Halloween Monster Entries 2020

From HollowWiki

We have four contestants for this year's Halloween monster competition! The winner will see their creation turned into a real mob in game in the Haunted House.


Winner

Mathollak

The Bone Whale


“How many stories ‘ave you ‘eard about ghosts, an’ skeletons, an’ ghouls? Men and women who die with a grudge, but the grudge don’t die with ‘em? Dozens I’m sure. What I tell ye now isn’t of a man, no. See its not just a sailor who can keep a grudge. Sometimes so can a monster.


Bone white he were, in life. A mean fightin’ creature, scar-striped. No guile about ‘im. Couldn’t ‘ide with that white blubber. All he had was ferocity an’ teeth. He’d fight anythin’ they said, even krakens, an never bit off more’n he could chew.


Until he bit through The Golden Phoenix, that is. A wizard’s ship. Lost ‘is crew. Lost ‘is family. Lost ‘is mind or that’s what they say about that wizard.


So he got a new ship and called it “Red Vengeance”. Painted it crimson like the blood he meant to spill. And he carried out his malice against every bleach-blubbered whale he found! Until there was but one left, the Big Daddy himself. An’ you should know, it weren’t just any white whales what died that day. They were ‘is babies.


Now I don’t know how he knew, but that whale knew it was the Vengeance that killed his kin. My guess is it was those Seaborn muses who told it to him. Humpbacked bards who sing tales of woe and warning to any whale who’s blubbery shade seemed too pale. And they told Big Daddy how to find that salty wizened wizard with their song.


They must’ve, cause ol’ Big Daddy came roarin’ from the depths with blood in his eyes and speed so confoundin’ the waves broke just to get out of his way! But the wizard was ready for ‘im. More than ready. As soon as he saw his ghostly blubber risin under him in the deep blue he cast his magic at the roilin’ sea itself! And then! How the sea did boil. They say it got so hot it boiled the paint right off the timbers, an then who could tell what was blood and what was paint? Big Daddy’s mangled blubber bubbled and screamed, and the great white monster did die in that sea. And the wizard weren’t satisfied until he cooked Big Daddy down to his bones and watched ‘em sink.


And I tell ye, scars be only skin deep. But grief and anger fomented a grudge in that whale that sank into his very bones! And so they couldn’t rest. The spirit and bones of the vengeful whale arise now and swim the seas with a rage as blind as the one who murdered he an ‘is kin.


Whenever a vessel enters its cursed seas, first they turn red, like the paint that came off the timbers o’ the Vengeance. Then it boils like they did when the wizard killed him. That’s all you get before the bleach white bones an’ teeth open wide around yer ship like crush it to splinters like it was popsicle sticks. An’ the worst part is there’s never been any survivors. Not a one. Yer wonderin’ “How do we know about the Big Daddy” you wonder. Well its easy. See, spend enough time on the seas you start to understand the songs the seaborn muses sing. Yep.


So if you want my advice, stick to the blue water.”

Other Submissions

Odhranos

The Stranded

"The survivor was a woman, emaciated and weak from so long adrift at sea on an abandoned ship. She could barely speak from exhaustion, and collapsed when we got her into the rowboat. I can only remember one thing about her, as we brought the rowboat back to the Cygnus. For some reason, the air around her had a sharp tang to it. Almost like the smell of iron.


A day later, she vanished. Straight from under our noses. No one even saw her disappear, but the deckhands reckoned she probably jumped overboard in the night. Old Edgar swore he heard a splash while on the night shift, but no one listens to him. Strangely enough, something was different about Edgar that day. Almost like, a strange smell hung around him.


Two weeks later, and we were adrift. Each of the crew had disappeared, one by one. First Edgar, then Fergus, the cook, then Salma the rigger, and so on. Now there were only a handful of us left, too few to keep the ship moving. That night, I hid in the hold. I watched through a gap in the crates as Mister Jared unhinged his jaw and bit Dean's head clean off. I smothered my breaths as the horrible crunching and squelching went on and on. Then I watched as Dean wiped his mouth and walked back to the ladder. I tried to hold back my vomit, but the stink of iron was just too strong. The stink of blood.


I stole the rowboat and left the rest of my crew to die. I'm ashamed of what I did, yes, but I'm alive to tell the tale and that's enough to keep me alive for now. Enough to make sure that no one else falls prey to the Stranded. Because once you realise what it is, chances are you're already too late."

Khitti

Lichen Queen

Cenril’s waters are no stranger to things like shipwrecks and the ghosts that haunt them. In fact, they’re just as much a part of the city as anything else. But, the lost souls of sailors are not the only ones to lurk beneath the ocean depths. Far too many seaborn, those who have chosen neutrality and stayed away from the war between their kin and the landwalkers, have been murdered by those same people that want the war to continue until one side is gone for good. Some of these poor souls pass on to the Void; their lives had not gone unfinished, though their deaths were untimely and chose not to linger. But there are others that chose to not to. These spirits have grown malevolent over the years and one of them in particular found a rather unique way to get back at the living, both on land and in the water.


Drawn to the mushrooms that grow along the shoreline, the mermaid’s spirit fused itself with the turquoise fungi. The mycelial network was vast! She could see and hear all as she traveled along its multitude of pathways and only stopped when she found it. ‘It’ was the largest mushroom of them all. Every single pathway eventually led there. The blue ‘shroom pulsated strangely, spewing spores now and then into the sea, so that more fungi could be added to its ranks -- some even clumped together to form slime molds. The spectral seaborn nestled herself into the mushroom matriarch’s body; the place was like a control center and it did not take long for her to figure out just how everything worked. She willed the network to further expand, faster than it had before. The smaller mushrooms sprouted anywhere they could, though the majority of the ones on the surface clung to the shipwrecks along Cenril’s beach. With the spores, she lured other wayward souls to the various uninhabited ‘shrooms, and with the slime molds, they attached themselves to unsuspecting creatures that thought it might be wise to take a swim in her territory. Over time, she and her hive-mind army of mushrooms mutated and evolved, the pathways that linked them all weaving together to form appendages that resembled arms and legs. Her power grew exponentially--they no longer had a need for the mycelial network anymore.


It’s not long now until she takes her revenge on those that murdered her. All will meet the same fate. Neither sea nor land are safe from these strange undead fungus creatures and their still-living mold-covered thralls. Resistance is futile, for even you too will soon be added to the Lichen Queen’s horde.

Caltarok

Undead Seaborn Monstrosity

A weird sound a kind of mixture between growling and gurgling catches your attention and causes you to turn quickly to face a most alien and bizarre creature. An automaton made of varying aquatic beasts stands before you at a height of seven feet. The thing sends a chill down your spine as the stench of death and rotting flesh seems to permeate the air around you.


Clicking noises brings your attention towards the two pincers attached to its body making the idea of close combat nerve racking. Following the arms of the pincers back to the main body, you see that two more arms are sprouting from the back of the creature and end in two very sharp looking scythes. A tail drags bobs just inches from the ground. Where the fins on the tail hit the ground, you see stains appearing. At first you think it is just merely water dripping from the fins; but the stain seems to dark and the ground seems to be cracking within the stain.


Considering the best way to approach such a hideous creature; you being to wonder what is holding such a monstrosity together. You can be barely make out the rotten flesh and sinews where it has been stitched together before the realization comes to you of the clear and liquidity chitin armor that is making up the nearly invisible skin covering the monster from head to feet.


Bringing your attention back to the head, you are reminded of sharks from the oceans. However, the strange marking on its forward and the horn jutting out just above the marking ends the resemblance. The horn is more ovalish as you look at it and comes to a sharp point much like double-edged blade. The magic rune seems to be radiating a dark power is in the form belonging to the deity, Alithyk Caluss to those that recognize it.

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