Markadu the Ravager is a War-Servitor Demon from Infernalism: The Path of Screams (Before the Demon: The Fallen Game Setting).
Overview[]
One of the six demonic servitors described in The Six Seals of Ganzir, Markadu performed the errands of Akkadian witch-priests during the reign of Sarrumkin. He rises from the dust of Ganzir each night and picks through souls that have descended that day, stringing them and implanting his eggs in their bowls. When those eggs hatch, tiny scorpion-demons swarm out to sting their host into further agonies. Marakadu prefers to torment cowards; brave men, it is said, can compel him into service.
During an errand for the witch-king Saman the Blind, Markadu was bound by the six heroic magi. Since then, the may walk the earth only when someone has inscribed the pentacle that binds him and repeated the warding-spell that seals it. Since several Nephandi have copies of the Seals of Ganzir, Markadu (the weakest and most tractable of the six demons described within) has become a favorite "pet" within the sect. The Ravager doesn't care - he loves to visit the living world and lay his eggs in the many cowards he encounters here.
A scuttling clatter precedes the Ravager's appearance. On scorpion's legs, he picks his way across the ground, sniffing the air for cowardice. Like a dog, this demon smells fear; when he finds it. Markadu strikes the coward with his weapons or stings her with his gigantic barbed tail. If he can immobilize her, he'll take a moment to lay his diabolical eggs in her intestines. Unless some healing magick is employed, those eggs hatch the next night. The flood of immortal scorpions that erupt from those eggs will eat its way out of the "host," bringing her a little closer to the hells even as she dies.
Markadu is fairly intelligent for a demon, but in all his years he's never learned any language beyond a few ancient Chaldean and Babylonian tongues. Mouths, he reasons, are for screaming, not for discourse. The Ravager is impossible to bribe, threaten or bargain with, too. No mortal has anything he wants. When everyone around him is dead, Markadu returns to his dusty underworld. There are so many souls there to play with, so many other cowards to torture....
Stats[]
Willpower: 6; Rage: 8; Gnosis: 7; Power: 75
Charms: Airt Sense, Appear, Armor, Blighted Touch, Element Sense (earth), Healing, Materialize, Mind Speech, Reform, Shapeshift, Soul Reading, Tracking
Materialized Attributes: Strength 7, Dexterity 5, Stamina 8
Abilities: Alertness 3, Athletics 3, Brawl 5, Dodge 3, Intimidation 8, Subterfuge 3, Melee 5, Culture (Mesopotamian) 4, Metaphysics (demonology) 5, Occult 8
References[]
- MTSC: Infernalism: The Path of Screams, p. 114