Alton Island - Hex

"It was a cold autumn night in 1821. The thunder of hooves signalled the return of Lord Earl Verdun to his home, Alverton Hall. As the journey neared its end, the figure of an old woman appeared in the middle of the road and flagged down Lord Verdun's carriage. As he leaned out of the window to ask the driver what was happening the old woman approached him and told him of her plight, how she was but a poor old woman with no earthly possessions but a tattered cloak and her oak staff, and she begged Verdun for a single coin to aid her plight. Cruelly, Lord Verdun dismissed her, and order the driver to continue. As he left, the old woman screamed curses at him, telling him that he would regret his cruelty and greed, and waving her staff wildly as she did, the rattling of its chain echoing into the night.

The next morning, Lord Verdun was woken by the screams of the maid. His eldest son, heir to the family fortune, had been found dead in his bed, the marking of a heavy chain around his neck...

Weeks passed, and one by one the people close to Lord Verdun mysteriously died, each with the exact same marks on their necks. Eventually, his entire family was gone, as were several of his servants. Verdun became paranoid, waiting for the murderer to strike once more.
One night, when the last of his servants had gone home, Verdun was alone in his study. Another storm was raging outside, and Verdun kept hearing the sound of footsteps from the hall. He went to the door and stared into the darkness, but nothing was there. He turned back and found himself face to face with a cloaked figure.
The old woman.

He grabbed the door, but with one wave of the old woman's hand, it was locked from the outside. He turned to the windows, but with another wave of her hand they all bolted shut. He backed into a corner as the woman slowly and silently approached him. With no other choice, he ran towards the windows, hoping to try and break through them. Suddenly he fell over; Huge heavy chains had burst through the floor and tied his legs together. Another set then erupted from the floor in front of him, and chained down his arms. The old woman started swinging her staff in the air, the chain bolted to the end began to lengthen and it wrapped itself around Verdun's neck...

Authorities were baffled when they searched the scene the next morning. There was no sign of forced entry, and there were no chains of any description in the mansion. What's more, the body of Verdun disappeared before they could take him to the mortuary. Despite searching the entire mansion for over a fortnight they found no more leads, and with no witnesses they had to close the case.
They never thought to properly check behind the door in the garden near the old oak tree. Behind that door was a long hallway and along one wall was a bookcase. Behind the bookcase was Verdun's secret vault, which contained his fortune, his most treasured possessions, and now his corpse and his murderer. The old woman was an ancient being skilled in witchcraft, her name lost to time. She refers to herself only as 'Hex'."

With a few more characters done, I decided to go back and revisit another older picture. With Hex's original picture, I thought it was still quite good, but the art style was lacking. All I've really done is make the picture a bit more interesting and make it fit in with some of the updates made to Alton Island.
And she's still one of the most reprehensible characters in the series.

Alton Island © Matt Lindsay 2008-2013
Credit to Cobra-Roll as always for being someone to bounce ideas off.