The Terror

The being known as “The Terror” is an Emerald City urban legend and media sensation. According to victims and eyewitnesses, a dark-clad figure stalks and corners victims in the city at night, apparently emerging from the city’s underground or sewer system. Victims report lights dimming in the area around them immediately before the attack and a growing sense of fear which becomes paralyzing terror upon spotting the figure swaddled from head to foot in dark, concealing, tattered garments.
Initially, sightings of the Terror ended there: victims experienced long moments of utter fear, then the mysterious figure disappeared as quickly as it came, leaving its victims gasping for air and thankful to have escaped. Things progressed, however, until an eyewitness reported a shadowy figure matching descriptions of the Terror fleeing the scene of a victim left catatonic and unresponsive. Emerald City police have potentially connected the Terror to several unsolved incidents of coma or catatonia in the city. In spite of their best efforts, they have no clear leads: the Terror seems to appear and vanish at will, and conscious victims and witnesses are all too badly shaken by the experience to provide any useful details.
Many are concerned the authorities are not doing enough, or that the Terror may be unstoppable, which only increases public concerns and has everyone jumping at the slightest sound or movement out of a dark shadow late at night. Whatever it may be, the Terror has become a force in Emerald City, and it is growing more powerful.

Physical Description

Special abilities

The Terror appears to mystically or psychically induce unreasoning fear in anyone who sees it, impairing the victim’s ability to function until complete paralysis sets in. In some cases, victims pushed beyond this point become catatonic or comatose, completely cut off from the outside world (essentially, four or more degrees of failure against the Terror’s Affliction impose this condition). The very presence of the Terror seems to carry a dark aura; lights go dim in its presence and it is difficult to make out details. Every shadow seems filled with menace.
What’s more, the Terror feeds on its victims’ fear, giving it the ability to recover from injury or harm. It is difficult to damage in the first place, being apparently immune to most mortal concerns (like breathing) and virtually invulnerable to counter-attacks from its victims. They report that, even when able to attack the Terror, their efforts seemed utterly ineffective and did nothing to deter it.

Mental characteristics

Intellectual Characteristics

Virtually nothing is known about the Terror’s personality or motives beyond its stalking behavior. It has never spoken to a victim, so far as anyone knows, nor has it contacted the authorities or the media, as some serial killers do. It seems driven to find new victims to feed on their fear, although some of its earliest survivors have described the Terror as hesitant, perhaps even afraid itself, although it seems to have become bolder over time.

Social

Contacts & Relations

The Terror is the target of a city-wide hunt by the authorities, and its very nature makes it impossible for others to cooperate with or help it, even if they wanted to. Some of the organized criminal elements of Emerald City might want the Terror eliminated simply to protect their own interests, while the rest are happy to let it tie up police resources that might be focused on them instead.