HRWClutch:29/Eggs

HRW Clutch 29/Eggs

Senior Gold Iovniath x Bronze Cadejoth
Clutching Date:	7th May, 2009
Clutch Count:	16 eggs
Theme:	'Hazardous material, items used as weapons. Pointy things. '

Peril from the Skies Egg

Across one side of this curved shell is a scene of pastoral patience: pale, watercoloured blues and greens, dappled with flecks of gold and red. Yet creeping around the hemisphere, distinct only about the edges until viewed properly from the right angle, is an entirely different vista, lanced with bolts of sickly, glistening silver rife with irregular bursts of torched red and volatile yellow raining down from above. Beyond the lick of flame and curl of smoke is the crisped brown of scorched greenery, as though only a little while ago this, too, was a peaceful landscape.

Inspiration: The Hwacha was a Korean weapon developed in the 15th century that would launch up to two hundred light, explosive arrows from a portable launch pad, raining death from the skies, and was most effective against a dense formation of soldiers.

Credit: Eila

Also Good for Cornbread Egg

Black. Well, not quite. This rather round egg is dark certainly, but a closer inspection reveals that the surface is mottled: here there's a tinge of brown, maybe rusty orange, and there the darkness takes on a tinge of silvered blue that gleams faintly against the matte shell. Large, uneven rings of gray appear randomly, as though the surface got a good steel wool scrubbing at some point and the water has dried to leave a bit of residue behind.

Inspiration: Ever an unassuming weapon, the cast iron skillet has crushed many a skull.

Credit: Persie

Ancient Patterned Metal Egg

Shaded like dull metal, aged by salt and sea to a deep grey-blue, this egg is slender and very precisely curved, like a masterwork creation designed by a talented smith's loving hands. An intricate pattern in a lighter shade of grey weaves across the egg's surface, curling and darting in a design not unlike a collection of leaves and flowers, and mottled darker in places, as though it has been rusted over. Along one side, there is an elongated s-shape, traced out in shadow from the rest, acting as if like a hammer to another, more rectangular shape nearby. The egg itself is average in size, and otherwise unremarkable.

Inspiration: This egg was inspired by the flintlock, particularly those designed for beauty as well as usefulness. The flintlock was introduced in 1630, and remained in use, in various forms, until the early to mid 19th century. The term 'flintlock' refers to the firing mechanism: flintlock guns could be any kind of small arm, including pistols, smoothbores, muzzleloaders and breechloaders. In particular, this egg was inspired by pictures from this page.

Credit: K'del

Prankster's Stash Egg All over, this egg is yellow, though the color pales, at least, from one end to the other. The pointed end of its shell is the brightest part, rich golden-yellow, though the hue's marked by darker patches, a few brownish spots like fruit going bad. The color splits open as it travels along the wider portions of the shell, peeling away to leave a more pastel shade of custard oozing across it. And the very end of that little egg? It's off-white, a little dab of meringue, toasted with brown along the tip.

Inspiration: The secret weapons of every good practical joker: banana peels and pie.

Credit: Tiriana

You May Be Eaten By a Grue Egg

Deep navy blue fades into inky black, with the tiniest swirls of an eldritch glow barely visible along one end of this mid-sized, sooty egg. Apart from that minuscule splotch of color, the shell is simply remarkable in its lack of any brightness whatsoever, seeming to absorb and negate all light around it. Striking in its matte darkness, the egg appears as if it weren't really there at all. Pitch-black. Dim. Shadowed. In short? You may be eaten by a grue.

Inspiration: Zork.

Credit: Y'nolek

Deathly Fruit Egg

Tantalizing and tempting, so very luscious is this inverted egg, wider at the top than bottom and lying perfectly perched in a velvet pillow of sand. It gleams with the fine sheen of a ripe fruit, intense red slicking uniformly along its shell with nary an imperfection to be seen. Yet, some secret seems contained in its quiet bed, the telltale traces of a rotten core rising hinted at in an encroaching black mold that becomes visible with shifts of sand.

Inspiration: The queen's poison apple from "Snow White."

Credit: Milani

Straight from the Snowasis Egg

An odd-shaped little egg, long and narrow, this egg gleams a rich brown: not dull or matte, but seeming almost transparent in the way the light catches it. The dark amber surface is quite uniform, bearing only a few strange little darker spots along its apex; they look almost raised, like a label embossed on its surface. Only at the narrowest point of the egg does that translucent color become opaque, a lighter, foamy tan.

Inspiration: In barroom brawls, the best weapon's often the closest: a bottle over the head.

Credit: Rorkes

Housewife's Revenge Egg

Bands of pale, wooden ochre and beige run lengthwise along this squat, wider-than-tall egg, encircling it entirely. The texture is unmistakable: that of sun-bleached timber, curled and wrought, and while the elements of the designs are complex enough, overall the egg gives off a sense of uniformity. Such symmetry is especially emphasized by the twin ring-within-ring patterns on opposite sides of the sphere, as though they were handles securing the egg tightly together. Dusting lightly across the lid is a white powder, sifted along the surface until it vanishes entirely into the grain of the shell.

Inspiration: The weapon of choice of any irate housewife: the rolling pin!

Credit: Eila

Arson Egg

Hot orange rages around the shell, an inferno struck silent and still. Glaring yellow reaches like fingers in all directions, tongues lapping the shell's curves and webs stretching bright and hungry amid the black lines that collect around the base like so much charred kindling. Toward the egg's apex the flame dulls to crimson, growing translucent over darkness with tiny specks of cinder and ash floating up into nothing on the rising heat.

Inspiration: If the fire doesn't kill you, the smoke inhalation might. And if nothing else, your stuff is totally ruined.

Credit: R'uen

Random Peculiar Shapes Egg

Larger than most of the eggs, and distinctly blotchy, this egg is certainly not the most attractive among Iovniath's clutch. A dull, off-white shade provides a backdrop to the peculiar, random shapes mottled into the shell, mostly in darker shades of brown, edging off towards black. Towards the top curve, there's a shape not unlike a set of toes, each with distinct toenail shaded slightly pink against the paler shell; slinking down to one side, something short and slender with a right angle in it sits next to a distinctly brick-like shape. At the base of the egg, against the widest part of its ovoid shape, a shape resembling a small shoe can be found, tipping down as though it has been flung carelessly through the air.

Inspiration: This egg was inspired by the idea that, in case of emergency, anything can be a weapon. Potential weapons referenced in the description include: a mannequin leg, an allen key, a brick, and a shoe.

Credit: K'del

Bounce Off Ceiling, Hit Floor, Jam Door, Ding! Dead Egg

Painted against winter white as if moving in slow motion, a crimson circle, brightest at this large egg's apex, seems to tip off its perch in a lazy arc towards the ground, then bounce high at an angle with the momentum granted it by its initial drop before falling once more. Gradients of red travel a path around the sandy base before it half disappears behind a rectangular fold of brown. Appearing much like a door, is it odd to possibly see the shape of a stick figure having tripped and fallen and is that dangling black line extending just above that red circle a broken leg?

Inspiration: How unhappy coincidences somehow lead to the most tragic deaths.

Credit: Anvori

Boom! Goes the Egg

Springing upward from the narrower end of this large egg, red and yellow swirl together in a brilliantly destructive column, bounded to either side by matte blue, its peacefulness shot through with fire. Near the middle of the egg, its fattest portion, the orange darkens, giving way to roiling smoke. That charcoal gray completely covers the opposite end of the egg, an impenetrable cloud that sends streaks of ash floating down through that broken blue.

Inspiration: Nuclear blasts and mushroom clouds!

Credit: Tiriana

Chemical Burn Egg

It's an unnatural shade of green-too green, too bright and garish. Glossy patches allow the light to reflect in odd ways and the undulating hue makes it seem like that viscous acid color is moving slowly and eerily across the shell. From places where green stretches into sickly yellow, like bubbles forming and breaking around the heat and gasses of an unknown source, tiny wisps of pale blue smoke toward the egg's crown.

Inspiration: Yay toxic chemicals in comic book technicolor!

Credit: Persie

Watch Your Step Egg

This matte egg seems unremarkable from a distance, enveloped as it is by a lustreless, ashen gray. Only a nearer inspection will reveal the darker whorls tracing along the surface, deepening to near-black at the base nestled in the sand. These markings, possibly first mistaken for a shadow, creep up with skeletal fingers; the charcoal barbs score deeply into the lower portion of the shell, jutting off at sharp angles and with each ending in an abrupt, pointed tip. About the crown, blemishes of a faintly ominous crimson paint a crude stippling that appears tangibly rutted, however smooth to the touch the shell may be.

Inspiration: The "landmines of antiquity," caltrops were sharp barbs, nails, or spikes scattered on the ground used primarily against infantry -- horse, war elephant, and human troops. They're an insidious passive defense, near-impossible to detect until you're right on top of them.

Credit: Eila

Jupiter's Revenge Egg

Wrapped in midnight blue, the surface of this small egg might be peaceful if it weren't rent by streaks of lightning. The bright bolts crackle from one end to the other, wrapping the shell in the illusion of electricity. The sparks grow paler as they radiate out from the main prongs, but they still illuminate the night-dark egg, turning the blackness of its undersides to brilliant electric blue.

Inspiration: Lightning and thunderbolts, favored by gods everywhere.

Credit: Rorkes

Cowflop Egg

It's a meadow's worth of egg, the large shell a lush summery green that's gentle rather than garish or glowing, the sort of place that should be safe to sprawl out and enjoy a respite from the surrounding heat. It even has clumps of pink and yellow adorning it here and there, little bell-shaped dots clustered like so many wildflowers, and a winding path of darker green that rounds the entire egg like an endless underground stream. Of course, there's also a fresh-looking pile of brown that nestles within a curve of the path, just waiting for an unwary foot.

Inspiration: Even the loveliest of meadows can have a surprise in wait, especially if cows roam there too. Of course, that's just the more obvious danger: cowflop is also a nickname for the beautiful but poisonous foxglove.

Credit: Leova

Honorable Mentions

There were so many spectacular descriptions submitted that the decisions on which were used or not were very difficult. We'd like to honor and thank everyone who submitted a description in our honorable mentions.

Mottled Mustard Egg

A shade not unlike the yellow-brown of mustard curls and coils about the shell of this egg, gassy and insubstantial, like whisps of smoke covering an otherwise unremarkable, pale shell. Darker spots, beneath, form ghostly, shadowed faces, half hidden, as though in a desperate attempt to shelter against something. Beneath the lower curve, brown patterns on the shell give it the appearance of being mottled and burnt, or perhaps half melted into a mess of lumps, bumps and blisters that look almost like they are part of the shell's texture, though to touch, the egg is no less smooth than any other.

Inspiration: This egg was inspired by Mustard Gas, which was first used effectively as a weapon during World War I by the Germany army against the British. It has since been used in a number of confrontations, albeit less frequently today, although there is some suggestion that it was used in the Sudanese civil war in 1995 and 1997. Mustard Gas is a blister agent which can cause considerable damage to the skin; it is also carcinogenic. More nformation can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustard_gas.

Credit: K'del

Cloud of Doom Egg

Quiet, misty gray seeps across the surface of this smooth, symmetrical egg, unperturbed and serene in its hollow of sand. A shock of sudden light glares forth around its far side though, a miasma of peach, pink and deadly fire, shooting out and upward in a menacing dome that peaks and seems to float almost under a double crown of puffy charcoal and sickly white spreading outward slowly like an all-consuming mushroom.

Inspiration: The characteristic mushroom cloud left behind in the wake of an atomic blast.

Credit: Milani

Hero's Bane Egg

Small and a little irregular, this egg wouldn't garner much attention except that, heavens is it ever /green/. Not just green, put pulsating with a rich viridian hue that seems to glow in the dark when night falls over the sands and no glows are lit nearby. Harmless, it should be and yet there's something about the ebb and flow of color across its surface across its surface that makes it seem almost alive.

Inspiration: Disturbing. Kryptonite! Harmless to humans, devastating for Superman. K'del, maybe this egg could make you feel sick to your tummy? ;)

Credit: Milani