#they are tormented in a similar hells with the same demon and its fascinating

[dykedvonte]

Can you talk about trans!Curly a little bit more? I'm curios if you have any headcanons and the like

-💀

It's just such a thing in my mind because it adds a truthful sadness and differing aspect to mouthwashing.

If Curly was trans it adds the horror of the horribly selfish thought he could have easily been in Anya's situation. It could've been him but it wasn't and he so conflicted on the pit it put in his stomach that brings and the shameful relief it wasn't. In this scenario he is friends with Jimmy for a long time still. Jimmy likely knew him pretransition. Maybe he gave Curly weird looks then, maybe they never stopped after, maybe they seemed meaner. They are guys now, bros, both of them are. He doesn't really have to worry what those looks mean anymore, Jimmy just has that face with him sometimes. It's recontextualizing a lot of things for him that he was in denial about or too ashamed to admit. How naive he was being and how he let that get another person hurt.

Specifically with Anya, it's he knows the dread and fear she's feeling. He can understand it because he had to live with it for a good portion of his life, he knows it cause he still does, just in a slightly different way. It makes him think of all the times he's been alone with Jimmy, all the times he's been way more drunk off his ass and not remember the night, Jimmy was always with him the next day. Makes him think of the comments he would laugh off both because that's what guys do but because that part of being a girl says to laugh so Jimmy doesn't do something. It's the selfish realization that he was never safe and he's uncertain now too. Mad at himself for forgeting that feeling, espcially since for a long time he would've been considered the only woman on a crew (with all that implies) for a long time.

He should've taken those blinders off, step back into that position for just a moment and it's so much more painful that Anya likely came to him because he should've gotten it. Those thoughts don't leave his mind after the crash when he's in an even more vulnerable position than she was...

[puttingfingerstokeys]

[untitled]

Nanowrimo day 17 Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry(tm) series, and Vergil Dark fantasy, horror, demon...shit? Devil May Cry, violence, hell stuff, implied nonconsensual stuff Unfinished and unedited

“Ya think we did the right thing, Verg’? Leavin’ the kid behind like that, I mean…” Dante wasn’t the kind of man who doubted himself often. His decisions were, in general, ironclad. At the very least, he was an individual of particularly steely character and was more than content to live with his mistakes. He was even content to live with others’ mistakes. 

“Yes,” came the short, sharp response. To Vergil, there was no other option. Hell was not a place for a young man with a family. He did not know the girl, but he understood that Nero was very fond of her. Leaving Kyrie behind would have devastated her. Humans are fragile creatures, he mused coldly, forgetting conveniently, at least for the moment, the he was half human himself. It was easy to forget that here in this dark place of discordant energy.

It was a plane of lightless eternity, stretching out in all directions. Walking one way often yielded other terrain, but nothing remotely resembling something alive. Pools of blood stood stagnant where a puddle might have been in the human world. Blood rained from the sky above, which looked at times like the vaulted ceiling of a massive cave and other times resembled a vast expanse of void. 

As lonely as it was, they were always being watched. Once the Qliphoth had been destroyed, the demonic attacks had all but subsided and the brothers found themselves hunting the beasts for sport. They ran at the very sound of the twins’ voices. It was becoming monotonous. 

“Just ‘yes’? No monologue?” 

“Did you want one?” Vergil’s patience was perpetually wearing thin. Dante knew this damn well and prodded every chance he got. He loved getting a rise out of Vergil, seeing the color appear on sharp cheekbones and the set of his handsome jaw. It meant the guy was alive and that he could feel. That he had always been able to did not escape Dante; it was not for himself that he did this. Vergil needed to know and remember that he, too, was a half-breed, more than capable of feeling loss and love and everything that came with being a living, breathing being. 

Despite what he had done, Dante had long since forgiven him, regardless of whether or not the man had asked. Dante knew he never would and so was not waiting for it. He had simply resolved in his mind to let it all go, to toss it aside like so much chaff that simply did not matter in the grand grinding wheel of their lives. He was just glad to be with Vergil. 

“Okay fine,” Dante conceded, shrugging and lifting his arms to arch his back and stretch as they walked the lonely, empty plains of the demon world. 

The ease of his concession had Vergil on edge almost instantly. Dante never gave up like that. There had to be something more to it. He was always playing games. Each movement was part of an elaborate dance step that only Dante himself seemed to know and he was not sharing. Vergil never would have admitted to anyone but himself (and even that admission was skeletal) that his brother had always enraptured and fascinated him. 

“You’re giving up…?” Vergil was poking the hornet’s nest now, but his own incessant curiosity would not allow him to leave well enough alone. They were alike in this, yet another fact he would never admit to anyone, and it chafed him something fierce. That he could not control it only served to further irk Vergil. 

“Yup,” responded Dante, popping the final letter for extra emphasis. “You clearly don’t wanna elaborate, so who am I to prod?” 

You always prod! Vergil’s mind screamed. Through sheer force of his not inconsiderably willpower, Vergil managed not to say a word and grunted instead, nodding minutely as if utterly uninterested in Dante’s lack of interest. This, too, was part of the game. How long could each brother hold out? Who would emerge victorious? Everything was a contest between the two of them. Everything.

Overhead, the “sky” or whatever it was, rumbled with a hollow, metallic sort of intonation. The blood rain was incoming. Vergil disliked the feeling of it on his skin and clothes and immediately scanned the area with a practiced eye for some clue to the direction of a cave or even a feeble outcropping underneath which they could take shelter. A tug on his elbow alerted him that Dante had caught sight of such a place and indeed, when Vergil turned his attention, Dante was already jogging that way.

The rumble resounded again, sounding more like a growl than any kind of storm. Vergil ducked into the cave opening just as the first red, stinking droplets began to fall. He grimaced and crouched near the entrance, watching it fall across the seemingly uninhabited landscape. This was nothing like he remembered it, but then, maybe it was because he was with Dante. The demon world had a tendency to shift, depending on the mental state (and physical state) of its occupants. Perhaps he was seeing this version because he was not actually dead. The theories were endless, but right now, he had neither the desire nor the equipment to test them. Instead of bothering with it, therefore, Vergil settled back, propping Yamato on his shoulder and turning his attention to Dante, who was similarly enraptured with the strange scenery.

The cave itself was supremely dark, though not terribly deep. Given the demons’ fear of them, it was unlikely to be occupied. That was all the better for anything that might have wanted to live here, because Dante and Vergil would have made quick work of it. 

“Last time I was here, it was a whole lot hotter,” Dante said, as if speaking only to himself. Vergil’s brow rose. 

“You were here?” 

“Well, if here is the demon world or whatever… and if it’s the same one every time, though I’m really kinda startin’ to doubt that right about now…. Then yeah, I was. It was probably twenty years ago, though.”

Vergil wondered how someone like Dante ended up here. They had made war upon each other in a nexus-like half-plane, essentially within the hellgate bridge created by the Temen-ni-Gru around thirty years prior. Between then and now, Vergil had spent all of his time here, save the last month or so. He, therefore, should have been the authority on the demon world and its denizens and manifestations. He was not. 

“I barely remember it, honestly,” Dante added after a moment, in a tone that suggested not only did he remember it vividly, but it plagued him whenever he closed his eyes, haunted his nightmares, and infected his waking world when he wasn’t otherwise occupied. Vergil did not press. He was the last person to judge based on that. 

“You followed something in, I’ll assume,” Vergil supplied. This coaxing manner was rather in the same vein as Dante’s prodding. It had a similar result, in general, anyway. When he saw Dante nod, he knew he had struck some kind of chord. “A demon, or…”

“I don’t know what it was, Vergil,” the response was sharp, harder than Dante had intended and he withdrew a moment with a mumbled few words that sounded like “it doesn’t matter”. Vergil laughed through his nose, the sound muted by the rain outside. Nothing Dante had experienced in this horrid place could have possibly held a candle to the torments Vergil had suffered. That was a matter of time spent here, rather than opinion. But Vergil was not about to play pain olympics with something that clearly distressed his brother. Any other time, he might have mocked and jeered, in his way, but right now, that felt… wrong.

“You’ve gone willingly into the demon world twice,” Vergil pointed out. The Temen-ni-Gru had not been fully submerged, as it were, and whatever Dante had found during his battle with Mundus had been similarly positioned, a sort of Hell Lite. Mundus had been trying to push through, in all fairness, so Dante had not been forced to immerse himself. That was fortunate, because the area where the demon king Mundus held court was far worse than wherever the Qliphoth’s branches had been positioned. This place was a paradise, all things considered. 

“So have you,” Dante pointed out, his tone softening from the defensive, choked timbre it had taken on when Vergil tried coaxing a story or two out of him. That he was so reticent to share said all that was needed on the subject of how much it had affected him. Dante’s fearless, indomitable spirit had shone through just about everything life had thrown at him. Clearly this was just a step farther than he was able to push himself. Everyone has their limits, Vergil reasoned, I guess he does, too.

It was a strange thought, considering his insufferable twin was… well, insufferable, incorrigible, and constantly ready, willing, and able to dog Vergil’s every movement. He guessed that, in a way, he had invited this attention upon himself, given his propensity for causing havoc, not least of which had been his mad grab for power, planting the Qliphoth and siccing it on a city full of strangers. He did not think of them as innocents, however; even now, they were merely faceless nobodies. Dante would not change his mind on that, either.

Point of fact, it had been finding out he had a son which had called a halt upon his machinations. Vergil had suspected nothing. It had been V, whose humanity had shown him the life that Dante had built and the impact he was having on the world, carrying on Sparda’s legacy of protection for the humans, who had planted that seed of doubt and hesitance in his heart. Dante had driven the final nail into that particular coffin by telling Vergil who Nero really was. 

“You really get around,” Dante jested, chuckling and watching the blood rain fall outside. It was forming puddles already, sticky, coagulated things which stunk something fierce. He thought he would become accustomed to the smell eventually, but he never did. Blood stank, plain and simple.

“Did I?” Vergil’s tone warned Dante not to push, that he knew what the man was doing. Dante figured it was tit for tat and if Vergil was going to tease at his time in the demon world, it was only fair he should do the same of Vergil’s most sensitive subject. Of course, it was really only a guess which led Dante to conclude that this was such a sore spot, but if he knew Vergil at all (and he absolutely did) he was about to hit the proverbial nail on the head… repeatedly.

“Sure,” Dante reasoned casually. “I mean sometime between playing Gilver and stuffing a giant tower in the middle of my city, right?”

He was referring, of course, to Vergil’s time on Fortuna which had somehow produced Nero. Dante was curious about this, as he suspected, was Nero. The kid, however, had not had time to ask his father about it and Dante suspected that, rough as Nero was, he was too tactful and maybe a little too stubborn to simply bring it up.

“I acquired knowledge of the occult and the book which Arkham carried that detailed the formulae and necessary items to raise Temen-ni-Gru,” said Vergil, his voice taking on a clinical coldness. He was shutting down, Dante could sense that much. He reached out and patted his brother’s thigh from his position across the small cave. 

“Hey, dude, relax… Like I said, we were all young, once, right?” This, he meant with sincerity, his way of raising a white flag. Curiosity was pushing at him, but his adoration for Vergil was winning out. Dante was simply glad to have the man back after all these years. When it did come to blows, he wanted it to be for a better reason. 

Vergil’s gaze was sharp for a moment before he closed his eyes and turned his head to face the cave entrance. Hollow thunder resounded overhead and the world flashed with whatever passed for lightning in the realm of demons. Only when his sight was completely diverted did he open his eyes, a faraway look in them Dante could not see, but which might have broken his heart. 

“I don’t remember it.”

“You don’t… what?” Suddenly, the hand on Vergil’s thigh was tight. Dante’s mind had immediately leapt to the worst set of circumstances. He released his grasp only when Vergil’s gaze returned to him and he finally saw that look of melancholy. Dante drew back and crossed his arms, as if to protect himself. 

“Did I stutter?”

“No, but… Listen I…” There was a prime opportunity for a reference to Vergil’s lack of alcohol tolerance, but Dante wasn’t even going to attempt that. It felt wrong. One accidental drunk night did not sound like Vergil.

“There are gaps,” he said, “in my mind… things that weren’t convenient for me to know. Mundus removed them.” The delivery was simple, and all the worse for that simplicity. Vergil did not dress anything up, did not elaborate. He merely stated fact. “Our childhood has been… edited. I assume whatever happened on Fortuna was, as well, because there was no… woman.”

[mythicallore]

... What was that sound?

"This happens all the time," says Darren Evans, a bystander joining the paranormal investigating team of Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures. The target: Zozo, an ancient demon who makes his presence known by rapping on walls and moving objects, and might be doing so in the empty hallway upstairs.

Evans isn't rattled by the sound; he's used to his house making strange noises. For years, he claims that Zozo has stalked, harassed, and tormented his family. Evans even claims to have been possessed by Zozo, who is an ancient supernatural presence who has wormed his way through history, wreaking havoc on participants since the pre-Biblical days. Evans is a self-proclaimed "Zozologist," who regularly tells his stories at paranormal conventions, on supernatural-themed podcasts, and across 236 pages in a recent book. For this television appearance, he's leading a team into the darkness, into the unknown.

Zozo's origin story is riddled with supposition, fabrication, and a hive-mind belief system that keeps his power alive and thriving -- despite giant gaps in its history. But since 2009, Zozo has been a popular internet fixture, so notorious that he's inspired feature films, books, podcasts, and been the focus of entire episodes of both the aforementioned Ghost Adventures and SyFy's Paranormal Witness. A YouTube search of "Zozo demon" turns up more than 80,000 results, with videos ranging from emotional personal encounters to timeline histories to alleged, full-on possessions. Internet lore has one explanation for how it crept out of the shadows; facts tell us something very different.

The demon's story is intertwined with Darren Evans, a man whose stringent belief in the unseen -- and whose obsession with Led Zeppelin -- helped birth a modern urban legend that gains traction with each passing year, its foothold coagulating into an accepted, inescapable truth.

Who is Zozo?

The Zozo demon (sometimes stylized as ZoZo or ZOZO) is a mysterious trickster entity known for stalking people through Ouija boards. Those who claim they've made contact with Zozo – who also goes by Zaza, Mama, Oz, Zo, Za, and Abacus – say he often shows himself by guiding the planchette into figure-8 formations, before frantically zooming back and forth between the "Z" and "O." His interactions start out friendly, but grow malicious; he's known for cursing at and threatening contactees, sometimes personally. While he's often wrangled by a Ouija board, some believe that saying his name out loud can also summon Zozo from the depths of hell.

Zozo believers claim the demon has ancient origins, either African or Sumerian, depending who you ask. While those claims can't be substantiated (they may be confusing Zozo for Pazuzu, a Mesopotamian wind demon who famously appeared in The Exorcist), a supernatural entity called "Zozo" was referenced in the 1818 French text Le Dictionnaire Infernal. The demonological encyclopedia, written by French author Jacques Auguste Simon Collin de Plancy, recounts the story of a young village girl who claimed she'd been possessed by three demons named Mimi, Zozo, and Crapoulet.

But according to the website The Paranormal Scholar, accurately translating the text of Le Dictionnaire Infernal shows that the girl's story was faked. "She rattled nonsense," de Plancy wrote, adding that the girl had been publicly beaten years before for faking possession, and was eventually imprisoned for her fibs. He goes on to describe what he believed to be genuine cases of demonic activity, ending the Zozo extract with the sentence: "Nonetheless, there are real cases of possession."

Zozo's first-known textual appearance was technically a non-appearance, but this hasn't stopped people from using Le Dictionnaire Infernal as "proof" of Zozo's existence. A number of websites and videos still cite it as fact, bolstering the belief that Zozo predates the event that seemingly willed him into existence.

Darren Evans (right) on a 2014 episode of Ghost Adventures | Travel Channel

A legend is born

In 2009, an Oklahoma man named Darren Evans recounting his experience with a demon named "ZOZO" on a website called True Ghost Tales. In the post, Evans admits to an adolescent fascination with the occult, citing many Ouija board incidents through the years. But Zozo, he said, was different. The entity consistently showed itself to Evans, "too many times to count," pretending to be a kind spirit before shifting into threatening language, including curses in what "looked like Latin or Hebrew."

"I was genuinely fascinated and startled by how many times 'ZOZO' showed up, even in many different states and many different Ouija boards," Evans wrote. He claimed that the demon also made threats against his toddler daughter, nearly drowning her in a bathtub and later infecting her with a mysterious illness. "We almost lost her, and that was when I began to suspect demonic attack."

Evans' post garnered a great deal of interest, with other readers alleging similar Ouija encounters with Zozo. He eventually set up a website to collect stories, which steadily gained popularity. A film production company called One World Studios took notice of Evans story, acquired the rights, and in 2012, released the independent feature I Am ZoZo, which featured a cameo appearance by Evans. A YouTube video promoting the film -- titled "Scariest Ouija Board Demon ZOZO Possessed Girl" -- went viral; it currently has more than 5 million views. The comments still debate its validity, despite a promoted link to rent I Am ZoZo below the video's description. "Oh my gosh, [you're] not meant to joke with this. She was laughing and insulting Zozo, so that's why this happened," one comments reads. "The thing was going around in a figure eight. That's bad," says another.

In 2014, Evans and his family appeared on an episode of the Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures. The show's paranormal team, led by host Zak Bagans, visited Evans' house in Oklahoma, which he claimed to be plagued by Zozo. During interviews, he added new details to his original story, including the temporary blinding of his daughter, which he blamed on the demon.

In 2016, Evans co-authored a book, The Zozo Phenomenon, with leading paranormal expert Rosemary Ellen Guiley. He once again added new details about his first encounter with Zozo, claiming that he came in contact with Zozo in 1982 after discovering a Ouija board in his then-girlfriend's basement. Engraved on the back? "ZOZO."

According to The Paranormal Scholar, earlier that year in a phone interview with a New Jersey newspaper, Evans told the same story about a mysterious Zozo-engraved Ouija board, only that time, he claimed "Zozo" was written on the front, "where 'Ouija' is normally written," not on the back. Both of these mentions were the first time in the seven years that Evans had been talking about Zozo that he mentioned an engraved board.

The Zoso symbol from 'Led Zeppelin IV' | Atlantic Recording Company

The part where one of the most legendary rock bands of all time factors in

As if the cracks in Evans' story weren't enough, The Paranormal Scholar uncovered another fascinating revelation: the "Zozo" font on the cover of Evans's The Zozo Phenomenon appeared to be lifted from the "Zoso" symbol, an ancient glyph representing Saturn that was widely used by Led Zeppelin frontman Jimmy Page. Though Page has never revealed what Zoso means to him personally, it's possible that his being a Capricorn -- a sign ruled by Saturn -- has something to do with it.

Evans also happened to be an on-the-record mega-fan of Led Zeppelin, a band long been associated with Satanism and demonology. For a time, his Zozo website even linked directly to the official Zeppelin website and had a link to purchase Jimmy Page's autobiography.

Evans, for his part, has attempted to counter the claims that he fabricated his story. He claims the root word "Zo" -- appearing in both Zozo and Zoso -- has some sort of "magical power," which he believes explains its recurring nature. In a blog post from earlier this year, he posted more historical "proof" of Zozo's existence, once again citing Le Dictionnaire Infernal and a Nigerian paranormal website, Nairaland, where in 2005 a user named Makaveli wrote of a friend's encounter with a demon called "Zo-Zo." (Curiously, in the Nigerian languages Hausa and Igbo, "Zozo" translates to "come up.") He found mention of a demon named Zozo in a 1966 play by Jacques Audiberti, and in an 1876 issue of the Catholic Review, where Saint Bernardino of Siena mentions a "Mass of Zozo," some sort of Satanic ritual.

There's little consistency between Evans's personal accounts and his sourced material that relates any one Zozo to the other. Furthermore, none of these instances explain why, before Evans' 2009 True Ghost Tales post, "Zozo demon" yielded next to zero results in Google's search function. If Zozo encounters are such a shared experience, no one felt comfortable enough sharing their own run-ins until Evans came forward with his viral anecdote.

A scene from I Am Zozo | Image Entertainment

Zozo lives on

Even with such traceable and flimsy origins, Zozo lives on in the collective subconscious, seemingly unstoppable. Like Slender Man and other Creepypasta concoctions, his mythology is so entrenched in the niche corners of the web that you'd be hard-pressed to convince believers in his non-existence. From Reddit to YouTube vlogs to message boards, many people remain utterly convinced that they've had Ouija board run-ins with Zozo.

In the 1970s, scientists attempted this on a large scale with a project known as the "Philip experiment." Hoping to manifest a nonexistent "ghost" through fear responses, the scientists created a fictional character named Philip and held a séance with a test group. After feeding the group Philip's story, they tried to conjure his spirit. The experiment was successful: through sheer force of belief, the participants felt the table vibrate, heard rapping sounds, and said they sensed a presence.

Zozo could be like Philip, a presence people decided to believe in and have now willed into existence. It's strikingly similar to Slender Man, who, despite being wholly and obviously fictional, inspired two Wisconsin schoolgirls to stab their friend, hoping to sacrifice her to the figure they were convinced was real.

Perhaps Zozo is real, and Darren Evans is merely the conduit through which we were introduced to him. In lore, demons are known to disappear for long stretches; it's possible his 2009 emergence was by some hellish design, and he's here to prey on the specific fears of a new generation, one who can spread his word through the viral capillaries of the internet, where any unsuspecting soul might stumble on his wrath.

[sapphire-mage]

Halloween Recommendations: Intermediate Mode

The following recommendations are for Halloween or horror movies for the month of October. Movies listed here will have spoilers and general warnings. Movies listed under 'Intermediate' will involve horror movies that will be scary, but I will provide warnings. Due to the increase of difficulty, jump scare warnings will not be provided.

TAKE NOTE THAT THESE RECOMMENDATIONS ARE FOR ADULTS AND YOUNG ADULTS NOT FULLY COMFORTABLE WITH HORROR! THIS IS NOT MEANT FOR KIDS!

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Conjuring 2 (2016) movie:

If you managed to go through the ‘Easy’ list only to question why this is on the Intermediate, it’s because this movie is slightly harder for one reason: Valak. Valak is the infamous ‘Nun’ of this movie. I know someone who legitimately went from “Conjuring 1? This stuff is for babies!” to “Nope. I’m done watching horror movies! That nun thing freaked me out.” So I can tell you right now: If Valak the demonic nun is too far for you to handle just on general phobias and expectations alone, then I would steer clear of this one. That said, I adore this movie. It is my favorite in the series.

Okay, general plot: A family in London is suddenly being tormented by a demon that is following them wherever they go. When they call upon the help of the Warren family, evidence proves that this spirit may be connected to the hauntings and murders of Amityville (if you don't know the story of Amityville, let the movie explain it, cause the real ACTUAL thing is legitimately scary). The Warrens must find a way to stop this demon before it can harm not only the family but the Warrens themselves.

This is certainly scarier than Conjuring 1. Jump scares are a bit more frequent and heavier than 1. Take note that not only are we dealing with the nun, but also The Crooked Man.

Warnings:

-Child Endangerment

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Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) movie:

Ah, a classic! If you know nothing about this movie, I will explain briefly: The teenagers of Springwood are experiencing bizarre nightmares involving a man in a striped sweater with knife claws hunting them down. When the nightmares begin to lead to grizzly murders, the kids soon learn the horrific legacy of Freddy Krueger.

It should go without saying in a film involving a guy with finger blades, but expect a little bit of gore. I was almost tempted to put this in the ‘easy’ section, but the opening and closing murders are plenty scary. Also, the prospect of being murdered by your nightmares is fairly creepy and has gotten to plenty of people.

I can’t recommend any of the sequels, purely because I haven’t seen them all. I’ve seen Jason vs Freddy, which I can’t recommend unless you like both series (Kelly Rowland memes aside). And don’t watch the remake. I’m not someone who craps on remakes very much (hell, I might even recommend a few), but there is nothing of particular value outside of Quentin Smith (of Dead by Daylight fame).

Warnings:

-Child Endangerment

-Implications of child death

-Sexual predator

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Friday the 13th movie series:

I’m just going to kind of bundle the entire series here. I’m going to be real with you: This series deserves its legacy as being a horror legend, but acting like this series is quality horror is like acting original Lays potato chips is fine dining. Sure, it tastes good, but there are better options, especially for rookies. Although, I’d say the seventh movie in the series (Friday the 13th VII) is closer to ‘Wavy Lays’ or ‘Barbeque Lays’ chip quality, meaning it’s surprisingly good.

When young Jason Voorhees drowns in Crystal Lake due to the negligence of some camp counselors, a dark legacy is born within the campgrounds. Countless horrific murders befall the camp. Could it possibly be the lumbering corpse of Jason, brought back to life for revenge? Or is it someone else entirely? For those who don’t know: Not every Friday the 13th movie is Jason, but most of them are. The first one, in particular, is a different case.

These movies are basic and classic slasher flicks. A bunch of teens hang out like nothing is up, while Jason (or somebody else) goes around violently murdering a majority of them. Only real recommendations I can give:

-The first two movies give a standard explanation of who Jason is. To be fair, almost every Friday the 13th movie explains it, but still, if you’re dying to know. Just take note, I wouldn’t exactly call those two quality movies, and the lore ain’t that deep.

-Friday the 13th VII: A movie where the final girl is different because she’s a telepath! That’s right, Jason Voorhees goes to battle with a teenage girl who can move stuff with her mind. Not going to lie: It’s kind of awesome. And you don’t need any lore outside of basically what I’ve told you.

-Friday the 13th VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan: Absolutely hilarious and stupid. Granted, it’s still the same kind of movie, but Jason inadvertently ends up in Manhattan and just starts murdering people there. What makes it great is the bizarre sense of humor it has throughout, ranging from Jason confused as to why there is a billboard with a hockey mask (his infamous mask) on it... to Jason falcon punching a dude’s head off into an open dumpster.

Honestly, most of the movies are pretty mid in horror, but high in gore. There is also the remake that came out years ago, but I’d say that that one is a bit harder in terms of horror, as most of the ones I’ve mentioned are cheesy. I don’t find the remake ‘good’, but… it’s there and definitely not the worst remake.

Warnings:

-A LOOOOOOOT of sex, but then they get murdered five minutes later.

-Murders vary greatly

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Halloween 2 (1981) movie:

Following up the events of the original movie, Laurie Strode finds that Michael Myers is not yet done with her, and that her connection to him is a lot more real than she could ever believe. Michael returns to hunt his ultimate prey within the confines of Haddonfield Hospital.

This movie is definitely a step up from the low body count and gore of the previous film, but I still prefer the original. From this point on, Halloween becomes a bit more similar to most slasher flicks, but somehow, Michael just makes it entertaining. Halloween 2 manages to be about as creepy as the first. Hospitals are already pretty creepy, so having an entire slasher flick in one with an established horror legend just works. Only problem is that the gore is amped up, ranging from violent stabbings to somebody being completely drained of blood. But if by some chance, the events of Halloween 1 left you wanting a conclusion, this is just one direction you can go. JUST TAKE NOTE, THIS MOVIE IS NOT CANON TO THE EVENTS OF THE RECENT HALLOWEEN MOVIES OF 2019 AND 2021! If you want to go in THAT direction, you will have to enter ‘Hard’ difficulty.

If, by some chance, you’re interested in this series:

-Halloween 3 is an original story without Michael Myers. It has a bit of a cult following after it was considered the worst part of the series for the longest time. It’s certainly not my favorite horror flick, but feel free to look into it. I can assure you, it is not the worst ‘Halloween’ movie. This one didn’t have Coolio.

-Halloween 4 and 5 follows its own canon where Laurie had a daughter, died, and now the daughter is Michael’s new target. Honestly, these are pretty good, especially because Jamie (Laurie’s daughter) has a telepathic link to Michael, leading to some supernatural goodness. Just… don’t watch Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. It ends Jamie’s story in a terrible way and is just… horrendous, no matter how much you like Paul Rudd.

-Halloween 20 Years Later, or H20, follows a story where Laurie didn’t have a daughter or died, but instead, Laurie has a son and is still alive 20 years after the events of Halloween. Of course, Michael is here to start shit and hunt both her and her son. This is followed up by Halloween Resurrection, which is just… HILARIOUSLY AWFUL!

-I will mention the Rob Zombie remakes and the new series in the ‘Hard’ difficulty. I recommend the new series more than the Rob Zombie series, but take note that I would rank all of them on a hard difficulty due to the sheer brutality some of them thrive in.

Warnings:

-Shockingly more violent than the first one

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Trick R Treat (2007) movie:

When this movie came out, I loved it, but I noticed that not many people liked it. Over time, this movie has become a cult classic, and that fascinates me to not end. Trick R Treat is a movie that deals with several storylines happening at the same time. I can’t really go into every story without spoiling some of the awesome surprises. All I can really say is that a bunch of messed up stuff happens on Halloween night in this one town.

This one doesn’t have very many jump scares. Most of the horror comes from the sheer gore and brutality of it all. This movie isn’t afraid to murder kids and quite a few die within the film, but it manages to be a really fun and crazy Halloween ride all the way. And Sam, the ghoulish child spirit of Halloween, is a fantastic mascot. And the Red Riding Hood storyline is one of my favorite story endings in most horror anthology stories.

Honestly, the main thing that’s scary about this one is the gore and the opening scene. Rest of it is just kind of a wild ride of blood and guts taking place during Halloween.

Warnings:

-Child endangerment

-Child death

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Doctor Sleep (2019) movie:

If by some chance you took my recommendation to watch the Shining or you’ve seen the Shining in general, this movie is the follow up.

Dan, the boy from the first movie, has grown up and managed a steady and safe connection with his abilities. However, his abilities suddenly lead him to find a group of similar powered adults who hunting down and murder children who have the same power. Dan must work with a little girl who may be the next target to find and stop these murderous bastards.

If I’m being perfectly honest, I would say this movie is less scary than the Shining… if it weren’t for ONE SCENE! As I mentioned, the villains of this movie hunt and murder children, and this movie has a scene where the villain group up and stab a little boy to death. It is horrifying. The boy begs for his life and sobs as they stab him over and over, feeding off his lifeforce/powers draining from his body.

The actor they got for the scene did such an amazing job that the actors playing the adults would stop during filming and ask if he was okay, the kid would be like, “Oh yeah, I’m fine! Keep going!” with a smile on his face, and it would freak everyone out. Honestly, it’s a funny behind the scenes story you can read about, and it might help take the horror of the scene into a lighter perspective.

If by some chance, the visual image of a young boy being violently murdered while begging for his life sounds too horrible for you, then by all means skip it. I do like this movie quite a bit, but if that scene is too much, it’s certainly not worth it.

Warnings:

-Child endangerment

-CHILD DEATH!

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Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) movies:

Hilariously, both of these movies can pretty much be two different genres of horror, but they should be put together. Alien is a slow burn of a horror flick where the crew of a slow moving spacecraft start to realize that an alien lifeform is inside their ship, and the lifeform is evolving. Aliens is the immediate continuation where the survivor(s) of the first movie are forced to team up with a unit of soldiers in order to combat and execute whatever aliens remain. In other words: Alien (1979) is a suspense horror sci fi, while Aliens (1986) is an action horror sci fi.

Neither movie is particularly ‘gory’, but it does have some gruesome events that involve alien impregnation, which is super gross.

I’m not huge on alien theme horror. I usually don’t find them particularly scary. However, I recognize this movie as an invaluable factor in the horror genre, along with another alien horror flick that I will probably mention here. Also, I wouldn’t recommend any other films of this franchise other than these two, unless you are absolutely DYING for more. Even then, the quality drops from here on.

Warnings:

-Gross alien stuff

-Child endangerment in the second movie

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Predator (1987) and Predator 2 (1990):

Calling these two action flicks a ‘horror movie’ is a stretch, but the Predator species have been seen as horror icons for some time, the same way the Xenomorphs are. So… I’ll count it.

Where Alien dealt with a lifeform that would attack like a violent animal, the Predator lives by a code that lets it kill violently yet efficiently but with a slight moral code. This fact leads to a very interesting monster that picks and chooses its kills, but when it does kill, it goes for either the most efficient kill or the most violent kill. Makes for an awesome horror movie monster.

This first one is essentially an Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie with an entire team of soldiers going against one Predator, as they get picked off one by one. The second movie deals with a Predator attacking the streets of LA, leading to a lot of police and gang violence. In other words, they’re both essentially action flicks.

That said, I can’t understate that these movies are gory. There is a lot of decapitation, spine removal, stabbing, shooting, and a large variety of sci-fi original kills. Also, some people get skinned, so that’s fun! But I wouldn’t recommend these if I didn’t think the Predator is such a cool monster design. Again, this is unfortunately a series I can’t recommend beyond these two movies, but… I do find the first Alien vs Predator to be a guilty pleasure.

Warnings:

-Heavy gore

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Evil Dead (1981) and Evil Dead 2 (1987) movies:

Horror fans might be blinking at me over this ranking, since this series is known for comedy more than horror sometimes. But you guys forget: The first movie had a girl being raped by a tree, and the first possession scene is pretty scary. Don’t question me.

Evil Dead is the story of a bunch of teenagers who decide to hang out in a cabin in the middle of the woods, cause who wouldn’t, and find the book of the dead in the basement of the house, cause who wouldn’t. When they decide to read it, all hell ensues.

This series is pretty famous for being a bit of a horror comedy, but I’ll be real: The first movie plays the horror straight. It is gory. It has jumpscares. It has deaths. It is a horror movie, as silly as it might seem sometimes. A lot of people tend to forget how gory and creepy the first movie is because everyone always praises the second movie a lot more, which… valid. But still, it’s there, and it’s not a bad movie.

If by some chance the first movie seems too extreme for you, you can skip to the second movie, which gives a ten minute recap of the first. The second movie takes place about… five minutes after the first. Like, it literally picks up right after. It is still violent and creepy (especially with the claymation scene), but the horror leans into this… Looney Tunes wackiness where the main character goes balls off the wall insane and slapstick starts taking place. It is a fucking ride! If gore doesn’t bother you at all, then I super recommend it, just because.

Also, if you do see Evil Dead 2, go see Army of Darkness. It’s an immediate sequel, it isn’t scary, and it’s basically a comedy.

And for once, I can recommend the remake… but that would be ranked in ‘Hard’ cause the gore and scares from that one are an entire tier higher.

Warnings:

-Heavy gore

-A girl gets raped by a tree

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The Exorcist (1973) movie:

Personally, I find this movie easy. I watched it as a kid, and the only thing that scared me was the face of the devil. Rest of it is easy as pie. But my experience of people who are afraid of horror movies are sometimes people who come from religious backgrounds, and the Exorcist is the pinnacle of ‘demonic possession’ movies. I’ve heard people call this the ‘scariest movie ever’, but really, it was just scary for its time. I want to say that I’ve seen demonic possession movies that are scarier, but I can’t say I’ve seen that many that are this iconic.

Most of the horror of this movie is purely the ‘inhuman’ aspect of the possessed girl. She’ll move around strangely. She’ll vomit on the priests. She’ll speak in the voices of other people. As a kid who didn’t grow up in a religious background, this movie was kind of hilarious and awesome to me. “She just told the priest to suck her dick! Kids can’t say that!” But make no mistake: Horror movies scared the crap out of me. I was just able to handle this one.

At the end of the day, a classic demonic possession movie is a classic demonic possession movie. And if you do watch it and feel like trying to laugh it off after, maybe consider watching Repossessed (1990), which is a parody of the same movie. Or if you want something slightly scarier, maybe Exorcist III. I haven’t seen it, but it’s widely considered a cult classic along with the original.

Warnings:

-Child endangerment

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Child’s Play (1988) movie:

When a serial killer casts an ancient spell within a toy shop in hopes to cheat death, the attempt leads to him possessing the body of a popular toy known as Buddy. When the possessed doll gets adopted by a young boy, the boy comes to learn that he is not playing with Buddy, but instead… Chucky.

Personally, I’ve never been scared of Chucky, but I know creepy dolls scare the crap out of people, which is fair. Unlike Annabelle, Chucky ABSOLUTELY moves around and kills. This series, in general, has become so silly and absurd, that I can’t in good faith recommend the entire series unless you absolutely love this movie. Not that I don’t watch them myself, I totally do. I find Chucky to be hilarious.

Most of Chucky’s kills are pretty tame. I’d say the worst is an electrocution scene where a guy gets electrocuted toward the point of bleeding out of his eyes and mouth, but that’s it. Honestly, the gore isn’t that bad. Can’t say the same for the rest of the movies, where the gore amplifies, but if you wanted to just do the first movie of this series, it’s pretty safe.

Just… for the love of god, don’t watch the remake.

Warnings:

-Child Endangerment

-Creepy doll

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Creepshow (1982) and Creepshow 2 (1987) movies:

This is an anthology series, and personally, it’s one of the best. Each movie involves multiple stories told throughout. I would say that almost all of them are pretty manageable, but each one tackles a different kind of fear.

The first movie deals with:

-A corrupt and horrible father coming back from the grave to exact revenge

-A man becoming infected with a plant lifeform that begins to consume his body (imo the weakest of the two movies, I always fast forward out of boredom)

-A cheating couple being tormented by the man stuck in their love triangle

-A terrifying monster in a crate frightens a man who desperately wants to kill his wife

-A germaphobe man getting attacked relentless by roaches and insects

Second movie deals with:

-The statue of a Native American coming to life to exact revenge

-A flesh eating blob feeds on a group of people on a raft

-A woman driving home alone is sought out by a violent hitchhiker

I feel like listing the stories might tell you if you’re down for these. I know people who absolutely cannot handle the monster in the box or the flesh eating blob, which I can’t judge because I can’t handle the roach one. So if you ever want to fast forward those stories, that option is always there.

The gore is pretty rough at parts. Quite a bit of decapitation. The scenes where the blob feeds on the swimmers is pretty damn gruesome. Honestly, the only deaths that ever really stuck with me in these movies are the deaths of the old couple in the Native American statue story, and those deaths are framed as a tragedy (the statue doesn’t kill them, some assholes do).

Otherwise, there are some good scary stories with a wide range of horror. I’d recommend all of them, but approach with caution. And don’t be afraid to skip a story if you don’t think you can handle it. Like I said, I often skip the germaphobe one, cause that episode is GROSS.

Warnings:

-Gore

-Slight body horror

-Insect/bug/roach horror (my weakness)

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Haunting of Hill House (2018) Netflix series:

A family that once lived in a haunted house struggles through the trauma they experienced there. However, when one of the siblings dies shockingly, the hauntings return to torment each of them once again. A once broken family must reunite and return to the house that ruined their lives. Episode by episode, the mystery of what happened to Hill House is revealed to us.

I cannot recommend this show enough. As a horror fan. As a human being. As a drama fan. As someone who comes from a complicated family with a lot of siblings. This show is amazing. Now, I will admit that it is dialogue heavy, but that’s for a reason. The characters are struggling through their individual turmoils, and that gets HEAVY. The first few episodes will focus on each individual sibling, which is rocky at first since the two older siblings are kind of dicks (and they are the focus of the first two episodes), but they are absolutely necessary as they help establish what happened. While the first four episodes are quite good, episode 5 will blow your mind. And then you have to finish the show from there.

The horror is strong, but it mostly involves horror that you see coming or horror that is just emotionally overwhelming (in the sense of ‘oh my god, I can’t believe that happened, that’s so horrible’). I really wanted to put this on ‘Easy’, but I think one of the jumpscares and the overall emotional existentialism of this movie could be a lot for some.

Also worth noting: I can’t recommend Bly Manor, in good faith, unless you REALLY liked Hill House. Bly Manor is just not as good as Hill House, but it’s good if you want something more. If by some chance you watched both and were like, “Wow! I liked them, but for some reason, I just want to be MORE DEPRESSED!”, then you can go watch Midnight Mass.

Warnings:

-Child Endangerment

-Child Death

-Suicide

-Childhood Trauma

-Close Ups of Dead Bodies (not in a gory way, but in a ‘this corpse has hit rigor mortis and has white eyes, let’s get a nice close look just to creep you out’)

-Cat death

[wisdomrays]

BASICS OF ISLAM : Reincarnation.Part2

Such sound belief also is witnessed in epitaphs relating to Akhenaton's religion:

What You have done is too much, and our eyes cannot perceive most of them. O One, Only God! No one possesses such might as You have. It is You who have created this universe as You wish, and You alone. It is You who decree the world suitable for human beings, for all animals, whether big or small, whether they walk on the ground or fly in the sky. And it is You alone who sustain and nourish them. Thanks to You, all beauties come into existence. All eyes see You by means of those. Verily, my heart belongs to You (You are in my heart).

The ideas quoted verbatim above were the things that were believed in as truth in Egypt some 4,000 years ago.

In ancient Greece, the belief in resurrection and the soul's immortality were quite sound. The great philosopher Pythagoras (d. c.500 BC) believed that the soul, on leaving the body, has a life peculiar to itself. In fact, any soul has this same kind of life even before it quits the Earth. It is commissioned with some responsibilities on Earth. If it commits any evil, it will be punished, thrown into Hell, and tormented by demons. In return for the good it does, it will be given high rank and blessed with a happy life. Allowing for changes that might have been made in his views over time, we still can see that there are fundamental similarities with Islam's creed of resurrection.

Plato's account is not so different either. In his famous treatise The Republic, he says that the soul forgets the material (corporeal) life totally when it leaves the body. Ascending into an appropriate spiritual realm, one saturated with wisdom and immortality, it is freed from all the scarcity, deficiency, error, fear, and from the passion and love that afflicted it while it lived on Earth. Now that it is free of all evil consequences of human nature, it is blessed with eternal bliss.

In essence, reincarnation is a distorted version of a sound belief. Every creed, with the exception of Islam, has suffered such distortions. For example, the Divinely revealed religion of Christianity and the exact identity and role of Prophet Jesus has been distorted. Had it not been for the luminous and clarifying verses of the Qur'an and the influence of Islam, Christianity's formal position on this matter may not have been different.

If Christianity teaches the unity of the soul and body, it owes this to the Muslim savants of Andalusia (Muslim Spain). St. Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) is one of Christianity's most famous philosophers. The greater part of his new ideas and synthesis were adapted from Islamic teachings. He says in his distinguished book that the key concept of humanity is that the soul and body are united in an apt composite. He adds that animal souls develop with animal bodies, but that human souls are created at some time during early development, and therefore rejects the abstract speculations of the Neo-Platonist school.

Through a process of similar mistranslations of the original languages, as well as various distortions, the ancient Egyptian, Indian, and Greek religions became unrecognizable. The doctrine of reincarnation may well be a distortion of an originally sound doctrine of the soul's immortality and return to the Divine Judgment. After reincarnation was inserted into the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, it became a central theme of songs and legends throughout the Nile region. Elaborated further with the eloquent expressions of Greek philosophers, it became a widespread phenomenon due to the expansion of Greek influence.

Hindus consider matter as the lowest manifestation of Brahma, and consider the convergence of body and soul as demeaning to the soul, a decline into evil. However, death is believed to be salvation, a separation from human defect, a possible chance to achieve an ecstatic union with the truth. Hindus are polytheistic in practice. Their greatest god is Krishna, who is believed to have assumed a human figure in order to eradicate evil.

Their second greatest god is Vishnu, who has descended into this world nine times in different shapes (human, animal, or flower). He is expected to descend for the tenth time. Since they believe that he will come again in the shape of an animal, killing any animal is absolutely prohibited. This is allowed only during war. In addition, most pious and observant Hindus are vegetarians.

According to their most important holy book, the Vedanta, the soul is a fragment of Brahma that cannot get rid of suffering and distress until it returns to its origin. The soul achieves gnosis by isolating itself from the ego and all wickedness pertaining to the ego, and by running toward Brahma just as a river flows toward the sea. When the soul reaches and unites with Brahma, it acquires absolute peace, tranquillity, and stillness, another version of which is found in Buddhism. There is a cessation of active seeking and a passivity of soul in the latter, whereas the soul is dynamic in Hinduism.

Some Jewish sects adopted reincarnation. After refusing belief in Resurrection and Judgment, the Jews, who can be inordinately covetous of life yet remain fascinated by the soul's immortality, could do little else but accept reincarnation. Later on, the Kabbalists transferred it to the Church of Alexandria through certain regional monastic orders. The doctrine had a negligible effect on the manifestation of Islam. Nevertheless, and most unfortunately, it was introduced to Muslims by the Ghulat-i Shi'a (an extremist Shi'a faction).

All those who believe in reincarnation have one characteristic in common: the belief in incarnation. There is a shared failure of intellect to grasp and accept God's Absolute Transcendence. As a result, people believe that the Divine mixes with the human and that the human can (and does) mix with the Divine. This mistaken idea is all but universal, with the exception of Islam. The central figure in each distorted religion is an incarnation or reincarnation-Aten in Atenism, Brahma in Hinduism, Ezra (Uzair) in Judaism, Jesus in Christianity, and 'Ali in the Ghulat-i Shi'a faction (considered by many as outside the fold of Islam). Allegations that some Sufi writings and sayings support reincarnation are either plainly malicious or the result of an absurdly literal understanding of their highly symbolic and esoteric discourse.

[dailybestiary]

Moloch

(Illustration by Kieran Yanner comes from the Paizo Blog and is © Paizo Publishing.)

Hold on to your tophets, ladies and minotaurs…it’s Moloch time!

Moloch’s inspiration is a Canaanite god who gets a lot of bad press in the Torah and the Bible—two holy books that, let’s be fair, don’t exactly have a track record of playing nice with the neighbors.  But Moloch also gets some pretty bad press from the Greeks and the Romans, and the phrase “child sacrifice” gets thrown around a lot, so I’m perfectly fine with him being used as an archdevil.  (There’s actually a post floating around the Paizo Blog that basically says, “Well, that’s kind of how religion worked in those days”…but I possess the ultimate authority on good vs. evil—Monte Cook’s Book of Vile Darkness (what, you were expecting Spinoza?)—and it firmly puts child sacrifice in the Evil category, so screw Moloch.)

In early editions of AD&D, Moloch ruled Malebolge as Baalzebul’s viceroy.  In 3.0 and 3.5 Moloch had an even rougher time of it, getting replaced first by the Hag Countess and then Glasya.  Pathfinder’s Moloch, on the other hand, is firmly in control of both the Sixth Layer and indeed all of Hell’s armies.  If you’re looking for a devil who’s a servant or a patsy of another power, Pathfinder’s Moloch is definitely not it.

Probably the four most interesting things about Moloch are as follows:

1) Moloch is publicly worshipped.  Devil worship is not popular, by and large.  Even for truly dastardly faith communities, worshipping gods, even evil ones, is a safer bet than worshipping beings that explicitly come from Hell.  (“Would you like to spend eternity building a pyramid for the Pharaoh God of Taxation and Making Slaves Grovel?  Or go to the place with the fire pits and devils and eternal torment?” “Gosh, the fire pits do sound appealing. But seeing as I’m already experienced at being taxed and groveling...Imma hafta stick with what I know.”)  So devil worship is usually a cult thing.  Heck, even Asmodeus isn’t that popular in any land where he doesn't have governmental backing—without a throne, inquisition, or similar power structure in place, his church is at best seen as a necessary evil. The other archdevils’ cults mainly stick to the shadows.

But not Moloch.  His worship happens out in the open.  His followers build giant sacrificial ovens. Whole armies subscribe to his message. Of all the archdevils, he is the one most likely to be worshipped under the glaring eye of the midday sun.  And he gets that worship, because…

2) Moloch is responsive.  He answers the prayers of his followers—often in a quite literal and personal fashion.  Is your village threatened by flood?  Forget subtle shifts in tributary courses—Moloch just shows up in avatar form and dams the river.  Is an army about to ransack your town?  Moloch’s army is bigger, assuming he doesn’t just squash the looters himself.

Yeah, the price for this prompt and professional service is an eternity slaving away in Moloch’s army for anyone who asks for his aid or offers even the slightest hint of praise. But when floods, rapine, and slaughter regularly threaten your subsistence-farming-level existence, being a mule skinner for an archdevil might seem like a decent trade, especially if you don’t have to pay it off till you’re dead.  Which means that Moloch has a surprising number of worshippers, despite being a walking metal furnace that swallows victims whole and to burn alive in his stomach. Speaking of which…

3) Moloch has interesting symbolism and visual associations.  Which means interesting worshippers and sidekicks.  He’s got a bull thing—use some minotaurs as his cultists.  He’s got a furnace/child sacrifice thing—use the tophet. He’s got a walking, fiery suit of armor thing—there are tons of constructs, golems, elementals, devils, and undead like that.  And he’s a general—which means animate war machines like juggernauts or colossi.

With a lot of archdevil nemeses, the PCs’ journey fighting their servants goes tiefling —> lesser devil —> medium devil —> nasty devil—> archdevil, with maybe a fiendish dragon or something in there for variety.  Moloch’s followers are waaay more interesting that that.  Literally any soldier of any race might be found in his legions, either living, undead, as a fiendish version of itself, or as some kind of twisted einherjar. Pick up thematic cues from his description and his mythology and go nuts.  

And since we’re on the subject of him being a general…

4) Moloch is a general.  He’s the leader of Hell’s armies.  This means facing him is going to be like facing any general with godlike power.  He’s going to have lots of troops he can call for aid. He’s going to have aerial assault teams and assassination squads and giant hellfire-fueled juggernauts.  He’s going to be physically powerful himself, and canny and strategic as well.  If you come at him, you risk literally having all the armies of Hell chasing after you.

That said, it also means he has other fish to fry.  He has Heaven assaulting one front and the demon hordes assaulting the other.  He has lesser generals and colonels who want his job.  He has some mighty demanding bosses to please.  And, as noted above, he’s very attentive to his flock.  No matter how big you think your beef with him is, you’re probably the lowest item on his to-do list.

Which means you might be able to sneak into his vast army camp and ambush him.  You might be able to challenge him to single combat to gain some small concession.  You might be able to put a treaty in front of him to sign.  Keep your goals reasonable and small, and he might just to decide to send his flunkies after you in retaliation rather than deal with you personally, or burn your great-grandchildren to cinders a few generations from now…but that’s their problem.  Generals are patient, generals can wait, and generals pick their battles.  He will always come down on you like a hammer, but it might not be today.  And when dealing with archdevils, those are as good odds as you’re going to get.

Adventures are asked to investigate a so-called Children’s Crusade, only to discover it is a sham—slavers are herding the children (and their hapless friar guardians) like cattle to boats crewed by gnolls, hobgoblins, witchwyrds, denizens of Leng, and worse.  The trail leads past strange cyclopean isles to a forbidding and cruel coastal nation of military dictators.  There the children are to be fed to giant, animate tophets meant to fuel the archdevil Moloch’s fires in Hell…unless the brave adventurers step in.

A solar and an uinuja formed an unlikely friendship, despite their differing ethics, spheres of influence, and relative power levels. Now the solar languishes in a Hellish prison, and the plucky azata wants to do what even the archons do not dare: stage a rescue, even if it means facing the Lord of the Sixth himself. Fortunately, she knows some adventures who are just as plucky—or crazy—as she is.

The cult of Mithras has spread throughout the Roman Empire—in particular, throughout the Roman Legions.  But as the cult has spread, so have disturbing rumors about secret rites, bloody and fiery sacrifices, and worse.  At first, the Senate and certain famous adventurers chalk this up to the usual politics and rumormongering Rome is famous for.  But then word comes out of Anatolia that the great god Mithras is dead, slain by an imposter who now usurps his throne and perverts his rites. The usurper is Moloch, and he has turned much of Rome’s military might to his service—for even those who resist his call in life have sullied themselves enough so that he may claim their souls in death.  Worse yet, the dour god Pluto is angered by the potential theft of shades from his kingdom. His priests threaten that if this Mithras/Moloch is not stopped, Pluto will send an army of undead through the Lacus Curtius to drag the Roman army down to the Underworld, no matter what the collateral damage.  Great heroes have to act—and fast.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 6 30–31

(I’ve always thought the rapid spread and equally rapid decline of Mithraism throughout the Roman Empire was pretty fascinating.  So naturally I wanted to give your PCs an excuse to be players in that particular rise and fall.  Now, on to some housekeeping…)

Edit: Also, somehow my Google-fu utterly failed me, and nothing I read pointed me to the fact that there was a section on Moloch in Pathfinder Adventurer Path #105: The Inferno Gate. (I had to skip that AP because I was so behind; it’s on my to-read pile.)  I’ll be interested to read how my take conforms (or doesn’t) with Editor Emeritus @wesschneider‘s canon version, but that’s a project for another night.

Hi all.  First of all, again, apologies for the absurdly late post. This article literally sat half-written on my desktop since something like June 18.  We’re talking a month. Sure, this blog isn't the *daily* Daily Bestiary it once was, but I’ve never been as lax with my posting as that.  Two posts in June and none so far in July is unacceptable.

Toyota earned its reputation for amazing cars not through one outstanding model or innovation, but through a company-wide suggestion system that leveraged lots of tiny improvements. Unfortunately, the same is also true in the negative.  There’s no one reason I haven’t been able to blog or one big nightmare I had to tackle (okay, there was one—a four-day, 46-hour workweek that sucked beyond measure—but let’s pretend I didn’t say that).  There have just been a thousand tiny distractions and mini-hurdles.  The short version is: June was lame, I had to take some time for me, I probably took too much, and I’m hopping the end of July is better.  Much love and thanks to you all for your patience, yet again.

Tumblr folk already know this (so forgive me if I quote myself verbatim) but my Blogger folk don’t: My second episode as a guest of the Laughfinder podcast is up!  Once again, I aid Bryan Preston, Jim Meyer, and Tommy Sinbazo to fight evil conjured by Dorian Gray and Ben Hancock.  Once again there are many NSFW riffs on Baltimore landmarks.  And most importantly, my blood feud with Aaron Henkin erupts into passionate FURY.  Enjoy!