Oct 23: The Crawlspace Demon

I am not sure how to put this in a not alarming way, but demons are pretty bad-ass when it comes in terms of supernatural vileness, as well as potential power. Some say, if the Great Beyond was the ocean, the younger ones would be the great white sharks, while the average would be plesiosaurs, and others would be bigger. This could very well be why the spirits of the departed are always presented in such an awful state, maybe they're the small fish swimming around a reef always hiding from demons or becoming supper. 

Beyond the oceanic metaphor, experts, Crawlspace authors and GMs, don't know much (mostly because of their personal preferences per scenario). Indeed it is important for the Character to avoid preconceptions when dealing with these most dangerous entities. Here are some norms, though each is arguable depending on to whom you are talking to: 

• Demons are terribly ethnocentric- some are compelled by Christ to leave, some are forced into boxes by rabbis, and others require Sumerian rites to be sent away. There are probably other ways for demons of less publicized ethnics.
• Demons are bound to some sort of cyclic calendar. This calendar may be wholly idiosyncratic, but available in some grimoire somewhere.
• Demons can read minds, but Objectivity (see Perks, in Crawlspace Deluxe) in a confronting Character really helps.
• A demon's name is half the key to its displacement (see the "Learning the Name" ritual magick, pg 26 in the mentioned rules book).

Now just add water...

For the supernatural investigator, that is often a Character, a number of phenomena have been recorded.

There have been numerous cases where a demon is hidden within groups of spirits at especially haunted locales. It is unknown whether this, say, haunted house is created by the demon or if it is drawn to area because of the numerous spirits. In only recently noted cases where demons have been "dispelled" from the area, haunting activity is no longer noted to date.

Some demons seem to yearn for a place in the Here and Now (cute huh?), but are somehow prohibited. There are many cases of cults performing rites to welcome, invite, or somehow summon the entity. While the local fire department and police forces are not usually equipped to handle the cases, aging priests from obscure orders and professors emeritus from nearby universities, have been able to contain the threat by all accounts recorded.  

Prepubescent children of financially-affluent divorcees have been, at least as chronicled in recent years, the targets of something known as "possessions." "Exorcists have been brought in (ironically?) from the far reaches of the world to deal these cases. Of course, it might have been a way of funding the plane tickets home for the specialists when no one else wanted them back. 

More on the Possessed later.