Ahriman

“Do you hear it? That soft rubbing sound. Like sandstone rocks rubbing against one another slowly, without force. Do you?”

“Don’t look. Not yet. Don’t even move. Just listen.”

…

…

“Did you that whisk of air? Not a hiss really. Just air… moving through something. Quiet, but distinct. Heard it? Good.”

“Those are the sounds we need to use to find her. Him. It.”

“You have your thrower ready? Your blade handy too? You’re a Fire, right? Good. I got oil, so that will come in handy.”

…

“What is that look for? You think I’m crazy, don’t you? Think everyone else is right, and I’ve lost it. Maybe… Maybe…”

“But what if I haven’t? What if I am right? Did you think of that? Do you understand what that could mean?”

“And if I am right, and we find her. Him. If we find them. If we stop them… Have you thought about that?”

“No more murders. No more tore up bodies in the alleys.”

“No! No damn it! That is not fucking cats eating the bodies. Not rats neither. I been doing this a long time. A long time and seen lots of things. I’ve seen what cats, and rats, and dogs, and bugs, and even a damn shark once. I’ve seen what they all can do. This ain’t it.”

“Don’t you tell me my fucking business. What I’ve fucking seen…”

…

…

“You ever been anywhere near the edges? The deserts along the mountains or them deep wet forests? No? Ok, they have snakes there. Big ones. As long as a block, I shit you not.”

“When I served, we got sent as some sort of exchange program to Astras Degom. Had to traipse through that wet shit. Days of rain. Bugs as big as your hand. And snakes. Small bastards that will kill you with a bite and the big fuckers.”

“We lost a man once to one of those big fuckers. They wrap around you, crush you, then swallow you whole. Bones and all. We tracked that fucking snake and killed it. Cut it the fuck open and out plopped… What was his name?”

“Fuck, I can’t remember… Fuck…”

…

“Never mind. What matters is he looked like the bodies we been finding in the quarter. Like a big fucking snake ate him, but we ain’t found no signs of a big fucking snake have we? No.”

“But we did hear people talk about them sounds, haven’t we? Them sounds that no one knows where they came from. So we are going to listen for them sounds, find out what bastard is making them, and killing the fucking thing. Clear?”

~ From Taubha’s Lesser Book of Names

Ahriman is a deadly member of House Ghoregh, well known for their seemingly inability to truly be destroyed. They are at once mortal seeming and a tumult of snakes writhing just beneath the skin. Scholars are unclear if during the Madness they originated as a snake or a mortal, but the end result is a deadly hunter who uses their ability to take any pleasing form to hunt their food, mortals.

When using Ahriman in play, they naturally lend themselves to a play on Jack the Ripper, hunting and eating the poor and destitute for urban adventures. They also can be used as a reoccurring villain in longer term games as their physical form can only be destroyed with tremendous difficulty due to their nature of being a ball of snakes.