The Scarab-Ogre

Outside a corrupted Necropilis, a Scarab Ogre attacks an Anubi Hero and a band of City-Dwellers of Cynopolis. Crocodile Games

The land of Aegyptus is a place of many legends, from the tales of the wondrous magical creations of the gods to the stories of deadly monsters that lurk in mysterious places. One such legend is that of the Scarab-Ogre. "Be good, or the Scarab-Ogre will get you." are the words used by stern Anubi parents to frighten their misbehaving children, and "Beware the Scarab-Ogre!" are the words spoken in hushed tones by spooked tomb robbers, to explain the dark tunnel from whence their comrades never returned. Only ever spoken of in whispers, the Scarab-Ogre was a story that everyone feared but few actually believed in. 

Yet the truth of the story was worse than any dared to imagine. 

The Anubi tell that during the time of the gods, Anubis was served by the scarab-headed god Khepri, who drove his chariot through the hazardous pathways of the Tuat. The tale of Khepri is a sad one, for the god was killed during the first uprising of the Eater of the Dead, in the heroic defense of the funeral city of Ankhara. What few people know is that Khepri was in turn served by his own race of children, the reclusive and monastic Khepera. In the deserts they toiled their long lives away in mystic ceremonies to venerate the dead. They were few in number, but steadfast, loyal, and strong. The last of their number disappeared during the Fall of Ankhara, still fighting against the relentless horde of undead until finally swallowed by the sandstorm the buried the entire city for over a thousand years. There, entombed in the stifling darkness of the catacombs beneath Ankhara, the Khepera were overrun and defeated. Somehow they were possessed and corrupted by the spirit of the Eater of the Dead, and the legend of the Scarab-Ogres became a reality. Since the rediscovery of Ankhara only a few years ago, some have encountered a creature they claim to be the actual Scarab Ogre in the flesh. 

The tales of those few who have survived an encounter with the monster vary in the details. The survivors are frequently delirious from the experience, and some are actually driven beyond the point of madness. Attempts to describe the actual appearance are oft met with bouts of violent tremors and horrified screaming as the memory of the thing's awful visage is comes alive in their mind. Some accounts describe the face as that of the skull-like Necrobaeus beetle, others claim to have looked into two eyes, some as may as six, while others tell of no face at all. only a slavering mouth at the end of a writhing tentacle.