Thursday, January 26, 2023

Lurkers

Aberrant shapes of twisted flesh and bone. Some are mockeries of humanity, possessing additional limbs or heads, while others might pass for human in dim light. Common to all are fanged teeth in overlarge mouths, used to bite down on their prey and open savage wounds through which they drink the blood of the living.



In the RPG...

Unless I'm mistaken, Lurkers are only the second genuinely new addition to the 7e Malleus Monstrorum thus far. The other being Blighted Ones. Even then, they were essentially the fungal zombies from The Last of Us. While Lurkers are essentially just vampires, they are not undead and don't have any of a vampire's weaknesses. Some also have malformed bodies, so would look much different to a vampire.
    All of the Lurker's stats are on the higher end of human-range. They have a maneuver whereby they do the vampiric thing of latching on to their victim and drinking their blood. They must drink at least 2 hit-points worth of blood every 4 days otherwise their body starts shutting down (like a vampire).
    One thing I need to bring up here is that every other blood-draining creature I've seen in the Malleus Monstrorum drains STR or CON, not hit-points. I'm not sure why this one is different. STR seems the most fitting to me, seeing as losing blood leaves one weakened, whereas hit-points are more about abstracting bodily damage, so don't really seem right.
    The other blood-draining creatures are Byakhee, Brothers of Chaugnar Faugn, Chthonians, Hell Leeches, Star Vampires, (monstrous) Children of Yog-Sothoth, Yuggs, and even regular old Vampires. They all sap STR or CON, with the exception of Children of Yog-Sothoth and Yuggs taking both CON and hit-points. So it remains odd that Lurkers drain hit-points.

In a video game...

    There are already plenty of examples of vampires in video games.

In a film...

    There are already plenty of examples of vampires in film.


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