The Strange Bestiary
Maggot fiends slither through the ice fields of Hell Frozen Over. They gain form and substance from the final thoughts of recursors who perish in the recursion. Each fiend is a miserable creature that looks like its namesake: a soft, tan, segmented worm that's about 2 feet (0.6 m) long and has a human face on one end. This visage is a malevolent distortion of a human head (perhaps a copy of the very mortal that created the fiend, if such a relationship actually exists), a lustful, wrathful, sneering face filled with loathing and hate.
In Hell Frozen Over, the demon lord Treachery and other fiends harvest the maggots for food, pull them apart to hear their screams, or pit them against each other in brutal, wriggling fights to the death. Poor treatment compounds the wickedness that forms the maggot fiends, so they never pass up a chance to vent their depravity on the creatures they find trapped in the ice.
Maggot fiends are not full spirits like those that form in Ardeyn when a native or recursor perishes there. Instead, the fiends are seeded from the worst parts of a recursor who perishes in Hell Frozen Over.
Motive: Torment the living
Environment (Hell Frozen Over | Magic): Anywhere
Health: 6
Damage Inflicted: Minor wound (3 points)
Movement: Immediate
Modifications: All tasks related to stealth as level 3; all tasks related to strength as level 1.
Combat: A maggot fiend wriggles toward anything that it deems weaker than itself and plies the victim with soft kisses from its damp lips. The maggot's corrosive saliva leaves a burning wound that inflicts damage, and it increases the difficulty of the victim's tasks by one step for one round.
Additionally, as a defense mechanism, a maggot fiend can spray a noxious cloud of psychotropic chemicals once every other round. Each character within an immediate distance must succeed on an Intellect defense roll or take 2 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor) and experience vivid hallucinations for the next minute. Each time the victim makes an attack while suffering from these hallucinations, roll a d6. On an even number, resolve the attack normally. On an odd number, the victim attacks an imaginary creature instead.
Interaction: A maggot fiend has a twisted, corrupted personality. As a physical incarnation of 'sin,—the fiend embodies wickedness in word and deed. Maggot fiends are so poorly treated, they do not rust visitors to Hell Frozen Over and betray travelers the first chance they get.
Use: The PCs get a contract from OSR to hunt down one maggot fiend in particular that was formed from the dying thoughts of someone who took important information to her grave in Hell Frozen Over. OSR hopes the fiend now has those secrets.
GM Intrusion: A character damaged by a maggot fiend is compelled to betray her allies. She must use her next action to reveal a secret about an ally. If she knows no secrets, she must attack an ally