Hermit

Yub-Sholoth, That Which is Swallowed, and Consumes! The old man's hands shook as he lit his pipe. The PRIMUS agents were waiting patiently for him to go on, he knew that, but the subject they were asking about was no light thing. "Perhaps you gentlemen should tell me what you know, what you THINK you know, about Yub-Sholoth before I provide the rest?" He suggested as he inhaled the vanilla flavored smoke. It was soothing, and sometimes he fancied it almost got the taste out. But no, nothing really ever got the taste out. "Well, at first we thought it was a standard Brick," One agent provided, "Superstrong, Bullet proof. A powerhouse. Nothing we hadn't handled before." "Ugly as sin too," the other agent shuddered, "Those big moon like eyes and the blood vessels that are..." "Raised to the surface of the skin, like blood red ridges bursting to the top of an otherwise peaceful terrain?" The old man interrupted with a voice normally reserved for shameful admissions, "Oh yes, Yub-Sholoth is strong. He ...IT can break steel, shatter concrete. Naturally you'd think it was just a ...what is that term again?" "Brick" the first agent reminded. "Yes, Brick," The old man nodded, "But you learned better?" "We thought we killed it once, it took a hell of a lot of firepower to do it, and when we were done, it burst like..." "Black Vomit mixed with bubbling crude oil," The old man cut in again, and he could see by their faces they were startled and disgusted by his accurate description, "And in that... reflective dark muck, instead of seeing one's own image, one sees faces, faces in torment, or madness." "How did you know it did that? The cameras never record..." The second agent almost stood up. The old man held up a hand, "You did come to me to learn, did you not? I am the nearest thing you have to an 'expert'. No, the cameras never record it because THAT is not seen with the eye. It's seen with the soul, and the soul itself recoils. THAT, my friends was the true if incomplete form of Yub-Sholoth. It is still not easy to kill, but I suggest you do it quickly if you can and with everything you can before it claims another. You see, Yub-Sholoth is also known as 'that which is swallowed and consumes'..." "You mean 'and is consumed'," The first agent tried to be pedantic. The old man slammed his free hand down on the coffee table with more power than he realized he still had, "I mean exactly what I say! That MUCK... pours into your mouth, it fills your belly, and then spreads to your blood. The blood vessels rip to the surface of your now patchwork muscles, your eyes enlarge and you are lost. Friends will not recognize you, for you are now nothing more than Yub-Sholoth's skin puppet It is swallowed, but IT does the consuming! Your old body now has great might, but you are helpless and weak. Your soul rides along , a tormented passenger on lumbering behemoth that kills and smashes all about you. Its first targets are most often the things and people you love most! This is not some mindless beast, it is... evil is too soft a word." "Jesus Christ," The second PRIMUS agent muttered. "Whether HE can help or not, I don't know," the old man said without sarcasm or disrespect, "What you thought was Yub-Sholoth slain was merely the finally dead husk of the body of his last victim. That is why you keep hearing reports of his return." "At least their suffering is over," The first agent said to the second, trying to reassure him, but he sounded unsure. He was right to be unsure. "Hardly," The old man's fingers shook again, nearly dropping his pipe, "Those reflections you see in the muck? That's not your imagination. That's not even Yub-Sholoth's memory. Those are souls. Every person he has ever taken, their body may be gone, but the souls? Those are his now. He keeps them. He consumes and holds them. The lucky ones? Those are the ones driven mad. It is the sane ones we must pity the most." "How do we KILL the #$#$ing thing?" The first agent replied. "How did you get out? I mean, how did you get it out of you?" "I'll answer the second part first: Mister Guru, an old time mystic knew an incantation. He was a powerful occultist of the 'pulp' variety as your records might show. No, Gentlemen, I do not know it, the words weren't like ordinary words. They left once spoken, not even memory could hold them," the old man apologized, "Alas, Mister Guru died some time ago." The old man raised his pipe in silent homage to the lost mystic, "As for how to kill it. You must kill it while it has no body. You must use fire and salt, not one, but both. The purer the salt, the better, or so I have surmised. I wish you luck. Maybe then those souls, the ones whose bodies died in use, will finally be free." Both agents nodded, "Thank you for this. Is there any way PRIMUS can repay you for this valuable intell?" The old man looked them in the eyes, "You mean that?" "Absolutely," The second replied, "PRIMUS is willing to pay if money is what you need. It's not a lot, but you deserve it and more if we can finally take this thing down." "Use me as bait," The old man asked, no, almost begged. "Sir, that's very noble but..." The first agent shook his head. "It's not NOBLE..." the old man put the pipe down, "You see, I want it! It ... it ate me, it took all I was! And now it's all I can think about, all I dream about. To lose myself in it! Part of me is still in there! I want to go back, I WANT to be ENTIRELY consumed! Don't you see, this time, I'll go mad, I'm sure of it! I'll be whole! Please," The old man dropped to his knees, "Let me offer myself to Yub-Sholoth again! Let it finish what it started before that meddling mystic yanked me back into this doomed world, knowing what I know, feeling what I FEEL! PLEASE!" Both agents grew very pale, and slowly backed away. The old man called out again, "It has a master you know! Yub-Sholoth has a master! We'll all serve that master one day, you, I .... the world! Even if it is only like a carrot serves a hungry man, we'll serve it! Take me back to Yub-Sholoth! Let me be consumed again!" The agents gave him another long look of pity mixed with dread, and they closed the door behind them, leaving the once consumed man in the dark, alone with only his unnatural desires for company.

Absolutely I can see that. Besides standard sci fi, it could work for Champions too. China's own stronghold in space, holding superpowered (or otherwise dangerous) dissidents. Maybe something goes wrong with it, and it starts to fall out of orbit and only American heroes are close enough (or have the immediate means) to get up there and stop it from falling. Great find

Poor V has got to get it together

Ah, father son dynamics

I think 'detaining them' in a cell could be a lawsuit waiting to happen, but I'm not a lawyer type person. Perhaps if the heroes called the police as soon as they shoved the villain in the cell and explained the situation, they could be temporarily deputized or at least have a federal or state 'okey dokey' on record. "We have Umash the Obliterater in a cell in our base. Yeah, the anti matter guy. Can you get over here and fetch him, and if not, can we at least have approval to detain him on your behalf for a time? Otherwise we have to let him go and he'll probably devour Indianapolis. Your call."

Very cool, good luck, Scott!

If I recall correctly, in the current CU, the name Malachite is now being used by an alien gladiator who fights in a Malvan arena. However, as he's never been to Earth that I know of, the name could still be utilized if the character shares the same universe without much trouble

I've done the villain with "superharem" thing now and then myself, and I may , if its ok with you, borrow some of your concepts for this team if it comes up again.

I've been kind of selfish this past week, or feel like it, so let me just say I'm happy for those that have something celebrate. Still, time is limited, so I shall just address the last three. Enforcer- Congrats on the Recertification. Dude, I say this as a friend, thou art more awesome than thou knowest. tkdguy- Congratulations to you as well. Good luck, bon chance, and good vibrations Beach Boys style. FranklL- Excellent! Let us know how it goes and when it goes on sale?

Well played, Belkar.

Which bodes well for Haley

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0880.html "Said all that mattered was that you were safe" Durkon, a LG cleric to the end.

My guess at this point is on And that's the end of the nine in a row according to Rich's site. We won't see a new one till next week, but what a wild ride.

Stupid dusty webcomic

I doubt Rich will keep this pace up, but I'm loving it

And so is #875 Man, I fear Durkon won't make it out of this, but I'm still rooting for him

Re: Order of the Stick And BAM... ANOTHER new one http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0873.html This fight may not be as lopsided as I feared it might be

Re: Order of the Stick If I were Durkon, I wouldn't 'compromise' either, not with offers like that... Let's take a look... First offer: Ok, you want me to stand by while you do your level best to kill my friends and allies, but on your own team, there's someone you want dead ie Nale ,and the only one you DO care about is the guy most likely to live and if he dies at his son's hands he'll call it a win? How is this equitable? Second Offer: We BOTH back out, leaving my team , which already down a member, sans their main source of healing? And again.. I care about my team, with one exception, you could care less. How again is this a compromise? Third Offer: Your last offer is to have me tell my whole TEAM run away from the prize? Again, could you at least buy me flowers first? Malack's not compromising much of anything with his offers, and Durkon is wise enough to see that. Even then, we do have that little problem of vampire killing people... oh sure, it's a systematic killing protected by a corrupt rule of law (Let's not forget, the 'guilty' in the empire are often innocents) but it's still murder. So...good on the stubborn dwarf for seeing through the BS.

Re: Order of the Stick Well, part of my surprise was that we got another one up so quickly. Hopefully that means Rich is really on the mend.

Re: Order of the Stick Whoa! http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0872.html

Re: Order of the Stick VERY interesting. I'm gonna guess

Re: A Thread for Random Videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S43LWRGJ_m0 I want to see this movie

Re: And now, for your daily dose of cute...

Re: Order of the Stick I called him as a a while back IIRC, so I'm feeling smug .

Re: A Thread for Random Videos