The Castle Glaak Designed by Slaavich The stars overhead would usher in a new age. Lord Glaaki looked through the glass dome towards the night sky. An eternity his master has laid imprisoned beneath the icy waters. Soon the being from the stars would rise from the waves and lay waste to the world. A bloody carnage would spread across the land and the water's would froth with blood. People would scream in terror at the sight of the great one, would pray to whatever god they worshipped as they were wrapped up in it's tentacles. His master went by many names, Cthon, Baal, Kthuga...but he knew him as the Cthulu. Cthulu the mountain would walk once more trampling those beneath him. Lord Glaaki chuckled quietly to himself, this would be a wonder to behold. His lady Bethany stood by his side, she like him would witness the final destruction of the world. She was the only woman he had ever wanted after he was done with them. She was beautiful, closest thing to perfection on this miserable world. Raven black hair cascading down to the small of her back. Eyes so dark they looked a brilliant purple in the fire light. Her lips were a dark red. When first seeing her he could not utter a word, he feared that the slightest breath would disrupt this ethereal visage that stood before him. Lord Glaaki stepped towards the window and looked out over the chasm that surrounded his castle. Hundreds of people where standing on all sides of his obsidian fortress. They were not an army, or angry citizens sent to destroy Glaaki's dream. No Glaaki wanted them here, in fact he sent out his army to gather them. After all Cthulu would be hungry after such a long sleep. He turned to the priests, dressed in their long black robes. They prepared for the final coming. Their chants could only be understood by Cthulu. In each priests hands they held a long flint knife. Tied by their feet were twenty townspeople, each would give their life to the freedom of the master. He wished they would stop screaming though. The priests told Glaaki that Cthulu would demand blood when he rose from his crypt. Glaaki without a moment's hesitation gathered the towns people. Ever since a child Glaaki was fascinated by death. A riddle that could only be solved by dying, and once dead you could not tell anyone the answer. He killed animals as a child. He discovered that he if an animal died slowly and if he look at their eyes as it slipped to the other side he could see something. Of course an animal could never tell him what they saw. So he did the next logical thing. It started when he was fifteen. He found a wandering waif in an alley. Glaaki grabbed the child by the head and with a quick snap the child collapse to the ground. Glaaki looked at the child's eyes hoping to catch a glimpse at the other side. Darkness was all he could see. He needed time, make the death last longer. He needed to know. The deaths gathered and still no answer. He would make the pain unbearable, hoping to bring them to the edge of death, just a peek through the doorway. By the time they were so close to death however they were often to insane or in too much pain to be comprehended. He came across the cult by accident, as though fate took him by the hand and showed him the answer. He took one of the many whores who walked the streets and found an abandoned building. As he entered to what he thought was a vacant building, he heard a mummer of chants. For the first time he lost all interest in killing, the chants called to him. Up the warped stairs he found ten men kneeling in a circle. Each preaching in some alien tongue. The thing that drew Glaaki's attention from the priests was what the men were kneeling before. A statue of some glorious creature. It had a humanoid body, clawed feet and hands ending in long talons. Bat wings sprouted from it's bloated body. Upon it's shoulders was a head looking like an octopus more than any other creature. It's mouth was a mass of ropy tentacles. This thing was emerging from a doorway. Glaaki came upon a revelation. This being was a guardian, a guardian of death's door. Whoever was to get close to death would be so horrified at the mere sight of this being they were unable to speak. They would go mad in this things presence. Over the years of study, he found this thing could be released into his world. When the stars were right Cthulu would walk the world once more. Leaving the door unguarded. Glaaki would free the guardian. Then he could enter the domain himself and be able to return to the world of the living. Millions would die in this world only added to the thrill he felt. He found others who worshipped this being. He was soon able to gather slaves by raiding towns and villages. His master gave him the strength to overcome many so called hero's. The fallen would scream in horror as they died, Glaaki envied them. His master sent him Bhyakees to fly upon through the skies. The frog like humanoids called Deep Ones to rend the unbelievers. Walking trees, called Shoggoths. Other monsters added to his formidable army. He built an obsidian castle with a glass dome. The dome was important. To view the stars and know when it was time to free the being. A wizard Bloch insisted that the freedom of the master would not happen for hundreds of years. That the calculations that Glaaki had formulated were wrong. The master would only have a brief moment in time of freedom. Glaaki could not tell Bloch it did not matter to him. He only needed a moment to sneak into the realm of death. Instead Glaaki had Bloch beheaded for his arrogance. Today the stars would align and the beast would be freed. He prepared himself as the priest's uttered the final prayers, and slit the throat's of the victims. As the blood pooled and mingled at priests feet the ground shook. A wind gathered in the closed room, carrying with it the smell of decay and death. A light appeared in the middle of the room and circled. Like a whirlwind it spun madly, growing larger as it spun. The first to come through were the Bhyakee's. Insect like warriors with arms and parrot like beaks. The Deep Ones shambles through the door belching out a deafening roar. Then as the doorway was at it's largest, engulfing the room, the being came through. It's tentacles were as thick as a dragons body. The eyes were as empty as space. The body rose through the glass dome showering the room with glass. Outside the towns people screamed in unison. It left Glaaki alive, everyone else laid about dead. Bethany was stricken by a glass shard through the throat. He hurridly ran to the doorway. He would see her again. He leapt through the swirling mass of light. In the other side he was weightless, floating in the air. He could hear the playing of what sounded like flutes and small twisted figures danced about him playing these alien instruments. Glaaki knew he was in the presence of angels, though they did not appear as he imagined. They had scaly hides and they skin stretched over their deformed bodies. This is what awaited the dead souls who entered deaths door. Swirling colors moved around him, as though alive. Perhaps they were, wondering how alive man entered the domain. It was at that moment that Glaaki noticed the gateway, it was closing! Glaaki tried to move towards it. It the weightlessness he discovered that he could not move. Suspended in the air, unable to move. He then saw a giant foot, covered in blood come crashing through the door. Cthulu was returning to guard the doorway. As the behemoth entered it's sanctuary Glaaki screamed. He had the answer, what wait on the other side as the doorway closed Cthulu turned towards the unwelcomed visitor. Glaaki's death was over quickly, unlike many of his victims. The Castle still stands surrounded by a great chasm. Long since abandoned the castle remains as it did over two hundred years ago. People speak of screaming ghosts, and blasphemous creatures walking it's halls. No one dares enter the castle of the mad lord. No one with any sanity anyway. Copyright © 1992-2018 Medievia.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. For more information contact: Webmistress: Soleil