a bagatelle

They meet every ten years and pose for a fresh picture. They've been doing this for a hundred years now. Before that, stray sightings of paintings, murals, tapestries and bas-reliefs of the Pentad have been reported. But this is the only extant depiction. It is reported that they are due to gather again this very year. An old man who claims his grandfather took this photo speaks of the terrible transformations they underwent in order to compose themselves into these forms for the camera's eyes. No one who has seen their true forms has remained sane; the grandfather ended his days in Bedlam and a commercial photographer from the San Francisco bay area who claims to have snapped a similar shot, in updated costumes (one which he was not able to retain a copy of) has to be restrained for his own safety whenever he attempts to tell his psychiatrist the story of the five creatures who came into his studio one fateful evening. He does possess a scrap of ribbon with a brooch similar to that worn by the second woman from the right, but this is hardly conclusive evidence of anything.