Run For Your Life - The Story of the Fell Consumer

The life of adventurers are perilous and uncertain. We support our wandering and uncertain protagonists looking across the world to find conflict that help our players grow their characters.

We here at Apotheosis Studios have talked about the ways a character can grow in other posts, but now we have to go back to our roots. It's all good to look deep into the mechanics of our favourite, and the world's best, role playing game; but now we go back.

In the deepest places, on the fringes of our world, our players find themselves up against a creature truly terrifying. It's not that this being breathes fear or shock into their soul, nor does it frighten with the doom of it's claws and jaws, or threaten with malice and ill intent. The Fell Consumer works on the thing many fundamentally fear.

Content warning for those ahead: this is a short story to preface a monster for your upcoming Dungeons and Dragons games. It features some light horror elements as I was free writing this and did not imagine it to get this creepy.

The Fell Consumer

On the fringes of a small human settlement, a boy was playing in the field. With the family dog by his side he was content to simply wander. The bright red ball arced up across the pale blue sky above and thumped into the grass a few short feet away. The mid spring sun was warm and comforting while the eager hound galloped back up to him. He smiled down at the mottled brown fur holding the ball in slobbering jaws.

He took the ball from the beast and gave it another stern throw. The boy bared his teeth in a wince as he saw it arc incredibly high. The loyal dog leapt off in a fast run after it. The deep black paws rushed ahead and the dog vanished well into the line of trees at the edge of the family home. The ball bashed in against the tops of trees and rustled leaves.

The forest at the edge of his home was vast and dark. He's only seen this edge of it in his short life. Trees far taller than anything or anyone he's known. “It's too dark, you must never go in there, son,” his father would always warn. “Don't be a little wimp. Just go!” the mean children on the other side of the village would mock. “Strange things live in there my child, things that might find you tasty,” says the old woman who wanders the village, her skin leathery and her eyes glassy.

Anything can linger past fell trees - Grim Backwoods by Vincent Proce

It's impossible to see through those trees, or anything past ten or so feet, but the forest, for all he knew, was endless. And still, his dog had rushed in and vanished. The boy wandered up to the edge of the tree line. This did not make the way into the wood clearer. The light beyond filtered into a deep dark green, as trees twisted in and around each other making a lattice of gnarled wood. The loose, leaf littered earth had many small dents, impressions in the earth showing the way the pup had sprinted.

The boy drew cold air in through his nose and took his first step into the forest. The earth beneath his feet shifted heavily and squelched with mud and wet leaves. The boy winced and lifted his other foot. It stuck to an out sticking root. The thick black mud dripped from his once clean brown boot as he stepped deeper into the wood.

Loose earth sighed under each footstep. The boy tromped through the mud and heavy earth, following the smallest dips and impressions in the earth. The paw prints of his dog were clear in some patches of earth, but harder to follow in others.

Wandering for a few moments, he looked up. His neck ached with the sudden strain of looking up and standing straight. The wood twisted around itself and projected a deep green darkness in all directions. The gnarled bark of each tree matched in all directions. The boy spun on his heels, his foot slipping from the smooth roots. He stood up and wiped the mud from the front of his pants then stood straight. The wall of trees loomed in all directions. The boy whined to the open, still air of the forest.

A similar whimpering noise loomed out in the distance.

“Munty?” the boy called, smearing the tears away with a sleeve. He wandered up that direction. He began to lift his knees, breaking into a run across the woodland. The boy scrabbled up the side of some loose roots and looked into a clearing. A beam of white light arced down from a tiny gap in the tree canopy. The rough leaf litter was scattered around a pool of murky black water. At the edge of the pool stood a scruffy dog, all mottled brown fur and slobbering jaws, covered in uneven patches of mud. The dog bent down and pushed a red ball forwards.

The fell consumer can take any alluring shape to lead the foolish to their doom - Consuming Volition by Sherbakov Stanislav

The boy ran to his dog and dropped to his knees. He held the dog close to his chest. His own tears were warm and slick on his face, but something was wrong. The dog felt equally wet. The boy opened his eyes and looked at his hand. He stared at the milky white green goo that has covered his arm. His eyes followed the trail going from the back of what should have been his dog. Its lower back melted from brown fur into a long tendril of milky white flesh that disappeared under the surface of the pond.

Bones snapped. The boy tried to flinch back but was unable to move. Immense bony arms were holding the boy close to the thing looking like a dog. He pulled back and saw the shape of the animal slowly morph. Great white arms had protruded from the sides of the beast as the jaw began to widen. The mouth extended past the dog's jaw and opened into a gaping maw filled with hundreds of yellow uneven teeth. The shape of the dog became a jaw, with strange bones holding the boy tight.

The pond in the forest began to bubble. A shapeless white blob of flesh began to lift from the water. The tendril shortened as hundreds of legs, of uneven sizes, skittered up along the shore as the neck retracted all the way inside. A deep, earthy smell of hot alien breath closed in around the boy as he shut his eyes.

GYAAAAAAAAAAAAA

His eyes shot open. The boy watched last shapes of the dog melt into the white flesh as hundreds of red eyes blinked repeatedly. He looked down at the creature's feet, looking at the real pile of mottled brown fur and snarling. His dog had some of the monster's legs in its jaws, gnashing and pulling away.

“Munty!” the boy called.

“Muhhn- Teeeee-” a raspy voice copied.

The dog continued to chew. Pulling at the tiny legs. Some of the legs popped from the creature. Black, oozing blood flowed from the joints as it began to hobble around. Munty the dog lurched back and let the legs he pulled off drop to the mud.

With a heavy shove, the boy broke out of the creature's grip. He dropped to the ground as Munty looked up at him. The creature wobbled and in place as black blood trickled from its fresh wounds.

“Come on boy, let's go!”

Child and dog began to run from the monster. They hopped over roots and ducked under low trees. The mottled brown fur lead the charge, ducking around trees and taking a single path straight ahead. The boy panted, looking left and right at one identical black tree after another.

“Good boy,” he sighed, “you know the way home.” The boy lifted his feet and ran close to his dog.

Glancing back, trees knocked and swayed. A great, heaving mass of white uneven flesh writhed its way toward the two. The boy yelped, feeling his dash turn into a sprint.

The ground ahead of him changed from uneven woodland to flat field. He stumbled and fell, turning to the edge of the treeline and the writhing white thing loping ahead. A long tendril reached out from the woods.

Sunlight touched the tip of the tendril and a ringing screech filled the hillside. The boy lay panting in the woods as the dog rested his head on the boy's lap. Scared of the sunlight, the shape vanished back into the woods, leaving child and pet safe. For a while.

Ending the Story

I know some creators will write a flavour paragraph here and there to describe the new features they make for their TTRPG tables. I've always been a little extra, and I love to tell a story. Thanks for coming on this ride, and rest assured, you'll find stats and a detailed description of The Fell Consumer coming to the Apotheosis Studios blog very soon.

Now we want to hear from you. Where would the Fell Consumer appear in the sessions you Game Master? What other horrific monstrosities can you imagine bringing into your games? Let us know in our discord server or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, they write all kinds of gaming press, while they write news about the League of Legends Card Game on RuneterraCCG. On Youtube, they can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or streaming card games at twitch.tv/IzzetTinkerer. Find where they dwell by climbing their Linktree.