Monsters

Although the serial killer hiding in Ashenridge wears a townsfolk's face by day, the actual killings involve supernatural creatures that hunt in the woods and the dark places around town. The killer's role appears to be to direct or unleash these creatures on chosen victims, which is part of why a wholesome farming community ends up with a body count.

A Bestiary In The Making

Early coverage of Grave Seasons suggests there are at least nine distinct monsters in the game. Most have not been shown publicly, and Perfect Garbage has been deliberate about pacing reveals over the course of the project's marketing. Only one creature has been seen in detail at the time of writing.

The Wolf Beast

The most prominent monster in published material is a large wolf-like creature with glowing red eyes. In the official gameplay trailer, this creature ambushes the tailor Pilar while she is walking in the woods and drags her into a clearing, where she is killed. The encounter leaves a trail of blood through the trees that the player can follow during the investigation. Whether this specific creature appears in every run, or only when the playthrough's killer is associated with it, has not been confirmed.

Night And The Woods

The day and night cycle in Ashenridge frames where and when the monsters operate. The town feels unassuming during the day, but evenings turn dark and uneasy, and the night is when these creatures are most active in the woods. There is no forced bedtime that ends the day, so Ashenridge stays explorable after dark, but the danger outside is a strong reason to weigh a late-night outing against heading back to The Farm. The woods around the town are the most obvious hunting ground, and many of the clues left at murder scenes lead investigations back into the trees.

See The Murder Mystery for how the killer and these creatures connect to the player's investigation.

Confirmed Killer Types

Two of the killers have been named by the developers. A werewolf killer is one, and the team researched medieval readings of lycanthropy as a punishment for transgression while writing it, aiming for pathos rather than the parody the creature often gets. A vampire killer is another: a hands-on session at a public event ran with the vampire active, and the clues on that run included an ashy handprint, an orchid, a body drained of blood, and a photograph roughly two hundred years old. Each killer draws on its own separate set of horror influences, and the studio has held back the rest of the roster to avoid spoiling it.

The supernatural residents of Ashenridge are supernatural in every playthrough, not only in the ones where they turn out to be the murderer. When such a character is the killer, the writing treats them as the same person with one or two of their worst traits pushed to an extreme rather than as a different character entirely. See The Murder Mystery and Romance and Relationships.