Monster: The Parent (Liminal Horror)
When you fell; you fell alone. When you failed; you failed alone. When you hurt; your pain was a beacon. And the next time your world fell apart; They were there to pick up the pieces. The Parent wants what’s best for you. The Parent wants you to be happy. So long as you understand your place.
Image: A twisted centipede of garbed in human exoskeleton with upper limbs like a persons arms and legs. The uppermost limbs cover and claw at its bisected human faced cleaning its “eyes” which constantly leak a sulfurous saliva. Its lower limbs are curled tendrils which within Inferno link together fleshy chains like umbilical cords between each of the Parent’s hosts. A powerful enough Parent is too large to move on its own power instead using the animate corpses of every Host succumbed to its influence to hold it aloft on a palanquin of writhing bodies.
The Parent is a parasite that feeds off of its hosts’ life force by riding their emotional highs and lows in equal measure enticing the wounded to wound others in a twisted reenactment of their trauma before latching on to new victims caught in their hosts’ path. Drawn through The Dream by the currents of suffering left behind by people wounded deeply by those who were supposed to keep them safe. Its tendrils reach through reality burrowing deep into the mind of their victim through psychic wounds already caused by trauma and neglect.
An infection by the Parent begins with this regret. Dreams of an abusive mentor are mended by the Parent into tragic tales of heroism. If only you had been there for them. If only you hadn’t been so selfish. The path that had been chosen for you would be so much easier than the chaos you have chosen to surround yourself with. The Parent implants this ideal and seals it with stabs of psychic punishment pulling at nerves like strings until the Host will dance to the creature’s delight. If anyone stands in the way of this process the Parent will inflict more subtle malformations. Jabbing at the weak points of even the strongest bond until the Host has been completely indoctrinated. However, once Host and Parent become aligned in purpose their bond becomes more than pain.
It begins to eat away at the Host’s suffering. Drinking their trauma as it transposes hateful memories into euphoric nostalgia. A parent’s drunken rage becomes a small consequence for hard times that they saw the family through. A mentor’s unwanted advances are twisted into a cry for help that went unanswered. A lover’s betrayal simply a life lesson that went unheeded. The Parent ensures that the Host feels that each of these made them stronger. Better. Feeding into the cycle causes the Parent to share its own pleasure at devouring the Host’s pain until nothing can penetrate the lies it has burned into the mind of it’s victim. With all of this it seeks to manufacture a deep need for its presence and such a paralyzing fear of its loss that it may accomplish its true aim; of planting itself into another.
When enough of this life force has been harvested the worm becomes pregnant with its malefic clutch. Their birthing pains gnaw at the already frayed psyche of their Host causing them to lash out in agony or isolate until the larvae are ready to burst forth. The Host is only relieved of this torment when they finally choose to infect the mind of another visiting the trauma of their past in the same manner that lured the Parent to them to begin with.. Once the victim has been prepared the eggs of the parent are violently passed along bursting pseudopods of iron and corded flesh. There, they will fester, and grow, until they become Parents’ themselves.
Avoiding this fate requires the Parent to be starved of it’s food source, or for the feeding tendrils that wind their way through every one it’s children to be severed even as the indoctrinated Host fights to keep themselves as it’s thrall. As a last resort to protect its connection to a Host the Parent can enter a form of stasis calcifying an already devoured memory. There, it will wait, until unleashed by distress or a newly unearthed weakness in the Host to begin the cycle again.
HP: 1 (+1D6 for every bonded Host) Armor: 0 (10 While embedded into a Host)
Ability Scores as Host
Grasping Hands d8 (DEX Save or be lifted up or pushed into wall)
Thrown Object d6* (Item thrown may alter damage / effect)
Scold d6 Stress (Enhanced if PC is being Grabbed, Stunned, or Knocked Down)
The “Favorite”
Every Parent has a “favorite” Host which grants the character several benefits so long as their goals align with the Parents’ wishes:
- The character gains a special pool Luck (See Luck Liminal Horror SRD). This Luck is restored daily as long as the character rests in the domain of the Parent and provides it nourishment.
- The Parent will not allow their favorite to die on their watch. If the Host should suffer a lethal wound they will be knocked out instead while the parasite will take further control of their body causing Fallout. This can only happen once until the Host assists the Parent in acquiring a new Host to sap the life from.
Hosts’ that are ungrateful for their doting attentions are “corrected” by scolding or refusal to replenish their Luck pool.
Special Fallout from The Parent
- Words of Affirmation. Every time you are faced with a challenge you receive a kitschy Live-Laugh-Love boilerplate message of admiration from somewhere in the scene. Sometimes, it’ll be a text message from an unknown number when you have no service. Other times, carved into the flesh of the comrade your trying to save. These aphorisms buzz inside your head like static replacing negative thoughts with numb confidence. The PC gains +2 Stability as long as they can see or hear these positive affirmations.
- The Family Pet. Gain an animal companion resembling a long lost pet. They are possessed of a keen intelligence and unwavering loyalty but something is strange about the way they look at you and they make everyone else terribly nervous. Always alert to danger but CTRL saves made in their presence have Disadvantage. Eats your shoes.
- Misplaced Nostalgia. You begin to recall childhood memories you had never experienced before growing up with a family you don’t recognize. Family trips, game nights, and even shared hardships that give you comfort. Only thing is you don’t recognize any of the people in your memories but recalling them gives you peace all the same. Increase CTRL Save by 1d6.
- No Escape. Any time you RETREAT you must make a CTRL Save or else end up in Your Room. The room is a replica of your childhood room but with your current interests and lifestyle represented. What does it look like? Where does it lead? Re-roll your Luck Score.
- Jealousy. Authority figures always look pleasantly upon you and are favorable towards your actions. This makes others jealous. Sometimes violently. Your Reaction rolls between other subordinates to your Patron are always one step worse.
Scenario Hooks:
- A long lost mentor of one of the PC’s resurfaces offering vital guidance on their current situation. Advice quickly turns into animosity as they try to drive a wedge between the investigator’s, their patron, and each other. It would be easy to just forget them but their pointed jabs have more truth to them than not and your mentor always had a way to cut to the quick even if they weren’t polite about it.
- A new contact offers powerful connections and resources in exchange for becoming a major player in the investigators business. Their crusade becomes the contacts’ crusade until their encouragement and material start to hinge on a new way of doing things. A better way, Their way. They could just kick them to the curb but isn’t it worth dealing with a little bit of abuse for all of the new toys you just got off that truck?
- An innocent rescued by the investigators in the past comes to them out of desperation hoping to get their help in rescuing a family member from a cult. When they arrive the compound is locked down and a ritual seems to be underway. To make matters worse the innocent is no mere victim and a former member of the cult as well. A simple rescue or a trap?
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