Night-Cap

Lord Fred was dead – or had he ever been alive? Unbeknownst to anyone, this young man of almost twenty years, this Duke’s son and the King’s own Dragon-Hunter, was no longer... what occupied his body was a monstrosity that had lived within the boy since his birth. Lord Fred was no more, what remained was Shoggoth, it was the Fourth to be precise, awakened by the Second and now servant of the One. Its mission had been to awaken the Fifth by killing the Dragon and pouring its blood onto the Blue Flame, but that mission had been altered by the One Shoggoth. Now, its task was to enslave the lands of his birth, to destroy all who oppose him, and to begin forming an army to serve the One. Lord Fred was surely dead – in his place stood the Fourth.

The One - a shoggoth of ancient power, it had lived for centuries and was part of a great plan to summon the Fifth and so enter into a new age where these interdimensional beasts would lay waste to the earth and all its peoples. But it changed that plan. It destroyed the Third in a burst of primordial gore and it has kept the Fourth from summoning the Fifth. It desires not the end of Mankind, but the beginning of a new Empire upon earth, ruled by the One, where humans would be food, fodder, and slave. Its lair remains that of the Third, a secret cavern within the Southern Caves of the Shreken Mountains.

Princess Astra of Aquilaria – she was a warrior princess of great renown. She was trained for an awesome hunt and an awe-inspiring battle: that of finding and killing the shoggoth. She did indeed find the shoggoth, she found the Fourth within the Shreken, but she was not up to the battle and the Fourth detonated every molecule within her body, splattering her corpse in instant death.

Velus – a poor farmboy from a lowly village near the foothills of the Shreken, he had been captured by the Dragon and spelled into the form of a tiny dog. He had bumped into Lord Fred and had taken the knight to the room of spells, hoping he could be unhexed. But the page was missing from the book, and then the change came over the knight. Velus was still within the Shreken, terrified by the appearance of the shoggoth, terrified in knowing their ultimate plans.

the Dragon – once mighty and feared throughout Allaria – now quite dead. This beast was killed by a greater beast, namely, the Fourth.

Princess Exotica Exultaine – visited upon by the Fourth Shoggoth, terrorized with visions of madness and horror, saved only by the unexpected utterance of a curious and ancient word. How the light magick could be known to one not initiated is a wonder and a mystery, what else this royal maiden might know is yet to be found out.

King Emry Exultaine – Liege to all the nobles of Allaria. Living within Caemlyn, he had sent out a valiant knight on a mission against a known foe. He had sent out the Dragon-Hunter, even with the mighty sword named Dragonslayer (forged in the infernal pits of Helgedad by the inmates of an insane asylum). He did not know, he could not know, that that very knight, the young Lord Fred, had been bred and prepared by unseen forces for just that moment. The King was a pawn in a grand game, one piece among many, and without knowing it he had positioned a Knight in just the right place to become the Beast.

Arahim – the Court Mage and representative of the LiegeKing before the Council of the WhiteHand. A mysterious man with blue-green eyes…

Xalis – a woman (perhaps) – a servant of the One – a watchful eye over the Fourth and a token of distrust by the One.

The Templar – Earlath D’Honaire: believed dead, the seventh son of a seventh son and brother of Fred. Once known as the son of a respected nobleman of Allaria, then seen as a queer searcher of forbidden knowledge, now unremembered. Unknown to all he was a hunter of evil things.

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Exotica could not sleep. She was terrified. After the terrible nightmare she had left her quarters and had gone to the room of Arahim. Along the way she had gained the company of a few of the night guard, and she was glad for their presence. Together they called upon the Court Mage, together they entered the quarters of that mysterious man. The Princess even allowed them to remain as she told the wizard of her most personal nightmare. She spoke of the stranger, the demon-man who called itself Nightmare and who talked of darkness eating the stars.

Harv could not sleep. His eye-sockets still bled, his heart still cried out for his grandson, and his mind was as shattered as a pane of glass broken by an errant ball. He had been carried by fellow Guardsmen to the Constabulary within the grounds of the Palatine. He had been asked questions by his superiors though he scarcely heard a word. He only muttered, or screamed – he repeated the words of the damnation that had killed his flesh and bone: "out of the shadow’s length walks the predator of man, his ultimate enemy; tremble in fear for in two nights the monkey will burn beside the dead horse, galloping and carrying a broken doll."

Jerod could not sleep. In the other room lay poor Harv, but here Mason simply sat – both men had been on duty, both men had been attacked – one by a knight, the other by... a monster? This Captain of the Guard had just heard Mason's report on the attack within the Quadrodome. The killer, found midst the blood and guts, was a knight, one of mighty power and strength and wearing armor black as coal. He had claimed to not be the enemy, he had claimed that a monster prowled the streets of Caemlyn. He had also attacked the Guard making most of his claims quite circumspect. The Guardsmen had not seen the man's face, he had been wearing his helmet. Though his voice did not ring out as a foreigner, they had never seen a fighting style quite like his. They were all sure that he was a madman, they were positive that he was the despoiler of the church and the murderer of the churchmen. After all, no one else had been seen to leave that place.

The Templar lay upon his makeshift bed of hay. He knew that daemons were liars, he knew that some could read the minds of men. He hoped that that demon-beast had simply read the face of his brother from out of his mind, and so used Fred's face as a taunt. Earlath shuddered at the thought that his own brother might have been used by the shoggoth. He was very tired; as he had already set protective hexes about the stables he lay his head down. The Templar was soon fast asleep.

The Fourth strode upon a road outside of Caemlyn. Its ability to teleport was not strong without the additional power of the One. It would walk the rest of the way towards Hespan if need be, finding a horse would be difficult as most equines could smell the spectral stench of the shoggoth, and found it unpleasant. It wondered why the One would change its mind and order him away from Allaria – it was the One who had initially ordered him to destroy Allaria, after all. The One had mentioned the slut princess, but whatever power she held was surely of little consequence against his own concentrated strength. The Fourth grew angry – not for the first time – surely the One was playing games. The Fourth turned and stared at the girl Xalis. If looks could kill she would have been nothing more than a corpse. Suddenly the smell of chimney-smoke caught his senses – looking out he saw that, below the hilltop upon which he now stood, was what appeared to be a roadside inn...

The One giggled with glee and expectation. It had lived for centuries, it had once been slave, then servant, it now was the Master. It felt giddy with power and cunning - sitting on a pile of its own shit, mucuos squirting out of backside eyelids, it scratched at three errant itches with four of its many pink limbs. It scratched and it giggled... it enjoyed playing games.

1. the next day...
2. two days come, two days go...
3. meanwhile, in the Duchy of Anfang, an aged necromancer has a terrible dream...

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