Exton

While things are winding down - or up - here in the Tavern, and before the phone calls start flying thick and fast, let me sum up what we learned from Rath. The other prisoners corroborated it, so this will be once for all.

The bad guy who's been commanding the ghouls here in Exton is called Theokratos; apparently that's not his real name, but a name he chose for himself. Neither Rath nor the other prisoners seem to know the name he was born with... there's a lot of that going round here.

Anyway... this Theokratos is pissed off because ghouls, alone among the supernatural community, seem to have been forgotten. The term "ghoul" is used nowadays to refer to anything scary and vaguely inhuman; not one person in ten can tell you what a ghoul actually is. Vampires and werewolves, on the other hand - anyone can tell you about them.

(Apparently Mr. T doesn't know that we now put vampires and werewolves on cereal boxes, or that a vampire makes regular appearances on Sesame Street, or that these days it takes a lot to make them scary - unless you live in Exton.)

So Theokratos wants to make ghouls feared again... yet another reason to fear the dark, like we don't have enough already - and in the process, he'll raise their standing in the supernatural community, maybe to a level with vampires. He also apparently has a healthy ego; he wants to be the Lord of the Flesheaters - no, wait, that's not quite right.

Let's put it like this: when you mention "vampire", nine out of ten people will think "Dracula". Theokratos wants to be the iconic ghoul, the name that immediately springs to mind when "ghoul" is mentioned. I don't know, maybe he thinks he can do endorsements or something...

Not to down him too much, he's very old, at least five centuries under his belt, and one helluva strategist - witness the way he kept us hopping in Exton. Once we get Tori back, we're definitely going to have to turn our attention to dealing with him....