[anotherJack]

Artificer is a powerful great form earth elemental that the Horrors corrupted and turned into one of their own.  His big thing is making dungeon complexes filled with traps.  He is the explanation for the fantasy trope of trap-filled dungeon complexes.  The traps are almost always complex mechanical/magical traps that are traps within traps.  He feeds on the pain and suffering caused by his traps upon people.

Note that it counts for the "no-real-difference-between-spirits-and-horrors" theory 

[The_Gun_Nut]

Except that Artificer isn't a spirit anymore.  It is now a Horror/elemental.  A blending of the two distinct entities.

Horrors aren't always astral beings (odd as that sounds).  Sometimes they are purely physical, sometimes purely astral.  And sometimes they are both at the same time.  Note that they aren't dual natured, they are a (1) physical body and (2) an astral body separate from the physical one.  The Horrors that have both bodies are extremely hard to kill, since if you simply kill the physical body, the astral form (which can be elsewhere) will create a new one.  And if you slay the astral form, the physical body creates an astral one, kind of like a sponge budding off a new form.

[anotherJack]

Okay, so if there's purely physical horrors, [horrors] are not simply a part of [spirits], as I thought.
You killed my theory 
Among the purely physical ones, is there any which has an origin in the metaplanes ? the only purely physical horrors I know are the humans who are part of Rystul, but they do not come from the metaplanes, they've been corrupted here, on Earth.

[Grinder]

I'd like to see Artificer break into the Shadowrun world. This Horror can really wreck a lot of damage especially on tech.

Would give the whole Renraku Arcology setting a new, interesting twist.

[FastJack]

How do you know Artificer didn't help 'tweak' Deus into existence? 

[DarkLloyd]

How do you know Artificer didn't help 'tweak' Deus into existence? 

THAT Sir is EEEEeeeeeeeVIL!!!!!!!!!

[Lansdren]

Looks like Artificer isnt all bad considering he's a mentor spirit


Artificer
Artificer is the inventor, craftsman, and smith; the true
symbol of humanity’s ingenuity and resourcefulness. His tools,
and those of his followers, empower mankind to conquer all
obstacles. He is not always as skilled at understanding people
as he is at analyzing the world, however, which may make him
and his followers difficult to deal with or easy to manipulate.
Mythical figures such as Hephaestus and Daedalus are common
interpretations of Artificer, as are the Celtic Goibhniu
and Norse Weland.
Advantages: +2 dice for Manipulation spells, +2 dice to
Enchanting Tests.
Disadvantages: Artificer magicians are easily distracted
by new and unusual finds or a persistent problem. When
faced with something he has never seen before or a problem
he can not easily solve, the Artificer magician must make a
Willpower + Charisma (3) Test to resist examining the situation
at length. The magician will not put his life in danger
just to examine a new device, but he will take the next safe
opportunity to do so.

[anotherJack]

Two options : or it's the real "artificer", then it has been cleansed, and returned to its primary form of Great Elemental spirit, or it's the same name but not the same spirit.

[The_Gun_Nut]

Or Artificer can just be an archetype for a host of possible mentor spirits, and not the actual Horror Artificer (which isn't it's real name anyway).

[FoxBoy]

Would you guys believe I actually got my GM to sign off on the whole 'horrors returning' angle for our tabletop game? It's been a few years since I played ED so I'm working off of memory. We just finished one major story arc but in the progress created about 6-8 minor ones, and this is a major one he'll be looking to incorporate.

To start with, he wants to see how earthdawn magic differs from SR4 and /why/ it was so dangerous, so I'm already in the process of writing it up. I've got something already in place for magic items, ED style taken to SR4, but the parts I'm still fuzzy on is whose considered a name giver, and I know an ED adept are the players plus others who can use circle based magics.

Seeing as the horror's arrival is synced to the magic cycle, can someone start feeding me data on what to include, like what horrors can/will be seen when, and in what mana warps they'll appear in?

My foxy picked up divination as a metamagic here, so he's going to have some fun with that one... that's how he's planning to introduce some of our secondary goals from here on out.

[Dead Monky]

A Namegiver is basically any member of a sentient species.  So humans, orks, merrows, sasquatches, dragons, pixies, and so on would all be Namegivers.

Earthdawn magic wasn't really dangerous in and of itself.  It was just more powerful and varied because the magic level was higher and they had a longer background of using and researching it.  Blood magic, especially in the form of charms, was more accepted and fairly widely used.  The Horrors came, not because of anything Namegivers were doing in particular, but simply because the mana level got high enough for them to push through into our world.

And gnashers would probably be the first Horrors to appear.  They're weak (relatively), simple minded eating machines that kill and eat everything they come across.  They'll even eat rocks and trees if nothing else is around.  Basically, the weaker Horrors show up first--kreescra, mindslugs, the aforementioned gnashers, etc--followed by ever more powerful Horrors as the magic level rises.  They would probably show up most often around areas aspected to negative emotions most often.  So toxic zones, serial killer haunts, and the sites of concentration camps and mass murders would attract them.

[The_Gun_Nut]

Auschwitz would likely be their Disney World.

[Dead Monky]

Yeah, we've created plenty of horrible little amusement parks for them.  No wonder they come here to gorge.

[Cheesedapplications]

I believe we're missing the real question here:

How do you kill them?

It obviously can be done, now lets get someone working on mass producing the equipment and soldiers you need to do it. I'm thinking FAB III saturation bombing and lots of drones. THEN you send in the ground troops. Incidentally, I bet those companies that make 'stick and shock" rounds are going to watch their stock prices skyrocket.   

[Welshman]

I believe we're missing the real question here:

How do you kill them?

It obviously can be done, now lets get someone working on mass producing the equipment and soldiers you need to do it. I'm thinking FAB III saturation bombing and lots of drones. THEN you send in the ground troops. Incidentally, I bet those companies that make 'stick and shock" rounds are going to watch their stock prices skyrocket.   

Re-runs of Strawberry Shortcake?