Well drat, Wraithvine’s unexpected island vacation will have to end sooner rather than later to help free the merfolk from having to make sacrifices to the Whijioght, though ze will likely have to get very damp doing so in this follow-up to:
https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04588-l204-a-knack-for-finding-trouble -- Deathshead419
Obviously, whatever Whijiought was, it needed to be stopped. Sacrifices to something that needed a pronounciation guide were never a good thing. Wraithvine used every atom of hir acting skills to pretend like this was a good thing. Asking seemingly casual questions that helped hir evaluate just how dangerous this entity was.
Whijiought was not a forgotten, or elder god. It was trying to become a god, which was worse. A deep-sea nightmare capable of intelligent communication, bullying the local mermaids into giving it more intelligent creatures to feast upon.
The chief complaint being that the sacrifices of surface life were already dead when Whijiought got to eat them. Drowned, of course, in the process of going to meet their ersatz deity. And, if they attempted to hurry, also crushed. An eldritch beast of the sunless depths, trying to become deified, and using the mermaids to do it. It may not be completely evil, but it was certainly working up to it.
Wraithvine made hirself a charm to help hir not only breathe water, but also withstand the crushing pressures. With hir Elven darksight, ze had no issues seeing, but emphasised it so ze could see further in the stygian depths.
On one hand, it gave hir advanced warning for the creature's approach. On the other hand, ze would be warding off the resultant nightmares for a millennium at minimum.
The mandatory tentacles were nothing compared to what it had for teeth. Or eyes, for that matter. Or where it had those. And the body horror of its lures were best left undescribed.
Nevertheless, it was still vulnerable to an ice lance through the heart.
All seven of them.
Wraithvine lingered for counseling and introducing the merfolk to kinder, gentler, more amenable gods.
[Photo by mana5280 on Unsplash]
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