Infrastructure”…
Barcelunda – Level One
This is the working-class residential part of the city. Humans are tolerated but generally not welcome here. Gome workers are counted as they leave or enter at the main north or south entrance archways. Strangers are challenged if they approach. … Continue reading “Barcelunda – Level One”…
Barcelunda – Overview
The gome city of Barcelunda was built beneath the limestone mountains in Catalonia over many centuries it has become the center of political power for all European gomery. It is surrounded by miles of caves that are explored by humans… Continue reading “Barcelunda – Overview”…
Barcelunda – Level Two
This is the commercial district of Barcelunda. It is a much more lively place than Level One, bustling with activity. Humans are welcome on Level Two. The streets are straighter. Hundreds of buildings line the streets containing shops, cafes, hotels,… Continue reading “Barcelunda – Level Two”…
Barcelunda – Level Three
This is the political and financial district of the city, the center of bureaucracy and power in Barcelunda. The streets are very wide and grand, paved in marble with gold inlay. The buildings are set back from the streets and… Continue reading “Barcelunda – Level Three”…
Barcelunda – Level Four
This is the industrial heart of the city. It is a dangerous and scary place with no effort made to provide comfort for either humans or gomes. Here in the deepest, darkest, smokiest recesses of the mountain are the factories… Continue reading “Barcelunda – Level Four”…