Monday Monsters: Atropos 13
by Lachesis
As soon as you lay eyes on this ancient crone, images of the deaths of all those you’ve loved and lost flood your mind. In these visions, you see the crone’s withered hand repeatedly lash out with an elongated pair of terrible shears to sever the gleaming, silver threads rising from your loved ones’ heads. The crone cackles in these visions as your loved ones crumple into piles of thread.
In real life too, she cackles as she approaches, pulling an elongated pair of terrible shears from behind her back…
In many cities across the Great Desert, Selket’s cult festers. These are cults of humanoids who have been infiltrated by Selket-worshipping priests who poison their flock with their debased dogma. They promise Selket will protect and aid her followers in ways other gods cannot or will not. Priests target slums and other places of desperation, rewarding allegiance with wealth and protection, while punishing resistance with carefully targeted assassinations or genocidal swarms of scorpions…
The shifting desert sands mask weathered pyramids and ruined temples dedicated to fallen deities and demons best forgotten. Some are blessedly buried so deep beneath the dunes and so far within the recesses of our collective memory to be all but lost, perhaps never to be revived. Others, unfortunately, continue to poison mortals with their dark teachings and twisted doctrine. Selket, the scorpion goddess, is spoken of in hushed tones, her very name causing dread to clutch the stomach of even the stoutest of heart. They know that when the deity and her shadowy followers target them, there is no way to flee beyond the venomous claws…
