The Spook's Bestiary - By Joseph Delaney Page 0,17

of wine and blood. Under its influence they fly into a frenzy and fight their enemies with a wild fury. Sometimes they use blades, but they are phenomenally strong and can dismember enemies with their bare hands. They are slowly regressing, emotion taking over from intellect, and it is likely that they will eventually lose the power of speech and, like water witches, become more animal than human.

Although they worship the Ordeen, gathering in great numbers to await her arrival, they receive no reward for their services; after she and her followers have ravaged the land, they feast upon the blood of the dead and the dying.

The maenads have scryers but do not use mirrors. After forcing quantities of wine down the throat of a sacrificial goat, they slit open its belly and study its intestines. By such means they claim they can peer into the future.9

Pan (the Horned God)

Pan is the Old God, originally worshipped by the Greeks, who rules over nature and takes on two distinct physical forms. In one manifestation he is a boy and plays a set of reed pipes, his melodies so powerful that no birdsong can equal them and the very rocks move under their influence.

Pan

In his other form he is the terrifying deity of nature whose approach fills humans with terror—the word “panic” is derived from his name. Now his sphere of influence has widened and he is worshipped by the goat mages of Ireland. After eight days of human sacrifice, Pan passes through a portal from the dark and briefly enters the body of a goat. He distorts the shape of that animal into a thing awful to behold and drives the mages to perform more and more terrible acts of bloodshed.

Portals

These are magical doorways through which the Old Gods can pass to enter our world.10 Human intervention is usually required to make this possible, but there are four particular locations where portals may occur. These are also places where elemental spirits evolve naturally and can become sentient and powerful.

The first is the County in England, where witches have always attempted to communicate with servants of the dark, particularly the Fiend. And within the County itself, the prime place for portals is the Pendle district, where the brooding presence of the hill aids all types of dark magic.

The second is Greece, where mages and witches have communicated with the dark from ancient times, probably before such activity was observed in the County. This is the land where the Ordeen rules; she is the only one of the Old Gods who can emerge through a portal without human aid.

Thirdly, there is a district of Romania called Transylvania, known as the Land Beyond the Forest, where vampiric creatures are legion and the most powerful of the Old Gods, Siscoi (see below), rules the mountains and forests. Aided by witches, he frequently passes through a portal, but even from the dark he can possess both the living and the dead.

Fourthly, in the southwest of Ireland is a mysterious region where goat mages and Celtic witches dwell. The former worship the Old God Pan; the latter worship the Morrigan, the goddess of slaughter.

Siscoi

This powerful vampire god is frequently brought through a portal into the Romanian province of Transylvania. He is the lord of the numerous vampiric creatures that dwell in the mountains and forests of that remote region. Even from his abode in the dark, and without making use of a portal, he can send out his spirit to reanimate the dead or possess the living.

Romanian spooks have many successful methods for dealing with ordinary vampires, but they are utterly powerless against Siscoi. He is now the most active and malignant of the Old Gods, even surpassing the Ordeen in ferocity.

Siscoi sometimes animates the skin of a newly buried corpse: His minions first remove the bones and skillfully rend the skin from the muscle; the latter they devour. The reanimated corpse appears to the close relatives of the dead. Siscoi appears before his victims as the bloated skin of their loved one, filled only with air. But as he begins to feed, the corpse skin fills up with blood, turning red in the process.

Zeus

Zeus was once the leader of the Old Gods, sometimes given the title King of the Gods. Like his subjects, he once walked the earth but has not passed through a portal from the dark for many thousands of years. He is no longer worshipped widely in Greece, and his power has lessened.

Lord