There has always seemed to be a halo of darkness hovering over Riverdale but, contrary to popular belief, it was just an ordinary town with mostly ordinary people. There were crime families, gang lords, and murderers, but out of all the ordinary came the extraordinary. Witches, warlocks, and a host of other supernatural creatures. Their story hasn't made it into the official history of the world but their influence is strewn throughout the ages, especially in Rockland County.
This tale predates the Midnight Club, so much so that the events leading up to that club occurred a year before that motley crew was sentenced to detention at the esteemed Riverdale High.
It was during a time of bittersweet jubilation for Alice Cooper and F.P. Jones that this tale really begins. Alice and F.P. had just been disciplined for bringing a baby into this world out of unholy wedlock. That baby's name was Charles. The Dark Lord decreed for him to be given to one of the more prominent families in the coven and for the couple to be excommunicated from the Church of Shadows in Riverdale.
After being away from the church for a few months, the magical duo grew restless. They begged and pleaded with the Dark Lord, beseeching that he allow them to come back into the fold. They desperately wanted to see their baby boy, to be in his life if only for a little while. However, only one of those wishes would end up being granted. The Dark Lord would allow them to come back to the church if, and only if, they created a foolproof way to trick mortals into signing away their souls making it impossible for them to ever reach heaven.
It was a most devilish task indeed, but they readily agreed to their master's terms. They would have done just about anything to see their special baby boy, Charles, again. Alas, the Dark Lord had no intention of letting them near their son again. A realization that wouldn't cross their minds until much later to a time when they would be soaked to their elbows with the blood of the seemingly innocent.
The duo pondered long and hard about just how they would achieve such a feat until the idea literally struck F.P. on the head. A gargoyle figurine had fallen off the top shelf of a cabinet from the restricted access section in the library they had been studying in. It was then that they had come across an aged board game called Gryphons and Gargoyles that would later become the reaper of wayward souls.
They spent weeks learning how to play the game so they could add their own twists to it. They even went as far as to create a manual that would be filled with satanic rituals under the guise of fantasy quests in the realm of Eldervair. Once they had finally finished altering the game, it was steeped in magic and everyone who played the game would forever be under the Dark Lord's hoof.
It had been F.P.'s idea to plant the game in Mrs. Krabappel's desk where she confiscated everything. Someone would be bound to find it, especially if they found themselves in detention and decided to break into the drawer where the game would be waiting.
Ultimately, it was Alice and F.P. who were inherently responsible for the carnage left in the game's wake. Bodies dropped like flies, left and right. They were responsible for the drug-like effects the game had on the minds of the impressionable youths that fell into the clutches of the Dark Lord. They were responsible for the deaths of their late principal and the many more that rocked Greendale and Riverdale alike.
Everyone felt the effects of that infernal game like one would a plague ravaging a body of its immune system. That game tore these two towns asunder and the memory of those lost to the Gargoyle King would haunt the townspeople for many years to come.
Alice and F.P. didn't feel the effects until it took the life of a mutual friend of theirs. It was then that they realized something wasn't quite right. They still hadn't gotten a chance to visit with their son and their hearts started to break at the wreckage they'd caused. So many families had been broken because of what they had done. It was time that they righted the wrongs they had done. It was time that they sever ties to anything and everything connected to the Dark Lord and the magical world they had come to call home.
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