So, somewhat recently, my friend introduced me to the GUMSHOE system, published by Pelgrane Press, those fine people behind Trail of Cthulhu (an excellent, investigation focused update on Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu game), The Esoterrorists (A kind of very weird blend of KULT and Mage: The Ascension) and Fear Itself (My personal favorite). For these systems comes a rather unique book of enemies, specifically enemies that could fit into any one of those settings, called the Book of Unremitting Horror.
Now, let me just say that this is easily one of my favorite RPG supplements ever printed, and it lives up to its title. Over the course of this review, I'm going to be going over some of these monsters, and believe me, even for seasoned WoD, KULT or CoC players, this shit is not for the faint of heart. So, fair warning before reading below. Some of these creatures do rather nasty things to people's organs, prey on children, and rape their victims to death, and are almost guaranteed to ensure you several sleepless nights. So, with that in mind, let's move onto the content.
The setting of the world of Fear Itself and The Esoterrorists is a kind of vaguely defined world with a standard issue Cthulhoid dimension brimming with creatures trying to get into ours, called the Outer Black. The Esoterrorists are a bunch of very silly people who've decided that a world being raped to death by drill-tongued monsters and living chainsaw demons is just the world for them, and your characters need to stop them. Sounds simple right? Wrong. What really sets the Unremitting Horrors aside from any other antagonist imaginable is how close to home they hit. Whether based on urban legends from the 90's to ancient fairy tales of yore, each of these creatures, described in loving detail, is designed to hit one of your phobia G-spots. Take for example, probably the most vanilla creature in the book, the Death Tapper, (which also happens to hit my fear G-spot.....damn parasites!) a tiny, flea-like demon that creates a poison within itself that can cause people to vomit uncontrollably for a few hours, before liquefying their innards and having all of that come out of their mouths, Cabin Fever style, and yes, this is one of the most vanilla. There's something really, really creepy about the idea that something so small could be so deadly. One bite from this thing, and the average human is very soon going to be making a gorey offering to the porcelain gods. This is the flavor of the Outer Black, a flavor very similar to that of the Warp or the Wyrm. It can be big and terrifying, skinned demons dripping with viscera and power drills for teeth, or it can be something very small, and either way, it'll kill you in a horrifying way. The Outer Black very nicely combines Lovecraftian themes and 40k ones. Rather than the Warp, which is a universe that actively hates you, but is dependent on you, or Mythos creatures, who are completely indifferent, the Outer Black feels like a vast, horrifying nightmare world that has taken notice of earth, and currently enjoys screwing with it. All of the creatures presented in this book that hail from the Outer Black have a very nightmarish, otherworldly feeling to them, that seems to be only barely contained by human flesh and steel, bound up by suffering. All of the rituals to commune with them are horrific beyond words, for example, that of the Blossomer (SEVERE SQUICK WARNING. ANYTHING PAST THIS POINT WILL INFLICT SANITY DAMAGE), a ritual that requires a human sacrifice to be eaten alive down to the waist, voluntarily, at which point they get possessed by a demon that proceeds to orally impregnate all the female participants of the ritual with little antichrist children, and the opening fiction has the good taste to portray a cult operating out of a middle school. In a way that I'm sure Lovecraft wanted, these rituals feel wrong, unpleasant and uncomfortable to hold in one's mind. The Outer Black is implied to be all powerful anyway, so why make people degrade themselves hideously just for its attention? Why, that's all just part of the game, my friend.
Even the monsters that aren't affiliated (directly) with the Outer Black are insidious, and take the form of modern urban legends and folk tales re-interpreted to prey on modern fears. Take one of the creepiest monsters, a Snuff Golem, an animated construct created by the hate, pain and physical parts and camera equipment of a snuff film gone wrong. This creature murders people horrifically, uploading it's livestream onto the internet so people can enjoy the killings. Sisterites are demons that seduce lonely men over the internet, and lure them to their lairs to be eaten alive. Kooks are adorable little child fairies that find neglected children and lure them away to transform them into child-soul eating fae like themselves. All of these things aren't especially dangerous one on one, but there's plenty more to prey on our primal fears of getting hideously dismembered as there are to prey on our more rational fears, like those of child abuse and serial killings. The monsters in this book have been decried, being said that they cross the line. I however would argue that horror is all about finding that line of decency and crossing it. As the world grows around us, we feel safer and safer, never realizing how isolated it makes us. These things almost fulfill the original idea of urban legends, to warn people what could happen if they let their 'rational' lives slip up.
Some neat inspirations for a Fear Itself game (I'll cover Esoterrorists as an RPG Antagonist in another post. They're too complicated for this article to do them justice.)
The Slender Man Stories: If you haven't heard of the Slender Man, than really, congratulations on recently getting an internet connection. For the uninitiated, the Slender Man is a faceless man in a business suit who stalks people who often go missing. There are a TON of blogs and videos of varying quality that chronicle the whacky adventures of his victims, and if nothing else, he makes a very good example of the Mystery Man monster within the book, with a very simple Ocean Game of hide and seek.
The Creepypasta Wiki : A very neat collection of fanmade urban legends on the internet. Any one of these stories could easily inspire an Unremitting Horror. Never underestimate the messed up imagination of people with too much time on their hands and an internet connection (I mean, just look at this blog).
Hellraiser: We need at least one movie reference right? Well look no further than one of the pioneers of splatterpunk, the Hellraiser series. Now, the first two are good, though your mileage may vary on the rest. Nontheless, the series captures the Outer Black very well, being a surreal pastiche of machinary, molded and fused with screaming, agonized human flesh. It portrays a hellish realm of torture tools and dripping viscera, with no heaven or earthly redemption in sight.
- Kephn
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