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Amiel
2009-08-23, 04:49 AM
The Hag

"Fiddle-dee-dum and fiddle-dee-dee, the old gray lady is after me."
- children's rhyme, unknown origin

"Where are you, where are you, little miss Ann?
In the pot, stewing with Seamus and Sam."
- children's rhyme, unknown origin

There exists within the bowels of the city a creature of fearsome reputation and hideous countenance. She is said to prey upon the orphans and the street urchins, the beggars and the destitute. Those who won't be missed, who have no one to mourn for them. It is said she consumes their bodies and eats their skin, leaving only rat gnawed bones.

Still others deny this and contend that she merely eats the bodies, flaying the skin from their hides and wears it, such that she may blend in with the 'normal' populace. And from there, she may target others to satiate her hunger and slake her thirst for blood.

Others say that she does this not out of malice but for revenge, that her children were torn from her and so she robs others of theirs. Although this does not explain why she targets the poor and impoverished.

She is the Grey Lady, the Hag of legend. Yet for all this, no one has actually seen her. Oh, there are claims and rumors of sightings but these are unconfirmed. She is alternatively said to be an actual hag, a dragon in disguise or a fiend. Others claim a vampire as the culprit or a ghoul.
A minority suggest it is a demigod, cursed to remain upon this mortal coil and cut off from worship or veneration. Furious, she avenges herself by eating innocents, to deny others what is most precious to them.

Amiel
2009-09-12, 03:52 AM
The Licked Hand

A common yet infrequently told tale popular among the aristocracy and nobility of the city is that of the Licked Hand. It supposedly happened to a real person, a young adult on the verge of womanhood; but more specifically to someone the storeyteller knows. It goes a little like this.

A young aristocrat from a relatively well off noble family is left home alone with her faithful dog friend and a trusted butler. Her parents and siblings have gone earlier that afternoon to attend a fete.

When night approaches, she gets her trusted butler to lock all the doors and any windows within their manor. This is to ensure security. The window for the basement however won't close. They think nothing of it, as there is nothing in the basement to hide behind or anything else of note.
Her butler locks the basement door for peace of mind, but and closes the window as well; the basement is designed to be only opened from the outside, so creatures who sneak into the basement can't open the door to get into the mansion.

As the night drags on, she feels more and more sleepy and decides to retire for the night. Her butler rests in another room, but within earshot and aid. Her dog, as always, accompanies her to her room and sleeps in its customary place under her bed.

In the dead of night, her parents are staying at her aunt's, she awakens to a wet, dripping sound; must be a leaking tap. The girl, not wanting to check and not wanting to wake her butler reaches under the bed for reassurance. She feels a comforting lick from her dog and goes back to sleep.

This repeats twice. Once more, she awakens to the sound, this time sounding louder and closer. Curious, she gets up to investigate. She slowly walks towards the bathroom, passes her butler's room, the sound progressively get louder and the drips more frequent.

She turns on the light, and is floored with horror and shock. Hanging from the ceiling is her dog, its throat slit and its blood dripping onto the floor.

Something catches her eye, scrawled on the mirror in elegant yet clumsy script are the words "We can lick too."

The_Pyre
2009-09-12, 05:19 AM
Masterfully done. The second one is much creepier.

Zombimode
2009-09-12, 07:24 AM
Worth to note that the two qoutes are from the Thief series (I think Thief 3, not sure though).

Amiel
2009-09-12, 10:35 AM
Masterfully done. The second one is much creepier.

:smallredface: Wow, thank you awfully for the kind words :)

I'll try to think of some other interesting fantasy urban legends. And other folks, please feel free to post some of yours as well!


Worth to note that the two qoutes are from the Thief series (I think Thief 3, not sure though).

Yes, Deadly Shadows to be exact; in the Thief series can be had some of the greatest gaming experiences ever.

Amiel
2009-10-15, 09:01 AM
Sanguineum, Ex Sanguinius

The City does not shy away from violence. It permeates and underlies every action and reaction. From extortion and muggings to the cruelty and barbarity of the so-called Justice Courts, violence is as much the existential reality of the City as its soul.

It was not surprisingly then, when the bodies started turning up. It was the children who discovered them, floating in sewers or washed up along the harbor, rotting and drowned in a vile stench. Bloated they were from prolonged immersion within the Salty Drink.

To a place as violent as the City, this was nothing if not unusual; murders happened every day and accidents were always around the corner, poised for the unwary and superstitious alike.

What drew the eye to these unfortunates was not so much the manner of their deaths or condition of their bodies (their state of decay notwithstanding), it was the curious nature of the marks left upon their bruised throats. To all perception and knowledgeable eye, it was almost as if the noose of a rope was left permanently imprinted upon the skin, yet the positioning of the marks suggested the physical act of strangulation.

What then, what act, could leave such massive trauma upon the body?

As ever, darker legends prevail. It is rumored that such acts, such gross violations are the means to express the unsactionable, exsanguination to feed a perverse desire for blood. Detractors have dismissed this claim of course, the act of strangulation is so far removed from the systematic act of exsanguination that any comparison is laughable if not asinine.

These ones present an altogether different take, that the act is the means to express penance. That the method is the means to expel sin from the body. That all targeted were at least criminals, oxygen thieves, with none to miss them or mourn them.

Perhaps there is an even more horrific explanation; that all the suggestions and conjectures so put forward are correct...to a point. In the lunatic ravings of asylum inmates and the irrevocably insane can be found a singularity clarity that cuts through all deceptions.

These ones offer a single theory. The act is the means to draw blood, but it not for the base purpose of expelling sin, it is the means to derive nourishment and the means to perpetuate hate. These ones suggest that all murdered were not criminals, but members of faith. That the killer in question harbors an irrational and psychotic need to murder, having been grievously wronged in the past. That all killed were clerics. The imprint of the noose to is both to signify the irony and ignominy of their deaths.

The darkest myths claim that was taken was not blood, but something all together more precious, the soul.

hamishspence
2009-10-15, 09:31 AM
Very nice urban legends- an interesting D&D slant.

I think Dragon magazine and D20 modern have both done versions of Spring Heeled Jack- though I'm not sure if he counts as an urban legend.

t_catt11
2009-10-15, 09:42 AM
Excellent stuff! The Licked Hand would work wonderfully with one of the Ungoulid (http://www.rdinn.com/audalis/227/the_ungoulid.html)- a subterranean race from my own campaign world of Audalis.

I heartily approve!

Amiel
2009-10-25, 09:37 AM
Very nice urban legends- an interesting D&D slant.

Thank you kindly, sir! :) Glad you liked them.


I think Dragon magazine and D20 modern have both done versions of Spring Heeled Jack- though I'm not sure if he counts as an urban legend.

Hmm, I'll have to read up on those, not so familiar with the legend of Spring Heeled Jack, although I know that it is occultic folklore?


Excellent stuff! The Licked Hand would work wonderfully with one of the Ungoulid (http://www.rdinn.com/audalis/227/the_ungoulid.html)- a subterranean race from my own campaign world of Audalis.

I heartily approve!

Thank you kindly, sir! :) Thanks for the praise! Always nice to hear and thanks for the link, I'll have to make time to peruse the ungoulid. Did you take inspiration from the Ungoliath (sp)?

hamishspence
2009-10-25, 04:08 PM
It might be- I remember reading about it before I started playing D&D.

It was a shadowy figure, that attacked women, breathing fire at them, then fleeing when people saw the attack, by jumping over high walls where pursuers could not follow.

In the Dragon Magazine version (355, May 2007), it is considered fey- a very nasty fey which is only found in urban areas- called simply the Springheel.

in the D20 Modern Menace Manual, however, it is called the Jumping Jack or Blood Fiend, and is an Outsider with allegiances to chaos and evil- basically the D20 Modernn version of a demon.

Partysan
2009-10-25, 04:47 PM
I know that licked hand story... is that out of a goosebumps book?