CHAPTER 72
FORTUNES OF THE LONELY BRETHREN
larras was punished for crimes of amorousness and lechery by the temple of Tep and cast out from the village where he had lived. For revenge he called upon the forces of the night to aid him in retribution against the temple. Ibarint heard him and answered. Ibarint gave Larras the power to blend with the night and take the forms of night-creatures - wolf, bat, and rat. Ibarint gave Larras power over women, which Larras intended to use to seduce the village women.
Ibarint bit his own tongue and made Larras drink a single drop of blood from the wound. Larras ran in the form of the wolf to the village, flew like a bat to the windows of the sleeping women folk, and there in the form of the rat crept into their homes and after retaking his own form, seduced all. In Larras' fervour, however, he was unaware of his actions after the lovemaking and in a rage tore at the throats of the women and drank their blood. Then, he went to the homes of sleeping couples, and after quietly killing all the men folk, took many of the wives as well, until as dawn was nearing, he realised from a reflection upon a polished mirror in one bedroom, the act of which he was unknowing. When the madness struck him, he became a wolf-toothed creature and satiated himself upon their blood. Horrified, he hastily tried to give some of the blood back to her, so that at least one person might survive his mistaken vengeance. She fell into a sleep alike to death, and raging, Larras left the village, the sunlight as it broke over the horizon burned his skin to charcoal, and flayed him of his skin. In searing pain and agony, as well as heart-torn hatred he shrieked at Ibarint and refused service unto him. This was against the pact, and angered Ibarint, who took Larras, and digging up a coffin, placed Larras within, sealing the coffin shut with a stake from a nearby fence. impaling the stricken form of Larras, Ibarint then re-filled the grave from the farmland of which had been growing the soul-herb or garlic. Ibarint then danced upon the grave and cursed Larras to eternal feasting upon his own kind's life force.
The woman, whom Larras had tried to save, died and her soul went to Ibarint. Ibarint could smell the odour of Larras upon it and sent it back to the land of the living, but as an undead form.
The woman starved and was in torture and madness, the sunlight burnt her and so did the temple of Tep. A kindly worshipper of Tep found her at night weeping in the barn of his village. He said he would help her if he could. She told him her master had been buried but was not dead, and took the worshipper to the site of Larras's grave. The worshipper saw that the grave had the signs of giant hooves imprinted into the soil. fearful for a poor man's soul, he foolishly helped the woman dig up the remains of Larras, and removed the stake from the coffin. Upon opening, only ash remained inside. The woman went mad and attacked the worshipper with the stake. The blood from the poor worshipper's head dripped into the released remains of Larras and he reformed as if alive. The worshipper was afeared and Larras took the poor man and fed from him as he had the women of his vilage. Larras then gave the last of the poor man to the woman and showed her how to feed as he had done. Larras fled the area before sun-up and as time went on they occasionally created new members of their cursed race.
It was some time before the priests of Tep could gather all the signs of the village and the dead worshipper to realise what had happened, they then summoned Ibarint themselves and demanded that he tell then of this crime against Law and Nature. Ibarint refused to comply and merely mocked the Tep priests. They cast him down for a Dodecate and a Day, and set off in search of Larras and his kind. They found signs of bloodsucking at a distant village and waiting one night by the home of a young girl, the only not yet struck, and caught the two forms of creature, which were Larras and the woman. Many priests died trying to capture the two bloodsuckers, but eventually they were bound with garlic rope and stakes beaten through their hearts. Both forms turned to dust and their remains buried at first light. These first Serevdumaw, or Serevmen-damned, were the strongest, yet least able to control their lust, their offspring which were not caught by the Tep priests at this time became weaker but more sly and resourceful. For not exterminating all the Serevdumaw at this time was another reason why Tep urged her priests to stamp out all contact with evil creatures of the undead house. The Serevdumaw, alike to the Spectre, is one of the most feared of all undead; their existence is a plague upon all Good and Law.