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A vaguely man-shaped mass of horrific imagery swirls before you, constantly shifting to reveal ever-more-terrifying sights. Within the hateful cloud, a dim humanoid outline can be spied.
Brollachan – Comprised of shapeless black smoke, these Scottish monsters are thought to be associated with kelpies and faeries, and to be capable of possessing the bodies of human hosts. They can only be removed from these human victims by use of a traditional Gaelic ritual involving herbal medicine and chanting incantations. Even after this, the creature can still curse those close by. – https://creatures-of-myth.fandom.com/wiki/Brollachan
Brollachans are strange creatures that are the embodiment of primal terror. It is said that a brollachan always appears as the thing the viewer is most afraid of, which is not strictly true. They constantly and reflexively read the minds of those around them, cloaking themselves in a ghastly shield of images drawn from the minds of those nearby. A brollachan cannot suppress this power or precisely control what is shown, but can increase its intensity temporarily to snuff out the life of those that threaten them and lash out with phantasmal projections if attacked.
The Brollachan(Broll-agh-can) is the child of the fuath, and because of it’s young age, it can not yet take a physical form and knows only a small number of words. It is often described as a smoky mass with eyes and a mouth, and tends to lurk around water.
While it has no regular shape, it does have visible red eyes and a mouth. It is only capable of saying two words, “myself” (MI-FHEIN) and “thyself”(THUFHEIN). It can be between two feet and two meters in diameter, and is capable of possessing living things of about the same size. When it does, the victim will appear darker with glowing red eyes, and will often convulse. It will soon wither and die, after which the Brollachan will have to abandon it and take another host. Brollachans tend to live in uninhabited areas, particularly bogs, but are still susceptible to the cold. Hence, they will sometimes wander into homes in order to become warm. – Rachael Mayo – https://vovatia.wordpress.com/2017/09/12/the-shapelessness-of-things-to-come/
Today, many people say that the brollachan is smokey with glowing red eyes, and possesses weak-willed animals and steals the life force of it’s host. When the host is near death, it will use the shell to find and weaken a new body. The possessed creature will act strangely, but the only way to remove it is with saining, such as with juniper smoke. – https://blairtales.wordpress.com/2023/02/10/brollachan-scottish-folklore/
Brollachans literally repel all who see them, and as such they are usually sad and lonely creatures. They view their amazing abilities as something of a curse, and almost all brollachans spend their lives alone. They are naïve and child-like in mentality, making them easy to trick or deceive, and their morality is easily swayed in the service of one who can actually bear to be in their presence. Thus, a brollachan who meets up with a paladin or kindly druids may become a force for good to be reckoned with, but one who keeps the company of wicked souls will rapidly turn wicked as well.
Brollachans are native to the loneliest woods and swamps, as they are loved by neither man nor beast. Most other fey view them with something between pity and disdain. They are primarily herbivorous, although they may supplement this diet with game killed by their lethal terrors. The appearance of the brollachan itself is rarely seen, but without its cloak of illusions it is a pale and feeble thing with small circular black eyes and slits for a nose and mouth. Brollachans stand five feet high and weigh little over a hundred pounds, although their illusory abilities usually make them seem much larger.
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