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Horrors

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The_Gun_Nut

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« Reply #165 on: <01-11-11/0935:14> »
Knowledge of the two systems can let you kludge something together but, in general, yes, the systems are quite different and making them work requires a lot of effort.
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Morg

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« Reply #166 on: <01-11-11/0952:02> »
Knowledge of the two systems can let you kludge something together but, in general, yes, the systems are quite different and making them work requires a lot of effort.

My players ask me to  kludge something together twice a game session so I am use to it.

Dead Monky

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« Reply #167 on: <01-11-11/1017:27> »
Yeah, ShadowRun and EarthDawn are pretty much incompatible mechanics wise.  You can force them to work together but it's a lot of work with a lot of guessing, shrugs, and just-so shoe-horning.

Anyway, I can give some brief descriptions working from memory.

For Horror constructs there are:
-Ghouls
Sort of like ShadowRun's ghouls only not blind and poisonous.
-Jehuthras
Seven-foot-long spider monsters with human-like faces.
-Cadaver Men
Basically insane, intelligent zombies that fly into a psychotic murder rage when wounded or badly injured.
-Qural'lotectica
Basically a transparent sack with hook tipped tentacles that hang from trees, arches, and cave ceilings and paralyze people then drain out their blood.
-Black Mantises
Ten-foot-long mantis-like monsters with eight legs.
-Bone Shamblers
Basically animated piles of bones, weapons, and random other crap that stab people to death with their rusty arm spikes and can reform if killed.
-Spectral Dancer
Undead people the Horrors have rendered insane by removing their ability to communicate in any meaningful way.  They flit in and out of humanity trying to communicate with others and viciously attack those that ignore them.
-Shilagrue Horror
An aquatic sheet-like monster that wraps itself around victims, takes control of them, and makes them attack those they love.
-Plagues
Thin, sickly-looking humanoids covered in boils that spread an incredibly virulent and deadly disease simply through their presence.  The only way to cure the disease is to kill the Plague that started its spread.

Some minor Horrors are:
-Wormskulls
Humanoid, but with heads (and sometimes hands and other parts) that look like piles of writhing worms and bodies partially made out of armor.  They can tear your skin off and rotate it around your body, transfer damage done to them to others, terrify people, and seem to thrive on making undead.
-Bloatforms
They look like swollen, floating slugs, corpses, or jellyfish.  They typically hide and lie in wait and use their powers to manipulate people in turning on each other and destroying themselves.
-Kreescra
Short and skinny with malformed bones and joints and faces that look like they're sliding off their skulls.  The follow a victim around and sneak up on him while sleeping to put their hands on their heads.  Doing so allows them to give the person horrific nightmares which prevent him from healing and eventually kill him.
-Mindslugs
Six-inch-long slug-like Horrors with numerous hook-covered tentacles that burrow into people's heads while they sleep and feed on the pain they cause by damaging the person's skull and brain.
-Wingflayers
Flying clouds of tiny, metallic slivers that seemingly have no goal other than shredding people into piles of raw, unidentafiable meat and bone.
-Slipshades
Shadowy Horrors that can become two-dimensional and climb up walls and slip under doors.  They aren't terrible aggressive for Horrors, don't seek out victims, and mostly seem to prefer to be left alone.  They will, however, tear you apart if you stumble across them.
-Despairthought
They look like giant white maggots covered with child-sized arms, with a large tooth-filled mouth.  They roam through astral space looking for week-willed and easily frightened people which they threaten into placing a special mark on a loved one.  Once marked, the Horror causes the person to painfully and horribly shriek and growl instead of speak, can make him freeze with despair, and can even force him to commit suicide.  The Horrors' name sort of says it all.

Some Major Horrors:
-Joie
Joie wanders from town to town taking the guise of a lost child, a minstrel, or the like and then sets itself up in the town.  At first it does nothing, or even helps the people, making sure to watch them closely.  Eventually it begins to warp their emotions, changing hate into love, pain into elation, rage into happiness, and so on.  First it starts small, maybe one or two people with minor changes, but it quickly starts warping the entire town.  It quickly turns it into a madhouse with people cutting their own body parts off, leaping off roofs, stabbing each other, and loving every minute of it.  Eventually it gets bored and either leaves or kills everyone and then leaves.
-Aazvhat Many-Eyes
Aazvhat only exists on the astral plane where it looks like a roiling mass of wet, blinking eyes.  It seems to want to drive people insane one person at a time.  It does this my marking various objects.  When people come near them, it causes an eye to appear on it just long enough for the person to notice.  It then begins to corrupt reality for that person, causing eyes to appear on all sorts of objects: shields, mirrors, mugs, anything.  It starts out with minor acts just in the corner of the person's eye, but eventually starts making it look like eyes are peering the the person from everything.  It never speaks either, enjoying the terror of it's silence.
-The Tempter
The Tempter is a remarkably honest Horror.  More or less.  It looks like a tiny bur or the like and it frequently sticks in someone's clothing.  It whispers to them, telling them what it is and that it will offer them help, but only if they want it.  And it does.  When the victim is in need it will offer help and aid in the form of mystical power it lends to them.  If they refuse its aid, it will sulk, but say it understands.  It is very patient.  It will do nothing without the person's permission.  Of course, once the victim accepts it becomes easier for the Tempter to worm its way into his mind, the temptation to accept its help becomes greater, and it begins to offer its help for ever more minor things.  Through all this it is slowly corrupting the victim and turning him into a Horror construct.  It revels in corrupting the most stalwart and upright of people and gets the greatest joy from helping people corrupt their own ideals and destroy themselves.

Sorry, that got kind of long.  I can give more, but I wanted to cut this one post short.

EDIT
Fixed some typos and stuff.
« Last Edit: <01-11-11/1024:22> by Dead Monky »

Morg

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« Reply #168 on: <01-11-11/1117:31> »
TY Monkey that Gives me some ammunition for my plots with in plots within enigmas

Sichr

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« Reply #169 on: <01-11-11/1243:07> »
just remember... the world of Shadowrun is too far away to be Scourged....for at least centuries...

Dead Monky

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« Reply #170 on: <01-11-11/1246:52> »
No prob, Morg.  But as Sichr said, the magic level in ShadowRun is way, way too low for all but the weakest Horrors to squeeze their way through.  And even weak ones squeezing through is unlikely without help from a powerful magician, vile ritual, an artifact, or the like.  But still, it would be fun.  And given the way magic is still rather mysterious and only vaguely understood in ShadowRun, one can always just say, "Screw it.  Horrors come through because I say so."  Then let the terror begin!

And so you know, weak ones would be things like kreescra, mindslugs, and possibly a despairthought.

EDIT
Added and fixed some stuff.
« Last Edit: <01-11-11/1250:36> by Dead Monky »

Morg

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« Reply #171 on: <01-11-11/1305:34> »
They don't have to be a horror but could be corrupted by one, besides strange things can happen to metaplaner researchers
and my PCs like their metaquests. They always try to take everyone with them, one time they even tried to convince a free spirit to get the unawakened PCs to come along (The free spirit said it was a bad idea for the uninitiated *GM Clue Bat included*).
I just like having more then 3 layers to my plots. I run Paranoia as well so take what you will from that.

Dead Monky

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« Reply #172 on: <01-11-11/1312:59> »
Horror corruption's probably the best route and there are a lot of ways to work it in.  Like the idea of running into a horror on a metaplanar quest.  I like that.  And to think.  People think the Hive is a bad place.  Can you imagine where a Horror would drag you to?  A botched metaplanar quest where something pried its way into his head or even comes back with him could really screw with the players.  Heh heh.


Morg

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« Reply #173 on: <01-11-11/1328:29> »
any know weather or not a horror mark can be laid on a magicians astral form? is there an interesting named one that could do it?

Dead Monky

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« Reply #174 on: <01-11-11/1341:53> »
Taint is the first one that comes to mind.  It slowly, over time corrupts a magician or adept's use of magic until it has Horror marked the poor schlub.  It then continues to warp and corrupt it, frequently turning it on the caster or making it work unpredictably.  The thing is very good at hiding in astral space and is very, very subtle in how it works.

But I'm pretty sure any Horror that can Horror mark can do it to someone's astral form.

Sichr

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« Reply #175 on: <01-11-11/1452:12> »
What about some Horror constructs...wuld it be possible to find some in some digsite? Should it work without the horror present?

Dead Monky

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« Reply #176 on: <01-11-11/1510:19> »
So far as I'm aware, Horrors don't really maintain Horror constructs like a mage has to maintain a spell.  They more infuse them with magic making them self-sustaining.  They even give them a lose amount of free will.  (Slaves to the Horror they still be.)  Horrors would frequently create constructs then simply turn them lose to rampage, kill, and terrorize on their own.  I suppose you can look at Horror constructs as more horribly deformed, twisted, raped, and maddened beings than magic built, remote controlled puppets.  Though even in the former they are still slaved to the Horror.

I suppose you could, theoretically, dig up an ancient Horror construct.  Whether it would still be "alive" or not is another matter.  I suppose it boils down to whether you think the long period of almost nonexistent magic would have broken down the magics sustaining it and thus killed it.  Or whether it merely "deactivated" it and put in a torpor like state leaving it ready to "activate" once the magic level got high enough.  Personally, I like the suspended animation idea.

Either way, I think only undead ones like cadaver men, ghouls, and bone shamblers could survive that long buried in the earth.  And even then, they'd probably be pretty damn messed up after five thousand years in the dirt.
« Last Edit: <01-11-11/1513:25> by Dead Monky »

Kot

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« Reply #177 on: <01-11-11/1515:10> »
There are other ways, as for example Verjigorm's cocooned pets are definitely dragon-based Horror constructs.
Mariusz "Kot" Butrykowski
"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and good with ketchup."

The_Gun_Nut

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« Reply #178 on: <01-11-11/1521:36> »
That's a little to high end on the power scale for most (or rather, all) shadowrunners.  I can see some of the corrupted stone men surviving the down cycle.  They look like fancy statues, but in truth they are magical creations (like D&D stone golems) that some Horrors corrupted and imbued with a malign intelligence in order to stave off boredom (long story).

I can see a spectral dancer, being trapped in some sort of vessel for the downcycle, popping up, as well.
There is no overkill.

Only "Open fire" and "I need to reload."

Longshot23

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« Reply #179 on: <01-12-11/0226:26> »
What about Imps? Horoi-related or not?

And about Horror constructs:  could such function as an SR adept?  Would it need infusions of anything to stay functional?  I have a mini-campaign outline in progress (which I may or may not submit to CGL) which features a Horror-construct-as-adept as cult/small unit leader . . . additional refinement needed and welcome.