RISE OF THE NETHERSPAWN
Chapter One – A Bit Of History
Hello, My name is Dr. Elias Ephraim, former director and founder of G.H.O.S.T. and I am… dead. Well dead in the classical sense that you might be most familiar with, but enough about me, my story although interesting doesn’t really matter in the current scheme of things other than to give you some perspective on what is about to end existence as you know it.
First a bit of history. It begins in the accursed town of Whyshburg, built in the shadow of a primordial mountain far above the long dead city of Carcosa. Carcosa was a place of dark corruption, inhabited by the Undying, the spawn of men and the foulest forces of evil from the NETHERWORLD itself. Eons ago the city was destroyed by molten lava trapping the Undying far below with only their dreams and memories reaching up to the sunlit world to cause pain and suffering.
Flash forward to 1947 when Maxmillian Colber used arcane machinery to open a doorway to the NETHERWORLD itself, unleashing a seasonal stream of horrors that accelerated exponentially in the last 25 years. Fortunately the evil never survived in the light of day, that was until the Vampire Lord Ghoulich called forth the Blood Night and blacked out the very Sun for a time. But despite the rise of the foul Island of YS, and the march of the Dead Ones and many other nightmarish incursions, including the incomprehensibly alien Goloths, evil was always held at bay often by mankind and ultimately by the force of the living planet itself.
While the NETHERWORLD had always been defeated, The Collector, the primary avatar of that dark realm knew that the secret to victory lay buried below Whyshburg in the ruins of Carcosa. The Undying had a link to Earth as they were hybrids born of both worlds and once freed would be able to rampage and destroy with impunity, a shock force that would expand outward from Carcosa and let the foulest things from NETHERWORLD follow in their wake.
After several failed attempts to release various Undying including Argus and his Awakened and the Gorgon Euryale, The Collector reunited with The Nightmare King and The Harvestman, his peers in the The Dark Circle and reached into the depths of the NETHERWORLD for the answers he sought….
Chapter Two – The Progeny
In the deepest pits of the NETHERWORLD itself dwelled one of the most ancient and twisted sorcerers of the Netherspawn race, a thing known only as the Ganoga. This being was old when Carcosa was young, and knew all of its secrets and dark magic long before the fall. After careful study of the primal tablets it found what The Collector was looking for, a devastating force that could roll out of Carcosa and blast the world of men beginning with the release of the nigh unstoppable war deity Nodengurath. This Undying was a duality, a fusion of Nodens, the Hunter of the Great Abyss and Shub-Niggurath, the Mother of All Monsters. Born of this thing were the twins, Demius (FEAR), and Phobia (TERROR). The Twins would corrupt all life that they came across, Fear transforming those he mauled into brutal, savage Berserkers, and Terror corrupting victims into fast moving fanged and clawed flesh eaters called The Rabid! But there were reasons why Nodengurath and his spawn were trapped eternally in molten rock. The Ganoga needed a massive source of power to free them, so The Collector went to an old foe to make a deal…
Chapter Three – The Deal
The Alpha Goloth, an ancient alien nightmare created by the Elder Things to consume supernatural energy had been set free by none other than myself, Dr. Ephram, several years ago in an attempt to stop a plague of ghosts called The Rotting. Defeated in a three way battle with the Dark Circle and the defenders of Earth, the Goloth had been overpowered by a glut of energy, more than it could handle and now floated listlessly in the outer void, doubtless to sluggishly digest for millennia. It had feasted on the souls of poor unintelligent animal and vegetable life fed to it by the Primordial Guardians, not the delicate and nuanced brain waves of intelligent life that it craved so desperately. The Collector sensing this, suggested that the Sorcerous Ganoga siphon off this poor life energy, setting the Goloth free to hunt once more, and that as the Earth fell to the NETHERWORLD it could have its fair share of the human souls that remained. The Ancient Horror agreed!
Chapter Four – The Maelstrom
In the foulest and darkest of perverse rituals, the Ancient Netherspawn Sorcerer the Ganoga ripped massive amounts of primal energy from the willing Alpha Goloth and fed it directly into the War God Nodengurath and his Twin Spawn. With an earth shattering explosion they were freed at long last as the encasing lava melted away! The Wargod summoned the Maelstrom, a horrific Storm of Shadows that radiated outward from it to the surface world, an ever spreading blanket of dark energy that disrupted communication, summoned winds and storms, and blocked the fatal rays of the Sun much like the Blood Night some years ago. As the Storm expanded to the surface world and into the Town Of Whyshburg, Fear and Terror raced with it, turning any humans who fell before them into Berserkers and Rabid, feral foot soldiers bent on total destruction! Following close behind were the many and varied creatures of the NETHERWORLD itself, The Netherspawn, free to escape into the world of men once more!
Chapter Five – The Alarm Is Sounded
But not all was lost. When the Alpha Goloth released its energy, some other souls it had devoured were freed including myself! Hurling to the surface world I was grabbed by an unknown force and placed into an ancient sliver mirror by one of the youthful Children Of Autumn who sensed my despair and terror at what was coming from Carcosa. So that I could quickly sound the alarm against this new almost unstoppable foe they sent me through the ether now equipped with the ability to possess the dead and enter into inanimate objects to communicate with like minded people such as yourself! We must now warn all that might oppose this emerging horror of the doom that follows, and of the Rise of The NETHERSPAWN!
