Undermythos: Ruins of Old R'lyeh

    The smell of sea salt was still fresh in my nostrils. I reflected on everything that went wrong as my thoughts became clear. Maybe sneaking onto a boat was a bad idea, maybe not putting on a life jacket was dumber. I wasn't dead though... I didn't think... I was in a fairly dark room, the only light was the one I was in, said light wasn't like a bulb, more of some kind of bio-luminescent glow, like a lantern fish's lure. I could, in the faint glow, see a door way in the distance. I started walking, wherever this was, I didn't see another exit. 

    As I entered the new room, I was greeted by a high pitched, slightly distorted voice. "Hello~" It said, a small octopus waddled into the light, the only proper one in the room. Octopus isn't right, it had about ten tentacles. Decapus? I'm getting side tracked. "I'm Starry. Who are you?" I was gripped by an almost violent level of confusion. "Hello?"

    I shook my head. "Uh... I'm--"

    "Bored now." aid the creature, starting to slink away into the darkness of the room. 

    "Wait." I said, it slowly turned back to me.

    "So you can talk." This creature almost squeed at that knowledge.

    "Uh yeah... Where are we? What are you?" I asked. This creature had strange eyes, almost human, but the "Whites" were yellow, the Irises were red, and it was mostly pupil. The skin was a rotten green and looked very textured, and when it turned I noticed it's tentacles didn't have any suction cups, it was like reptile's underbelly. 

    "You're in the ruins, buddy~" Starry said, throwing two of his tentacles up as if to say "Take in the beauty." But there wasn't much, I couldn't see outside the odd spotlight we were standing in.

    "Ruins of what?" I asked, looking at the darkness around me. 

    "Old R'lyeh." He said, content. 

    "Uh... Starry, isn't it? How are you talking?"

    "We can all talk down here~" said the creature. "I guess you haven't been here very long. I'm gonna show you how things work, then." Suddenly, two hearts appeared. The one closest to me was red, and the one closer to this thing was an almost ghostly white. "See these?" It asked. "These are SOULs, the very culminations of our beings. They are our essences. Our very cores." The small creature said, it seemed very... Into what it was saying. "To make contact with it is to lose perhaps fragments of sanity... Or become mangled, who can say? Depends on the person." The creature began to taper off about Blood types, mental conditions from before your soul was touched by an outside force, that sort of thing, though it stopped the cheery attitude suddenly "But now... there's your soul. The one I need~" It said, the Red of it's eyes glowing intensely. 

    "Starry, what do you--" It cut me off.

    "SILENCE MORTAL!" It called, the rest of it's form stepping into the light as it raised what I now knew was it's head from the floor. It was bigger then most people, about seven feet tall, massive wings covered it's back, The torso was odd, flat was the chest, bulging was the stomach, it's arms reached the floor and it's fingers and toes were webbed. "PERISH NOW, SO THAT MY FATHER MY RISE AGAIN!" Starry bellowed, It created small orbs of swirling energy, and then was swatted with a large yellow tentacle. "WHO DA--" Starry retreated into the shadows and a new entity approached.

    "Human, are you unharmed?" Asked a strange voice. It was like Stary's but deeper and... less friendly, more distant. 

    "Uh... y-y-yeah..." I said as this new being entered the light of the room. It had a bright yet pustular yellow robe draped over it's body. A Tarnished yellow crown with a great deal of Orange and yellow Jewels topping the prongs and following the rims, the face of this being, was too, covered by a white mask with a calm expression. "Who are you?"

    "I have many names, human... you may call me... Hastur." It said, perhaps reflecting on it's endless array of titles. "It is not safe here," It continued. "Follow me, if you with to survive."

I am unable to recall everything I bore witness too on our long walk, Hastur told many things and showed me a great deal of kindness, protecting me as more creatures came forth. He also taught me how to fight for myself and escape fights if need be, I was grateful, especially when he handed me a strange stone Medallion, there was a glowing Yellow Glyph on it. If we were to be separated, it would act like a phone of sorts, allowing us to talk over long distances. A bit silly as when he'd handed it to me, we got to his home. A large structure in these ruins, a sort of temple with windows made of glass spikes.

     "This is where I dwell, waiting." He said. I din't know if I wanted to ask what for, but he answered anyway. "I wait for the star Spawn to reveal itself. I will slay it some day soon... I hope."

    "W-Why?" Hastur did not respond, he simply walked though the front door. As I stepped through, I felt... odd, overcome with a feeling of comfort. There were some... odd architectural choices, the door frames were all different, though always tall and warped. The Fireplace was actually a large skull mounted to the wall on a small platform, the eye holes had large candles in them, was dripping to the floor around it, but otherwise, leather furniture, wood floors, drywall... walls, Cathedral ceilings. It was just a big house with a cozy little kitchen. The cutlery was oddly shaped, but I could still tell what the cleaver and bread knives were. "Do you even need this stuff?" I asked, walking out of the kitchen. 

"This body does. The fire so it does not freeze in winter, the food that it may sustain itself, the bed so I do not stiffen it's joints." He said, sitting in a large comfy-looking chair. "Explore as you will, just don't go down the stairs, understood?"

    "I got ya..." I was... taken aback by this request. Did he have a pet monster? I ignored this and walked away. One room looked like a child's room, toys, small clothing, big enough bed though. I wondered if I would be staying there as I looked around, there was a photo on a little shelf of Hastur and Starry along with... I don't know. his mother perhaps? Had to guess, given that it looked like a giant version of the octo-headed monster. The walls had odd symbols all over them, One was like the medallion Hastur gave me, but the others, I had to draw. I don't know, they simply beckoned me to capture them, I was frantic in my search for some paper and a pen. But I had them all down after a day, Hastur came in half way through my frantic scribbling. All he did was watch, somewhat impressed. 

    "Are you okay, human?" He asked as I finally set the pen down. "Normally this doesn't happen. Most are put off by the symbols."

    "I uh... Yeah... It's just... a lot. There's all this... I dunno. I just had too." I couldn't explain. I just couldn't. I still can't, I just know the feeling to draw gripped me like a snake in it's dark coils. 

    "Rare is one such as you... Who sees the beauty in these glyphs." Hastur seemed to reflect on this for but a moment before staring dead at me. "You must sleep now human, as must this form." He closed the door and I clambered into bed. I felt safer in this bed then my own. Then again, off-cricket noises might do that when they replace gunshots and screaming.

    The next morning, I found the glyphs were gone from my walls, and the ones I'd drawn gave off faint glows. There were Scrambled eggs on my night stand... but they were orange. After giving them a sniff, and finding a note next to them simply reading "Eat ASAP." I wolfed them down, I'd had very little if anything on the walk to Hastur's, just some eye shaped candy from a bowl if I remember right.

    I left my room with an empty plate and a bendy fork, Hastur was reading a book that was made of odd brown leather, the pages looked like skin and the ink was blood red. He looked up as I walked in, but returned his attention to his odd tome as I made my way to the kitchen. I sighed as I set the plate in the sink. I'd have to talk to him, I liked his house, he was a good... Man? But I had to leave. I had to return to the surface and tell the world of what I've seen. When I came out of the Kitchen, Hastur looked over his shoulder.

    "Human," He said, returning to his book. "I must tell you of why I gave your shelter." He said with a sigh. He told me a fascinating tale, Of lands and beings beyond my understanding, a goat-legged mass of mouths and tendrils, large burrowing horrors, and Mankind uniting to banish such things to the place they could harm none. The bottom most point of the sea. From there they built a magnificent city, with thousands of passages running under it and stunningly massive and improbable architecture, and leading it all was him and his closest friend, though after the population grew and mighty tremors shook several of the buildings into rubble, most of these monsters vacated and top-side, the humans placed another spell, that he who ruled within the barrier would sleep. And Sleep. And sleep until awoken by seven human souls. "I have seen dozens enter the ruins, I have seen most leave, and I have seen none return." He said, somberly. 

    "Hastur, I--" He stopped me.

    "You what? Promise to be careful? Know you can make it? I've heard it all a hundred times, human... Know that while I have grown kind in recent millennia, I have not grown stupid!" Hastur's cloak started to move. The tendrils started peeking out from below. "You cannot leave. The others will steal your soul and they WILL awaken the sleeping one." His voice began to shake. "Please, stay with me. You're safe, you seem comfortable, I can make any food you desire!" The somewhat angry tone was gone from the crowned being's voice, replaced with fear. 

    "Hastur. I can handle myself. I will remember what you've done for me, but I need to go. I have a home to get to. I can tell people what's down here and--" I was stopped again.

    "NO!" He bellowed, the tendrils not only escaping under his robe, but raising most of it, I saw his body, I was freaked out for but a second, my attention drawn back to his mask. "If you send humans here, the king shall awaken! Your world shall be torn asunder! Mankind will fall! And that's assuming anyone believes you! I cannot let you leave." His composure was gradually returning.

    "Hastur... What waits for me?" I asked. He let a tendril slither out of his robe.

    "Me, if necessary." He cracked the slimy appendage like a whip. 

    By the end of the fight, little of which I recall, there were broken pictures, a cracked door frame, and a crying monster who simply ran away. I did what I was asked not to and went to the basement. It was like much of the path to this odd dwelling, Dark walls, nigh-bio luminescent light, and an over arching feeling of dread, I staggered slowly down the halls. Reflecting on the odd things I'd seen thus far, and it all ended at the door. The familiar bizareness of the ruins would end, and I would be in a new place. Or so I thought before I opened the door and was pulled inside the other end.

    "Human!" Cried the familiar voice of an enraged Starry. "You are a coward, hiding behind such an entity." It said, the tendrils on it's head lashing. 

    "Yeah. But have you looked in the mirror?" I asked with a smirk. On my way out of Hastur's dwelling, I'd taken a knife, and I had it pulled out already, swinging at the monster, It just batted me aside. I came back to consciousness with this creature standing over me, I was barely able to jab at it, disorienting the beast. I scrambled for my knife and fled the odd chamber with it. I was graced with silence and dried sea floor.