Shadowgate

Gerard · Joined: 22 Dec 2017 Posts: 6

(Since it seems everyone is posting obscure background info lately, who am I to buck the trend? For those who'd care to use the info IG, or have questions, feel free mail me and ask! Just don't ask Gerard, he knows none of this =p)

-An Excerpt from “Legends of the Shadowed Realm”, first published by Abbas Abd Al Qadir, self proclaimed planar explorer of the Tsarven Empire, executed for conferring with blasphemous powers in 700SG

In the forgotten wastes of the Shadow Realm, far beyond the trackless shadowglass desert, lies a place where sleep ancient and forgotten things from the past of mortal memory, forgotten even by Time. Here, those things which were before the Gods made Time and created Space, dwell in quiet sleep-death, unable to be, yet unable to not be. It is home to horrors beyond knowing, and places which should never have been, but somehow are. At the edge of this place, a foul mire of watery shadow-stuff bubbles up like a great, unmoving ocean of Nothing. And beneath this umbral sea dwells a creature whom all know, instinctively, at their heart. Here dreams great Gar-granish.

Gar-Granish writhes in unquiet non-sleep beneath, and stirs the non-water with a pale white, slime coated body. Called the Great Chewer, That Which Eats, and the Drinker of Time, he has little care of thought for mortal kind. He fills his belly with lesser beings, unborn but undying, and chews at the bones of creation, an unceasing Ur-Maggot digging through the rotten flesh of existence.

Legends state that Gar-granish takes few warlocks, and none willingly seek him. Of those history knows, all have been men of the seas, saved from certain doom in the unknowable depths. All are possessed of a hungry, unfulfilled desire for revenge, at some sleight done to them. His terms are simple: Gar-granish takes from them who they are, and He gives them who they will be. If the Pact is sealed, then the timer begins, and Gar-granish begins his chewing.

The effect is subtle at first: Memories are broken, fragmented, replaced slowly with untruths as truths are stolen away. His hunger gnaws at those fragments of the past, and He drinks in their sweet essence, replaced slowly with Eldritch arcana and fabulous strength of arm. Each soul slain feeds the great, unceasing gullet of the Unsatisfied One's hunger, and buys his servant time. Yet it is never enough; the souls must become stronger as his servants do, and they are driven to ever increasing depths of fury. As they forget who they were, they lose who they are. When they are no longer themselves, they become as beasts, reduced to slavering madness as each kill brings them closer to both damnation and fulfillment of the bargain.

To date, none have bargained with Gar-granish and lived. A thousand souls, the contract calls for, to grant final Apotheosis and freedom from the Chewer’s curse. What that final gift might be, none have lived to see, all dying or driven too mad to succeed. May the Gods have mercy on us, should one of the Chewer's Brood find success.

Mikyn · Joined: 02 Jul 2015 Posts: 32

Very cool, I've always liked mixing something Lovecraftian with D&D.