Hey everyone, in my campaign the PCs are en route to a small town (200ish people) to investigate a series of murders. What seems like the case of a serial killer is actually the work of an IT style demon. Rather then eating people, it instead takes control of their body through implanting a small bug through the ear into the brain (dark stuff). This is similar to the Dominate Person spell, but subjects cannot resist once under its control and the demon can see & hear through their subject. The dominated person is essentially a living husk at this point.
Note, the murders are not actually caused by the demon directly, but by individuals that discover that people are being replaced by the demon.
My question is, what kind of advice would you have for running a few sessions about a creature that essentially replaces everyone in the town slowly and how would it defend itself to intruders if/when they began to catch on? And is there a creature in the Pathfinders monsters list that fits this type of creature?
Edit: Currently, the average party level is 6 with three players.
vermlek are a far cruder version of what you want. 7ft worm demons taht hollow out corpses to use as flesh puppets. They are not very good at hiding it, since they don't really have magical stuff to hide what they are (the corpse ends up 'corpulent' since it is stuffed, and it still rots)
But the 'inhabit body' and 'flesh armor' abilities seem useful for what you want to do.
Maybe add on a watered down version of the 'worm that walks' template to make it a small swarm of demon worms instead? This would mostly aim to get the 'dis-incorporate' ability so they flee the corpse when beat, and the option to abandon the corpse and turn into a swarm instead for.... 'fun'. Obviously you should drop the DR 15/- and Fast healing equal to CR. Your party is level 6, after all, and smaller than the baseline (4 players?).
Vermlek sound creepy! Reminds me of that one old Star Trek episode. I'll check out the worms that walk/
It would be kind of neat if the PCs ended up getting into (and winning) a fight, and the worms would escape their host, or the hosts would get back up as zombies.
Dotting for eventual story time.
Dotting for eventual story time.
What do you mean?
I'm hoping this post will be updated with the eventual story of how this plays out in your campaign.
As for the mechanics side I cant think of anything else that wasn't already said.
I agree the vermlek special abilities would be good for your host creature. Especially heightening the danger if they can see it run away and come back eventually. Then they'll be wondering who they can trust etc.
Even the +8 to Disguise is good if you want the Dominated person (assuming you are keeping it that way) for the PCs to spot something odd about the person, maybe the demon controlling them forgets to make them blink or something.
Please make sure that the demon with the ear bugs is named Khan though.
To that note, what does the main demon controlling everyone look like? Just a CR level appropriate demon or have you gotten that far yet?
I'm hoping this post will be updated with the eventual story of how this plays out in your campaign.
It won't be for a bit as me and one of my players are starting a new job, which means a more stable schedule but we want to focus on that for now.
Please make sure that the demon with the ear bugs is named Khan though.
Khan isn't a bad demon name at all.
To that note, what does the main demon controlling everyone look like? Just a CR level appropriate demon or have you gotten that far yet?
I'm a fan of simple enemy designs. I don't have something concrete yet, but I'm thinking it be some kind of humanoid, tall, spindly, pale, long greasy black hair, black eyes. Freaky looking, but nothing over the top. Relies more on the creatures it dominates for self-defense as opposed to natural weapons or magic.
Have not determined stats, will probably pick something off the monsters list and tweak it to what would be a good challenge for the PCs.
Vermlek sound creepy! Reminds me of that one old Star Trek episode. I'll check out the worms that walk/
It would be kind of neat if the PCs ended up getting into (and winning) a fight, and the worms would escape their host, or the hosts would get back up as zombies.
Worms that walk are thematically interesting. The basic way they form is that someone gets shanked and left to rot in a gutter... and they were the type of person that really deserved it. Worms that walk form when an evil and powerful individual rejects this whole 'death' thing so hard that they take over the insets eating their corpse.
They are creatures born of their own intense will, and they are likely to go full throttle because ... hey, what is the worst that could happen? They die? Been there, done that.
The creation method can be useful from a story perspective. It means that you can take a defeated creature, and have it claw its way back up. From your original set up, you could easily have a defeated demon coming back for revenge/sacrifices for rebirth.
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The bug that you describe is kinda similar to an Intellect Devourer. This is a small sized walking brain that can shrink itself and replace the victims brains. The only difference is that the victim dies and the creature uses the corpse as a bodysuit.
As for the Demon itself, how about any demon you like and adding the Nightmare Template (scroll down)? The Nightmare Lord (creature with Nightmare Template that has 10hd) can actually take people over while they are sleeping (as in permanent Dominate Person). He can do this from any distance, as long as the victim is sleeping and the creature knows who he wants to target (Nightmare spell rules). To gain that ability, the base creature does need 10hd, so it might be a bit strong for your current party. But it could make for an excellent recurring villain even though it is nowhere near ground zero.
A couple thoughts.
First, if everyone in town is infected, it will make the PCs job relatively easy. They can start killing indiscriminately. Or just leave. I would suggest making sure that it's only maybe half of the population. That leads to a game of "who can we trust". Which means you need to embed in-game reasons why the PCs must interact with many people. Once they figure out the overall issue, the clues regarding who they spoke to should be evident.
Second, you've got a neat opportunity to leave bread crumbs. If they have a discussion with one infected NPC, you could have another NPC aware of that conversation and refer to it. If you're subtle enough, they won't catch on.
It's an interesting challenge.
If they have a discussion with one infected NPC, you could have another NPC aware of that conversation and refer to it. If you're subtle enough, they won't catch on.
Is this like Rick and Morty episode with his ex GF Unity? One of the infected gets drunk and then all of the infected get sick?
Is this like Rick and Morty episode with his ex GF Unity? One of the infected gets drunk and then all of the infected get sick?If they have a discussion with one infected NPC, you could have another NPC aware of that conversation and refer to it. If you're subtle enough, they won't catch on.
Not a clue. I'm aware what R&M is, and that it's evidently good, but we all have a limited number of hours each day, and my entertainment hours are already spoken for.
Watch "The World's End" with Simon Pegg (2013). Very similar plot, only aliens.
A couple thoughts.
First, if everyone in town is infected, it will make the PCs job relatively easy. They can start killing indiscriminately. Or just leave. I would suggest making sure that it's only maybe half of the population. That leads to a game of "who can we trust". Which means you need to embed in-game reasons why the PCs must interact with many people. Once they figure out the overall issue, the clues regarding who they spoke to should be evident.
Second, you've got a neat opportunity to leave bread crumbs. If they have a discussion with one infected NPC, you could have another NPC aware of that conversation and refer to it. If you're subtle enough, they won't catch on.
It's an interesting challenge.
Good ideas. I was thinking of having it about half anyways. The players would investigate the murders, get conflicting reports from different npcs with some of the stories not adding up.
It would be neat if maybe some npc's kill infected people, and in turn, the demon has those people killed as well. Gives some nice back and forth (as you mentioned, who can we trust).
Ghray ninja'd me, but here goes. Long post ahoy!
I have an idea: not everyone in town is infected... but make them complacent with the demon, possibly even worshipers or cultists. Make one of them look like the killers the PCs were looking for. Then reveal that there's an entire cult of them in the town. Now the PCs have to locate their hidden temple underneath the town and face them.
Once the PCs mow them down, have the possessed villagers celebrate their deed and give them a place to stay for the night. Drug their drinks to make them "sleep easier". They can get a perception check to see if their meals have been tainted and a fortitude save later in the night once they go to bed.
If they pass the perception check and call this out, everyone in the village goes on high alert, forming patrols and lynch mobs willing to burn the entire village down to destroy the PCs. If they pass the fortitude check, the PCs can wake up normally when some villagers try to kidnap them in the night.
If the PCs fail both of those checks, they wake up deeper in the cultist's temple, even further in than when they faced the cult. It's there that they face demons and rotted "husk" villagers, possibly reanimated into undead and disguised with an illusion spell to make them look normal.
At the bottom of the temple, the BBEG demon, Khan, is encountered. He offers them a deal; if the PCs let him go, he can offer them all a boon, specifically the Antipaladin's Plague Bringer ability, coupled with the disease that turned half the village into mindless subservient husks.
If the PCs accept, he teleports them out of the temple with their gift in tow with no further repercussions. If the PCs refuse, Khan attacks them. If/when he is killed, a portal back to the entrance of the temple appears. Either way, the PCs can never return to the temple depths.
If the PCs accepted Khan's offer, they can simply leave with no further repercussions. If Khan is defeated, however, the "husked" half of the villagers drop dead. The other half try to swarm you since you just killed this village's "salvation" (salvation from what exactly is up to you). The PCs can kill all of them in self-defense, but if they can knock one or two of them out and bring them back to their employers to explain the situation, give them a bonus of some kind.
I think I'd go custom monster, and also create a custom subsystem in which a small number of the town's population is possessed every day.
Say you start off with just 20 possessed citizens (good number, enough to suggest serial murderer). For every 20 possessed citizens, an additional 1d6 are possessed each day (or every few hours, or however long you think suits your needs).
This does a couple of things - first, it avoids the "kill them all" thing, because it's really only a fraction of the whole (to start with). Secondly, it adds confusion because a citizen that wasn't possessed yesterday could be possessed today (just make sure that it can't be anyone that the PCs were in direct contact with at the time the possession should have happened). And third, it sets a definite escalating time pressure to find the source, since eventually the whole town will be possessed. Maybe have one of the PCs approached at some point by a possessed citizen who's trying to take them away to get them possessed.
And as for the custom monster, I'd "hidden leader" the situation. Set things up so that there's a central possessor (works well if it's someone well respected in town that the PCs already know) and their destruction terminates the possession of that town, but the real demon isn't actually there... ready made future adventure.
I think I'd go custom monster, and also create a custom subsystem in which a small number of the town's population is possessed every day.
Say you start off with just 20 possessed citizens (good number, enough to suggest serial murderer). For every 20 possessed citizens, an additional 1d6 are possessed each day (or every few hours, or however long you think suits your needs).
This does a couple of things - first, it avoids the "kill them all" thing, because it's really only a fraction of the whole (to start with). Secondly, it adds confusion because a citizen that wasn't possessed yesterday could be possessed today (just make sure that it can't be anyone that the PCs were in direct contact with at the time the possession should have happened). And third, it sets a definite escalating time pressure to find the source, since eventually the whole town will be possessed. Maybe have one of the PCs approached at some point by a possessed citizen who's trying to take them away to get them possessed.
And as for the custom monster, I'd "hidden leader" the situation. Set things up so that there's a central possessor (works well if it's someone well respected in town that the PCs already know) and their destruction terminates the possession of that town, but the real demon isn't actually there... ready made future adventure.
Yes i definitely think like a time line of events like this would be the best approach, that way you don't have to lead the PCs by the hand to the objective, eventually they'll be so many "infected" that it'll basically be obvious. Also it rewards the PCs for being observant, if they catch on early they'll be less "infected" to deal with.
So like above, yeah a total amount of infected that increases over time, and they have a tell...idk maybe they don't blink or have knowledge from conversations they weren't privy to.
Maybe there's a goal, to make it super obvious if they PCs don;t catch on, like after 75% of the town is infected BBEG Khan tries to pull of a ritual in the town square at midnight.
On that note, maybe thats another tell, maybe all the infected have to go meet up with Khan in the middle of the night to renew the spell/whatever controlling them.