0. Wintergreen
There’s a horrid squelch as the twisted silvery hook in the withered hag’s hands pierces the flesh of the thing on the table in her hut. Her fingernails are sharp and she’s dressed in shamanistic robes with blue cat-like, and predatory teeth. Her flesh is sagging and wrinkled, a distinctly unnatural magic about her.
She hooks the flayed torso of a headless humanoid onto a skinned horse, the decaying muscles dripping with rot and blood as they’re attached. She grins, licking her cracked lips as she runs a hand along its flesh speaking quietly in the tongues of the fae.
“Feoil agus cnámh a chniotáil le lámh na cailleach ársa seo!*” She chants, sickly green miasma flowing down across the corpses as they writhe and spasm.
* ”Knit flesh and bone by the hand of this ancient crone!”
The flesh crawls between them, muscle fibers wrapping around one another as the two bodies become one horrifying corpse. Then she produces a skeletal head with green flames burning in its eyes and places it atop the humanoid torso, fusing with the body, sickly muscles wrapping around it as the whole entity lurches and jerks to its four feet, letting out a shrieking wail, revealing a maw full of needle-like teeth.
The witch extends a hand and its burning green eyes gleam as its body seizes up and she grins. “Good morning my little beastie... my lovely Nuckelavee...”
The horror rises from the table, knocking over papers and a few bottles, acrid smells and the sound of faint screams released into the room and the hag twists her hand. “Éist agus géilleadh nó dófaidh tú ar shiúl!*”
*”Listen and obey, or you shall burn away!”
The monster lets out a horrendous growl and flails as though struggling, as black smoke wells up in the foul witch’s hand and floods its senses. The dark fog seeps into every fiber of its being, filling it with inconceivable malice, a rage deeper than any wound. The crone’s lips split onto a terrible grin and her words settle into the mind of her beast.
“Make the mortals of Nightport suffer! Bring me more playthings! But most importantly, test my dear slayers, it’s been so long since one of my children has spilled their guts.” She giggles, a pendant depicting an ominous yellow eye gleaming within her robes.
