It's a terrible thing, to serve Nightmares when you only possess a couple of
Forces. Your daily job is to terrify beings with twice as many Forces as
yourself. True, you can concentrate on children - a much more even
competition. Still, demonlings of Nightmares are the only ones who will be
routinely scared of humans.
it's not just the mundanes, after all. Roaming Beleth's Marches are some of
the mightiest humans in Hell's service - Dreamshades who have served Beleth
for hundreds or even thousands of years, rewarded well with Rites, Songs and
Attunements, maybe even a Vessel. Soldiers of both sides suffer nightmares,
and are drawn into Beleth's realm; Sorcerers spend most of their sleeping
hours here. Saints, particularly Michael's, can take advantage of their need
to sleep by using their dreamscapes as bait, and troll for infernals.
Every time the demonling enters a Dreamscape, he'll wonder if it's going to
be the last thing he'll ever do - or maybe it'll be worse than death - and
he doesn't have any essence because he just spent it on the Song so he could
enter the Dreamscape
But there are other ways to terrify. For starters, being terrified yourself.
A demonling whose in a panic because he's heard a rumour that Malakim are
cruising this part of the Vale can panic all those around him, no matter how
strong they are. A wise demonling will notice this, and remember. And
develop this skill.
If you can't terrify your victim, why not get him to terrify himself? Before
entering a Dreamscape, the demonling can modify his appearance to be a
starving child or pet, with the image continually decaying over time. Even
if the demonling does nothing else while in the Dreamscape, the human will
be disturbed by the image, and may attempt to help the demonling. Watching
the demonling 'die' and then fade away (as the Song of Dreams ends) will
darken the human's thoughts and dreams - especially if they tried to help and
must come to terms with their failure.
Of course, this requires an understanding of the human psyche, something
these demonlings will rapidly acquire. Once they know the weak points, they
will tend to eschew less subtle ways of terrifying humans, partly from
pride, mostly from a knowledge of the dangers involved. Over the centuries,
the demonling will make countless humans pay for his fear of them. Until he
is ready to become a demon - a subtle demon, a sneaky demon, a hateful
demon. Let the failures become Calabim, the psychotics become Habbalah or
Balseraphs. The demonling has earned the rank of Pachadite, and humanity
will rue his skill.
DARKNESS
Alone of the Bands, Pachadim do not gain a bonus to any Songs due to their
Band. Given that the Ethereal Song of Darkness gives a bonus to Nightmares,
here are some variants for the other realms; The targets may resist with a
Will roll, and the Songs have a duration of CD hours:
Corporeal: Known as the Song of Gloom, this variant darkens the light
reflected off the target(s). The demon may affect a number of targets equal
to the CD. If they fail, those who view them will perceive them as more
threatening - anyone looking at a target must make a Perception roll;
success allows them to see that "the lighting just doesn't suit them"; on a
failure subtract the CD of the perception roll from the viewers' reaction
roll.
Celestial: Known as the Song of Blindness, this variant prevents the target
from recognising actions or events which contradict their current fears -
although they are seen, they don't emotionally register.
Bonus: Pachadim (these variants only)
Essence required: 1
Degree of Disturbance: None
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