~Credits~ WRITING, Design, and Art Direction: Robert J. Schwalb editing and Proofreading: Jay Spight Graphic Design: Kara Hamilton and Hal Mangold LAYOUT: kara hamilton ILLUSTRATIONs: Jack Kaiser AND MIRCO PAGANESSI Paths of Horror is ©2021 Schwalb Entertainment, LLC. All rights reserved. Shadow of the Demon Lord, Paths of Shadow, Paths of Horror, Schwalb Entertainment, and their associated logos are trademarks of Schwalb Entertainment, LLC. Schwalb EntErtainmEnt, llc PO Box #12548, Murfreesboro, TN 37129 [email protected] www.schwalbentertainment.com Paths of Shadow for Shadow of the Demon Lord The Mother of Monsters stops and clutches at her distended belly. She screams as something wet falls out from her, a slithering mass of tissue and eyes, sopping with gore, a faint mewling cry escaping through its thin lips. Elsewhere, the catastrophist cackles with glee as the building housing the cultists collapses on their heads, killing everyone inside and causing no little mayhem in the surrounding community. And then there’s the verminist, who coos as she follows with her fnger the bulges moving under her skin, each a knot of writhing maggots that fow through her veins. Surely, these people and others like them would never be considered heroes, but yet they fght the same fght as you. They use their peculiar talents in the ongoing efort to save Urth from annihilation. To what lengths will you go to defeat the demonic incursion? What are you willing to sacrifce? Your body? Your mind? Your immortal soul? Paths of Horror continues to explore vile and unsettling master paths to ofer characters with little regard for themselves or others opportunities to attain might, fortune, and glory in the world darkened by the Shadow of the Demon Lord. The contents of this supplement may not be suitable for all groups, so before you set your heart on one of the options contained herein, be sure to explain your intentions to and get approval from your fellow players and Game Master to ensure everyone has fun.
2 Darkness Beckons Paths of Darkness introduced a collection of truly awful master paths for Shadow of the Demon Lord and this fne supplement adds even more grisly additions to the game. The options presented below are anything but common pursuits; only the most deranged nihilists would fnd anything of value in them. Your character might have been broken by experiencing too many horrifying things and become willing to embrace the unspeakable to guard against annihilation. Or, perhaps, desperation drives you to make an unconscionable choice. Whatever your reasons, if you avail yourself of the options in this supplement, you run the risk of become a true monster yourself. Brain in a Jar You have long held that the body, the puppet of meat and bone and fuids, serves only to limit what you can do. Like an anchor, it weighs you down and prevents you from attaining your true potential. After months, perhaps years, spent researching strange techniques to separate your mind from your fesh, to let you tap into energies racing through your brain and use them for whatever fell purpose drives you, you fnally came to a serviceable solution. So, you commanded your servants to crack open your skull, extract your brain and its stem from the wreckage of your fesh, and install the liberated organ in a chemical cocktail of nutrients contained inside a glass and steel vessel. Some had doubts, but you awoke in your new confguration, more powerful than ever. Level 7 Brain in a Jar Attributes Increase your Intellect by 2 and Will by 2. Characteristics Power +1, +2 Insanity, +1 Corruption Magic You discover a tradition or learn one spell. Disembodied Brain You shed your original body and now exist as a disembodied brain foating in a stew of nutrients held in a glass and steel container. Your new existence strips away many of your attributes and characteristics, but frees you to harness your mental energies more freely. Make the following changes to your statistics and also gain the listed benefts and drawbacks. • Increase your Perception by 2. • You gain the sightless trait (Shadow, page 215). • Your Defense now equals your Intellect score + 2. You cannot wear armor. • You lose your Strength and Agility scores. For attack rolls and challenge rolls and anything that would target your Strength or Agility, you use Will in place of Strength and Intellect in place of Agility. • Your Health becomes 30 and you do not beneft from increases to your Health. • You count as an object for the purpose of removing damage. • Your cannister counts as your implement for the purpose of casting spells and you no longer need to speak in order to cast spells. • Your Speed drops to 8, but you gain the fier trait. In addition, while you are conscious, you cannot fall. Psychokinesis You use mental energy in place of a physical body for the purpose of carrying objects, making attacks with weapons, and interacting with creatures and objects around. Your Psychokinesis extends out to short range. Unsettling Your strange appearance unsettles others. You impose 1 bane on attack rolls made against you by creatures that can see you and that lack the frightening and horrifying traits. Level 10 Brain in a Jar Characteristics +1 Insanity, +1 Corruption Magic You learn one spell. Master of Psychokinesis Increase the range of your Psychokinesis talent to medium. Psychokinetic Defense While you are conscious, you surround yourself with a feld of psychokinetic energy that imposes 1 bane on attack rolls made against you. Nimble Flier Increase your Speed to 10 and you do not trigger free attacks when fying. Catastrophist Your unfettered, reckless approach to mastering magic rewards you with wildly destructive capabilities that more often than not slip from your control and have disastrous consequences. That bystanders, friends, and innocents alike might sufer from your use of magic has not moved you yet; you will pay any price to become the mightiest person on Urth. You have become a living conduit for magical forces and you let it pass through you to remove any and all obstacles from your path. Level 7 Catastrophist Attributes Choose three attributes and increase each by 1. Characteristics Health +3, Power +1 Magic You discover one tradition or you learn one spell. Catastrophic Magic Whenever you use an action to cast a spell, but before you resolve the spell’s effect, you can choose to seize into catastrophic energies to enhance the spell you cast. Roll a d6. If the number rolled is a 1 or more than half your level, roll another d6 and add it to the number rolled. Find the total on the following table. Total Effect 2 A Void breach occurs centered on a point you can reach (see Hunger in the Void, page 5). If you don’t have this supplement, a large demon appears in a space of the GM’s choice within short range of you. It is hostile to all creatures and takes the next available turn. 3 Roll 1d6 + 3. In a number of 1-yard squares on the ground within medium range equal to the total of the roll there appear noxious slicks of black tar that remain for 1 minute or until they give birth, which causes the tar to disappear. Any creature in a space where the tar appears or that moves into it becomes immobilized until the tar gives birth or the creature uses an action to pull free of the tar. At the end of each round, the GM chooses one patch of tar to give birth and rolls a d6. On a 1–3, the tar gives birth to a small monster; 4–5, a medium monster; 6, a large monster. A monster born from a patch stands up and then takes the next available turn. The monster has the horrifying trait and is hostile to all creatures. 4 Wriggling black lines appear in the air around you out to short range and remain for 2d6 rounds. The presence of these lines causes creatures other than you that are in the area to become impaired. 5 Roll a d6. A number of randomly determined creatures other than you within medium range equal to the number rolled gain 1d6 Insanity.
3 6 The ground within 1d6 + 2 yards of you buckles and heaves to become diffcult terrain. Any creature on the affected ground must succeed on an Agility challenge roll or fall prone. 7 One randomly determined creature within medium range takes 3d6 damage. If the creature becomes incapacitated, it explodes. 8 A wave of kinetic energy spreads out from you in all directions out to 1d6 + 2 yards and then dissipates. The wave deals 10 damage to objects in its path. Each creature in its path must succeed on a Strength challenge roll or take 2d6 + 3 damage. 9 Each object that is neither worn nor carried within medium range takes 3d6 damage. Objects destroyed in this way crumble to dust. 10 Roll 3d6 and a d20. If the total of the 3d6 roll is higher than the d20 roll, each creature within short range of you takes the higher number rolled as damage. A creature incapacitated by this damage dies, as its body turns itself inside out. Otherwise, you gain d3 Insanity. 11 The ground within 5 yards of you drops 3d20 yards to leave you standing on a slender pillar of stone. Anything on the affected ground falls and takes damage on landing unless it has the fier trait. 12 You take 6d6 damage and each creature and object within medium range takes twice as much damage as you do. This damage cannot be reduced in any way. Level 10 Catastrophist Characteristics Health +3 Magic You learn one spell. Controlled Catastrophe When you would produce a catastrophe from using your Catastrophic Magic talent, you can choose to gain 1 Corruption to take a result 1 higher or 1 lower than what you had rolled. Hideous Catastrophe When a creature takes damage from your use of the Catastrophic Magic talent, it also gains 1 Insanity. Demagogue Craving power, you turned your eforts to amassing a cultlike following. You prey on the desperate, the lonely, the gullible, and downtrodden and make them your unwitting slaves. You have your hooks in them to the point that they are beyond reason, beyond hope. They do whatever you say and gladly sacrifce themselves for whatever cause you claim. Level 7 Demagogue Attributes Choose three attributes and increase each by 1. Characteristics Health +2 Languages and Professions Gain one criminal profession of your choice. Captivating Oratory Outside of combat, if you speak in front of an audience, an audience member that is not hostile to you listens for the duration of your performance. Members remain for the length of your oratory, unless doing so would threaten themselves, their loved ones, or their property. Otherwise, you impose 3 banes on Perception rolls made by audience members for as long as you speak. Entourage You have an entourage made up of hangerson and sycophants. Your entourage has a number of members equal to your level. You can recruit new members and replace dead or hopelessly mad members of your entourage, up to your maximum, after you complete your current adventure. ENTOURAGE MEMBER DIFFICULTY 1 Size 1 human Perception 10 (+0) Defense 10; Health 10; Insanity 0; Corruption 0 Strength 10 (+0), Agility 10 (+0), Intellect 10 (+0), Will 10 (+0) Speed 10 Fawning Support If you are within short range of at least one entourage member, you make attack rolls and challenge rolls with 1 boon and you cannot be frightened. ATTACK OPTIONS Dagger (melee or short range) +0 (1d3) SPECIAL ACTIONS Willing Sacrifice When you would be attacked by a creature you can see while you are within 2 yards of a member of your entourage, but before the die is rolled, the entourage member uses a triggered action to switch the target from yourself to itself. Summon Angry Mob If you are in an urban environment containing people subjected to your oratory at least once in the last seven days, you can spend 1 minute talking to such people to form into 1d3 + 1 angry mobs. The angry mobs are hostile to one or more creatures you describe to them and the mobs take the next available turn to destroy the targets of their hostility using whatever means they have. A mob might scour the town for the creatures you describe or travel up to 1 mile out of town to attack a target you choose. Once you use this talent, you must wait 24 hours before you can summon another angry mob in the same community. ANGRY MOB DIFFICULTY 10 Size 3 mob of humans Perception 10 (+0) Defense 10; Health 40; Insanity 0; Corruption 0 Strength 10 (+0), Agility 10 (+0), Intellect 10 (+0), Will 10 (+0) Speed 10 Mob The mob takes half damage from attacks that target individual creatures and double damage from attacks that affect an area. The mob acts as a single creature, but it counts as ten creatures for the purpose of choosing targets. A mob makes Strength and Will challenge rolls with 1 boon, but makes Intellect challenge rolls with 1 bane. Spawn When the mob becomes incapacitated, it dissipates and 1d6 commoners appear in open spaces within the space it formerly occupied. They can take the next available turn. ATTACK OPTIONS Torches and Pitchforks (melee) +0 with 2 boons (3d6 or 1d6 if the mob is injured) END OF THE ROUND Overwhelm If the mob is not injured, each creature that isn’t a swarm or mob that is in the mob’s space or within 1 yard of it must get a success on an Agility challenge roll or take 2d6 damage. Level 10 Demagogue Characteristics Health +2 Charming Oratory Any member of an audience subject to your Captivating Oratory talent that has a Diffculty of 5 or less becomes charmed by you and remains charmed by you until you attack the target, which removes the affiction from it. Insidious Control Use an action to cause one creature charmed by you to become compelled for 6 rounds. While compelled, the creature makes attack rolls and challenge rolls with 1 boon and has a +5 bonus to its Health. You can use this talent fve times and regain expended uses when you complete a rest.
4 Filth Mage Against all reason and common decency, you study the noxious magic of flth and excrement. You make contagion and toxic waste your weapons and blight the world with your works. Your vile congress with all things foul makes you a pariah among even the most degenerated individuals. Level 7 Filth Mage Attributes Choose three attributes and increase each by 1. Characteristics Health +2, Power +1, +1 Insanity, +1 Corruption Magic You discover the Forbidden tradition or you learn one Forbidden spell. Hideous Display You can use an action to perform a hideous display as a means to harness more magical energy. You smear your body and stuff your mouth with your own feces until your gorge rises and you spray the contents of your gullet onto the ground. The act is so foul, each creature within short range that can see you must succeed on a Will challenge roll or gain 1 Insanity. Then, for 6 rounds, whenever you cast a spell, you make your attack roll with 1 boon, you impose 1 bane on any challenge roll to resist the spell’s effects, and the spell deals 1d6 extra damage. Furthermore, while under this effect, any creature affected by a spell you cast becomes impaired from revulsion until the spell effect ends. Level 10 Filth Mage Characteristics Health +2, +1 Insanity, +1 Corruption Magic You learn one Forbidden spell. Excremental You construct a foul creation from your own effuvia, molding and shaping the mess until it has a humanoid-shaped form imbued with a dim awareness and an eagerness to drown the world in flth. If your excremental is destroyed, you can form another one after you complete a rest. EXCREMENTAL DIFFICULTY 50 Size 2 horrifying construct Perception 10 (+0); darksight Defense 8; Health 72; Insanity —; Corruption — Strength 14 (+4), Agility 8 (–2), Intellect 6 (–4), Will 11 (+1) Speed 8 Immune damage from disease and poison; asleep, charmed, diseased, fatigued, frightened, poisoned Foul Stench Each living and breathing creature other than you within short range of the excremental is diseased for as long as it remains within this range. ATTACK OPTIONS Fist (melee) +4 with 2 boons (4d6) SPECIAL ATTACKS Double Attack The excremental makes two fst attacks. SPECIAL ACTIONS E!uvial Outburst Use an action to cause a puckered orifce to yawn open somewhere on the excremental’s body and release a noxious geyser of corrupted fuids and solids that travels in a 10-yard line from the excremental before coming to a sputtering end. The excremental takes 2d6 damage and each creature in the path of the fuids must make an Agility challenge roll. A creature falls prone and becomes diseased for 1 hour on a failure, or becomes diseased for 1 round on a success. A creature diseased by this effect suffers from terrible cramps and, at the end of each round, must succeed on a Will challenge roll or vomit and defecate in a spectacular manner, becoming dazed for 1 round as a result.
5 Unusual Requirements Several paths included in this supplement assume you play a character possessing certain anatomical features. A flth mage would have little luck assembling an excremental if the character could not defecate, while the Mother of Monsters path demands the existence of a womb for growing the abominations to be born. That the paths lack written requirements for a character to meet and avail itself of the dreadful talents these paths confer assumes that either common sense ought to prevail and that only characters with the necessary “plumbing” might take the bold step toward the destinations these paths promise or that all involved recognize that Shadow of the Demon Lord presents a fantastical world in which it might be possible, with some imagination, for a character who comes up short in terms of biology or gender could, by magical, monstrous, or some other means, fnd a way to bridge the gap. A diabolical clockwork could harvest the digestive tract from some victim and install the slippery organs inside its mechanical body and become a flth mage, while a character with a male anatomy might very well carry to term monsters gotten upon it by the shadow phalluses once flled with a substantial store of eldritch seed by dint of the entire ludicrous arrangement without worrying too deeply about issues related to child-bearing. In short, just go with it. Gorger You convert the energy 0f the food you consume into magical power. You gorge yourself on anything you can digest and then burn of this substance to amplify your spells. Your methods ravage your body, as you gain and lose weight with shocking rapidity, but few would deny the success you fnd in your craft. Level 7 Gorger Attributes Choose three attributes and increase each by 1. Characteristics Health +3, Power +1, +1 Insanity Magic You discover one tradition or you learn one spell. Gluttonous Consumption For every two meals (Shadow, page 107) you eat in excess of what you need to survive, you gain one energy token (up to a maximum of eight tokens). You retain the energy tokens you accumulate in this way until you spend them or you defecate, which normally happens 8 hours after gaining the token. You can spend energy tokens to cast a rank 3 spell or lower without expending a casting. For each rank of the spell you would cast in this way, expend one energy token. Engorged While you have four or more energy tokens, you are slowed and you make Strength attack rolls and challenge rolls with 1 boon and Agility attack rolls and challenge rolls with 1 bane. Emaciated When you drop to 0 energy tokens, you take 1d6 damage. While you have 0 energy tokens, you make Strength attack rolls and challenge rolls with 1 bane and Agility attack rolls and challenge rolls with 1 boon. Level 10 Gorger Characteristics Health +3, +1 Insanity Magic You learn one spell. Greater Gluttony You can now use energy tokens to cast rank 4 spells you have learned. Horrid Bite You can use your teeth as a basic melee weapon that deals 1d6 + 1 damage and has the fnesse property. Converting Creatures to Meals The gorger’s mechanics depend on consuming vast quantities of food and it’s likely that a character with the path might need to eat creatures to make use of the path’s talents. A Size 1/8 or smaller creature counts as one meal, a Size 1/4 creature counts as two meals, a Size 1/2 counts as four, and a Size 1 counts as eight meals. Larger creatures count as a number of meals equal to their Size times 8. Mother of Monsters You made a pact with an eldritch terror. Each night, the terror comes to you and, by way of hideous coupling with shadowy phalluses, it flls you with its seed. Thus, each dawn, you awaken with belly distended, flled with the monsters you will birth unto the world. From your befouled womb come forth terrors beyond imagining, each an abomination that has no place in reality. Level 7 Mother of Monsters Attributes Choose three attributes and increase each by 1. Characteristics Health +4 Languages and Professions Add the midwife profession to your list of professions Appalling O"spring Each time you complete a rest, your belly flls with your abominable offspring. You can use an action to take 1d6 damage and push out one of the offspring, which causes a small monster with the horrifying trait to fall out of your body and land prone between your feet. The offspring then stands up and takes its turn, and you become dazed. You control the monster, deciding what it does on each of its turns. The monster remains until it’s killed. At the end of each round, you can make a Will challenge roll and remove the dazed affiction from yourself on a success. Each time you use this talent, roll a d6. If the number rolled is equal to or less than the number of times you have used it since your last rest, a veritable sea of foul-smelling afterbirth erupts from between your legs and paints the ground with a noxious slime that eventually dries and fakes away. Once you drop the afterbirth, you cannot use this talent again until after you complete a rest. You can have up to three small monsters under your control at a time. If you would give birth to a monster beyond this limit, the oldest monster “grows up” and leaves your company to wreak havoc elsewhere. Level 10 Mother of Monsters Characteristics Health +4 Burgeoning Beasts Each time you complete a rest, roll a d6 for each monster under your control. On a roll of a 6, the monster grows, such that a small monster becomes a medium monster and a medium monster becomes a large monster. Multiplist You have discovered the means to make copies of yourself, to reproduce your body again and again and thus create an army of you. Each copy you make is, however, somewhat less than you are and as their numbers grow, you fnd yourself confronted by increasingly warped and hideous versions of yourself.
6 Level 7 Multiplist Attributes Choose three attributes and increase each by 1. Characteristics Health +4 Personal Division You can use an action to cause a naked and unequipped copy of yourself to wrench itself free from your body and appear in a space within your reach. You and the copy each gain 1 Insanity. The copy uses your statistics and knows everything that you know, but it has a Health score equal to half your Health score and it cannot use Multiplist talents. You control your copy and it takes its turn separate from you. When the copy appears, roll a d6 and add to the roll the number of copies you currently have. Total Effect 2 No additional effect. 3 Reduce the copy’s Intellect score by 1d3. If this reduction drops the score to 7 or less, the copy cannot speak. 4 Reduce the copy’s Intellect score by 1d6. If this reduction drops the score to 7 or less, the copy cannot speak. In addition, the copy is impaired. 5 As a 4 result, but the copy has unsettling deformities that grant it the frightening trait. 6 As a 4 result, but the copy is clearly an abomination, causing retching and weeping in all who see it. This copy has the horrifying trait. 7+ A foul, slippery mass plops out from your body to land prone on the ground in your space. It screams for a few minutes and then expires after heaving one last gurgling breath from its partial, fuid-flled lungs. Gain 1 Corruption and you and each copy that can see the mess gain 1d3 Insanity. Copy Decay Each time you complete a rest with at least one copy in existence, you must succeed on a Intellect challenge roll or gain 1 Insanity. Each of your copies must also make a Strength challenge roll and an Intellect challenge roll. On a failed Strength roll, reduce the copy’s Health by 1d6. On a failed Will roll, the copy gains 1d3 Insanity. Level 10 Multiplist Characteristics Health +4 Absorb Copy You can use an action to attempt to absorb one of your copies within short range of you, an act that will annihilate the copy from existence and is something that your copy does not want to have happen. Make a Will attack roll against the copy’s Will. On a success, the copy liquefes and fows into your being, causing you to heal damage equal to twice your healing rate, but you gain 1 Corruption and must succeed on a Will challenge roll or gain 1 Insanity. Shadow Thief You lost your shadow at some point in your career and have felt its loss keenly, somehow feeling incomplete. Luckily, you learned how to steal others’ shadows and make them your own for a time. Invariably, these stolen shadows wither and die or, worse, turn against you, but your need to fll the void in your heart drives you to pilfer any shadow you can. Level 7 Shadow Thief Attributes Choose three attributes and increase each by 1. Characteristics Health +4, Power +1 Magic You discover the Shadow tradition or you learn one Shadow spell. Steal Shadow If you have no shadow, you can use an action to steal the shadow from one creature you can see in an area of shadows or light within short range of you. Make an Intellect attack roll against the target’s Will. On a success, its shadow disappears and the target never casts a shadow again, though any effect that ends a curse (as a rank 4 spell) restores its shadow. You have the target’s shadow and the shadow still has the target’s shape, but it follows you wherever you go. While you have a target’s shadow, you learn everything the target knows and can make use of its professions and languages, though not its talents. In addition, you make attack rolls against the target with 1 boon and the target makes challenge rolls to resist your attacks with 1 bane. Finally, you can pinpoint the target’s exact location anywhere in the world. If you fail the attack roll, you lose this talent until you complete a rest. Shadow Decay Each time you complete a rest, the shadow fades. Roll a d6 and record the number rolled, adding it to a number rolled previously. If the total of the numbers rolled reaches 20, the shadow disappears, taking with it any benefts you had from it, you gain 1 Corruption, and the creature to whom the shadow belongs must succeed on a Will challenge roll with 1 bane or gain Insanity equal to its Will score. Level 10 Shadow Thief Characteristics Health +4 Magic You learn one Shadow spell. Dueling Shadows You can have up to two stolen shadows at a time from your Steal Shadow talent. Verminist A foul hag cursed you, turning your blood to maggots. The curse torments you for you can feel these vermin wriggle under your skin, feeding on your meat, always moving, always eating. You might have ended it all, but you learned to give yourself some measure of relief by releasing the vermin inside you into clouds of biting, stinging insects. Level 7 Verminist Attributes Choose three attributes and increase each by 1. Characteristics Health +6 Bleed Maggots When you become injured, maggots spill out from your wounds, crawling all over your body, spilling onto the foor, and spreading out into a 3-yard radius centered on a point in your space. The maggots remain for 1d6 rounds before they die of loneliness. Any creature on the ground in the affected area when the maggots appear or that enters it must make a Strength challenge roll with 1 bane, taking 2d6 damage on a failure, or half as much damage on a success. Maggot Spray You can use an action and take 2d6 damage to vomit a stream of biting maggots at one creature within 3 yards of you. The spray deals 5d6 damage and the target can make an Agility challenge roll with 1 bane, taking half the damage on a success. Once you use Maggot Spray, you must wait 6 rounds before you can use it again. Level 10 Verminist Characteristics Perception +2, Health +6 Flesh-Eating Maggots The maggots from your Bleed Maggots deal 2d6 extra damage. In addition, a creature that takes damage from your Maggot Spray talent takes 2d6 damage at the end of each round until it or a creature that can reach it uses an action to disperse the feeding vermin.