My 2025 was very personally tumultuous so I did not make time for blogging. I did manage to go to my first Gen Con and Arcane Con. I also playtested The Last Hunting of the Boar three times. This is the adventure we are working on at Tabletopped, and I will be running it for Somercon, whenever that gets rescheduled. The ashcan version is available on the Tabletopped Patreon, I think under the free tier? I don’t know, I’m just a co-host.

Anyway, here is my promised follow-up to the Witch-Finder, the Exorcist. Since I was thinking about demons and possession, I also put together a background for a possessed person.

Demons are seen by the Order of Exorcists as something external to the possessed that must be removed. Some people, however, end up making space for these demons, being kind to them, giving them a blanket and some soup and a spot on the couch. This allows the possessed to live their lives in coexistence with their demons. They are a hum within that at times is exacerbated to a deafening drone. The demon sees something that makes it jump off the couch, spilling popcorn everywhere. It grabs you and says, “Look! Look!” It grabs your attention. What does the demon say about you? What does it tell you?

Possessed

The exorcists couldn’t save you (or you didn’t want them to save you), so you made space for the demon within.

• Rations (3 uses)
• Candle (10 uses)
• Curved ceremonial dagger (d6)
• Hand mirror

How did the demon come to possess you?

1. You unwittingly cast it out of the Juniper Witch by following her steps. Take the unshapen lump (1 use) you stole from her hut as you escaped. Mold into shape and affix to permanently replace a missing body part. It has the tacky consistency of clay, even after attaching.
2. They were your imaginary friend. Take a fatigue to cast an illusory version of yourself somewhere within sight. You are at 0 HP while doing this and you can speak and see through the double, but when touched, the illusion is broken.
3. After you threw a party so legendary, hell heard about it. You can never get drunk. When affected by poisons or venoms, you can choose to take on a fatigue rather than suffer its effects.
4. Via a family heirloom, looted from the grave in desperation. Take a devils-ore helmet (1A) passed down by an ancestor who supposedly fought against the legions of the demon lord Zulon a thousand years ago.
5. You were cursed by a school rival and failed all your classes. Take your school notebook, a debt, and a grudge.
6. You summoned it to help you cheat at school. Take a diploma (petty) and a diary thread (petty) which encodes a book’s worth of information at a time. The information can be retrieved by running it across a mirrored surface.

How do you keep your demon from fully taking over?

1. Blood. Whenever someone bleeds in front of you, you become deprived until you drink their blood. Attacks you make against bleeding creatures are enhanced.
2. Confusion. Take a sulfur stone. It stinks, but it makes the demon think it’s in control. Demons think you are one of them.
3. Prayers. Take warding circle (as spell (petty), in a Prayer Book (Grimoire, bulky)) which forbids demons from entering a circle you designate.
4. Bedtime stories. Take a shifting novel (3 charges), which can be used to create a small paper minion (4HP, 4 STR, 14 DEX, 4 WIL). It can manipulate things, fold itself down, and follow simple commands. Using all the charges makes the book unreadable. Recharge: Wrap the empty cover around paper.
5. Coins. Any treasure you win, it wants half. You can sniff out the value of any item. Whenever you offer the exact value and allow the demon to take over (by taking a fatigue), the seller is compelled to sell you that item for the price.
6. Snacks. Take a package of gourmet desserts (10 uses). The demon has expensive tastes. You can eat any non-food object by taking a fatigue.

When the demon takes over your body, your friends may be able to convince it to help. The referee should note that the demon and you are friendly enough with each other that it wouldn’t necessarily put you in harm’s way without a compelling reason.

You find yourself waking up the following morning, back in control, but

1. You’re in jail. Your bail is set at 10 x d100 coins.
2. You slept outside. You are 1d4 towns away.
3. You insinuated yourself into a wealthy person’s confidence and are waking up in a cushy guest bed.
4. You’ve spent all of the money you were carrying.
5. You summoned another demon and it is missing.
6. You have a stolen artifact (bulky) worth 1,000 x d10 coins. It has been reported missing.

If you’re tired of having the demon around, call an exorcist.

Exorcist

You were once a member of the Order of Exorcists, an investigator, a healer, wrangler of the demonic, and wielder of divine power. Though you left the order, you know well the dangers and horrors of demons and unholy.

• Rations (3 uses)
• Torches (3 uses)
• Censer (d6)
• Holy symbol (Turn undead (3 charges): weak undead must move away while stronger undead make a WIL save. Very strong undead are immune. Recharge: A watch spent in prayer.)
• Badge of your order: a Scapular of Saint Pencarrow (petty)

What was your last case before you were forced out of the order?

1. A noble’s teen child. Successful, but it uncovered a trend among the teens making pacts with the Demon Witch. Take warding herbs (3 uses) you took from the witch. Burn (e.g. in the censer) to ward off undead and demons.
2. Your sibling. A failure. Take the saber (d8) wielded by the Regulator sent to finish off your sibling. Bears Regulator insignia.
3. A crime lord. Cursed by a traitor. Take a gambeson (1A) you wore for protection
4. The Archbishop. You uncovered that he summoned the demon himself to control it. Take a stack of documents (petty), indicating a vast conspiracy.
5. A false possession. You were set up to condemn a patsy. Take a coal (petty) from the patsy’s pyre that they told you to take in a vision. It glows hot in the presence of magic.
6. An Elf-lord. It was successful. The expelled demon now inhabits a mandrake root. It’s unfriendly, but 1/day, you can invoke its powers to cast Levitate, Immolation (d10+d10, fire, spreads), or Inflict Visions (WIL save or suffer visions chosen by the wielder). Recharge: Converse with the demon for a watch. Starts with no charges.

What tool is invaluable in exorcising demons?

1. Cold iron chain. The chains glow white-hot when touching an outside presence or a possessed creature.
2. Jug of holy water (10 uses).
3. Holy Flame (as spell (petty), in Prayer Book (Grimoire, bulky)). A bright flame that is cool to the touch, but inflicts burns (per Magic Dice) on outsiders like demons and fairies.
4. Your hands. You can take 1 fatigue to lay on hands and heal 1d4 STR. Take gloves (petty). You become deprived after using this ability.
5. Anointing oil. Protects a creature from possession or control from any outside influence for a day. 3 uses.
6. Heart Swap (as spell (petty), in Prayer Book (Grimoire, bulky)). Remove up to {dice} STR from yourself to heal another creature up to the same number.