The Arrival Ritual

The air was thick and strained to a point of tension where colossal forces threatened to break through into the world of men. No ordinary heat was this; for the foul vapors of arcadia seemed to blanket the desert and even the ancient sun seemed to grow weary of its own eternal presence.

The young watcher had been very attentive of his duties, keeping an eye for the raiders who sometimes came to take the sheep from his father’s flocks. Days upon days of intent gazing, looking for the distant signs that told of approaching danger had sharpened the sight of young Khastul to an eagle’s perception. At times the heat of the day, most fierce of late, would compete for the vigilance of Khastul, making him seek the solace of his imagination. It was his one pleasure and a dangerous one he knew, for if he ever failed of his duties, much would be at stake. It was one such time for the young man, when the heat of the day had been particularly gruesome, and when he had just started to ponder upon the tales that the old man would tell him, that he noticed far off near a lone rock structure, that had from time to time provided his active mind with many pleasing shapes, that a glimmering disturbance began to appear. It was as if a water fountain had suddenly appeared and begun to flow in mid-air. Sometimes the heat waves of the desert made this same apparition, but this was different, no trick of vapors and heat, more like an actual flowing bluish presence. Khastul suddenly bolted upright and went up higher on to the hill and further along towards where the shape was taking place and caught a glimpse of a man shaped figure, unclothed, it appeared, as it stepped through the glimmering disturbance of the air. Yes, he was sure of it, a man, and one without the benefits of the desert robes to guard him from the glare of the eternal sun, had just appeared where before no one had been.
Khastul was perplexed and his head felt reeling and awkward, like how it felt when he haggled with the traders of his fathers village. There was no doubt that this was happening, instead of vanishing the figure remained. For as soon as the man had appeared he stood upright and made several flowing gestures and a great noise was heard and the man vanished and in his place was a magnificent desert hawk. The hawk beat its wings and with one great motion rose into the desert sky gliding towards the east.

...and a great invocation was to be heard in the far off nightwinds:::::::::Frozen in these hours when death smiles over your shoulder. Great riven delicacies of carnage meet me in this living tomb. I fear not the pending extinguishment of the flame of life.

and in that moment his Astral Shell was consecrated and the immortal shape of the HELLSTRIKER was made manifest on this earth plane.


The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are and the Old Ones shall be. From the dark stars They came ere man was born, unseen and loathsome They descended to primal earth.

Beneath the oceans They brooded while ages past, till seas gave up the land, whereupon They swarmed forth in Their multitudes and darkness ruled the Earth.

At the frozen Poles They raised mighty cities, and upon high places the temples of Those whome nature owns not and the Gods have cursed.
........... from the Necronomicon the LIBER R'LYEH