Sometimes, when a person partakes in the time old activity of "doing some sketchy shit", their souls will actually take damage. "Sketchy shit" includes, but is not limited to sacrificing people, getting cursed, eating certain monsters' flesh, being soul drained, and having foreign matter/magic bind itself to your body.
Damage to one's soul is known as Corruption. When a soul is corrupt enough, it will grow cancerous, and begin to turn you into a demon. Demons are a term for people whose souls have grown out of control, and are dangerous creatures indeed. Corruption fills up and overwrites your Soul slots (or your Charisma score or something).
Corruption starts at 0. When a quarter of your Soul slots are corrupt, you start showing demonic traits.
When half your Soul slots are corrupt, several things happen:
First: you turn into a demon.
Second: you try to kill all your friends.
Third: If you survive, you become an NPC. Regardless, make a new character.
If you fail a roll, you can choose to succeed instead.
Doing this increases your Corruption by 1.
Certain activities may require you to make a save. Failing the save raises the Corruption of a random stat by 1. Example activities: Suffer a soul attack, get cursed, consume demonflesh, murder innocents, perform cannibalism. The type of activity you do affects what kind of demon you will show signs of/turn into.
Corruption decreases by 1 upon leveling up.
Due to their corruptive nature, every demon you encounter has a 50% chance of having a Spellscar somewhere on its body. Purely for visual effect, and for differentiating them when in a group. "Flamehand" and "Iceface" sound better than "Demon 1" and "Demon 2".
Mineral Soul: Bonephage
The Mineral Soul governs your chemistry. It makes sure that your body stays in the shape it is supposed to be, rather than collapsing into a pile of flesh. When it becomes cancerous, your body starts to grow more solid, your bones grow larger, and your thoughts grow simpler.
Appearing: 1 wanderer, 2 brawlers
HD: 12 (54 HP)
Appearance: Humanoid, hulking figure, 4-5 meters tall. Thick, bonelike skin plating
Manner : Gravelly. Deep bass rumble. Loud trudging footsteps.
Tactics: None. Smashes things that confuse it. Thinking too hard confuses it.
Wants: Silence, to make complex things simpler (by turning them into rubble)
Morality: Angry at anything complicated, satisfaction at anything simple enough
Intelligence: Dim. Enraged by
complex thought
Armour: as chain. Bonephages reduce all incoming damage by 3
Move: Normal
Morale: 10
Damage: 3d6 slam
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| This is Gigantomachia from MHA |
Vegetable Soul: Rootweb
The Vegetable Soul governs biology, keeping your body running, and repairing it when it gets damaged. When it becomes cancerous, it gets confused about what counts as your body. Your flesh is obviously your body, and so is your skin. But what about your clothes? The chair you're sitting on? How about those people you're always around, surely they count as part of you, right?
Appearing: 1 Rootweb, 2d8 drones
HD: Rootweb 4 (18 HP), drones 1 (5 HP)
Appearance: Group of people tethered via fleshy ropes to a humanoid with spooky veins and eyes growing all over them and their clothes. Leaves patches of veins/organs on whatever it touches for more than 10 minutes
Manner: Papery whispering from Rootweb, drones can speak normally, but refer to the whole group in the first person.
Tactics: Attempt to touch people before combat breaks out, to add them to their drones. Have drones mob someone while it turns them.
Wants: To secure nutrients? Haven't really thought about this one
Morality: Ever changing, Multiple personalities (for redundancy)
Intelligence: Alien, but about at smart as most people
Armour: Leather for Rootweb, none for drones
Move: Normal
Morale: 8
Damage: Rootweb 2d6, drone 1d6 (weapons)
The Rootweb can attempt to overwrite your sense of self through physical contact, dealing d6 damage and increasing corruption by d6 on a hit. For every hit after the second, save or become a drone. Also works for turns of being grappled.
Works sorta like an Oblex or SCP-049. I don't have art for these guys. Or maybe you just don't deserve it >:)
Animal Soul: Animus
The Animal Soul governs instinct. Fight or flight. But mostly Fight. When it becomes cancerous, it will bully and subordinate the other souls to its will. The body will be made to mutate, adapt, specialize, as evolution magnified into a single lifetime.
Appearing: 1 scout, pack of 2d4
HD: 3 (14 HP)
Appearance: Pale, hairless humanoids with no eyes and a mouth full of shark teeth. Move on all fours, with wiry, clawed limbs
Manner: Clicking, hissing, screeching. Crawling up walls like a demonic spiderman.
Tactics: Stay hidden, leap onto lone targets. Will kidnap people to lure in others.
Wants: To feast on flesh, and spread fear
Morality: Hungry, ruthless
Intelligence: Like a very smart dog, focused on killing
Armour: None
Move: 2x normal. Climb normal
Morale: 7
Damage: 1d4 claw / 1d4 claw / 1d6 bite. If both claw
attacks hit the same target, the bite attack
automatically hits
If an Animus successfully hits a target, all other Animi attacking them that round treat the target’s
armour as one step lower. A pack of Animi will
coordinate their attacks to split, isolate, and dismay
their opposition.
Animi ambush their prey, either from above or from a concealed position. An Animus can leap up to 20' forwards and 10' high.
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| These are Scavengers from Othercide |
Purple/Memory Soul: Awakened
The Purple Soul governs memory. When it becomes cancerous, memories from previous lives, and other people's memories start to seep through to your current memory. As the Purple soul grows out of control, it forces the higher souls to make room, removing morals, empathy, humanity. This process invariably breaks the brain.
Awakened do not sleep.
Appearing: 1
HD: 10 (45 HP)
Appearance: Regular human, angry expression or rictus grin
Voice: Normal, maybe hoarse from constant screaming. Condescending to everything
Tactics: None, they're insane. Will break own limbs to avoid further damage. Maximum violence.
Wants: To cause as much pain and suffering as possible before dying
Morality: Same as before, but now finds everything meaningless and contemptable
Intelligence: As smart as normal. Knows things that it shouldn't be able to
Armour: None
Move: Normal. Can move at 2x for 1 turn but takes 1d4 damage
Morale: 12. Pain is a joke, death holds no fear
Damage: 2d6 (hands). Takes 1 damage every time they attack
Attacks from Awakened ignore armour, but cause them to take much damage as the armour rating.
Awakened cannot die from blood loss. They hold themselves together through sheer spite.
Awakened know things that they have no way of knowing. They don't read minds, they just have your memories, and will taunt you with them. "I know what you did. Do they know? Would they still look at you the same, knowing what you have done?"
You don't get art for these guys. They look like homicidal maniacs, that's about it.
Red/Personality Soul: Zondervose
The Red Soul governs personality. Mannerisms, moods, perspective, and style.
When you meet someone new, a tiny part of their Red soul rubs off on you. You ever saw someone do or say something, and you think "Haha, I've gotta start doing that!" That's what I mean. When it turns cancerous, it wants to spread pieces of itself to as many people as possible, and then *become* as many people as possible.
Appearing: 1, sometimes 2-4 having a war in a city
HD: Unknowable. You would have to kill every person that makes it up
Appearance: A group of regular people. All of the same social class/caste/status
Voice: Multiple people will take turns to say the same sentence when the Zondervose talks
Tactics: Be a mysterious and unknowable hivemind?
Wants: Unknowable
Morality: Unknowable
Intelligence: Unknowable. Probably very smart though
Armour: Unknowable
Move: Normal
Morale: 10
Damage: Depends what weapons its people have
Why did I make a statblock? A Zondervose is a faction, not a monster.
White/Intellect Soul: Quaesitor
The White Soul governs intellect and desires. It's not what you know, but the mechanism that pumps that knowledge around. When it turns cancerous, you accumulate knowledge faster, and have an ever changing obsession. With the cancer comes genius. Learning quickens until it's lightning-fast. With the genius comes avarice. What before you wanted, you now obsess over.
Appearing: 1
HD: 8 (36 HP)
Appearance: Tall, thin humanoid with 4 arms, slightly enlarged cranium
Voice: Normal. Fluent in most languages
Tactics: Bargain to get more of what they want. Blast em with multiple guns if combat breaks out
Wants: Everything. More knowledge. Whatever their latest fancy is
Morality: Avaricious. Highly conversational, full of
guile and secrets
Intelligence: Genius level. Scheming, has plans and backup plans
Armour: None (unless crafted). Immune to mind-altering effects
Move: Normal
Morale: 8
Damage: 1d6 / 1d6
Quaesitors have 4 arms, and so can wield 4 weapons. They do the same damage as the weapon would normally. They may make 2 attacks in the same turn, and reload 2 weapons at once. A Quaesitor who has had time to set up will have 4 pistols/crossbows. And probably magic of some variety.
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| This is Ebony Maw from Marvel. Needs more arms though. |
Blue/Magic Soul: Aberrant
The Blue Soul connects the other souls to magic and to the gods. When it becomes cancerous, it feeds on that connection, drawing more power in, ever more hungry. Aberrants look similar to their previous form, only larger and cloaked in shadow. Aberrants can wield a twisted, corrupted version of the magic of the god in the region.
Appearing: 1
HD: 10 (45 HP)
Appearance: Large, 3 meter tall humanoid, patches of shadow cling to their flesh
Voice: Silent
Tactics: Targets the clerics and wizards first.
Wants: To feed on magic, to eat a god
Morality: Ignorant and condescending to those without magic, murderous to those who do
Intelligence: Normal, focused by endless hunger.
Armour: Leather
Move: Normal
Morale: 9
Damage: 2d6.
Aberrants wield the same weapons as they did before they were demons, only scaled up to their new size. I don't know where they get them from, maybe there's a Plus Size smithy somewhere.
Aberrants can use a corrupted version of the strongest magical creature in the area. Fire magic becomes sticky black napalm. Plants become choking, poisonous vines.
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| These four are Corrupted Daughters from Othercide. Aberrants are not always as sexy. |
