The Beast Fears Fire - Onyx Youths

Looked through my list and realized I didn't have an Ignorance Monster for this category, so I had to finally pull out the SCP-173/Weeping Angel ripoff. And then make them Herms, because if you're going to rip something off, you may as well also hang a knob on it.


Onyx Youths [Ignorance 2]
Impulse - To Deny Passage, Conceal

If you must visit the Underworld, the best policy is to assume that everything can and will hurt you. The food is probably goblin fruit, your guides are probably goblins, or, if you're less lucky ghouls, anything you find growing on the walls or under the furniture is probably a killer fungus colony, and that's assuming the walls or furniture isn't a PKB or a mimic. The youths are part of the killer decor theme, but they are a little more conspicuous than most of the usual Underworldly dangers and that's part of the problem.

Onyx Youths don't fit in with the guiding principles that furnished the Underworld; it's hard, exactly to say how or why, because, at times, they will blend in just fine with all the things you might find in the furnished portions of that realm. Once a person notices them, it's clear that the onyx youths do not belong, that they clash with the rest of the place, and, furthermore, there's something... unheimliche about them. The youths seem to prefer that you are keenly aware of them, once they activate.

Otherwise it wouldn't be fair.

The Onyx Youths don't have a artistic analog in Crickton or any culture that that has interacted with them. They are onyx (black onyx is most common, but green onyx is also not rare, other colors are moreso) statues, usually a meter to a meter and a half tall - a bust of a young man (occasionally crowned with some garland of branches or flowers) on a tall, rectangular base, with carved male genitals on the front of the base, about a third of the way up, all of one piece. Once noticed, they project a moderate psychic aura of anxiety and unease, that has caused panic attacks to more delicate psyches. They are animate, despite having no apparent moving pieces; able to teleport short distances when not under direct observation. In fact, they cannot move at all while in the direct line of sight of a person who is aware of their presence.

Harm - 2/Peril [Dread]. No one's actually witnessed an onyx youth making a physical attack, but victims who have survived report a sharp, heavy, downward blow the the head, neck or back, preceded by a stab of paralyzing fear. Often, youths don't put their full strength behind a blow, using just enough force to hurt and provoke a panicked flight. Onyx youths tend to congregate in the more hazardous areas of the Underworld, hoping to get their victims to come to grief under their own power.

Watch Me
When you are aware of the Onyx Youth, they are aware of you. Face Ignorance
On a Hit, you can edge by them, keeping them in sight until you are away. Coming back through the area will provoke having to make this move again.
On a Hard Hit, you are able to master their anxiety causing properties and smash them up, if you like. Also, free onyx!
On a Miss, you blinked. Take Harm as stated and start running.

Everytime I turn around, she's looking up at you and down below.
Onyx youths are made out of onyx. Kind of a lot of it. Breaking any part of the statue off seems to kill or force the youth into dormancy. Broken youths in good shape fetch high prices from people who, let's face it, you will probably want to kill very shortly after meeting (not for nothing that if you have a collection of these things in your house, you are a Barghest and the only way we can prove otherwise is through exitspicy).

Onyx youth get a lot more common down in the less-accessible regions of the GIS-patrolled Underworld, growing in clusters out of the walls and seams of the natural caverns down there. Occasionally, you will see the odd onyx maiden, with a young woman's head and female genitals; how they differ from the male-appearing ones is something that nobody's figured out, yet.