Body of Anguish
The Mimicry of Death
You hear tell o’ what happen’d down by the docks? They found ‘nother body. Looks like a Man, but no eyes. Just ‘ollow black ‘oles. That’s two o’ them today.
Life outside of the capitals of Haven can be a cruel existence. Freakish entities stalk the nighttime shadows, waiting for the unfortunate victim to wander too far from home. Recently with The Rebirth, a few bodies of Man-like descriptions have been found along riverbanks and lakesides. Gaunt, features twisted and odd, skin greyed and veins thin. These corpses stare out into the world with hollow, empty sockets for eyes. A ghastly sight for any to find them. Left to rot, or buried in shallow graves not far from where they are found. Few set out gifts or offerings to appease whatever soul left these bodies. Prayers said in the dead’s honor.
As nighttime falls, the bodies animate with essence from beyond this realm. Digging themselves free from the dirt or simply standing up from being left out in the open, the bodies move with jerking action, disjointed and twisting like a marionette on it’s strings. Groans and cries escape the corpse of a body, low and guttural. As the moans and whimpers ring out into the night air, all goes still and silent in the world. Like an aura of power, this monstrosity of life extends some otherworldly will like a trick, creating a perfect and haunting silence where only it’s freakish noises remain.
Lumbering into the towns and villages, these aberrations of the natural world slump and shift about on their mimicry of a frame. Crying low and moaning softly, the silence carries out the pain and anguish of whatever soul or essence occupies the vessel. Occasionally scratching on closed doors and banging their heads on window shutters, the Bodies of Anguish wait for a living sophont or beast to cross into their sight. Should none be found before the dawn begins to greet Haven, these entities seek shelter in shaded treelines or at the bottom of water sources, away from the towns or villages that they haunted. They then go into a dormant state, waiting for the sun to fade across the horizon once more.
Screams laced with Madness
Upon crossing paths with a living beast or sophont, the Body of Anguish goes silent and spins it’s head at a frightening speed. A sickening snap echoes as the monster locks onto the living victim’s eyes with their hollow sockets, a gaze that is beyond horrifying to meet. The groans and moans begin once again, quickly raising into a terrifying cacophony of shrieks and screams that is amplified outwards through the aura of silence. At a distance, the Body of Anguish attempts to assault the living with a torrent of psychic energies, which can overwhelm even the strongest of willpowers. The Body of Anguish’s singular goal is to close that distance between itself and the victim it has locked it’s gaze on. With unnatural speed and strength, the monster will charge at the target, slamming doors off their hinges and ripping barricades down.
Should it reach the poor unfortunate soul it has marked for death, it will attempt to physically latch on in a grip not far from rigor mortis. When successful, the Body of Anguish will torment the victim with renewed psychic strength, filling the whole of the victim’s vision with twisting features, hollow eye sockets, and endless maws of madness. This assault only ends at the death of either the victim or the Body of Anguish.
General Information
Monster TypeMedium Aberration
Monster Alignment
Chaotic Evil
Average Height
Five and a half feet
Average Weight
115 pounds
Origins
Hailing from somewhere beyond the realm of Ravarus, the Body of Anguish is akin to an invasive predator species. It takes form in the water deep enough to submerge in, like lakes, rivers, perhaps even in the Blacksea. The essence of the creature is dark and shifting with a crimson glow, leading in the belief that this monster is from a chaotic realm where death is as influential as the Divines, or perhaps even from the space between the realms .
Naught but Dust
In the end, Death is the only answer to situations with this monstrosity. Victims who fall from a Body of Anguish’s assault appears just as gaunt as the monster. Dead and empty eye sockets of inky black also show, despite nothing physically happening to the eyes of the victims.
When the Body of Anguish falls, it disperses into ash and dust. The essence of the Body is released and disappears into the air, returning to the home realm of it’s existence. Bodies of Anguish are never truly destroyed, rather forcefully banished from @Ravarus in hopes that it will be years before it returns.
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