Café de Nuit

In my Dementlieu game, mind control is obviously a huge theme, along with the dread that comes from not knowing what has happened to your friends and family, not knowing who to trust because anyone might be compromised. I am trying to have multiple possible threats along this line, not just Dominic and the Brain.

One of the possible threats I am considering is sea spawn, but I have never liked how larval sea spawn actually devour the brain of the host. This is horrific, of course, but it actually limits the options for good stories. There are no ex-victims with the enormity of guilt for what the creature made them do, no regret from the person who destroyed victims instead of curing them. I don't want this to be a cookie-cutter of lycanthropy, which also has these types of horror, but I think lycanthropy is popular because people identify with these concepts better, and there's a greater range of stories, than just the visceral body horror of something burrowing into your skull and eating your brain.

What do you think? Anyone else have an alternate idea for sea spawn control?

Why not just have the sea spawn consume just enough of the host's intelligence so that it can dominate them completely? They possess a low (5-7) Intelligence, so there's your cap (4-6). Obviously the time it takes to fully possess it's victim becomes a personal battle, as based on the victim's Intelligence score. Throw in a de-escalating/inverted daily saving throw (if you want to play things out).

Healing from this can be as difficult as the DM wants. I'd wave off the wish spell-only blurb. Bed rest can generate a point or so a day, restorative magic double to quadruple (again, depends on the DM's timeline/urgency/story propulsion needs).

As to the psychological horror of these things, the spawn-possessed hosts (now "non-consumables") aren't the ones being fed to the sea spawn master; they are the ones feeding their non-controlled, innocent, and unaware neighbours and family members (including children, if you bump it to an R rating) to their offshore master. Fully cognizant yet unable to resist (even scream in rage or cry), this will be a guilt trip that will go with them to their graves. Suicide is more likely the end for many of these poor souls.

Makes me sick even thinking about it.

It appears I read the entry wrong. Feeding others is what they are written to do (Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium App III, Denizens of Darkness).

Nevermind.

I'm still disgusted.

Also, as an added effect, what about incessant flashbacks for the ex-victim (both the feeding to and consumption of other "faceless" victims), due to their unmitigated mental link to the Master Sea Spawn (if it's still alive)? The list could be endless, depending on how long the Master has lived.

Question is, why would the Master Sea Spawn keep these ex-victims alive? Could there be inferior minions, in terms of genetics/lifespan, thus making a break slightly more easy for the victim? Is there some sort of bane that may disrupt the possession before the hosts themselves are consumed? Is the emotional trauma of feeding one's loved ones to monstrous beings strong enough, on occasion (a one-time Charisma-based saving throw?), to break the mental control?

Or could it be much more simple: the ex-victim is an ex-victim because the Master Sea Spawn has had its fill before it got around to eating them. And once full, the minions become useless, die off, or are greatly weakened. This, to me, is the most horrific explanation. The victim didn't survive by either personal act or will; they survived by mere chance. "Why me?" will nag them for the rest of their lives, and should they ever get to the point of realizing that they survived simply because the monster was full, by mere chance, then the helplessness of it all will be a forever haunt as well (not to mention developing a "bloody hands syndrome") . They thus could become grim subscribers to a Viking/Nordic-like view of Fate (pre-determinism), dangerous gamblers of their own lives (suicide by adrenaline, or, self-perceived supermen), become withdrawn/deeply introverted with forever guilt, etc.

Now, there doesn't have to be such an out, but it'd be interesting (to me) if there was. It's potential lead to tragic hero/antihero/dark avenger/interesting NPC/cool PC kickstart is too great to ignore...

Thread hog?

Nah, I'm just adding some freshly-picked ingredients to the cauldron...

The differences between lycanthropy and sea spawn comntrol is similar, yet different enough to give any PC (or NPC for that matter) a very unique experience (tale to tell/avenge). Definitely, in my opinion anyway, not enough to make sea spawn control a "cookie cut" of lycanthropy.

True lycanthropes maintain full recollection of their transfiguration (and all that follows), while infected lycanthropes are left with fragments of the surreal. Or so Van Richten tells us in his Guide to Werebeasts. So if anything, ex-victims of sea spawn can start to pace psychologically with true lycanthropes.

Yet the lack of control is akin to infected lycanthropes. Except the sea spawn victim has it worse: they maintain full recollection of their dirty, evil deeds. They are one-hundred percent conscious, while the infected are not. And their lack of control while possessed, that feeling of complete and utter helplessness, being used against their will by an alien entity and not being able to do a damn thing about it...it's psychic rape man. Assuming you ever get to understanding just what it was that caused you to do what you did.

And knowing what happened? That YOU fed your family and friends to some man-eating monster...that's a fate worse than having your flesh torn apart or your brain devoured from the inside out. It's got to be.

How can you ever forget throwing your child, your flesh and blood, into the septic maw of that...Thing? You can still hear her screaming at you to stop when you lay down at night or look at another child her age; still see that look of terror in her eyes, terror that you once swore to protect her against; see the tears streaming down her face, tears that you used to wipe away with a smile and some reassuring words...

YOUR hands pitched her from the boat and held her head underwater.

YOU did this.

And now you have to live with it.

Momma Wolf bite me now!

Reading about the internal struggle (in lack of a better word) for the aftermath of someone who survived a Sea Spawn attack… Have you seen Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher? To be completely honest I haven’t read the book and I’ve only seen the movie when it came out. But I do remember the race against time inside his brain, to save his anything from Mr Grey, who wanted to destroy his personality and take over. This might come in handy if you want to make it into a side quest, or even leave the sea spawn having actual conversation with the host while he eats him away.