The Babadook

The Babadook, also known as Mister Babadook, is a supernatural creature that is said to be the embodiment of grief, anxiety, and depression. It is said to haunt those who would be foolish enough to read a pop-up book, disguised as a children's book that talks about it. While believed to be a spirit or demon, the Babadook is merely a tulpa, a thought-form which can manifest in our plane of reality due to the amount of fear and belief in its existence.

Appearance

The Babadook most generally appears as a towering, shadowy bogeyman wearing a black coat and hat, with long, claw-like hands and a pale frightening face. The Babadook haunts whomever reads its poem and hides inside a pop-up book that mysteriously appears in random homes. As its prey becomes more frightened, the Babadook becomes more monstrous.

The Babadook is considered to be the embodiment of grief and as time goes on, it slowly brings its victim to the brink of insanity through their five stages of depression. The first stage is denial, meaning the Babadook weaves scenarios where the victim listens to a conversation that reminds them of something traumatic and thus perform all that they can to avoid the topic and the mention of this event, consequently isolating themselves from society including their own family members.

Abilities

The Babadook has been shown to have the ability of possession. When the Babadook weakens its victim's will and spirit to the point where they can barely walk, it plunges itself into the victim's back, which is described like having a large knife be slowly shoved into their spine. Its influence over its prey is great to where it can cause conflict and turmoil between family members, even those who are quite close in relations.

It demonstrated the ability of shape shifting. The Babadook can take the form of any person, animal, or insect. The entity usually takes the form of a person that the victim was once involved with, have a history with be it unpleasant or not. The Babadook uses this as a method of manipulation of the victim's emotions, to where it took the form of a single mother's deceased husband and convince her to offer it her son in order to devour him.

Being a tulpa, the Babadook cannot be defeated by normal conventional means. However, being the embodiment of grief, the Babadook can be defeated through acceptance. Meaning that if the victim ceases to be scared and come to terms with the tragic event that occurred in their past life, the Babadook loses its power over them. It can also fade from existence if those who believe in it, do not think about it so much to where it is real. However, given the Babadook’s methods of inducing fear into its prey, it is a task considered to be highly difficult.

Statistics for the Babadook

EWS: 80 (Notable) REF: 65 STA: 75

Injury: N/A

Disciplines: Whisper, Terrorize, Possession (deadly), Corporeal Manifestation, Change form (Deadly)
Aspects: Unfeeling, Unkillable, Unliving, Bloodless, Parasitic (grief),

Special Weakness (Bravery): The Babadook feeds on grief and fear – so the opposite is a true means of keeping the Babadook at bay, the victim of the Babadook must make a successful General willpower check If the roll fails, the Babadook is not affected and the victim needs to try again. If the roll succeeds

Will Power Check Results
Botch	The Babadook inspires more terror in the victim – the victim receives a -30 modifier to all target numbers for 1d5 rounds
Failure	The Babadook is unaffected by the attempt
Low Success	The Babadook receives a –10 modifier to all target numbers
High Success	The Babadook receives a –20 modifier to all target numbers
Colossal Success	The victims will is strong enough to create a sphere of protection naturally. The Babadook receives a –30 modifier to all target numbers

After 5 successful attempts the Babadook will dissipate and all traces of his existence will be gone – this is the only way to drive the tulpa away.