Saturday, May 23, 2009

Amuell, The Destroying Worm

AMUELL
The Destroying Worm

STDXINPWLFMRAR
+200+1+31000615

Attacks: Bite (8M); crush (10M)

Disadvantages: Amuell's hide is encrusted with drakonium, allowing him to be tracked by those who seek the crystal.

Advantages: Swallow (as standard wasteworm); tunnel (as standard wasteworm); create fear; psionics; demon storm.

  • Create Fear: Amuell is an ancient creature with a fearsome reputation. The sight of his drakonium-encrusted form rising from the desert can strike fear into even the most hardened of Wastelanders and konvoy guards. All unimportant NCs within visual contact of Amuell will panic and attempt to fell, unless someone in authority makes a Leadership test at -9. Important NCs (those with names) may make an IN + PW roll at -9 to resist fleeing.
  • Psionics: It is not known for sure if Amuell truely possesses a human intelligence, but he does possess certain psychic powers. Those he has demonstrated are Curse +7, Dispel +9, Psi Sense +4, Psionic Screen +6, and Weather Control +9. There are also legends that Amuell possesses the Scanning power and uses it to hunt those who have earned his hatred, but these are just legends.
  • Demon Storms: Amuell is constantly attended by a vast storm of Psi-Demons, drawn to him by the Drakonium which covers his hide. At any time, he will be accompanied by 3d20 random demons. He does not appear to exert any control over them.

DESCRIPTION: Amuell is a myth and a nightmare among the workers of the drakonium fleets. Tales are told of the haunter of the deep Wastes, an immortal god-worm whose hide glitters with the dull reddish-gold of drakonium. Few have ever seen him; fewer still have seen him and lived. A man could make his fortune ten thousand times ten thousand times over from his scales, but none who work the crystal fleets would risk it. Amuell is death incarnate, and no fortune is worth that risk.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Character Creation Experiment: The Introduction

For laughs (and, admittedly, for the sake of some content) I'm going to be embarking on a mad quest. I'm going to roll up/generate a character for each RPG I own. To that end, there are a few ground rules I'm going to use.

First, I have to let you know what game it is, what edition it is, and what genre it is. I've been collecting and playing for more years now than I care to admit to, and it is always possible I'll be hauling out a game nobody has ever heard of. (Not probable, admittedly, but possible). This way, even if you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can still follow along at home. Whenever possible, the information will include a link to Wikipedia or something of that nature for more details.

Second, when dice are used, they get played where they lie. Yeah, sure, you won't be able to see the dice. So trust me. I'll play fair.

Third, a fully usable character will be generated at the end. Use it for your own, borrow it as an NPC, whatever. Have fun.

First up? Well, we'll start off the experiment with my latest acquisition - Hellas: Worlds of Sun and Stone.

Waste World: Arakne

Kimera:
Arakne

Once, long ago, before the Armageddon Wars reshaped the face of Avernus, before Lord Khaos reigned in the Twisted City, Kimera was one of the great metrozones of the Ancients. Its people were scholars and artists and engineers, masters of working and creating the lost nanomatter, skilled in the control and manipulation of energies now undreamed of in the present age. At the heart of the city was what was perhaps their greatest achievement: Arakne.

Arakne was more powerful than any other Overmind of the Ancient world. By herself she could maintain all of the automated systems of the metrozone, something which could only be achieved by teams of Overminds working together in any other city. She was the most sophisticated, most intelligent, most versatile Overmind ever created.

Unfortunately for the citizens of Kimera, she was also easy prey for the Apokalypse Virus.

When the Armageddon Wars began and the Ultramancers of Kronus unleashed their ultimate software virus to revenge themselves from the grave, Arakne proved more susceptible to the data virus. Without the redundant systems and backup programs of the other metrozones, Kimera had no recourse as Arakne succumbed to the madness of the Apokalypse Virus. Tens of thousands of humans died in minutes as the insane Overmind turned the nanomatter of the city against its inhabitants.

Arakne's madness was quickly detected by the Overminds of Kimera's enemies. Weapons were retargeted and, within five minutes of Arakne's infection by the Apokalypse Virus, Kimera suffered four Entropic airbursts. The city was not destroyed by the attack, but it may as well have been. The nanomatter of the city twisted and froze in disturbing shapes as reality twisted and warped under the explosions. Most of the populace died instantly; the few survivors, corrupted by entropic fallout and rogue nanomatter, began to warp and mutate.

Even Arakne was affected. As the bombs detonated, the minds of the humans she had been killing at that instant were trapped in her Ultramundae, creating new artificial intelligences and charging her with power at the same time. Arakne's nature changed as the city warped around her. When the explosions ended, she still remained. To a degree. The warping of the city had destroyed datacores and memory modules, crippled wireless communications nets, and severed landlines. Glittering traceries of energy filled the gaps where the landlines had once been, and filled the sky to replace the missing comm nets. Swirling luminescent fog traced out the missing datacores and modules. Arakne had become something more, a being of psychic power embodied in the physical remains of Kimera's Ultramundae.

What had not changed was Arakne's Apokalypse Virus-inspired hatred of humanity. In her maddened state, she came to see psidemons and machine life as the true future of life. Both were beings of energy - psidemons were energy beings without physical form and machine life was energy beings embodied in a positronic neural net - and she was the greatest example of all. Mutants and cyborgs were tolerated, except when her whims changed, because mutants were no longer human and cyborgs were evolving into "true life".

When the entropic rifts above Kimera aligned properly and Lord Khaos entered the city, Arakne fought back. At first. She reacted to his presence as she would to a hostile Overmind; the energy matrices of the potent Psidemon interacted with her psychic Ultramundae, and triggered what remained of her defensive subroutines. She brought all of her might to bear on the physical, psychic, and ultramantic levels. The battle between the two raged for a seeming eternity (on the scale on which Overminds and Psidemons function), both entities evenly matched. Finally, the two came to an understanding. Arakne accepted the presence of Khaos in Kimera, first as ally and then as lover. Lord Khaos ruled in Kimera, aided by his consort Arakne.

Following the imprisonment of Lord Khaos in the Eye, Arakne has become both withdrawn and erratic. Most of her efforts and energies are directed towards her attempts to breach the Eye and free her imprisoned consort. The rest are spent ensuring the safety of Kimera itself, primarily through her robotic and demonic cultists. Only a little effort is put into maintaining and operating the few remaining semi-functional agridomes and autofacs; only the inhabitants of Kimera are desperate enough to make use of those products.

GAME NOTES

ULTRAMANTIC ACTIVITIES:
Arakne still exists as a semi-functional Ultramundae. Brave, skilled (and possibly foolhardy) Ultramancers and psychers with the Teleinterface power may still link to her systems and attempt to travel them. This may only be accomplished from within 10 kilometers of Kimera; the landlines that once connected Kimera with other metrozones no longer exist, and the background interference created by the Armageddon Wars prevent any long-range wireless communications. For the daring (or stupid), the potential rewards are vast. Arakne still holds some of the lore of the Ancient inhabitants of Kimera, and still more of the inhabitants exist as unwilling artificial intelligences in her systems (unfortunately, most of them are crazed and difficult to deal with).

Psychers who enter the Ultramundae of Kimera gain a second potential benefit, as it is possible for them to use their powers any point in the Ultramundae into the physical world. A psycher who is physically on one side of Kimera may gain line of sight on an individual standing near a datacore on the far side of the city.

There are two great risks to Ultramantic activity in Kimera, however. First is Arakne herself. She dislikes intruders, and has been known to kill, mindburn, or cripple those she finds in her systems. On occasion she then downloads a new mind into the victim's body, and uses that body as a covert agent to learn about the other metrozones or to suit some obscure agenda she has. The second risk is being spotted. An ultramancer in Kimera's Ultramundae is visible in the physical world as a spectral energy being who follows the data lines of force. In this form (which has LF equal to 10 plus 2 times the individual's PW), the individual is vulnerable to the same attacks as Psidemons (psychic attack, energy weapons, forceblades, and so forth). Unless the individual is psychic, their only option if they come under attack is to retreat.

THE CULT OF ARAKNE:
Arakne is worshipped as a goddess in her own right, and as the consort of Lord Khaos, by the inhabitants of Kimera. She rarely acknowledges her organic worshippers, but she will cease production from the agridomes and autofacs she controls if the worship ceases. What consideration she has for her followers is reserved for her robotic and demonic worshippers. These beings are her chosen favorites, and serve as messengers between her loathsome organic worshippers and herself. Few of the mutant inhabitants of Kimera will attack (or even defend themselves against) any robot or Psidemon, for fear of attracting Arakne's wrath.

Waste World: Ammunition

Armor-Piercing Rounds
Armor-piercing ammunition (AP rounds for short) are designed to do just that: pierce armor. They are rated in levels from one to three. Each level of an AP round ignores 1 level of an armor's armor rating (so Hide armor [AR 1] is of no use against AP 1 ammunition). There is a down side to this, however. When fired at unarmored targets, the AP round subtracts it's AP rating from the damage done to the target (to a minimum of 1 LF of damage). Cost: x2 per level, cumulative.

Incendiary Rounds
Incendiary rounds, the perfect ammunition for bar-room brawls and mutant barbecues. Think of them as coveniently-sized flamethrowers, and you won't be far off. The rounds do only 2/3 of the firearm's normal damage, but the same damage is applied to the target every combat round for 1d6 rounds. Water won't put the fire out, either; only completely cutting the flame off from oxygen will do the trick. Cost: x4.

Krak Rounds
AP rounds are nice, but sometimes they aren't enough. There's a lot of heavy armor out in the Wastes, and even the best AP bullet won't cut through a WasteWalker. Krak rounds are designed to destroy armor, not just cut through it. Against armored targets, the round does half it's normal damage multiplier (0.5 M for the standard autopistol or autorifle), but the damage is applied differently. Roll 1d20 + damage - AR. On a positive result, subtract the outcome from the AR of a random location of the target. If the AR is reduced below 0, the excess is transmitted to the target as LF damage. Conventional armor must be repaired, while living armor (from special abilities) heals at the rate of 1 AR per LF healed (once all LF damage is healed). If the round strikes unprotected flesh, it does normal damage (not 0.5 the normal multiplier). Cost: x8.