Teeny Tiny Tales of Terror: S is for Sinister
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Gonzoron of the FoS
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 7686
- Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2003 8:02 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location: New Jersey
- Contact:
Shadow
In my youth, in times of boredom or nervousness, I developed a minor habit or tick of counting things. I cannot say I find it soothing exactly, but try as I might to quiet the numbers in my head, they come unbidden. I never imagined this compulsion would save my life. As the single light source of my glowing orb cast our shadows in sharp detail on the floor of the ancient tomb, my eyes flicked across the group. One... two... three... four of us. One... two... three... four... five shadows. That was how I took the thing by surprise, casting flame upon it before the rest of you knew it was there. Knowing what we now do of these creatures, and remembering the sorry state we were in, if it had surprised us instead, I daresay we'd have joined its ranks that day.
- Unused interview of Antayla the mage for Van Richten's Guide to Ghosts
In my youth, in times of boredom or nervousness, I developed a minor habit or tick of counting things. I cannot say I find it soothing exactly, but try as I might to quiet the numbers in my head, they come unbidden. I never imagined this compulsion would save my life. As the single light source of my glowing orb cast our shadows in sharp detail on the floor of the ancient tomb, my eyes flicked across the group. One... two... three... four of us. One... two... three... four... five shadows. That was how I took the thing by surprise, casting flame upon it before the rest of you knew it was there. Knowing what we now do of these creatures, and remembering the sorry state we were in, if it had surprised us instead, I daresay we'd have joined its ranks that day.
- Unused interview of Antayla the mage for Van Richten's Guide to Ghosts
"We're realistic heroes. We're not here to save the world, just nudge the world into a better place."
(Alright, my first try on one of these, hope it's good enough)
Skeleton
" They tore free of the bodies! The bloody bones...leering skulls all around us! No sound, no scream, no laughter! They came after us...ever after us...ever after us...knowing we would rest and they wouldn't...hunting, hunting, their bones clicking...clicking...clicking...until we would be like them! Forever bearing the death-grin..."
-Ramblings of a veteran of the Dead Man's Campaign
Skeleton
" They tore free of the bodies! The bloody bones...leering skulls all around us! No sound, no scream, no laughter! They came after us...ever after us...ever after us...knowing we would rest and they wouldn't...hunting, hunting, their bones clicking...clicking...clicking...until we would be like them! Forever bearing the death-grin..."
-Ramblings of a veteran of the Dead Man's Campaign
SWARM, PEST
SWARM, PEST
The demon child would die. That we had sworn. Imagine then our delight when he appeared before us, flanked by three ravens. We greeted him with savage smiles. Yet he answered us with a grin at once more bestial and rapturous. Then his pets cried forth and a terrible cawing erupted in answer. We wheeled to find the trees full of ravens. “Their eyes are yours my children,” purred the fiend spawn, “but their souls are mine.” And in a heartbeat we were beset with claws and beaks all too apt to their assigned work.
-Extract from an interview found in a dossier marked The Chaining of Malocchio Aderre
The demon child would die. That we had sworn. Imagine then our delight when he appeared before us, flanked by three ravens. We greeted him with savage smiles. Yet he answered us with a grin at once more bestial and rapturous. Then his pets cried forth and a terrible cawing erupted in answer. We wheeled to find the trees full of ravens. “Their eyes are yours my children,” purred the fiend spawn, “but their souls are mine.” And in a heartbeat we were beset with claws and beaks all too apt to their assigned work.
-Extract from an interview found in a dossier marked The Chaining of Malocchio Aderre
Last edited by cure on Wed Jan 24, 2007 8:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
The cure for what ails you
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vipera aspis
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 351
- Joined: Fri Jan 21, 2005 8:38 pm
- Location: Chicago
Sea Devils
Should have understood something was a bit off that summer. All season, more and more fish; bigger too. Swordfish, rays, sharks; you name it, we caught it: and we caught tons of it.
Then nothin. All at once, one mornin' it was like we got all it could give.
Then folk started dissappearin'. First out by then reef, manless boats an that kinda' thing. Then closer. We thought maybe a rogue shark or some loon from up the coast was doing the gettin'; you know how they get up there. But i tell ya, we found out soon how wrong we was.
They came in with the tide. Right up an under our noses. Musta' waited under the docks till the moon was big n' yella'. Then they slithered on out. Those scaly, green, shark-mouthed bastards! Stinking like rotten clams they came out of the sea; those devils! Us poor boys down by the docks never knew what hit us'. Thankfully i was half-loaded; sittin in a crate this time. Watchin em'cut my mates up really bad an draggin em' screamin back out to sea; back out to the depths beyond the reef made me sober up good n'quick though. And damn what a mess, lil' bit o' James here, some Curt or maybe Ed over there, never really could pick em'out. I tell ya, thankfully a downpour washed most o'the blood up that morn.
Yeah i tell ya though, what you take from the sea; the sea comes right back up n'takes from you.
-Ol'Salteye, mordentish drunken sailor
Should have understood something was a bit off that summer. All season, more and more fish; bigger too. Swordfish, rays, sharks; you name it, we caught it: and we caught tons of it.
Then nothin. All at once, one mornin' it was like we got all it could give.
Then folk started dissappearin'. First out by then reef, manless boats an that kinda' thing. Then closer. We thought maybe a rogue shark or some loon from up the coast was doing the gettin'; you know how they get up there. But i tell ya, we found out soon how wrong we was.
They came in with the tide. Right up an under our noses. Musta' waited under the docks till the moon was big n' yella'. Then they slithered on out. Those scaly, green, shark-mouthed bastards! Stinking like rotten clams they came out of the sea; those devils! Us poor boys down by the docks never knew what hit us'. Thankfully i was half-loaded; sittin in a crate this time. Watchin em'cut my mates up really bad an draggin em' screamin back out to sea; back out to the depths beyond the reef made me sober up good n'quick though. And damn what a mess, lil' bit o' James here, some Curt or maybe Ed over there, never really could pick em'out. I tell ya, thankfully a downpour washed most o'the blood up that morn.
Yeah i tell ya though, what you take from the sea; the sea comes right back up n'takes from you.
-Ol'Salteye, mordentish drunken sailor
my bones among the rocks and roots
SCORPION, MONESTROUS
The sand exploded upward, forcing us to protect our eyes, even as we struggled to draw our weapons. The scorpion, easily the size of a horse, had caught a sailor between its claws and, with a flick of its tail, drove its poisoned stinger clean through the poor fellow. As the thing wheeled in search of its next victim, Raoul called a swarm of bats down upon it. I doubt that they harmed it much, but they surely caused it near infinite irritation, its claws and stinger striking futilely at its tormentors. To escape the besieging plague, as well as the rain of our missiles, the thing raced off into the desert, at such speed that it broke free of the pursuing bats.
-The Wreck of the Albatross, Juno Lutuem, Darkonese adventurer
The sand exploded upward, forcing us to protect our eyes, even as we struggled to draw our weapons. The scorpion, easily the size of a horse, had caught a sailor between its claws and, with a flick of its tail, drove its poisoned stinger clean through the poor fellow. As the thing wheeled in search of its next victim, Raoul called a swarm of bats down upon it. I doubt that they harmed it much, but they surely caused it near infinite irritation, its claws and stinger striking futilely at its tormentors. To escape the besieging plague, as well as the rain of our missiles, the thing raced off into the desert, at such speed that it broke free of the pursuing bats.
-The Wreck of the Albatross, Juno Lutuem, Darkonese adventurer
Last edited by cure on Fri Jan 26, 2007 2:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
The cure for what ails you
SPIDER, HAIRY
The creature had been badly injured and fell, escaping our line of sight. We crept forward after it, well spread out lest we be caught together by another of its dire spells, exploiting every bit of cover afforded to us by the boulders and the cracks of the cave. I spotted a small spider above us, well out of reach, doing its best to keep out of our light. We passed beneath it warily, without incident, and left it unmarked at our backs. As we drew near the turn in the passage and could hear the near death panting of the creature, there was a terrible clatter at our rear. Tirus had collapsed and I knew that he was dead in the instant that I saw that hairy spider scuttling away from him. Whereupon we heard the strange voice of the creature, strong and forceful once more. Before we could act black tentacles burst up from the floor and engulfed us.
-The Familiar: instructive cases, library of the Fraternity of Shadows
The creature had been badly injured and fell, escaping our line of sight. We crept forward after it, well spread out lest we be caught together by another of its dire spells, exploiting every bit of cover afforded to us by the boulders and the cracks of the cave. I spotted a small spider above us, well out of reach, doing its best to keep out of our light. We passed beneath it warily, without incident, and left it unmarked at our backs. As we drew near the turn in the passage and could hear the near death panting of the creature, there was a terrible clatter at our rear. Tirus had collapsed and I knew that he was dead in the instant that I saw that hairy spider scuttling away from him. Whereupon we heard the strange voice of the creature, strong and forceful once more. Before we could act black tentacles burst up from the floor and engulfed us.
-The Familiar: instructive cases, library of the Fraternity of Shadows
Last edited by cure on Fri Jan 26, 2007 2:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
The cure for what ails you
SPECTRE
The accounts pointed to one thing and one thing alone. The unknown young woman who had haunted Dobson Manor from time immemorial had a weakness. Never had she been met in a room awash in the light of the sun. So one bright morning, our very presence sufficiently concealed, we hoped, by a spell of Ezra, we went to the manor and covered its greenhouse with a great tarp, carefully stopping up the least ray of light. A month later we returned, under the same concealment, with a wizard added to our company. We emptied the greenhouse of its contents, covered the interior wall and the floor with thin sheets of polished metal, and our cleric consecrated the very ground of the place. Whereupon our hound panicked and our spellcasters barely had time to complete their defensive incantations before the young woman swept through the wall and into the room. She scanned it in vane for the source of the disturbance in the eldritch fabric of her existence and did not hear the very arcane words that sprung our trap. The tarp vanished from sight and we were blinded. She shrieked in fear and confusion, her every possible retreat aflame with the light of the sun. An arcane spell fixed her in place, and although it would be broken by our attack, it gave us the chance to gather ourselves and launch point blank a concentrated assault consisting of holy water and rays of searing light. Her incorporeal form burnt, shrivelled, and faded to nothing, hopefully affording her peace at last.
-The private journal of Rudolph van Richten
The accounts pointed to one thing and one thing alone. The unknown young woman who had haunted Dobson Manor from time immemorial had a weakness. Never had she been met in a room awash in the light of the sun. So one bright morning, our very presence sufficiently concealed, we hoped, by a spell of Ezra, we went to the manor and covered its greenhouse with a great tarp, carefully stopping up the least ray of light. A month later we returned, under the same concealment, with a wizard added to our company. We emptied the greenhouse of its contents, covered the interior wall and the floor with thin sheets of polished metal, and our cleric consecrated the very ground of the place. Whereupon our hound panicked and our spellcasters barely had time to complete their defensive incantations before the young woman swept through the wall and into the room. She scanned it in vane for the source of the disturbance in the eldritch fabric of her existence and did not hear the very arcane words that sprung our trap. The tarp vanished from sight and we were blinded. She shrieked in fear and confusion, her every possible retreat aflame with the light of the sun. An arcane spell fixed her in place, and although it would be broken by our attack, it gave us the chance to gather ourselves and launch point blank a concentrated assault consisting of holy water and rays of searing light. Her incorporeal form burnt, shrivelled, and faded to nothing, hopefully affording her peace at last.
-The private journal of Rudolph van Richten
The cure for what ails you
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Nathan of the FoS
- Fiendish Enforcer
- Posts: 5247
- Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2003 3:39 pm
- Location: San Francisco CA
Re: Teeny Tiny Tales of Terror: S is for Sinister
Swarm, Piranha:[/b
It is the common practice of the herdsmen of that place, when they must cross the river, to send one man well upstream with the weakest of the herd; this unfortunate is cut lightly and forced into the water, where the devilfish swarm to devour it. Thus decoyed and sated, the devilfish generally ignore the other herdsmen bringing the rest of the herd across the river downstream of them.
Larraby Quift, Adventures of a Wanderer
*I was once told IRL of this being common practice for the cattle herders on the Venezuelan plains--it's probably just be an urban legend, because piranha aren't all that agressive, but I thought it was pretty cool.
It is the common practice of the herdsmen of that place, when they must cross the river, to send one man well upstream with the weakest of the herd; this unfortunate is cut lightly and forced into the water, where the devilfish swarm to devour it. Thus decoyed and sated, the devilfish generally ignore the other herdsmen bringing the rest of the herd across the river downstream of them.
Larraby Quift, Adventures of a Wanderer
*I was once told IRL of this being common practice for the cattle herders on the Venezuelan plains--it's probably just be an urban legend, because piranha aren't all that agressive, but I thought it was pretty cool.
[b]FEAR JUSTICE.[/b] :elena:
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Rotipher of the FoS
- Thieving Crow
- Posts: 4683
- Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2003 4:18 pm
Re: Teeny Tiny Tales of Terror: S is for Sinister
Definitely there's no biological basis, since piranha only turn psycho when they're trapped and starving in isolated pools when the seasonal floods dry up. (Even then, they're usually too busy eating each other to attack anything as big as a cow.) In a flowing river, there'd be plenty of natural prey and carrion to keep them mellow.Nathan of the FoS wrote:*I was once told IRL of this being common practice for the cattle herders on the Venezuelan plains--it's probably just be an urban legend, because piranha aren't all that agressive, but I thought it was pretty cool.
Of course, the cattlemen in question might've heard the same B.S. myths about piranhas as everybody else.
But in Ravenloft, go with the creep-you-out option! 
"Who [u]cares[/u] what the Dark Powers are? They're [i]bastards![/i] That's all I need to know of them." -- Crow
SKULKING CYST
Fortunately, a ship was leaving port and its captain was greedy for our gold. Soon the accursed town of Nevuchar Springs was but a speck on the horizon. We had survived the trials of the last month. We had escaped, with our minds and bodies intact, the anarchy of my decapitated homeland. Gregor, our indomitable cleric, was not, however, looking so well, indeed was an unhealthy shade of green, and retired to our cabin. A few minutes later a sailor screamed for the captain. We were led below deck. Our friend was lying on his back. His head, which rested at a distance of a few feet, appeared to have been torn from his body. I unbuckled his armour. Where his neck, rib cage, heart and lungs, stomach and intestines should have been a hole gaped. Eleanor drew our attention to the floor. A trail, traced in blood and gore, led from the body, passed the head, and down the passageway.
-The Wreck of the Albatross, Juno Lutuem, Darkonese adventurer
Fortunately, a ship was leaving port and its captain was greedy for our gold. Soon the accursed town of Nevuchar Springs was but a speck on the horizon. We had survived the trials of the last month. We had escaped, with our minds and bodies intact, the anarchy of my decapitated homeland. Gregor, our indomitable cleric, was not, however, looking so well, indeed was an unhealthy shade of green, and retired to our cabin. A few minutes later a sailor screamed for the captain. We were led below deck. Our friend was lying on his back. His head, which rested at a distance of a few feet, appeared to have been torn from his body. I unbuckled his armour. Where his neck, rib cage, heart and lungs, stomach and intestines should have been a hole gaped. Eleanor drew our attention to the floor. A trail, traced in blood and gore, led from the body, passed the head, and down the passageway.
-The Wreck of the Albatross, Juno Lutuem, Darkonese adventurer
The cure for what ails you
I want to avoid "joke" blurbs, so I'm going to ask for a different skin kite. Remember: Use these blurbs to present the atmosphere of an encounter with the creature. If an encounter with the creature prompts laughter, something's amiss.
Some dark humor is fine when called for, but I'm not looking for blurbs that are "just" gags.
Some dark humor is fine when called for, but I'm not looking for blurbs that are "just" gags.
SWARM-SHIFTER
Raoul returned from the windy night shrouded in blue flames, a spell upon his lips. Eldritch bands of force whirled forth. Under my very eyes our gracious host, with whom I had been pleasantly engaged in conversation, came apart. And I found before me, retaining for a heartbeat the shape of a man, a cloud of thousands upon thousands of mosquitos buzzing furiously and reeking terribly. Annabel and Salvador, with whom Raoul had been in secret communication, sliced through the mass with their blades. Futilely. In the next heartbeat we were engulfed. My flesh crawled, arms, neck, scalp, ears, cheeks, nose, lips, eyelids, all violated repeatedly, unceasingly, my lifeblood pounding out of me. I vomited. And in the moment that I concluded that I had to run for my life, I also realised to my acute terror that I was caught in a perfect darkness that deprived me of the possibility. I actually prayed that Raoul would unleash a cleansing fireball. Instead he dispelled the darkness and called a swarm of ugly white bats to feast upon our foe. And for a brief instant it seemed as if we would escape the Red Oasis only a little less sanguine.
-The Wreck of the Albatross, Juno Lutuem, Darkonese adventurer
Raoul returned from the windy night shrouded in blue flames, a spell upon his lips. Eldritch bands of force whirled forth. Under my very eyes our gracious host, with whom I had been pleasantly engaged in conversation, came apart. And I found before me, retaining for a heartbeat the shape of a man, a cloud of thousands upon thousands of mosquitos buzzing furiously and reeking terribly. Annabel and Salvador, with whom Raoul had been in secret communication, sliced through the mass with their blades. Futilely. In the next heartbeat we were engulfed. My flesh crawled, arms, neck, scalp, ears, cheeks, nose, lips, eyelids, all violated repeatedly, unceasingly, my lifeblood pounding out of me. I vomited. And in the moment that I concluded that I had to run for my life, I also realised to my acute terror that I was caught in a perfect darkness that deprived me of the possibility. I actually prayed that Raoul would unleash a cleansing fireball. Instead he dispelled the darkness and called a swarm of ugly white bats to feast upon our foe. And for a brief instant it seemed as if we would escape the Red Oasis only a little less sanguine.
-The Wreck of the Albatross, Juno Lutuem, Darkonese adventurer
The cure for what ails you
SWARM, FUMEWOOD TERMITE
“If he could be ravaged by disease, why couldn’t he be devoured alive? The liberation of Sithicus was at hand. A swarm of the Fumewood’s termites would put an end to the flagitious dwarf. Luring him to his death was easy. And how he howled on encountering the caltrops and the less mundane means by which we held him fast. But then a terrible rage filled his eyes and a dreadful change came over his body. He tore himself free and we fled for our lives.”
-A refugee from Sithicus sharing his campfire with Harkon Lukas
“If he could be ravaged by disease, why couldn’t he be devoured alive? The liberation of Sithicus was at hand. A swarm of the Fumewood’s termites would put an end to the flagitious dwarf. Luring him to his death was easy. And how he howled on encountering the caltrops and the less mundane means by which we held him fast. But then a terrible rage filled his eyes and a dreadful change came over his body. He tore himself free and we fled for our lives.”
-A refugee from Sithicus sharing his campfire with Harkon Lukas
The cure for what ails you