The Sniff Lord

Summary

The Sniff Lord is a horrifying biological anomaly dwelling in the caverns beneath Rex Tree, worshipped as a deity by The Masked Cultists who operate beneath the town. The creature is the result of illegal scientific experiments in the city, where scientists attempted to create the perfect being by mixing beneficial aspects of the animal kingdom with human traits—a disaster that produced something neither fully person nor fully animal. The Sniff Lord navigates entirely by scent, having milky white blind eyes that render it completely sightless. Its existence appears to be one of constant suffering—its mismatched body suggests that being alive is an inconvenience, and when examined closely, the creature displays fear rather than malice.

The party first learns of the Sniff Lord in Session 2 when they discover the Sniff Lord's symbol carved into a hidden locker in Dunko Guzman's apartment, containing stolen goods worth over 1,500 coins. In Session 3, the creature serves as both the object of cult worship and an intended executioner for Sucks Benedict, Cat, and Vasso, who were designated as its newest meal before ultimately subduing and beginning to tame it. Despite knowing the creature's true nature, Sucks Benedict continues to worship the Sniff Lord as a divine entity, crediting it for his dexterity and performing devotional gestures. The Sniff Lord's fearsome reputation persists and continues to be leveraged as a symbol of threat in Rex Tree.

Appearance

The Sniff Lord has a gigantic boar head covered in bristly hairs, with two curling tusks that are razor sharp but chipped and broken in places. Its enormous wet snout dominates its features, as the creature relies entirely on scent to navigate. The eyes are milky white and blind. A bristly mohawk-like ridge of hair runs from its forehead all the way down its back.

The creature crawls on thick, muscular, startlingly human-like arms, pulling itself forward on its knuckles. It appears incapable of walking bipedally. The back half features pig legs and what the party notes is a disturbingly human posterior—described as "a real unfortunate situation" with "unimpressive" buns but "unbelievable" abs when it engages its core to lift itself into a plank position.

The creature's breathing sounds like air being pulled through a bellows. It moves slowly and methodically, snuffling at the ground as it hunts, raising its head when it detects prey by scent—particularly the smell of urine and vomit.

History

Session 2

The party first learns of the Sniff Lord when investigating Dunko Guzman's apartment in Rex Tree. Inside a hidden locker, they discover stolen goods valued at over 1,500 coins, with the Sniff Lord's symbol carved into the container. This discovery establishes the Sniff Lord's connection to the smuggling operation that Dunko Guzman participated in.

The investigation leads the party into the Underground Tunnels Beneath Rex Tree, where they encounter The Masked Cultists. These cultists practice ritual sacrifice in service to the Sniff Lord, revealing that the criminal figure also commands religious worship. When the cultists capture Vasso, Sucks, Cat, and Safiya, they announce the party's fate with the declaration: "What has happened is you have become the newest sacrifices to the sniff lord."

Session 3

The Sniff Lord first appears when the party hears shuffling, heavy footsteps, and breathing that sounds like it's being pulled through a bellows in the dark cavern beyond the firelight. The enormous snout pokes around the corner, followed by the rest of the creature pulling itself forward with its human-like hands.

Vasso is terrified based on scary stories about the Sniff Lord that everyone has told him. The Masked Cultists had designated the party as the newest sacrifices to the Sniff Lord and ordered them to proceed into the caverns to be the creature's meal.

The Sniff Lord attempts to track the party by scent, raising its head when it smells the piss and vomit from their earlier distress. Cat distracts it by throwing a dead goose covered in fish oil, and the creature begins devouring the offering instead of pursuing the party.

When Vasso uses a command ability in the name of mother earth, the creature backs away cautiously, responding to the authority in the command despite its bestial nature. Sucks applies poison to the creature, causing it to convulse and shake its huge head. Cat then throws a broom handle that strikes a pressure point in the Sniff Lord's neck, causing it to pass out momentarily.

The party hog-ties the unconscious creature, though it continues to flop violently even while bound, headbutting cavern walls with thunderous force. Safiya's animal communication AI cannot lock onto the Sniff Lord because it is neither quite a person nor quite an animal—the failed nature of the experiment places it outside the parameters of the technology.

Later in the session, the party feeds the bound Sniff Lord by pushing food through a portcullis. The creature cautiously scampers toward the offering and begins eating. When Vasso frees the Sniff Lord from its bonds, its ears lower in subjugation—the party has begun the process of taming it. Safiya determines that the creature has been in the caverns long enough for a cult to develop around it.

The creature's pathetic appearance reveals the truth of its existence: its body doesn't make sense, and being alive seems like an inconvenience. When the party looks into its blind eyes, they see only fear—a creature that understands its surroundings solely through smell and sound, with no conception of what is happening around it.

Session 4

Though the Sniff Lord does not appear directly in Session 4, the creature's reputation becomes a tool for deception. Sucks forged a threatening note falsely attributed to the Sniff Lord, claiming the creature had stolen Louise Guzman's belongings, killed children sent to retrieve a book, and left a dead goose named Errol wearing Louise Guzman's underwear. The fabricated message read: "You have crossed this Sniff Lord for the last time. We are disappointed. We have taken the contents of the locke and killed the children you sent to retrieve your book. If you displease us again, the Stiff Lord will leave you like this goose Errol to a dead goose that has Louise Guzman's underwear on."

The false attribution highlights how the Sniff Lord's fearsome reputation persists despite the party's earlier encounter with the creature. Louise Guzman later attempted to use the party's survival as evidence to expose false claims about the Sniff Lord, revealing that Louise Guzman had tried to frame the party by claiming the creature killed them when they clearly survived. The incident demonstrates that even after being subdued or tamed, the Sniff Lord's name continues to carry weight as a symbol of threat and violence in Rex Tree.

Session 6

The Sniff Lord comes up in an out-of-character discussion among the players about the various deceptions and false beliefs present in the campaign world. The group considers whether to reveal certain truths to Vasso, with the Sniff Lord serving as an example of the gap between reputation and reality. Abdul describes the Sniff Lord as "barely real," and the players compare the creature to a mattress salesman who calls himself the "Mattress King"—illustrating that the fearsome title and cult worship stand in stark contrast to the pathetic reality the party witnessed.

Episode: "Session 7"

Sucks Benedict invoked the Sniff Lord while using his Trap Expert abilities at the canal entrance. After successfully identifying dangers, he performed a distinctive devotional gesture—kissing two fingers and pointing them skyward, then correcting the direction toward the ground, clarifying that the Sniff Lord does not reside in the heavens. The ritual resembled a WWE-style salute.

Despite the party's previous encounter revealing the Sniff Lord's true nature as a suffering biological experiment, Sucks Benedict maintained his faith in the entity's divinity. He credited the Sniff Lord for his dexterity, stating "Shout out to the Sniff Lord for making me dexterous" and referring to the creature as "probably still a God of some kind."

Key Attributes

Failed Experiment: Created through illegal scientific attempts to mix the most beneficial aspects of animals and humans, always resulting in disaster
Blind Navigation: Completely sightless with milky white eyes; navigates entirely by scent using its enormous wet snout
Hybrid Physiology: Gigantic boar head with razor-sharp tusks, human-like arms for crawling, pig back legs, bristly mohawk ridge down the back
Cultivated Worship: Object of devotion for The Masked Cultists operating beneath Rex Tree, who fed it sacrificial offerings
Symbol: Uses a distinctive carved symbol to mark smuggled goods and likely other assets
Vulnerable to Authority: Responds to commands delivered with sufficient authority
Susceptible to Poison: Affected by poison, which causes convulsions
Pressure Point Weakness: Can be temporarily incapacitated by strikes to a pressure point in its neck
Tameable Nature: Despite its monstrous appearance, shows signs of subjugation and can be trained through feeding and proper handling
Constant Hunger: Perpetually hungry due to its unnatural metabolism and the demands of its malformed body
Fearful Intelligence: Displays fear rather than malice when confronted; intelligent enough to respond to commands but trapped in a body that makes existence difficult
Connection to Dunko Guzman: Dunko Guzman's involvement in the smuggling operation establishes a link between street-level criminals and the Sniff Lord's organization

Worship Practice: Devotees like Sucks Benedict perform a two-finger salute, kissing the fingers and pointing first to the sky, then to the ground to indicate the deity's terrestrial location
Divine Portfolio: Sucks Benedict credits the Sniff Lord with granting dexterity and favor during skill checks