Recent content by Radu Basarab

Archanae Radu snorted, a sound that echoed through the sepulchral chamber like the last breath of a large, dying animal, then slung the length of flayed human skin over his back. The parchment of mortality draped across his shoulders with the weight of profane purpose, still supple with the...

Archanae Her inquiry sparked considerations within the mana's consciousness, calculations regarding the nature of sentiment and its tenuous grasp upon beings such as himself. The woman's question betrayed a certain tenderness of spirit, a preservation of mortal sympathies that he recognized...

Archanae A slow negation swept across the man's features as he dismissed her query with characteristic certitude. "No, though suffering remains the cornerstone." Without preamble, his taloned fingers seized one of the macabre tapestries adorning the chamber's walls. The ghastly textile came...

Archanae Radu snorted, a sound bereft of genuine amusement. "Permanence has eluded me since my exile from Vel Anir's ancestral halls. What you behold is merely a transient sanctuary, nothing more." The proclamation escaped him with neither pride nor shame, merely the utterance of fact...

Archanae The vestibule surrendered them unto corridors that delved deeper into the mausoleum's stone embrace. Radu's measured footfalls echoed through passageways where death had been rendered monument and memorial alike. Here the crypts stood sentinel, their occupants sealed within granite...

Archanae Satiation brought with it a return to anatomical propriety. Radu's distended jaw ascended through a series of wet, cartilaginous clicks until it resumed its natural position, though nothing about the creature could truly be deemed natural. He drew the back of one pallid hand across his...

Archanae As the nixie attempted its ascension from the aqueous prison, seeking escape through vertical flight, the osseous artifact that had served as Archanae's temporary companion revealed its true purpose. The skull rose from behind its temporary keeper with deliberate menace, tilting...

Archanae Radu's attention contracted to a singular point of focus, the vessel clutched within her grasp. Those argentate orbs, already luminous in their unnatural splendor, now blazed with an intensity that transformed them into twin beacons of predatory fixation. A grotesque metamorphosis...

Archanae The moment her silhouette materialized at the periphery of the sepulchral grounds, the ancient one abandoned his perch with fluid immediacy. He unfolded from his seated vigil like some terrible origami of flesh and metal, achieving his full height in a motion that spoke of inhuman...

Archanae Ten minutes remained before the appointed hour when fate would reveal whether the girl possessed sufficient cunning to preserve her wretched existence. The snow-haired predator had taken his repose atop a lichen-encrusted monument, one of countless markers that erupted from the...

Archanae The ancient one's response emerged with the finality of a sepulchre door closing. "No," he said. The monosyllabic declaration carried neither hesitation nor room for negotiation, it fell between them like a woodcutter's axe, severing any possibility of compromise. His subsequent words...

The distance between them collapsed to nearly nothing as the ancient one leaned forward, positioning his countenance mere inches from her own, a proximity that violated all conventions of mortal interaction. The space that remained could be measured in the breadth of a blade, perhaps two...

Archanae With methodical precision, the ancient thing returned the skull to its position on the table, setting it down with the careful reverence one might afford a religious artifact. He then approached her, closing the distance between them with measured steps that betrayed no urgency, only...

Archanae A mirthless sound escaped Radu's throat, not quite laughter, but something far more ancient and terrible, like the grinding of tombstones. "If you presume that desire constitutes imprisonment, then you merely reveal your provincial comprehension of existence's fundamental...

Archanae The shadows seemed to writhe and genuflect in Radu's wake as he commenced his measured circumambulation of the table, each footfall deliberate as a death knell upon the ancient stones. Yet whilst his corporeal form moved in that slow, predatory circuit, his eyes, those terrible orbs...