I’m starting an ongoing Monsters feature based on the monsters from my nightmares. First up is the Grey Ones.
THE GREY ONES
I had another monster from a nightmare the other night that I’m calling a Grey One for the time being. I included my quick and dirty sketch (above) with this description.
Grey Ones are scavengers. They travel in groups, and typically spend their time in places where many people die – battlefields, hospitals, and they lurk during plagues. They live off the last moments of life of dying things – people and animals alike. When someone is a breath away from death, they will come to them and lay their hands on them, to take away the little bits of pain that remain and absorb the dying energy.
Grey Ones are slightly smaller than human size, and emaciated. They appear, at a glance, like a woman in a veil, but up close, they are instead a nearly skeletal creature with skin stretched tight over their bones. Their head is a skull dome with a wide bone ridge, and their thin grey skin is pulled taut over the dome and the ridge to stretch down to their collarbone. When Grey Ones feed, a gland that circles the edge of their bone ridge drips tears.
The skin is semi-transparent over their head and chest, and you can see their spine, ribs, and their skull, which has no jaw, eye sockets, or nasal structure. Their frail arms have very thick flesh over them, and they have three long fingers and opposable thumbs, with no fingernails. Their legs are hidden beneath a skirt of loose skin that drops from their hipbones to the ground, and the edges of the skin are often rubbed raw from brushing on the ground.
Note: If you decide to use any of the monsters in a campaign, please let me know! I’d like to see how they work out.