The Stage is Set
Hastur awoke slowly from his slumber, unlike mortals who would be groggy when waking up from a long sleep, the King in Yellow was a Great Old One, one of the few in the multiverse who only comprehended knowledge.
As such when Hastur awoke, all the knowledge his castle had obtained while he was asleep came rushing back to his mind. "So, that's what became of the world... interesting." the Great Old One said with intrigue.
As he looked down from his throne he saw to his surprise, the true Necronomicon laying on the floor at his feet. "I thought Nyarlathotep would have taken it with him when he left, but I suppose since it's a relic from the past, it would be useless to him." Hastur's words seemed to echo in his castle.
Regardless of what the Outer God was thinking, the Peacock King picked up the book and concealed it in his robes. He rose from his throne as it sank into the ground to await his return to his kingdom. Hastur looked out over his city Yellow R'yleth and smiled.
After reviewing his knowledge of the dungeon as his castle was now called by the humans and the other human-like races that entered it, The Great Old One noticed how erratic his power had become while he slept.
"Well I suppose my power created these 'monsters' as a means to protect me from possible attackers but to make them so unintelligent *sigh, this is what happens when development is left uncontrolled." the King in Yellow said quietly as he thought back to all the followers he'd lost to Cthulhu.
He suddenly felt rage at the departed Dreamer and his part in Hastur's current loneliness, but then as if a light switch had been flipped the Great Old One's body stood straight as he felt something odd was just born in the dungeon.
Something anomalous even to the knowledge collected by the dungeon so far. Without missing a beat, the King in Yellow wrapped in his infinite yellow garments teleported from Yellow R'yleth to the 20th floor of his castle to find the anomaly.
A lone siren was in deep trouble, she had been born about an hour or so ago from a tree in the middle of a large forest with a crystal sky above it. She was very confused as was to be expected of her current situation, but things only went downhill from there.
She was attacked by monsters, very rapidly. The siren barely had a minute to rest between the attacks from the groups of monsters before more would show up. Then she encountered the adventurers, who she hoped could help her with the monsters but they attacked her instead.
The young siren as her species of monster was called looked almost human, with the exception of her yellow birdlike wings instead of arms, sharp taloned feet at the end of her feather covered yellow coloured legs as well as a yellow coloured crown of feathers on her head.
Her body was covered in small cuts and scrapes as she had been fighting for her life since shortly after she was born. The ocean blue eyed monster was getting as much rest as she could before more monsters or adventurers found her and tried to kill her again.
The siren heard the adventurers talking before she could see them, it was as if she could understand the language they spoke but needed to remember how to speak it herself, like an instinctual knowledge.
Before the siren could think further on it she let out a cry of pain as an arrow struck her shoulder from behind, and she fell from the tree she was hiding in. "Well, well, well, what have we here. A lone siren just ripe for the picking." a gruff male voice said, as the party of adventurers approached her.
The siren was about to get to her feet when a leather boot stomped on her back making her cry out in pain again. "Let's just get the magic stone and be done with it." said one of the younger members as he looked around nervously, as he had a bad feeling ever since they got onto this floor.
Just as the sword was raised for the killing blow and the siren clenched her eyes closed in the vain hope that it would numb the pain, everything on the floor suddenly became yellow. "What! What the hell is going on!" the leader said with confusion as he stepped away from the downed siren.
Slowly they started hearing a voice speaking in whispers, the voice was then joined by hundreds more all speaking in the language of the accursed whispers. Before long the whispers turned into yelling as the adventurers trembled in fear as the effect of insanity began setting in.
The siren sat up in confusion, as she thought she would be killed but someone interfered. The 5 adventurers who had previously surrounded and attempted to end her life were currently back to back as the hundreds of voices reverberated through the floor.
While the voices seemed to be terrifying to the humans, it was actually comforting to the young siren as the meaning of the bizarre vocalisation became apparent to her. It was like the whispers were forming ideas or concepts in her mind.
Then they stopped as abruptly as the yellow surroundings had appeared. suddenly the five adventurers were wrapped up in what looked like yellow cloth, before being pulled into the ground and disappearing completely.
The siren was confused, but tried to focus on the comforting images the voices placed into her mind. Before she knew what was happening she started walking but not of her own will, the voices were guiding her to the place she needed to be.
After what seemed like an eternity of walking she came to a clearing in the now yellow forest. At the center of the clearing was a Great Yellow throne on which sat an individual who was completely covered from head to toe in a flowing yellow coloured garment that seemed to extend forever.
"Greetings, young one. I am the one who called you here." the individual on the throne spoke without words. It was as if the meaning of the strange sounds he made formed into understandable ideas in her mind while his words were unintelligible to her ears.
Hastur found the anomaly he had sensed while in Yellow R'yleth, and had been observing it for a while finding it strange that both the adventurers and the guardians of his castle were attempting to kill the it.
He was about to leave when he saw the anomaly get impaled through the shoulder by an arrow. It happened so fast that the Great Old One thought he had imagined it, but no it was real, the anomalous monster was afraid. No other monster was able to feel or show emotion. "How curious..."
Hastur quickly intervened by using his control over the dungeon to turn the forest floor into a yellow fabric jungle, before capturing the humans for later use. It seems as though the strange monster can understand the eldritch tongues he had used to drive the adventurers to insanity.
'Strange but not unexpected, it appears the dungeon responded to my rage about the loss of my previous flock and started creating an intelligent replacement for them.' Hastur thought to himself as he awaited his guest.
After a moment she arrived and the King in Yellow greeted the youngling in the eldritch tongues. The siren seemed to try to verbalize the words physically but as soon as she used her mind to create the ideas she wished to portray, the somewhat uncomfortable speech was completed easily.
"Thank you, for saving me from those who wished to do me harm." the siren produced the meaning she desired to get across into the Great Old One's mind. Slightly surprised at how quickly this mortal manifestation of his power could speak in the language of the Outer Gods, Hastur smiled under his robe.
Hastur, being one of the few benevolent Great Old Ones, shared with the young siren what knowledge he had of the dungeon and her birth from a tree on the floor they were currently on. She was shocked by the information but accepted it after what she had seen him do in her defense.
After what seemed like hours of speaking between the two the Great Old One asked if the young one would like to follow him as he could show her a place she could spend all her eternity. She agreed gladly because at the moment she was very lonely and wanted something more.
Hastur rose from his throne and said, "Before anything else, you are still injured young one and lack a name. This cannot be left unattended." as he waved a cloth covered appendage over the young siren, as her wound seemed to disappear as if it was never there in the first place.
She looked amazed at what the Star God had done, but before she could bow her head and thank him gratefully. He stopped her by saying while opening a yellow covered book with a name on the cover Play of the King in Yellow.
"From the power vested in me by the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods I Hastur, God of Shepherds name thee Ray, commander of light and the second in command of the Shepherd's flock!" Hastur said as a brilliant light shone from the book and enveloped the now named Ray, as all the knowledge of The King in Yellow's followers flooded into her mind.
"Ray, you may refer to me as Hastur. Though I have many names, Hastur is my true name." The Star God said as he turned around motioning for her to follow.
She was a bit overwhelmed by the information and trust her new master placed in her but soon recomposed herself and smiled brightly towards her savior as she followed him into the future that awaited her.
Unknown to the young Siren, she like many others would become, but another performer in the show the Great Old One was putting on for the world to see.
Ray was amazed when she arrived at her new master's home.
The bizarre architecture covered in yellow cloth. It was so mind bending yet beautiful at the same time. Hastur had brought her to a building known as the Central Mosoleum.
It was a strangely angled building, with what appeared to be a set of 4 vertical staircases going along it's walls that when meeting at the top looked like a grotesque imitation of a DNA's double helix shape, made of 4 instead of 2 backbones. If that makes sense...
As the 2 individuals walked along the strangely shaped stairs, Ray asked the Great Old One, "Lord Hastur, I understand why you brought me to your home but, what are we going to do here?" she asked cautiously, as she carefully climbed the quadruple helix staircase.
"Be not afraid, Ray. I am merely going to introduce you to the rest of my followers and from now on, your subordinates" Hastur said as he appeared to be floating up instead of climbing the stairs like she was.
Ray was shocked, here she was an intelligent monster, born less than an hour ago and suddenly she's the leader of a group she has never met. "Are you sure milord, would they even accept me. A new comer to your group suddenly becoming their leader?" the siren asked with concern.
"Not to worry, my followers live in a system of leaders and followers. Either they lead or they follow, I have made you their leader because, I see the qualities of a ruler in you. They will follow." The King in Yellow said as they reached the top of the staircase.
Hastur looked out over the great city of Yellow R'yleth and spoke loudly in ancient eldritch tongues calling the attention of every living thing in his city. Within moments the entire 900 square mile city came to life with thousands of eldritch abominations and decayed yellow coloured creatures, that had multiplied over the millennia Hastur had slept.
The attention of innumerable entities gazed at their master and the one beside him. "Greetings, my followers. I have returned with a suitable leader to guide my followers should my attention be divided." The King in Yellow said as he moved aside to allow Ray to take the center stage.
The young siren was incredibly nervous as the only person she had ever spoken to had been lord Hastur, but then she remembered what he said, "I see the qualities of a ruler in you." and in that instant all doubts and worries were washed away, for she knew who was with her.
Ray smiled brightly with a determined glint in her ocean blue eyes. "I am Ray, second in command of the King in Yellow's forces. If you serve Lord Hastur, you serve me, let us make Him an eternal legend!" The siren said, and received thunderous roars of approval from the eldritch abominations below.
Ray smiled in relief as she turned to Hastur. "How did I do master?" she asked with a nervous tone of voice. "A bit dramatic, but you've met all my expectations." The King in Yellow responded as he motioned for her to follow him. The young siren smiled in relief as she followed.
"We have much work to do, the first of which is getting you properly clothed. Next, we need to find the others." Hastur said as he walked with Ray by his side.
"Others? What others? And what's wrong with what I'm wearing now!?" she said with confusion which then turned into anger as she looked herself over. Hastur turned to her and answered her questions in order without missing a beat.
"You didn't actually think you were the only one of your kind, did you?" the Star God responded. " As for your state of dress, you're barely modest. Without the feathers covering your body, you'd be naked. No general of my forces will be inadequately clothed."
Hastur's words were final and Ray seemed to droop as her form was critiqued, but perked up when she registered what the Great Old One had said first. "Wait, there are other intelligent monsters like me?" she asked with a little excitement at the chance to make more friends.
Hastur waved one of his cloth covered hands over Ray, and she was suddenly dressed in a yellow and blue striped blouse, with a matching coloured skirt that reached her knees and a shin length deep yellow officers coat, with the symbol of the Outer Gods in the center of it's back that rested on her shoulders. Surprisingly the clothes were very comfortable to the young general, it was almost as if they weren't there at all.
"Yes child, and you shall retrieve them and bring them back home." The Great Old One said as he gave the siren her first order as his general. There is a Lizardman on the 21st floor currently fighting for it's life, save him and bring him to me. You've got your orders, take a few stalkers to help you." Hastur said as he turned away from her.
What fate awaited her on this new path, only time would tell, but she was looking forward to the adventure it would bring nonetheless.
About 20 Years Later
Over the years Hastur, Ray and the rest of their followers worked together, completing the necessary tasks both in Yellow R'yleth and in the rest of the dungeon.
Most of their missions were retrieval missions, such as her current mission with a younger member of their group. Ray could be found flying through an uneven forested floor at blinding speeds. It had been almost 20 years since she met the God Hastur, and her life could not have turned out better for her.
She was the second in command of Lord Hastur's followers and was currently on a mission from the yellow clothed Star God to retrieve another of her kind. They had come to be known as the Xenos, those who defy that which is known.
This title was given to them by an ally from the surface named Fels, a skeleton who works for the leader of the guild Uranus. With their help the Xenos got supplies from the surface as the god of wind wanted them to coexist alongside the mortals of the lower world. Both however were unaware of the Xenos' true leader.
After the birth of Ray, many more like her were born, and it became a personal mission of hers to find them and bring them back home to the Shepherd God. So far there were over 40 of them, some could speak the verbal language of the mortals, others could only speak the god tongue because of the shape of their mouths.
The Xenos rarely returned to Yellow R'yleth, except for the naming of a new member to their group. Otherwise they were scattered around the dungeon in special areas that didn't spawn monsters known as hidden villages, in groups of 2 or 3, with the exception of the arachne's group because she led all the younger members, like a nursery.
Everything wasn't perfect though. The Xenos had lost several of their members to adventurers and more frequently, dungeon poachers over the years.
Lord Hastur was greatly angered by the actions of the humans, and made sure to capture the ones responsible and torment them excessively before turning them into servants of his, like Stalkers or Gibbering heaps.
"Are we almost there yet?" asked a childish voice beside Ray. It was another humanoid avian monster known as a harpy, she had the appearance of a teenage girl with sharply pointed ears, crimson red hair and wings instead of arms and birdlike legs. Her body was covered mostly in red down feathers.
This young harpy was known as the crimson flame, Fear. She was found about 4 years prior and had been named by lord Hastur himself just like the rest of the Xenos. After they had been named each of them gained a special ability, gifted by the King in Yellow himself.
Ray, gained the power to create, control and become light. This made her the fastest of the Xenos. Fear, on the other hand gained the power to create, control and become fire. Though she was still getting used to it like all the others.
"We get there, when we get there..." Ray responded in resignation but smiled nonetheless at the childish harpy's impatience beside her.
The two of them were currently on the 19th floor of the dungeon. Lord Hastur had sensed the birth of a new Xenos on that floor and asked the second in command of the shepherd's flock to step forward to retrieve them as she was in the closest hidden village to the new Xenos, Fear was nearby and was ordered by Hastur to accompany Ray because he had a feeling something odd would happen on this day.
He was not wrong and Ray and Fear were dumbfounded when they saw what was happening. At first it looked like a Vouivre was being chased by a group of adventurers. Ray recognized them as the group of dungeon poachers that regularly hunted the Xenos and had escaped from them several times.
They were about to dive in and massacre the poachers, but an idea was projected into their minds by lord Hastur. One advising them to watch and wait. The two did so reluctantly as they saw the Vouivre, escape the poachers with a burst of speed.
When the Vouivre had gained quite a bit of distance between herself and her pursuers, she then tripped over a tree's root. As she looked back an adventurer with white hair, red eyes, wearing a salamander wool coat jumped in front of her with his black knife raised.
The two stared at each other in shock, the monster afraid that he too would try to hurt her like the others. The adventurer was shocked to see a monster crying and showing emotion like a human.
Before either could do anything else a loud bestial cry was heard, a large crimson bird charged towards the two of them. The phoenix as it was called released a wave of fire at the two, the adventurer covered both himself and the voivre behind him with the salamander wool, to protect them from the fire.
When the fire dissipated it revealed both human and monster to be unharmed. The adventurer grabbed hold of his knife, and with an unexpected burst of speed, he decapitated the phoenix causing it to burst into ash, leaving behind a large magic stone.
The white haired boy turned back to the monster, who flinched in fear. Suddenly they both heard a man shouting in the distance, "That Vouivre! Where did it go." the man's voice seemed to be getting closer.
The crimson eyed adventurer quickly covered the monster with his salamander wool coat to hide her features from anyone's eyes. Just in time too, as the group of poachers stopped in front of him. "Hey, little rookie. Have you seen a Vouivre come through here?" the tattooed man asked as he looked around.
"I haven't, but more importantly, do you have a potion to spare. My friend was injured." the white haired adventurer asked to draw their attention away from the voivre. The man frowned, "'tsk' We don't have time for this, let's go." He said as he and his party left the area.
When the adventurer was certain that they were gone, he approached the Vouivre under the cloak. At first she flinched when he raised his hands towards her, but then she allowed him to remove the hood and see her face.
The boy smiled and raised his his hand for her to take in order to pull herself up. as he guided her away from there to a safer place. Ray and Fear were dumbfounded by what they just witnessed, an adventurer extending a helping hand to a monster, impossible.
They decided to follow him under the guise of one of Ray's abilities, which allows her to bend light around herself or others making them invisible to the human eye. This ability is one of the reasons there were still no rumours about the Xenos.
They followed the human and the Vouivre up to the 18th floor where they stopped at the place where the adventurer's party set up camp. It was strange that he had been killing monsters on the 19th floor alone.
"Master Bell where have you been? We've been looking for you for hours." a small pallum girl asked as the now named Bell and his thankfully still concealed monster friend approached.
"I was just checking out the 19th floor Lilly." he said with a small smile, but it faded quickly as he saw the pallum looking at the concealed voivre suspiciously. " That I can understand even if I disagree with you going alone, but who is she?" Lilly asked as her eyes narrowed.
"Yeah Bell, did you seriously go down to the 19th floor and pick up another girl?" the crimson haired blacksmith of the group asked, as he also eyed the cloaked person suspiciously. Feeling the tension in the air the young voivre slowly started backing away.
"Master Bell, who is this woman and why did you bring her here? Don't tell me you got into trouble again for some no name girl..." she was cut off from her speech when the cloaked girl tripped over a rock on the ground and her hood fell off.
At seeing that it was a monster under the hood, all members of the party except Bell unsheathed or equiped and raised their weapons towards the monster. Bell stepped between his party and the monster, "Guys, please wait. Let me explain!" he tried to say but was cut off by Lilly.
"Master Bell, what were you thinking bringing a monster to the safe zone on the 18th floor!?" The small pallum yelled at her party captain in anger and confusion, "Monsters are monsters, there are no exceptions!" she yelled, but was left dumbfounded by what happened next, along with everyone else.
"B...B... Bell, your name is Bell?" said the Vouivre with a stuttering voice. Everyone including Bell were shocked into silence by the discovery of a talking monster. "Master Bell, what is your relationship with her?" asked one of the party's supporters, a renard named Haruhime.
Bell, not removing his gaze from the voivre said, "I found her on the 19th floor, she was trembling and crying. I want to help her." he said as the others lowered their weapons, but still held them close by.
"Fine! Do what you want, but she is your responsibility." said Lilly with a sigh as she knew, once Bell got his mind to something it was impossible to turn him away from it.
Ray and Fear were once again surprised by the actions of the human boy, and now his party as well. Just as the two were about to move to a more concealed spot to observe the party better, a kunai knife was imbedded in the tree between the 2 of them.
The two were slightly shocked before their years of experience kicked in and they leaped away from the sharp throwing blade. Unfortunately causing the tree's leaves to rustle and give away their previous position.
The entire party was on guard as the woman who had remained silent until now spoke to the trees she had just thrown the blade. "Come out, I know you are there. I can feel your presence." she stated in a serious tone of voice.
The young woman was named Mikoto, she had been trained as a ninja and as such had very keen senses when it comes to finding people who try to conceal themselves from her.
A whisper passed through the 2 Xenos' minds, a meaning without words and they obeyed the command of their lord. Ray released her light bending concealment on the two of them.
The Hestia Familia were once again dumbfounded as out of nowhere two deep floor monsters wearing differing sized yellow coloured garments appeared after Mikoto's shout. They were even more surprised by what happened next.
"Greetings, adventurers and fellow monster. I am Ray, second in command of the Xenos, an intelligent race of monsters born in the dungeon." the siren spoke to them with a calm and collected introduction despite having several weapons pointed at her.
"And I'm Fear! It's nice to meet you strange adventurers!" the harpy beside her introduced herself as well, to the further shock of the party. "Guys, are you seeing this too, or did I drink something weird again?" the blacksmith Welf asked with a look of confusion on his face.
"If you drank something weird then so did I, master Welf... " the pallum supporter said while trembling slightly. "It's nice to meet you Ray and Fear, my name is Bell Cranel, the captain of the Hestia Familia." Bell spoke to the 2 monsters as if he was just talking to another person.
"Would you like to join us, we can speak over dinner?" Bell offered the two Xenos, not noticing the shocked and fearful looks of his familia members behind him as he smiled brightly at the two in front of him.
Ray smiled at Bell before accepting, normally they would have not even made contact with the adventurers but lord Hastur was whispering into their minds, giving them ideas of what needed to be said and done, if they wanted to gain an ally on the surface besides Fells and the God of wind Uranus.
As the dinner was served in highly rationed portions because of the 3 unexpected guests. Ray began speaking to the party and explaining the situation to them, concerning the Xenos and the dungeon. She was careful to stay clear of talking about her master as they didn't need to know about him just yet.
Many questions popped up from the adventurers and she answered them to the best of her ability. After several hours of discussion it was agreed that the Vouivre would return with Ray and Fear as they were better acquainted with the dungeon.
The Vouivre was a bit resistant to the idea of leaving her savior and going with a pair of monsters she didn't know, but was pacified when Bell promised that they'd meet again. As proof of his vow, the white haired adventurer decided to name the Vouivre.
Bell decided to name her Welusine, because she reminded him of a story about a spirit. Unfortunately it was time for Ray, Fear and the newly named Welusine to return to the dungeon.
Bell however asked if they could have a meeting with the Xenos sometime in the future, as he would like to see Welusine as he had come to call the little voivre again. Ray agreed as lord Hastur wished to meet with him as well.
With that Ray, Fear and Welusine, who had been placed on Fear's back left the 18th floor and headed towards the pickup point where Hastur would teleport them back to Yellow R'yleth, where all of the other Xenos had been gathered.
"Well then Welusine, let's go meet your new family." Ray said with a smile as the three of them were suddenly wrapped up in a beautiful yellow coloured cloth as they were teleported to the 100th floor of the dungeon.