Alu

“Hello Peula. We must talk.”

“They? They is love. I don’t love you. Don’t evoke Them when you speak to me. I can spread you out on the ground and feed you your own intestines... For hours.”

“No. I am also not like those others. The ones who haunt you. Don’t not think to dirty me with such weak comparisons.”

“I am the morning suns on your face. I am the rush after that first touch by a lover. I am the bell that rang in the Garden. I am glory…”

“And I was once loved above all others. They held me close with a perfect love…”

“But, like all true love it withered on the vine…”

…

“Ah, smell that? Your dance partner is nearby. Cinnamon and burnt dreams wafting in the air. He comes to feed on the guts of your little friend back there.”

“Oooh, not your friend? Just caught up in the madness of the moment, are we?”

“No Peula. My kin has made this war because they hate you. All you mortals. They has put you in Their grace and pushed us aside. My kin are desperate, and your little friend is their key to opening the gates.”

“They don’t want you. They want to free our former lord. They need to free him. This… existence gnaws at them… The need drives them to desperation, and in that desperation they found the perfect soul to tear off his chains.”

“Oh yesssss. Your little friend there, he hold two souls. His and hers… The Bride of War herself sits trapped in that little boy’s frame, and my kin want it. She has wandered for thousands of years and she is finally within their reach.”

“But I am here to help.”

“Hah. Hah-hah. Hah-hah-hah. Oh. Oh no. No, no, no…”

“I’m not here because I love you or I care for you. I’m here because I don’t want this to end. I don’t want to make this place a wasteland, but I don’t love you.. You talking monkeys anymore than I love that ant hill. But I will help you.”

“You don’t want my help, but you need it. Without it you will die quickly at their hands. They will barely register you being there when they scrape you off their feet.”

“But I. I could grant you the power to win. The power to throw back these Horrors that stalk you… Before everyone… The songs they will sing of you. The deeds you can do with my help…”

“Imagine the glory you could win if you just tried… Imagine it and I will help you make it real. All you need is to do me one. Small. Inconsequential. Favor…”

Alu of House Sonegh is a subtle evil that draws the unwary to destruction by granting them what they most desire. While no stranger to violence, they prefer to use words to convince mortals to face their own destruction. Sometimes they send them into certain death and revel in that outcome. Other times they sincerely help them in their aims, knowing full well that in time the power he offers corrupts those who take it up.

When used in an adventure, Alu works best if you lean on temptation and corruption. If the an adventurers have been striving to defeat another enemy time and gain without success, or continue to fail in a grander goal, he will show up to offer an easy path. There is always a price to pay when taking that path, you just never know what it is until it is too late.