The Creeper

The Creeper
The Creeper is an evil specter who appears throughout Baltimore in The Suffering: Ties That Bind. He was formerly known as Luther Stickwell, an infamous killer pimp in Baltimore's history.

Reports from Consuela's Archive scrapbook and loading screens tell the story of a pimp named Luther Stickwell, who started murdering his own prostitutes before turning his attention to any female he came across, eventually killing between 50 and 200 women and becoming the basis of an urban legend. The Creeper can be found roaming through dark alleys, or down in the sewer system, in which he appears to Torque surrounded with the dead bodies of seemingly hundreds of women. At various points in the game, the Creeper's quavering voice can be heard recounting his vile exploits, such as how he killed women in the sewers because he liked the damp conditions and elaborating on his misogynistic tendencies and his violent attitudes against women.

Torque first has a vision of The Creeper during the riot in Eastern Correctional at the start of the game; this is where The Creeper's most infamous line is uttered: "Blood is the best lubricant." The Creeper makes several other critical appearances to Torque, which often show him attacking female characters and stalking Foundation leaderJordan. One appearance reveals that The Creeper is also a homophobe, as he can be heard berating and killing a gay inmate in the Eastern prison. The Creeper presents himself in one of Torque's moral situations when he is teamed with Consuela (assuming she is not left behind or killed on sight); when she separates from Torque, The Creeper will attack her. The player can either let The Creeper kill her, or attack Creeper (who will feel betrayed by the act) to save her life.

In the chapter "The Greatest Story Never Told" near the game's end, The Creeper will accompany the slavehunterCopperfield and Torque's "psychologist" Dr. Killjoy to form a tribunal, judging Torque's actions up to that point. Players with an Evil morality status will fight the Creeper in the sub-boss battle, who will explain "I took [the prostitutes] to a warehouse and when the police got there the whole place was already burnt down." Ironically, if played in a Good morality, it would seem that the Creeper is trying to warn Torque of Jordan's impending treachery, due to his general hatred and distrust of females.

His appearance is of an overweight man, not fully bald, in a large trenchcoat and gloves. His face is oddly doll-like (seemingly a combination of decay and cabaret make-up) and the heads and torsos of three scantily-clad women are hidden under his coat, viscerally connected to him by bladed tentacles, with long blades sticking out of their mouths. After he is defeated (if he is fought in the sub-boss battle), the women will turn their hooks against him and kill him, but strangely, even to Torque, he enjoyed it.