Abraksash

“Do you hear the dire wolves outside? The barking? Playing in the marshy woods just outside the edge of the village? Do you?”

“Anywhere else in wide Yggdrasil, those would be just wolves. Dangerous, yes? But no more or less dangerous than any other. Dealt with using fire and ironwood. A nuisance to ranchers and foolish wanderers. Here that is not so.”

“In Gemec they are something else. They are spies. Assassins. The many hands of the secret lord who rules our home.”

“What? Do not take me for a madman. You asked why none have taken claim to the Gemec. What I tell you is true. This village and her sisters have no mortal lord, for none have the strength to claim them.”

“Yes, yes. The keep in the center of the village is empty. They burned it and its lord in my grandfather’s grandfather’s age. Whole family they say. Gedva I think was the name. It was revolution. Now we have no lord. Now we have our secret lord.”

“They say he is trapped in the Gemec. My mother’s mother claimed to know things like this. Claimed to be a child of one of his many children. She had a bit of the wolf about her they say. Ate her husband’s heart before they burned her alive they say.”

“Oh, yes… Trapped in the Gemec. A great wyrdmaster bound him to the Gemec long ago as punishment for some slight. Now he cares for our villages like my father cared for us. With terror and love and violence in equal measure.”

“If you must go out there tonight, bring with you a song. Sing it steady and strong. I have heard that others who have dared the night forest trails gained passage because he loves a new song. It might be why so many of the great bards came from the Gemec, no?”

~ From Taubha’s Lesser Book of Names

Unlike many of the Horrors found in Taubha’s Lesser Book of Names, Abraksash of the House of Kwiegh was never bound to her and dragged from the Nine Realms with her death. Instead, he was bound to a patch of forest in the realm of Adan Degom. It is called the Gemec and today sits within the nation of Toloska. For many ages he has remained trapped within this realm, ruling it from the shadows at times, and openly under many names at others.

When using Abraksash in play he can serve as a grand puppet master for things going wrong in the villages of the Gemec, working through his agents, werewolves and dire wolves. They could be lured by rumors of troubles or treasure found in the ruins of the ancient, old growth forest, but then find themselves pulled into his web. When he is playing with adventurers come to ruin his fun, he will use these agents to bar their escape from his domain, thwarting their every step if he can with the bodies of his “children.”

The key thing to keep in mind with Abraksash is that they are trapped and desire nothing more than to escape that which binds them to the land. It is an ancient wyrding that holds him there, and a grand adventure could be centered on a bargain made with this Horror to free him from his bondage.