#duskmourn

[danco110]

“Don’t worry, Mom. I can take em.”

“No, Nashi. I do not think you can. This is not one of your gratuitous violence movies.”

“Wh- Mom, they’re really well shot! They’re not just-”

“Ahhhh, how lovely!” A powerful voice interrupted the argument between Nashi and the portrait of his mother Tamiyo. It was a man in an elegant headdress and robe, who parted the sea of cellarspawn surrounding them.

“Victor,” spat the sentient painting. “Not content to just let your horrors work, today? To what do we owe the honor?”

“Ah, just some…clerical matters. I’ll be just a moment!”

“Right,” Nashi growled, “we’re sure it’s just…A moment?”

Suddenly, Victor launched a kick into the shin of the nearest cellarspawn, causing it to yelp in pain. “What’s wrong with you! I thought I told you to carry guns!”

“…Guns?” Nashi echoed, risking a puzzled glance at his mother’s portrait.

Tamiyo merely shrugged.

Meanwhile, Victor’s rant continued: “What do you mean, ‘the lawyers said no guns’! It’s…it’s horror!”

A cellarspawn gave a guttural, wordless groan. Yet somehow, Victor seemed to understand it perfectly.

“Who ever heard of PG-rated horror? And I thought I told you to surround him! That’s 360 degrees! Otherwise the shot doesn’t work!”

“Rated? Shot?” Nashi’s ears immediately perked up. “Hey, are you talking about-”

A cacophonous crash only added to the confusion. Through a resulting hole in the nearby wall walked a muscular woman holding a large, dangerous looking device.

“Come with me if you want to live!” she shouted to Nashi.

“Wrong movie…! But, ah, excellent timing, Rip!” Victor chimed eerily. “We can use your blaster to-”

Rip hefted the improvised cannon with ease. “Sorry, creep. This ain’t for them…I mean, it is. Just, not in the…Oh, forget it. LET’S ROCK!”

Rip fired, scattering both Victor and the cellarspawn. Meanwhile, Nashi grabbed Tamiyo’s portrait and fled through the hole in the wall, with Rip following close behind.

“WRONG MOVIE!” Victor shouted after the fleeing survivors.

[Probably not intentional, but to me, the art for Nashi kinda reminded me of that poster for John Wick 2. Just the blocking with all the arms aimed at him and all.]

[danco110]

“Valgavoth wants our pain, our terror! We cannot join him unless we suffer!”

“Oh, puh-lease, Colin!”

The cultist in the moth-patterned robe bristled at the interruption. He turned away from his altar - which was really just a writing desk - to bellow at the bound captive sitting before him. “And what would you know of suffering, Maria?”

“Besides working a minimum wage job before all this?” droned the girl in a black leather jacket, jeans, and combat boots. “Nothing, really. But neither do you.”

“How dare you! House is defined by suffering!”

“Sure. But you threw in with those moth creeps at pretty much the first opportunity. And you guys actually get to eat real food! That’s…not just wheat from the Mistmoors, or funnel cake from the fairgrounds-”

“But all that pales in comparison to my suffering before Valgavoth’s arrival!”

Maria stuck out her tongue, and pulled on her excessively shadowed eyelid to mock Colin as she groaned, “My ass! You were the manager of a hardware store!”

“You…YOU…!” Colin’s lip trembled. Then, he relented. “Yeah…maybe I got a little carried away.”

“‘A little’? Colin, you sacrificed people…I’m guessing! And all over, what, that book in your hand?”

“Huh?” Colin glanced to the ancient tome he was holding. “Oh, no. That’s just something Valgavoth gave me. So I may know the true depths of depravity from the before-”

“Let me see it.”

“Y-Yes, ma’am.” Colin leaned down and opened the book to a random page, much to Maria’s chagrin.

“You’re not gonna untie…? Whatever…” Maria scanned the page. After mere moments, she scowled at Colin. “This is just a teenager getting bullied. This drove you mad?”

“It’s…cruel!” Colin snapped defensively. “Unusually so!”

“It happened. Literally. All the time! You just never paid attention…or, maybe you were one of the bullies.”

“What? No! Never!” A pause. “Well…unless, that one nerd…? And that girl who wore those stupid suspenders…”

Maria rolled her eyes. “You know what? Maybe the cultists are the perfect fit for you.”

[danco110]

“Marina! This isn’t funny anymore! Open the door!”

The young woman fired another kick at the door leading from the cellar back to the main floor. She cried out in pain, unsuccessful.

“Move, Ursuline, I’ve got a candle,” said another voice. A man in a letterman jacket pushed roughly past the kicker to inspect the door in the dim candlelight. “Maybe I can pick the lock.”

“Thanks, Marcus. Where’d you get that candle?”

“From that star shape on the basement floor back there.”

“Back…”

Ursuline looked down the stairs, past Marcus and her other three friends, at a pentagram with lit candles stationed at four of the five points.

“You idiot!” Ursuline screeched, as she punched the jock. “You probably released a demon, or something!”

Marcus scoffed. “Oh, please. Everyone knows that’s just horror movie stuff.”

“Actually…”

All five teens screamed in abject terror. Ursuline and Marcus bolted down the stairs, then quickly joined their friends in scattering and fleeing further into the cellar. The booming voice spoke again, albeit with much less gusto:

“Aww. I was hoping for more of a build-up before the big reveal…”

—

Ursuline skidded to a stop behind some tall bookshelves. When she peeked out to check for pursuers, she saw only some bright wisps of blue mana, swirling violently around her.

“That freak. I’m gonna…g-gonna…”

Ursuline tried to double over, from an intense pain in her stomach, but was unable. She thrashed about with arms far too long and far too sharp, gouging deep marks into the floor around her.

Wordless groaning turned to growling. Ursuline arose on inky black limbs, far taller than she had ever been before. Books fell from the shelves now embedded in her torso, and grew appendages of their own when they hit the floor.

The croaking and cackling of her friends, similarly warped, echoed through the now-impossible halls, mingling with her own noises. These were soon joined by normal voices - confused at first, before quickly turning to screams.

[Headcanon: I’ve said it before, but surely Marina’s bullies became the first of the cellarspawn, right?]

[danco110]

“Go take a look, River. Is it still there?”

“Quiet, Tyson!”

The braver of the two survivors timidly peeked up from the wheat field where she and her friend were hiding. A fair distance away, a tall, slender wickerfolk slashed away at a section of grain, thankfully with its back turned to her and Tyson. She crouched back into the grain, and grimaced.

“…Yeah,” River sighed quietly, barely audible over the rustling stalks. “But…”

“Found a victim?” Tyson asked, in a resigned tone.

“No. It’s…making bread?”

“What?”

Both survivors looked. Sure enough, the wickerfolk was attacking a mass of grain to turn it into bread.

“That is bread…right?” River asked.

“You’re asking me?”

“I’ve never seen it! You’re from the fairgrounds!”

“The closest thing we have is the funnel cake we scavenge from the concession…stands…”

A delicious aroma wafted over the survivors’ hiding spot. When they emerged yet again, they saw a beautiful loaf of bread sitting amongst the cut-down grain. The monstrous baker, however, was nowhere to be seen.

“Don’t,” River cautioned. “Definitely a trap, maybe splinters in it?”

“Yeah, but…” Tyson’s stomach rumbled, finishing his thought for him.

“Don’t even think about it.”

“So we’ll just starve to death, because we were scared the monsters would get us first?”

“Yes. That’s exactly- Get back here!”

But Tyson was already wading through the field. He lifted the loaf in one hand, drew a knife from his belt with the other, and sliced into it, making a rich crunching sound.

“See? No splinters!”

“So…it’s just leaving food behind?”

“Who cares? Time to…” Tyson trailed off, as he stared out into the field.

A small army of children stood eerily still among the wheat. River tensed, while Tyson stared sadly at the bread in his hands.

“Relax, River. They won’t hurt us, so long as…” He grunted in annoyance as he hurled the bread at the children. “Eat up…”

The mob eagerly swarmed the bread, devouring it. River and Tyson stood by, wistful.

“It looked good,” River finally admitted.

[I like to think about the logistics of how Duskmourn’s survivors keep themselves fed. I’m guessing Valgavoth and his monsters are forced to leave supply drops every so often, maybe?]

[loreholdlesbian]

Art by Hood Saladine

Card transcription

Ominous Wounds 1RR Sorcery [uncommon] Manifest dread. That creature enters with a double strike counter on it. (Look at the top two cards of your library. Put one onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature and the other into your graveyard. Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it’s a creature card.) Always be wary of cuts you don't remember.

End transcription

[thriftx3-collectibles]

$1.39 + free ship! Tunnel Surveyor 0076 Foil Duskmourn: House of Horror Magic: The Gathering

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https://www.ebay.com/itm/188076435879

[thriftx3-collectibles]

$1.39 + free ship! Trial of Agony 0159 Foil Duskmourn: House of Horror Magic: The Gathering

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Trial of Agony 0159 Foil Duskmourn: House of Horror Magic: The Gathering | eBay

Trial of Agony 0159 Foil Duskmourn: House of Horror Magic: The Gathering is a rare, uncommon sorcery card from the set Duskmourn: House of H

[rainydaymay]

Duskmourn is THE best MTG set. Just the coolest art with the coolest cards, what more do you need? Currently enjoying my Kona, rescue beastie / Valgavoth, terror eater combo for turn 4 Valgavoth (if I get lucky lol)