History TabletopGame / TheBookOfUnremittingHorror

''The Book of Unremitting Horror'' was originally a ''UsefulNotes/D20System'' supplement which detailed the horrific entities of the "Outer Dark Mythos". This was subsequently incorporated into the background of both ''TabletopGame/TheEsoterrorists'' and ''TabletopGame/FearItself'', which both use the ''TabletopGame/{{GUMSHOE}}'' rules system, and so the second edition of the supplement, using ''GUMSHOE'' rules mechanics, serves as a supplement for both those games.

* BeastMan: Feral drowners are giant goat-men hybrids of ancient age. Unlike your standard depiction of a beastman (which is usually just an uglier mook for an adventurer to disembowel), a feral drowner is basically a MonsterLord and as such they're the physically mightiest beings in the book outside of the godlike entities, the book even warns about using them in a game as they can easily wipe out a party of investigators.

[[quoteright:231:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bookofunremittinghorrorcover.jpg]]

** Then there's Strap Throat, the [[GhostlyGoals vengeful ghost]] of a young girl killed by [[ParentalAbuse her abusive father]] in the early 20th century.

* UnseenPenPal: The sisterites, modern day succubi, use their powers to access the internet, and use dating sites to track down prey (the fatter, the better) and begin a rapport with the victim. They lure the victims into a false sense of trust (or at the very least, make them too horny to think straight), often supplementing this by [[PostModernMagik emailing a .jpg of a sigil that]] [[ArtifactOfAttraction not only makes the victim see the most beautiful woman they can think of, but it allows the Sisterite to further twist the victim's perception at a later date,]] like making that abandoned barn look like a dance club. [[ImAHumanitarian Perfect for when she's ready to meet]] ''[[ExactWords "In the flesh".]]''

* AnArmAndALeg: The Mortician's bone saw can cut out a head or limb in seconds. A missing arm or leg can easily spell the end of a PC, who might need months to recuperate while other characters need to get on with their cases.

* BeastMan: Feral Drowners are giant goat-men hybrids of ancient age. Unlike your standard depiction of a beastman (which is usually just an uglier mook for an adventurer to disembowel), a Feral Drowner is basically a MonsterLord and as such they're the physically mightiest beings in the book outside of the godlike entities, the book even warns about using them in a game as they can easily wipe out a party of investigators.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Torture Dogs resemble giant mammalian cyborg weevils, with whirring power drills between their oversized, prehensile mandibles.

** A Death Tapper infects victims with a disease known as Churning Rot. It begins with violent diarrhea and vomiting, then the organs liquefy and the victim dies in conscious pain as they vomit and excrete their own innards.

** The Clootie's gaze and howl fill anyone who see or hear them with terror.

* CameBackStrong: The Organ Grinder can upgrade itself after being defeated, upgrades vary from simply growing larger, to bolting on heavy armour or adding a more powerful weapon. Eventually it can become even more powerful physically than a Feral Drowner (the creature that's normally the #1 brute in the book).
* ChestBurster: When a Skitch grows large enough, it gnaws its way out of the host, leaving behind a corpse chewed to the bone.

* {{Cyborg}}: The Organ Grinder is a half-organic, half-mechanical monster made of both rotten flesh and metal. It only operates according to strict parameters, but is impossible to tire out.
* DepravedBisexual: Doesn't matter if a person is a man or woman, Feral Drowners see humans as nothing more than prey to be hunted for rape and then murder.
* DreamLand: Dream Tearers live in the Dreaming Realm, a vague and insubstantial plane of existence that connects the dreams of people. Sleeping people always enter it when they enter REM sleep. Every person has their own closed dream plane, and entering others' dreams is dangerous and very difficult.
* DrivenToSuicide: The Bleeder's cuts are addictive, and cause more stress if not received regularly. Those who are calmed by them begin to crave them, and when the bleeder moves onto a different subject, they begin to cut themselves, culminating with one or two final deep cuts to escape life. Some suspicious commentators have suggested that the eventual suicide is the real objective of the Bleeder.

* EvilSmellsBad: Feral Drowners exude a sickeningly foul stink, like when an old, mouldy goat skin is buried in reedy mud for a couple of weeks.

* TheFairFolk: Several creatures take their cues from darker bits of folklore about fae creatures, such as Clooties, Drowners, Feral Drowners (implied to be the origins of many legends, including the Pooka), Kooks and Sleep Hags.

* FleshGolem: A Snuff Golem is formed from body parts, electrical equipment, and butcher's tools used in a SnuffFilm, and can create its own homunculus servitors from the remains of its victims.

* HalfHumanHybrid: The Blossomer's purpose is to impregnate all female members of its cult, they'll give birth to half-human, half-ODE daemons gifted with the powers of their heritage.

* HypnoticEyes: A Drowner's empty eyes urge victims to let go of the world and dive down the water.
* ImAHumanitarian: The summoning ritual of a Blossomer involves the cult putting its would-be host on an altar and eating his body from the waist down with only their teeth and nails. Once the Blossomer is summoned and finishes its job, the mothers-to-be need to eat the rest of the body.

* NeverSleepAgain: Dream Tearers hunt by entering sleeping minds and tearing them apart, killing the body. Victims that have been pursued across multiple nights typically have taken precautions against falling asleep.

* OneHitKill: A few creatures have abilities that can spell instant death for the victim, like the Dementia Larva's decapitation, or the Mortician's bone saw.

** When a person dies when overwhelmed by an extraordinarily strong need or addiction, the craving can sometimes hold the diseased spirit to the body as a Blood Corpse. Unlike the shambling zombies of [[Creator/GeorgeRomero Romero's]] movies, blood corpses are cunning, and lurk in places where the dregs of society go so they could feed on their blood. Otherwise, they are not very intelligent and aren't able to think much beyond drinking blood.

** The touch of a Sleep Hag causes the victim to wake up, aware of their surroundings, but unable to move a muscle other than opening their eyes.
* PrimalFear: Feral Drowners were apex predators from a nightmarish epoch when humans barely crawled out of caves and were little more than prey for these abominations to rape and kill. As such, seeing a Feral Drowner will cause an instinctive panic reaction from the reptilian parts of the human brain. This is bad news, as not only does the fear greatly inhibits a person's ability to fight the Feral Drowner, Feral Drowners can feed off fear to grow even stronger.

** Torture Dogs inject psychotropic toxins into the bloodstreams of their victims, which heighten their consciousness of pain, while keeping them awake for marathon torture sessions.

* ResurrectiveImmortality: There are a number of creatures that will eventually back up after they've been physically destroyed. Clooties and Strap Throat can manifest again shortly after they're "killed", there is no way of killing these beings. Bleeders and Organ Grinders can also come back to life, though they can be killed permanently with the proper method (Bleeders need their original corpses unearthed and destroyed, while all Organ Grinders have a different KryptoniteFactor like acid or fire, etc.)
* SnuffFilm: A snuff movie that preserves a victim's last hours can sometimes result in the creation of a creature even more nightmarish, the Snuff Golem.

* SpontaneousHumanCombustion: The touch of a Mortician of the Practice can cause living bodies to burn into a greasy, lumpy residue with parts of limbs still visible, leaving the surroundings untouched. Many cases of 'spontaneous human combustion' were caused by Morticians trying to get rid of someone who learnt too much.

* TouchOfDeath: A Mortician's touch can cause bodies to burst into strange invisible flames.

* UnseenPenPal: The Sisterites, modern day succubi, use their powers to access the internet, and use dating sites to track down prey (the fatter, the better) and begin a rapport with the victim. They lure the victims into a false sense of trust (or at the very least, make them too horny to think straight), often supplementing this by [[PostModernMagik emailing a .jpg of a sigil that]] [[ArtifactOfAttraction not only makes the victim see the most beautiful woman they can think of, but it allows the Sisterite to further twist the victim's perception at a later date,]] like making that abandoned barn look like a dance club. [[ImAHumanitarian Perfect for when she's ready to meet]] ''[[ExactWords "In the flesh".]]''
* VampiricDraining: Blood Corpses rampage insatiably for human blood, consuming it through hollow claws.

** When a person is exposed to monstrous visions of nightmare, he dies internally and the shell of the person stumbles away from what he has seen, forever changed. The most extreme result is a complete transformation into something inhuman, misshapen and savage: the Dementia Larva.
** Potential Bleeders are taken to a special sanctuary where existing Bleeders hang them by the ankle and cut them all over, transforming them into Bleeders after 24 hours.
** Victims of a Workman in their underground home join their ranks, slaving eternally for more scraps of emotional residue.

* AnArmAndALeg: The mortician's bone saw can cut out a head or limb in seconds. A missing arm or leg can easily spell the end of a PC, who might need months to recuperate while other characters need to get on with their cases.

* BigCreepyCrawlies: Torture dogs resemble giant mammalian cyborg weevils, with whirring power drills between their oversized, prehensile mandibles.

** A death tapper infects victims with a disease known as Churning Rot. It begins with violent diarrhea and vomiting, then the organs liquefy and the victim dies in conscious pain as they vomit and excrete their own innards.

** The clootie's gaze and howl fill anyone who see or hear them with terror.

* ChestBurster: When a skitch grows large enough, it gnaws its way out of the host, leaving behind a corpse chewed to the bone.
* TheCorrupter: The Ovvashi is a demon that preys on homeless communities, ingratiating themselves by always having the thing a specific homeless person wants; the first gift to an individual is always free, but every subsequent gift has an ever greater cost, usually in morally-dubious "favors" to the Ovvashi that harm the homeless group; it slowly escalates from rumormongering to petty theft to eventually murder, and when a person's soul becomes tainted enough, the Ovvashi arranges their death (usually through engineered overdose another corrupted member of the group, but it's not afraid to get its fangs dirty), then takes a small bit of the corpse, puts it in its bone pipe and smokes it, allowing the demon to [[SoulEating consume the damned soul]].

* {{Cyborg}}: The organ grinder is a half-organic, half-mechanical monster made of both rotten flesh and metal. It only operates according to strict parameters, but is impossible to tire out.

* DreamLand: Dream tearers live in the Dreaming Realm, a vague and insubstantial plane of existence that connects the dreams of people. Sleeping people always enter it when they enter REM sleep. Every person has their own closed dream plane, and entering others' dreams is dangerous and very difficult.
* DrivenToSuicide: The bleeder's cuts are addictive, and cause more stress if not received regularly. Those who are calmed by them begin to crave them, and when the bleeder moves onto a different subject, they begin to cut themselves, culminating with one or two final deep cuts to escape life. Some suspicious commentators have suggested that the eventual suicide is the real objective of the bleeder.

* EvilSmellsBad: Feral drowners exude a sickeningly foul stink, like when an old, mouldy goat skin is buried in reedy mud for a couple of weeks.

* TheFairFolk: Several creatures take their cues from darker bits of folklore about fae creatures, such as Clooties, Drowners, Feral Drowners (implied to be the origins of many legends, including the Pooka), Kooks and Sleep Hag.
* FaunsAndSatyrs: Feral drowners are bestial creatures resembling hybrids of humans and goats that often violate victims before killing them.

* FleshGolem: A snuff golem is formed from body parts, electrical equipment and butcher's tools, and can create its own homunculus servitors from the remains of its victims.

** An Ovvashi looks like a derelict with multiple rows of triangular shark-like teeth, and is capable of psychically influence people to ignore this telltale sign of its inhuman nature.
** Sisterites can twist their victim's perceptions, making him see her abandoned house as a nightclub, muck water as champagne, and the sisterite herself as a beautiful woman instead of the horrific monster she really is.
* HalfHumanHybrid: The blossomer's purpose is to impregnate all female members of its cult, they'll give birth to half-human, half-ODE daemons gifted with the powers of their heritage.

* HypnoticEyes: A drowner's empty eyes urge victims to let go of the world and dive down the water.
* ImAHumanitarian: The summoning ritual of a blossomer involves the cult putting its would-be host on an altar and eating his body from the waist down with only their teeth and nails. Once the blossomer is summoned and finishes its job, the mothers-to-be need to eat the rest of the body.

* MultiArmedAndDangerous: Room raiders have four arms – two vestigial limbs next to the mouth that end in human hands, for typing, and two longer arms that end in long curved claws, for killing.
* NeverSleepAgain: Dream tearers hunt by entering sleeping minds and tearing them apart, killing the body. Victims that have been pursued across multiple nights typically have taken precautions against falling asleep.

* OneHitKill: A few creatures have abilities that can spell instant death for the victim, like the dementia larva's decapitation, or the mortician's bone saw.

** When a person dies when overwhelmed by an extraordinarily strong need or addiction, the craving can sometimes hold the diseased spirit to the body as a blood corpse. Unlike the shambling zombies of [[Creator/GeorgeRomero Romero's]] movies, blood corpses are cunning, and lurk in places where the dregs of society go so they could feed on their blood. Otherwise, they are not very intelligent and aren't able to think much beyond drinking blood.

** The touch of a sleep hag causes the victim to wake up, aware of their surroundings, but unable to move a muscle other than opening their eyes.
* PrimalFear: Feral Drowners were apex predators from a nightmarish epoch when humans barely crawled out of caves and were little more than prey for these abominations to rape and kill. As such, seeing a Feral Drawner will cause an instinctive panic reaction from the reptilian parts of the human brain. This is bad news, as not only does the fear greatly inhibits a person's ability to fight the Feral Drowner, Feral Drowners can feed off fear to grow even stronger.

** Torture dogs inject psychotropic toxins into the bloodstreams of their victims, which heighten their consciousness of pain, while keeping them awake for marathon torture sessions.

* SnuffFilm: A snuff movie that preserves a victim's last hours can sometimes result in the creation of a creature even more nightmarish, the snuff golem.

* SpontaneousHumanCombustion: The touch of a mortician of the Practice can cause living bodies to burn into a greasy, lumpy residue with parts of limbs still visible, leaving the surroundings untouched. Many cases of 'spontaneous human combustion' were caused by morticians trying to get rid of someone who learnt too much.

* TouchOfDeath: A mortician's touch can cause bodies to burst into strange invisible flames.

* VampiricDraining: Blood corpses rampage insatiably for human blood, consuming it through hollow claws.

** When a person is exposed to monstrous visions of nightmare, he dies internally and the shell of the person stumbles away from what he has seen, forever changed. The most extreme result is a complete transformation into something inhuman, misshapen and savage: the dementia larva.
** Potential bleeders are taken to a special sanctuary where existing bleeders hang them by the ankle and cut them all over, transforming them into bleeders after 24 hours.
** Victims of a workman in their underground home join their ranks, slaving eternally for more scraps of emotional residue.
** Kooks drain the living essence from children, who become kooks once totally drained.

* LordBritishPostulate: As they are gods (or a very close facsimile), the Empty One and the Mystery Man have no stats at all, as nothing a mortal can do could actually harm them.

* LiteralManeater: Sisterites, a particularly unpleasant breed of digital-age succubi who [[MailerDaemon seduce their prey over the internet]], lure them to their lairs, and then devour them.

** Kooks appear to children as beautiful fey children, surrounded by an aura of enjoyment. The sky is bluer, the sun seems warmer, the wind smells euphoric, and the child perceives the kook's words and actions as favourably as possible. Adults see then as happy, innocent children, but this is more difficult.

* BigfootSasquatchAndYeti: Isolation Beasts are shambling horrors the size of a building, covered in rank, matted hair and dragging their slimy, misshapen limbs behind them. Historically, they have lurked in the wilderness, giving rise to legends of giants or yetis, preying lone travellers and small groups, since Isolation Beasts cannot bear to be seen by crowds.

* EldritchAbomination: Almost of all the horrors in this book are creatures so alien to our reality that our universe acts to shut them out - unless the "membrane" protecting our reality is breached. Of the many beings mentioned, the most abominable are [[PhysicalGod the Empty One]] and [[TheOmnipotent the Mystery Man]].

* TheAntiChrist: There's a cult of serial killers trying to cause the birth of the avatar of the [[GodOfEvil Empty One, the god of serial killers]]. If this should happen, the Empty One will usher in the End Times as serial killers come out of the woodwork en masse.
* BeastMan: Feral Drowners are giant goat-men hybrids of ancient age. Unlike your standard depiction of a beastman (which is usually just an uglier mook for an adventurer to disembowel), a Feral Drowner is basically a MonsterLord and as such they're the most physically mightiest beings in the book outside of the godlike entities, the book even warns about using them in a game as they can easily wipe out a party of investigators.

** A death tapper infects victims with a disease known as Churning Rot. It begins with violent diarrhoea and vomiting, then the organs liquefy and the victim dies in conscious pain as they vomit and excrete their own innards.

* CreepyChild: Children being preyed upon by Kooks look anaemic and behave like victims of abuse. They are withdraw, pale, do repetitive activities, and look like they're shielding themselves from adults who can no longer be trusted, but are in truth protecting themselves from the mundane world, which is dangerous and loathsome compared to the endless summer offered by Kooks.

* EldritchAbomination: Almost of all the horrors in this book are creatures so alien to our reality that our universe acts to shut them out - unless the "membrane" protecting our reality is breached. Of the many beings mentioned, the most abominable is the Empty One and Mystery Man.

** An ovvashi looks like a derelict with multiple rows of triangular shark-like teeth, and is capable of psychically influence people to ignore this telltale sign of its inhuman nature.
** Sisterites can twist their victim's perceptions, making him see her abandoned house as a nightclub, muck water as champagne, and the sisterite herself as a beautiful woman instead of the monster she really is.

* HookHand: Clooties have hooks intead of hands, and can use these hooks to rip its victims' bodies.

* NeverSleepAgain: Dream tearers hunt by entering sleeping minds and tearing its apart, killing the body. Victims that have been pursued across multiple nights typically have taken precautions against falling asleep.
* TheOmnipotent: The Mystery Man, at least on a local scale, is virtually omnipotent and the book states its by far the most powerful being in the game. The only thing it won't do with its godlike RealityWarper powers is directly harm its victims, but it will do anything else to almost guarantee that it wins. The Empty One doesn't have any power descriptions, because it hasn't been born yet but it's implied that it will be a being on a similar if lesser level to the Mystery Man.

* OutdatedOutfit: Members of the Practice often wear dated clothing spanning centuries of style, from medieval, Hellenistic to Ancient Egyptian.

* PrimalFear: Feral Drowners were apex predators from a nightmarish epoch when humans barely crawled out of caves and were little more than prey for these abominations to rape and kill. As such, seeing a Feral Drawner will cause an instinctive panic reaction from the reptilian parts of the human brain. This is bad news, not only does the fear greatly inhibits a person's ability to fight the Feral Drowner, Feral Drowners can feed off fear to grow even stronger.

* ResurrectiveImmortality: There are a number of creatures that will eventually back up after they've been physically destroyed. Clooties and Strap Throat can manifest again shortly after they've "killed", there is no way of killing these beings. Bleeders and Organ Grinders can also come back to life, though they can be killed permanently with the proper method (Bleeders need their original corpses unearthed and destroyed, while all Organ Grinders have a different KryptoniteFactor like acid or fire, etc.)

* SoulEating: When a victim dies through its machinations, an ovvashi consumes the soul, leaving behind no psychic residue, ghost, spirit, or even emotional vibration.

* BrownNote: The clootie's gaze and howl fill anyone who see or hear them with terror.

* EldritchAbomination: Almost of all the horrors in this book are EldritchAbomination, being creatures so alien to our reality that our universe acts to shut them out - unless the "membrane" protecting our reality is breached. Of the many beings mentioned, the most abominable is the Empty One and Mystery Man.

* CreepyChild: Children being preyed upon by Kooks look anaemic and behave like victims of abuse. They are withdraw, pale, do repetitive activities, and look like shielding themselves from adults who can no longer be trusted, but are in truth protecting themselvesfrom the mundane world, which is dangerous and loathsome compared to the endless summer offered by Kooks.

* TheOmnipotent: The Mystery Man, at least on a local scale, is virtually omnipotent and the book states its by far the most powerful being in the game. The only thing it won't do with its godlike RealityWarper powers is directly harm its victims, but it will do anything else to almost guarantee that it wins.

* BeastMen: Feral Drowners are giant goat-men hybrids of ancient age. Unlike your standard depiction of a beastman (which is usually just an uglier mook for an adventurer to disembowel), a Feral Drowner is basically a MonsterLord and as such they're the most physically mightiest beings in the book outside of the godlike entities, the book even warns about using them in a game as they can easily wipe out a party of investigators.

* TheAntiChrist: There's a cult of serial killers trying to cause the birth of the avatar of the [[GodOfEvil Empty One, the god of serial killers]]. If this should happen, the Empty One will usher in the end times.

* TheAntiChrist: There's a cult of serial killers trying to cause the birth of the avatar of the Empty One. If this should happen, the Empty One will usher in the end times.

''The Book of Unremitting Horror'' is a supplement for both ''TabletopGame/TheEsoterrorists'' and ''TabletopGame/FearItself'', detailing the horrific entities of the Outer Dark mythos, which those two games share. Both use the ''TabletopGame/{{GUMSHOE}}'' rules system, but there is also a ''UsefulNotes/D20System'' version of the supplement, for anyone who wants to use the Outer Dark mythos in d20 games.

''The Book of Unremitting Horror'' is a supplement for both ''TabletopGame/TheEsoterrorists'' and ''TabletopGame/FearItself'', detailing the horrific entities of the Outer Dark mythos, which those two games share. Both use the TabletopGame/{{GUMSHOE}} rules system, but there is also a UsefulNotes/D20System version of the supplement, for anyone who wants to use the Outer Dark mythos in d20 games.