It never leaves me. Wherever I go, it follows me. Always watching. Always staring. At the office. At the park. Standing over my bed at night, those giant black eyes just inches from my face. I scream at it to do something, to kill me. It does nothing. I put my hands around its throat, trying to pull its bulbous head from its scrawny, skeletal body. It doesn’t even fight back. Just dies, staring me in the eyes the whole time. But it’s not over. It’s never over. I kill it, and there are two more a couple of days later.
Alternative names: Those That Watch.
The so-called Starers (no one knows what their true name is or if they even have one) are an oral-aural curse in the form of a plague. The primary vector for its spread when the infected talk about the curse to someone that is not infected. The cursed must describe the creatures they are seeing for others to be infected. Other forms of communication such as writing, art, and American Sign Language are not capable of transmitting the disease. It is a slow-moving apocalypse; eventually, enough people will be infected to bring about the end of civilization.
Once infected, the victim will start to see the Starers in 1D10 days. Only those infected can see them. At first, there will only be one. The being will simply stand near them, watching. It will take no other action against the infected. The monster’s presence will drain the sanity of the victim, driving them to suicide or a catatonic state.
Starers are not a hallucination. All indications are that they have a physical presence in the world. Though invisible, uninfected people will instinctually react to their presence in the world, such as walking around them if they are in a person’s path. They cannot move through walls or through locked doors that are being watched by the infected. However, they always find a way in, appearing in sealed rooms when the victim sleeps or looks away from the doors. Running away provides only temporary relief. They will reappear to the victim soon after in a new location.
Starers can be killed but this only exacerbates the curse. When a Starer is killed, two more will appear in its place within 1D10 days. Spells such as the Powder of Ibn-Ghazi may make the creatures visible. Seeing a Starer transfers the curse as well.
Starers, the end of the world
| char. | |
| STR | 50 |
| CON | 50 |
| SIZ | 55 |
| DEX | 50 |
| INT | 50 |
| POW | 50 |
Hit Points: 10
Average Damage Bonus: N/A
Average Build: 0
Average Magic Points: 10
Move: 7
Note: All Starers have the exact same stats.
ATTACKS
Attacks per round: N/A
Starers do not attack victims and make no effort to defend themselves.
Armor: None.
Spells: None
Sanity Loss: 1D10/2D20 for each encounter with each individual Starer.
Bruce is a sociology student and co-host of The Crypt Keepers podcast
