A game of horror in Exalted!

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

Alright all, I would greatly appreciate any ideas and help for my next campaign. Some of you have heard of it in my posts so far. Yes, it is in an underwater manse. The manse was found ala Invisible Fortress style, though with no fountain of essence, just the shifting colors of the waters off the shores of the Blessed Isle. These shifting colors are part of a spell wearing off that has been in effect for who knows how long. The manse was once part of a great city in the Time Before Time.


The underwater metropolis was a shining jewel for the Primordials before the times of the Breaking. Before the Exalted. A city of millions of their servants and their luxuries. The city was rumored by the Dragon Kings and the other races to be a place that only the Primordials were allowed in along with the servants bound there. Rumors came out of the waves from elementals that it was a place of dark worship, to the Primordials and something else...something beyond the vast bounds of Creation.


The city and its cathedral manse were thrown down in the opening shots of the Breaking, the Exalted threw down the city in a great fight in which one of the first Malfeans was thrown down into the eternal slumber. What they found when the water stopped boiling and they could see into the crystal depths again frightened and awed them. Most of the city and its alien inhabitants were savaged by the Exalted and the cathedral and city were thrown into Elsewhere by Solar magics. Now after miliennia being trapped in another diemension its come back to its rightful place in the world. The Realm was the first to discover the changes in the water, mass migration of fish and sea life, the strange glow of the sea and the aurora borealis effect it gave off (Note: the game is taking place five years before Her Highness jumps ship for Malfeas). So a call has gone out across the Threshold and the Realm satrapies for volunteers to supplement the Realm naval capabilities. Here I brought in my PCs. They are volunteers for this expedition and are going to be visiting the "ruins" in the next few sessions.


What I'm asking from you all my esteemed gentlemen is some help on fleshing out my area. I am pounding out the story and setting of the manse, seeing as its near pristine in condition aside from the battle damage. I have an idea for some things in there of interest like the gardens and the old worship sites but I need some help with my otherwordly servants of the "Other Being" worshipped by the Primordials themselves, oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I was thinking something Lovecraftian but thats cliche somewhat in my games now. So I was hoping someone could help me a little? Stillborn or Jakk? Haku? Thunder Hammer? Anyone's help is much appreciated!!

 

[Persell]

I think by implying something Lovecraftian but not actually doing it would be best. Most of the printed materials pose that the Primordials are almost impossible to even conceptualize. You could go the mythological route, that this city was the home of the father/ mother of the primordials. That perhaps the primordials slew their parents?

 

[Flagg]

I think a good way to make things creepy is to have weird creatures that the characters can see, but also other, weirder stuff that the characters see signs of, but don't actually directly encounter.. at least not right away. They can notice sounds, smells, footprints, shadows, etc. Make these "other" creatures seem omnipresent, but always just out of reach.


-S

 

[Flagg]

And make it obvious enough that these other creatures are aware of them.


-S

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

I had thought about the same thing kinda. Except I was praying someone is going to take All Encompasing Sorceror's Sight. I had an idea for odd things they'll catch sight of at the edges of their vision. I had an idea for one scene, almost stereotypical of a horror movie. Have one of them stomping through one of the prayer antechambers (Note: These rooms are massive chambers, stories tall and such with massive statues of the Gods) and they're using their Charms to see and all of a sudden there is a flash of white and the room is filled (on a spiritual level) with people in robes prostrate before the statues. All robed and guilded. Probably have something alert the "priests" to them and have them all silent stand and as one turn to look at the PCs. I'm proud of that scene.

 

[Jakk Bey]

Without being Lovecraftian? And you're setting it in Ryleh...


Oh boy.


Well, that means the dreaded Squid People are out. And that's a favorite of mine. I love squids and octopus people. Not squid headed people, but intelligent squid and octopus, because they are the sea's best bet for intelligent life outside of the mammalian cetaceans...


Squid people are out--unless you want to go for actual squids all evolved, instead of squid headed people. Deep One humaoids are out too...


I'm going back to squid people. Intelligent squids. Many limbed. Great eyes. Predators. Experts in camoflague by virtue of their genetics. Magics based on their ability to blend. Not just their color, but join with their element. Not discorporating but becoming one with the water. Or the stone. Or the coral.


Then you have the advantage of many limbs, with a forty or fifty digits, if you're counting suckers.  We're talking very advanced squid at this point.


Squid that have taken Sorcery to a whole different level--they can manipulate matter and flesh like a man carves an apple with a knife, and they don't use knives--but reweave the basic Patterns. They don't Craft Fate, but flesh. Not by breeding, but by joining with it, thanks to their ability to meld with objects or other matter.  Shaping flesh for them is a matter of just sitting down inside something, like a man woud sit down on a stool. Then, they just flex a little, and reweave the object, stretch it, pull it, or shape it to what they desire, maybe meld it with something else, with the help of a friend, to form something else. Like two weavers joining their product.


Then, you have your squids, having been Elsewhere...what if they know that their creator is lost? Dead.  But there was Something Else that they had contact with while Elsewhere? Perhaps another Primordial, from a Creation far off? Not one of this Creation's Primordials, but something from somewhere else, and one that decided, maybe on a whim, to answer the calls of these squids, in return for their worship, or promises to help it find dominion in a Creation without their own Primordials anymore?


Or maybe it just played with their brains, filled it them with nonsense, and let them go on their merry way, filled with terrible knowledge, but horribly mistaken on how to use it? Instead of waking and raising their Master, they instead plunge the Creation back into the Wyld, where the Other waits to claim the souls of the Creation for a vast feast, that will allow it power over its own realm?


Riffing at this point.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

Hmm, wonderful idea. But I might actually bite the bullet and use the Deep Ones...I don't think I've used them yet actually. But I actually had an idea I ripped from a d20 modern book. It's a race of...*looks up book* jellyfish like creatures, I found them interesting but they are along the lines of your squidies as I shall call them. But the main difference is they have the mad science going on, kind of like the fungal creatures from The Whisperer in the Darkness also by our esteemed Mr. Lovecraft. But the thing is, these guys aren't part of the race that served the Primordials, they are from Elsewhere, some other Creation beyond the veils of reality. Either that or use the servants of the Primordials *coughDeepOnescough* ^^;;;

 

[Jakk Bey]

Go alien. Go strange. Scaly men are minions. Don't give your player just minions. Give them BIG evil. Evil that hurts their heads to get around exactly how evil.


They know the Malfeans. The Malfeans want some peace and quiet. They know revenge, that's the Yozi's whole gig. Give them something that hurts them to try to understand.


No, really. I'm talking taking Bashing damage, if they succeed in an Intelligence check to understand the critter's technology or Sorcery. That, or an automatic point for their Limit, because it violates them that deeply. We're talking alien enough to cause nose bleeds and worse...

 

[greasy golem gunk]

Go alien. Go strange. Scaly men are minions. Don't give your player just minions. Give them BIG evil. Evil that hurts their heads to get around exactly how evil.
They know the Malfeans. The Malfeans want some peace and quiet. They know revenge, that's the Yozi's whole gig. Give them something that hurts them to try to understand.


No, really. I'm talking taking Bashing damage, if they succeed in an Intelligence check to understand the critter's technology or Sorcery. That, or an automatic point for their Limit, because it violates them that deeply. We're talking alien enough to cause nose bleeds and worse...

So, you mean that they're going to confront the bumps from Adult swim?


...


If you want to mislead them, go with the setting you set up, but have it as an ellaborate ruse being run by Scooby-Doo Esqe villainous Water Elementals who are trying to use their strange sense of decoration and, well, elementallism to scare off the Neighbors?


"gee, it was Lord Seashell the whole time!"


"And I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for those meddeling solars and their darn Dog familiar!"


It's a thought.

 

[Flagg]

If you're going to model your baddies after sea creatures, I'd suggest looking at some of the really fucked up deep sea life that's out there.


For example, I submit Vampyroteuthis infernalis, or "Vampire squid from Hell". See if you can find a picture of these guys' threat response. It's creepy.

There's also plenty of other horrific looking shit down there:

A lot of these things don't even look like they belong on our planet. It creeps me out just to think that they actually exist.


-S

 

[Flagg]

More anglerfish:

-S

 

[Jakk Bey]

One of the reasons why I like the idea of intelligent squid. While some of the critters from the deep are just nasty--like jellyfish--they aren't all that smart.


Not all squid are all that bright, but some species are, and the idea of anything that predatory, with fine motor skills, and sentient...it is just nasty to think about.


Yes, dolphins are predators, but we share some mammalian features, and we can make contact with them--some are even somewhat friendly. Octopus are kind of shy--though there are some poisonous species that are aggressive, on the whole, octopus aren't as fierce--unless you happen to be a form of shellfish.


Squid on the other hand are much more aggressive predators, and the idea of anything that assertive a predator, AND intelligent...it gives me the willies, and since I kind of like that, I definitely vote for them as Most Likely to Creep the Boojum Out of Characters.


My players still talk about their brief encounter in a Mage game with intelligent squid from an alternate time line. Even the demon that put the characters in the position to attract their attention wasn't happy about it.


If you can get your main villain skeevied out and scared, then you've got something.

 

[Flagg]

Not all squid are all that bright' date=' but some species are, and the idea of anything that predatory, with fine motor skills, and sentient...it is just nasty to think about.[/quote']
I'm not an expert on it, but I think cuttlefish actually have squid beat out on both the intelligence and aggression categories. Plus, they can out-chameleon a chameleon.


Cuttlefish rock.


-S

 

[Jakk Bey]

It still boils down to too many limbs+well developed eyes and spacial sense+predator from the deep=Creepy.


Deep Ones? While I love The Creature From the Black Lagoon probably more than the next guy, Deep Ones are still just guys with gills, bad teeth, and sloppy fingernails. Low on the Creepy meter in my book.


There's so much creepier stuff in the oceans to roll out with than gill men...

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

*bows* All of your Kung Fu is best

 

[The Name Without Meaning]

Well, if you want alien creatures, (and I'm leaving the sea life alone, as that seems well covered) how about creatures that don't exist to the five senses. Not invisible exactly, just nothing to see - Creatures that can only be perceived as ( because they are) fear, hatred, awe, surprise, worship, what have you.  In the altar room scene you mentioned (which reminded me of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) these emotional impressions might be the clue for your PC's to use all-encompassing sorcerors's sight.


to the PC's - "You feel a sudden, and incongrous sense of veneration - tears fill your eyes as an unnamed majesty sweeps over you, and you are filled with the blasphemous notion that what you normally bow to, the Unconquered Son and his cohorts, are false, unworthy of the worshipful surrender that fills your soul."


PC - I use all-encompassing sorcerors's sight.


then he sees the robes, but these are only an abstraction, symbols the characters mind uses to convey the pure worship surrounding him.


Or not. I sure like typing.

 

[Nightdawn]

Holy crap, these are all very cool ideas; you've got me wanting to run my first session of my new Exalted campaign as a Howard/Lovecraft inspired "strip the city" adventure.