Malkrohl The Half-Seen, Spirit Torment
The Spirit Torments are the lords of the Great Oubliette of Shyish, a
continent-sized underworld of dank cells and ice-cold dungeons. Known as
shacklegheists to the elders of the Shyish Innerlands, they were once a rare
sight in the Mortal Realms.
They are entrusted with a duty Nagash considers vitally important – it is
their role to capture the souls of transgressors, those who have escaped their
due fate. A Spirit Torment draws its victim’s soul into its shacklegheist
chains, heavy bonds forged of malefic iron and tempered by fell ritual.
The masked creature known as Malkrohl The Half-Seen was a pitiless jailer in
life. In death he seeks out those that Nagash deems his by right of rulership,
bludgeoning them with his ensorcelled iron padlocks before locking away their
souls.
The fate of most Torment-apprehended spirits depend upon the strength of the
soul and the crimes that it committed in its mortal life. The majority are
remade into lesser Nighthaunts, but those captured by Malkrohl are
all trapped in a pocket of unreality linked to the Great Oubliette.
Malkrohl takes great pleasure in his dark work, though as much as he delights
in ending lives and capturing souls, there is one aspect of their duties he
enjoys above all others. The spiteful phantom often peers into his padlocked
prisons, gazing over the bright soul-stuff captured within. Then, he draws a
great breath with a discordant howl, a chilling inhalation that steals hope,
robbing the imprisoned spirits of energy even as it subjects them to
nightmarish angst and dread.
Filled with the energies of the incarcerated souls, Malkrohl exudes an
aura of malevolence and despair. At times this malignant force can even be
seen as pale, greenish wisps of spiritual radiance amongst which faces leer,
taloned hands reach out to grasp, and agonised screams echo. To the living
these emanations evoke purest terror, and are oppressive even to those who
cannot see. To bask in such baleful phenomena is to be overcome with feelings
of morbidity and gloom. To other Nighthaunts these harrowing energies are
invigorating, driving the wraith-creatures on towards still greater acts of
violence and spite.
Other Spirit Torments have earned their fell notoriety for the sheer number of
souls they have returned to the great mausoleums of Nagash. Malkrohl has earned his for the single-minded way he deals out punishments.
Kaldrak the Pale, Guardian of Souls with Nightmare Lantern
A Guardian of Souls keeps vigil over the dead whilst driving those around
them to the heights of malice. When one of these sorcerous spectres goes to
war, hundreds of the living dead are drawn to their lantern’s flame from
leagues around.
Kaldrak is a nexus of undead energy. Once, he was a lesser Necromancer who
used amethyst magic to further his own cause, yet his arcane knowledge was
not enough to keep him alive. Nagash eventually claimed his soul, shaping
Kaldrak to better fit his needs. Now he uses his spells not for his own
ends, but to summon more Nighthaunts or restore spirits damaged in battle.
In addition to a deadly chill blade, the Guardian bears a nightmare
lantern: a ghostly beacon lit by the Flame of
Nagashizzar. The mind-chilling black smoke it exudes does not rise up to the
heavens, but instead drifts down, along the cracked flagstones of the Oubliette. Nearby
Nighthaunts are invigorated by the wafting vapours, and the Guardian of
Souls can channel the lantern so that the cold fingers of smoke snake
through the earth, beckoning spirits to rise out of their graves and mausoleums. Or the smoke can entangle mortal foes, chilling them to death.
