The Strange Bestiary
"Smotherers have been sighted in more than one recursion created by fictional leakage from belief in hellscapes, but they originate in a recursion classified as R125: Hell
Frozen Over. Mimetic duplication is common among recursions, but an alternate and potentially worrying hypothesis is that smotherers are colonizing nearby recursions.
You notice the stink first—a putrefying whiff of rot and the sea on a rush of unseasonably cold air. Then the smotherer appears, a horrific humanoid figure that seems half human and half hagfish eel, crusted with ice spines, breath steaming with killing cold. That's when you should run.
A smotherer attempts to suffocate victims from the inside out by filling their lungs with crystallizing ice.
Motive: Murder and corruption
Environment (Magic): Anywhere
Health: 18
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (7 points)
Armor: 2
Movement: Short
Modifications: Speed defense as level 5 due to size.
Combat: A smotherer can batter prey with its muscular arms, but its favored attack is to infect a foe with a bolus of freezing spittle, either by squirting it into a target's open mouth or by biting into his chest and injecting hellish cold directly into the lungs. Both attacks require a Speed defense roll to avoid, but only the bite inflicts damage. In either case, on a successful attack, the character begins to feel a cold, mounting pressure in his lungs as the bolus crystallizes into a solid chunk of ice. In subsequent rounds, he must succeed on a difficulty 4 Might-based task. Each failed attempt moves him one step down the damage track as he smothers. A success means he coughs up the bolus.
In areas where the temperature is below freezing, a smotherer regenerates 1 point of health per round while its health is above 0. When the creature's health is 0, it regenerates 1 point of health per hour unless its remains are burned, blessed, or similarly exorcised.
Interaction: Smotherers speak many languages and are more than willing to bargain, especially with a victim who is on the cusp of suffocation. If one swears on his soul to do the demon a favor of its choosing at a later date, the creature will allow the victim to go on his way, or save a character currently struggling to breathe with a touch. That favor could be anything but probably involves transporting the demon to another recursion or to Earth.
Use: Several bodies have turned up in the morgue with the oddest cause of death in common: their lungs are frozen solid.
Loot: Some smotherers have the spark and have managed to collect a cypher or two.
GM Intrusion: When the character would die because of being smothered, he instead makes a full recovery after the smotherer is killed or driven off. In truth, he has secretly been possessed by the smotherer. Once a character realizes that he is possessed, he can attempt an Intellect defense roll once per day to cast the demon out. An exorcism allows additional chances and provides an asset to the roll.