WGEHT

Witch Hunter Garrik's Encyclopedia of Horrible Things:

The Barrier Daemon: Named so because of its residence within any and all of the walls, roofs, and floors of a specific structure. It exists exclusively within them and can only exit them partially and for limited amounts of time. It can be difficult to tell if a given structure houses a barrier daemon because they can spend multiple days at rest without showing themselves, and even when not at rest are reluctant to emerge from their barriers in the company of more than one, one victim being easily enough to sustain it for many days and more than one having the possibility of overwhelming it. On appearance: it is humanoid, but pathetically so. Its skin pale and sometimes translucent. Its arms, torso, and head terribly emaciated so as to make visible the movement of muscles and tendons beneath its skin (its legs are probably so too, but are very rarely seen). It is hairless, its eyes enormous and lidless, but sunken into its lumpy little skull, it's jaw hangs slack and sometimes askew, its cheeks sag below its jaw and give it an expression of unrepressed agony. It will attack when the victim is alone and distracted, and will usually approach from behind or from either side, from out of the shadows where it might not be immediately noticed. You will notice it immediately, though, because of the sound it makes: a aged, throaty moan of exertion, punctuated by desperate gasping and panting, loud enough to fill the room, as it emerges from the floor or wall or ceiling and crawls toward you. Its limbs are weak and its movements halting and jerky, like an insect's. It will seem that its arms cannot lift its body up, they will quiver beneath its shriveled form and you will be sure that it will collapse any moment, but its hunger is strong and it will move at you desperately and with quickness. Its flesh will paralyze whatever muscles it touches, and once it has you there will be almost nothing you can do to resist. It will wrap its arms around you and pull you into its barrier world. I have seen this happen once, and have gathered from the sight that the end will not be quick. I saw a woman standing on top of her furniture, so as to avoid the floor where she expected it to attack. It came from above her, grabbed her by her hair and shoulders, and lifted her uneasily but certainly into her ceiling. Her screaming did not end when her head disappeared into the roof, it got worse, and the vigor with which her limbs thrashed below her grew and became more violent. I tried to pull her down, but when I did she seemed as one with her ceiling, and I might as well have tried to pull the entire thing down with her. Up she rose slowly, until only her toes protruded, curling tightly and fanning apart alternately and frantically, and only when they too disappeared into the ceiling did the screaming cease. If you suspect one of these creatures resides within a home or structure, contact a witch hunter or, failing that, some good shooters right away. The things can be destroyed easily with any weapon, but they only appear briefly and close contact is best avoided. They seem to have an advanced ability to detect people inside the building they possess, but not a perfect one: they can be tricked.  Furthermore, the daemon can be evicted by either destroying the building or by sufficiently altering its identity (transforming a brothel into a church). Transformation is a poorly documented method and, for certain elimination, demolition is recommended. It is currently unknown how barrier daemons come to inhabit a building, but existing theories include conjuration, purposeful haunting, and displaced tragedy. If any of these occurrences seem possible, investigate immediately. The only other warning you will have is the disappearance of your loved ones.

The Mimic: A hunting creature which will target and stalk its victim for days or weeks before attacking. Its method is to identify persons with which you spend the most time alone, and then to alter themselves to resemble that person and allow you to approach them. It is a subtle thing, as far as daemons are concerned: you may come home one evening to find your wife or husband standing near the corner of your common room, facing that wall, behaving strangely (perhaps crying or laughing without an obvious cause), or possibly sleeping at an unusual time of day, anything to excite your curiosity. It will wait for you to get very close. If you do not approach right away, instead try to speak to it or coax it, it will not respond and will avoid facing you however possible. If you are especially stubborn, it may try to beckon you in a kind of mumbled consonant-less imitation of language, for mimics cannot speak. If, however, you should come near to it, to touch it on the shoulder out of concern or interest, then it will turn and show you its face, and that will be the end of you. I have seen the face of a mimic: It only has power over the individual it hunts, but I will not say that I am unaffected by the experience. Its features were like a human's, only confused and ruined, arranged all wrong on its head, and despite the alien configuration of it I could detect in its expressions a kind of eternal mourning of itself, a type of misery that I hope to never witness again. As for the intended victim, though, the mind is destroyed. In the particular case I mentioned, some men that I was working with immediately closed and separated the two, allowing me a clear shot to destroy the awful creature. The woman, though only affected by it for a moment, suffered from violent mania and incoherence for the rest of her short days. I'm told that she took her own life promptly after admittance to a local asylum. If you become the target of a mimic, there will be little you can do to protect yourself, apart from being suspicious of your closest acquaintances at all times, which would not be healthy or proper. A person of intense perception may notice a pair of pupil-less, uneven and misshapen eyes looking at them from the shadows, but they probably will not, for the creature is cautious. The attack can be anticipated, however, through communication. The loved one that your assailant chooses to mimic, once it has made its decision, will notice a horrific alteration of their reflection, and from that time you will have only a day or two before you have a mimic in your home. It is because of this weakness that most mimic attacks have to potential to be avoided, but also the reason that most are not. Once a person stops seeing their normal self in their reflection, their immediate worry is not for their friends and loved ones, it is for themselves. They will almost always be reluctant to mention the oddness to anybody for fear of persecution as a madman or possessor or some other awful thing. In reality, if you notice this, you must hasten to tell everybody that you spend time with: "I think I have a mimic."

Banshee of the Flesh: Thought of as a condition to be cured by some in medicine, this is actually a violent daemon that uses human beings as portals into the mortal realm. It will begin as a very localized sense of burning within one part of your body, usually the chest, and above that area a hard, blood red lump that will sometimes quiver. After a day it will have grown into an area the size of a fist, and the quivering will have advanced to an upward prodding the shape of one or more fingers. This is the banshee stabbing outward against your flesh, which is the only barrier between it and our world. The more it prods, the more your skin will separate from your body and the more room it will have to press its escape. The experience is fiercely painful, obviously, and the frequency of episodes will usually confine a person to their home or, depending on the tenacity of the banshee, prevent them from leaving their bed. Once the separated flesh is wide enough for the thing to get its head through, it will do so. First will begin a howl of terror and fury so chilling that you may forget the pain of your flesh, and immediately after you will witness protruding from your body the contour of the daemon's face. This behavior invigorates it, and for longer than it ever had previously it will press against your skin with its face and both of its hands, trying to widen the portal. The monster's efforts can be easily and promptly thwarted by the application of blessed liquid across the affected area, and because of this I have never personally witnessed the occurrence advance beyond the point I have already described. Documented cases do exist, and I have in my possession the journal of a young man who observed, from the safety of a closet, the full powers of this daemon on his older brother and subsequently his parents. The journal reads, starting after the stages that i've already described: "The shoulders just started poking out of his leg and now the screaming wont stop. Cant get used to it. it makes you more afraid than youv ever been. His skin keeps streching around the monster but it wont break no matter how big it gets. Its out to the wast now and its pushing aganst him with its hands and he looks shorter than he was. Im sure now hes getting smaler. theres more red skin than white. Simon looks so afraid. he keeps screaming no please no and pushing aganst his sheets like he can get away from his own leg. Its like its not his leg anymore. Its the monsters leg and Simon is just poking out of it. Mom wont stop praying but dad left. He went out back and I think hes getting his axe. When I thot for sure there was no more room there was this cracking sound like a tree going over and the monsters legs popped out of the bottom of Simon and right away he just withered and shrunk into it. Right at the end when there was nothing left of him but his face coming out of the side of it he was crying and trying to pray I think and he just sort of choked and all this blood came out of his mouth and nose and eyes. And then he was gone. The screaming got louder and it went at mom. I didnt wach but the sound made me want to sick. Dad came back with his axe but it didn help him." The journal goes on to describe how the boy suffered in that closet for three more days, because he was sure that even though he couldn't hear the screaming anymore the banshee was still in the house, waiting for him to show himself. When the neighbors found him and his family he was dehydrated and slightly delirious. The banshee was tracked down a mile from the town and killed there by the hunting party, three of them wounded by it and one killed. Banshees of the Flesh are simple to thwart and neglecting to will cost not only the host their life but almost certainly others. To allow one to come into existence is a crime and those that do (and survive) may be punished at the judgment of their local church.

There will be further entries as I gather more certain information. Be cautious constantly, for the enemies of mortal kind are infinite.