PDA

View Full Version : Surreal/Creepy Demons



Blake Hannon
2015-06-06, 03:58 AM
I'm running a demon-centric campaign, and am trying to create/modify monsters to fit the theme I want.

In this setting, the physical world was created by a blind idiot god (the Demiurge) who constantly and senselessly created and destroyed things with no rhyme or reason. His most powerful children (now known as the New Gods) who were saner than him despaired of the universe ever meaning anything, and feared that eventually they too would be randomly destroyed according to their father's whims. So they banded together, and in a great battle, slew the Demiurge.

The Demiurge's corpse sank to the bottom of the cosmos, but a tiny spark of life remained in it. Not understanding how or why it had been slain, the Demiurge continued to create wildly out of the cosmic detritus that it settled among, but now its creations were products of pain, fear, hatred, and despair at what it had lost. These creatures are the demons, and the randomness of the Demiurge's earlier works are now adulterated with a massive helping of NOPE. Some demons act out their random grudges and psychoses against the world at random, but some of the stronger and more coherent ones are sane enough to understand their situation, and seek to restore their creator's dominion over the world and restore him to full life. Many of them are twisted parodies of preexisting creatures of the New Gods' world, while others are just pure children's scribble bat****.

So, I'm trying to come up with monsters that fit the bill as the incarnate madness of a dying god. I'm not limiting myself to the monster manual's lists of "demons" and "devils," I'm willing to refluff absolutely any monster as a demon, and exclude RAW demons that aren't Silent Hill-y enough.

I want you guys to give me ideas. Both suggestions of surreal and frightening monsters that I can use, and original ideas of your own for appropriate powers, appearances, and traits for various demons to have.

The list so far:


BEHOLDERKIN: they're a little cheesy as written, but with the right descriptions and changing out some of their eyeray effects for more creepy or surreal ones, they fit the bill.

GIBBERING MOUTHER: fine as is.

TIRAPHEG: old trilateral monster from first edition that seems to have stumbled right out of Silent Hill 3.

CHAOS BEAST: fine as is, if a bit generic. Needs more flavor.

GRELL: will give them some different abilities to match their otherworldly appearance. Maybe they're related to beholders?

PENTAS: five-sided fractal creatures, probably related to tiraphegs.

MARROTES: string-demons from Exalted with a fetish for babies.

BOTTLE-BUGS: also from Exalted, demonic symbionts that live inside of bigger creatures and can be helpful or harmful depending on various factors.

MUMMERS: mutant, stealthy things that can animate objects and move things telekinetically, and think that everything (including death) is hilarious.


So, ideas? Monsters? Ideas for monsters? Ideas for refluffling or modifying existing monsters? Random abilities or descriptions?

TheCountAlucard
2015-06-06, 07:13 AM
I'm going to recommend the Exalted book from First Edition, Games of Divinity.

Its part on the Demon City is particularly relevant: the champions of the gods cast down the great titans who shaped the world; the defeated Primordials, crippled and trapped in a prison of their own bodies, grew mad in their imprisonment, and became demonized as the Yozis. They are beings so vast that aspects of their minds and personalities have demonic souls and living bodies of their own, who in turn possess aspects of their minds and personalities who have demonic souls and bodies of their own. These in turn create hosts of demons to suit their arcane (or perhaps unknowable!) ends.
Malfeas, the Demon City, King of the Primordials, the Brass Dancer, the Demon Emperor
Malfeas is the hateful King of the Primordials, embodied as a world-city of tarnished brass towers and bones of black bone, arranged in layers about the merciless green star at his heart.

This heart is Ligier, the defining soul of Malfeas. He exists as both a burning emerald star and as an unsurpassed craftsman-demon, whose forges in the Demon City are fired by the flames of his own sun-body.

One of Ligier's souls, his "warding soul," is Sondok, a pitiless she-demon with poisonous fingernails.

Sondok has produced at least two races of demons, the Erythmanoi and the Neomah.

Erythmanoi take the form of great horned apes, their shoulders lined with spikes, and fur the color of blood; possessed of a violent cunning, these otherwise-simple brutes love nothing more than to consume the blood of those creatures slain by their foul claws.

They are terrifying opponents in battle, superhuman in strength and resilience, able to brachiate through trees with surprising speed, and possessed of lungs powerful enough to shatter stone with a scream. It is by these screams that a blood-ape reproduces: an erythmanus finds a metal spike on which it may impale itself, and puts itself in such a state of agony that a new erythmanus is born from its pained howling.

Neomah demons are hairless figures with violet skin and liquid black eyes; their shape varies based on the sexual preferences of those they would seduce. A neomah typically employs itself as a courtesan, and possesses a unique means to turn the leavings of these couplings into a living being; from skin or flesh or fluids of at least two donors, a neomah can craft a child that is biologically that of the donors' (possibly resulting in some fantastical creations if she gets "material" from demons or gods or animals). A neomah's home is in the tin tower they can extrude from their mouths; at the top of this tin tower burns a fire, and a neomah takes the infant she's made and casts it into the fire to give it life.

Unless sorcerously ordered to do otherwise, a typical neomah abandons these children after making them.

the_david
2015-06-06, 07:23 AM
I'm gonna suggest that you should read some of Lovecraft's excellent works and then come back.

Chokers are pretty cool, as are Grell. (Although Grell get a lot of paralysing attacks. Beware.) the 3.5 Fiendish Codex 1 might have what you're looking for. There's a couple of weird monsters in there.

Blake Hannon
2015-06-06, 08:05 AM
I'm going to recommend the Exalted book from First Edition, Games of Divinity.

Its part on the Demon City is particularly relevant: the champions of the gods cast down the great titans who shaped the world; the defeated Primordials, crippled and trapped in a prison of their own bodies, grew mad in their imprisonment, and became demonized as the Yozis. They are beings so vast that aspects of their minds and personalities have demonic souls and living bodies of their own, who in turn possess aspects of their minds and personalities who have demonic souls and bodies of their own. These in turn create hosts of demons to suit their arcane (or perhaps unknowable!) ends.
Malfeas, the Demon City, King of the Primordials, the Brass Dancer, the Demon Emperor
Malfeas is the hateful King of the Primordials, embodied as a world-city of tarnished brass towers and bones of black bone, arranged in layers about the merciless green star at his heart.

This heart is Ligier, the defining soul of Malfeas. He exists as both a burning emerald star and as an unsurpassed craftsman-demon, whose forges in the Demon City are fired by the flames of his own sun-body.


Will look into that!

Malfeas sounds more like a location than a monster, functionally speaking, but its a location that I can draw elements from. Creatures made of brass, blackened bone, and blinding green fire that hail from Malfeas could make an interesting "genus" of demons.


I'm gonna suggest that you should read some of Lovecraft's excellent works and then come back.

I read most of them. The Colour out of Space and the Whatley twins could be inspiration for stuff, but other than them Lovecraft's creatures always struck me as more scifi than fantasy, and more alien than chaotic. Also, my players have all read Lovecraft too, and I want something a bit more surprising.


Chokers are pretty cool, as are Grell. (Although Grell get a lot of paralysing attacks. Beware.) the 3.5 Fiendish Codex 1 might have what you're looking for. There's a couple of weird monsters in there.

Grell could work, possibly related to beholders.

Chokers...don't really seem that otherworldly or horrifying to me. Maybe with a face lift and some added powers?

TheCountAlucard
2015-06-06, 08:09 AM
You'll notice I edited my post. And yes, Malfeas is a bit above "monster." Most "interaction" with him would be through his lesser souls, or via trying to survive one of the "earthquakes" that occur when his layers grind together to vent his self-destructive rage; it's possible that you could meet his other jouten (bodies, basically) and interact with them, but that doesn't particularly make him much of a monster either.

Actually, even just getting the attention of the Demon City would be an impressive task, let alone defeating him in battle. Malfeas is more akin to your Demiurge than to any one demon, save that his demons are metaphysically a part of him.

TheCountAlucard
2015-06-06, 08:42 AM
For another example from the same book…
Adorjan, the Silent Wind

Adorjan is perhaps one of the strangest of the imprisoned Primordials. She is a lethal wind that blows through the Demon City, traveling wherever there is silence and leaving silence in her wake. For this reason the demons of the Demon City crowd the basalt roads of Malfeas with singers and drummers and pipers, for if silence were to fall, Adorjan would come, and scour away their pitiful lives in her passing.

From Adorjan descends Jacint, the Prince Upon the Tower, an angelic figure who holds dominion over a tower in every layer of the Demon City, simultaneously. When he speaks, bridges and streets form, stretching like filaments between layers to cement them together and allow traversing from disparate sections of Malfeas.

From Jacint descends Gumela, the Jeweled Auditor. Gumela is a man-shaped figure made of tangled threads, a living snarl made in mockery of the Loom of Fate. His intoxicating breath drives mortal passions mad, driving out secrets into the open, forcing the abandonment of taboos, and bringing about other depraved behavior. He takes no pleasure in this, for Gumela loves merely to learn.

From Gumela come the marrotes, tangled knots of phlegmy strings. Their central body is perhaps the size of a large coin or a small child's fist, but the hairs can extend for tens of yards and possess amazing resilience, allowing them to easily lift heavy burdens via elaborate block-and-tackle arrangements. The "hopping puppeteers," as mortals sometimes call them, are of little more than animal intelligence outside of architecture, but are invaluable as a work-force, for with their strings they can do the work of dozens or hundreds. Still, they require near-constant supervision, for given to their own devices, marrotes tend to assemble works of architecture in a whimsical fashion; one might take the stone blocks intended as the base of your pleasure-palace and build a tower from them.

Additional care must be taken to keep infants away from marrotes; the hopping puppeteers are fascinated by babies, and will "collect" them in the same fashion a child might decorate her hair with flowers, with no intent on caring for them or keeping them alive.

Blake Hannon
2015-06-06, 08:54 AM
Definitely getting that book now.

I think I'll be lifting the Marrotes wholecloth.

JNAProductions
2015-06-06, 10:14 AM
Five limbs, radially spreading from a five pointed star at the center. The limbs whirl interchangably as legs and arms, and each one branches off with five elbows, ending in five hands with five groping fingers each. Each elbow has five piercing eyes, and five gaping maws adorn the central star.

A brief description of an old demon I had laying around. I tended to just pick a theme (in this case, five) and build the entire monster around that.

This could probably be basic infantry, so to speak-few special abilities, if any, but tough, fast, and a good threat in numbers especially.

Buckethead
2015-06-06, 12:21 PM
I enjoy demons (and devils) based on specific traits, like a sloth (the sin, not the animal, maybe it looks like the animal?) demon that infects the players with a disease (curse, whatever) which slows them down somehow. How about a gluttony demon that tries to eat players? (I always imagine a demon like Azmodan for this with the stomach having its own giant toothy mouth) How about a clown demon that makes you die laughing with a big horrific smile like Joker's gas? One thing that always freaks players out is after a battle if they discover maggots in their wounds feasting, and have to spend a few rounds/skill checks getting them out, just to up the horror factor.

I also just wanted to say those Marrotes are ridiculously freaky, they have dead babies as decorations for ****'s sake.

TheCountAlucard
2015-06-06, 01:03 PM
Buckethead: The marrote's motivation is less "decorating itself" and more "that small thing there is pretty and interesting and I'm-a just pick it up and hold onto it," not realizing why it's stopped moving a few days later (and not particularly inclined to realize why that's a bad thing). I compared it to a kid, but honestly hopping puppeteers are not even that smart.

Though yes, a marrote that's found a nursery is going to make for a macabre sight. That's why you take precautions.

TheCountAlucard
2015-06-06, 01:37 PM
Definitely getting that book now.There's also a plethora of cool gods and elementals in there, but yeah, you should like the demon-y bits.


The Ebon Dragon, Shadow of All Things, the Ultimate Darkness
Night does not fall in the Demon City, not properly. The emerald star that is Ligier shines on all the layers at all times, and permits no shadows to be cast.

Save one.

Where the Ebon Dragon passes, the streets are bathed in a temporary, terrifying night. His miles-long shadow is usually occupied by the lovely Erembour, That Which Calls to the Shadows and those twisted by her music. She is the seventh soul of the Ebon Dragon, and cannot abide the touch of sunlight, yellow or green; she plays her doleful tune on her silver horn as she strides the streets of the Demon City, and those who hear it are filled with melancholy and an appreciation for the night. Some are drawn to her, and die, while others are forever warped into shadows or monsters and can no longer bear the light of the sun.

The Expressive Soul of That Which Calls to the Shadows is Alveua, Keeper of the Forge of Night. A demonic smith, Alveua can offer her services - she leads mortals to her secret Forge of Night and reshapes them with hammer and anvil, into artifacts of strange black metal. These tools are invariably possessed of the same loves, hates, and motivations of the transformed mortal.

Alveua has a special love of insects and similar crawling and buzzing creatures, and created the sesseljae, called "stomach-bottle bugs." Fist-sized beetle-bodied arthropods of human intelligence, sesseljae are possessed of five pairs of grasshopper-like legs, child-like voices, and a dangerous appetite for poison and putrid substances (though they possess no immunity to such!) - in the Demon City they scurry about in search of veins of corruption and poison, which they consume in droves, even if it should kill them by the thousands. Their poisoned corpses are in turn eaten by other sesseljae, until the Demon City is safe once more.

(Incidentally, demons who operate bars tend to view them as something of a major pest.)

Sesseljae are also notable for their ability to move through flesh as easily as air, swimming through it like water without disrupting it, be it human or animal or demon; they make for excellent surgeons, and will happily play music by rubbing their four hindmost legs together as they rejoin wounded flesh from the inside. A sorcerer will often summon one and have it take residence in her stomach, where it can serve its master both as a preventer of poisonings, and as an emergency medic.

However, a sesseljae is violently allergic to pure substances, be it seawater, silver, gold, or virgins' blood; such exposures can cause them grievous harm.

If you want a visceral demon, it's hard to find one better than one that can live amidst your viscera. :smalltongue:

Plus imagine the creep factor when the PCs see a guy whose flesh keeps rippling in odd places, and occasionally has insectoid limbs "slip" out of his body, just fast enough to make them wonder if they're hallucinating.

Maglubiyet
2015-06-06, 02:05 PM
What you're describing sounds like it could be modeled by putting the Anarchic Creature and Fiendish templates on random creatures. Also consider Pseudonatural, Spellwarped, Half-Illithid, Arachnoid, Reptilian, and Half-Fiend.

An Anarchic Half-Illithid Giant Toad would be a pretty terrifying creature. Or a Half-Fiend Anarchic goose, with scaly skin and four wings.

Other odd creatures to include:
Digester -- seriously, what the hell is that thing?
randomly generated Hordlings

MrStabby
2015-06-06, 09:06 PM
I had a faction of "jesters" in a 5th edition campaign that had come from Pandemonium. They were based on the Valor Bard Archetype but with a different spell selection. I swapped a few abilities round as well - gave them the mask of many faces warlock class feature for example.

Illusions, animate objects, Jump, a couple of enchantment spells and a chaotic evil alignment/attitude made them quite fun. Combat style was about evasion, speed, misdirection and traps. I used them sparingly as combats took a while (but a couple laying a trap with more conventional low level outsiders was a pretty good encounter).

BWR
2015-06-07, 06:38 AM
If you don't mind digging in older RPG supplements a bit, I can recommend:
- Creatures of the Dreamseed, a supplement from Engel. Engel creatures are real aliens. No one knows where they came from, what they want, why they try to kill humanity (at least, not that has been revealed in the English books for the game). They have a general theme of creepy pseudo-arthropodes and some brilliant artwork
- the Zbri from Tribe 8. Beings of spirit who descended to the material world and have (probably) gone mad with sensation, becoming obsessed with it. Some very nice flavor and descriptions. "Horrors of the Zbri" is the one you should look for.
- "Bearers of Jade: The second book of the Shadowlands". A much loved supplement for L5R, there is a lot of non-monster stuff here but it really knows how to set flavor and tone and there should be something for you to use no matter what. Other L5R monster books like "The Book of the Shadowlands: The writings of Kuni Mokuna" , "Creatures of Rokugan", "Enemies of the Empire" have some good demons which should fit your purposes just fine. CoR is actually d20 so it is easier to adapt for your purposes (I assume you are running a d20 variant, considering the ones you've already mentioned).

Kalmageddon
2015-06-07, 07:03 AM
First of all, really cool idea for a setting!:smallbiggrin:

Second, I think you could use the pseudonatural archetype, or at least elements of it, to create new demons according to your lore. Actually I would recommend coming up with an archetype on your own, if you feel like doing the work, that might be the best option.

Blake Hannon
2015-06-07, 09:26 AM
Pentas are good. They're probably a close relative of the tirapheg.

The Neomah might be weird enough to fill the role of "succubus-type-thing" in this setting, but I'd need to add more to them. As it is, they're only slightly weirder than most mythical creatures, and only mildly disturbing. Demons should all have an air of madness, despair, and delirium.

Gut-Bottle-Bugs are perfect.

Sloth demon...I think basing them off of deadly sins is too close to Judeo-Christian demonology rather than the dreamlike chaos feel I'm going for, but "fat monster with a stomach in its mouth" is an image I can use. That trait shall be used for some demon or another!

Hordelings...I like the random traits thing, but the role of "brute cannon fodder" generally goes to mundane creatures that have been empowered or mutated by demons, in this campaign. Maybe they could be a type of mutant rather than a pure demon strain.

Pandemonium Jesters have potential. A bunch of cackling idiots who scurry around and use telekinesis and Animate Objects to cause random chaos while laughing about it like DOWNS-afflicted hyenas definitely fits the theme. Maybe I'll describe them as crawling on all fours like a canine, but their torsoes look like a reclining human body facing upward with these big toothy mouths constantly howling and jabbering with laughter as they leap around in the shadows and animate/move things.

JAL_1138
2015-06-07, 06:32 PM
I would go through the D&D monsters articles on Bogleech, in which misfit, ridiculed, and forgotten monsters are made interesting again.

Some of them in very disturbing ways.

TheCountAlucard
2015-06-07, 09:32 PM
The Neomah might be weird enough to fill the role of "succubus-type-thing" in this setting, but I'd need to add more to them.There is more to them. Like I said, they're in Games of Divinity.

And if you don't feel madness in a race of demons with an instinctive drive to employ itself such to collect bodily fluids to make monster babies with, you might wanna reconsider. :smalltongue:

As for despair and delirium, there's plenty of that in the Demon City, in which the demons are imprisoned. Imagine knowing that at least one person has to stay behind at your apartment complex and sing at all times, lest a capricious, murderous tornado come through and destroy your homes and shred anyone inside to red confetti. Imagine great glass libraries free for anyone to access, but if you happen to look through a tome that contains knowledge reserved "for the Yozis," the librarian turns you into a star. Imagine a realm where possession of a timepiece or water is against the law, and looking at the color azure is a crime punishable by death (incidentally, the demonic priesthood of the Endless Desert have azure fires for faces).

Imagine a world where there is no power without ambition, no love without pain, and no silence without death.

Lord Raziere
2015-06-07, 10:05 PM
no the real madness of that "don't look at azure" crime is that all of Malfeas legal texts are written in azure. meaning if you want to be defended in court, you have to get an outsider to read them, because those laws don't apply to outsiders.

TheCountAlucard
2015-06-07, 10:23 PM
Or a priest of Cecelyne. Or one of the Unquestionable. They're nominally bound to the laws of hell, but only insofar as anyone can enforce them… which isn't very much, in their case. :smallamused:

Which brings me to the Unquestionable. The souls of the Yozis are of a caste so elevated in the Demon City's social strata that lesser demons not only can't disobey their orders, they are not permitted to ask them questions.

But really, Jenna Moran says it better than Raziere or I can; there are plenty of cool, disturbing demons in there for you to peruse. Angyalka, Teodozjia, Firmin, the Clamorous Cloud Arsenals, and more await you. :smallsmile:

goto124
2015-06-08, 03:01 AM
"fat monster with a stomach in its mouth" is an image I can use.

RL starfish eat by turning their stomachs inside out.

There, a reference!

Lord Raziere
2015-06-08, 03:31 AM
Which brings me to the Unquestionable. The souls of the Yozis are of a caste so elevated in the Demon City's social strata that lesser demons not only can't disobey their orders, they are not permitted to ask them questions.


Which includes, unfortunately anything like "hey can I ask you a question?" or "who are you?" or "Huh?"
it may be a noise but its a legitimate question...

also, be sure to have fun painting yourself azure then go walking around Malfeas, trolling everyone with your mere presence, for extra hilarity, paint a random blood ape azure then throw him into a plaza or whatever full of demons and watch everyone try to not look at him. and then when he gets up to see what happens he sees his own hand.....azure. and realizes that he is going to die for looking at himself.

goto124
2015-06-08, 05:04 AM
Come to think of it, such a weaksauce weakness will make the players come up with dozens of ways to kill the demons.

By then, it'll be the players who are the creepy demons.

TheCountAlucard
2015-06-08, 06:36 AM
Raziere assumes that you can just acquire or make azure (not just blue) paint in the Demon City without getting noticed and rolled for it, and that you're badass enough to be a non-demon in the Demon City in the first place (or invoking some manner of supernatural diplomatic immunity), and are badass enough to personally wrestle a blood-ape into submission (which would revoke that diplomatic immunity if that was your way in, so you'd better have an exit strategy or you'll probably end up wishing they'd just put you to death), slather him in paint, and turn him loose in a crowded square.

Raziere assumes a lot, and you shouldn't take these things for granted; just because Gold Kryptonite exists in the DC Universe doesn't mean Superman is going to be permanently depowered.

Also, the laws of Cecelyne may be cruel and capricious, as is her way, but to outsiders she offers no protection at all. Even the Exalted either live at the sufferance of a powerful demon, invoke supernatural diplomatic immunity for the purpose of conducting legitimate business, or are badass enough to curb-stomp those who challenge their presence. (An exception exists for the Green Sun Princes, but that's neither here nor there.) Did you expect the insane hell-dimension full of poison-eating flesh-swimming roaches, demon courtesans, and fifty-yard-long tangles of hair to have reasonable, fair rules?

Blake Hannon
2015-06-08, 08:15 AM
Okay, so.

Neomah are in. I'm giving them the venomous fingernails of their creator in Exalted, and a hag-like appetite for the children of humans and other mortal races. To bear children of her own, she doesn't just need to collect genetic material, she also needs to kill other people's children. She can fashion Marrotes out of her own hair, and the Marrote brings any babies it picks up to her so she can eat them.

Demons made of blinding green star-fire are also in. Djinni are an important race in this setting and they happen to be made of fire themselves (as per Islamic folklore), so maybe the green fire demons can be corrupted djinni.

I'm giving the grell some modifications, as there are too many paralyzing monsters in the campaign already. Instead of paralysis, grell can make themselves incorporeal at will, and they can make you incorporeal as well if they grab you, making it hard for your friends to rescue you. Their tendrils are made of razor wire, and the entire creature has a semi-metallic look to it. They've got a toothy mouth instead of a beak.

Jesters are acrobatic, wall-walking, ceiling-leaping mutants who can animate objects and are strongly telekinetic, with an affinity for setting up traps and hazards. They also have an extra, giant mouth on their bloated stomachs.

Segev
2015-06-08, 08:27 AM
While we're mining Exalted, there is an elemental known as a "water child" that is given birth when a human child drowns in a particularly emotional state. The water child takes on the human's appearance, and forms its opinion of the world from what it saw as the dying child that gave it life was fading. Often, this is a panicked parent trying desperately to reach the drowning kid...and sadly, being inhuman, these creatures often misinterpret the cause of the death as being the responsibility of the ones looking on.

In a particularly strange twist, a kind of crocodile-headed (minor) god-race also EATS human children...and then becomes pregnant with them, giving birth to them once more but now as god-blooded. Water children can also be formed from the death involved in that consumption.



In a game I ran where I didn't want to use Illithids, but wanted something to fill their role, I took Intellect Devourers and made them the larval stage of a kind of monster I termed a Silhouette. Silhouettes mature after devouring their first brain, replacing the host for a time. Their eyes are golden, which is the one real tell-tale. As they feed off the body, the body eventually dissolves into a black mist with which they shroud themselves. The only solid part is the brain and two eyes (attached by optic nerves), which floats about seeking new prey. Each prey they consume becomes a new form into which they can shape their true mist-bodies. They are also gifted psychically, with a penchant for mind-control and sensory manipulation.



How about some sort of monstrous creature with a wickedly fanged maw more akin to a shark or lamprey than anything else, with hook-like teeth and a spined tongue that point in all the wrong directions? Worse, it doesn't eat with that mouth. It feeds in a most disgusting fashion on the excrement of other creatures, siphoning it in through an anterior orifice. Its biological processes in its organs "digest" its "food" , and vomits it into its mouth and throat, where those teeth-and-spines knit it into flesh and bone and sinew.

Sometimes, a creature is lucky enough to be rebuilt entirely this way. More often, hideous amalgams of several things it has...absorbed...are reformed together. Horrifyingly, there is usually an identifiable dominant element, making the twisted mockery that is disgorged from this creature's mouth reminiscent of something that went into its makeup, enough that friends or family might almost recognize them.

Segev
2015-06-08, 08:30 AM
You might also watch the anime Parasyte for inspiration for one kind of "demon" you could use. All sorts of "nope!" in that one.

Blake Hannon
2015-06-09, 05:49 AM
I had a faction of "jesters" in a 5th edition campaign that had come from Pandemonium. They were based on the Valor Bard Archetype but with a different spell selection. I swapped a few abilities round as well - gave them the mask of many faces warlock class feature for example.

Illusions, animate objects, Jump, a couple of enchantment spells and a chaotic evil alignment/attitude made them quite fun. Combat style was about evasion, speed, misdirection and traps. I used them sparingly as combats took a while (but a couple laying a trap with more conventional low level outsiders was a pretty good encounter).

Here's my attempt at statting a version of your jester concept. Its in my heavily houseruled 4E, but you should still be able to understand it. Tell me if you think this captures the concept well:


Fool Demon
Level 4 Controller (175 XP)
Medium elemental magical beast
__________
Initiative 21; Senses Perception 16
Speed 6; spider climb 6; leap 4
HP 37; Bloodied 18
AC 17 Fort 15 Ref 17 Will 17
__________
Standard Actions
-
Ranged Telekinesis (at will):
Target one enemy within range 10; 17 vs. Fort; target slides 4 squares; if it hits a wall or another creature, it takes 2d10 damage and is knocked prone; if it hits another creature, attack it as well; 17 vs. Reflex; 2d10 damage and target is knocked prone.
Miss: target slides one square.
-
Ranged Animate Object (at will):
Target one Medium or smaller object within 10; target can move up to 4 squares and attack; target one creature within 1; 20 vs. AC; 1d8+5 damage. The object can also make opportunity attacks until the start of the jester's next turn.
-
Melee Bite (at will):
Target one creature within 1; 17 vs. AC; 1d8+4 damage.
__________
Minor Actions
-
Close Idiot Cackle (at will):
Close burst 10; target one enemy within the burst who has been damaged by one of the jester's attacks since the start of the jester's turn; 17 vs. Will; target is dazed (save ends).
__________
Skills Stealth 21, Athletics 21, Acrobatics 23, Thievery 23
Str 2 (+4) Con 2 (+4) Dex 4 (+6) Int -2 (+0) Wis -1 (+1) Cha 4 (+6)


Note that its bite isn't a melee basic attack, which means it can't make attacks of opportunity. Its going to try and keep itself away from the PC's, using melee attacks only if cornered.

Segev
2015-06-09, 10:44 AM
Borrowing from Silent Hill and making a bad pun, I think this would still up the creep factor of a standard D&D monster:

Wights generate a sort of static-like sound that starts soft when they're distant and gets steadily, almost imperceptibly louder. It makes other sounds just a bit harder to hear at first, before you notice it. By the time you've recognized the wight noise, you're probably having to speak in a notably louder voice just to be heard clearly, and you can't tell where it's coming from.

Blake Hannon
2015-06-09, 11:01 AM
Borrowing from Silent Hill and making a bad pun, I think this would still up the creep factor of a standard D&D monster:

Wights generate a sort of static-like sound that starts soft when they're distant and gets steadily, almost imperceptibly louder. It makes other sounds just a bit harder to hear at first, before you notice it. By the time you've recognized the wight noise, you're probably having to speak in a notably louder voice just to be heard clearly, and you can't tell where it's coming from.

Lol, white noise.

I'm already considering playing the radio static sound from Silent Hill 2/3 whenever the PC's are fighting a demon.

Segev
2015-06-09, 11:04 AM
Lol, white noise.

I'm already considering playing the radio static sound from Silent Hill 2/3 whenever the PC's are fighting a demon.

Note that, at least in SH2, each monster had a DIFFERENT kind of static associated. Roaches' always sounded like bicycles to me. You can use that for even higher creep-effect, if you can pull it off right. (SH2 sure did.)

MrStabby
2015-06-09, 01:09 PM
Here's my attempt at statting a version of your jester concept. Its in my heavily houseruled 4E, but you should still be able to understand it. Tell me if you think this captures the concept well:


Fool Demon
Level 4 Controller (175 XP)
Medium elemental magical beast
__________
Initiative 21; Senses Perception 16
Speed 6; spider climb 6; leap 4
HP 37; Bloodied 18
AC 17 Fort 15 Ref 17 Will 17
__________
Standard Actions
-
Ranged Telekinesis (at will):
Target one enemy within range 10; 17 vs. Fort; target slides 4 squares; if it hits a wall or another creature, it takes 2d10 damage and is knocked prone; if it hits another creature, attack it as well; 17 vs. Reflex; 2d10 damage and target is knocked prone.
Miss: target slides one square.
-
Ranged Animate Object (at will):
Target one Medium or smaller object within 10; target can move up to 4 squares and attack; target one creature within 1; 20 vs. AC; 1d8+5 damage. The object can also make opportunity attacks until the start of the jester's next turn.
-
Melee Bite (at will):
Target one creature within 1; 17 vs. AC; 1d8+4 damage.
__________
Minor Actions
-
Close Idiot Cackle (at will):
Close burst 10; target one enemy within the burst who has been damaged by one of the jester's attacks since the start of the jester's turn; 17 vs. Will; target is dazed (save ends).
__________
Skills Stealth 21, Athletics 21, Acrobatics 23, Thievery 23
Str 2 (+4) Con 2 (+4) Dex 4 (+6) Int -2 (+0) Wis -1 (+1) Cha 4 (+6)


Note that its bite isn't a melee basic attack, which means it can't make attacks of opportunity. Its going to try and keep itself away from the PC's, using melee attacks only if cornered.

Whilst I don't know 4th that well (mainly 3rd and 5th) it looks pretty good and close to the character I had. Whilst I would say always go with what you like, my version would have had lower str and higher int.

Out of combat I would emphasis the mimicary and illusions aspect - put the players in a crazy circus type environment full of bright lights, loud noises and ostentation; try to hide what is real and waht isn't. Or at least long enough to build some suspense/discomfort.

Randomguy
2015-06-09, 05:48 PM
The web serial Pact had pretty interesting take on demons. They come in Choirs (Choir of the Feral, Choir of Darkness, Choir of Unrest, Choir of Ruin, so on) and they're nearly impossible to defeat by brute force: You've got to use their weakness. For example, the choir of madness is weak to symbols, and the choir of darkness is weak to light and creation. Here's a link (http://pact-web-serial.wikia.com/wiki/Demon) to the wiki, which describes them in pretty good detail.

Two of the more notable demons that come up in the story are Barbatorem and Ur. Barbatorem can use his shears to sever someones connection to whatever afterlife awaits them. He can also carve his victims into two beings, each with half the original's memories and different parts of the original's personality, and he can do this in a way that leaves them loyal to him. He can also pass through most magical defences.

Ur is from the Choir of Darkness, and anything or anyone it consumes is erased from existence, so that no one even remembers the victim at all. A near miss results in the victim still alive, with no one to remember them. Ur has no fixed appearance, and it fills the darkness around it with itself.

Both Barbatorem and Ur are "abstract" which means that, among other things, they are their own reflections. In practice, this gives them the ability to teleport to where they are reflected, and they can possess you if you look at them directly and they become reflected in your eyes.

Fable Wright
2015-06-10, 04:46 AM
Bloodborne may provide some inspiration for this. For example...

*A humanoid creature whose head is replaced with a giant, fleshy brain. Should their gaze fall upon you for too long, you head will explode and you will take massive damage. They are known for their singing.
*Swarms of snakes living within humans' bodies. If threatened, or if you try to speak with them, their heads will explode and become a writhing hive of snakes. Possibly mix with medusa stats as the gaze of these snakes turns the blood of onlookers to slowly stop flowing, instead being as muscles and scales. After spending a day petrified, the snakes coalesce and gain a mind of their own, and the poor petrified person joins the ranks of these horrific creatures.
*Two-faced beasts that live in nightmares; gangly, human-like bodies, though their heads look as though someone replaced a dog's jaw with the skull of another dog, inflated it to bulbous proportions, and twisted it sideways. They walk on two limbs wielding weapons with insane strength and desperation or scuttle around on four and bite/claw with ungodly tenacity, and when damaged too much, will release lightning onto those nearby. When killed, parasitic worms explode from their bodies.
*A giant whose scampers around with insane speed on its overly-long limbs and its floppy, elongated claws, its head replaced with a mound of flesh covered in teeth that it tears people apart with. Poison is its blood; the more damaged it becomes, the more poison leaks out, until just standing near it dooms you to a slow death.
*Giant, 6-armed creatures with an elongated head made of burrs, briars and eyes, invisible to all but the insane except under the dread blood moon.

The game is more focused for the most part on humans having transformed into beasts, which have less of the surrealist horror vibe, but a good deal of the Kin enemies and bosses provide great inspiration.

AceOfFools
2015-06-10, 02:21 PM
Here's a fun one drawn from one of the very few good mechanics in Graceful Wicked Masques: a creature that is a song.

A piece of discordant music blows in on the wind and people start acting mad or grow ill. And the the music goes on its way, leaving people to deal with the consequences.

The creature is naturally invisible, even to see invisibility (sound doesn't look like anything), but can be pinpointed by True Seeing effects (and listen checks), and is damaged as an incoporeal creature. Magic that supresses sound is fatal to it, but a mad cultists can heal the creature with perform checks. Or perhaps the bard can fight music with music...

Blake Hannon
2015-06-10, 04:45 PM
Whilst I don't know 4th that well (mainly 3rd and 5th) it looks pretty good and close to the character I had. Whilst I would say always go with what you like, my version would have had lower str and higher int.

Out of combat I would emphasis the mimicary and illusions aspect - put the players in a crazy circus type environment full of bright lights, loud noises and ostentation; try to hide what is real and waht isn't. Or at least long enough to build some suspense/discomfort.

The high strength is because I imagine them jumping and climbing very well, which needs a good bit of muscle. The low int is because outside of their genius in setting traps and other deadly "pranks," they're barely more than animals.

I'm thinking they'll cause the environment to change randomly between pitch darkness and flashing, colorful circus land.


Here's a fun one drawn from one of the very few good mechanics in Graceful Wicked Masques: a creature that is a song.

A piece of discordant music blows in on the wind and people start acting mad or grow ill. And the the music goes on its way, leaving people to deal with the consequences.

The creature is naturally invisible, even to see invisibility (sound doesn't look like anything), but can be pinpointed by True Seeing effects (and listen checks), and is damaged as an incoporeal creature. Magic that supresses sound is fatal to it, but a mad cultists can heal the creature with perform checks. Or perhaps the bard can fight music with music...

That could work. Reminds me of the "thought eater" monster from second edition; invisible, incorporeal creature with nasty mental attacks.

Segev
2015-06-10, 04:47 PM
Taking inspiration from the Silence of Doctor Who might be worthwhile, too. Their big schtick is that you can't remember them when you're not looking at them. The weeping angels from the same series might be good fodder as well.

AceOfFools
2015-06-10, 09:51 PM
Another from a Dresden Files game I'm running: creature's whose skin is shadow.

Spoiled for squick:
They are almost invisible in darkness, hunting at night to ambush and kill people, flay them and eat their skin, leaving the rest for others to find.

If, however, you can catch them with bright light, you see their leaking muscles, and they have to struggle to keep their intestines from falling out.

Their abilities could be modeled in DnD using sneak attack, the Shadowdancer's hide in plain sight, devils' ability to see in magical darkness, deeper darkness SLA, light sensitivity (and reduced attack routine) in bright light, and DR that could only be overcome while the creature is in well lit areas.

The group I through at my PCs had two humanoid shaped ones and a wolf-shaped one.

I'll also throw out Chonchon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chonchon), South American mythological creatures that probably inspired the vargoyle monster. The actual legends are way more badass; they are humans sorcerers that voluntarily undergo a transfurmation for power, and are invisible except to other chonchon or wizards seeking to gain their power.

The wikipedia page is pretty sparse, but Google around for them. One of my favorite things I found while running an urban fantasy game.

goto124
2015-06-11, 07:20 AM
I tried to figure out how Weeping Angels work. Basically they can move and attack very well, as long as they're not observed?

Segev
2015-06-11, 07:51 AM
Mechanically, you mean?

Fluff-wise, they can move - and move very quickly and quietly - as long as they're unobserved. They're stone statues otherwise.

The tricky part, especially in 3e D&D, where we don't have facing rules, would be determining what counts as "being observed."

The other trouble - and here is the real danger with a horror monster - is that the question is never asked, let alone answered: "What happens if you just smash the statue?" Gargoyles faced this as a problem; any adventuring party worth its salt would certainly try this.

"Okay, Ronnie the Rogue, you keep your eyes on 'em. Willie the Wizard, you back him up. Make sure to never blink simultaneously. Fran Fightrix and Bob the Bardbarian, take my extra maces; we're going to smash us some stone."


To achieve this mechanically, you'd need some sort of line-of-sight rules. The simplest method would probably be to tie it to being flat-footed, or some sort of hide check with a power that lets them grant themselves concealment. Or do it in a system without quite so firmly modeled detection mechanics or with detection mechanics that DO feature facing.

IZ42
2015-06-11, 02:43 PM
If want want some seriously creepy demons, just use Daemons (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/daemons) from Pathfinder, and just relabel them as Demons. I'll give some examples below.

Astradaemon: (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/daemons/astradaemon) Vaguely humanoid in shape, this gaunt fiend has the face of a hideous fish and a body of lanky limbs and writhing tendrils.

Cacodaemon: (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/daemons/cacodaemon) An ever-gnashing maw, filled with row after row of mismatched teeth, dominates this frightful creature’s orb-like body.

Derghodaemon: (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/daemons/derghodaemon) A deadly and vicious bouquet of insectile claws sprouts from this horrid, three-legged, multi-eyed beast.

Leukodaemon: (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/daemons/leukodaemon) This human-shaped beast has a horse’s skull for a head. It walks on cracked hooves and bears the rotting wings of a carrion bird.

Phasmadaemon: (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/daemons/phasmadaemon) Little can be seen of this fiend, its body cloaked in a shroud of perpetually shifting, ghastly illusions and phantasms. Beneath its shimmering veil, it has glossy black flesh, a bleached white face, and twisted horns. Its long caiman muzzle perpetually gapes, but other than that, its face is void of sensory organs, save for two orbs that move below the surface of its flesh. This creature flows rather than moves, and its flexible body lacks a definite skeletal structure except for a long, bony tail.

Piscodaemon: (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/daemons/piscodaemon) This hideous cross between a lobster, an octopus, and a human threatens enemies with powerful claws and writhing tentacles.

Sangudaemon: (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/daemons/sangudaemon) This vaguely arachnid creature is the size of a human and is composed entirely of blood, globs of the viscous stuff dripping down its spindly legs and from its serpentine maw. A jagged set of obsidian fangs protrudes from its drooling mouth, and huge dragonfly wings of crimson blood splay from the thing’s back producing a terrifying buzz.

Suspiridaemon: (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/daemons/suspiridaemon) This tall, three-legged fiend possesses an avian body and head, save for its gangly arms, which end in thin, clawlike fingers. Its scrawny neck is adorned with three thick iron rings, and a grotesquely long, barbed tongue resembling an octopus’s tentacle winds out of its oversized beak. Burst blood vessels fill the creature’s wide eyes, and reddish speckled blotches cover its cyanotic flesh.

Temerdaemon: (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/daemons/temerdaemon) This creature lurches forward on multiple arms and legs, its spine contorted into a painful curve with its hips higher than it head. Seemingly distracted and muttering to itself, the thing rarely looks up with its glowing red eyes, its hair composed of hundreds of thin, white tendrils that hang over its head like a veil. Strapped onto the creature’s body at various points are sacks and belt pouches stuffed with bizarre collections of objects, and its rear arms wield a wide, black bladed scythe, still coated with the blood of the fiend’s last victim.

Vulnadaemon: (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/daemons/daemon-vulnadaemon) A bloody, tooth-filled mouth that looks almost like a horrific gash gasps in the neck of this pale, childlike horror.

I hope some of those should do it for you. Daemons are my favorite outsiders after Psychopomps.

JNAProductions
2015-06-11, 02:45 PM
Mortasheen (http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen.htm)

Mono Vertigo
2015-06-12, 02:58 PM
Ever played Shadow Hearts (a PS2 game)? It and its sequels are full of really bizarre-looking monsters, and their bestiary entry often matches the weirdness of their appearance. The motivation of most of them, though, boils down either to "human(oid)s are tasty" or "avenging the person they're the undead version of", so you might want to work on that.
Some examples:
- A frog-shaped monster with only two legs (the back ones) whose eyes are faces and whose tongue is guts. It hunts religious people (monks in particular IIRC); their face appears as its eyes. Its body inside is probably mostly made out of the remains of its victims. It might not even have a proper body besides its hollow skin and some bones when it first appears.
- A dog who moves around by hopping, using the arm-like appendage replacing its muzzle. (It's more ridiculous than it sounds.) Unsurprisingly enough, it hunts postmen (or used to), but you might extend it to a hunger for any and all messengers. As to how it eats its preys without a mouth... it's a demon, it can figure things out. It's also much more deadly than it looks, somehow.
- A giant, bandaged, rotting humanoid with decayed wings, the bandaged head of some long-beaked bird, and one oddly long, skeletal arm. Meant to be a corrupted/undead minor divinity, you might make it instead a guardian of ports and coastlines whose presence however taint the area it's instinctively protecting. Some people may enjoy safety from outside aggressors, others are going to suffer directly from the loss of their work and main food source.
- A birdman (yes, another one) who's lacking an upper body; it's dragging and defending itself using clawed hands, and its head is that of a crow that can't focus on anything for long. One of the monsters that has this appearance used to be a guy that turned into this demon for... I'm still not sure if there was a translation error or if the reason was truly as depraved as implied, but anyway, it could be a monster that demonstrates a remarkable amount of lust or interest in humans given its appearance (that is both quite unappealing and unrelated to sex in every possible way). Its lack of attention probably causes it to try and chase several people at the same time, making it an ineffectual yet creepy appearance more than an actual threat. Damn thing sure can defend itself when attacked, though.

That's just on the top of my head, there are literally dozens of monsters you could potentially reskin into demons.