Celephai crept quietly through the streets, shrouded by the nighttime darkness. She had come back to this town to find out just how lawless this place still was, even with the newly-instituted Council. Those troublemakers that stalked through the back alleys at night would make excellent prey for this night, as certainly no one would miss them or see their lives avenged... at least, it wasn't likely.
She turned another corner, plunging further into the dark, festering portions of the town. Specifically, she'd returned because she was hungry, and the blackest hearts always nourished her the most. Perhaps a small portion of the more radical criminal elements might be out in response to the new laws set up by the new government... hence why she came to Wistvale on this moonless night.
Cel could almost sense an overwhelming dread sense, something that fel quite like home to her just ahead. Somewhere on this very street, something abnormal was lurking. It was likely that anyone passing this way would feel a chill, quicken their pace - but to Cel it was hardly so off-putting.
She would define it as a distinct 'twinge' inside. There was nothing on this world that could possibly deliver that distinct sensation... unless someone had brought it here. Celephai stopped, checking her surroundings, listening and looking for any trace of that strangely familiar sensation. This couldn't be some normal vandal or murderer, not with this feeling. What lurked in the darkness?
The clouds flitted past the moon and for a moment it bathed the street in light. There was nothing here, nothing she could detect - save the steam that rose lazily from a sewer grate ahead. A possibly EVIL sewer grate. Though not likely.
((Possibly Evil sewer grate. I'll make a special note of that one.))
Celephai eyed the grate. Surely that small reminder of home wasn't simply a malodorous object passing beneath her, was it? If it was, someone must have had something truly unholy for dinner...
She lifted the grate, leaping into the depths beneath. Better this mystery solved than have doubts later.
Cel dropped into the truly evil smell of evil sewer contents. Horrible stuff. Dinner scraps and the varied by products of human digestion, the place smelled terrible.
Glory. The foetid and horrible leavings of a village that no one liked, no one cared about and no one wanted. Celephai was no longer hungry, and seemed to convert a majority of that hunger into hatred for whatever it was that produced such a curious sensation before. It was time to unleash some cathartic malice.
She trudged forward through the filth, anger giving a not unsubstantial sum of determination.
The sewer was not unlike any other, muddied meanderings clogged with filth under a small but growing town. They likely couldn't be all too large, a fact evidenced by her running into a complete dead end. The brick wall that capped this tunnel only lead to a small opening high in the wall, that water now ran through and the occasional floater.
In the constant inner battle between the desire to cultivate this world into a desirable place of worship to the Elder Gods, and the want to crush all life from it and leave it a barren, dark, fragmented husk from which no thing would grow or bloom ever again, was leaning toward the eternal darkness end of the spectrum. Celephai's anger hit a kind of 'plateau', and she was going to rip the head off of whatever decided to look at her the wrong way... or maybe whatever she found first.
She started off toward the other end, further embittered by the horrid smell that seemed to saturate her senses.
After walking the way she had first came, Celephai came to a bend in the tunnel which seemed to lead mostly to nowhere.... and to a door. Nothing particular about it, OTHER THAN IT BEING ENTIRELY EVIL!
That or it was just a plain old door. You know, made of wood and so on and so forth. It was closed. Perhaps it was PERMANENTLY closed - that would be evil. Maybe.
Now this was unexpected. Doors in the middle of a sewer? Weren't they usually reserved for dwelling places and other habitable areas? Very suspicious and out of place. Her anger was practically defused from this discovery.
Celephai, even though she was from a place where things writhed in blackness, seeping through reality to drive all creatures to inanity, figured it would be discourteous to go kicking down doors indiscriminately.
The door remained closed. There was no reply. Only the foreboding sense of evil. Though that was likely someone's most disturbing bowel extrusion floating by. Now THAT was evil. It might even have tentacles.
But back to the door, which remained closed and unanswered.
Silence was permission. After all, it was just a door, and doors were meant to be opened. Celephai attempted to kick the door in, not bothering to check if it was locked or not. Perhaps it was an excessive action, but she needed some small level of violence to keep from choking on the fumes down here.
The door gave to Celephai's brute strength and splintered, bounced off the wall behind it. Dust billowed into the air but beyond that, some 30 feet down the tunnel this door apparently opened onto... was a very suddenly shocked old woman. She was very small, very hunched and now - very frightened.
Quick as something very quick (and likely evil to boot), she turned on her heels and ran the way she had came.
There is a certain... primal instinct that occurs within all living things. Basically a circuit-breaker for the brain. When things get hairy, it tends to trigger these instincts. Fear is a very, very old emotion, and one of the first to come to mind. However, when something runs, it's up to the predator to give chase.
Celephai broke into a mad dash the moment she saw the old woman turn and run... and could go quite fast for an old lady.