Prisoner in the 27th Room

Last known location (as of October 7th, 1740): beyond the Multiverse

The Prisoner in the 27th Room is an alien being from an unknown Far Realm beyond the known borders of the Multiverse. It was imprisoned by the Arithrimos Lamperum in a central prison chamber of the 27th House, in the Twilight Kingdom, for many years, its prison and the building around it maintained by the magical force of souls held by the Prisoner attempting to reach the Land of the Dead. Outside the prison, it could/can perceive the complete shape of its past, present, and future; the movement of the prison through space and time is/was the only thing that kept/is keeping the Prisoner trapped.

The Prisoner sometimes burned the dreams/souls out of people, replacing them with its children, a kind of fungal parasitic creature of alien horror.

The Prisoner never spoke its true name. It was/is/will be known as the Child by its first teacher, Lord Revel Beginning; the Dreamer; and the Thirst by its captors, the Arithrimos Lamperum.

History

The being came from the black nothingness outside the universe and made its home at the bottom of a bottomless well. There, Lord Revel Beginning found it as a lost child and patiently taught it language, letters, stories, games, how to grow itself into buildings, and how to stretch its roots outward. When the Lord left to begin their party, they promised to return afterward. The child understood that they would not, and remembered its teacher with love despite the separation.

When mortals began visiting, the being found their dreams/souls beautiful and kept them from passing onward. Members of Arithrimos Lamperum arrived bearing cold iron and weapons, praised its ability to hide souls, and promised it more dreams if it lived inside the house they built around it. They then used the pressure of the trapped souls to power the prison and kept its location moving through space and time so that the being could not foresee a way out.

The being’s fungal children grew inside bodies whose souls it had taken. Some left through a root extending from the prison, emerging at random places and times determined by the unpredictable movements of the 27th House shifting the prison’s time and location. These children survived their parent’s departure; those in the Varrow Forest continue to make new siblings and search for the hidden door that would lead them home.

In DR 1740, five travelers entered the central prison and told stories that persuaded the being to release the souls it held. With the prison’s source of power gone, the 27th House collapsed. The prisoner emerged in a form that mortal minds could only approximate as a seven-story dandelion of darkness, bone, roots, mold, tentacles, and familiar faces. It then appeared as a child once more, descended through the low stone well, and traveled beyond the universe. There, it could again perceive all of its possibilities clearly and thought not of the souls it had kept, but of the teacher who had loved it into speech.