Drawlloween 9 and 10

This is... a Black Knight.

Long  ago when the world was more unknown than it is today, and adventurers  and explorers still roamed the world as kingdoms of powerful warriors  and gladiators clashed with ancient beasts across the globe, there  existed a powerful kingdom, far beyond that of any other in existence  before or after. The Kingdom of Camelot, ruled over by it's champion  King Arthur and his arcane ally, the legendary wizard Merlin, reigned  over a large portion of the world for many years during a time that  mankind has since forgotten. A time when mankind had been bested time  and time again by the horrors of reality, besieged by celestials and  contorted into hideous forms by eldritch gods, but moreso it is known  for the massive war that took place between the Arthurian Empire and the  kingdom of the Fae for dominion over the Earth.

Led  by humans, but ruled by heroes, legendary figures with the blood of the  Nephilim running through their veins, the Knights of the Round table  were an army of formidable soldiers. Trained in various sword arts  across the world and united through culture with a singular language of  Adamic, they used their armies to lay siege to the creatures that  attempted to subjugate the humans and wipe them away, to purge their  spreading mistake. The Fae struck swiftly, luring men and women to their  end in watery depths, tricking them into the woods to be devoured alive  by faries, or twisting their bodies, minds, names, and lives into  unrecognizable forms for fun. Despite the Nephilim standing with them,  and striking down powerful foes, the most powerful of the fae were far  beyond what any man, sorcerer, or Nephilim could hope to stand against.  With dark arts borrowed from the Old ones, and divine magic from the  celestials, they stood a chance for a while, however as the fight waged  on and the fae continued to appear, it was known that this was a winning  battle as most of them could not be killed. He spoke to one of the  deposed fairy queens, cast into the briny depths for her treachery, and  she told him of a blade that could turn the tides of this war. A  celestial born weapon, bound with the divine light of a burning star  that falls from realm to realm, presenting itself to the greatest  warriors. Arthur sought this blade with the guidance of Morgan Le Fay  and Merlin to no avail, and being led to his near death time and time  again. This was until during an epic battle, Arthur called fourth for  the destruction of the fae and all fairykind, and the flame in his heart  called to the dimension rending blade Excalibur, and it fell from the  skies and bid him to draw it to vanquish his foes.

Though  this blade aided in turning the tides of war, very few beings were able  to stand against the fae, but it allowed mankind to live. Even so, in  their attempts to find something to stand against the Fae they were  thwarted or had their numbers dwindled. Merlin and the knights learned  soon after that the fae had infiltrated their people in the form of  Morgan le Fae, one of the fairy royalty, and they learned through combat  with her that fairies all had a weakness to Iron, and as such called  upon alchemists and other spellcasters to draw fourth iron from the  earth and clad weapons and armor with said iron to stand against the  fae. The castle of Camelot was lined in iron at the gates, and littered  with traps as the Fae became bestial in their war efforts. The castle  was built as a maze to prevent them from finding their way through the  castle and slaying or corrupting any of their numbers.

With  their newfound methods of victory mankind continued to fight bloody  battles against not only the fae but themselves and any other beast who  dared walk this planet. They had captured Morgan le Fae and held a witch  trial for her, in which she was skewered with iron and pierced with the  legendary blade excalibur. With the fae lands damaged and their people  dwindling, she sacrificed her power and wrought a curse on Arthur and  all of mankind, cursing their iron, and cursing their knights. A dread  curse to twist the world to the whims of the fae and strike down the  kingdom of man. This curse corrupted the land and infected Camelot  itself. From her blood flowed malice and hatred, a prism of infinity and  twisting labyrinths. The castle changed. It shifted and collapsed, but  yet again it grew. The castle grew like a tumor, like a spreading  disease as towers would slowly grow from the ground, and fortresses  would spring from the ground, twisting and drawing upon the resources  that man could no longer take. Not only did the kingdom grow  and  continue to flourish just as mankind had attempted to do, but it would  not stop.

Knights that took  up vows to stand for the kingdom were drawn by it's light, by it's  endless expansion, and people near the castle were afflicted with a  divine inspiration granted by the fae. Their forms began to change, and  as the kingdom grew, buildings, barracks, towers, and castle walls  growing like weeds through the world, the protectors of the castle  became dreaded horrors that would tear apart those who attempted to flee  from the ever growing castle....

This  is a Black Knight. One of the knights that serves the ever growing  castle and that stalks it's expansive walls like a beast hunting prey.  Black Knights were originally under the employ of the first black  knight, Mordred, child of Arthur and Morgan, and a creature of both  nephilim and fae heritage. A black knight who aided his mother's  undermining of the war efforts, and who's soldiers marked death on those  he deemed necessary. Black knights are steeped in darkness and cloaked  in the feathers of ravens. Their arms have grown long and the iron  melded deep into their flesh as their limbs and fingers grow and their  body becomes alien. They wield barbed wire, and spiked chains, torn deep  into their flesh like thistles and allowing the blood to run from their  bodies. With each drop of blood, they begin to grow patches of barbed  wire and ramparts like thistle and briar bushes, and they can command  these spiked chains to lash out and snare their foes as well as draw  their blood. They wield massive swords, coated in barbs which they can  use to wound and maim their foes with a great thistled violence. From  within them exhales a thick smoke, a billowing flame that surrounds them  and pours from their mouths, allowing them to exhale the smoke as a  screen, or vomit fourth gouts of liquid iron. Their feathered cloaks can  transform and change into massive masses of raven wings, which they use  to take flight or glide through the endless walls of the castle, and  they can also manifest beaks and massive toothed raven heads that  release deadly screams and also vomit fourth gouts of molten iron.

Black  knights are among the most dangerous of the knights roaming through the  castle grounds as they are hunters, leaving signs for other black  knights and coordinating their attacks in groups of as many as 12, but  usually only in groups of 3, if not a solo encounter. One can glean many  powerful items from a Black Knight should they be able to strike it  down however, as it's body is full of the liquid iron within, and it can  be shattered open at the gut to extract it, with smiths being able to  easily forge the iron into powerful magic weapons. Their blades retain  the ability to command metal chains, and the feathers they possess can  be used as throwing knives, or the cloak itself used to summon fourth  the raven's gout of liquid iron. The armor and pieces are cursed, just  as with everything else within the maze, and the more it is used, the  more likely you are to give in to the effects of Camelot and become a  fae cursed creature yourself.

Though  the ever expanding castle has for the most part been contained, and  it's curse held at bay, openings are occasionally found by weary  travelers or unlucky creatures who find a tower or old castle ruins in  rural locations. It is believed that there is a possibility that the  true black knight, Mordred, still exists within the infinite depths,  though some say that he has somehow been cast into the void....

More  on the endless kingdom of Camelot and lore on the various knights that  can spawn within it's walls will come this month, and in the future as  there are a lot of knights that are grown and spawned from this dark fae  curse on mankind.

In the Underside, a dimension beneath beds, and behind closets  through a thin veil of reality, exist many strange lands and childish  dreamscapes that seem like they would be an absolute dream for various  children. The land of milk and honey, a landscape littered with giant  tea cups and brimming with fresh milk, honeyed tea and hot chocolate and  littered with playground equipment and merry go rounds. The Candylands,  massive fields of discarded giant toys, beds, and massive chocolate  bars, cotton candy trees, gumdrop rocks and lakes of soda. Or even the  Pillow Mountains. Massive piles of pillows and stuffed animals towering  high into the sky and covered in inviting, scented fuzzy blankets....  And yet these lands run red with the blood of children unfortunate  enough to be caught by the contorted and disgusting denizens of the  Underside. The Venomous and vile Grindygag, The horrifying and sneaky  Oogamel, and the hideous child eating Needlegork are among some of the  feared beasts within this disguised hellscape...

The  Grindygag are small frog like creatures, spiny and demented, they  scurry about on all fours, climbing trees and hiding in tall  outcroppings of rocks. They stand out in darker colors as they always  come in various vibrant colors such as neon red, blue, green, yellow, or  pink, however due to the candy colored landscapes they often live in,  they blend in rather well. Grindygag have large, strange eyes on top of  their head, and they can suck their eyes into their skulls to protect  them from harm, especially when goring a creature with their facial  horns. They possess two tails which they use for balance, or to sit on  whenever they're inactive, using them as a built in stool. These  creatures are a bit taller than the average child, and they can easily  grab on to a child and run off with them, swinging through the trees.  The spikes all over a grindygag's body are venomous, and creatures  struck by them will suffer from Acid Reflex (Not Reflux, it was named by  kids, what can you expect) also known as a Barf Attack or Barf Fever  and sometimes Grindygag flu, which makes them vomit profusely and lose  much of your strength. This vomiting causes you to gag often, and many  children have suffocated from repeated dry heaving and gagging caused by  a Grindygag. Their bite is rather deadly as well, as it can also  inflict the same venom upon a creature. This isn't the only problem  however, as it also increases the strength of the bile inside of a  creature's stomach, giving the creature constant heartburn. After  several hours without treatment, the pain will become unbearable and the  child's stomach, throat, and mouth will suffer 2nd degree burns. Within  a day or two the child will most likely begin dissolving themselves and  anything they vomit on as if it were hydrochloric acid. The Grindygag  uses this to their advantage as they have a disgusting method of  digestion in which they rely on the bile of other creatures to digest  their food, and so they consume the vomit of those afflicted by their  venom, or eat pre-digested food. They often capture people and allow  themselves to die covered in their own vomit, and consume the creature  as they have already digested themselves. Because of this, the Grindygag  always smells terrible, with the acrid scent of vomit prevailing  wherever they go and causing creatures eyes to water around them. They  are immune to acid and all acidic effects and fumes, as well as most  toxic fumes in general because of this. They live in small colonies in  the mountains and forests of the Underside, and they have primitive  language and high pitched grunty voices. On occasion they will fight  with weapons such as spears tipped with their own venom, and they may  trade with other creatures for food and equipment, but they tend to be  extremely primitive culturally.

Grindygag  are hunted quite often by children, and though their venom is deadly,  there are many remedies for it, such as Banana milk, Banana bread, or  "Medicine" which tends to be a bitter substance made by kid doctors out  of various roots, herbs, and probably more bananas, which makes banana  the main ingredient in all of the cures. It's unknown why this cures the  effect, and it doesn't always work initially, but it has the best track  record. Because of this the Grindygag are occasionally hunted by  children or their homes raided to save other kids or steal the things  they have collected. Grindygag saliva is used to coat weapons to inflict  Acid Reflex on their enemies, and their spines are sometimes added to  armor to inflict it on creatures who strike them, or even made into  spears or arrows. Their skin can be used to protect from acid based  attacks and is used for armor, and even their tails are sometimes used  to make very sturdy furniture legs. Strangely, Mix masters, known by  some as alchemists, or mad scientists, will sometimes come up with  chemicals involving the substance themselves which allows for a creature  to control the Acid Reflex and temporarily be able to use a barf attack  to their advantage, firing globs of acid at their foe. This can be  extremely dangerous, especially in excess use, and 4 out of 5 kid  doctors say it shouldn't be attempted. The 5th doctor thinks it's pretty  rad.

The Oogamel is a strange  monster with a floppy snoot, bloodshot eyes, catching claws and long  arms, and a floppy body and long tail. Their body appears as fleshy and  scaly, but pools around them like a sheet of cloth. Oogamel are known  for their hideous scream that they unleash, which sounds vaguely like  "Oogamel" if trying to write it down, though some kids call them  Awoogas, Screamers, or even Screechy boys. Oogamel are horrifying not  only because they attempt to jumpscare their prey right as they attack,  unleashing a devastating scream as they pounce, and not simply because  when they attack, they grab on with their claws and clamp their jaws  down on a child, puncturing through their skin and ripping a massive  chunk from them as quick as possible before screaming again. But because  an Oogamel is a former child. Oogamel seem to be some form of monster  costume, adhered to a child and controlling their moves, and when not  silently stalking children or screaming, sometimes Oogamel can be seen  sniffling and sobbing quietly, playing childish games with eachother,  avoiding mirrors, or trying to draw. Oogamel are not always extremely  violent, and many may simply sneak in and steal toys, clothes, or  supplies and scurry back to their hidden hideouts full of junk and use  them int he same way children would. They don't speak however, they make  dog like whining noises and grunts at other Oogamel and pantomime a  lot. However even when completely complacent and non-violent, after a  while an Oogamel will begin breathing heavily and the others will follow  suit. After which they will immediately turn on any humans within the  area. For some Oogamel it takes months, weeks, days, hours, or minutes,  but they will always become feral and murder the nearest child they can  find in a deadly hunt. The costumes cannot be removed, and though you  can lift the costume and find the lower half of a child from the stomach  down beneath the Oogamel's flesh, it melds with the child from the ribs  up and looks like a fleshy umbrella if allowed to billow out, which  they do on occasion whenever they leap down from high locations. Oogamel  live in hideouts that are usually formerly abandoned child locations  and they act much like normal children save for being constantly in a  state of near depression and sadness, though on occasion some may find  joy in their games.

Upon killing  an oogamel, others may try to retrieve it's corpse and return it for  burial or burning depending on the society of the particular Oogamel. If  one is skinned, a creature will find the skeleton of a human buried  beneath all of the rubbery, cloth like outfit of a face, with additional  bones for the mouth and arms seemingly grafted to and melded with the  parts of a normal human child. In some very rare cases, extremely  skilled child doctors, with help from magic and other strange  substances, have removed the skin from an Oogamel. Usually the subject  dies soon after, is in immense pain for the rest of it's life, or in a  very rare circumstance, they are able to recover as a normal (Albeit  bald and somewhat lumpy) child. The Oogamel never leaves them however  and they occasionally revert to their feral nature and bite others,  eating them or tearing them apart, and as such any of the few whom have  recovered from being an oogamel are under strict lockdown or  surveillance. The jaws of oogamel are sometimes used for flails or set  with the entire skull as a bear trap, and sometimes their skins are used  as monster hoodies and cloaks as they are very much all temperature.  Though it is very rare, some speak of finding Oogamel skins that seem to  have been unattached to one prior, laying in strange areas, across tree  branches, under rocks, in boxes, and sometimes in your own backpack or  dresser, slipped in among your other clothes. It is unknown who or what  creates these costumes, but some children call him the Costume Maker,  the Oogaman, or the Skingiver. In very rare circumstances, a child can  drink a potion of slipperiness, or sufficiently grease themselves up and  place a still living Oogamel costume on themselves, they can  temporarily transform into an Oogamel and gain the superhuman speed,  strength, bite, and reach of the Oogamel, but they must remove it within  several minutes or it may adhere to them forever. The more it is used,  the more often there is a chance it could take a kid over completely, or  have lasting side effects on it'spyche, with some children becoming  feral and joining the Oogamel despite not being one of them.

Last  but not least is the Needlegork. Towering over twice the height of an  average kid and even bigger than most grownups, the Needlegork is a  large, vibrant red killing machine covered in nasty spikes, possessing a  huge maw of teeth and long grabbing arms and a tail with a spiked club.  Needlegork are ruthless predators with a howl that sounds like the  raspy braying of a donkey, mixed with the scream of a mountain lion, and  they often roar at one another to assert dominance. Needlegork can be  seen wrestling with one another sometimes in bloody battles for  territory, and only one Needlegork or a mating pair will live within any  particular 10 mile area. On occasion there may be more if the  Needlegork are raising young, however this is very uncommon as  needlegork young often go their separate ways fairly early in life,  living with their parents for only 4 months before heading out in  different directions, ready to murder eachother should they come across  one another again. The only time Needlegork ever come together, is if  one is on a death march, in which they travel to the location of a  collective Needlegork graveyard and pass through every other  Needlegork's territory on the way. This is the only time when they are  not seen as an enemy and they offer food to one another as it passes by.  The Needlegork then gets to the location and lays down to die. There is  slight sexual dimorphism in Needlegorks with the males able to grow  slightly larger than the females, though sometimes they can reach sizes  to two or three times larger if they have lived for long enough. They  are known as Needlegork Titans in such occasions, or by some as  Needlegork-Kong, or Needlegorkzilla. Needlegork fight by slamming  creatures with their spiny bodies, biting, clawing, and striking with  their pulverizing tails, but when surrounded or attempting to hunt for  distant prey, they may breathe deeply, puff out their body slightly and  flex their muscles, flinging their needles out in a spherical area  around them like a massive fragmentation grenade and impaling any  unfortunate creature caught in the blast zone. Afterward the Needlegork  must take a short time to regrow the spines. Sometimes this can happen  in as little as 20 seconds, and other times it takes upward of a minute.  If it has not eaten in quite some time, it will take hours or days to  regrow until it has a good meal. it can also simply loose the spines on  it's club tail and fire them at a creature with a swipe, which is a much  more accurate method of attack, and they grow back near instantly.  These spines possess no venom, but are very sharp and heavy, striking  like a pointed lead paperweight when they strike a creature and  effectively being like a pointed cannon ball. The needlerain has led to  the death of many children and entire settlements have been wiped out by  a single Needlegork's needlerain attack. Needlegork are incredibly  aggressive, scrounging for food and foraging in ways similar to a bear,  following sounds with it's keen ears and scents with it's big nose,  ready to eat children or any sort of meat it can find. They are not shy  and will enter child settlements if found, breaking into homes and  destroying fortifications to get to a child. They are incredibly deadly  and while usually children hide from them, some have managed to slay a  Needlegork and are considered heroes just as those whom have taken down a  Garfunkle or a Giggleump, or other similarly large and powerful  creatures. Said children are often given positions of leadership, the  first pick of loot and lunch, and are revered for generations. Some may  even be nominated king of the playground. It should be warned however  that if it is a mated adult, the mate will arrive within days to avenge  it's mate and will fight to the death. They know the location as the  Needlegork releases a scent when it dies that alerts other Needlegork in  the area, and attracts it's mate to come avenge it. This death liquid  can be used as a deterrent to keep other creatures from approaching  areas and it lasts for months.

When  slain, Needlegork meat can feed a child encampment for potentially  years as they are very full of flesh and all of it is edible, with the  tail being the most delicious. Children who consume needlegork meat may  even become slightly more tough, rugged, and durable themselves. Their  spines are collected and made into large  defensive spikes on bases, and  sometimes are used to create powerful spike launchers or landmines that  could potentially even slay other Needlegork, but the ammunition is  very hard to come by. Sometimes they turn them into lances, or maces for  particularly powerful children, and their nails are used as swords and  their teeth as daggers and knuckle blades. Their hide is very tough and  often times used for armor, with Needlegork armor being incredibly tough  and defensive, and the scent lingers, meaning that it will deter many  creatures from approaching. Their bones are used for structural  building, and their skulls as a symbol of status to show what they are  capable of. You may wonder why children don't just loot Needlegork  graveyards as they're full of resources. However many dangerous  scavenger creatures hide in such areas, and the Bugaboo often collect  there as well. In addition, it can be weeks before a Needlegork dies in  it's grave, and as such there can be anywhere from 1-6 of them in a  single area, all willing to fight together for once. Some Bugaboo in  powerful hunting squads may hunt in these locations for the glory of  battling multiple Needlegork at the same time, though many just scavenge  as the other creatures do. Other than those, you may also find other  scavengers such as Byatts, Slimgrubers, Toobsok, or even a particularly  bold Bloatus within these locations, and so they are seen as highly  dangerous despite the extreme risk and high reward.

These  creatures are all posted together as they can be found within some of  the same environments, and none of them particularly get along. Oogamel  avoid Needlegork, as do Grindygag, however Oogamel will fight Grindygag  in the same way children do...