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View Full Version : Supernatural, Dementors, and Demodands oh my



CowardlyPaladin
2016-09-18, 03:27 PM
So I was watching Supernatural and I realized that I didn't like the Demons personality and lore much at all, but I really liked their design and power set so I started to get around to adapting a new realm and new domain for them. Since Demons are the same as the D&D ones in my game, I decided to just call them Demodands with Gehreleth being the obese guys from Carceri with Apomps the Three Sided one, I just split the names into two different species, same with the Grey Wastes and the Barrens of Doom and Despair. Oh and Dementors were thrown into the mix as well.

No mechanics here, just good old fashioned fluff. Enjoy

The Barrens of Doom and Despair

The Barrens of Doom and Despair (NE/TN) is a realm of hopeless Nihilism and Depression, simply being there drains you of hope and beliefs. The entire realm is an empty barren wasteland seemingly without movement. Traveling here is absolutely awful, every step drains you of hope, energy, and passion, the realm feels heavy and foreboding, and the entire realm is cyclical. Great pits into darkness can be found all across this domain, and the sky is nothing more than the same darkness, anybody who falls into those pits will eventually come out of the sky itself and unless grabbed they will simply fall for eternity. Sound is muted and the realm seems like an empty plan without color and without desire. The realm isn’t empty however, this is one of the greatest front line battlefields in the Blood War. The Barrens along with the Grey Wastes, Gehenna, Sheol, and the Blood Rift are the front lines of the conflict when it doesn’t go into the Abyss or the Hells themselves. At any given moment there are trillions of soldiers fighting all across the Barrens, providing the only visible spark of life to the whole domain.
Many people assume that the Barrens of Doom and Despair doesn’t have any natives, for as much as anybody else can tell the domain is nothing more than a hostile environment for the Blood War. But there are natives, they just aren’t always visible. These are the Demodands, creatures of despair and misery itself. Their most noticeable trait is their lack of a physical form, they naturally appear as a massive black clouds of evil and hopelessness. These clouds often group together as massive storms which ravage the barrens, destroying Demons, Daemons and Devils alike, but generally they hide in the darkness, looking like masses of gas or darkness. Until they see a host.

Possession

These creatures aren’t particularly powerful in their true forms, but when they find a host (unless Manifested see below), they possess it and walk around, for that is their true power. Demodands are the masters of possession and manipulation, which allows them to be extraordinarily dangerous, even as they lack the range of physical and magical abilities that other Exemplars can regularly demonstrate, for example they are unable to summon their kindred and they lack many of the communities most exemplars take for granted. The Demodands can easily possess a person simply by moving into their eyes, which makes them fantastic spies. Once they take control of a host, they can do what ever they want with the body, it is almost impossible for the host to break free. The Host gets an initial will save to drive the creature out, and they can try to battle the creature within the next few hours, but after 11 Days, its done, its over, the Demodand has achieved total control over the body, the only way the host can regain control is if the Demodand is put under great emotional distress.

However there are some strict limitation, each Demodand has a single state of emotional duress that allows them to enter a body. These are very specific limitations like "Fear of flying", "Worry about graduation", "Loss of a daughter" or "Religious crisis"

For example, one Demodand might have “Suicidal Thoughts due to failing to get a job” and somebody experiencing that feeling automatically allows the Demodand access. It is always something very specific, like "fear of flying" Obviously they can also possess people with the traditional limitations if they so choose. The issue is, once a Demodand can get in, it is really difficult to get them out. A strong willed person can drive them out within the first few mins of possession, but every hour it becomes harder and harder to get it out through willpower alone, and if the Demodand can stay inside the host for a day, it becomes extraordinarily difficult to drive the creature out (basically requiring multiple natural 20s) and so the Demodand can walk around basically without fear.
NOTE: In certain areas or under certain circumstances, a Demodand can possess a target regardless of their emotional state. For example in an Unhollowed area, anybody is fair game, if you summon a Demodand you are automatically susceptible, and people whose mental defenses have weakened can be taken in automatically.


Removing a Demodand:

Once a Demodand enters a body, getting it out can be tricky. You can kill the host, but that only banishes the Demodand for a Century to the Barrens, unless it is with a holy weapon which will kill it for good along with the host. However for those who aren’t interested in killing the host, things get complicated. Short of it leaving voluntarily, the best way to remove a Demodand is an exorcism, which are complicated and difficult to manage affairs. Beyond exoticism, you can try to harm the host enough that the Demodand flees to avoid the pain, though this is pretty evil. A loophole is to use holy water, which doesn’t harm the host but very much harms the Demodand. In fact if you expose them to enough Holy Water you can kill the Demodand leaving the host perfectly fine (but soaked), though this normally requires full body immersion. Be careful not to drown them though.


Demodand related Spells

Among Exoticism, all require a holy book, ritual prayer, holy water, and somebody to hold the creature down. The basic level spell (See No Evil) will simply remove the creature from the host, though they can then immediately attempt to possess a new target after a round of being stunned. A more powerful spell (Hear no Evil) will Force the Demodand to fully manifest, which makes them more dangerous but possible to kill. Another exoticism (Feel No Evil) will banish the creature to the Barrens for a century, while the most powerful version (Smell No Evil) will destroy the creature while leaving the host intact. Another spell (Taste No Evil) can bind the Demodand to a Single Host for a Year and a Day (should the host be killed the Demodand is banished for a century). The powerful spell “Destroy Evil” will destroy the host and the demon in a the utterance of a single word, though such a spell is often viewed as evil. And of course another spell (Think No Evil) will render a target immune to possession for three days, should a Demodand attempt to possess them they will be either banished or killed.
Over time there have been a few other ceremonies designed to keep these creatures at bay in other forms, the Devil’s Trap sigil (a misnomer they aren’t Devils) will trap the creature in the area of its drawing (between 10-30 feet) until the symbol is broken by an outside force. Protect the Flock is a spell that can render an area from either 50 feet to 3 miles unable to be entered by Demodands, and the “Free the Host” spell serves as a mass version of See No Evil, but requires all of the targets to be standing within a summoning circle. There is also the “Ward of the Blessed” which keeps a Demodand from touching an object, most often a chess, or box, and “Higher Calling” which will keep the Demodand from entering a drawn circle (between 10-15 feet). For those who want to kill Demodands who haven’t possessed somebody yet, the “Halt Evil” Ceremony will banish all non-manifested Demodands within a 1 mile radius if performed, with the more powerful “Purity Evil” killing all non-manifested Demodands in the same radius if they fail a save. Manifested Demodands are ironically easier to kill or banish with rituals, the “Banish Evil” takes only three rounds to cast and will banish any Manifested Demodand, while the more powerful “End Evil” will kill most Manifested Demodand in only five rounds.
Finally there is the infamous “Command Despair” spell which will force a Demodand to obey the caster, though this spell can go badly very easily. And for the truly mad, you may summon one of these if you know it’s true name, though this is extremely dangerous. All spell are ceremonies and so they can be cast by anybody with the materials, time, and knowledge, though they aren’t easy to use in combat.
Oh right, there is one more spell, very important, Reveal Evil. This spell requires an elaborate ritual at the start of the day, after which for the next 24 hours if you say a holy word, the Demodand is forced to reveal itself by manifesting its eyes. The word can be spoken as much as you wish during that 24 hour period.
Also reciting an exorcism backwards will force a Demodand back into its last victim, though it only has to stay there for a single round before fleeing should it choose.


Other Weaknesses

Demodands can be hurt by holy items, which damage them and not the host. They cannot cross barriers of salt in a possessed form, in fact salt causes them great pain (a cup of salt will inflict 1d4 damage) though salt can only reduce them to 0 HP, not kill them. If you force a host to ingest a lot of salt (at least a cup), the Demodand will likely flee due to the extreme pain. They cannot abide the feel of iron, which burns their flesh at a rate of 1D6 per round of direct exposure to the skin, though again it won’t kill them. There is a type of wood called a Palo Santo which if carved into a stake and stabbed into the hosts flesh will knock the Demodand out for an hour, allowing an easy exorcism. Most Demodands cannot heal their hosts, and so will be rendered immobile by external damage. Purified Blood can banish a Demodand if they ingest it, and direct exposure will harm the Demodand greatly. Other Demodand can also kill them if in soul combat, though that is a long and deadly affair. If somebody can track down the mortal from whom the Demodand originally sprang and burned their bones in holy fire, it will kill the Demodand instantly, though that is extremely difficult.
There are a few special items made specifically for slaying Demodands over the millennia. A Hope bomb will destroy all Demodands in a 50 foot radius, host or no host, though again the morality of this is disputed. The legendary Knife of Despair can kill a lesser Demodand in a single hit, though it also slays the host. And of course blades of hope can instantly kill a Demodand without harming the host, but good luck finding one of those.
Note for Paladins: Killing the host isn't an evil action if the host is already mortally wounded to the point that they will simply instantly die if the Demodand left.
[/SPOILERS]

Nature of the Demodand


Demodand’s true forms are massive clouds of evil smoke, but they much prefer to possess a target, where they are only identified by the color of their eyes when they manifest while possessing a victim. Demodand rarely show their eyes, but in order to keep their form they must manifest at least 11 times per day, for a period of 1 round. Nobody has to be around to witness this, so it is not much of a weakness. Small detail, creatures who don’t have eyes cannot be possessed by Demodands, and by this I mean physical eye orbs, nonworking eyes can still let you be possessed (they enter through the eyes). A creature who only has one eye requires 2 rounds to possess instead of two.

Manifestation

Most of the time when Demodands are on the Material Plane, even when they are summoned there, they aren’t fully manifested. You can tell because the smoke seems insubstantial and translucent (even by the standards of smoke) when full manifested the smoke is more solid and dense, looking like you could actually touch it (and you can). When not manifested they cannot use any of their natural abilities, but can also be hurt physically (I mean if you can harm an incorporeal creature), and aren’t able to possess people. They can bring more of their power to bear, for example White Eyed Demodands possessing a mortal have abilities like a level 18 Psychic, that goes up to 20 if they are fully manifested, but without the ability to possess or use their super strength such power is limited, so despite the benefits it brings, Demodand prefer not to be fully manifested on the Material Plane. In the Barrens, Demodands can switch freely between being Manifested and not Manifested at will, simply by taking one hour to “condense” and in fact can take it a step further by combining with other Demodands of the same type. The horrifying Storms of Despair that ravage the Barrens are in fact Masses of Demodands coming together to destroy intruders, and mostly occur when the Blood War gets too hairy and they want to drive it back. On the Material Plane however, a second ritual is necessary to Manifest a Demodand after summoning it, and as they prefer to possess people it is rarely used on a Demodand willingly. If a Demodand is manifested on the Material Plane, they cannot become unmanifested, and so they must return to the Barrens and be summoned all over again, so yeah they really hate being Manifested.


Species of Demodands

There are 11 breeds of the creature, each with a special task of despair and nihilism, and what Caste they belong too can be determined both by the form of their cloud and also the color of their eyes when they possess a victim. The ranks aren’t in a strict order, rather there is a single group who are the lowest (black) the highest (white) and nine positions of equal importance in the middle, at least in terms of rank. In terms of power and abilities, there is a fairly strict divide between them, but the Demodands have never bothered to come up with a consistent formula. At least in theory, in reality each of the nine feel that they are the most important.

Black: The weakest of the creatures, they have no special role other than to walk around being massive *******s. They serve as minions for the higher ups and mischief makers, often simply assigned basic tasks to make the world more miserable and aren’t trusted much more than that. They do have superior strength and a few magical abilities, but nothing beyond that. Black can be promoted to any rank, though rarely does a black get promoted to White.

Blue: The Blood Demodands (due to how much they kill). These creatures are the elite enforcers and bodyguards among the Demodands, primarily in order to make people feel unsafe or see loved ones die. They are effectively the same as Black but with less weaknesses and automatically have 10 levels in Fighter off the bat, which serves them well as the main muscle for more powerful Demodands. When acting on their own they mostly just find and torture mortals for their own pleasure, and are easily bored/distracted. Their eyes are extremely dark blue and their smoke forms look like a chemical smoke.

Purple Demodands: The “Shadow Demodands” are a special category of their own, in that they cannot possess people without a special summoning ritual. When they possess a target they are intelligent, powerful and dangerous, all are at least level 12 Witches, and focus primarily upon magical research and knowledge. But when they are in their true form they are horrifying shadow beings who are animalistic, simply hunting down and killing anything they find unless command not to by a superior. This includes other Demodands, as they can easily harm any non White Demodand.

Pink: Another unusual version these creatures, these beings are actually known as “Loss Hounds” and serve as the collectors of souls, almost never possessing target (doing so requires a very powerful ritual that they rarely consent too). Unlike all of the other examples, they have an actual natural form, one which most people cannot see but resembles a translucent horrifying demonic hound. They are unbelievably powerful but only can attack certain targets outside the barrens, but they can be particularly powerful against other Outsiders, who they deal extra damage too, including Demodands (all of whom give these creatures a wide berth). They have an alien sort of intelligence that doesn’t manifest much, but they seem mostly to be just animalistic. In the extremely rare instances where they do possess somebody, they mostly serve as trackers and hunters, starting off with 15 levels in Ranger, but they usually try to leave their mortal form as quickly as possible to get back to hunting.


Grey: The Disaster Demodands are the assassins and spies among the Demodands, being harder to detect and possessing formidable stealth capacities in mortal form. When left unsupervised they tend to become serial killers, delighting in causing grief and despair among loved ones. Automatically start off with at least ten levels in rogue. They have grey eyes when possessed and their true form is almost invisible, a faint gas which looks like a small disturbance unless it is colored by smoke or some other detection method.
Brown Eyed Demodands: The so called “Traveling Demodands” these creatures are obsessives who tend to avoid the politics of their kin unless forced too, instead playing out horrific incidents of mass death that are passed off as natural disasters on a regular basic. They tend to spend years at a time hibernating after causing an accident of mass death before emerging to repeat the process. They take the form of a black cloud that seems to be a swarm of brownish black insects. They are the strongest of Demodands in terms of physical strength but the weakest in terms of actual combat ability, and tend to avoid adventurers or people who might stop them.

Green Demodand: So called “Sin Demodands” these creatures have the power to mentally manipulate people around them, often to get them to commit sins and acts of extreme violence. They start out with at least ten levels in Mesmerist, though they refer not to dominate people’s minds as much as they like to lead people to commit sins on their own, and delight in the despair of people coming too after the fact. They particularly like to spread the belief that mortals are a single act away from falling upon each other like animals, for that leads to more despair all around. They have green eyes and take the form of a swamp gas looking smoke.
Orange Demodand: The So called “Barren Knights” these creatures are some of the most powerful, short only of the White Demodands, and serve as the elite soldiers of the Barrens. They are powerful fighters all having at least 15 levels in Hexblade (imagine if the class didn’t suck) and are immune to most of the weaknesses of their lesser kin (Iron, Salt, resistance to Holy Water etc) while possessing potent natural abilities themselves. Their true form is an orange mist resembling that produces by a forest fire.

Red: The infamous Crossroad Demodands, these creatures have far more power but also greater limitations, as they can only manifest on the material plane in a few locations, and have massive limitations on what they can and cannot do. Their primary goal is recruitment and obtaining souls for the species as a whole. They can be summoned at a four point crossroads in order to grant a twenty year wish, though adventurers should bear in mind, they are not the only wish granters at the crossroads. Their eyes are completely red and they take the form of a red mist that resembles blood.

Yellow: The overseers and coordinators of the other Demodands, these creatures maintain order and focus among the Demodands, and are the second most powerful among the Demodands. They mostly fixate on causing personal despair, and delight in dealing false hope, when they aren’t trying to figure out how to get their superiors summoned. All of them have at least 18 levels in Psion (Telepath). Their true form is yellow smoke in the form of a flame.

White: The supreme lords among the Demodands (short of the actual Planar Lords themselves) these creatures are known as the Apocalypse Demodands, and are rarely seen on the material plane due to how difficult it is to summon them. Their eyes when revealed go completely white, and in their true forms they are nearly invisible white smoke. They are immune to most of the traditional Demodand Weakness. They are all powerful Spellcasters (specifically Psychics) and are freakishly strong. They also can wield White Light, a horrifying material that can simply destroy substances of their choice, though they are reluctant to do so as it harms them. Their most terrible power is their teleportation, once they are summoned to the Mateiral Plane (no mean feat), they can teleport anywhere that isn’t specifically protected, provided they have a host. These creatures fear very little, and focus most of their energies on being summoned to the material plane. They delight in mass loss of faith, be it faith in an economy, a religion or the ideal of a nation, anything they do is on a world or at least continental scale.

Sometimes multiple Demodands of the same breed occupy a single target, which is known as a “Mutli colored Demodand” or “Hallows Demodand”. These creatures have some unique powers and abilities, but largely its more trouble than it is worth but it is necessary for a few special rituals.
For the record Acheri and the Disease Demons are separate creatures in my game.


Rulers and Politics

Rulers: The Demodands are rumored to have a ruling caste of Cosmic Lords but they seem to have vanished, the Demodands are currently leaderless, though that doesn’t seem to bother them much. Some whisper that the 11 lords of the Barrens are locked away in some hidden pit each with powerful seals locking them up, but the Demodands as a whole seem more concerned with keeping them locked away rather than freeing them, it is thought that many of the current unofficial leaders might face punishment should their masters return. There are small loyalists sects within all the castes who hope to restore the leadership but they are normally crushed by the Demodand majority.


Goals and Ambitions:


The Demos (as they are sometimes called in the manner of Leths or Loths) are fairly passive in terms of the Damned, they are barely involved in the politics of the Lower Planes and they barely even involve themselves in the maintained of their own layer, to the point that many people believe that the Barrens are uninhabited. The Demodands themselves are quite impassionate on their own plane, barely involving themselves in the defense of their realm (beyond the occasional storm and possession of military commanders) and are virtually unknown in Planar power politics. Truth is, the depression and nihilism of this realm has seeped into them, and without other people around they tend to hibernate or wander the Barrens senselessly. Demodands only seem to become active when they possess a host or are on the Material Plane, and even then this takes a few years of activity before they start really planning long term. However over the millennia, there are tens thousands of Demodands wandering the material plane and thousands more with vessels in the Wastes. In the short term, the Demodands want to bring more of their kind into the Material Plane and solidify their power. In the long term, they have a far greater goal, to destroy all passion in the multiverse. Nihilists to the core, the Demodands imagine a world where all mortals lose their desire and hope at long last dies. What this will look like varies from Demo to Demo, some imagine mortals simply laying listlessly on the ground until they finally die, others imagine all mortals reverting to an animal state, while others imagine a true society with no hope (a boot on the human face forever). Whatever the specifics (though Demodands fight each other constantly to determine these specifics) the Demodands wish to end mortality’s own ability to imagine a better world, and leave them forever trapped in the world that currently exists. Some of the more ambitious ones wish to take the plan one step further, to eradicate the multiverse itself, and with it the Soul itself.
Ever since their leaders have vanished, Demodands have no clear plan on how to achieve this goal, and many simple work individually. There are at least two major inter planar Demodand groups, but possibly a dozen lesser ones, mostly working along side or allied with each other, but they occasionally fight short vicious periods of civil war before going back to their main goal. Currently they are divided between those who wish to destroy the soul itself and are dedicating their work primarily to research, and those who instead wish to wipe out sentience. They aren’t actually opposed to each, but the leaders often are rivalries and short conflicts have been known to happen. The vast majority of Demos are simply solo agents, going around trying to install despair and hopelessness wherever they go.


Personality

While Demodands can access the memory of their host, they don’t copy their personalities, and have their own disposition. Generally speaking they are silent hedonists, falling into drugs, food, sex, and all form of sensations but not out of any sense of joy passion the way Demons do, instead they primarily simply dead themselves to the world around them. Demodands often spend the first few years of possession simply in a stupor, barely moving except for short burst of energy to either assure the next fix or respond with extreme violence to those who intrude upon them. Over time they find themselves unable to find true oblivion due to the presence of hope in the multiverse around them, and it works as a siren, keeping them from sleeping, keep them from being content, and keeping them from finding true escape. Demodands all act like somebody who hasn’t slept in a very VERY long time, and they all eagerly await the day where all hope dies and they can finally close their eyes for good.
Until then, Demodands are cunning and social but always somewhat grouchy and some off like they are at least partly hung over. They are infamously short tempered, but lack much passion in their anger, more of a dead hollow sort of grumpiness. Demodands don’t work that well together in large groups and much prefer to operate alone or in small groups.


NOTE ON POSSESION
[SPOILER]
Demodands can only permenantly occupty mortal hosts, they can temporarily occupty an immortal’s body but after 11 rounds the host can start making saves to drive them out and if they win they might even be able to kill the Demodand. So if a Demodand possesses a Pit Fiend at a critical juncture to have it make tactical errors, if it fails a contested will save it can be expelled or destroyed by the infernal nature of the Devil. This is part of why Demodands avoid the Blood War, their physical power is nothing compared to those of the Demons and Devils, and their possession powers are of limited use.


The Dementors

The Dementors are a special species of Demodand who have given into despair on some deeper level, and start to actually spread evil, they are seen as the priests and religious authorities of he Demodands, but they seem to ignore them in favor of simply spreading their evil. Dementors are invisible to most mortals and exist to drain hope from those around them, which makes them particularly dangerous for outsiders as they can drain a person's hope while the Demodands can possess the victim due to their emotional break down. Their greatest power is the infamous Dementor's Kiss, a horrifying ability that can drain the soul from the body, leaving it an empty comatose mass of flesh. A hollow corpse can be possessed by any demodand and they can move around in it, but it has one noticeable weakness. The host's eyes will slowly revert to the Demodand's eyes over time, until the mortal eyes cannot be seen anymore, permanently made the Demodand's. Whether Dementors are Demodands or just a similar species who co exist with them is unknown, but they mostly act independently, the Demodands serve more as parasites who follow them around as the Dementors ignore them. Dementor's mere presence will drain happy feelings and positive emotions from everybody around them. They stand at roughly 10-12 feet tall and move with complete silence, gliding a few inches off the ground. Those near them have reported feeling cold or numb and forced to relive their worse experiences, while their pleasant memories are impossible to access until the creature leaves. They are themselves blind, only able to detect creatures based upon their emotional turmoil, which makes them weak against mindless creatures, and so most packs of Dementors will have at least a few Demodands to serve as scouts, Demodands being the only creatures immune to their power.