Would anyone be interested in an eldritch abomination smackdown?

The setting: Earth. The event: A "friendly" tournament and extended camping trip. The participants: Horrors. Abominations. Eldritch things. Beings from beyond this world, this reality, this causality, and any other form of mystical or strange outsider.

They have come to do battle and hang out. Humanity as we know it is doomed, but who cares? This game focuses on the monsters and how they shape the environment, interact, and confront each other on the field of honor.

Crunchy Time:

Characters are built on traits, with value range of 1 (usually at least 2) to 5, from a 7-point pool (at least until they grow more powerful). These traits represent physical qualities the being actually uses (a million tentacles that serve as non-active decoration aren’t a trait; a million combat tentacles are) and arcane, technological, or just plain unexplained powers over reality, the elements, or the psyche. Here is a brief character build for Cthulhu, a middle-management type who has been sleeping in a dead city under the sea.

Cthulhu: HUGE (3) Dream Sender (2) Regeneration (2) He can use this set of traits to crush things, not die, and manipulate humans to drive them mad or assemble cults. On the mind-breaking scale he isn’t really up to snuff with guys like the Crawling Chaos, as humans have encountered, and even fought him, and remained sane enough to at least relate the story.

A non-trait has a value of 1 (more on that below) but rank 1 traits can still be bought. They confer no actual combat advantage but may represent a not-very-impressive ability to fly, teleport, paint, cook ramen, or any other minor ability you want the character to display.

Resolution of uncertain tasks or conflicts is a D6 roll + relevant trait + any special modifiers VS either a flat 6 (for Earth’s natural systems), a 2D6 (for the ever-unpredictable humanity), or an opposed roll and traits (for other eldritch entities). If no trait can be argued to be relevant a value of 1 is used (one eldritch being has no counter to what the other is doing) and the roll, on either offense or defense, is d6+1.

The special modifiers used in combat rounds between the entities are all positive. Being put at a sudden disadvantage relative to an opponent would give them a bonus, not you a penalty.

Tactical Advantage: A +1 bonus for having a large temporary advantage. If you are a giant flying drill and the opponent actually lets you get into a position a mile up, you have a tactical advantage against whoever you try to fall on. These advantages are developed and lost dynamically as a fight progresses. The specific example here is also an example of how a rank 1 trait (slow flying) can be used to set up something more powerful. Say…Body Is A Drill (4)+1+D6 VS whatever the opponent has.

Battlefield Advantage: This is a +1 to defensive rolls. That is, the rolls someone would make in response to attacks. It is gained as a result of manipulating the environment or circumstances to generally be in your favor. It may be a familiar area, brainwashed humans taking potshots, high ground, or something else. This bonus is universal for all defensive rolls regardless of trait used and lasts until an effort is made by the other side to negate it, or the battlefield changes naturally.

Inherent Advantage: A +1 that occurs when a force, element, or action is clearly skewed to one side. A living ocean crashing into a fire creature is at an inherent advantage to all its attack and defense rolls unless something happens to negate that.

A Note: Unless I decide otherwise at a later point I will roll these dice. I don’t have a vested interest in the NP Cs winning, but as players you do have a stake in yourselves winning the bouts in between the pure roleplay sections. The players will describe the attempted action and specify the relevant trait (if they have one) and argue for any advantages if they want. I will do the actual roll and comparison and also decide the final advantages that apply. Then I will take the turn for the opposing side and perform their rolls. I will let you know how the dice landed with my posts.

Character Creation:

Please submit a character with a name, 7 point trait build, a description of physical properties (as much as is possible for very alien beings) and any additional character notes (backstory, personality) you wish to provide. Please submit at least 100 words, but no more than 5,000.

Fluffy:

The characters are a team of “freelance” eldritch beings, monsters, and abominations, and don’t know each other before this tournament. They were assigned at random to each other because they lacked a proper team to deploy as. At the start you will have a short time onboard a large containment vessel to meet and then get straight into a match. After that will come the first “downtime” period of interacting and re-purposing regions of the Earth/local spacetime while around the world others do likewise. Combat-style rolls may be made during this time against nature or some weapon or aspect of humanity if the character violently goes about asserting themselves.

OOC https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13548200770A03100100&page=1#1

edited 7th Dec '12 11:32:09 PM by Stormthorn

Would we have to use existing abominations, or could we make up our own?

edited 12th Aug '12 6:28:57 AM by Artemis92

Your own (unless you really wanted to try and stat one), but clearly this isnt an idea that generates enough interest to run.

Interesting.

Might be interested in this.

Perhaps this WILL come together...

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

IA! IA! NEH-ZAMOTH'KIN!

Count me interested

I might try this.

Possible interest.

Just as a heads-up, Stormthorn doesn't seem to have posted since September. A glance at his posts before then suggests that he just doesn't post very often. I have informed him of the recent interest, though, and linked him here via PM.

And I thank you for that, as Im bad at keeping track of things.

Im used to being on forums where if an idea doesnt get hits in a week, it wont ever fly. Tho as you can see, im online often.

Anyone still interested PM me. If I can get 4+ I can put this together.

If somehow I get 7+ we may need more than one team.

edited 29th Oct '12 10:22:54 PM by Stormthorn

Alright, you can make characters now. The origional post will be edited to include information on the "system" being used and what to include.

In France, approximately 500,000 years in the past... The wind howled, great streams of snow flying every which way so that I could still barely see ahead of myself. Among the great white drifts, I saw escape from the storm. The entrance to the cave glowed with a warm yellow light, flickering only briefly. Thank the gods, there were people here. As I crept through, I could not help but notice the painting on the wall. The great mammoth, sacred source of food, stared back at me from maroon eyes, and for a moment, I felt quite intimidated.

There was nobody next to the fire, but I could see the bones and furs that belonged to this mysterious cave-dweller. I sat on a rock covered with a deer pelt and raised my hands to the blaze, immensely satisfied. I lay down and let sleep take me.

I woke up in cold and dark. The fire was out. I shivered, feeling the chill already creep back into my bones. But there, further in the cave, I saw another light, a dim red glow emanating from somewhere further in the cavern. I smiled; maybe the cave dweller had been frightened when I came unannounced. Strange that a story-teller like me could frighten someone. I began to walk.

The light did not grow brighter for many steps, yet it did grow as the tunnel shrank. Slowly but surely, that soft red light covered the walls, the ceiling, and everything else, while the walls closed in to press against my shoulders and the hair on top of my head. It reminded me of the time my family showed me how to butcher an animal. I could now hear a strange voice up ahead, too distant and indistinct to be sure if it were man or woman. I pressed on.

The voice grew, but I still couldn't discern what it said. The tunnel yawned open into a cavern, and there at the center I saw... A skull. The skull of a great mammoth, immaculately cleaned. It looked solemn on top of a great boulder, fixing me with its dead holes of eyes. Then I heard the voice shout something.

"Krakatek."

The skull twitched. I jerked back and covered my eyes. I could not look at this unnatural witchcraft... But as a storyteller, my curiosity got the better of me, and I lowered my arm. The mammoth bone was moving again, rocking back and forth with each chant. I heard a breaking sound, the kind I doubtlessly heard when the mammoth fell to its death of broken bones at the bottom of a great cliff, and then...

Blood poured from a crack at the top of the great skull, slowly first, but then faster. The skull thrashed around, as if in pain from the gaping wound. In the red light, the blood became a foul black, oozing like some living thing. I screamed, unable to control myself, but the voice continued unimpeded. "Krakatek." The blood froze as it drew close to the rock, only to be covered with more black liquid until that froze too. "Krakatek." Blood was a torrent now, blood freezing until the skull as black and gleaming as a shard of obsidian. "Krakatek."

I couldn't help it; I covered my ears and closed my eyes, hoping my ancestors could protect me, or at least die with me. Then there was a sound, a frightening screech and smash somewhere between the cracking of ice, the boom of lightning, and the trumpet of a mammoth. I felt the chill of winter winds again. I glanced up. The moon glared back at me through the hole in the top of the cavern. I blinked twice, then saw the fiery light, a reverse meteor, flying back up to the sky...

Then I smiled and said the word of the thing in the cave, the word that gave it life. "Krakatek." It felt oddly warm in here as I lay down on the cavern floor and let the numbness take me into the great black beyond.

Physical Appearance: Krakatek's current form is a wooly mammoth skull covered in frozen blood. It is capable of locomotion only by extending spines of bloody ice and using them to pull itself along the ground, making it very slow. It is incapable of human communication and prefers to keep quiet except in moments of extreme growth or danger. Its primary motivation seems to be encouraging its own growth.

Traits

• Extending Spikes: Krakatek's primrary form of attack. These are also used for locomotion, allowing Krakatek to climb sheer surfaces or drag itself slowly along the ground (2).
• Environmental Augmentation: Krakatek can absorb blood and gore from the environment or those it kills into its icey body to augment or heal itself. (2)
• Aura of cold: Krakatek lowers the temperature of the surrounding environment by its presence; at 100 feet away, it becomes noticeably chillier. At half that distance, it's below freezing. Touching Krakratek is like touching frozen hydrogen. (3)

edited 3rd Nov '12 1:22:26 PM by Scardoll

" A point in time and space, long abandoned by its residents,

T'was a most vile place, covered in oozing poures and temporal dents,

A planet, once home to a plethora of creatures, now home to one,

the hope of the worlds survival, reduced to none. "

Exceprt from the journal of Theodore Millstone.

Physical form: A Massive mound of eyes and teeth, with millions upon millions of tendrils sprouting from the base, a large maw resembling a crown of teeth adrones the top of it. The only oises it may produce are horrible screeches, it is very slow, but the tendrils ae very long, it's forms of transport are growing, by converting the biomass it consumes. It can pull you into a pocket dimension if you get to close.

Traits

Mindbreaker: While its not certain you'll go insane, it will probably hurt to look at for to long. (1)

Tendrils: Millions upon millions of thrashing tendrils, a third of which corrupt the world around it, making a nightmarish chaotic mess. (3

Dimension lord: If you get to close, it could drag you into one of it's pocket dimensions.(2)

Spawn: It may birth weak servents to do it's bidding, but it can only spawn two minions per day. (1)

edited 3rd Nov '12 12:31:39 PM by eldritchseer

Sometime, somewhere...

I found that amulet...I don't know where I found it, I don't know why I found it but I found it. There are symbols dancing over the surface of it. I don't know what language that's supposed to be but...somehow...I can understand them...the glowing runes tell the story of something incomprehensible by human minds. A being of the mind, of insanity. I see my heart beating faster. The runes spin around. As they finally come to rest once again, they aren't runes anymore. They aren't anything I could describe anymore. I hear them beginning to glow. A voice creeps into my mind, shadows flow out of the amulet, enveloping me. My vision fades. It is...i-it isssss...heheHAHAHA! He has returned! The master is back! Meskorath has returned!

Appearance: [1]◊

Traits

• Warped Mind: Can warp thoughts to drive people insane. (3)
• Inner Terror: Meskorath can rip a person's inner demons out of their body which will attack them (3)
• Floating: Meskorath floats two feet above the ground (1)

edited 3rd Nov '12 12:40:31 PM by Savato

Three. A bit small. Lets see if anyone else stops by.

Prod?

Im still around. Im guessing the people interested enough to have already posted a char are too. Got a PM from another interested person (no character yet) and you too can post one. Which would certainly give me enough to go make the proper threads and start this.

It was spoken of in ancient times. In whispers, in tales around the campfire. They spoke of a beast that took the shape of a man, but couldn't be any more different. They told tales of entire families torn to pieces in their sleep. They talked of crazed survivors, muttering of dark dreams, and a beast lurking in the deepest night, waiting for them to sleep. These were dismissed as the stark ravings of madmen, but it was all true. They were speaking of the Dreamswalker.

Physical Appearance: The Dreamswalker usually takes the form of a half-glimpsed shadow, a wraithlike figure enshrouded in darkness. The only definite part of its appearance is its mouth. Lots of teeth, see.

Traits

• Incorporeal: The Dreamswalker doesn't care for this whole "physical" nonsense. It can't affect anything physically, instead focusing mostly on fracturing an enemy's soul. (1)
• Thrall: Like any good eldritch abomination, the Dreamswalker has more than a few cultists it can summon to its cause. Unfortunately, they're all very weak and expendable. (3)
• Dream-eater: The Dreamswalker tears out its victim's dreams and feeds on them. (3)

It follows me, stalks me. I run, try to get somewhere safe. It doesn't seem to be faster than me, but somehow it always gets ahead of me, even if I run in a straight line. It's toying with me. It must be, there's no other explanation for why it hasn't caught me yet. What does it want?

Suddenly, it appaears before me directly, it's body twisting in ways that my mind struggles to comprehend. My fear reaches a high point, and as its impossible limb reaches toward me, I feel myself going numb...

Zakrath

Physical Appearance: Zakrath's appearance only looks remotely normal (even by Eldritch Abomination standards) if you can see eight dimensions at once. Otherwise it looks like a computer-generated model forced into poses its rendering wasn't meant for. Seen in 8D, however, it's fairly humanoid (if humans could occupy eight dimensions), with thick, gray skin and eyes that allow it to see all the dimensions it occupies.

Traits:

• Mind-Breaking (1): Zakrath doesn't have any supernatural mind-breaking qualities, but unless you can see in 8D, staring at it too long will give you a headache.
• Dimensional Movement (3): Zakrath isn't any faster than a normal human, but it can find the shortest path from Point A to Point B - which is usually shorter than what humans can find with only three dimensions to work with. This also lets it go through some gaps that appear too small for it to lesser beings.
• Phobophage (3): Zakrath feeds on fear. The effects are barely noticeable at first, but depending on the amount of time and the degree of fear, it can be crippling and even fatal.

edited 18th Nov '12 3:35:14 PM by VampiricOne

Sorry I havnt been about for a couple weeks. Holidays ran into Finals and ate all my time.

Well, we have enough folks now, so I'll get to posting the discussion thread 24 hours and we can see who's still in.

The OOC Thread

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13548200770A03100100&page=1#1