Monsters

"Monsters. I suppose it's something of an outdated word, but there is. Do you remember those pointless terrors you had as a kid? You were afraid of what was lurking under the bed, or in the closet? You were afraid to walk down that dark hall to the bathroom because you were terrified something was lurking in the dark? Yeah, we've all been there. Well guess what? The reason we get scared like that is because some primal, buried part of us remembers that there's a reason to be afraid of the dark. I hate to break it to you, folks, but human beings aren't the top of the food chain. We aren't the ultimate predators. We're a prey species. There are things out there that will turn you hair white and snap your sanity in half if you aren't ready for them. Be ready." ~Nicole Darkraven

"Be sure you understand your purpose in the field. We don't debunk claims of the paranormal, that's not our job. We don't ghost hunt. We don't move until we have evidence that humanity is in danger. This could be a million people in danger, or just one. When there's danger, we act. But we're not the police, we're not superheroes. Don't let your own ego be your greatest stumbling block." --Templar Dr. Maggie Urquidez

European/American Monsters
Black-Eyed Children: If you happen to hate children, you're really going to hate these things. They appear as children between the ages of seven and twelve, normally alone but sometimes in groups of as many as four. They look like normal kids except that they have either solid black eyes with no visible pupils or irises or, alternately, with empty eye sockets. They approach and ask to use your phone, or bathroom, or something with an excuse usually revolving around needing to call a parent or guardian. If you say yes, you die. Victims of BECs suffer immediate and fatal heart attacks brought on by sheer terror. We have absolutely no idea what these creatures really are.

Demons: Personally, I hate the use of this word to describe a malicious entity. So many 'reality' television shows point to evidence of a hostile entity and yell "demon!" that virtually every haunting is now classified as demonic. I think that real demons, fallen angels from theology, have much more important things to do than hang around an old house waiting to yell boo at someone. Sure, every now and then we do have cases where we are clearly dealing with a theological evil but they are so rare I can count our caseload on one hand. Investigate demons as what they really are: hostile entities, intelligent negative energies, however you want to label them and try to keep theology out of it until you're 100% convinced it can't possibly be anything else.

Cosmics: Ok, maybe they aren't monsters per se but they still deserve a mention. As you know we share our fine city with a platoon of men and women and even children that have amazing and wonderful superhuman powers which they use to fight crime or commit crime. Yep, I'm talking about supers. Cosmics, as we call them, aren't people we normally deal with at all. If you spot some bad-ass in purple spandex robbing a bank, leave it alone. We aren't law enforcement and the last thing we need is a bunch of well-meaning titans taking a good hard look at us because we did their jobs for them. Let the Cosmics deal with their own kind.

Cryptids: Not everything we deal with is a color from outer space that causes everything within a fifty mile radius to wither away or some juggernaut disembodied brain trying to eat yours. Sometimes we deal with strange or wild animals that science hasn't yet identified or classified. Such animals are called cryptids. All in all cryptids aren't intentionally evil. You mustn't think of them as enemies waiting to invade, because they're just animals. Dartmoor's black lions, bigfoot, Loch Ness monster, and other such crapula are cryptids and sometimes we just need to work to remove them from the urban sprawl before they look at your kid's tenth birthday party as a smorgasbord.

Dybbuk: In folklore, the dybbuk is a Jewish demon that inhabits the bodies of the recently dead and uses them to walk around looking for food, and food means people. These horrid creatures reside in slums and downtrodden areas where they can slip about unnoticed. Ever been down in the Tower Districts slums or in The Row in Millennium City and seen those homeless guys that shamble about with dead eyes and no hope? Ten to one a dybbuk is sitting behind the wheel. Despite their ferocity and being able to control bodies, Dybbuks aren't particularly bright. Any good orthodox rabbi knows the ritual to rip the creature free from its human host and seal it into a specially prepared box. Once caught in the box, the dybbuk is powerless until some idiot comes along and opens the box, setting the creature free.

Ghoul: Ghouls are a splinter branch of human kind that historical records place as first being discovered about the same time as Cro-Magnon. Appearing as thin and emaciated humans with long clawed fingers and vaguely canine-like faces, these monsters are by and large utterly indifferent to us. They feed on the decaying flesh of the recently dead and are rarely known to actively harass and hound living people. However, sometimes a family of ghouls, called knots of five to fifteen creatures can take up residence in inner city cemeteries, where they can spread disease or gain an unhealthy taste for living human meat. Ghouls are intelligent and can be reasoned with and often have no wish for conflict, so many times approach with negotiations and pointing out they are causing trouble is enough to send them scuttling back into the deep underground or various parts of the Nightward and Nightmare sections of the Dreamlands.

Menagerie: The Menagerie are difficult to define because they seem to fall into three unique types of creatures. The first are the full-blown Bob's your uncle shape-shifter, a man or woman capable at will of shifting into the form of an animal, either partially or totally. However, they are disctinct from werewolves, lycanthropes are are a completely unique species unto themselves. Please see the special report regarding werewolves and lycanthropes. The Menagerie make make up all the rest. We have thousands of pages of documents, video, and images of wereboards, werebears, were hunting cats, and even werebirds. These types seem to operate with some psychic ability we've not yet been able to concretely identify. The secnd type of Menagerie also seems to be psychical, some super-specialized variant wherein the psychic is able to broadcast all five senses into a nearby animal but otherwise does not change shape or give themselves away. While utilizeing this psychic ability, the Menagerie is able to trot Rover about the neighborhood and experience everything Rover does. These are sneaky bastards, but not without weakness: a psychic sensitive can spot them every time. The third type are those whom use Magick in order to enact the transformation. Magick Menagerie in almost every single cases performs a various specific ritual or series of requirements in order to affect the change. These types of Menagerie include shamans, pagans, skinwalkers, et al.

Vytokos: According to very ancient Greek and Greco-Roman mythology, the vytokos are a race of malignant underground dwelling spirits that feast on the blood and flesh of humanity. Ancient legends tell that a vytokos dwelling nearby is heralded by failing crops, milk that goes sour and/or bovines that refuse to give milk, and horses that refuse to pass over the spot where a vytokos is resting. These abominal creatures are a plague and, worse, can possess a human host. It's said that a human can offer the spirit a place in his or her own body in exchange for the spirit's power. The vytokos moves in to the host body, promptly shreds the human soul, and goes on to commit heinous atrocities from it's new body. A vytoko-human has preternatural strength and resistance to harm along with a host of minor powers such as crawling up walls like a spider. Vytokos possed humans are the things that gave rise to legends of vampires in Europe.

Native American Monsters
Caterwaler: In Chumash Indian lore, a spirit of revenge. The creature is named after the horrible noise it makes as it closes in on its victims. When summoned, the Caterwaler is relentless in the pursuit of the individual or group that it was summoned to kill. It can only be stopped by the brave that called it up, Agents are warned that if they find themselves facing a caterwaker it cannot be reasoned or negotiated with and will also attack anyone that gets in its way.

Goqua: Goqua is a Navajo word meaning trickster, and that's pretty much what these nasty little slugs are. I'm not being facetious, they actually are slugs measuring about a foot long. Our research to date indicates that they're extra-dimensional beings that invaded a pristine America before it was America, and didn't count on the resilience of the Navajo and other Amerindian tribes which nearly wiped the entire species out. Your typical goqua is, to put it simply, masters of illusion. Absolute lords of misdirection, illusion, lies, and deception a single goqua can really be a pain in the ass. So if reality starts to go all orgasmic in your coven, you're best served trying to find out if there's a goqua living in your chapter house.

Middle-Eastern Monsters
Djinn: Yeah, I know what you're going to say when I say Djinn. Barbara Eden and Robin Williams, right? Not for a second. Djinn are exceptionally powerful and exceptionally evil Middle-Eastern spirits that sometimes allow themselves to be summoned by a magician. That whole thing about three wishes? Not quite. Djinn are constrained by some kind of, I don't know, divine law? that forces them to obey any command given to them by a human. The magician that summons them, though, can make three distinct commands that the djinn has to obey. At the third wish the magician self-destructs and becomes the djinn's property. But in the meantime the djinn can unleash hell on earth. If you're going to be afraid of anything we face, be afraid of a djinn.

Qareen: Welcome to your own personal hell. In pre-Islamic folklore, the Qareen is every single, vile, dangerous facest of you. When you spend too much time looking in a mirror, your vanity causes your reflection to be replaced by your qareen, whom will soon emerge from the glass and indulge in every perverse, illegal, and immoral act you've ever fantasized about. And then, when the authorities come calling, the qareen slips back into the mirror and lets you suffer the consequences. In Germanic folklore, your doppleganger. If any agent is unfortunate enough to unleash his qureen into the world, hunt it down hard and fast and dispatch it. A qareen will not listen to negotiation and will respond with jibes and cheers when you provoke it. Remember the #1 rule when facing a qareen: the thing is you. It will think like you, fight like you, and use every bit of Magick or numea you may have.

Rakshasa: When you have a hint of one of these lurking about, equip yourself with as much silver as you can do. Rakshasa are Hindu monsters, often described as demons, taking the form of steaming hot men or sultry ladies with human bodies and tiger heads. If anything can be said to be evil purely for the sake of being evil, tis a rakshasa. Rakshasa are formidable users of magick, and are often sought after by evil magicians as mentors and instructors. Raskshasa are highly intelligent, and can only be harmed by magic or silver. Against a rakshasa, your chapter house in is for a real battle both physical and of wits.

Asian Monsters
Penaangalan: Although the idea of a disembodied head flitting around knocking into people seems patently absurd, the truth of them is not. These are monsters that hide in plain sight, making uncovering them even worse. First recorded in Malaysia, they now tend to conglomerate in little coven of two to five in Asian communities. Lucky us, Darkness Falls has three giant Asia communities. The worst part of the penaangalan is that the trailing entrails are perhensile. They operate as arms and legs. The guts can strangle, trip up, fire guns, and wave friskily around. Penaangalans are not just hard to hit because of their small size, but also can only be brought down for good by a silver bullet directly between the eyes.

Yokai: In Japanese culture, there are as many yokai in Japan as there are people, if not more. Rumors and stories of yokai cropping up in Darkness Fall's Neo-Tokyo have been going on since the 1940s. We believe that most authentic yokai aren't hidden in the city but rather have the great fortune to come through portals or are summoned by Japanese black magicians. Don't ever scoff when a field assignment demands you investigate a kitsune, kappa, or oni. Take the report seriously, bone up on the yokai being reported, and go do your job.

Undead
Rots: You find these almost one hundred percent of the time in Raven's Grove. Call them what you like: shamblers, zombies, the walking dead; they're all the same thing; animated corpses slowly but surely decomposing and coming after the living relentlessly. After decades of studying these creatures we're still not sure what, exactly, causes them to get up and eat people but there you go. Just like in the movies the only way to put Rots down for good is a clean shot through the head.

Vetala: Easy to spot and seven times as disgusting. Originating in the folklore tales of India, Vetala are described as undead not at rest because they weren't given the proper funeral rites. Whatever their origin, they usually don't listen to reason and are usually always furious. Some agents speculate they're so angry because they know they're supposed to be dead and can't get any rest. In my experience with the Darklight Society, 30 years worth, I have never dealt with a vetala but I know agents who have. Skeletons with piles of entrails where the guy normally is, and it can use its intestines as lassos and whips.

Kuchisake-Onna: These particular entities seem to have come over from Japan, blending in with the immigrating populace no doubt or possibly summoned by a practitioner of some art. These monsters are like a venus fly trap. They enjoy lying in wait. They wander areas around the city during the dark hours of the night. They are usually seen wearing some provacative attire as well as a surgical mask of some sort. When one approaches this creaure they may be greeted with a nod, or a polite word if they don't fit it's current menu for the night. If one does fit their tastes though they may be greeted with a question... "Do you think I'm pretty?" It seems like an innocuous question, though if answered in the positive the creature will remove its mask revealing a dark secret. Their mouths are large and torn open from the flesh revealing twisted nerve and muscle underneath as well as their exposed jaws. Again and in usually a darker more sinister tone they'll be met with another question. "Do you think I'm pretty now?" Agents have reported that their is no correct answer to this, and that not even running will give you much of a chance. The main factor seems on if the creature will gleefully enact it's plans or not. After you've answered the woman she will produce large scissors, or a blade of some other type. Some are even reported to simply grow blade like nails. Whatever it produces it will pounce after their victim, pin them down and slowly and meticuously slice the flesh of their jaws open leaving them often dead, and mutilated like the Onna herself. Agent investigations have found that the demon somehow feeds off people when enacting this practice. Likely absorbing the very essence of their fear or life as they go about their macabre work. Recommendation for these are stop on sight no matter what. Capturing and relocating are not options.

A Word About Entities
We use the term entity as a generalization to describe the shades of the dead, ghosts. If and when we get out there and act, it will be because of an entity. These make up the bulk of our case files so don't become complacent with thoughts like 'oh, another ghost'. Each haunting is unique and original, and should be treated with your safeguards fully in place. We have labelled six kinds of entities: Residual Hauntings, Lurking Fears, Poltergeists, Intelligent Hauntings, Possessing Entities, and Tectonic Entities.

Tectonic Entity: If you like possessing entiries, than these bad boys are going to make you orgasm. A techtonic entity is a malignant spirit, usually of someone whom was a criminal of some sort that died violently and because of that they are pissed. These are the entities that grab objects and use those objects to build bodies. We once did a battle with a brutal one in Detroit that made its body out of whole cars. Tectonic entities are usually fairly quick to make themselves known, so if you see objects moving by themselves and mashing together to create a humanoid form, you've got a Tec.

Possessing Entity: I've dealt with almost fifty of these things and you know what? They scare the hell out of me. The possessing entity can be classified as either a malignant spirt, or evil ghost, or extra-planar intelligence. Regardless of where it comes from, the possessing entity likes to kill people, as many as possible, usually by scaring them so witless and over a long period of time that the victim finally loses his mind and suicides. Possessing entities inhabit jewelry, furniture, toys, anything it can manage to get itself invited into and then it rolls up it's sleeves and gets to work. All covens are warned to bring diapers when dealing with a possessing entity because these things will scare the shit out of you.

Intelligent Hauntings: here you run into the full spectrum of the classic ghost, the spirits and images of the dead which still have the individual's intelligence, emotions, and memories attached. Intelligent hauntings can do some pretty incredible things: they can make themselves visible, pass through barriers, sling objects, speak, scream, and strike. I've seen some really awesome ghost powers too like making doors convulse outward or walls bleed. When dealing with an Intelligent Haunting it's important to remember you're dealing with another person, a fallible person. They can be reasoned with, tricked, and confused. More often than not, they want something. Maybe their old house is being renovated, or their burial site was disturbed, or she wnats to be sure great old Aunt Grandma's ruby pendant gets tossed into the ocean, who knows. We don't have many weapons at our disposal for dealing with an intelligent haunting aside from knowledge and experience, so face the ghost with the best you and your team has. Oh, and watch out for spectres.

Spectres are the bad boys of the phantasmal arena. When something goes wrong with the ghost or what it wants and it gets banished, when it comes back its going to be extremely pisssed off and even more negative than that. Specters have a whole arsenal of powers to unleash that ghosts don't have: entering dreams, inflicting physical and mental illnesses, sending in possessing entities, scratching, and I know of one that even threw an ignorant priest out of a third story window. When ever you deal with any confirmed Intelligent Haunting, talk up the homeowners and document their experiences. If it's all bad, go in expecting a spectre.

Residual Hauntings: These are the safest type of entity you can hope for, because they aren't really entities at all. Residuals are snapshots of history. The location where the haunting is occurring has soaked up so much energy that it's bursting, and so alleviates the tide by replaying images, smells, or sounds from the buildings' past. Find a way to drain the building of all that stored energy and you're all good.

Lurking Fears: From all of the research we've done, all we can really say is that Lurking Fears seem to be some type of minor Intelligent Haunting, albeit one without any of the abilities of afully realized ghosts. Lurking Fears do just that, they lurk. They are the things spoken of when witnesses describe feeling watched, whether casually or with malignancy. Lurking Fears don't seem to be able to do anything else, but even just that is enough to terrify people. Lurking Fears are real head-scratchers, you'll be hard put to figure out who it is and what it wants before you can actively lay one to rest.

Poltergeist: Noisy, bothersome, and only somewhat dangerous, poltergeists are pests. But they aren't entities. Poltergeists are the psychokinetic manifestations of seriously suppressed desires r needs, often sexual. This energy simply can't be contained and so it lets go in a spectacular show of pops, bangs, thuds, animal sounds, voices, and flinging objects. Because it has no brain to speak of, poltergeist energies can't be dealt with like a normal haunting. Look for children as the epicenter of the events, usually prepubescent with deep, dark secrets and get the poor kid some therapy.

A Word About Extraterrestrials
Living and working in Paradigm City as we do, we are all cognizant of the fact that aliens walk among us. Since the 1950s Earth has been visited by and become the home of a number of extraterrestrial species that nine times of ten join the ranks of the Cosmics. This has left many an agent scratching their heads and wondering why we have the Man in Black agent. To put it in plain terms, not every extraterrestrial that comes to Earth does so with pomp and circumstance. Many try to slip in completely undetected, and often for nefarious means. It is these alien life forms in particular that we focus our attention on. Our Men in Black maintain a constant vigil for craft and their pilots that use obfuscation to gain a foothold on Earth, and these are the life forms that require investigation. If we find that the intergalactic visitor has understandable reasons for wishing to remain in secret, perhaps he is an outcast seeking political asylum or only intends on observing the day to day minutia of human society, well and good. But there are always those space-farers with malignant intent and purposes to contend with, always; and Cosmics can't always be relied upon to become aware of the danger or take action against it.

The Dire Zodiac
We first learned of the Dire Zodiac from documents collected by the European Hellfire Clubs in the late Eighteenth Century. One of the purposes of these Hellfire Clubs, apparently, was to pay homage to these horrors and see if the Club could call them up for whatever insane reason they would want to do that.

The documents contained limited information on twelve supernatural entities of such power that I pee myself just thinking about it. All agents are warned that if Dire Zodiac activity is suspected get the hell out of there and don't come back without half the supers in the nation, let them deal with it. Remember, these beings are more than anything any coven could handle. Remember, too, we know almost nothing about these beings. So watch your tails, these guys are like the Archangels of the Dread.

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Anna Peh, The Ancient One: The information we've procured about this creature didn't come from a hellfire club; rather, it came from the written accounts of our founder's direct up close and personal battles with this thing. That's right ladies and gentlemen, the Ancient One is over five thousand years old and fully aware of The Darklight Society. En-Ka-Ra's adjudication that this creature has certain snake-like powers leads us to believe it may be an honest-to-god gorgon. If this is fact, The Ancient One is the only creature from ancient mythology who's existence we can absolutely confirm. Strangely, The Ancient One may also be our greatest ally against The Dread because all of our reports and documentation concerning her indicates that she tracks down othe supernatural creatures and uses them for sustenance. That's right, she eats other monsters.

Dagon: Let's face it, when a creature from The Dread is mentioned in the bloody Bible for goodness sakes, you know you're dealing with some sheer badassery. If you aren't familiar with the theology, Dagon was a Philistine deity that took particular interest in the sacrifice of children. We found a lot of documentation about Dagon from French hellfire clubs, where--particularly in 1796 to 1800--they put a lot of effort into trying to call Dagon up but there's no documentation left to explain actually why. Whatever the case think half-human half-fish standing about fifty feet tall and then picture it using the Eiffel Tower as a toothpick. You get the idea.

Gan Ceanach: In the folklore of Ireland and Scotland, Gan Ceanach, the 'Heart Lad' is one of the five Lads of the faerie's Unseelie Court. That's right, the guy's a fairy. Oh, stop looking at me like that. Gan Ceanach has a particular attraction to, and from, women. He appears as his target's absolute platonic ideal, woos the victim, and then vanishes just to watch the poor thing die of a broken heart. Also, he's the nice guy of the Dire Zodiac. He manifests all over the world in a thousand different names. We know he really likes popping up as a harlequin-esque Japanese man named Hasuko Maru. Ladies...be careful.

Persephony Hale: Miss Hale is the Vytokos of Paradigm Cty. She's the boss. She says jump and every other vytokos in our fair city asks her from which skyscraper. Through innumerable proxies, dummy corporations, and laundering businesses Hale controls all of the financial institutions in the city. As you might imagine, this gives her almost unlimited financial power. We have evidence to suggest that she also has a lot of vytokos working for her in the police department, fire departments, and media outlets. I think we should be grateful that she doesn't know about us because if she did she would probably steer all of her subjects right to our doorstep. So kill, maim, and destroy her underlings, henchmen, and holdings but do so with utmost secrecy and steer clear of queen bee herself.

The Tattered Princess: The Tattered Princess is described as an emaciated young woman, nude, covered in scars; with blood soaked hair and black pits where her eyes should be. Recovered documentation suggests that the Hellfire Clubs believed she is the progenitor of the Black-Eyed Children phenomena. Those same documents also emphatically stated: Never let her make eye contact.