The message is written in what appears to be charcoal on the smooth backside of an ancient-appearing tombstone.

I am throwing this message down the Well of Ghosts in hope that it will reach you, but with all of the ghosts trapped in Viracon the Necromancer's diabolical machine, who knows if it will?

Beware the Stealer of Names! Flee, rather than to attempt to answer its fiendish riddles! I once tried to answer one, and like all others, I failed and it took my name from me, and many other memories beside. But I had to try, for it had stolen my beloved's name, and without it she remembered me not.

The situation here on the Dreamgarden is very dire: the spirits of the dead have all been bound into the machine that Viracon has brought to this world for some dire purpose, and there were many such spirits, for the Dreamgarden serves as a cemetery for over a dozen worlds. (Ironically, Viracon is among the spirits bound, for his beast, the Stealer of Names, turned upon him and slew him, and his spirit has been taken with all the others.) Now the machine pulses black at the North Pole of our little world, while the Stealer of Names roves high and low, consuming the mind and memory of any who fail to flee. Soon we will all be dead and trapped and bound for all eternity (unless the machine shakes our small world to pieces). There is no longer any escape for those few who remain, for the funeral barges come from other worlds no longer for fear of the beast.

Help us, please.

At the bottom of the message is a crude drawing of a man in charcoal.

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(A bit late for Halloween, but what the hey.)

Great monster concept, as well. It'll be very interesting to see groups deal with that thing in a Buddhist manner. :)

Well, they could try to get it to try to answer koans, but that might lead to thorny issues of player knowledge vs character knowledge...