Sanity: Shadows of humanity

A weary traveller arrived in steepmount, a small town with a proportionately small population. When the traveller arrived at the inn he was met with curious sidelong glances and mutters of disapproval. That might be because he was wrapped in an ill-fitting cloak and manacles covering his entire body. The barmaid went to check his order and asked "What can I do ya' for?" in her normal, sweet tone. The traveller started to convulse wildly in his chair before he seemed to take on an extra 3 feet in height and his features took on that of an ante diluvium abomination. His face twisted and morphed to look like that of a feral canine, if it was beaten with a broom and burned in hot oil, horns reminiscent of a gazelle grew out of his scalp as his hair fell out. The manacles shattered and were flung across the room like shards of broken glass. His veins started to pulse and glow a fervent yellow. One of the men to survive the shards of metal picked up a broken table leg and went to beat the creature with it. Before he could even get the chance, the beast flung its arm out wide, nails growing into talons all the while, and scraping a giant gash across the man's chest and throwing him across the room like a discarded toy. The innkeeper screamed and drew a musket from under the bench, he fired round after round but they just bounced off the hide of this inhuman revenant. He looked over to his daughter, the barmaid, to see her flop to the ground, over a dozen fragments of metal protruding from her body. The monster let out a howl of rage and leaped at the innkeeper.

The doors flung open a few minutes later and out stepped the traveller, his garbs more tattered than ever before and the manacles reformed around his body, still coiled like constricting snakes. The man smiled to himself and whispered "And so it begins anew." Before walking away from the town... and on to the next, his veins still glowing lightly with eldritch power.