Behold! Two SCDs posted in as many days!
==================================================================================================
Nalthusuhtlan, The Hunter And His Prey
Demon of the Second Circle
Reflective Soul of the Great Terror Worm
The Demon City has threats and pitfalls beyond counting, from the petty power struggles of its lowliest inhabitants to the devastation wrought by the Yozis themselves as they squirm and chafe under their confinement. Few who enter the depths of Hell survive without first educating themselves on the more common dangers they will find there.
Yet only the most dedicated scholars of matters demonic know to stand their ground when they see a formless presence rampage through the streets of Malfeas, and close their eyes as its quarry passes them by. The Hunter-Calling Hart, rare as its emergences into the more traveled thoroughfares of Malfeas may be, has claimed its share of less-educated mortals.
Birthed of the withered, atrophied almost-mind of the Great Terror Worm, Nalthusuhtlan is a manifestation of Ghalu-Than's awareness as a 'thing that is hunted', and so it is divided into both predator and prey. The former aspect is a harsh-edged outline burnt into the air itself, raucous and impetuous; the latter a pathetic, pitiful creature that radiates panic with every motion of its form.
However, any finer detail is dictated by the Hunter and His Prey's surroundings. In the avenues of the Demon City, it appears as the outline of a blood ape, roaring with fury as it pursues a fleeing stomach bottle bug. On Creation's seas it is the hollow echo of a fearsome shark, hot on the heels of a lowly minnow. As befits the product of such a feeble-minded progenitor, Nalthusuhtlan lacks the stability to find a form and meaning that it could call its own, and so contorts to match the world around it.
Notes and Abilities: The trap of the Hunter and His Prey lies in its lack of definition. Nalthusuhtlan's being extends beyond its physicality, invisibly flowing out and pooling around it and in the wake of its passing. To gaze upon it is to stand at the edge of a riptide, and nothing save proper preparations or immense spiritual power can save you from being drawn in and drowned by its endless hunting.
If a man flees before Nalthusuhtlan's predator-self, he will find himself hearing its movements and feeling its chill breath at odd hours and moments ever after, and all who do not cover their faces when its prey-self draws near will be haunted by the memory of its eyes gazing into their own. By interacting with the demon, they have allowed its Essence to take root in their own souls: in their dreams, they will see the Hunter and His Prey again and again, in a thousand forms and a thousand places.
As their affliction progresses, the memories of the hunt begin to impinge on the victims' waking moments, and at the next half-moon their bodies shrivel and fall apart in leathery strips, leaving behind a pair of demon-blooded spawn (birthed from the mingling of their own Essence and Nalthusuhtlan's) nestled among the bones. These hardy, unnatural children are born hunters, growing quickly and communicating among themselves without need of words or proximity, and so unscrupulous Sorcerers (or Ylagran cultists) often call up the Hunter-Breeding Hart, let it roam as it may, and then come along in a month's time to gather up the offspring it has left behind to raise for their own purposes.
Seldom does the Hunter and His Prey emerge into Creation unbidden, for it can only break free of Hell when a god of animals or hunting is run to ground and slaughtered by her own children. On such dark occasions, the fallen god's death-cries are answered by the alien call of Nalthusuhtlan, which then runs all throughout her former holdings over the course of a day and a night.
==================================================================================================
So yeah, this guy is partially there as a first example of my personal homebrew for how to do demonblooded - which is to say, they're 'born' in weird and abnormal ways that make sense only within the rubric of the demonic parent. For example, you don't fuck a blood ape to make a demonblood child, you engage them in ritual combat followed by a shared feast of raw meat, and the blood shed over the course of the festivities congeals into a newborn. Meanwhile, if Yyrizesh has ever had a child, it was via art collaboration. The themes of the demon define how they procreate with mortals, not the reverse.
@TenfoldShields, I await your analysis.
" to make it clear I was joking.
