pantherlord4

[pantherlord4]

....... you are a poet ya know that?

Speaking of charon

Would a good description of his voice be something like

"smoother than the passage of time and twice as ancient"?

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Measured as a well-tuned grandfather clock, its every tick and tock clearly enunciated. One loved and cherished, oiled and cared for, its pieces dutifully changed out each time one began to rust so that its function was never impeded, to assure any form of failure is impossible. He sounds like a grandfather, but not a comforting one; a grandfather that believes his children and grandchildren foolish or unworthy of what wisdom he may pass on. There is disdain tempered by age behind his words as he speaks, a blade sharp enough to cut past any argument with no effort, to slay the ego of any being, though one kept in its sheath as to not be used wantonly and recklessly. If nothing else, the Horseman of Death knows the value of using weapons sparingly until they can be used efficiently.

This is also why he speaks the way he does. When Charon deigns to speak, one gets the impression that he is reading off a script he has exhaustively rehearsed. To those who've spoken with him, they often feel as if he already knew what to say and wasted no time saying it, as if he has had the conversation a hundred times already, and its ending was decided long before they walked into the room. There is a finality when he brings a conversation to a close that, thus far, has always assured the last word is his.

[pantherlord4]

My approach and idea was more "evil midnight bomber what bombs at midnight" in terms of Vibe. An insane bomb maker rather than an arsonist. But thanks for the feedback.

Odd idea I'd like feedback on

Would a daemon harbinger with a penchant for explosives work? More focused on destroying buildings, especially important ones and even more so when important people are inside. A mad bomber who wants to eventually find a way to blow up a planet. Too chaotic or no?

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It would work well, and Paizo agrees with you in this regard, because Hastrikhal already exists, and her Divine Obedience requires you to set an occupied building on fire. She's one of the more infamous Harbingers because of this!

[pantherlord4]

I can help with Pocketcat too if you want

I make a lot of references to things in my drafts, so here's an incomplete list of what's in there so far:

--Homebrew Horror: Qlippoth Primordial, Aonarious

--Homebrew Horror: Underlord

--Spaghetti Staff

--Three more Homebrew Horror conversions of monsters from the Book of Unremitting Horror, refitted for the Golarion setting; one of them is a completely new creature inspired by a monster from the BoUH but which would not work in Golarion's setting due to a lack of technology, so I went a psychic route instead

--A homebrew for a symbiotic, psychic qlippoth that grants its host incredible psychic powers at the cost of inevitably mutating them into a horrific monster

--A homebrew for a boogeyman based on Pocket Cat from the game Fear and Hunger

--The aforementioned fey noble of beards and the fey noble of haircuts, as well as the Archfey known as the Harvest Lords

--A new Outer God: Hafemeriq, the Utopic Shepherd, and a Great Old One, Kalavall, the Fragrance Architect

--An artificial deity accidentally created by the Dominion of the Black: a Chaotic Evil Dominion Intelligence of Trepanation, Archives, and Psionics

--SEVERAL lists of half-ideas for deities, demigods, and monsters that I thought about and wrote down, but have yet to expand on. This includes the Empyreal Lord of Acupuncture, the Empyreal Lord of Meteors, and the Empyreal Lord of Sanitation and other unglamorous jobs which nonetheless need to be done.

--On one of the above lists, there's also mention of a daemon harbinger of death through sleep deprivation and the somnodaemons, which I had completely forgotten about until I made this post.

--Unfinished Monster Spotlights for: Maharishi Manu, Larabays, Enlightened Contemplatives

--Unfinished Spiritual Spotlights for: Brigh, Mestama, Alseta, Aldinach

And many, many more! hahah ahahaha help

[pantherlord4]

Even better

She pulls out THIS. the party tank is reduced to red paste within a round.

I got reminded of this post earlier today and was amused by an absolutely awful, demoralizing thought.

I want you to imagine a party of players marching into the Furnace to confront Szuriel with an army at their back, fighting through her hordes to get to the daemon general herself. Then, once the party finally confronts her, she raises her sword, the Lamentation of the Faithless, the daemonic symbol for War... throws it aside, and pulls out an enchanted pair of these bad boys

[pantherlord4]

Wonderful work as usual! You are a delight to listen to.

If you know the SCP foundation

Would you say something like Laugh is Fun is a good example of cosmic horror? I can definitely see Laughy Mclaugherson as GOO

Merry Christmas by the way

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Cosmic horror? Certainly not; SCP 2030 is SURREAL horror, with its only hint at cosmic significance being the vague "let us in" at the very end, but even that is more surreal. Old McLaugherson himself is far too human to be a creature of cosmic terror... you know, like a disarming mask of Nyarlathotep. Pull the mask back and you may see something that blows your mind, but as-written there's no cosmic horror in 2030, just good old surreal and body horror!

That being said! A while back I was asked how I'd make a Great Old One themed on laughter, and Laughy McLaugherson is a pretty good concept to build off. A creature that wants others to laugh but which gravely, horrifyingly misinterprets what's actually funny to anything but itself and, perhaps, its eldritch audience, its presence forcing calmness and hilarity into creatures that were screaming at the top of their lungs just seconds before. It has a limb that looks close to but not quite human that it uses to communicate, but it does so in ways completely nonsensical to anyone not under its influence.

There's something there.

[pantherlord4]

More Sahkil should focus on the creepy and eerie like these two. Go for dread,unease, and uncomfortableness (not to the point of that tormenter He Who Was Deleted) instead of shock and in your face horror.

Two new Sahkil Tormentors

(Pic source)

Many Daemon Harbingers seem to represent mortal fears and frailties rather than the unfair deaths, so I made my own to address this. The Sahkil Tormentors are completely different beasts altogether, and thus far they’ve been fairly consistent at being things worthy of fear, but there’s still a little bit of design space for more personal terrors. Below are two such Tormentors; the doll one has been in the works for a while and I originally planned on writing a full article on it, but the shortform of this puts less stress on my brain to invent needless amounts of content.

And earlier this week I was reminded of sleep paralysis, a terror no Sahkil takes advantage of… until right now.

Reminder that Sahkil Tormentors grant Boons in the form of spell-like abilities that may be used 2/day!

Keep reading

[pantherlord4]

I think Do-wreck for the first with a a hard wr

And Do-roaca for the second. With a hard R

question to those among you who can speak the language: How, exactly, are "Doirich" and "Dorocha" pronounced?

[pantherlord4]

Perhaps parts of the ritual does involve a fiend but it's more like a witness/promising the soul to that fiend to make the ritual work. Like both victim and caster are now bound to this fiend via contract. Or maybe the ritual involves killing the target and the soul is given to the fiend, make it so you're skipping the line for them by sacrificing the victim to the fiend and giving them the soul as an offering.

Or possibly closer to Hell Girl, the ritual marks the victim's soul, meaning if the fiend kills the target they get the soul because it was branded as hell's property. Like an Infernal version of Apollyon's Soul Plauge. The boneyard has no choice but to send them to Hell because they've been marked as property of hell. The fiend killing the person was collecting what belongs to them.

Ever heard of Hell Girl?

I can totally see a devil or an Infernal Duke offering something like the Hell Correspondence to mortals as a quick way to gather souls

If you don't know Hell Girl,here's an explanation

If you visit the Hell Correspondence website at just the right time and enter the name of someone you want to damn to Hell (if I remember correctly) the Hell Girl and her minions will appear and give you s black straw doll with a red thread around the neck. If you pull the thread, the person you cursed is killed and damned to Hell, but the cost is, you will also be damned to Hell when you die.

I could see it being a type of diabolic contract. They take one soul in exchange for yours, with no loopholes aside from divine intervention.

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I'm afraid that's another hard sell. You can contract devils to carry out assassinations all day and night, that's common! However, to have a devil drag an innocent person's soul to Hell and keep it there for eternity? That simply doesn't happen in Pathfinder. Often.

Skipping the Courts of Purgatory is a BIG cosmic no-no, and while demons and daemons may not care, the devils at least pretend to play fair, and thus the souls of innocents who are bound for other afterlives are usually allowed to leave Hell unless the devils think they can get away with keeping them. If devils could just skip the waiting line, they wouldn't work so hard to get their hooks into people and corrupt them beyond redemption!

Now, there are ways to skip the waiting line already, including the Ebon Acolytus, the Malediction spell, and most infamously Hellfire Ray, but all these methods will draw the ire of the Boneyard against both the mortal using them and the fiends receiving the souls, who will send a polite correspondence to the fiend in possession of a soul that doesn't belong to them commanding its release. If the soul isn't released to a proper afterlife, THEN the attacks begin as the forces of the Boneyard mobilize against the fiend, either directly via hunting psychopomps, indirectly via sneaking infiltrators to pilfer the soul, or by using agents in the universe to begin exacting their toll upon the fiend's mortal servants to force their hand. Sooner or later, one way or another, the error is corrected.

Only archfiends tend to have the power needed to hold onto improperly-sorted souls; anything less typically falls to the forces of fate. The only reason they get away with it at all is because... well... a lot is happening in the universe. Those three line-skippers above I mentioned cause a lot of chaos; it takes a while for the error of a missing soul to be spotted, then the soul must be located, THEN the fiend holding the soul must be contacted, and if the contact doesn't work, a plan to retrieve the soul must be made, and further plans must be constructed if the first one doesn't work. In the bureaucratic courts, it may take a while for an imprisoned soul to be freed, but one way or another it will happen, if not by the psychopomps themselves, then by the agents of other gods who are alerted to the soul-stealing. If your Duke is going around stealing the souls of high-ranking worshipers of Good-aligned deities, it won't be very long until he's confronted by one of them directly, at which point Asmodeus is more likely to hold up his hands and back away than to intervene, because he's been playing fair this whole time. As far as anyone knows.

... that's a lot of paragraphs, but this awoke something in me. If you really wanted it to work, you could skip the direct involvement of fiends altogether and make it a ritual that a mortal can perform themselves, condemning themselves and their target to a lower plane. Malediction and Hellfire Ray are allowed to work because they're the result of mortal choice, both damning the user for using them and giving the fiends receiving the souls a bit of plausible deniability, especially in the case of devils, who appreciate and exploit the existence of loopholes. If a devil is found to have a soul that isn't supposed to be there and confronted by the psychopomps, they can just hold it out at arm's length and go "Goodness gracious! I had no idea! Honest and truly, I thought this one was mine! Please, take it and put it where it belongs! I'll be sure to tell my followers to stop blasting people with evil beams!" while silently cursing the fact they were caught cheating.

Now, much like Malediction and Hellfire Ray, there's nothing stopping there from being an archfiend who simply knows the ritual, and happens to leave scrolls of it around in old dungeons and happens to tell its mortal worshipers that they exist. Why, this fiend may even retrieve the scroll FOR them if promised a juicy enough deal! But it's up to the mortal to actually use the power for themselves, allowing the fiend to wash its hands of the incident if it's actually caught by the Boneyard by going "I was just helping this mortal here achieve some revenge! It's their fault, not mine!"

[pantherlord4]

I was thinking if the mirror is broken,they just move to a different reflection. Being more spirit than physical. A spectral reflection.

If there's no reflection possible they are essentially trapped in a way.

im trying to make a type of undead that lives in reflections and mirrors, and hurts people by hurting the reflection.

How would that work mechanically? Or would it just be a flavor thing?

There are monsters that similarly attack shadows or can attack in melee at great distances. So I would say that the mirror monster can attack at a distance, but what that distance is would depend on the size of the mirror. You should also figure out if breaking the mirror hurts the monster, or just expels it into physical space

[pantherlord4]

I have a semi full write up for the harbinger I mentioned.

Nerakull, Winter's Shroud, the Lean Season.

He's very ratfolk like too. A partner or rival of his may also be rat-like but have a theme of invasive species and swarms of creatures like rats, locusts and rabbits.

How would you make a Daemon harbinger that wants ol Trail Mix's status as Horseman of Famine? I know Creaturecodex has caracalla who's about inflation and price gouging. One I have is about winter and darkness; famine caused by endless snowfall,cold and denial of sunlight. Destroying ecosystems through winters most brutal aspects.

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ironically, the same. I in fact have an Outer God with the same portfolio, a thus-far nameless entity I'm reworking, as its old incarnation drew too much influence from the W---igo. You can see its pictures and its old name here, though its title is the God of Extinction.

A deaemon that wants to supplant Famine outright is something I have not quite touched on, my closest is Molvulia, the Curdled Princess, who embodies death by food poisoning and sabotaged food, and is stated to covet the throne of Famine. The intentional destruction and infestation of edibles is her modus operandi, though a full replacement for the Horseman of Famine in my mind would likely be something similar to Caracalla, a being representing food hoarding and food destruction, forcing others to slave for just enough to survive, if that. The least subtle allegory for capitalism possible. I have a prototype for a capitalism daemon harbinger in my drafts, but it likely won't see the light of day for a while still.

[pantherlord4]

daemons of sleep deprivation

You have my attention. I'd be happy to help ya with them!

I make a lot of references to things in my drafts, so here's an incomplete list of what's in there so far:

--Homebrew Horror: Qlippoth Primordial, Aonarious

--Homebrew Horror: Underlord

--Spaghetti Staff

--Three more Homebrew Horror conversions of monsters from the Book of Unremitting Horror, refitted for the Golarion setting; one of them is a completely new creature inspired by a monster from the BoUH but which would not work in Golarion's setting due to a lack of technology, so I went a psychic route instead

--A homebrew for a symbiotic, psychic qlippoth that grants its host incredible psychic powers at the cost of inevitably mutating them into a horrific monster

--A homebrew for a boogeyman based on Pocket Cat from the game Fear and Hunger

--The aforementioned fey noble of beards and the fey noble of haircuts, as well as the Archfey known as the Harvest Lords

--A new Outer God: Hafemeriq, the Utopic Shepherd, and a Great Old One, Kalavall, the Fragrance Architect

--An artificial deity accidentally created by the Dominion of the Black: a Chaotic Evil Dominion Intelligence of Trepanation, Archives, and Psionics

--SEVERAL lists of half-ideas for deities, demigods, and monsters that I thought about and wrote down, but have yet to expand on. This includes the Empyreal Lord of Acupuncture, the Empyreal Lord of Meteors, and the Empyreal Lord of Sanitation and other unglamorous jobs which nonetheless need to be gone.

--On one of the above lists, there's also mention of a daemon harbinger of death through sleep deprivation and the somnodaemons, which I had completely forgotten about until I made this post.

--Unfinished Monster Spotlights for: Maharishi Manu, Larabays, Enlightened Contemplatives

--Unfinished Spiritual Spotlights for: Brigh, Mestama, Alseta, Aldinach

And many, many more! hahah ahahaha help

[pantherlord4]

a long time I made a DBD killer that can pretend to be a survivor and make a survivor look like the killer.

This was years before among us and the killer was more based on the TF2 Spy,even had a lizardlike appearance and. Name like "the Conspiracy."

What would a daemon of hair look like? Death by scalping maybe.

Would a fiend associated with hair work?

Maybe a barber Velstrac or a demonic cousin Itt. A daemon of hair would pretty unique though.

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Probably! It's a fun theme, and one I've pondered on two separate occasions myself; the Indomitable Radiance, an Outer God I've mentioned a few times in other articles, is partially associated with hair (though it's more concerned with hygiene and beauty as a whole), as its own luscious locks need to be pruned and cut to remain perfect. The castoffs become Shaggoths and Shaglings, hair-based creatures obsessed with their own hygiene.

I've also got a pair of fey nobles in the works: One who believes in the beauty of beards, and one who believes in the beauty of baldness. They're mortal enemies.

A barber-ous fiend is interesting design space! I like the thought that pops into my head when considering a barber velstrac, a small subsection of velstrac who cultivate amazing hairstyles on themselves and others before scalping themselves or their victims to preserve their "works." Hairy demons are also all over, but ones focused on hair are few and far between; you mention a demonic Cousin Itt, and that makes me think of some awful pillar of hair that spreads strands out like webbing to ensnare and slice people apart.

This isn't from Pathfinder, but in my love of Dead by Daylight, I've created quite a few fan-killers, one of which is called the Clog or the Clot. It is what happens when the blood of the eldritch Entity presiding over the game mixes with the effluvium and runoff from its infinite human victims, birthing a beast of unholy and slimy hair whose texture and smell can only be described with 30 seconds of retching. A demon (or even a qlippoth) along those lines would fit perfectly into the Pathfinder universe!

[pantherlord4]

Would a fiend associated with hair work?

Maybe a barber Velstrac or a demonic cousin Itt. A daemon of hair would pretty unique though.

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Probably! It's a fun theme, and one I've pondered on two separate occasions myself; the Indomitable Radiance, an Outer God I've mentioned a few times in other articles, is partially associated with hair (though it's more concerned with hygiene and beauty as a whole), as its own luscious locks need to be pruned and cut to remain perfect. The castoffs become Shaggoths and Shaglings, hair-based creatures obsessed with their own hygiene.

I've also got a pair of fey nobles in the works: One who believes in the beauty of beards, and one who believes in the beauty of baldness. They're mortal enemies.

A barber-ous fiend is interesting design space! I like the thought that pops into my head when considering a barber velstrac, a small subsection of velstrac who cultivate amazing hairstyles on themselves and others before scalping themselves or their victims to preserve their "works." Hairy demons are also all over, but ones focused on hair are few and far between; you mention a demonic Cousin Itt, and that makes me think of some awful pillar of hair that spreads strands out like webbing to ensnare and slice people apart.

This isn't from Pathfinder, but in my love of Dead by Daylight, I've created quite a few fan-killers, one of which is called the Clog or the Clot. It is what happens when the blood of the eldritch Entity presiding over the game mixes with the effluvium and runoff from its infinite human victims, birthing a beast of unholy and slimy hair whose texture and smell can only be described with 30 seconds of retching. A demon (or even a qlippoth) along those lines would fit perfectly into the Pathfinder universe!

[pantherlord4]

maybe go for some old fashioned like victorian asylums like Bedlam House. Stuff like trepanning,leech therapy and other quackery that only makes a person WORSE. Or something like Dr. Tar and Professor Feather were they turn people into their delusions.

Lots of ways you can make it over the top and not close to modern psychiatric facilities.

Weird question

I know Lamasthu has a thing for madness, but what a fiend associated with a mental asylum/corrupt psychiatric treatments

Like a demonic madhouse/beldam house.

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Possible! But I'll preface this that you have to be extremely careful with these kinds of things. I say this, because this next paragraph is a doozy:

The closest existing fiend I can find with such a domain is the Harbinger Arlachramas, of which basically nothing is known, and of whom little can be inferred, but whose divine portfolio is "dehumanization, disposal, and euthanasia," though she seems more concerned with ignoring and disposing of people with physical sickness rather than mental illness.

So it's definitely unexplored territory, but I'd recommend steering away from it unless you can put some big fantasy spin on it (as in add a big overblown element that helps remind people that it's all a game). It's territory that needs very heavy trigger warning labels before you even consider adding it into a game, especially since this kind of horror is still happening. It's VERY easy to mess up and make your players or audience disgusted with the writer rather than the fiend. See: everything that happened with Folca.

[pantherlord4]

It reminds me of a demon lord I made though I may revamp

Nocttis. Who's similar to a Sahkil in that he's about the fears of what's lurking in the dark, but unlike Iggeret,he's a huge COWARD and a bully; fleeing from the light and picking only on weaker targets because he'll fold like a house of cards picking on someone his own size. He's about hit and run ambushes and relies on his enemies not knowing when or where he'll strike from or what he's capable of. Cowing his enemies with intimidation,to hide how scared he really is.

If you know it,he's a lot like Panik from the original Yu-Gi-Oh anime.

What do you think?

What's your thoughts on Nalmungder, that daemon harbinger that feels more like a Sahkil than.

Like closets, basements and delusions of safety? That sounds far more like a boogyman figure than a soul eater.

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A LOT of the Harbingers do feel like they embody taboos and fears more than unfair deaths, and you happened to have locked onto one of my favorites! I actually have an Ecclesitheurge who worships Nalmungder and began at a troublingly young age after he started feeding his bullies (then neighbors, then...) to the monster in his closet.

I'd agree he feels much more like a Tormentor than a Harbinger, especially since he's described as a blob of darkness covered in eyes and mouths, and most Harbingers have a humanoid appearance. Part of me wonders if he actually started as one but became the other... not IN universe, but OUT of universe.

[pantherlord4]

https://youtu.be/jD3CEnn6sUA?si=rSgWG2snuYudYCWl this is the song that inspired them.

Tell me this song doesn't sound something Gomez and Morticia would sing

If Velstrac demagogues are cold and clinical

What would they think of a demagogue couple?

Perfection in the arms of another. Perfection through love.

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MOST of them are quite cold! Certainly the likes of Raetorgash, Barravoclair, Vevelor, and especially Inkariax seem to be the silently sadistic type, but I have a hard time imagining Kaikyton as anything but an energetic showman, and Morrobhan seems to be the most energetic and active of them all in the hopes of piecing together its perfect form.

A couple, however, sounds fascinating. I can't help but imagine two entities either literally fused together or with portions of one another cut away so their partner's limbs fit perfectly against them when they're embracing.

[pantherlord4]

That last one is definitely a good idea

The couple I made

Is Thornna and Burnye (pronounced burn), the Velstrac demagogues of passion,pain and dance. For the Deadly Duet,pleasure and pain are just two sides of the same coin. For who can hurt you more exquisitely than the one who loves you most? For the duo,horrific torture and brutal spells are how they express their all consuming love for one another.

As such,both take turns inflicting loving torture on the other; Thornnas whip Lover's Lash and Burnyes rapier Passion's Flame are their main tools of the trade,they even get cumulative bonuses the more they catch the other in the crossfire. They even have the ability to undo anything that would separate them, like banishment or even imprisonment or even death! Resurrecting the other should one perish.

For design your second idea is good, probably better than mine. Two black haired humanoids with porcelain white skin and numerous black scars,one a woman in a flowing black dress,and man in black nobleman's dancing clothes

Essentially something like Velstrac Gomez and Morticia Adams.

If Velstrac demagogues are cold and clinical

What would they think of a demagogue couple?

Perfection in the arms of another. Perfection through love.

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MOST of them are quite cold! Certainly the likes of Raetorgash, Barravoclair, Vevelor, and especially Inkariax seem to be the silently sadistic type, but I have a hard time imagining Kaikyton as anything but an energetic showman, and Morrobhan seems to be the most energetic and active of them all in the hopes of piecing together its perfect form.

A couple, however, sounds fascinating. I can't help but imagine two entities either literally fused together or with portions of one another cut away so their partner's limbs fit perfectly against them when they're embracing.