Teeny Tiny Tales of Terror: P is for Putrescent

[Mangrum]

Now that M is all but wrapped up, here's the letter P:

Done! Paka (catkin) [Denizens of Dread]
Done! Pennaggolan [Oriental Adventures] Pic
Phantasmal slayer [Heroes of Horror] Pic
Done! Phase spider [Monster Manual] Pic
Done! Phrenic creature [Expanded Psionics Handbook] Pic
Done! Pickled punk [Carnival]
Done! Plague blight [Libris Mortis] Pic
Plague spewer [Monster Manual III] Pic
Porcelain lady (alabaster bride) [Van Richten’s Guide to the Walking Dead]
Done! Pseudonatural creature [Complete Arcane, Lords of Madness, etc.]
Psicrystal [Expanded Psionics Handbook] Pic
Done! Psilich [Ravenloft Dungeon Master’s Guide]
Psthisic [Expanded Psionics Handbook]
Puppeteer [Expanded Psionics Handbook] Pic
Puppeteer, flesh harrower [Expanded Psionics Handbook] Pic

Paka (Catkin): Medium Monstrous Humanoid (Shapechanger), CR 5, chaotic evil. Feline humanoids with a limited shapechanging ability to assume human form. Can control feline minions, but canines don't like them. Harbor an ancestral grudge against humanity. They worship the Cat Lord.

Pennaggolan: Template undead, CR +2, lawful evil. A kind of vampire that seems human by day, but at night its head and internal organs pull themselves free to fly along and drain victims' blood. Generally found in the Scattered Lotus Archipelago.

Phantasmal Slayer: Medium Outsider (Evil, Incorporeal, Native), CR 15, chaotic evil. Fear incarnate, these horrors exist to terrify creatures to death. It has numerous spell-like abilities and the ability to cloak itself in illusion.

Phase Spider: Large Magical Beast, CR 5, neutral. A spider that can jump back and forth between the Material and Ethereal planes. "Like many other ethereal predators, they sometimes enter Ravenloft inadvertently and stalk the Near Ethereal."

Phrenic Creature: A simple template that makes creatures psionic. "Although they can arise naturally, in the Demiplane of Dread such creatures are typically the product of illithid fleshcrafting."

Pickled Punk: Tiny Aberration, CR 1, neutral evil. Professor Pacali's repressed desires made flesh. Monstrously deformed fetuses that can unleash viewers' hidden desires with their gaze.

Plague Blight: Medium Undead (Evil, CR 6, any evil. Animated corpses of those killed by plague. Swollen and putrescent. They carry a sickening stench and their touch causes gangrene.

Plague Spewer: Huge Undead, CR 10, neutral evil. A massive undead creature that exists only to destroy life. Its body is infested with swarms of plague-ridden rats, which it can spew at foes.

Porcelain Lady (Alabaster Bride): Medium Undead, CR 5, neutral evil. A undead woman who appears to have cracked porcelain for skin and blank faces. They can create enthralling, supernatural music and can weep tears of blood which befuddles the minds of any creature touching it. It can also drain blood with its gaze.

Pseudonatural Creature: Template Outsider. A creature from the Far Realm, an utterly alien alternate reality. Has some odd little abilities.

Psicrystal: Diminutive Construct, CR NA, alignment varies. The psionic version of a familiar; a crystal charged with an aspect of its psionic master's psyche.

Psilich: Template undead, CR +2, any evil. A psionic version of the lich.

Psthisic: Large Monstrous Humanoid (Psionic), CR 6, chaotic evil. A repressed neurosis ripped from someone's subconconscious mind to become flesh. It feeds on Intelligence with its bite and has numerous psi-like abilities. "A phthisic is initially drawn from a troubled psyche by means of an unknown psionic power, possibly a twisted version of psychic chirurgery. In some cases, an insane astral construct of 6th level or higher may spontenously transform into a phthisic if its manifester is killed. Once free, a phthisic is an independent creature and may very well attack its progenitor."

Puppeteer: Fine Magical Beast (Psionic), CR 1, lawful evil. Psionic parasite that attaches itself to a creature's brain stem and controls it like a puppet.

Flesh Harrower: Small Magical Beast (Psionic), CR 2, neutral. A mutant puppeteer that has a few psi-like powers, but mainly relies on its massive maw of fangs. For when violence is called for.

[Gemathustra]

Pseudonatural Creature
"Wake not the Sleeper in this Tomb
"Disturb not the Dreamer in this Darkness
"Behold the coming of the Serpent's Head
"Behold Rahu, Eater of the Sun
"Woe upon us all"
-translated inscription from a sealed urn found in Sri Raji

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

Pickled Punks:

"Come on, dear Prof, having these out in the sunlight will entice more Georges to partake in the Hall of Horrors."

"Tindal, you insipid buffoon, my 'punks' as you derisively, are a medical marvel. They are a unique creation that my contact outside the Carnival supplies for me. They are not, not simply there for the slack jawed inbreds that you and your fellow troupers entertain to stand and gawk at."

-Overheard conversation at Carnival.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

Penegollan

January 4th, 749; He visited me again last night, the weary traveller. Oh, what joy I find in his embrace! The teachings of Hala have become hollow indeed.

January 8th, 749; The Lonley Traveller, as I call him, he showed me such wonders last night, I thought the joy would never stop. He promised me that in the end he would make all my troubles slip away.

January 12th, 749; My Gentleman called again last night. He promised to take me away and live with him forever, all I had to do was worship him. Oh, how I love him. He is my god.

January 15th, 749; Lies! Betrayal! My Gentleman is a fraud! I saw him with Sister Bernadette, supping from her as he once supped from me! He whispered his sweet poison to her and she took it from him willingly! I will show him that only I am worthy of his love!

Here there is blood smeared across the paper and the handwriting is the same, yet different, wilder, somehow more passionate.

I did it! He took me into him and showed me beauty! Oh, how I screamed as he administered his sweet tortures, how I cried as he brought exquisite pain.

I felt it all slip away, a weight lifted from my shoulders. I felt my head rise high, yet my body lie down. I know not what he has done, yet understand he has granted me freedom. We took our revenge on the whores of Hala, but he left me. Left me with the knowledge that now that I am pure.

-Diary found in the room of Sister Marla, in the Hospice of the Sisters of Grace

[cure]

PAKA

The people of the ape honoured and worshipped the people of the cat who taught them the cunning cruelty of the hunt. But the ape man was ambitious, taking what he wanted, betraying the cat people, allying himself with their most bitter foe, the people of the dog, who offered their loyalty eternal. And for this treachery, the catkin swore that man would be layed low, sliced open, devoured alive.

–Excerpt from the Madrigorian

[Charney]

Psilich

"What just happened? I really don't get it... he didn't even have spell components how could it have casted all of these spells without any components?"

"Whatever those powers were, we have to get Lucian back. That lich made him go mad. What is it, was your head wounded?"

"I hear the lich... it's in my head... I can't get it out."

"You have to... oh no... it's now in mine too!"

Adventures upon discovering the real nature of the lich they hunted.

[cure]

or

PAKA

"We are both predators. We lust for the hunt. We are connoisseurs of its cruelty. We always decline the first opportunity to deliver the coup de grace. We are the antithesis of mercy. We prolong the agony of our prey. We torture and torment it, until it would gladly take its own life, but we strive to deny it even that luxury. I with my claws and you with your laws are the enemies of hope. Perhaps we are kindred spirits, but we are not of kindred races. We are the agile, I among the agile and you among the clumsy. But it is not for that reason alone that you Hector Vail and your human kind must die. You betrayed us. And never shall we forgive the crime that you have forgotten.”

Excerpt from The Theft of the Cat’s Eye, Colonel Oliver Pendleton

[Nathan of the FoS]

Phase spider [Monster Manual]

...what I find far more troubling, if true, are the accounts of monstrously large ghost-spiders in the vicinity; they have been blamed for the death of several household pets and even livestock, although there are no reports of human fatalities. Three witnesses claim that the spider or spiders in question materialized from nothing, attacked the unfortunate animal, and retreated to the Other Side, prey in tow. The idea of mere vermin, however large, having enough psychic energy to produce a ghost boggles the mind; but if we reject that hypothesis how does we explain the phantasmal character these creatures supposedly have?

Laurie Weathermay-Foxgrove to Gennifer Weathermay-Foxgrove, private correspondence

Phrenic creature [Expanded Psionics Handbook]

The goblin-wolf at the base of the tree growled, and I became aware of an itching sensation at the base of my skull--a sensation which increased in intensity until it was all I could do not to scream aloud. Suddenly I felt myself opening my hands; by exerting all my willpower I was able to keep them clasped around the branch, but only a constant effort of will kept me from loosing my grasp and falling.

It occurred to me that the wolf was willing me out of the tree; however irrational the thought, the fact that my hands were effectively doing their best to kill me showed that the situation was not really rational to begin with.

Giles ApMorte, An Adventure in Kartakass

[cure]

PLAGUE BLIGHT

“And there we were, discarding our weapons to stay afloat, doomed if we let ourselves be carried deeper into the spinning cauldron of sewage and twice doomed if we strove for its edge where the gloating rat shaman and his abominations stood in waiting. It was the rotting touch of these latter that had devoured Lucien alive in seconds. And their unspeakable stench robbed Jean-Jacques of his strength, sending him spiralling down into the abyss.”

–Interview with a Ghost

[cure]

or

PLAGUE BLIGHT

"Deep in the bowels of this place is a room that is less than the arms span of a man to a side. A row of iron bars cuts it in two. The one half is occupied by a gentleman, if I can call him that, who has been there for as long as I can remember. The other hosts, from time to time, individuals such as yourself who are not as forthcoming as they might and should be. Now what is precious is that the mere touch of the confined fellow will rot an unfortunate alive in less than an hour. Keeping out of his reach is possible . . . for a time. But he is as driven and as untiring as they come. Undead is, I believe, the technical term. My grandfather claimed a woman once put off her gruesome end for a week. But all I have seen have been reduced to mouldering bone within four days. Perhaps that spry daughter of yours will surprise us. We could go take a look if you would like. I warn you though that the stench is overpowering. Or was there, after all, something that you wished to tell me?"

-Jacqueline Renier soliciting information concerning her lost love

[Gemathustra]

Plague Spewer
"As we travelled deeper through the bowels of that infernal tomb, the rotting talons of a gigantic beast burst through a false door. As the walls collapsed around it, we could see that it was the still-moving corpse of a tremendous dog. At least I thought it was a dog: it wore a fanged, conical mask. The mouth of the mask dropped open, and it let loose a bone-rattling roar. Then its jaw fell off, and a torrent of slimy rats leapt from its loathsome maw."
- from the journals of Jerome Delacroix, Mordentish adventurer

[Joël of the FoS]

Porcelain lady (alabaster bride) [Van Richten’s Guide to the Walking Dead]

“I think that bard was pulling our leg, no? Or he had too many of these Invidian liqueurs, I’d say. A baroness had been walled up in her own plantation since a century, and now she is back as a figure of porcelain? What do you fellows think? I wouldn’t question other kinds of undead, but that this baroness whatever would be back as a doll-like creature doesn’t make sense. Somehow. That she is back from the dead has been seen before, but not as a doll! Or perhaps it’s one of these construct? Can a spirit come back and animate a doll made of porcelain? There has to be something else involved, perhaps a wizard, or someone obsessed with this baroness… What we have to do, and how we have to work this case isn’t clear to me …”
-- heard at the Two-Hares Inn, Souragne



Phantasmal slayer [Heroes of Horror]

This Lorelei X was a patient with a terrible case of self-inflicted delusions. She adventured in the deep Falkovnian forest and was found in delirium on the road and brought to me. Other than screaming from fear, she didn’t talk much but sometimes whispered that “her worst nightmare was after her”. But I didn’t have time to really put her to the psychometric tests, as she died less than 24 hours before being admitted in the clinic. Her heart stopped beating suddenly, after she had screamed louder than usual. It’s amazing the powers self-delusion can have on someone.
-- last entry in the personal notes of Dr Ernst Günter


Psicrystal [Expanded Psionics Handbook]

The Taverners had found shelter after Jasper convinced Willow to allow them to pass the day there. Utterly exhausted, most of the Taverners collapsed into bunks and fell into fitful sleep. Before doing so, however, the group was introduced by the psionicist to Brace, a large sapphire imbued with sentience and functioned as a sort of “psionic familiar” to Brom. Unfortunately, Brace later proved himself a raving coward, always terrified that he would be dropped, smashed, eaten, sold to gemcutters, or another dozen other horrible things.
-- from the Galen story

Pthisic [Expanded Psionics Handbook]

“It’s my son! He’s in my head!”

“Milady, with all respect, it can’t be. Your son drowned two years ago. We all went to his funerals. Touching funerals, in Summer, you remember?”

“I know! But he’s in my head now! My lovely son! He wants to come out! He tells me he will be with us in this room soon!”

-- over heard conversation reported by the maid, during the Wilson family massacre enquiry



Puppeteer [Expanded Psionics Handbook]

“Dear journal,

My fiancé has changed. Since his return from the Darkon mines expedition, he isn’t totally the same. He still loves me and often says so, but his behaviour is sometimes changed. He’s often trying to convince me to leave my tanning work and come with him - and his strange new friends - back to these Darkonese mines. He wants to show me something there, he says, but do not want to say what he has in mind. What shall I do?”




Puppeteer, flesh harrower [Expanded Psionics Handbook]

“Dear journal,

I fear for my fiancé’s safety. I’m writing this from the Ezran church, shivering despite the warm fireplace. Father Bouliane has been of great comfort, and we spoke for hours. Now I’m starting to doubt what I’ve seen is real: one of my fiancé’s new aloof friend came to my father’s house while my fiancé was there and wanted to talk to my lover, in private. But I spied on them and saw this thing! It crawled on his back, hidden in a cloak! A large slug, but with an immense toothy maw! To my horror, my fiancé embraced it! I screamed and ran. Father Bouliane said he will meet them to prove me what I saw is my imagination.”

---

That's it for the Ps I guess!

Come on guys, get back to work - we are at the letter S, the end is near!

Joël

[Mangrum]

Seems I should make it official: Yep, P is all done. You can unsticky the thread.