"A rat? No, too black. A large spider? I trust to goodness not—no. Good God! a hand..."

A creature that is perfect for a cozy Christmas scenario...

Children of the Black Sky 

“At first you saw only a mass of coarse, matted black hair; presently it was seen that this covered a body of fearful thinness, almost a skeleton, but with the muscles standing out like wires. The hands were of a dusky pallor, covered, like the body, with long, coarse hairs, and hideously taloned. The eyes, touched in with a burning yellow, had intensely black pupils, and were fixed upon the throned King with a look of beast-like hate. Imagine one of the awful bird-catching spiders of South America translated into human form, and endowed with intelligence just less than human, and you will have some faint conception of the terror inspired by the appalling effigy.” 

M.R. James – Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book 

 In one obscure text these creatures are referred to as children of the black sky, and details how they arrive on earth in a ball of fire that lights up the night sky. How their eyes are bottomless darkness, and how they drag people off to hell. Several dark tomes mention this creature, and some offer magick to bind it to one's will. 

One such text is Harleian MS. 5596, a manuscript which may be the oldest version of the Clavicula Solomonis, but there are several others. All rituals require human blood, human flesh, or even a human life. The creatures are generally described as being hateful and animalistic demons, and weak of mind. They are often used to spy on a foe, to abduct a person, or to kill. However, the children are not demons. They are a species of hunters and workers, sent to Earth as resource extractors. The resource they are sent to extract is human tissue. It is very likely that the children themselves do not know the purpose of this work, but they prove exceedingly adept at it.

 The humans they abduct are deboned and ground into an undifferentiated mass. This mass has some semblance of life, so that it is easier to move simply by herding them through the children's facilities.

Illustration by Rich Johnson

The children are much as James describes them, except that the hair is closer to black spines, that they have brutal chewing mandibles, and an acrid smell. They walk on all fours but are able to stand upright, much like a gorilla does. Their voices are sweet and human-like. They are not capable of speech, but can parrot speech-sounds.

 The children are ferocious, and appear to have a particular loathing for things which humans find beautiful. Objects are crushed and bodies are broken for no other reason than that they are there. The very few who know enough about the children to have an opinion on this, put forth the theory that this is a manufactured trait to keep this slave-species from building a civilization of their own. 

The ritual performed to enthrall a child of the black sky is a simple pattern of alien sounds and gestures, which their masters used to control them. Add to this the bribe of human flesh or blood and the child is a willing slave, albeit a blood-thirsty one. Most sorcerers do not know why the magick works, nor are they aware of the children's true nature. Somewhere in the void of space, the children's true masters wait, and their nature is not recorded in any grimoire.

Identify  4 / Obscure 6

Persuade 5 / Dissuade 5

Pursue 5 / Escape 3

Like a human spider 7

Assault 7 / Protect 3

Like a human spider: The child may use this ability to walk on walls and ceilings, climb, and move suddenly, in a short burst of speed.