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Amiel
2010-11-18, 03:34 AM
The Hag

"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 spiteful wiles 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, those who have no one to mourn for them. It is said she consumes their bodies and eats their skins, leaving only rat gnawed bones.

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 thence, 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.

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, grown fat on the dregs of society.

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.

---

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 unsurprising 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 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 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 unsanctionable - 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.

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 singular clarity that cuts through all deceptions.

These ones offer a single theory. The act is the means to draw blood, but it is 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.

---

The Dismal Room

There is a stain within a certain room within that decaying house upon the hill, that animals and even monsters dare not venture near. It appears seemingly as a blotch of paint; carelessly dabbed upon the hard wooden floors, themselves rotting with neglect and age.

No one lingers for long within that room; all who hastily withdraw speak of an oppressive presence, its malign glare settling upon one's soul and laying it bare like so much useless paper.

All who have been in the room dream of rotting teeth and putrid flesh replacing the moon; that drips and shudders onto the firmament. This persists for two weeks, after which their dreams return to normal.

BridgeCity
2010-11-18, 03:43 AM
Cool stories, did you want people to post their own?

Amiel
2010-11-18, 03:45 AM
Cool stories, did you want people to post their own?

Thank you :)
And, yes please do!

BridgeCity
2010-11-18, 05:32 AM
I would, but unfortunately I don't have any. Hopefully when the other side of the world wakes up people will have more cool tales to share.