Exemplars of Evil

fragmented into smaller knots and factions. The goblins
turned against one another, the hobgoblins attacked the
bugbears, and creatures strove to tear each other apart as if
possessed by madness.
Gnash knew that something was wrong. He knew that
Scar had not been strong enough to hold such a fractious
brigade together all by himself, which meant that the rank
and file must have possessed a sense of community that kept
them working together. But now something was affecting
their tendency to cooperate . . . something about the city,
Gnash supposed.
Now on the alert, the bugbear began to examine the city
more closely. Odd statues of squid-headed creatures lined
the roads. The construction of the buildings seemed haphazard—some
were pyramidal or cylindrical, while others
defied the principles of geometry altogether. Strangest of all,
the human defenders had not put up much of a fight. Indeed,
they seemed resigned to dying.
Gnash came to the conclusion that the city was cursed. He
knew that he should flee, but part of him wanted to learn more
about the strangely compelling place. The bugbear ventured
deeper and deeper into the winding streets. As he explored,
he came across an ancient temple that embodied all of the
bizarre elements he had witnessed.
Inside, Gnash found an altar to a strange, alien deity.
The idol was a stone orb, carved to suggest the surface of
the seas. The same aquatic designs covered the columns
that lined the altar, as well as the temple’s walls, floors,
and ceiling. Again, the bugbear felt an urge to run, but
again, something held him there. His mind began to fill
with impossible images—unsettling landscapes, ancient
cities, and endless worlds ripe for the taking, awaiting genocide.
Hovering above them all was a ball of roiling water
the size of a mountain. An inky tendril extruded from the
ball and brushed across the vistas, poisoning everything
in its reach.
Gnash knew that he had found his new master. Somehow,
he even knew its name—Shothotugg, the Eater of Worlds.
And he also knew that he needed to bring this mad abomination
to his own world, so that he and all others could know
its febrile touch.
Gnash emerged from the temple and addressed the bands
of ragged goblinoids, who were still squabbling in the ruins
of the city. He spoke of his bizarre master, calling for the
warriors to join him; together, he promised, they would pull
down the trappings of civilization, destroy and maim, and
spread ruin so that all could welcome their new lord from
across the stars. They would sail the seas, just as the Eater of
Worlds did, and bring its message of death and decay to all
they encountered.
On that day, Gnash the guard became Captain Gnash. Supported
by a crew of goblins, hobgoblins, and other wretches,
he set sail from the dead city to become the scourge of the
ocean, a dreadful villain whose name is an epithet and whose
deeds have defied imagination.
GOALS
Captain Gnash is insane. Whatever lucidity he possessed as
a guard is now behind him, as he campaigns to spread the
seeds of destruction and prepare the world for Shothotugg’s
ascendance. In the depths of the sea, Gnash sees the face
of his master, swirling blackly in the foaming waters. His
rest is tortured, haunted by nightmares of what will happen
when the Eater of Worlds arrives. Though he moans with
terror during his sleep, he is reinvigorated each dawn, driven
by unreasoning desire to spread suffering to everyone in
his path.
Lately, Gnash has dreamed of an island, a windswept
outcrop of rock with a single stone pillar thrusting into the
sky. He is certain that this place exists—and furthermore,
that it can draw Shothotugg’s attention, calling the entity
from across the stars to scour this world of all life. Obsessed
with finding the island, Gnash has bent his crew to his will,
taking them to the edges of the oceans in his desperate search
for clues.
The bugbear has considered the possibility that the temple
in the dead city might reveal the location of the island,
and that he somehow overlooked this knowledge when he
received his dreadful revelation. His memories of that time
are fragmented and disconnected, a montage of sickening
sequences that leaves him quailing in fear.
One clear memory from his visit to the temple is the
recurring image of a bloated fish-creature bristling with
tentacles. The carvings showed the devastating effects of
this creature’s touch on humans, who were melted into
twisted masses. Gnash suspects that one of these aboleths—as
he learned they were called—might know of the mysterious
island.
Although he is tempted to hunt down an aboleth and
tease out its secrets, he remains haunted by the nagging
thought that he missed something important in the dead city.
Unfortunately for Gnash, he cannot remember where the city
is—a fact that fills him with perpetual rage. Accordingly,
the captain has begun raiding ports in search of anyone who
might have knowledge of the city’s location. The smoking
ruins of the hapless communities testify to his continued
failures, but Gnash has nothing to lose and has vowed to
bring this world to its end.
CHAPTER 4
CAPTAIN
GNASH
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SHOTHOTUGG, EATER OF WORLDS
The Eater of Worlds (Lords of Madness page 28) is an Elder Evil, a
magnificent and terrible entity whose mere existence is a threat
to everything that lives. Most of the Elder Evils dwell in an unknowable,
unreachable place, manifesting in the mortal world
only when they choose to do so. But Shothotugg exists fully on
the Material Plane. It is a mountainous, undulant mass of fluid
drifting through space, alighting on the worlds it encounters and
poisoning them with its filthy touch. With each destroyed world,
the fundamental nature of the Material Plane shifts, creating a
palpable effect that ripples throughout the multiverse. Like all
Elder Evils, Shothotugg is a being of entropy, and its presence
means doom to all.
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