Vengeance writ in a child’s blood
“Nothing in the cry of cicadas suggests they are about to die.” – Matsuo Bashō
“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.” – Confucius (attributed)
Hellgrammites are creations of long-simmering vengeance, of a sense of wrong nursed and nourished and allowed to fester in darkness, of a desire to harm one’s enemy when they least expect it using the ones they love most as the weapon – their own children. They are rare horrors, not least because so few sorcerers are willing to wait the years necessary for a Hellgrammite to come to fruition.
Instructions for the creation of a Hellgrammite are rarely included in grimoires; more often, a practitioner receives this grim knowledge through bargains struck with one of the Great Old Ones. The sacrifice made in exchange for this knowledge is deeply personal and always costly.
Armed with this knowledge, the practitioner produces and surreptitiously feeds an alchemical agent to an unwitting victim – a sexual partner of the target of their revenge. Children conceived between the victim and the target are born contaminated by this magic, biological time-bombs waiting to go off. If the target has multiple children with the poisoned partner, then the transformation of the eldest child triggers the premature transformation of any younger siblings, resulting in the birth of a pack of Hellgrammites. Homosexual relationships do not result in the creation of a Hellgrammite.
During their teenage years (age 12+1D6 years), these children begin to experience unusual illness – wild hormonal shifts, overwhelming night terrors, sudden outbursts of sadistic and antisocial behavior. Blood tests show no abnormality, and psychiatric testing may suggest the child is suffering from dissociative identity disorder, but are inconclusive.
2D4 months after the illness first manifests, the children enter the final stage, experiencing migraines and radiating back pain. They seek out their target during this time, requesting their parent’s presence to comfort them during this illness, expressing their love for the parent. These migraines lasts for 1D6 hours before the molting begins; the child’s back splits open, and the newborn Hellgrammite forces its way outward, shedding the now-empty skin of their former self to confront their target.
A newly-emerged Hellgrammite is a small, pale humanoid, between 3 and 4 feet tall, with twisted limbs and soft, wrinkled flesh that’s slightly translucent; their oversized, pulpy head sits heavily on their hunched shoulders, and the creature’s huge, glassy eyes glare out from above a small, sucker-like mouth. They have no visible nose or ears. A Hellgrammite is capable of speech, but only of reciting its creator’s name and intentions towards the target. The creature’s muling, pitiable voice is strangely haunting, compelling listeners to pause as it recites its litany of grievances.
From the moment of their “birth,” a Hellgrammite is driven by their creator’s need for vengeance. They pursue their target, wetly chanting their creator’s need for vengeance, and will attack with claws, teeth, or improvised weapons, not stopping until either they or their target are dead. These horrible creatures drain blood with their suckered mouths, with the stolen blood visibly pulsing through their pale bodies as they drink. Exsanguination is rarely the cause of death, merely a means of weakening the victim and adding to their torment.
Once the target is dead, given the opportunity a Hellgrammite gorges itself on their flesh and blood over the next few days, consuming their own body weight before slinking off and finding an isolated place to burrow into the earth. What becomes of it after this is unknown; Hellgrammites prevented from feeding in this manner waste away and die within 72 hours.
Special Powers
Blood Drain: With a successful Bite attack, the Hellgrammite can begin draining blood from its victim at a rate of 1D10 CON per round, continuing until the creature is removed with an opposed STR roll.
Spells: Every Hellgrammite knows “Enthrall Victim,” casting it upon making initial contact with its target as it begins its droning recitation of the target’s perceived offenses.
Hellgrammites, Child-Born Horrors
char. roll average
STR: 3D3x5 30
CON: (2D6+4)x5 55
SIZ: (2D3+3)x5 35
DEX: (2D6+6)x5 65
INT: 3D6x5 50-55
POW: 3D6x5 50-55
Average Hit Points: 9
Average Damage Bonus (DB): -1
Avgerage Build: -1
Average Magic Points: 10
Move: 10
Combat
Attacks per round: 1 (claw, bite, or weapon) Biting and clawing are the Hellgrammite’s preferred methods of attack, though picking up an improvised club or a kitchen knife is not outside their capabilities.
Blood Drain (mnvr): latching on with its sucker-disc mouth, the Hellgrammite begins to drain 1D10 CON (blood) per round from their victim. Opponents can break from with a successful opposed STR roll, once per round.
Fighting 50% (25/10), damage 1D4-DB (minimum of 1 damage) or by weapon type)
Blood Drain (mnvr) 40% (20/8), damage 1D10 CON per round (see above)
Dodge 40% (20/8)
Skills
Climb 80%, Jump 40%, Listen 75%, Stealth 75%
Armor: none
Spells: every Hellgrammite knows Enthrall Victim.
Sanity Loss: 0/1D4 to encounter a Hellgrammite, 1/1D6 to see one emerge from a child.
William Adcock is a historian by training and a horror author by necessity.
