Savage Reflections: Gods and Monsters

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Greater Nightmares

Greater Nightmares, their Domains of Influence, their District within the City Beneath, and a brief sketch of things you might know about them via research, experience, or rumor.

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The Jack (aka Old Scratch)

Domain: Deals | District: The Bizarre Bazaar

Details

The Jack manifests as a lean, well dressed man with yellow eyes and a perpetual grin framed within a neat goatee. This manifestation is constant whether he appears in the City Slumbering or the City Beneath.

Jack's Lieutenants are the Devi, and the Raggle Taggle are his Soldiers and Spies (see Lesser Nightmares below).

Jack is not the most imposing of Nightmares, but his webwork of deals means he has more real power than most.

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The Blood Queen

Domain: Hunger | District: Paradox Square

Details

Known as the Nightmare other Nightmares fear, the Blood Queen is the self-proclaimed ruler of the City Beneath. She never leaves the City Beneath and always manifests as a blood-soaked little girl.

The Vampir act as both her Lieutenants and her Soldiers (see Lesser Nightmares below).

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The Lady

Domain: Death | District: The Tower of the Moon

Details

Appearing as a young woman with blonde hair and ink-black eyes in a black dress or business suit in the City Slumbering, it is said strange stars can be seen twinkling in her eyes and clothes. She always has a brace of curved bone daggers on her person. Both blades are stained a deep red along their edges.

She has never been seen in the City Beneath, but her presence is always felt.

The Lady has no Lieutenant, and the Willow Women are her only Soldiers (see Lesser Nightmares below).

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Baron Samedi

Domain: Debauchery | District: The Narrows

Details

Baron Samedi manifests as a drunk or gambler or conman in the City Slumbering and always bears the mark of a skull somewhere, be it tattoo or jewelry or print.

In the City Beneath, he is a tall, bald black man in a top hat and an ill-fitting, oversmall black tuxedo with tails and no shirt. He wears the visage of a bone-white skull painted across his face.

The Hound Master is his Lieutenant, and the Black Dogs are his Soldiers (see Lesser Nightmares below).

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The Wretched

Domain: Darkness | District: The Catacombs

Details

The Wretched is a towering gnarled Nightmare who might be encountered as a hideous, pale troll-like hag or slithering through her catacombs like some great pale serpent or ancient withered vine.

In the City Slumbering, she invariably chooses the form of a plump old schoolmarm with coke-bottle glasses and breath that might smell either of candy or rot.

Her Lieutenants, if she has any, are never seen, but her Inklings are vicious Soldiers, and they are Legion (see Lesser Nightmares below).

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The Raj

Domain: Isolation | District: Silent House

Details

In the City Slumbering the Raj appears as a slight Indonesian man dressed in simple black garments and conical bamboo douli. He never wears shoes and has six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot.

In the City Beneath he manifests as an immensely fat blue man of considerable height and girth with three legs and three arms and a purple tentacle-like tongue as long as he is tall. The Rakshasa are his Lieutenants, the Barber is his Sergeant at Arms, and the Urchins are his Soldiers (see Lesser Nightmares below).

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Mother Dragon

Domain: Corruption | District: The Labyrinth

Details

Mother Dragon manifests as a great wingless dragon with glistening scales, flowing whiskers and horns, and deep red ridges along her spine. No one can agree on the number of her limbs and claws.

In the City Slumbering she manifests as a regular Mortal, but never wears the same form or visage twice.

The Rag Dolls act as her Lieutenants and Soldiers (see Lesser Nightmares below).

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The Lingering

Domain: Disease | District: Rattown Wharf

Details

The Lingering manifests as a gaunt towering figure wrapped in dingey shrouds of yellowed cloth. His skin is sallow and shrunken, blotched liberally with black spots.

In the City Slumbering, he always appears as a Mortal suffering from some kind of sickness or deformity.

The Catspaw are his Lieutenants, the Plague Rats his Soldiers, and the Barnacle Boys his spies (see Lesser Nightmares below).

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The Raven

Domain: Risk | District: The Rooftop Jungle

Details

The Raven appears as a bird of the same name in both realms. It has no Lieutenants, but the Night Callers act as its Soldiers and Spies (see Lesser Nightmares below).

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The Keeper of the Ways

Domain: Transcendence | District: The Canals

Details

The Keeper appears as a slim, uptight balding man in a too-small suit in the City Slumbering, but in the City Beneath, he is a freakishly tall skeleton clad in sweeping pale grey robes with gold coins for eyes, and he is almost always encountered on a pale grey gondola, pushing along the canals with a long ash pole.

In both realms he is rumored to wear a red and blue steal-your-face t-shirt beneath his garments.

The Keeper has no Lieutenants, Soldiers, or Spies.

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Lesser nightmares

Most Lesser Nightmares serve as Lieutenants, Soldiers, or Spies for the greater Nightmares.

Devi

It is rumored there are seven of these tempters/temptresses beholden to the Jack. They appear in whatever form is most appealing to the one they appear to and ply virtue and vice alike. The Devi are the Jack's collectors and enforcers.

In their natural forms they appear to be men and women of near perfect beauty dressed in diaphanous silks. Each has three gemlike eyes, two set where they should be and the third set high in the center of their brows. Additionally, each has two mouths, one atop the other, with voices in two different ranges and tones and the ability to speak in harmony with themselves or in horrible, jarring discord.

Raggle Taggles

Mischievous denizens of the Bazaar, the Raggle Taggles flit about the crowds in scraps of colorful billowing silks and sashes, never stopping long in any one place, and are ubiquitous simply by virtue of the fact that they are literally everywhere. Though newcomers to the Bazaar might be tempted to worry about thievery, the actual purpose of the Raggle Taggles is more subtle, and often more dangerous.

Special: The First Rule of the Raggle Taggles is Do Not Talk About the Raggle Taggles. Any attempt to describe these ubiquitous denizens of the Bazaar will be met with amused disbelief and appreciation for a fine tale that might earn a mug in a friendlier place than the City Beneath. Despite the fact that they seem to be everywhere, apparently only the Awakened are actively aware of them.

Clockwork Insects

Delicately wrought of copper, brass, and iron to perfectly resemble and mimic actual insects - flies, roaches, locusts, centipedes - Clockwork Insects can be found in abundance everywhere within the Bizarre Bazaar, flitting about, examining everything, suddenly there and suddenly gone. But it is when they are spotted outside the Bazaar that they are most valuable. If a Clockwork Insect is seen outside the Bizarre Bazaar it means that a hidden entrance to the Bazaar is close at hand. The Awakened can use these sightings to enter the Bazaar. This does not require a dice roll, merely a willingness to follow the Clockwork Insect where it leads.

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Vampir

Vampir are pale humanoid Nightmares created by the Blood Queen from raw human stock and conform closely to the Vampires of popular human lore.

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Willow Women

Lithe and flexible and tall, the Willow Women are fair skinned with extremely long limbs and hands and feet and toes and fingers, and their hair drops down all about them in a curtain of fine pale braids, like the hanging branches of the willow tree, hiding their faces and most of their form. The Willow Women will not willingly move aside their braids and look directly on another being and tend to keep their heads down and their faces hidden, but if someone were to part those pale braids, stark black eyes with no color or whites would stare back, triiggering an immediate fight or flight response.

Special: Willow Women have no mouths and cannot speak.

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The Hound Master

The Hound Maser is a rugged man clad in hand cured leathers. He has wild hair and a great tangled beard. One eye is green, and one is blue. It is rumored that standing close enough to breathe his breath will leave a strong man drunk and a weak man dead.

Black Dogs

Great black hounds standing waist high to a man at the withers with massive heads and jaws, the Black dogs can track anything they have a scent for.

They are their own Ways, able to slip between the City Beneath and the City Slumbering with a thought and come out where they wish.

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Inklings

Denizens of the Shadow Nethers, inklings resemble tiny spider-like humanoids with huge hands and feet and great grinning maws full of shadowy teeth. Inklings are three dimensional in form, but being made of the stuff of shadow they are somewhat translucent, except for the inside of their mouths beyond their shadowy teeth. That is black as never.

Silent as death, Inklings are never seen unless they wish it, but they are everywhere, watching from the shadows and seeing everything that happens beneath the the City Beneath.

When Inklings attack, they attack in swarms, but though they are utterly invisible while they are ensconced in shadow, they do have to leave the shadows to attack. Their hands have no grip and their teeth have no bite if their bodies remain in shadow.

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The Rakshasa

The Rakshasa resemble tiger headed men of massive stature and keep the peace in the Silent House acting as the Raj's guards and enforcers.

The Barber

The Barber appears as a shrewd muscular man with a bald pate and a massive handlebar mustache in simple clothing and always carrying a wicked looking straight razor. Little happens in the Narrows and Labyrinth that the Barber is unaware through his network of Urchins.

Urchins: The vast majority of Urchins are child sized, rumpled and anonymous. They move singly, in pairs, small groups, in their constant spy game. Urchins will rarely act directly against an Awakened so long as their perceived routine is not interrupted or hindered in any way.

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Rag Dolls

Named for the stuffed cloth dolls they carry everywhere, Rag Dolls look like waifish girls in skirts and pigtails. They seem mostly harmless, skipping along until they are right upon their marked prey, whom they will follow for blocks with no hint of threat.

But once they draw nigh, their toy dolls dissolve into wickedly sharp tools of rusted metal in their grubby little fists and their faces become crazily grinning jack'o'lanterns wreathed in dragonfire.

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The Catspaw

Slinking humanoid figures with feline heads, tails, and claws, the Catspaw function like an organized gang, collecting 'protection' and hassling transients for tolls of passage through their tattered fiefdom. On the other hand, they mercilessly root out any other criminal element in the Wharf and will fight off encroaching Nightmares and Awakened alike if they feel they are a threat.

Plague Rats

Smaller than the Catspaw, Plague Rats are even more ratlike than the Paws are catlike, but still move mostly upright and have some humanoid characteristics. Though they do not actively provoke the Catspaw, Plague Rats have no interest in order, shakedowns, or protections. They simply do as they wish and slink away into the shadows.

The Rats are not terribly brave unless they know they have numbers or their prey is otherwise helpless.

Barnacle Boys

Vaguely shaped like small boys but covered head to toe in a carapace of thousands of living barnacles, the Barnacle Boys hang out on the docks and piers and jetties collecting information for the Catspaw and the Night Callers alike, as well as for any Awakened that can pay their price.

When crouched down against a piling or the base of a dock or storefront, Barnacle Boys all but look like a bit of crumbling foundation. They are also very agile and adept, able to use their bony growths to quickly shimmy up pilings and walls to the rooftops of the Wharf and even up to the Rooftop Jungle.

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Night Callers

The Night Callers crowd the Rooftop Jungle, leaping from one to another, shouting to one another as they go through their constant game of motion. They are of a size and shape with little children but have the faces of birds and beasts and might have fur or feathers or tails to match the face, though their main limbs remain more human than beast.

So, while one might have feathers on it's arms that hang down like wings, they are still arms, not actual wings. Not that that makes them any less mobile as they flit about from rooftop to rooftop.

In particular, when the Night Callers spot one of the Awake in their domain, they let out an odd warbling cry that brings more of their kind.

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The Broken

The Broken are Mortals that wandered or were led into the City Beneath at the moment of death and are in the process of becoming Lesser Nightmares.

The Drowned

The dripping, salt crusted forms of those lost at sea, the Drowned serve as stevedores and longshoremen on the Wharf, mindlessly ignoring everything but their given tasks. At need, however, they will immediately take orders from any Catspaw, and will even follow the directions of Barnacle Boys if there are enough of them to physically herd the Drowned in the requested task.

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The Eyeless

The Eyeless are Mortals who died suddenly and violently, without ever seeing their death coming or who killed them.

As their name implies, these men and women have no eyes, but sallow amber flames flicker in their empty sockets, and their skin seems waxy and almost fluid.

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The Fallen

The Fallen represent those that went down fighting: soldiers, cops, gang bangers, it doesn't matter. Just before that final moment they found themselves in the City Beneath.

Like any of the Broken, the Fallen can be killed, but unlike the others, for the Fallen it never really takes.

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Wisps

Not everyone dies horribly. Some die peacefully in their beds. Some of those become wisps, translucent, harmless, and eternally tapped, drifting aimlessly through the City Beneath for all eternity.

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Awakened NPCs

The PCs aren't the only Awakened. Below are some NPC Awakened the PCs might encounter.

Max

Max was a Clockmaker's apprentice before he Awakened.

Exhaustion: Athletics (particularly free running)

Madness: Shape Change (clockwork swarm)

Clockwork Insects: All clockwork insectS in the City Beneath originated with Max.

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Doc Holiday

History books say Doc died of TB. Truth is, he wandered into the City Beneath and never came out.

Exhaustion: Gambling

Madness: Teleport

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Emily Play

Emily was a patient at Windsong Sanitarium.

Exhaustion: Stealth

Madness: "Beast" Friend (swarm, goblins)

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Ruvyen d'Amasku

Ruvyen was an archaeologist/Egyptologist

Exhaustion: Occult

Madness: Mind Reading

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Jaala

Jaala, a Drowned woman, is the only Broken known to have Awakened.

Exhaustion: Taunt

Madness: Slumber

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