Asakku
Asakku are ancient Mesopotamian fever demons. In appearance they are about three or so inches high, look like the usual mishmash of animal body parts (dog’s head, lion’s legs, bird’s claws and wings), and are generally accompanied by a hot, dry breeze. They attack humans by infecting them with serious fevers, headaches, and exhaustion. And they’ve always been around.
The mainstream medical community brazenly and instinctively flat-out lies by denying that completely, of course. In fact, the unfortunate reality that demons exist and can cause serious health problems has been ruthlessly fought against for at least two thousand years. At first it was strictly religious; the faiths that replaced the Babylonian pantheons had difficulty banishing Asakku at first, and by the time the theurgists had worked out the proper incantations it was policy to downplay the unique nature of the fever demons. Better to make them generic minions of Hell, just to be on the safe side.
And it got even worse during the modern era. Modern medicine has absolutely no place for malicious fever demons who can magically spread disease, which makes dealing with actual examples of same very difficult. Fortunately, modern medicine can and does easily treat Asakku-spawned fevers, headaches, and exhaustion, which means that the problem is manageable. As long as somebody comes in to purge the Asakku afterwards, of course.
As for the Asakku themselves: they’re malicious and evil, but fortunately not very bright (most aren’t even particularly sapient). A competent exorcist can either banish or disintegrate one — it’s unclear which happens, and many exorcists simply don’t care — and the magical symbol that repels Asakku is, not even remotely surprisingly, functionally identical to the international biohazard symbol. They’re an annoying but suppressible pest, in other words; but that’s only true as long as they’re essentially unknown to the outside world.
And if they do become known? Well, our modern materialist-scientific paradigm is very useful in terms of keeping modern civilization running. But it simply cannot process the concept of an active supernatural ecosystem, and humanity is probably still several centuries away from being able to integrate the two worldviews. Until then… people will just have to banish any Asakku that show up. Here, use some specially-blessed holy unguent for that.
Yes, it’s hand sanitizer. It’s also specially-blessed holy unguent. That’s sort of the point.
And now I want to play a campaign where we are medical personnel who are also supernatural troubleshooters. Oh, and then there is Frank, who is just a supernatural troubleshooter. This time of year, people assume that he is unhealthily obsessed with Halloween. Other parts of the year people’s weirdness filters delete him from view. Occasionally we get in to the back parts of hospitals by having Frank fake an injury. More often he gives himself an injury in the normal course of things.
You could get a good investigation game out of that. Using GUMSHOE, I think. Hm. Maybe I should run that for the next WashingCon.
Y’know .. blend in a couple Kosher or other legacy-health-practice elements and this could be a *lot* of fun!
.
“Frank, you’ve been exposed to one of the little bastids! Quick, breathe this …” ::hands Frank what appears to be a simple satchel of posy petals::
.
Mew
Heck yes I’d play that. Especially if you get a particular “look” for Frank.
It sounds like a Larry Correia idea. And that’s a compliment.
I was thinking of Geralt (of Witcher fame) crossed with Sam or Dean Winchester. Possibly some Van Helsing (of the incredibly campy movie of same name) thrown in too.