Alidafor

“Some call me Eebraham. It is a good a name as any for your purposes. You may use it in your little book.”

“I was the cargo master aboard the Kaisha’s Luck. She was a long hauler out of Dhuma, we trafficked in that light, white stone the Jutun made their cities out of.”

“You ask me about the thing I saw, but you don’t believe in the Jutun? Truly? You First Realmers are truly strange.”

“Yes, that is what I called you. You have never heard the term? Truly? Again, you are a strange people.”

“You are from Argn Degom, no? That is the First Realm. So, you are a First Realmer. Simple, no?”

“Yes, perhaps. Those of us that travel the winds do have our… peculiarities. This is true.”

“Fine. I shall explain, then I can speak my words to you? It does not matter to my story, but I will teach you something true.”

“You know we live in the great circle of the world, yes? Our skies cut by the white slash of the Dyeus Pathi? Another circle.”

“Again, we have the two circles in the sky. The king, Dar Lugal, and the hero Maru Sar? Our great daytime companions.”

“At the center of it all is Ysk, yes? The holy city surrounded by the Everstorm, yes? Another circle, yes?”

“Good. This is important to understand, yes?”

“If one must move through the Winds, one must understand the world is circles. So the Nine Realms are points on the path of the circle of the world. Argn Degom is the first and Stehreis is the last.”

“And by these circles, we navigate the Winds, be we on the sea or in the sky. All is the Winds.”

“It is important to know this, because that which you seek to know about is what happens when you do not respect the way of things.”

“Our captain was a strange woman, truly. She held strange ideas about Ysk and the way of things. Mayhap it was in her blood. A huge woman, while she didn’t claim to be of the Jutun, one can see these things plain.”

“Her strange ideas lead us to seek an island off the path of the Winds. She claimed there we would find truth, which sailors do not care for.”

“She also claimed there we would find treasure, which all sailors do care for.”

“And so we braved the hard seas and all that comes with it. A woman of the land, you would not know of what I speak. The ferries you have ridden are smooth and precise, drawn upon the lines of the world with ease. This was hard travel for hard people and we lost a few on the way.”

“For many months we dared to defy the Winds, cutting across the world. We had come to the edge of despair and nearly dove into her waters when our destination finally stood before us. An island in the storm that blinded us with its beauty under the light of the twin suns.”

“And then we met death.”

“Out of the waters or the fog that lay about us, I do not know which, great tentacles lashed out. A thing, not terrible in size, but terrible to behold spoke terrible things into our minds. Truly, I do not know the words, but I do know they burned my soul.”

“I was not marked though, but many were. Crew fought crew. Tentacles struck down others. And all the while, its words burned in our brains.”

“I would not be here. Now. Here. Speaking. I would not be here if not for the captain. That brave, doomed woman.”

“A harpoon in hand, she leapt upon the thing, singing an old song of the seas. A song we all know. From before we harnessed the Winds and fought in all our travels.”

“She struck the… The thing square and together they tumbled into the gloom. The words stopped. So did the fighting. The First Mate took us away from that damned place and that damned fog as quick as could be done.”

“And that is my tale. I see you struggle with this truth I share. It makes no matter to me. Truth is often difficult to hear to those who can’t hear the Winds and what they sing.”

~ From Taubha’s Lesser Book of Names

Alidafor is a terror of House Ghoregh that haunts the seas, particularly those places at the edges of the know Winds. Their inhuman shape is always wrapped in a hazy fog of its own making, making its true form a mystery. Scholars continue to argue if Alidafor was ever a mortal or if it was something simply unleashed on the world when the Madness came.

As a threat to adventurers, Alidafor is ideal as a horrific monstrosity found in a remote place. Desolate islands and forlorn shipwrecks can make great dungeons where Alidafor can be found, manipulating pawns to thwart the party’s search for riches.