SACRIFICE - 911 BCE

Part 1:

During the tumultuous era of the Greek Dark Ages, circa 911 BCE, we find a ragtag band of Hellenic pirates, remnants of the once-glorious Mycenaean and Minoan civilizations, roaming the sea and seeking refuge and riches amidst the turmoil. Their unique odyssey leads them to anchor at a secluded island to the east of Cyprus, one shrouded in mist and untouched by the era's strife. Here, beneath the craggy surface, they discover the forgotten citadel of Atheron, a testament to a civilization that revered "The Shadowed King," a deity that was ensnared in eldritch slumber by arcane rites lost to memory.

Venturing into Atheron's hidden depths, the group feels the air grow dense with the must of the undisturbed stone of the entombed city. Corridors are lined with carvings that depict mythic tales and designs that speak volumes of the Shadowed King’s reign over the domain of dreams and the night's enveloping darkness. His name, etched across the walls in symbols the sailors cannot decipher, appears as a beacon of dread.

The central chamber is a cavernous space swallowed by shadows and houses multiple altars. The stone monolith is alive with an otherworldly energy that draws the pirates in, its pulsing essence promising power beyond their dreams. The murals celebrate the god's formidable presence along with the vastness of the cosmos, seducing the marauders with visions of an escape from their destitution.

Part 2:

Fueled by ambition and the allure of the citadel's secrets, they conceive a plan to rouse the king from his ageless slumber, convinced that his favor will crown them sovereigns of the sea and architects of their own journeys. Months pass and when they can afford it, they stop at the island to glean knowledge from the inscriptions. All in order to prepare a nocturnal rite, a ceremony to awaken "The Shadowed King" and secure his blessing via an offering of blood.

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When the time is right they choose Lyssa as their bait, the youngest of their crew, a girl deemed inconsequential, only kept for trivial tasks and darker ends. As the night envelops them, they chant in unison, invoking the long slumbering deity to awaken and consume Lyssa as payment for their plea. The chamber quakes, air shimmering with malevolence. But their call breaches boundaries they never intended, their translations incomplete and foul. Instead of Nyctelius, the king they seek, they instead draw the gaze of Uvhash, "The Unseen Whisper." When they utter his name, an invisible Star Vampire, emissary of Uvhash's insidious will, materializes from the void, its presence extinguishing flames and casting them in darkness.

Part 3:

The creature descends upon the pirates, a maelstrom of hunger. They are consumed one after another, their lives extinguished, their aspirations dissolved into the void. The Star Vampire fills up with their lifeblood, tendrils and maw tinged in bright flowing red, becoming visible in the dim light. The ceremony intended to empower the crew has become their cataclysm, an empty sacrifice at the whims of beings beyond their comprehension.

Poor Lyssa, forsaken at the altar, emerges as the sole witness to the group’s devastation, the creature sated by its feast. Now she is bound to the forces unleashed by their folly as silence once again claims the underground city of Atheron. Nyctelios, "The Shadowed King,” never roused, remaining detached and undisturbed by mortal ambition. In the silence that follows, Lyssa traverses the echoing halls marked by Unvhash, by insanity and sorrow. The island, a mausoleum of ambition, still stands as a chilling testament to the perils of seeking communion with entities that dwell in the depths, a grim reminder of the dangers that lurk when mortals dare to think that their sacrifices would sway entities lurking in the void.