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MY PLAYERS STAY OUT
So these guys are back, portrayed in art for the first time for Pathfinder, IIRC, on page 45 of Shards of Sin. Since that's enough buffer text to prevent mouse-rollover spoilage: Nupperibos.
I really like this take on them. I didn't dislike the old take I was familiar with from Planescape(and I pretty much err towards Planescape's portrayal of stuff most of the time), which also worked, but this one is really singing to me now. That face is just....damn. Like seriously, damnation. All over that face.
I'm definitely planning on describing them as twitching and spasming in their movements. Unnatural, tortuous, Silent Hillian gait, more or less, with their heads constantly going back and forth between slow, sporadic jerking twitching and rapid-fire thrashing. Hoping to capture some of that unsettling feel from bits of Jacobs Ladder and other examples of the "undercranking" special effect that gets use in horror films here and there.
I'm wondering what most people find creepier though:
Having them do the above while completely voiceless and silent.
OR
Having them constantly screaming and wailing. Not straight-up screaming like the ghost pilot from Venture Brothers, which could push it over the edge into comedy, but rather distorted, choked vocalizations that are obviously coming from throats pushed beyond mortal humanoid endurance after who knows how long a time in Hell. Hopefully something that's both pitiable and horrifying.
Combined with the visual on page 45, which approach for sound would you likely find most effective as a player?
This plays into the description of Stink as well. I run with the idea that, unlike daemons, when demons and devils devour souls(and other fiends), other things happen to them besides consumption. Most of the time it means that they're absorbed into the eaters body and/or soul, either for a time before being ejected and becoming something else or permanently becoming part of the larger fiends amalgam form until the larger fiend is slain, breaking it into its component souls again. With Stink, all of those Nupperibos he's been eating just become part of his body, so while he might plead with the PCs there's going to be those horrible nupperibo faces pressing outward from within his "skin", doing that same twitching. Again, it comes down to what would make the scene more effective: having them be completely silent or muffled by the lemure's mass?
How about silent until they're hurt and then screaming their horrid faces off?
And the Silent Hill soundtracks (primarily the first one) are really atmospheric. Too much actual music and melody crept into the later soundtracks. It's one of my go-to soundtracks for creepy stuff.
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Actually, having it be reactive like that could be really unsettling... Definitely considering going that route now. :)
Then make it play backwards. Then put it on a loop. Backwards talking, always super freaky.
Oh I'm certainly inclined to agree considering some of my favorite games. ;)
....or grab the appropriate soundfiles from "Event Horizon"... You know the one from the "rescue message".. Speaking in odd/latin voices, slightly distanced with feedback noise and white sound added...
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If you're playing around in Audacity, try the full-on Twin Peaks route. Which is to say: read creepy lines backwards, then flip them with Audacity so they're "forward."
It makes speech really creepy and oddly inflected, but there are also jerky pauses (from reading backwards) that fit well with the twitching and thrashing.
Cheers!
Landon
Hunt down the reverse of the Headcrab Zombie growls from Half-Life. Oh so very creepy.