Null Daemons

Monster Summary

• Size: Human
• Motivation/Temperament: Tactful, Aggressive when exposed
• Preferred Environment: Blight Lands
• Prevalence: Rare
• Danger Level: Small - Large Group
• Attack Description: Absorbs congruence from victim and rips them apart or utilizes standard weapons
• Monster Core Size and Appearance: Blight core, a heart-like organ with ventricles all around covered in a black congealed substance that appears to continue to be produced even after taken from the daemon

Very little evidence of these creatures exists, and they have made it their mission to remain as elusive to detection as possible. What we know of them is that they have either evolved, or been created to resemble humans as closely as possible, including most of the innards beneath the surface.

Null Daemons originate, or can at least live comfortably in the blighted lands, and are the only known beings to be able to do so for extended periods of time. This raises a question on their diet as being able to survive in those conditions means going without food and most likely water for extended periods of time. What few scholars have researched them have come to various conclusions, ranging from extended periods of hibernation where stored energy is slowly drawn despite being in an active state, to eating congruence itself and changing it from that energy and creating a byproduct of some kind. I find myself agreeing more with the latter hypothesis, though experiments remain inconclusive.

First Hand Encounter

After a thoroughly harrowing experience last month, I took it upon myself to uncover one of these creatures, thinking that I had become a target. I studied evidence of how they hunt, and concluded that most take their victims by surprise, ambushing them, or catching them off guard in informal settings. Their behavior has been described as predatory, cat-like, with mannerisms that engage in lustful, hungry, aggressive and assertive conduct. Those that they kill have evidence of their congruence drained by an absolute lack of congruence on the body, completely empty like a void. When most creatures die, the process of their internal congruence losing its signature and melding with the surrounding external congruence in the atmosphere allows for an accurate dating and measuring of time and usually cause of death, but the select absence, though few know to look for it, indicates that either the person in question used up the entirety of their reserves, or that it was drained by this null daemon.

With the help of my good friend, Riona the Armored, I was able to capture the creature casing me and put it under lock and key. Getting the damn thing to reveal itself was no easy feat, and the ensuing fight nearly killed me off anyways. I paid Riona triple what I promised initially, but I doubt even she wants to tangle with a creature so skilled in melee as that was.

Restraining the creature was simple, as while its abilities could be comparable to a heightened human, it was unable to wrest itself free from iron shackles. I strapped the thing to a table, restraining its midsection, neck, wrists, and ankles before beginning the process of vivisecting it. The musculature was dense, but not beyond that of a well trained soldier, and the organs remained in the correct place as per a human body’s. The only difference that I discovered was from a lump in the stomach that proved itself to be a ‘core’ of some kind. Not like the usual monster cores formed from congruence however, this appeared to be what allowed the null daemon to physically absorb congruence, and as such I’ve taken to calling them ‘blight cores’. The daemon was awake for the procedure, as anesthetics did not render it unconscious, though it seemed not to register the operation as painful. In fact, it did nothing at all except look at me.

Other experiments showed that the blight core absorbs congruence when coming into contact with it, and can use the null daemon as a medium to achieve the same effect. The daemon seems uninterested however, with all types of congruence that does not originate from myself, and I am unclear as to why. Attempts at conversation are fruitless, but the creature has been observed understanding speech. The little it has said indicates that the creature sees me and feels, I suppose the closest approximation would be hungry though that is not how it was described at the time, and is overcome with an intense desire.

During the examination of the blight core, as it was attempting to talk to me, the creature suddenly seized in its restraints, breaking several of the links of the chain holding it down, before expiring from some cause I cannot place. Perhaps my meddling with its core damaged it in some way. In any case, updates on the null daemon will be put on hold, as I do not wish to engage with such an unsettling creature for a very long time.

Notes on the blight cores

• The core is the effective heart of the creature, and provides the slightest extra bit of durability in comparison to a human body.
• The core does not necessarily absorb congruence, as there is no observable byproduct
• Hypothesis: the blight core serves as a conduit that transports the congruence elsewhere
• The patterns of the core appear similar to the film that appeared to me in the depths of the blighted lands
• It accepts all types of congruence readily but it ‘hungers’ for particular types
• It appears that there is some form of power being broadcast from it, that responds to some other kind of force which I have never experienced
• Attempting to use it in place of normal congruence cores completely destroys the item
• Tests reveal that it has similar functionality to a Renamer’s Call
• Attempting to use it in a Renamer’s Mouth resulted in a field similar to a doctrine which caused mass hallucinations, nausea, panic attacks, and seizures to everybody indiscriminately within a quarter-mile radius except for me. The effects of which seem to be impermanent as the use also generated a strange memory loss or time dilation as none of the people affected remember the trauma.
• The blight core resonates as a specific frequency
• Purchasing a silverbird showed me that the exact frequency was identical to the one I followed in the blighted lands
• The heart beats once and vibrations hum in sleep for all eternity. The heart beats twice as the heart wakes and all eternity hums in sleep.

Revelation

I might need to set off again soon, but it is clear that I am in over my head. Then again, I don’t know who in their right mind would be able to

Ah right, that is the key to it all, isn’t it

I hope Riona is still in town. Money aside, she’s one of the few people I can easily trust.

The journal I discovered on my travels was authored by someone who remained anonymous. Their personage and part of their history WAS described though, and it matches scarily well with the being that had been hunting me. It is not impossible to assume that this null daemon was once that explorer whose notes I found so useful. Null daemons therefore are created beings, humans twisted for an otherwise unknown purpose. Perhaps part of their hunger is in an attempt to turn specific individuals into other null daemons, and if that is the case, I consider myself truly blessed with luck. Especially considering my previous discovery in the bowels of the blighted lands. May the divinities look away, for I pray that none of the powers that be become involved lest the unthinkable happens.

-Aethel Vox

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For writers only:
While null daemons are indeed extraordinarily rare, they are more prevalent than Aethel believes. Before being found out the daemon is able to assume the persona of a standard human and interact with others to a believable level. They will be found out eventually if they stay in one area, so they are always on the move, by themselves or in pairs, making excursions from the blighted lands out. They always have a task set to them to complete, collecting resources or particular congruence signatures, finding intel, sabotaging congruence research and development etc. They are clearly controlled or at least influenced by another party with their own agenda, though nothing is known of them at this time.