BONUS MONSTER 11:

Delegating Demishade
NOIRMONGER

CLASS: DEMISHADE

Free, additional supplementary monsters for the Mortasheen Tabletop RPG Core Rulebook, created by Jonathan Wojcik, additional writing and all gameplay stats by Bonnie Saucier. For use with the gameplay system by Morgan Mullins!

Description:
This monster has a shape like an old oil lantern, but made of a clothlike skin with a top like a brimmed hat. The bottom of the "lantern" flares into a small skirt that parts in the front, like an open jacket, and a very long, many-jointed, dark grey arm can emerge from its recesses with three long, clawed fingers. Its index finger ends in a brassy colored, oversized claw with a large dark pore, almost like the tip of an ink pen. The interior of the lantern is pitch black, with two large luminous white spots for eyes.

BIOLOGY:
Generated by Mortasheen to help monitor and maintain its other Shades and Demishades. The Noirmonger can inject subjects with its Shade inkhor through its hollow middle claw, carrying with it millions of specialized nanomons adapted to repair and revitalize other Shades or even kickstart the regeneration process of an effectively "dead" Shade. Steadily producing new inkhor, it can shed excess portions as autonomous, amorphous drones or "inkhblots" it controls remotely, allowing it to keep tabs on a large number of subjects at a time.

The creature's inkhor transfusion makes an effective defense mechanism against many other lifeforms, as its repair nanomons will attack non-shade matter as they would any "obstruction" and spread the ice cold compound further through organic tissues.

The Noirmonger's telescopic arm can retract completely into its small body or go rigid as it fills with inkhor, and it locomotes primarily by hopping on its hand.

BEHAVIOR:
This no-nonsense Demishade loves order and procedure, keeping careful mental record of everything it observes, everywhere it goes, and while unable to repair non-shades, it will still employ its inkhblot network to track and regulate other monsters and fauna as necessary; especially those that interfere with Shade activities or city systems. It likes predictability and can become exasperated by more chaotic creatures such as Jokers or Warped, and would always rather call upon a specialized demishade like Carerazor or Emeyebee to contend with them whenever possible.

Concept Notes:

The first Demishade we're adding to the bonus monsters, each of which has an affinity for some other kind of creature, but there's on Demishade of Demishades in the first book. We almost added this one in, but felt it was special and odd enough that we could reserve it for a future book or expansion, and this month's series is basically the game's first expansion!