At the confluence of the Rivers Mim and Narconess, the ancient red turrets of the abandoned Castle Kaspure rose to meet the cyan sky. High pink Adobe like walls, textured like snake skin, crumbled and reassembled themselves in seconds, as age-old spells of power, woven into the stone by countless Mages and Sorcerers of millenniums past, gave way and fought to reassert control. It was here that the Sorcerer Opurr found respite and solace from the elements and his relentless pursuers.
At his side, his companion, the silver ape Bosk tarried and begged a game of jackals and hounds.
But it was not until much later, after they had secured themselves inside the abandoned manse, within the castle walls, that the sorcerer acquiesced to the ape, and spread out the small woven vermillion rug, upon which they played the ancient game.
Soon after, with the help of an oft conjured familiar, demons of death were posted at the corners of the castle and within all the rooms. High above the parapet; hovering as would a hummingbird, a Saffron Eye of Obflexion surveyed the castle and surrounding lands for phantoms and demons, relaying what it saw to Oppurs third eye. For Oppur was a Sorcerer of great renown, and with such power his cadre of enemies had grown with time and many vile creatures were thus sent; both corporeal and ethereal, unnamed and unseen, as were a myriad of spells and curses. Like a great plague they followed him, a swarm of unseen menace and corruption, slowly devouring all structures and slowly dealing death to any man or beast that tarried long in his company.
To the east his keen eyes discerned a flight of great dragons that passed over the Blue Forests, leaving behind a trail of fire and smoke. Few now were the great worms on Nibiru, many having died from the snake plagues and still others had found their way off world to other planets never to be seen again.
A single creature broke from the flight, which appeared to number 8 or 9, and headed north toward Kaspure. Oppur waited patiently for reaction from his host of demons and spirits, but no communication was forthcoming. The winged sliver grew in size, approaching fast. Had the creature been malignant in intent the death demons would have immediately descended upon it. Oppur closed his eyes and muttering a spell of far sight caught a glimpse of the dragon, as if out of the corner of his eye.
It was a bull dragon, old beyond reckoning, this much he could tell. It was immense for even from afar he could feel its presence, its’ breath. Soon the flap of wings cracked like thunder, and still his cadre of demons and familiars spoke not, nor relayed alarm or concern.
Even as Oppur and the dragon crossed paths, in the far reaches of the land called Ggwan, within the bowels of the volcanic cone called Hyoolanf a league of sorcerers held council. There was Domo Ehn, Sorcerer of Prask who came upon the back of a green sphinx. And Lopak King of the Man Fish arrived upon the back of a great Red Kraken. Other lesser but still powerful sorcerers descended upon vans of celestial behemoths and winged steeds. And their familiars and demons swarmed like carrion flies about the embattlement. Sealed were they within by trusted acolytes that were soon consumed by the demon hoard.
All across the Great continent the name of Domo Ehn was a blight and fear preceded him. And even those present within the sanctum of the volcanic crypt, many powerful and feared in their own rite, knelt down before him.
So it came to pass that a great council was held and all those present performed spells and incantations. And the intent of their search was the location of their arch-enemy Oppur, but no indication befell them and all manner of demon, genii or spirit could not find nary a ripple of his power. So they were ever more troubled and spoke in whispers of the greater powers of Oppur that he could go undetected.
But Domo Ehn was not to be dissuaded and having no fear of man or phantom pulled forth a book, entitled “Dhyan” and queried a demon from the primordial ooze. Vile and uncontrollable; he vexed it with a binding spell; unbreakable in all the long centuries of his thaumaturgies. So it was that the demon, named with a tongue neither human nor beast spoke to Domo Ehn in a twisted mimicry of speech. It hung before them in mid air encased in a shard of peusdo-plasm, exuding a dark red-black ooze that sparked and burned as would acid. After many hours of painful listening the council learned many corrupt secrets and lost lore and much of past mysteries that had confounded even the wise were revealed but of Oppur the demon spoke not, so Domo Ehn dismissed it back to the seventh and most distant hell.
The stables of the sorcerers chaffed with restlessness for the hours where waxing into days. The Great Kraken brooded and the Green Sphinx screamed for the flesh of men and other fell creatures clamored about in hungered anguish.
But Domo Ehn was patient as the unsalted earth and called upon his fellow necromancers to sedate their beasts of burden.
One by one the sorcerers fell in line and following Domo Ehn they all moved without walking, floating as it were down into yet another deeper and more secret grotto.
Cadavers appeared and mummies sallied forth to light censors and great braziers. The pungent smell of putrid flesh and exotic spices filled the stagnant air as threads of smoke wound serpentine like into the dark. With voices that were possessed of other long dead magicians intonations in a strange forgotten tongue echoed malignantly.
Verily their voices rose in a crescendo beckoning some obscene blasphemy. Before them out of the heated vapors and blue flames of the brazier every manner of spirit and demon was visited. And though many attempted to cast spells and curses back upon the throng none succeeded so great was the paean.
But even the mighty grow weary and as Domo Ehn began to doubt his reconnoiter a small vaporous image flickered forth and the serpent-fish like being spoke. At first it was but the slither a snake makes, but then words, barely understandable by humans became apparent.
“I am Vile-Oct, Familiar to the Great Old One Yig, who lies imprisoned in the Pit of Ngoth in the caverns of Yoth. It is through the eyes of a great dragon, recently sojourned from Nibiru, and after a journey through the cold of space arrived upon earth, in the underground realms of K’n-yan; that a vision of a great sorcerer was perceived far a field, in or near the Castle Kaspure.”
The image withered and was gone.
The vapors of the brazier were riven now into braids of smoke and with somber introspection the sorcerers considered that which heretofore had occurred.
Slowly now they lifted like clouds and glided up the great and secret stairs into yet another angular room. Within this room that none of the evil and powerful necromancers had previously known a great sphere stood and within it a creature, both large and baleful moved about within a fluid or smoke darker than even the Kraken’s ink.
And its specter smote fear upon the lesser of the great sorcerers and Domo Ehn, perceiving this and having no regard for such spoke a spell of immediate putrification and several sorcerers rotted in mid-scream.
The great dragon had crossed paths with Oppur days ago and he had learned much from their chance encounter. So it was by these threads of thoughts, mingled between the two that Oppur perceived that his location was now known by his enemies. So it was with parlance and trepidation that the great and powerful necromancer prepared for his last stand.
So it was that out the rancid interior of Hyoolanf what was left of the great sorcerers wagged behind Domo Ehn as would an obedient canid.
As Domo Ehn’s anger boiled forth, great peals of thunder echoed in the distance as yellow and red lightning cracked upon the darkened horizon. To each sorcerer, masters in their own right of a multitude of vile and arcane tortures Domo Ehn sent them forth to lead with whatever forces they so chose the finding of Oppur. And thus finding him holds him in battle that Domo Ehn might arrive and with relish and vengeance visit upon his foe unspeakable death.
Time tarried not and the time that binds constricted slowly upon Oppur. Setting through yet another game of hounds and jackals with the Silver Ape Bosk Oppur considered many things. Above him the Saffron Eye of Obflexion began to blink and in so doing Oppur knew that his enemies searched the planet for him.
Then a strange thing happened for even the Sorcerer Oppur had never experienced such an anomaly. Ghosts began to materialize before him, by-passing all of the demons and familiars and other creatures of dread ringed about him. But these where ghosts that Oppur recognized as comrades of old, fellow sorcerers, some now enemies.
Like a flame wavers in the wind there flickered before him three apparitions and Oppur heard their names: Gfrath, Mig and AgQoo. And knowing them to be lesser but powerful sorcerers of Nibiru he applied spells of revulsion upon them but they required naught for they each in turn told in the quivering voices of death their demise at the hands of Domo Ehn.
So it was Oppur gained allies in his impending encounter.
But the sisters of the fates apply remedy when and where needed.
So it was that in his wonderings and astral voyages back into the past of this citadel he happened upon a demon in the form of a worm.
This was the Demon Lord Moloc, imprisoned long ago by Domo Ehn in the form of a worm.
Long they spoke to each other and in common discourse for each shared a pang of old for their adversary.
Thus they planned and plotted as the celestial halls where emptied of angel and demon, fell beast and devil were called forth by sorcerers both living and dead.
Oppur waited and as he did so the silver ape Bosk begged yet another game.
Night fell as a moon of august splendor crowned the sky.
The gross darkness wrapped about the citadel like a vail and beyond it monstrous forms began to seethe and loom like a vile tide.
Across the realm sky winged creatures long extinct and unknown began to sallie forth.
Ever and anon creatures of great size hovered above menacingly.
Upon the plain of red sand and rock a ghostly necropolis began to grow. And it was vast and dark, this city of death and its battlements were peopled with the ghosts and corpses of countless armies.
So it was out of this necropolis that Domo Ehn came upon his chariot pulled by three monstrous slug-like entities.
Oppur stood upon the highest wall of Kaspure and looked down knowing that these were but apparitions that preceded his nemesis by many leagues. Askance now he viewed other more deadly visages, pallorus caricatures of men descending from unpronounceable dimensions. And so he began to name them one by one, thus knowing and having power over them, they each began to retreat in agony having been revealed.
And Lord Demon Moloc, now having found form in the long buried armor of a forgotten king reared up and stood like a specter.
The Great Dragon sat before Oppur; old beyond reckoning for his youth went back to Old Earth and beyond. His eyes revealed deep wisdom and even Oppur was humbled by his gaze. So now a word slipped from the fiery breath of the dragon as stone against stone, a word Oppur had not heard since his youth many millennia ago. Having named Oppur by his true name the dragon waited…
Oppur had only once been thusly named and the encounter left another sorcerer near death. But now the tables were turned and even the worms of death that wreathed beneath him took notice, pausing.
So many long moments pasted and Oppur found but one bead of sweat upon his furrowed brow as his mind reached back in time.
He spoke the name; a recollection of his lost youth, in a deep cast voice and as he did a thunderclap pealed across the land.
The Great Dragon did not move, nor acknowledge, yet his eye, big as a warrior’s shield held a woeful gaze upon Oppur…
Across the vast plains named Gaddon legions formed in phalanxes and columns.whilst above in the languid skies winged beasts bellowed and screeched each at the other as schools of deadly sky fish circled. Among those that congregated were counted not only men but Cyclops and other giants. And then beasts and other mutant forms of bastard sorcery morphed together in twitching and gushing spasms of etheric divestment. Some rose from the earth whilst others formed in the airs.
What act of necromancy initiated the battle none now know but it became known as the War of Gaddon. Throughout the planet of Nibiru the renting of thunder and lightning could be heard and much wailings of agony by both the living and the dead. It is written that a darkness like the poisonous ink of a Death Leopard covered the disputed lands.
From afar, across the cold gulf of space, upon the ethereal trails that web the planets a call went out and something happened that had not happened for a very long time.
Older than old, ancient beyond reckoning the few that were yet many, Dragons of Lore and Legend of both Earth and Nibiru flocked in great waves and their fire, a fire that could not be quenched burned upon Oppurs’ enemies.
Great was the reflex of Lord Moloc and his demon armies devoured all before them both friend and foe and the land was thusly cleansed of all living things and not even the souls of the dead could remain.
But the fire of the Dragons was cold and by it Lord Moloc was driven into realms unknown.
Legend recounts little of the defeat of Domo Ehn but it is said that his black soul burns as a cinder in the vaults of Oppurs tomb.
Recumbent before Oppur upon the devastated Plains of Gaddon the Great Dragon gazed into Oppurs eyes as would a great cat and as he did the silver ape Bosk pulled at his sleeve begging yet another game of Hounds and Jackals.