Uninvited Guest



The Uninvited Guest is an invisible, parasitic monster from goblin folklore that attaches itself to overly greedy and ostentatious individuals and consumes their thoughts of greed and wealth. It becomes more powerful with each thought it consumes, but is incapable of ever sating its hunger. Its unknowing victims lose all desire for wealth and instead become compelled to start giving away everything they own until they are completely penniless. The Uninvited can pass through walls and can only be seen under the light of a full moon, in which it appears as a vortex of shadow with black voids for its eyes and mouth. The only way for a goblin to protect themselves and their fortune from the creature is to throw discs called tossaways behind them, since the monster always stops to count coins that are dropped on the ground. Even the bravest goblins fear a visit from the Uninvited.

History
The first known victim of the Uninvited was the trade prince Klaxz Boompowder, who attracted the creature's attention during the funeral of his rival Rikter Hogsnozzle. Klaxz went to the event looking as wealthy as he could and included a galleon—a long-lost and now priceless type of coin—among his burial gifts, impressing the other funeral goers and making him the center of attention at the subsequent party. Unbeknownst to the others, the galleon he gifted was a worthless fake since he didn't want to part with the real deal. This display of unbridled greed yielded a breach in etiquette so great that it offended the dead and extended an irrevocable invitation to the creature that would later become known as the Uninvited Guest. It watched the party from the shadows, sensing the true nature of the funeral goers, and subsequently followed Klaxz home.

As the prince slept, the Uninvited hovered next to him and began feeding on his thoughts. Over the following days, Klaxz started acting strange by forgiving debts, offering discounts, giving away his and his wife Slixi's valuables, and even refusing to eat, all while the Uninvited writhed around and inside him, consuming his thoughts of wealth before he was even conscious of having them. Klaxz himself never noticed anything strange other than an occasional brief tugging in his belly. Slixi suspected another trade prince had arranged for a spell to be put on her husband and sent the bruiser Bang on a fact-finding mission. In the meantime, she buried her husband's stash of real galleons in the woods to prevent him from giving them away. Bang returned with nothing but tales of poisonings, hexes, and old legends about otherworldly creatures that preyed on unsuspecting victims. One aging troll told a tale about an "invisible evil" that fed on the souls of the living and left them mad, and which could only be seen under a full moon.

Over the following days, Klaxz's affliction worsened, culminating in giving away his and Slixi's now completely empty house. After confronting her husband for the last time, Slixi returned to the house and felt an icy sensation moving up her neck. Realizing that the Uninvited was still there and still hungry, she fled into the moonlit woods to dig up the galleons, now the last thing she owned. As she ran with the coins, she tripped and dropped them, only to subsequently notice that her invisible pursuer was lining them up and counting them. She collected the closest galleons and backed away past a patch of moonlight until she felt pinpricks moving up her spine and she realized her mistake. She tossed the last galleons behind her and caught a glimpse of the Uninvited in the moonlight before running away. She managed to escape, possibly because she no longer had anything the Uninvited could feed on—neither money nor an ounce of greed.

Slixi subsequently invented tossaways—painted-gold coins identical to galleons—and as the tale of Klaxz's fate spread, everyone who heard it rushed to the market to buy Slixi's invention. The Uninvited Guest roams Azeroth to this day, and all smart goblins know to throw a few tossaways behind them if they meet a penniless goblin in order to avoid becoming the creature's next victim.

Trivia

 * In the introduction to Folk & Fairy Tales of Azeroth, Allison Irons refers to the Uninvited as "the goblins' ".
 * Supernatural beings who are forced to stop and count coins or other small objects on the ground (a behavior similar to ) is a recurring theme in real-world folklore, such as in tales about Chinese, East European vampires, and Scandinavian.