Coming Into Its Shell: The Manifestation and Immediate Partial Binding of Obe; Or, Chitinous, Scrabbly Peg, Round Hole; Or, A Whirl'd of Hurt
A wizard's hat can prove invaluable, whether they're on the road adventuring and the party's Bag of Holding is nearing capacity, or if one just needs secret place to keep one's rabbit lunch out of thieving hands.
The tasking of creating specially-enchanted magician's hats is one that requires a finesse that only experienced spellcasters possess. Creating an isolated space that's larger than the apparatus containing it is the sort of spatial magic that threatens serious consequences if anything goes wrong. Anyone seeking to procure a magical hat of their own should probably just purchase one or hope for a lucky drop from a boss monster.
Needless to say, creating these hats is not a task that should be attempted by novices, especially not
children.
No one explained this to the faculty at Suinaegoiters Academy of Spell-sling and Ensorcelment, though. The school prided itself in its talented enrollment; promising students were selected through a rigorous entrance examination. It comes as no surprise that the coursework was just as difficult. Students were encouraged to go above and beyond the expectations of the classroom, so when it came time for an aspiring young enchanter to present for the semester final, he was eager to show off the tricks he had learned. Admittedly, the boy had become quite proficient at distorting space, increasing the volume of containers by more exact increments with each new attempt. His gallon water vessel, for example, was quite the envy of the other apprentices during their physical training course. For his enchantment final, the boy intended to increase the space within his trusty beanie cap by an unprecedented cubic kilometer. It wasn't exactly the near-infinite spaces that the experts produced in their accessories, but it was beyond ambitious for a beginner. The day of the exam came, and true to Suinaegoiters form, the boy succeeded and a void was created within the confines of his small hat, exactly to his specifications. Except for the exponential cascading effect caused by a mispronunciation of a key phoneme in the spell's incantation. Though the professor didn't catch the mistake, and it only caused a very
small crack to form momentarily within the thinly-spread dimensions of the hat's interior, allowing a very
brief opportunity for
things to...slip through. It wasn't until months later that the young mage discovered that something went wrong when he found that the items he stored in his prized hat were...riddled with teeth marks.
Though the break was small and quickly repaired itself, something did indeed manage to slip through. The tear went unnoticed by the larger entities on the other side, but one fledgling horror took the opportunity and wound up in the newly-formed void within the hat. Its name was Obe, a tiny offshoot recently shed from the fathomless ether-form of a much larger mother entity. Being the curious infant apocalypse that it was, Obe was drawn to the warmth and flowing life force of the reality on the other side of the tear. It wormed its tiny, segmented body through the gap and into the beanie, where it spent its time waiting for the space to fill with snacks to munch on. The creature was naturally drawn to the realm of reason, with its consistent physics and geometries ripe for the warping, but it was still small and vulnerable to being annihilated. Obe knew this, and it didn't want its rampage cut short before it could truly begin.
This arrangement couldn't last. Obe's handiwork was discovered. The boy, rather than suffer the embarassment of revealing his flummox to the professors and seeing to it that
whatever was inhabiting his magic hat was properly disposed of, tossed it out of the dormitory window. Obe eventually realized it was abandoned, and extended sensory-motor appendages through the opening of the beanie and into the world of light. Still fearful of destruction, Obe didn't stray far from the confines of the hat, instead keeping its small body concealed while it scuttled away from the school and off on new adventures.
Necrobrovenomicon; Or, Mad From the Revelation; Or, Additional Information
Obe is the larval form of a type of amorphous entity originating in the abyss between worlds. Normally these beings wouldn't possess a distinct physical form, but upon entering a more structured form of reality, they are forced to conform to some extent. Obe is not fully matured and therefore does not possess the world-rending might, or shapeshifting ability, of the ancients of its species. Its body is small and for the most part bound to one shape. With age, though, the creature will grow stronger and gain a more mercurial form, along with the boundless capacity to warp the world around it. That's not likely to happen any time soon, however.
Obe's body is an elongated, conical shape, about thirty centimeters long, with segments of durable chitin shell protecting its chewy center. It has a circular mouth lined with several rows of sharp teeth. Along the outside of its mouth are a series of long, thin appendages used for gathering sensory information and for locomotion. Behind each tendril is a small, black ocular node. Essentially, Obe in its newly-spawned state is an armored, be-tentacled, temperamental lamprey-thingy.
Obe's body is a lot tougher than it looks. Given it's born of the void, the only thing that can seriously harm it are incredibly strong physical or magical forces. It's like a cockroach in that regard. However, instinct drives it to avoid trouble and recede into its cavernous 'shell' if the need demands. Getting crushed, tossed, burnt, and bounced is pretty uncomfortable even when one is mostly invulnerable to such things.
Obe is capable of performing a limited list of magical spells, but these mostly boil down to spitting sparks and jaunting to the next reality over, taking its hat with it, of course.
Obe subsists primarily on the blood or equivalent fluid (It doesn't seem to matter) of the multiverse's species, but if it can find something small enough to devour, it's willing to have a go at it. Early on Obe used what little magic it possesses to warp to a more contemporary reality and discovered its partialness for M&Ms candies.
One advantage of Obe possessing such an itty bitty body is that, unlike larger stygian nightmare abominations, it can leave the hat. Its progenitors would be too big to fit through such a small opening if they were in a similar situation. It doesn't do this often, though, since the outside world wants to hurt it.
If the hat is held shut or destroyed, Obe will be sealed within the pocket of expanded volume created by the apprentice's spell, unable to even warp out to a new dimension. A tragedy.
The Hither and Thither Expanded; Or, Drawing Back the Curtain!
Obe is the alternate universe analogue of the banished infernal duke and hobbyist figure skater, Dantalion Obrove. It is not his former life, his blood relative, or a former pet. He's the Obrove if Obrove were a fledgling cosmic horror, while
the athlete is Obrove armed with obsidian blades and a burning passion for the ice rink.
Additionally, this younger Obe is not the same as the older Obes you may have seen breaking the minds and bodies of mortals. Their timelines run parallel to each other, rather than consecutively. The Obe in question here is a possible past for an entity whose neophyte form is as varied as its abilities once it matures. By rights there could be another Obe spawnling out there which took the form of a preternatural cuttlefish.
Other more mature Obroves can be discovered on their alt list,
here.
There are more "Danalogues" to come, eventually, so we kindly ask that you...
STAY TUNED!