Into the Labyrinth: The Madness of the Labyrinth (Doppelgangers and Astral Parasites)

Those who go into the Labyrinth sometimes come out… changed.  They may gain great psychic powers and a malevolent hunger, or return with memories of alternate timelines and murderous intent.  They call this the Madness of the Labyrinth, but these often come from specific monsters or experiences found in the Labyrinth.

Astral Parasite

The Astral Parasite is not unique to the Labyrinth, and can be found on non-labyrinthine worlds rich in twisted psionic energy, such as Moros, but they tend to be quite common in the more corrupted parts of the Labyrinth, and those who go into the Labyrinth seeking to unlock their psychic potential often mistakenly return with one.

An Astral Parasite is, functionally, a sort of Broken Communion ghost. It is an insubstantial collection of twisted psionic energy that seeks sustenance from others to continue its existence. When someone enters its region of influence, it will seek to gain some sort of “grip” on the target. This generally requires some sort of action on the part of the person, such as reading an incantation carved onto a labyrinthine wall, or touching an artifact.  Some Labyrinth Cults worship a Parasite or collection of Parasites, and will capture or persuade new hosts and invoke a ceremony to press a Parasite into the host. Astral Parasites that gain a foothold on someone often use them to spread word of their power, so that those who hear the legends might seek out the same artifact or incantation and become haunted by the Parasite.

Once a parasite has “infected” a target, it can “inhabit” them, residing within the protective barrier of their mind. The target becomes a Twisted Psionic Energy generator, which provides sanctuary for the parasite, and applies a -2 to the victim’s psionic skill rolls, and treats all failures as critical failures; this does not apply to any powers that the astral parasite has, which makes the victim more dependent on the parasite. The parasite cannot directly “possess” the target, but they can influence their emotions , eavesdrop on their thoughts, and even communicate directly with them.

An Astral Parasite is visible to anyone who investigates the target’s aura (via Psychic Healing) or those who have True Sight. Most who see them describe them as a malign presence, or a wicked shadow that overlaps the target, like a malevolent after image or aura. Skilled physicians might deduce the presence of an Astral Parasite by rolling either Esoteric Healing or the lower of Diagnosis and Expert Skill (Psionics). The Astral Parasite can be damaged by attacks that damage insubstantial beings, but it exists within the target, so such attacks would necessarily target the host as well. They can also be driven out with Exorcism. They tend to react poorly when their host is on drugs like Blocker and Monobloc.

Astral Parasites want sustenance. All Parasites are psychic vampires. If their host touches and holds a victim, the parasite will drain energy from the victim. If the host does not do this at least once a day, the Parasite draws energy from the host. This inevitably kills the host, so most parasites seek the aggrandizement of their victims. Most parasites command considerable psychic power, and will deploy it on behalf of their host. Some psychics aware of the nature of Astral Parasites will deliberately seek them out and strike up pacts with them, allowing themselves to be inhabited in exchange for power, working on the assumption that, unlike all the rest of the Parasite’s victims, they can control it.

ST: 0	HP: 10	Speed: 5
DX: 10	Will: 12	Move: 5
IQ: 8	Per: 12
HT: 10	FP: NA (10)	SM: +0
Dodge: 8	Parry: NA	DR: 0

Fright Check: +0

Haunt (12): While the target touches an artifact or other host inhabited by the Astral Parasite, the Parasite may roll a contest of Will vs the target’s Will. On a success, the target becomes inhabited. They become a Twisted Energy Generator (everyone within 2 yards has -2 to all psychic skill rolls, and all failures with psychic abilities count as critical failures) and becomes the parasite’s Puppet. This lasts until the parasite is exorcised.

Psychic Drain (12): Against a willing target or someone thoroughly subdued by the host, the Astral Parasite rolls a Quick Contest of its Will vs the target’s Will per second. On a success, the target loses 1 HP and the Parasite regains either 1 HP or 1 FP. This is a ghostly psychic power! The Parasite may always do this to their host and gain a +4 to their rolls when doing so!

Sway Emotion (16): The Parasite attempts to manipulate the mind of their host. They roll Will+4 in a Quick Contest with their host’s Will. If they succeed, they may afflict the host with a particular emotion (this can be more specific than “anger,” it can be “anger at someone” or an “angry desire to do something.”) They cannot force their host to act, but they can strongly cajole them with emotions. The Parasite may apply a penalty to roll; for every -1 they apply, they may attempt to change or alter up to -5 points of the host’s mental disadvantages provided the target gives in to the emotional desire. Most Parasites slowly drive their target mad; those who are exorcised will revert to normal in time, but some may need extensive therapy.

Traits: Broken Communion Ghost. Draining (Psychic Energy);Energy Reserves (10). Ghostly Speech (Puppet Only); Puppet; Selfish (12); Unnatural Appetite (Psychic Energy; 12).

Notes: Alien. They can be negotiated with, but they generally prefer to hide their presence as much as possible. If uncovered, they’re generally willing to jump to a more powerful host, but some might be skeptical of the motivations involved.

The statistics above represent an Astral Parasite “alone,” but Astral Parasites are rarely alone. They usually inhabit some poor, unfortunate mortal and afflict them with visions and hungers. Characters with an Astral Parasite gain the following traits for -15 points:

Traits: Ally (100% points; Sympathetic -50%; Exotic Powers +50% Always) [20]; Draining (Psychic Energy) [-10]; Duty (15 or less; Involuntary, Extremely Hazardous) [-25]

It also represents a typical example of an Astral Parasite.  More powerful ones might exist.  See Broken Communion ghosts for more.

An Astral Parasite can be removed via Exorcism or by attacks on the target. These attacks must harm insubstantial beings, in which case, they’ll also harm the parasite within the target. The death of the target reduces the Astral Parasite to 0 HP, but this might not kill it; if the Parasite is still within a Twisted Psychic Energy zone it may persist, and some will linger to haunt the corpse, especially if it is not properly buried. Otherwise, it will try to find some way to return to its original haunt, or try to find some way to “hibernate” in a piece of psychically resonant gear associated with the body (“Cursing” the item).

Astral Parasites will twist the minds of those they inhabit, typically -5 points at a time. Especially in the case of a PC, use the normal Mind Control rules for resisting commands of changes that are “core” to the character. If the Parasite is removed, treat these changes as temporary and allow them to “heal” at a reasonable rate (a point per day might be a reasonable value, and might be sped up with therapy; if the GM needs to process to go quicker, he may arbitrarily speed up the process). Players should be involved in the slow dissolution of their characters and help pick and choose the disadvantages their characters are gaining (or are being swapped out).

Astral Parasites concern themselves primarily with maintaining sustenance. Once they have inhabited a target, they will drive their host to infiltrate nearby groups, hiding its presence until it’s ready to strike. It will drive the host to isolate individuals and then it will seek to capture them and keep them so it can feed off of them at will. An Astral Parasite needs to drain at least 2 HP per day, and most people only heal 1 HP per day, so it needs at least two people to blunt its hunger. If it has access to more than this, it may gorge itself on additional energy.

In combat, note that the Astral Parasite is a separate character from its host. Both the parasite and host get to act independently! The host might seem to use the Parasite’s psychic powers, such as gesturing at a target while exerting themselves, but the Astral Parasite itself decides whether it will act or not. Most Astral Parasites have additional psychic powers. Select one power below and select one or more abilities.

Additional Astral Parasite Powers

Astral Parasites tend to have one or more powers in a specif Psi Ability.  A few, rare powerful ones (typically with more Will and Energy Reserves as well) might have more than one psychic power.

Electrokinesis

• Electric Lash (12): The Parasite can blast lightning through their host. This is an attack that deals 6d-6 (5) burn sur and treats “metallic” armor as DR 1. Characters struck by the attack must roll HT at -1 per 2 damage inflicted or be Stunned. Treat this as a melee attack with reach 20.
• EK Shield: The Parasite protects its host with a field that provides DR 50 against all energy attacks. The Parasite may make a “Power-Block” at half Will+3 (or 9 or less) to double this DR. On a failure, no DR is applied against the attack.

Psychokinesis

• TK-Grab: the Parasite may reach out up to 20 yards away and exert up to ST 25 on targets; this is a BL of 125, and can lift at most a half ton. This is strong enough to hurl a human-sized target up to 10 yards at inflict 2d+2 cr damage while doing so. Remember, targets defend against TK Grab grapples at -4, unless they can See Invisible.
• Tactile TK: The host gains +20 Lifting and Striking ST. For an average human, this increases their BL to 180 and allows them to lift and hurl a human-scale target 20 yards for 3d+3 damage. It also increases their thrust and swing to 3d/5d+2.
• TK Leap: The character can jump ×8 normal distances and reduces the distance of all falls by 5 yards. This allows an average human character to jump 4-5 yards straight up, and 18-20 yards across.

Telepathy

• Instill Fear (12): If the target is within 20 yards, the Parasite may initiate a Quick Contest of Wills with a target (the target may use Mind Shields as normal). If the target fails, they must roll on the Fright Check table at a penalty equal to their margin of failure. If the target succeeds, the Parasite may not use this ability on them again for the next 24 hours.
• Mental Blow(12): Roll a quick contest of Will against the target (there are no range penalties, but most Parasites won’t attack until the target is within 20 yards; the target may use any Mental Shields they have). If the target fails, they are Stunned.
• Sensory Overload (12): Roll a Quick Contest of the Parasite’s Will against the target’s Will. The Parasite has no range penalties (but most won’t attack over 20 yards away) and the target may apply any Mental Shield modifiers they have. If the Parasite succeeds, the target Hallucinates for as long as the Parasite concentrates.

Labyrinthine Doppelganger

Those who live for long enough on Labyrinthine worlds warn their kin not to venture into the labyrinth unless necessary for fear of “Labyrinth madness.” Some who go in return changed. And sometimes, those who return find themselves hunted down by themselves, strange doppelgangers who look very similar to them but are different in some way, and who kill and replace their doubles.

The origins of labyrinthine doppelgangers are unclear, but the most likely explanation is the fact that the Labyrinth wends its way through multiple parallel timelines. “Time Ghosts” who come from otherwhens, possible worlds that are not, may impinge upon our reality, stealing some temporal “realness” from victims they find in the Labyrinth. Some of these are doppelgangers, and when facing a time ghost who finds some way to permanently manifest, one might find themselves looking into their own face.

Doppelgangers very closely resemble their twins, but they have very different memories and are marked differently by their unique histories. A lovely Sabine socialite might find herself confronted by a scarred version of herself from a hellish timeline. Their motivations vary. Some seem as surprised as their twin when they discover one another, but many seem to expect it, and move quickly to murder their twin, and then take over their lives. Many also have an obsession to prevent some particular event from occurring.

Doppelgangers are effectively just variations on their counterpart, rather than terrible monsters. They have no unique strengths or no particular weaknesses. However, they resemble Time Shades in many ways and share a fear of Glance Hounds and the temporal damage resistance of the Skairos. They’re not prevented from leaving the Labyrinth as many Skairosian creatures or Time Shades are, but they only seem to appear at all when someone enters the Labyrinth. Akashic Oracles call this “approaching the mirror” as a Doppelganger only seems to manifest for those who enter the Labyrinth, and their appearance is more likely and their power greater the deeper one goes into the Labyrinth. If the doppelganger manages to kill their double, they lose their Doppelganger traits: they no longer dread Glance Hounds or enjoy Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction). They may still have false memories and may still have slightly different features.

Basic Doppelganger

This is a default Doppelganger. They tend to believe they are the “real one,” but they have a strange disconnection with reality and remember events that never occurred. Once they realize they’re in another timeline, many gain an Obsession with stopping some particular event or killing some particular target. They also often seek to replace their twin, but this is not necessarilythe case.
A Basic Doppelganger is more of a curiosity than a monster. For more monstrous Doppelgangers, see below.
Traits: Delusion (“I am real, my twin is fake”); Delusion (False Memories);Detect (Temporal Disturbance); Dread (Glance Hound or Glance Hound Imagery); Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction 2; Temporal); Mistaken Identity (Double); Secret (Doppelganger).

Brutal Doppelganger

A “Brutal Doppelganger” represents a Doppelganger-as-monster. They’re fixated on murder and often come from more horrific timelines. In addition to the normal vulnerabilities and resiliences of a Doppelganger, they’re absolutelyobsessed with killing their double, and won’t hesitate to kill anyone else who gets in their way. They’re “better” than their twin: stronger, faster and tougher, and can shrug off minor wounds and are very difficult to kill. If they can isolate their targets, they may take their time torturing them in order to get information, or just for pleasure. These tend to be more common as “combat encounters” of strange “mirror enemies” of combat oriented PCs.
Attributes: +2 ST; +2 DX; +2 HT;
Secondary Traits: +3 HP
Traits: Reduce appearance by one level (to a maximum of Ugly); Bad Temper (12); Bloodlust (12); Callous; Combat Reflexes; Delusion (“I am real, my twin is fake”); Delusion (False Memories); Detect (Temporal Disturbance); Dread (Glance Hound or Glance Hound Imagery); Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction 2; Temporal); Ghostly Movement (Horror p. 20); High Pain Threshold; Hard to Kill +3; Mistaken Identity (Double);Obsession (“Kill my double and replace them”); Recovery; Sadism (12); Secret (Doppelganger);

Skills: Acting IQ+1; Brawling DX+2; Hidden Lore (Labyrinth) IQ-1; Interrogation IQ+1; Stealth DX+2;

Charming Doppelganger

A “Charming” Doppelganger, like a Brutal Doppelganger, is a monster intent on killing its double and willing to kill anyone else that gets in their way. However, where the Brutal Doppelganger simply tries to murder his way to his target, the Charming Doppelganger tries to fool people into believing they are who they claim to be, or otherwise gain their trust. Once trust has been achieved, they’ll begin picking of their enemies one by one, using their superior acting and deception to isolate targets, and then murder them quietly.
Attributes: +1 ST; +2 DX; +1 IQ; +2 HT;
Secondary Traits: +4 HP
Traits: Improve Appearance by one level (to a maximum of Beautiful or Handsome).
Additionally, add the following traits: Callous; Charisma 1; Combat Reflexes; Bloodlust (12); Delusion (“I am real, my twin is fake”); Delusion (False Memories); Detect (Temporal Disturbance); Dread (Glance Hound or Glance Hound Imagery);Foresight (Betrayal);Honest Face; Mistaken Identity (Double);Obsession (“Kill my double and replace them”); Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction 2; Temporal); Secret (Doppelganger); Serendipity; Smooth Operator 2.
Skills: Acting IQ+4; Fast-Talk IQ+2; Hidden Lore (Labyrinth) IQ-1;

StrangeDoppelganger

Not all doppelgangers are monsters villains. This represents the sort of Doppelganger who is a “lost soul,” who finds their current situation overwhelming and don’t really understand those around them. They do little to hid their origins, though they may eventually realize the necessity of it. They have greater insights into events thanks to their origin in an alternate timeline: this means they tend to “get lucky” or guess well. On the other hand, weirdness haunts them and chases them, and when they realize the true state of things, they’ll recognize that they can “do something” to prevent some terrible event. Rather than commit murder, many Strange Doppelgangers will instead seek to team up with their double to “set things right,” though they might murder if it’s strictly necessary to prevent whatever terrible event from occuring.
Attributes: +1 ST; +2 DX; +2 IQ;
Secondary Traits: +4 HP
Traits: Clueless; Confused (12); Delusion (“I am real, my twin is fake”); Delusion (False Memories); Detect (Temporal Disturbance); Dread (Glance Hound or Glance Hound Imagery); Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction 2; Temporal); Intuition;Luck (Extreme); Mistaken Identity (Double); Obsession (Prevent some tragic event); Secret (Doppelganger); Serendipity 1; Weirdness Magnet.
Skills: Hidden Lore (Labyrinth) IQ+2;

Into the Labyrinth: the Nerlochs and the God Below

Not every creature of the Labyrinth is Skairosian in origin. Other things have invaded the winding tunnels beneath the surfaces of Labyrinthine Worlds.  They might be elder things from beyond space and time, or they might be the corruptions twisted by the influence of Broken Communion.

The Nerlochs are one such race that lurks in the Labyrinth, coming out of the tunnels for furtive raids to steal sustenance (and recruits) for their God Below.  They’r eoriginally found in GURPS Creatures of the Night 1. I think they’re one of the better entries in the Creatures of the Night Series and thematically very appropriate to Psi-Wars.

I would have just pointed you to them and been done with it, but they have some problems fitting into Psi-Wars as written. By default, Nerlochs are clearly designed to be a modern horror that takes on opponents of about 100 points, not sci-fi space knights of 300+ points. Thus, these have been heavily adapted and cleaned up for Psi-Wars.  What’s below is a highly specific and highly adapted version of the Nerlochs more suitable for Psi-Wars.  I’d say they were just “inspired” by the original entry, but I wanted to highlight their origins and point you to where they came from, rather than completely erasing the serial number, because I think CotN is a good series worth supporting. Thus, I’ve completely left off any discussion of Anagon himself, except for hints in the form of the new Children of Anagon.  An appropriate new version of the God Below would probably be much bigger and much more terrifying than what Creatures of the Night lists. So, if you want to know more, check out the book!

Even in this current iteration, Nerlochs aren’t that much of a threat. A well-entrenched commando will mow through them; space knights might have more trouble, as they’re in range of those dangerous eldritch talons.  Gunslingers might also suffer, as they tend not to wear a lot of sealed armor.  Ultimately, Nerloch hunting comes down to be able to outsmart them, and standing up to a mob of paralytic talons lead by a hungry, hulking thing-beast. It might be fun to hit a party with a small Nerloch raid of 3-5 nerlochs, and then have the gibbering ghouls following them at a distance, visible only as the glow of their gems, as anticipation mounts for a sudden, major assault of hordes of Nerlochs over some treacherous precipice.

Nerlochs

Something has infested the bowels of the Labyrinth. The Nerlochs are its creation and its servants. These crawling ghouls clad in tattered black robes resemble skeletons with flesh drawn over them with a glowing gem in their brow and long, flickering, semi-real talons extending from their claws. They worship the God Below, some monstrous, fleshy horror from beyond space and time. It hungers, so they seek out prey for it. They use the paralytic venom on their talons to paralyze small rodents or animals that have crept into, or near the entrance of, the Labyrinth and feed it to their master. If they get lucky, they capture a human, or raid a small community, and feed them to their master. But while the God Below devours the flesh of animals, it consumes the minds of the sapient and turns them into new Nerlochs to serve it.

Nerlochs tend to be very vigorous below ground and use the light of their gems to see and to find the living. They can move quickly and with ferocity when they need to. Above ground, they find the remoteness of their God Below quickly drains them of their vitality, and thus cannot spend long outside of the labyrinth. When their strength drains away, whether from use in battle or from spending too long beyond the labyrinth, they grow easily frightened and flee. Their ultimate sanctuary and solace is the God Below itself, and all Nerlochs can vanish in shadows to reach their master. They may use this to rapidly retreat, or to reinforce their numbers of their God Below is threatened. When they die, the eldritch psionic energy that keeps them animated dissipates and they collapse into a pile of bone, skin and bile with an unholy stench.

Nerlochs represent a dangerous infestation. They can quickly swell their own numbers to stealing out to kidnap victims whom they can convert into new Nerlochs. If allowed to continue to grow beyond a small band, they begin to become a small civilization in the bowels of the the planet. When not hunting, they might even engage in primitive trade or seek out basic alliances. They’re generally dim-witted and driven by the will of hungry Elder Thing, but they can be reasoned with and negotiated with.

ST: 8	HP: 5	Speed: 5.25
DX: 12	Will: 10	Move: 5
IQ: 8	Per: 10
HT: 9	FP: 9 (15)	SM: +0
Dodge: 8	Parry: 9	DR: 0

Fright Check: +0

EldritchTalons (12): 1d-3cut + Follow Up 2 tox; Reach C; toxic damage is resistible (halved if the target rolls HT); if the target loses ½ their HP to this damage, they are Paralyzeduntil they recover from the injuries, or for 2d hours, which ever is less. They may spend 1 fatigue to apply an armor divisor (100) to these attacks; this is telegraphed by a queer flickering of their talons; this effect is psychicin nature.

Death Stench (Resisted with HT):Anyone within 3 yards of a dead Nerloch must resist the stench of their dead or become Nauseated (-2 to attribute and skill rolls, -1 to active defenses, and possible vomiting; see p. B428) for minutes equal to margin of failure. If there are manycorpses, this is cumulative; compare the number of bodies to the SSR table, using distance for number of bodies, and the listed penalty as the HT penalty.

Shadow Warp (14): While standing in shadows, the Nerloch can spend 1 fatigue and spend 1 second concentrating, then it rolls IQ+6. On a success, it vanishes and materializes in the shadows near the God Below or one of the Children of Anagon. It cannot carry anything more than No Encumbrance when doing this (so, it can bring a rat to its master, but not a person).

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 115% }

Traits: Accessory (Light Gem); Appearance (Monstrous); Bad Smell; Cowardly (12; only when low on fatigue); Detect (Life, Vague, Psi);Doesn’t Eat or Drink; Duty (The God Below); Doesn’t Eat or Drink;Energy Reserve 6(Granted by the God Below; Physical); Fragile (Unnatural); High Pain Threshold; Immunity to Metabolic Hazards; Injury Tolerance (No Blood; Unliving); Nightvision 7; Reprogrammable; Rules Option (Extra Effort); Sexless; Susceptible -4 (Light); Silence 2; Social Stigma (Monster);Unfazeable (Only when they have plenty of fatigue or when defending the God Below); Warp (Anchored, the God Below, Environmental, Darkness; Psi; Reliable 10); Weakness (Planetary Surface, 1d per 5 minutes, Fatigue only).

Skills:Brawling-12; Climbing-12;Navigation (Underground)-12;

Notes: Truly Alien; Willing to negotiate, but highly driven by their connection with the God Below. If their God hungers, they will seek to capture targets to feed its hunger. If not, they might be more willing to negotiate. Alter their Reactions (+0 if the God Below does not hunger, -4 if it does) accordingly.

Nerlochs are animated by the power of the God Below. When it is near, when they are in the labyrinth, they have access to additional physical energy. The GM should consider allowing Nerlochs to spend fatigue on Extra Effort (in addition to powering up their claws). They will generally use it to increase damage or for improved active defenses. If treating Nerlochs as a group of mooks, grant a pool of 6 fatigue to the whole groupof mooks. They lose this benefit when on planetary surfaces

Nerlochs will fight to the death while defending their God Below, or while not yet exhausted. When their fatigue begins to drain (at half or less) they lose unfazeable, and when it’s completely gone, they become cowardly. Roll a new reaction when they spend the last of their fatigue, and apply a -2 to resist any intimidation attempts. They will generally begin to flee, or use their warp ability to simply disappear, vanishing into the shadows as quickly as they appeared.

Nerlochs can detect the living via a brightening of their gem. Their gem normally provides light equivalent to an LED: -7 to vision with a radius of one yard. As they get closer to life, it brightens until they’re within close range of someone, where it still remains -7, but has “beam” of 5 yards. They can darken the gem through mental effort (Will rolls, if the GM needs a rule), but people may still notice them as they approach, especially as a group.

The paralytic effect from Nerloch talons is cumulative across all Nerlochs.  If a character takes more than half of of his HP in damage from Nerloch toxins, regardless of the source, then he’s paralyzed.  Thus, track damage from the toxin for each character separately to determine if they are paralyzed.

Nerlochs are weak. They inflict little damage, and while they are largely immune to pain and metabolic hazards, a normal, unarmed human could likely defeat one with a few punches. Nerlochs are best handled as Mooks, and in large groups. Consider treating them as Hordes(See Speedy Horde Combat, starting on page 115 of GURPS Zombies). When a mook Nerloch is defeated, unless the player defeating the Nerloch states otherwise (and the GM may assign penalties to trying to keep Nerlochs alive), they dieand dissolve into a putrid mess; see Death Stenchfor details! This means that as characters fight and defeat a horde, they’ll find it progressively harder to resist them, both from the slow build up of venom in their system, and from the stink of their opponents.

Nerloch Priest of Anagon

When Nerlochs capture a psychic or strong-willed individual and feed it to the God Below, the result is a smarter, more willful Nerloch who is in deep communion with its Elder God. They lose their psychic abilities, but gain access to Broken Communion instead.

These Nerlochs serve as a nexus for a Nerloch horde, directing and controlling the clawing frenzy of their race and bringing divine power with them. Treat them as a Henchman version of Nerlochs. They use the same stats, but gain +2 IQ and Will, and they improve the Energy Reserves of the Horde from 6 to 12 and have Clerical Investment and Unconscious Broken Communion 9 (Path of the Other). They have Leadership-12 and Religious Ritual (Cult of Anagon)-12. Finally, they enact a Religious Ritual to invoke a miracle. If the GM wishes to roll dice for it, the Priest must succeed at a Religious Ritual roll, and then roll their Unconscious Broken Communion, or a 9 or less. If both succeed, roll a Reaction Roll from the God Below and choose one Miracle. Or bypass all of that and pick a miracle that you think makes the encounter interesting.

As Nerlochsbut with the following additions.

Attributes: IQ +2

Traits: Clerical Investment (Cult of the God Below);Energy Reserve 12 (Physical);Unconscious Communion (Broken, Path of the Other) 9;

Skills: Leadership-12; Religious Ritual-12;

Miracles of Anagon

The following are organized by Reaction level; The GM may also feel free to simply assign one miracle to a group of Nerlochs led by a Priest.

A Neutral or better reaction:

• Unspeakable Knowledge: The Nerloch Priest has a unique tactical insight against his opponents. All attempts to use the Tactics skill against the Nerlochs suffers a -4 (in addition to other penalties).

• Inured Mind: The Nerloch Priest and its Nerlochs are immune to fear. They cannot be intimidated and will not break (ignore their Cowardice rules!). In addition, they gain Intimidation-12, and apply a -1 to any Fright Check they might provoke in characters.

A Good or better reaction:

• Sanity Blasting Horror: The characters encountering the priest must roll a Fright Check; they may not apply non-cosmic Fearlessness or Unfazeable.

• Corrupt Labyrinth: The caverns of the Labyrinth (out to less than a mile) become temporarily Corrupted and have a Twisted Psionic Energy field, applying a -2 to all Psionic rolls, and treat failures as critical failures.

Very Good or better reaction:

• Chaotic Interference: as the Nerlochs attack, a selection of electronics will fail among the attacked party. This definitely includes all lights and communication equipment, but will not include sapient robots or most weapons. If the GM is uncertain, allow players to roll their weapons’ HT.

• Summon Child of Anagon: A Child of Anagon arrives in the midst of the fight to join the attacking Nerlochs.

The Children of Anagon

The God Below is a great thing of flesh and hunger. It’s Nerlochs serve it well, but sometimes it needs a more direct hand. If so, it spawns one of its Children of Anagon. These creatures are crafted from the flesh of the God Below itself, and tend to tower over their nerloch servants and mere humans with their great bulk. They have pallid, white flesh that’s translucent enough to see their veins, viscera and pulsing hearts in the midst of their white and pink flesh, as though the creature were a gelatinous mist of dead flesh. Most Children of Anagon have a great maw of gnashing teeth, long talons on the end of their fingers, four great tentacles rising from their back, and an otherwise vaguely humanoid form. But the flesh of the God Below is mercurial and different Children have different mutations: some are covered in tentacles or arms, others have long, worm-like tails and some seem barely real, fading in and out of reality.

The Children of Anagon act like the lieutenants of the God Below. The Nerlochs worship them as avatars of the God Below (leading some misguided observers to believe that a Child of Anagon isthe God Below, and their destruction would lead to the end of a Nerloch infestation). The Child can command its minions in great, guttural tones. It has the same motivations of the God Below, and hungers for flesh, though it cannot create new Nerlochs as its master can. They may demand a tithe of victims to sate their appetite, but they pass most victims on to the voracious temples deeper in the Labyrinth.

In battle, the Children of Anagon act as a juggernaut, plowing straight into their targets with their great bulk and using their strength to grapple and devour targets. With focus drawn onto it, the rest of the Nerlochs can swarm the target with their paralyzing talons. Despite their size, their delicate flesh makes them vulnerable to damage, but the Children of Anagon are not so easily slain. When they “die,” the burst in a great, toxic morass of corrosive, digestive enzymes. If allowed to linger, a new Child of Anagon may rise from the puddles left by the previous one.

ST: 25/50	HP: 50	Speed: 5.75
DX: 12	Will: 10	Move: 5
IQ: 10	Per: 10
HT: 16	FP: 9 (21)	SM: +1
Dodge: 8	Parry: 9	DR: 0

Fright Check: –3

Crush(22):A Child of Anagon can strangle/crush opponents with their sheer bulk and many arms. Roll a Quick Contest of the Child’s (lower) ST-5, +2 from Wrestling (all included in the default roll), +2 from each additional pair of arms added to the crushing roll, vs the better of the target’s HT or ST. The target takes 1 point of crushing damage per margin of victory, with DR protecting as normal (remember, every 5 points of crushing damage always inflicts a minimum of 1 injury!). If any damage bypasses DR, the target also begins to Suffocateand loses 1 fatigue per round until the crushing ends.

Grapple (15): Children of Anagon grapple SM +0 targets at +1, and may grapple with just their tentacles at up to reach 2. Each pair of arms (by default, Children of Anagon have three pairs) beyond the first adds +2 to grapple rolls. Use the lower ST+2 for the purposes of follow-up actions on a successful grapple.

Ravenous Maw (15): 5d (5) imp, Reach C; treat the Child of Anagon as +2 SM for the purposes of bites; he may attack anyhit location, and a bite counts as a two-handed grapplefor all purposes, and it may attempt to pin a standing foe by engulfing them in its jaws.. This attack is at +1 to hit SM +0 targets.

Scything Talons(15): 2d+2 (5)cut, Reach C, 1; This attack is at -1 to hit SM +0 targets.

Chaotic Dissolution(Automatically hits anyone in range):Upon death, the Child dissolves into a pool of viscous corrosive liquid. Contact with the liquid inflicts 1d corrosive damage every turn until wiped off, and only SealedDR protects, but treat the corrosive liquid as erosive, attacking the seals of sealed armor (roll the armor’s HT or the damage gets through and the armor’s HT is reduces by a level). Then roll; on a 9 or less, the Child of Anagon reforms out of the pool of viscera in 1d seconds; if it fails, the pool naturally dissipates in 1d minutes. The Child can be truly destroyed by reducing it to -10xHP; this can be done in a single stroke, or by attacking the pool it dissolved into (treat it as having the Child’s remaining HP, but as though it had Injury Tolerance (Diffuse)).

Traits: Appearance (Horrific); Bad Smell; Chaotic Dissolution; Dark Vision; Disturbing Voice; Duty (The God Below); Extra Arms 4 (Extra-Flexible; Weak, ½ ST; Reach 2); Extra Attack 2; Fragile (Unnatural); Frightens Animals; Gluttony (12); Immunity to Metabolic Hazards; Indomitable; Injury Tolerance (No Brain; No Vitals; Unliving); Twisted Energy Generator (8 yard radius);Lifebane; Low Empathy; No Sense of Humor; Penetrating Voice; Terror 4 (Appearance); Unfazeable; Warp Beacon; Unkillable 1 (Achilles Heel, Planetary Surface).

Skills: Brawling-15; Leadership-12; Navigation (Underground)-12;Wrestling-15;

Notes: Truly Alien; Willing to negotiate, but highly driven by their hungers. If a Child of Anagon agrees to the terms of a party, all its nerlochs will automatically follow suite.

The Child tends to attack in a straight forward manner. It will move to within range and attempt to grapple with its tentacles and draw people in range, where it will either bite them or slash at them with its talons; it tends to be far better at grapples and bites than it is with its claws, but its claws have a bit more reach and can generally slash while its mouth is otherwise occupied. Note that by default, the Child of Anagon can make threeattacks per turn!

Children of Anagon should alwaysbe treated as Bosses. They’re not thattough, however. While they lack vitals or brains and have a huge pile of hitpoints and sufficient HT to essentially ignore all Consciousness rolls, they automaticallydie at -1xHP, and have no DR to speak of. Thus, they generally die after 100 damage, which any sufficiently determined opponent can do relatively quickly. However, this will trigger their Chaotic Dissolution, which results in a new Child spawning relatively quickly, again and again. Rather than roll, the GM might simply allow it to return X number of times, as though it had a number of Extra Lives; one suggestion is 1d+1 Extra Lives!

If using the Nerloch Shadow Warpability, treat the Child of Anagon as a nexus to which they may warp. Thus, as long as it lives, it can call more Nerloch recruits to its side.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 115% }

Children of Anagon vary greatly. Consider using the Mutations of Anagon below to further customize a specific encounter.

Mutations of Anagon

Not all Children of Anagon were created alike. Some have one or more of the following mutations. The more mutations they have, the more that the resemble the God Below, and the more fervently the Nerlochs worship these Angels of Flesh. The GM can select one or more of the following, or roll a d6 and assign it based on the number rolled.

1. Mutation of Arms: The Child of Anagon has 1-6 more arms (roll 1d). These arms may be shorter, stronger, clawed arms, or longer, flexible tentacles. Every new pair increases Extra Attack by 1 level.

2. Mutation of Bone: The Child of Anagon becomes even more wormlike, its interior structure becoming supple and hydrostatic, while its surface becomes slippery with slime. It gains Double-Jointed, Slipper +2 and gains Stretch 1, which adds +1 to the reach of all attacks.

3. Mutation of Hunger: The Child of Anagon restores its life by devouring on the life of others. The target must be living and sapient. The Child converts 1/3rd of all Biting Damage into restored HP.

4. Mutation of Legs: The Child of Anagon has a wormlike bulk in place of its legs. Improve HP to 75, add No Legs (Slithering) and reduce Move to 3.

5. Mutation of Maw: The Child of Anagon has mouths and eyes all over its body. It gains 360* Vision and 1d6 extra Ravenous Maws, and one Extra Attack with these additional maws only if the target is at C range.

6. Mutation of Phase: The Child of Anagon is not wholly within the timeline. It may see and attack insubstantial time shades at no penalty, gains Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction 2, Temporal), and may make “Phase” dodges once per turn; this allows it to Dodge at +5 and move its full Move immediately as part of its dodge, even if that movement would take it through a wall.

h4.western { font-family: “Liberation Sans”, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic } h4.cjk { font-family: “Microsoft YaHei”; font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic } h4.ctl { font-family: “Arial”; font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic } td p { margin-bottom: 0in } h3.western { font-family: “Liberation Sans”, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt } h3.cjk { font-family: “Microsoft YaHei”; font-size: 14pt } h3.ctl { font-family: “Arial”; font-size: 14pt } h1 { margin-bottom: 0.08in } h1.western { font-family: “Liberation Sans”, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt } h1.cjk { font-family: “Microsoft YaHei”; font-size: 18pt } h1.ctl { font-family: “Arial”; font-size: 18pt } p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 115% }

The Skairosian Bestiary Revisited: Shadow Serpents

Along with the Glance Hound, this one didn’t get many comments and I suppose that’s fair.  What I wanted here was a third critter and I found the phase serpent in DF and it seemed like a nice bit of inspiration that I borrowed.  Originally, the Skairosian hound had a hallucinatory venom, but I just moved it over to the Shadow Serpent and gave it phasing powers and called it a day.  This helps explain alternatives to the source of Akashic deep time, as it might have stemmed from the venom of the Shadow Serpent, which might be showing them visions of possible, alternate futures in a great cacophany of imagery.  I also like the imagery of Labyrinthine Cults engaging in “miraculous” snake handling.

As a threat, this wasn’t much of one, because it’s pretty hard to justify the fangs of a snake, even one the size of a python, punching through armor.  But based on a suggestion, I went with the idea of ignoring DR entirely, with the excuse that they can “phase” through the armor.  This allows them to have remarkably low damage, which mostly acts as a vehicle for their venom, which is what they’re really about.  I also added a constriction attack, but in practice this won’t really make them more lethal. They’re defensiveness is fine: they’re tough enough to hit and touch enough to hurt, but in practice, any well-armed opponent will make short work of a single shadow serpent.  I see their purpose as more of an irritation, a problem to be stacked atop other issues, rather than a singularly terrifying boss-monster.

Given their ability to vanish for 10 seconds at a time, they should have no problem ambushing a commando and punching through their armor with their fangs to give the commando a tough time.  Commandos will fare better against swarms, though. Gunslingers might fair a little better with superior active defenses, and they don’t rely on armor anyway, and they might be able to fast draw quickly enough to shoot the serpent before it phases away again.  The space knight may also be able to respond in time to the shadow serpent, and may be able to react to its presence if he’s able to detect it psychically, attacking it swiftly once it comes out of the “shadows.” A single sweep of a force sword is enough to defeat most shadow serpents, and space knights often have the will to work through a hallucination spell.

Shadow Serpent

These Skairosian serpents slither the line between timelines deftly. They can shift in and out of a particular timeline, allowing them to pass through doors or fade away from attacks, and then reappear a few seconds later to bite and inject the victim with their hallucinatory venom.
A shadow serpent resembles a length of inky darkness with a bony, eyeless crest over the top of its head. Similar to the glance hound, shadow serpents have several rows of teeth, all of which drip with a beautiful, prismatic venom.
Like most Labyrinthine beasts, they loath planetary surfaces, but they’re not especially fond of bright light either. If bathed in light, most will choose to vanish into an alternate timeline, and then strike the light-wielder from a more shadowy angle. Travelers have found hissing pits crawking with Shadow Serpents that vanished like a bad dream when lights were turned on them to verify their presence.
The shadow serpent featured strongly in early Akashic literature and imagery, and can still be found in the statuary of the oldest temples, though its symbolism has been phased out over time. Early Akashics are believed to have “snake handled” shadow serpents, and used their venom to improve their visions; while hallucinating on shadow serpent venom, add +1 to all Vision or Oracle rolls, if this legend is true. Certain labyinthine cults continue this practice.
Some labyrinth explores report Skairos with tamed examples of shadow serpents, and some labyrinthine cults manage to tame them. If so, for examples of tame shadow serpents, replace Wild Animal with Domestic Animal.

ST: 15	HP: 15	Speed: 7.0
DX: 13	Will: 10	Move: 7
IQ: 2	Per: 12
HT: 13	FP: 13	SM: +1
Dodge: 10 (20*)	Parry: NA	DR: 5

Fright Check: +0
Bite (13): 1d-1imp + 2d toxic (HT-4 to resist), 1d if resisted; roll HT -1 per 2 damage inflicted by toxic follow up or Hallucinate for one minute per margin of failure;Reach C. This attack ignoresDR that does not come from a psionic or anti-psi source, against which it has an armor divisor of (3). This attack is made as a Deceptive Attack (-1 to defend).
Constriction (17): This attack automatically hits if the Shadow Serpent has grappled the target; roll a quick contest of ST with a +2 from Wrestling (17) vs the target’s ST of HT. Inflict 1 point of crushing damage per margin of victory, DR protects normally (but remember, for every 5 points of damage, a minimum of 1 point of injury must be inflicted). If even a single point of damage bypasses DR, the target begins to Suffocate, losing 1 fatigue per turn until the constriction is eased.
p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 115% }

Traits: 360° Vision;Blindness (Mitigator, Psi);Born Biter; Cold Blooded (50°); Dark Vision; Dislikes Light;Dread (Planetary Surface);Injury Tolerance (Damage Resistance 2 (Temporal); No Eyes); Insubstantial (Temporal);Invisible (Substantial Only; Only when Insubstantial); Psychic Beacon 4; Vermiform; Wild Animal.
Skills: Brawling-15; Stealth-14; Wrestling-15;
Notes: Truly Alien;Too dumb to negotiate or use normal Telepathy on (use Animal Telepathy or appropriate Telepathic techniques instead).
A Shadow Serpent has the following powers:

• Temporal Dodge: the shadow serpent may reflexively slip into an alternate timeline as a Dodge attempt. It dodges this way with a Power Dodge of 20; each attempt costs 1 fatigue, and each subsequent attempt in one turn applies a -5 to the roll. This cannot be used against attacks that harm insubstantial targets.
• Temporal Slip: the shadow serpent can go completely into an alternate timeline and become insubstantial for up to 10 seconds. This can be done as a concentrate action once per turn and its insubstantiality activates at the start of its action; it can return to substantiality as a free action. Each use costs 1 fatigue.

While insubstantial, the shadow serpent is functionally the same as a time shade: it can be affected by anything that affects them, including other time shades, and is invisible. If the shadow serpent goes insubstantial while grappling a target, even for just an instant (via a Temporal Dodge), the target is freed.
The Shadow Serpent can temporarily apply this insubstantiability to its teeth, allowing it to completely bypass physical armor for an instant. This allows it to ignore allDR unless the DR comes from a psychic or anti-psi source.
All forms of insubstantiability are psychic and temporal in nature. If something disrupts the Shadow Serpent’s psychic powers, or “grounds” it in the current timeline, it loses its ability to go insubstantial, make Power Dodges, or ignore DR with its teeth.
The venom of the Shadow Serpent is a powerful hallucinogenic with strong, psychic properties. Psychics who are afflicted with it gain a +2 to Visions, Prognostication and Oracle rolls. This venom can be harvested from a slain Shadow Serpent, and results in 10 doses. They lose their potency if removed from the labyrinth, however.
Shadow Serpents will often attack in groups, and will suddenly appear out of thin air to simply begin striking at targets with their venom and then vanish again, just as quickly. They must remain substantial for a full turn when attacking, thus allowing potential reprisals. They will not bother with a constriction attempt unless their target is relatively unarmored and they’re alone with the target. They’re especially likely to do it if the target is hallucinating and cannot retaliate. Shadow Serpents should generally be treated as mooks and should attack en masse, or assist by attacking along side another beast. Shadow Snake swarms (below) make a nice surprise at a bottom of a pit.
This represents a large, python-sized Shadow Serpent. Smaller Shadow Serpents sometimes gather in Swarms. Their attacks ignore DR as normal; they cannot meaningfully make a temporal dodge as some will fail and some will succeed, so instead, simply assume they always have the equivalent of Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction 4 (Temporal)). They canmake a Temporal Slip, but some will always remain substantial, betraying their presence. Their have less venom in their system, and it does 1d toxic, halved with a successful HT roll, and applies the same hallucinatory effect.

Type	Move	Damage	HP
Shadow Serpents Swarm	5G	1d-3 cut	10

Rituals of the Shadow Serpents

• Great, writhing masses of shadow serpents swarms will gather in the bowels of pits and begin to devour themselves, turning into circles until they vanish. The last remaining will rapidly expand into a much larger specimen of Shadow Serpent, as noted above. Perhaps larger Shadow Serpents do the same and the Far Labyrinth is haunted by giant, oversized Shadow Serpents?
• Shadow Serpents react positively to music and may approach to dance and sway before the music player. If interrupted, they may simply turn insubstantial and leave.
• Sleeping Shadow Serpents will carefully arrange their coils into specific, labyrinthine patterns; those reading the coils can derive portentous meaning from them, gaining a +1 to Oracle rolls to find Omens.

The Skairosian Bestiary Revisited: the Glance Hound

To me, the Glance Hound is the Skairosian Monster.  It’s inspired by the original “Devil of Perspehone,” and is probably closest to my first idea of what was in the labyrinth. Thus, it had to stay.

I’ve not really buffed the lethality much.  All I’ve really done is play-up their multi-dimensional nature as justification for increasing their armor divisor to 10.  This means that they still deal an average of 10 damage, but they can punch through up to ~100 DR, making them a potential threat (en masse) against a space knight, and I’ve kept the “bite-and-twist” concept to allow them to inflict an even more terrifying 17 cutting damage on limbs they’ve bitten, but I’ve expanded the idea of Extra Attacks more broadly, so they can also make several attacks with their claws.

I’ve pulled back from the idea of the Glance Hounds-as-dogs.  My original conception had them vanishing into shadows and clinging to walls, but this made them too much like Aliens and thus too much like the Insectoid, which I also wanted to include.  Well, on reflection, as nice as the Insectoid is, I think the engineers of Jotan would have created something more lethal to the Scourge than to humans, and thus needs a complete rethink.  In a lot of ways, this has allowed the Glance Hound to return to form, making it a stealthy, agile hunter par-excellence. 

The original reason I didn’t give them the ITDR of the Faceless Kine or the Shadow Serpent was that if they ground things around them, they shouldn’t be partially unreal themselves.  Well, why not make it switchable? They can “ground” shades, but this “grounds” themselves.  This creates an interesting tactical choice: they will always ground themselves around a shade, thus if you can bring them into a fight with shades, they can deal with the shade (and help you deal with it) and also make them easier to deal with.  I’m not sure how interesting it makes them, but it at least justifies both their use as an “anti-shade gargoyle/guard dog” and their ability to cut through armor like butter.

The net result is a creature that doesn’t deal much more damage than before, but gets through armor a lot better, is much faster, much harder to spot and more aggressive.  Between its superior active defense and improved accuracy plus some tips on getting around defenses, they’ll land more hits than, say, the Faceless Kine.

I think Commandos will find this critter a nightmare to deal with.  Between their stealth and speed, they’ll often manage to sneak up on unprepared commandos and thus bypass a lot of their fortifications and defensive positions.  While a single shot from a heavier rifle will be enough to take out a glance-hound-as-henchmen (you need to do ~30 damage), you won’t notice them until they’re on top of you, and even if you do, they move so fast they’ll cover all the ground necessary to get to you in a couple of seconds, and they hunt in packs. So you’ll need to take out 4-7 in the time it takes for them to cover ground, and if you don’t, your DR 80 or 100 is not enough to keep your limbs from being crippled (they’ll deal an average of 17 damage, 7 to 9 of which will go through your DR, and will increase due to cutting to 10-13, which is enough to cripple, or even sever a limb through armor), at which point you’re in a heap of trouble.

Gunslingers will fare better.  They can rapidly respond to the sudden appearance of a Glance Hound threat with a quick draw, and their weaponry and their skill with it is good enough to bypass their defenses and they can deal enough damage to hurt a glance hound (a 4d pistol will deal an average of 14 damage, 10 of which will get through their armor, which gets reduced to 5 by their IT:DR; 3 shots is enough to take down a glance hound henchmen, which is pretty easy for a gunslinger to do, provided the Glance Hound doesn’t dodge).  The Glance Hound is pretty lethal to the gunslinger, but not much more so than a Commando, and the superior active defense of the Gunslinger might make a big difference unless the Glance Hound can get the drop on them, and “spotting ambushes” is what gunslingers do. If the Glance Hound gets a hit, they only average 10 damage, which is bad, but no worse than being hit by a pistol, unless the Glance Hound bites a limb.

Space Knights will tend to do well against them as well. Their psychic senses will surely warn them of the impending attack, giving them time to prepare, and their force sword is within spitting distance of defeating a Glance Hound in a single stroke.  Most Space Knights are totally capable of handling with the deceptive attacks of the Glance Hounds, and finding a way past the Glance Hounds great defense.  The melee-focus of the Space Knight means that the Glance Hound’s speed or tendency to ambush is less of a problem.  In practice, I expect space knights to mow through a pack of Glance Hounds, but they’ll be more careful of this version than they were of the last one.

Glance Hound

The most immediately recognizable of the Skairosian clade, the glance hound (also called a “Devil or Persephone,” or a “Devil Hound”) is immortalized in the stone gargoyles and grotesques that guard Akashic Temples. They were among the monstrous creatures that terrorized the original colonists of Persephone, but they also represent a powerful force of protection against the noxious influence of time shades.

A glance hound resembles a great dog or wild cat with a bony face-plate in place of eyes and a great maw lined with rows of terrible teeth. It has a long, serpentine tail, black, leathery flesh, and wide shoulders and paws that allow it to climb with great facility, or even cling to walls. They tend to hunt the tunnels of the labyrinth in pairs or small packs of between 4 and 7 individuals. They are carnivores, and seem to relish eating the flesh of humans. They can stalk and hunt humans through miles of labyrinth undetected, and then ambush their prey, either pouncing from above, or racing in to rip through a target’s leg and leave them dismembered.

The most fascinating aspect of the glance hound is its relationship with time shades. Like all members of the Skairosian clade, it “sees” not with eyes, but with psychic vision. It seems uniquely capable of seeing into multiple timelines at once, allowing it to see unmanifested time shades. It has the ability to “ground” time shades, forcing them to become substantial, but in so doing, it loses some of its own multi-dimensional abilities. Any time shade within 4 yards of a grounded Glance Hound becomes substantial, and any beings with benefits (such as Injury Tolerance) stemming from its ability to phase through multiple timelines, loses that ability. Time shades seem to intuitively sense this, as the very sight of a glance hound, even just a sculpted depiction of one, is enough to force a time shade to flee in terror. Wherever the Glance Hounds roam in great number, time shades are certain to be absent.

Glance Hounds also make excellent trackers, but they track with a psychic sense, detecting previous uses of psychic ability and using those traces to track a target.

Like the Faceless Kine, Glance Hounds are often tamed or domesticated by the Skairos. The example below is a wild glance hound. Domesticated examples replace Bloodlust (9) with Bloodlust (15) and swap Domestic Animal for Wild Animal.

ST: 15/25	HP: 15	Speed: 7.0
DX: 15	Will: 10	Move: 8 (16)
IQ: 5	Per: 15
HT: 13	FP: 13	SM: +0
Dodge: 11 (13)	Parry: NA	DR: 20

Fright Check: +0(or +1 intimidation; typically from their howling cries); Time Shades alwaysmake a Fright Check upon seeing a Glance Hound, and the Glance Hound has +4 to intimidate them.

Bite-and-Twist (13): 3d(10*)cut, Reach C; if the attack is to a limb or the neck, immediately follow up with a second attack that automatically hits for 5d+1(10*) cut; this can be part of a Move and Attack at no penalty, and inflicts +1 damage to the initial bite. Made as a Deceptive Attack (-1 to defend)

Clawsx2 (13):3d (10*)cut, Reach C; Made as a Deceptive Attack and treat it as a Dual Weapon Attack (-2 to Defend)

Pounce (15): 3d-2 cr if moved 1-2 yards; 3d+1 cr if moved 3-4 yards; 3d+4 cr if moved 5-6 yards; 4d+4 cr if they moved 7-9 yards; 5d+4 cr yards if they moved 10-14 yards, or 7d+1 cr if moved 15-16 yards; Made as a Deceptive Attack (-2 to defend); they always land on their feet.

*Reduce to 3 if in a “Grounded” state.

Traits: 360° Vision;Bloodlust (9);Blindness (Mitigator, Psi); Born Biter 1; Combat Sense 2; Catfall;Chameleon 2 (only in dark places); Clinging; Dark Vision; Dread (Planetary Surfaces);Extra Attack 1;Enhanced Move (Ground); Extra Legs (arms can double as legs);Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction 2 (Temporal; not if “Grounded”), No Eyes); Intolerance (Time Shades);Penetrating Voice;Perfect Balance;Psychic Beacon 4; Run and Hit (DF: Power-Ups, p12);See Invisible;Signature Sniffer 3; Silence 2;Static (Temporal Insubstantiability; 4 yard radius; Switchable); Super Jump 1; Terror (Time Shades only); Wild Animal.

Skills: Brawling-15; Combat Sense-15; Camouflage-13; Climbing-20; Jumping-15;Navigation (Underground)-13; Running-15; Signature Sniffer-15; Tracking-15; Survival (Underground)-13.Stealth-15.

Notes: Truly Alien; Too dumb to negotiate or use normal Telepathy on (use Animal Telepathy or appropriate Telepathic techniques instead). Stealth skill does not include the benefits of Chameleon or Silence (thus they gain +8 Stealth while still, and +4 while moving) or Psychic Beacon (-4 to Stealth against psychic senses).

Glance Hounds hunt in packs. While in the shadows and still, they have an effective Stealth of 23. They will watch for their prey, using either their psychic senses (Signature Sniffer) to find and track interesting pray, or they will wait until prey comes across them, often clinging to walls or ceilings to drop in ambush. Once they have detected a target for their hunt (and they will hunt when not hungry, for the pleasure of the kill!) they will give chase or drop in ambush. While giving a chase, their stealth drops to 17, and if it matters for Chase rolls, they roll 20 or less (Running 15 +5 from their speed). Once they have found their prey, they usually give a cry (“an inhuman scream”) that typically triggers a Fright Check in anyone not expecting, or unused to, Glance Hounds, and alwaystriggering a Fright Check from Time Shades, who will also flee at the sight of them.

Glance Hound packs usually attempt to encircle their target. They often drop from above; roll a quick contest of the target’s vision or other senses vs the Glance Hound’s mobile stealth of 17; if the Glance Hound wins, the target generally gets no defense (unless they have Weapon Master, Danger Sense or Trained by a Master, in which case they defend at -2); if they succeed, the target may defend at -2. The Glance Hound makes his normal attack while dropping: they’re built to hunt this way, and will generally make a Pounceabove, but will not drop more than 5 yards onto a target (3d+4 cr). They also charge into combat from a distance while chasing. Treat this as a Pounce or a Move and Attack (they may ignore the -4 for Move and Attack, as well as the Wild Swingpenalty) with their Bite-and-Twist attack.

Once in combat, they will generally attack either their double-claw attack or their Bite-and-Twist at target’s limbs, especially the legs, to cripple their targets first. If a target goes down, they’ll go for a Bite-and-Twist of the neck or rip into them with their claws. They have Combat Sense as a psionic ability; assume all rolls with it succeed, granting them a Dodge of 13, unless something interferes with their psychic abilities.

Glance Hounds are only partiallypresent in the timeline. This provides them with ITDR against all attacks, halving all damage they take (unless the attack could affect insubstantial beings). Their claws and fangs also benefit from this partially real nature, “phasing” through armor, which provides them with an armor divisor of 10. These are both psioniceffects and can be prevented from working with anti-psi abilities.

Glance Hounds hateTime Shades. They can see them directly, and when they do, they will immediately attack. Part of the attack is to create a psychic “grounding field” around themselves. This forces the Time Shade to become visible and substantial, allowing anyone to attack it, including the Glance Hound. However, while grounded, the Glance Hound loses its increased armor divisor (they drop to armor divisor 3) and their ITDR.

Singular Glance Hounds should be treated as Henchmen. A pack of Glance Hounds can be treated as mooks, with a singular “alpha” Henchman.

Rituals of the Glance Hounds

• Glance Hounds often pace when they have nothing to do, and they pace curved, circular geometric pattern, similar to those created by a “nothing grinder.” These are random patterns, visible in any dust left on the ground, and looking at them can provide an Oracle a +1 to notice omens.

• Sometimes, Glance Hounds don’t attack living targets, especially if the targets are encamped or otherwise in a non-threatening posture and have an Esper in their midst. Instead, the pack will approach and step into the light, usually just with their forequarters and head. They will begin to pant rythmically or howl in low, quiet tones. The Colonists of Peresephone referred to this as a “Devil’s Choir,” and some Akashics suspect that this is an attempt to communicate (though telepaths have had mixed results in these cases). After they have finished their “performance,” they will leave. The “performance” can sometimes trigger visions from an Esper.

• Glance Hounds do have “hands,” after a fashion. Once they have killed prey, they tend to devour the flesh and strip it down to bone. Then they might arrange the bones into particular patterns. The purpose of this ritual is unknown, but it resonates with occult significance and Oracles who witness them can glean meaning from the omens within.

h4.western { font-family: “Liberation Sans”, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic } h4.cjk { font-family: “Noto Sans CJK SC”; font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic } h4.ctl { font-family: “Lohit Devanagari”; font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic } p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 115% }

The Skairosian Bestiary Revisted: the Faceless Kine

“I think most powerful foes should be at the very minimum right frightening to even the very tough end of starting scrubs” -Kalzazz

So, my previous version of the Skairosian Bestiary elicited some criticism as being too tame.  This bruised my ego a bit, but I think a lot of good came out of it, including yesterday’s post which gave me some much needed perspective.  I also really appreciated getting a sense of what people expected out of monsters of the labyrinth, which is that they are scary.  This makes sense, though: if House Kain uses the Labyrinth as a rite of passage, then we would expect this to be challenging to a starting heroic member of House Kain.  With that in mind, let’s revise each of the 4, one at a time, starting with the Faceless Kine.

This one was more popular than I expected, I suppose because it has some good imagery associated with it.  As I was looking for inspiration for additional critters, I decided I needed “the Cattle of Hades,” as cows tended to be sacred to ancient peoples (and the Skairos are meant to evoke ancient myth) and we have a long association of cattle and labyrinths.  I struggled with what they would be and how they would function, until I saw a wonderful picture of this eyeless demon-ape thing with great horns.  Ah, there were my cattle.

The real point of the “Cattle of Hades” was that you would want to steal them for some particular reason.  Thus, I settled on their flesh (and especially their hearts) empowering those that ate them.  Naturally, the Skairos would defend them, but they would defend themselves too.

They’re primarily tough.  I borrowed the justification for IT:DR from the Madness Dossier (so, hat time Kenneth Hite) as the idea of “partially real” creatures fit the Skairos well.  Between that and their tendency to go Berserk, they’re actually really hard to kill, the definition of the “pile of hitpoints” opponent.  This version requires ~600 damage (300 after accounting for ITDR) to kill, but this is slightly toned down from my second try, which was close to 1000 (“Did you bring a isomeric torpedo?” felt excessive for this sort of encounter).  I beefed up the skull armor and the armor in general, as they give off a rhino vibe, and thus particularly heavy skin (roughly on par with someone in heavy battleweave) felt right, and this enormous, impressive crest deserved more impressive DR.  The net effect is that someone with a force sword will deal an average of 23 damage to the body or 14 damage to the face (or 56 damage to the brain), all halved for IT DR (to 12, 7 and 23 respectively; which means you’d need about 13 hits to the brain with a force sword to take down a raging Bull Kine). Of course, this is all the defense they have, as if they berserk, they’re not going to actively defend.

They’re substantially less impressive on offense.  Their best goring attack will deal ~40 damage (I’m using the new, DF rules for slams here) with an armor divisor of 3.  Against DR 100, that will deal an average of 7 damage (or 14 injury), which is nasty, but that’s the best they can do.  However, Psi-Wars is very generous with crushing damage, inflicting 1 point of injury for every 5 absorbed by DR, so I’ve emphasized this with some additional comments on the attack.  To make it more visceral and impressive, I’ve added additional notes about its size, including its ability to trample, grapple, throw targets around, and smash them into walls.  These are less lethal (though they average 4 damage per hit to anyone with 20 DR or more), but spectacular and will make it feel more impressive.  At skill 13 (plus a penalty for hitting smaller targets), it won’t make deceptive attacks, which makes it fairly trivial to avoid if you have solid defense.

Thus, if Axton Kain faced off against a Faceless Bull Kine, it would mostly involve him carefully defending, with the primary concern being to avoid a grapple.  If it’s a one-on-one fight, this should be relatively doable while whittling his target down.  However, if the Bull Kine gets a lucky hit, or other Kine join in the fight, it could go very badly.

Commandos might find this a more pleasing challenge.  They can put a lot of firepower “down range,” and thus reasonably pepper a target this big with 3 or so hits per turn that deal between 15 and 25 damage, dealing 50-80 damage per turn (25 to 40 after ITDR), which means the Commando would kill it in 9 to 12 seconds of concentrated fire from a squad-support weapon.  Given the tight confines of the Labyrinth, the Bull Kine would probably be on him in less than that time, and the Commando would lack the additional defenses of the Space Knight, and so would start to take some real damage, but depending on how long he held it off, might be able to finish killing it in the last, hectic moments of combat.

Gunslingers should probably avoid it. None of their specialties will help them here, and their armor tends to protect less well against crushing damage.

Faceless Kine 2.1

Sometimes called “The Cattle of the Skairos,” these great beasts resemble giant, horned gorillas. They have long forearms, the gray, robust flesh of a pachyderm, and a great crest of jagged horns that covers all of their face except for their maw, which is lined with sharp teeth. At their full height, they tower over 10 feet, tall, but they generally slouch so that their shoulders come to the height of a human. Given their great size, they tend to be found exclusively in the deeper parts of the Labyrinth.
The faceless kine often move in groups of five to ten individuals, headed by an especially large member. No human has recorded what their breeding is like, nor what they eat (though entire herds have been witnessed engaging in lethal autophagy). Despite their fangs, when they kill something, they usually ignore it afterwords. They tend to aggregate near psychically potent regions, suggesting that they “feed” on psychic energy. If left alone, they tend to ignore others. If bothered, (and they tend to be extremely sensitive and territorial), they will fly into a rage and charge, gore, pummel and rend the offender to pieces.

The faceless kine are, like all Skairosian beasts, naturally psionic. They do not see with eyes (they have none), but with a psychic vision that allows them to see in all directions and ignore darkness. They tend to “light up” to psychic vision, granting a +4 to detect their presence. They also exist only partly in the physical space of reality, blurring across several timelines at once. This means they take halved damage from any attacks that cannot affect insubstantial targets.

The meat of the faceless kine is especially psychically potent. Psychics who devour the flesh of a faceless kine describe it as utterly delicious, and gain 1 fatigue immediately after consuming a full meal, above and beyond what they would normally regain; this fatigue may restore Psionic Energy Reserves. The heart of a faceless kine is especially potent; according to some stories, consuming it can unlock a human’s psychic potential (granting Weak Latency in a particular power), or they can be consumed by a psychic for a greater burst of power (restoring 12 fatigue or psychic energy reserves); the GM might even allow these reserves to exceed whatever limit the character has. However, despite the sumptuousness of the faceless kine, their presence deep in the labyrinth, the danger posed by hunting them, and the possessiveness the Skairos display over them has meant that Kine Hunting is generally illegal in the Alliance; their meat also spoils quickly once removed from the Labyrinth, and they cannot be coaxed from its depths, and will go mad if forcibly removed.

The faceless kine below represents a wild example of a “Bull Kine,” that protects a herd. Most Kine are smaller, with ST 20/45, HT 12 and FP 12 (24) and have Bad Temper (15) and lack Berserk. Some have witnessed domesticated herds in the Far Labyrinth, controlled by great Skairosian lords who are exceedingly protective of them. For such beasts, improve the Self-Control of Bad Temper and Berserk to 12 (Remove them entirely for non-Alphas), improve Chummy to Gregarious and replace Wild Animal with Domestic Animal.

ST: 25/55	HP: 55	Speed: 6.75
DX: 12	Will: 10	Move: 7
IQ: 3	Per: 13
HT: 15	FP: 15 (30)	SM: +2
Dodge: 9	Parry: 10 (unarmed)	DR: 70/25

Fright Check: -3 (or +3 Intimidate; typically triggered by the bellows of a Bull Kine) 

Bite (13): 6d(3)cut, Reach C

Punch/Kick(13):6d cr, Reach 1. This attack is at -1 to SM+0 targets, and on a miss, the Kine is at -2 to DX and -1 to defense until the start of its next turn.

Grapple(13): +2 to hit SM +0 targets; +6 to pin SM+0 targets.

Grab-and-Smash (13): 6d+6 cr, Reach 1. Usable after a grapple. (Note that if the target grapples the Faceless Kine, the Kine treats a normal person as Light Encumbrance, for -1 to Move and Dodge).

Throw(13); 6d+6 cr; The Bull Kine can throw 150 lb rocks (or people) up to 15yards away.

Gore(13): 6d+6 (3)imp, Reach C-1; treat as a weapon for the purposes of parrying. This attack is at -1 to SM+0 targets, and on a miss, the Kine is at -2 to DX and -1 to defense until the start of its next turn.

Slam (13): 6d-2(3) imp if moved 1-2 hexes; 6d+4(3) imp if moved 3-4hexes; 5d×2 (3) imp if moved 5-6hexes and 6d×2 (3) imp if moved 7+ hexes. This cannot be parried by anyone with less than 17 ST.

Trample:6d–2cr; this is a “free” attack if Kine simply moves through the hex, or knocks the target prone as part of a slam, and hits automatically (the target may dodge as normal).

Traits: 360° Vision;Bad Temper (9); Berserk (9); Blindness (Mitigator, Psi); Chummy; Dark Vision; DR 70(Headonly); Dread (Planetary Surfaces); Energy Reserves (Psionic) 30; Ham Fisted 2; Impaling Striker (Horns); Incurious (12); Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction 2 (Temporal),No Eyes); Penetrating Voice; Psychic Beacon 4; Sense of Duty (Herd); Sharp Teeth; Wild Animal.

Skills: Brawling-13; Intimidation-13; Navigation (Underground)-13; Running-13;

Notes: Truly Alien. Too stupid to negotiate or to be affected by Telepathy; use Animal Telepathy (or appropriate Telepathy techniques) instead.

A Kine “Alpha” or “Bull” is highly protective of its group. It will ignore anything that doesn’t matter to it, or its group, but if someone gets too close to the group, or begins to pester the Bull or its herd, it will fly into a berserk rage and attack. While Berserk, it will not attack its own herd, but it will rage at everything else until the targets are out of sight. Characters may attempt to soothe a Bull Kine with Animal Handling (Skairosian Clade)at the usual -5 for wild beasts (+0 if domesticated). If enraged but not yet berserk, Bull Kine will rear up and beat on their chests and bellow and howl; treat as an Intimidationattempt at +3.

It will generally initiate an encounter with a charge; if it knocks its opponent over, it automatically tramples them. If the target is still alive, it will attempt to grapple the target, either as a “Grab and Smash,” treat as an All-Out Attack (Double) where it grapples the target and immediately proceeds to smash him bodily into things for the listed damage, or All-Out Determined for the +4 to hit. Once grappled, the Bull Kine might continue to smash the target, or may throw them, inflicting the listed damage. Reminder: for every 5 damage crushing damage would inflict before DR, a minimum of 1 point of injury is inflicted. Even if the target is fully armored, they can expect to take 4+ damage from a raging Bull Kine. Use the lowerST for all grappling rolls! If it makes other sorts of attacks, it will often make All-Out (Determined) and apply the bonus as a Deceptive Attack, applying a -2 to defend against its attacks.

All Faceless Kine are only partiallyin the present timeline. Their partially insubstantial nature protects them from attacks: unless the attack could hurt an insubstantial target, the Kine suffers halfdamage. The great crest protects the face and skull with DR 70; the rest of the body (and the jaw, if it matters) has DR 30 (as Tough Skin). Between its DR, Injury Tolerance, high HT and being Berserk, a typical Bull Kine will need to take 600 damage before it will die if treated as a Boss. If treated as a Henchmen, consider requiring a berserking Kine to be reduced to -1×HT rather than 0, to emphasize its durability (this only requires ~200 damage). Other Kine should be generally treated as normal Henchmen, unless the fight gets especially tedious, in which case treat them as Mooksthat require 4 points of injury to be removed from the fight.

Rituals of the Faceless Kine

• If in a cavern or chamber filled with layer of dust, the Kine begin to “graze” on the dust, reaching down to scoop it up and eat it. The patterns they leave in the dust can portend omens, like tea leaves.
• The Faceless Kine migrate seemingly at random, but the sequence of rooms the visit can be portentous; learning this route typically involves trailing the Faceless Kine (at a safe distance) for a few days.
• The Faceless Kine bellow great songs when lonely or when one of their own dies. The chords are different each time, and they can provoke powerful visions from the oracles.
• The Faceless Kine will, as a group, begin to devour themselves, ripping into their own flesh until they die. They will, somehow, leave nothing behind. Later, a similar herd will appear or migrate into the same region, as though descended from the original.
• The Faceless Kine expel one of their own. All turn their back on the exiled one, who will accept his fate. It looses all Bad Temper and Berserk and becomes Selfless (6) and willingly accepts death. Which is shunned is portentous, and this is often done when someone perform a great task on the behalf of the Kine, with the exiled Kine seemingly offered up as a sacrifice.

Into the Labyrinth: the Skairosian Bestiary

In addition to time shades, we need an expanded set of animalistic creatures to haunt the Labyrinth.  This takes the previous version of the “Devils of Persephone as space monsters” and expands them to four related entries, allowing greater variety in what characters might encounter, and adding some flavor to the labyrinth.

These creatures are all part of the path of the “Other” and fairly good examples of the high weirdness I expect it to cover.  I’ve also included the first treatment of Animal Handling yet in Psi-Wars.  I see Animal Handling in psi-wars as covering entire clades rather than individual species because the galaxy is already far too broad.  Thus, we might expect one animal handling skill to cover all “earth” animals, and we now have one covering all Skairosian beasts.  Having the details to a clade (even if it’s only 4 critters) certainly helps illustrate how this will work.

The Skairosian Bestiary

The labyrinth plays home to a great variety of creatures, and the specifics of the beasts within vary from world to world. But across all labyrinths, one clade of creatures remains consistent and seems deeply related to the Skairos themselves. Called the Skairosian clade by those who study the labyrinth, these animals share the same psychic vision and temporal instability of the Skairos themselves. Some even seem to be domesticated by the Skairos, and share a relationship similar to the Skairos that dogs, cattle and horses share with humanity.

The Skairosian clade can be handled with Animal Handling (Skairosian Clade). In addition to allowing to its usual effects (such as allowing the character to influence or bypass the beast), it can grant insight into the usual behavior of beasts of the Skairosian clade. All such animals react more amenably (+1 Reaction or better) to psychic characters, with usual, predatory hostility to non-psychics, and with frantic rage towards Anti-Psionic characters (-4 reaction or worse). They also engage in ritualistic behavior when left idle, performing particular actions over and over again for no evident reason, such as pacing a five pointed star, or facing each of the cardinal directions in turn after a kill, and so on; these actions often have portentousmeanings that oracles can pick out (granting a +1 to any Oracleroll to notice omens). Finally, the dietary needs of the Skairosian clade remain unclear. They all seem to be carnivores, though some are never seen to eat; some seem to have a particular taste for human flesh. Sometimes, they engage in extreme autophagy, consuming their own body parts until they die from their injuries. Those who study the clade suspect this has something to do with their reproductive cycles, as areas of the Labyrinth with beasts that consume themselves will soon sport an even greater number of the creatures.

All Skairosian beasts are truly alienand fall under the Path of the Other.

Faceless Kine

Sometimes called “The Cattle of the Labyrinth,” these great beasts resemble giant, horned gorillas. They have long forearms, the gray, robust flesh of a pachyderm, and a great crest of jagged horns that covers all of their face except for their maw, which is lined with sharp teeth. At their full height, they tower over 10 feet, tall, but they generally slouch so that their shoulders come to the height of a human. Given their great size, they tend to be found exclusively in the deeper parts of the Labyrinth.

The faceless kine often move in groups of five to ten individuals, headed by an especially large member. No human has recorded what their breeding is like, nor what they eat (though entire herds have been witnessed engaging in lethal autophagy). Despite their fangs, when they kill something, they usually ignore it afterwords. They tend to aggregate near psychically potent regions, suggesting that they “feed” on psychic energy. If left alone, they tend to ignore others. If bothered, (and they tend to be extremely sensitive and territorial), they will fly into a rage and charge, gore, pummel and rend the offender to pieces.

The faceless kine are, like all Skairosian beasts, naturally psionic. They do not see with eyes (they have none), but with a psychic vision that allows them to see in all directions and ignore darkness. They tend to “light up” to psychic vision, granting a +4 to detect their presence. They also exist only partly in the physical space of reality, blurring across several timelines at once. This means they take halved damage from any attacks that cannot affect insubstantial targets.

The meat of the faceless kine is especially psychically potent. Psychics who devour the flesh of a faceless kine describe it as utterly delicious, and gain 1 fatigue immediately after consuming a full meal, above and beyond what they would normally regain; this fatigue may restore Psionic Energy Reserves. The heart of a faceless kine is especially potent; according to some stories, consuming it can unlock a human’s psychic potential (granting Weak Latency in a particular power), or they can be consumed by a psychic for a greater burst of power (restoring 12 fatigue or psychic energy reserves); the GM might even allow these reserves to exceed whatever limit the character has. However, despite the sumptuousness of the faceless kine, their presence deep in the labyrinth, the danger posed by hunting them, and the possessiveness the Skairos display over them has meant that Kine Hunting is generally illegal in the Alliance; their meat also spoils quickly once removed from the Labyrinth, and they cannot be coaxed from its depths, and will go mad if forcibly removed.

The faceless kine below represents a wild example. Some have witnessed domesticated herds in the Far Labyrinth, controlled by great Skairosian lords who are exceedingly protective of them. For such beasts, improve the Self-Control of Bad Temper and Berserk to 12, improve Chummy to Gregarious and replace Wild Animal with Domestic Animal.

ST: 25/27	HP: 25	Speed: 6.0
DX: 12	Will: 10	Move: 7
IQ: 3	Per: 13
HT: 12	FP: 12 (24)	SM: +2
Dodge: 9	Parry: 10 (unarmed)	DR: 35/5

Bite (13): 2d+2 (3)cut, Reach C

Punch/Kick(13):2d+2cr, Reach 1

Gore(13): 3d+3 (3)imp, Reach C-1; treat as a weapon for the purposes of parrying.

Slam (13): 3d+1 (3)imp at Move 1-2; 3d+4 (3)imp at Move 3-4; 3d+6 (3)at move 5-7; this attack also adds knockback if the damage fails to penetrate DR.

Traits: 360° Vision; Arm ST +2; Bad Temper (9); Berserk (9); Blindness (Mitigator, Psi); Chummy; Dark Vision; DR 35 (Headonly); DR 5; Dread (Planetary Surfaces); Energy Reserves (Psionic) 12; Ham Fisted 2; Impaling Striker (Horns); Incurious (12); Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction 2 (Temporal); No Eyes); Penetrating Voice; Psychic Beacon 4; Sharp Teeth; Wild Animal.

Skills: Brawling-13; Navigation (Underground)-13; Running-13;

Notes: Truly Alien; moves in groups; immediately goes berserk if injured or if angered, which can happen very easily, or if any of its herdmates are attacked or injured; prefers to charge, and once “stuck in” will strike savagely with its long arms, or bite. Halve all damage that doesn’t come from a source that can affect insubstantial targets.

 

Glance Hound

The most immediately recognizable of the Skairosian clade, the glance hound (also called a “Devil of Persephone,” or a “Devil Hound”) is immortalized in the stone gargoyles and grotesques that guard Akashic Temples. They were among the monstrous creatures that terrorized the original colonists of Persephone, but they also represent a powerful force of protection against the noxious influence of time shades.

A glance hound resembles a great dog with a bony face-plate in place of eyes, and a great maw lined with rows of terrible teeth. It has a long, serpentine tail, black, leathery flesh, and wide shoulders and paws that allow it to climb with great facility. They tend to hunt the tunnels of the labyrinth in pairs or small packs. They are absolutely carnivores, and seem to relish eating the flesh of humans. In combat, they rush forward and bite their target, usually on the leg or arm, and then clamp and twist with horrifying force that often rips the limb from the target, or at least crushes and ruins the limb, preventing their escape.

The most fascinating aspect of the glance hound is its relationship with time shades. Like all members of the skairosian clade, it “sees” not with eyes, but with psychic vision. It seems uniquely capable of seeing into multiple timelines at once, allowing it to see unmanifested time shades. More than that, it is powerfully “grounded” in the present timeline, and grounds those around it. Any time shade within 4 yards of a glance hound becomes substantial, and any beings with benefits (such as Injury Tolerance) stemming from its ability to phase through multiple timelines, loses that ability. Time shades seem to intuitively sense this, as the very sight of a glance hound, even just a sculpted depiction of one, is enough to force a time shade to flee in terror. Wherever the Glance Hounds roam in great number, time shades are certain to be absent.

Glance Hounds also make excellent trackers, but they track with a psychic sense, detecting previous uses of psychic ability and using those traces to track a target.

Like the Faceless Kine, Glance Hounds are often tamed or domesticated by the Skairos. The example below is a wild glance hound. Domesticated examples replace Bloodlust (9) with Bloodlust (12) and swap Domestic Animal for Wild Animal.

ST: 14/28	HP: 14	Speed: 6.25
DX: 13	Will: 10	Move: 11
IQ: 5	Per: 15
HT: 12	FP: 12	SM: +0
Dodge: 9 (11)	Parry: NA	DR: 10

Fright Check: –1

Bite (13): 3d-1(3)cut, Reach C; if the attack is to a limb, immediately follow up with a second attack that automatically hits for 5d+1(3) cut; this can be part of a Move and Attack at no penalty, and inflicts +1 damage to the initial bite.

Kick(13):1d+2cr, Reach 1

Traits: 360° Vision;Bloodlust (9);Bite ST +14; Blindness (Mitigator, Psi); Blunt Claws; Combat Sense 2; Dark Vision; DR 10; Dread (Planetary Surfaces); Extra Attack (Wrench Limb only, after bite to limb only); Injury Tolerance (No Eyes); Odious Habit (Man Eater); Penetrating Voice; Psychic Beacon 4; Quadruped; Run and Hit (DF: Power-Ups, p12);See Invisible;Signature Sniffer 3; Sharp Teeth; Static (Temporal Insubstantiability; 4 yard radius); Terror (Time Shades only); Wild Animal.

Skills: Brawling-13; Combat Sense-15; Climbing-15; Navigation (Underground)-13; Running-13; Signature Sniffer-15; Tracking-15; Survival (Underground)-13.

Notes: Truly Alien; Man-Eater; May move and attack with its bites at no penalty.

 

Jotani Mantis

Found primarily on Jotan, these strange and horrifying creatures are truly the stuff of nightmare. Their place in the skairosian clade remains a point of debate for those few scholars that study the labyrinth. They seem rare throughout the labyrinth, found mostly on Jotan and in its labyrinth, and unlike most skairosian beasts, has no problem going out onto the surface of worlds, though it reacts with great hostility to sunlight. At the same time, it displays the same capacity for blindsight that the rest of the skairosian clade does, and similar behavior patterns. The most common theory among Akashics is that the Jotani mantis is an example of a biokinetically crafted monster, built as a living weapon by the bio-engineers of Jotan.

The Jotani mantis is most certainly a meat eater. They often capture prey (which can and does include any humans they can find) and return them to a den where they trap them in a carapace-like cocoon. They seem to reproduce through their prey, somehow infecting them so that a new member of their species is born from the flesh of their prey. Fortunately, the mantis does not like to hunt in packs or groups, thus they tend to be found alone.

This is a worked adaptionof the Insectoid monster from GURPS Monster Hunters 5. GMs who have access to the book may want to expand their abilities, and make use of “Baby Insectoids” and “Venom Zombies” as well.

ST: 27	HP: 27	Speed: 8.0
DX: 16	Will: 15	Move: 12
IQ: 6	Per: 17
HT: 14	FP: 14	SM: +1
Dodge: 13	Parry: 13	DR: 30

Fright Check: –6

Bite or Claws (16): 3d+1(5)cut, Reach C (bite) or C, 1 (claw);Made as a Deceptive Attack (-1 to defend against)

Traits: 360° Vision;Bestial; Blindness (Mitigator, Psi); Chameleon 4 (only in dark environments); Combat Reflexes;Dark Vision;Dread (Natural Sunlight; Cannot be trapped); Enhanced Dodge 1; Extra Attack 1; Extra Legs (Four Legs); Ham-Fisted 1; High Pain Threshold; Indomitable; Injury Tolerance (No Vitals; No Eyes); Loner(9);Low Empathy; Silence 4; Unfazeable (not vs fire or sunlight);Psychic Beacon 4;

Skills: Brawling-18; Camouflate-10; Observation-15; Stealth-18; Tactics-10; Tracking-18;

Notes: Truly Alien; Stealth value does not include Chameleon/Silence bonuses, or the penalty for Psychic Beacon;

Shadow Serpent

These Skairosian serpents walk the line between timelines deftly. They can shift in and out of a particular timeline, allowing them to pass through doors or fade away from attacks, and then reappear a few seconds later to bite and inject the victim with their hallucinatory venom.

A shadow serpent resembles a length of inky darkness with a bony, eyeless plate over the top of its head. Similar to the glance hound, shadow serpents have several rows of teeth, all of which drip with a beautiful, prismatic venom.

The shadow serpent featured strongly in early Akashic literature and imagery, and can still be found in the statuary of the oldest temples, though its symbolism has been phased out over time. Early Akashics are believed to have “snake handled” shadow serpents, and used their venom to improve their visions; while hallucinating on shadow serpent venom, add +1 to all Vision or Oracle rolls, if this legend is true. Certain labyinthine cults continue this practice.

Some labyrinth explores report skairos with tamed examples of shadow serpents. If so, for examples of tame shadow serpents, replace Wild Animal with Domestic Animal.

This is a worked adapationof the Phase Serpent (GURPS DF: Monster 3, page 17), adapted to Psi-Wars and Skairosian physiology, with a few traits tweaked to make them a little more impressive.

ST: 10	HP: 10	Speed: 7.0
DX: 14	Will: 10	Move: 7
IQ: 2	Per: 12
HT: 12	FP: 12	SM: +0
Dodge: 10	Parry: 13	DR: 5

Fright Check: –1

Bite (16): 2d(3)imp + 2d toxic (HT-4 to resist), 1d if resisted; roll HT -1 per 2 damage inflicted by toxic follow up or Hallucinate;Reach C.

Traits: 360° Vision;Biting ST +11; Blindness (Mitigator, Psi);Dark Vision;Dread (Planetary Surface);Injury Tolerance (Damage Resistance 2 (Temporal); No Eyes); Insubstantial (Temporal);Invisible (Substantial Only; Only when Insubstantial); Psychic Beacon 4; Vermiform; Wild Animal.

Skills: Brawling-16; Stealth-14;

Notes: Truly Alien;A shadow serpent may make a “temporal dodge,” evading an attack on a 20 or less, by spending 1 fatigue. Each successive attempt in a turn applies an additional -5 to the next attempt. Furthermore, it may spend 1 fatigue to become insubstantial for up to 10 seconds. While insubstantial, it is in a different timeline and must follow the rules and geometry of that timeline. The GM may wish to apply the Shades of Helloptional rules to the shadow serpent at all times. Finally, it takes halved damage from any source that cannot attack insubsantial beings.
td p { margin-bottom: 0in } h4.western { font-family: “Liberation Sans”, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic } h4.cjk { font-family: “Noto Sans CJK SC”; font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic } h4.ctl { font-family: “Lohit Devanagari”; font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic } h1 { margin-bottom: 0.08in } h1.western { font-family: “Liberation Sans”, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt } h1.cjk { font-family: “Noto Sans CJK SC”; font-size: 18pt } h1.ctl { font-family: “Lohit Devanagari”; font-size: 18pt } p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 115% }

Into the Labyrinth: Time Shades

Here’s a rough draft of my first “monster” for the Labyrinths of Psi-Wars: the Time Shade.  If this gets enough approval, it’ll eventually move to the Wiki.

—

Time Shades

The Labyrinth wends its way through time as well as space, and certain “time-lost” beings within it walk just beyond the dimensional edges “between” timelines. Akashic documents refer to these beings as “in the walls” or “in between.” They represent possibilities,things that could exist, but don’t, and they can only operate within the confines of the unique geometries of the Labyrinth, where the possibilities of alternate timelines have a whisper of more reality than in the rest of the Galaxy.

Time Shadowsaren’t actuallyinsubstantial or invisible. Rather, they occupy a space on another “level,” an “upside down” plane of existence which follows its own rules. This alternate reality onlyexists within the Labyrinth: time shadows cannot leave! Furthermore, while they may seem to pass through walls or others, they cannot pass through the walls or being that exist “on their plane.” As a result, they tend to be constrained by natural labyrinthine caverns or ancient artificial tunnels, but not newer construction. They might ignore an ancient door closed by someone recently, but be unable to pass through a door opened by someone in the real world.

Time Shadows can be anything. The stats below are a convenience measure for a generic shade. But their actual stats should reflect what they would be if they were back in normal, mundane reality. Thus, the stats can be altered to represent a “time-lost” person of any sort.

Shades of Hunger

The primary desire of the Labyrinthine Shade is to exist.The most certain way to do this is to “align the timeline.” If certain events take place, the shade has the option of enforcing a broader reality, changing the past the reflect the events of the present, and inserting themselves into the timeline, thus becoming real. A shade who achieves this loses all ghostly traits and becomes a completely concrete being; they lose all memory of being a shade, or what they did to become real, and instead remember only the details of the newly altered timeline. The specifics of this vary from ghost to ghost. Some examples include:

• Massacre: the shade is an “only survivor of a massacre.” They can truly manifest only if a party of 10+ people die in the labyrinth at a particular location. If this happens, their physical manifestation will crawl, traumatized and frightened, from the pile of corpses.
• Archaeological Resurrection: the shade is “a lost king,” who can only manifest if there are sufficient records of him and someone discovers his tomb and releases him, after which, he will only remember the timeline in which he controlled this part of the labyrinth.
• Marriage: The shade is “the true wife” or “the true husband” of a particular character. They need the character to ceremonially marry them in some way, after which, they will manifest as a real character “and have always been their” partner.
• “I am you”: The shade is some alternate reality version of a character. They must kill that character, and then replace them. After they have killed their target, they will remember always having been that character (others will notice a change in behavior).

Some shades have powers that let them immediately “trade places” with a target, forcing them into this inbetween stateand then occupying the real world in their place, or absorbing sufficient temporal energy from victims that they can materialize fully as a concrete being. These tend to require the touch of a manifest ghost, or eye contact with the victim.

Shades of Defeat

Temporal shades have several weaknesses. First, they can only exist and operate from within the Labyrinth. When they near what, in the physical world, would be the entrance of the labyrinth, they see only endless tunnels that continue on into the labyrinth. Second, they’re not actuallyinsubstantial, but simply occupy a different plane, and most operate by the geometry of that plane. The alternate labyrinths generally follow the same layout as the physical labyrinth, but there may be differences, places where a shade cannot go, and places where shades can ignore walls and doors.

Shades are invisible to all visual senses and generally silent, but they give away their presence in a few ways. First, they are not invisible to psychic senses: characters with True Sightcan see them, as can characters with Awareness, Mind Scan or Detect Life (though these latter two suffer a -3 penalty). They’ve also visible in reflections, and when they pass through sheer cloth, such as those used to curtain Akashic Temples, the cloth moves as though on a wind.

Time Shades have no unusual invulnerabilities or resistances beyond their intangibility. If struck by a weapon that can strike insubstantial targets, or struck by a weapon while materialized or manifest, they suffer the usual effects of their damage. If something on their same plane attacks them, they’re affected as normal.

Temporal shades are uniquein that they only exist as a possibility of a single timeline. As long as that timeline remains possible, they can manipulate the real world in some way. When that timeline becomes impossible, or so improbable as to move the ghost away from the current timeline, it effectively ceases to exist. Examples, based on the above timeline examples,might include:

• Massacre: the shade expects to be a survivor of a massacre in a particular place. If that place is walled of and people prevented from entering it, then this effectively locks away the ghost.
• Archaeological Resurrection: if all records of the “lost king” are destroyed, such that the “memory” of the non-existent “lost king” is completely lost, it effectively ceases to be.
• Marriage: If the character marries another, then this seals their timeline and prevents the shade from entering it.
• “I am you”: The shade probably can’t exist in a timeline where the character has already died. Thus, the death of the character effectively ends the possibility of the alternate version from happening.

“But they’re really ghosts, right?”

Time Shades are technicallythe echoes of alternate timelines; they’re not the spirits of the departed, nor manifestations of Broken Communion. However, a campaign might be too broad to support the sort of niche abilities necessary to defeat them.

ESP and Anti-Psi should treat ghosts, time shades and hyperdimensional beings as effectively the same as far as True Sight is concerned. In regard to the Powers of Communion, whether or not Time Shades are affected by the Miracles of the Path of Death is up to GM discretion. While not literallythe dead, they could fall under the same symbolic umbrella as those of ghosts, and the Path of Death couldgovern (summon, exorcise, etc) Time Shades just as well as ghosts. If the GM prefers, the Path of Madness might be a better path, but in such a case, the Path of Madness should then gain access to miracles that work as the Ghost-summoning/manipulating miracles of Death, but only on Time Shades.

Necrokinesis abilities do not work on Time Shades.

The GM should decide if the exorcism traditions focused on ghosts (such as the Morathi rites of the Witch Cats, or the exorcisms of Domen Khemet, the Ranathim Death Cult) will work on Time Shades. If so, it’s likely only fair that the exorcism traditions of the Akashic Order also work on ghosts.  As a compromise, consider applying a -2 for ghost-based traditions to exorcise Time Shades, or for the Akashic tradition to exorcise ghosts.

Shades of Hell

Time shades occupy a plane of existence just “sideways” of the physical world. The physics of these “sideways” worlds might vary, which is especially interesting if the shades are “castling” with living targets. GMs can introduce this little bit of extra detail to make Castlingmore interesting, or to add additional flavor (and weaknesses) to shades. Different shades might be in different “hells,” and would be mutually insubstantial and invisible to one another, only able to interact with one another via manifestations in the physical world.

All “Hells” are suffused with a faint, omnipresent glow that obviates all darkness penalties. This is the source of the shade’s “darkvision.”

• White Hell: the glow here is a pale white. This parallel is cold, and the closer the labyrinth is to the light of the surface or to the warmth of a flame, the colder it gets, while the deeper and darker in the Labyrinth the ghost is, the warmer. If the ghost is in direct sunlight or within a yard of an open fire, it takes 1 point of fatigue (cold) damage per second. In places with any natural light, the ghost must roll HT or lose fatigue to the cold once per hour. In places of total darkness or “deep” in the labyrinth, the ghost is “warm” enough not roll or lose fatigue. Shades in the white hell manifests its presence as cold spots in the physical world.
• Red Hell: the glow here is a dull red or violet. This parallel is totally soundless. No sound will carry. The shade cannot speak, nor hear, anything that happens in the physical world or in the parallel. However, specific, loud sounds in the physical world can carry into the Red Hell, shattering the silence with a roaring cacophony of agony. In the presence of temple bells tuned to specific frequencies, the shade must roll HT-5 or suffer Terrible Pain (or Agony if it fails by more than 5) for a number of minutes equal to its margin of failure.
• Black Hell: the glow here is an inversion of color. This parallel has no walls. In place of the tunnels of the labyrinth, the Black Hell has platforms floating in the void. The shade can “pass through walls” by jumping from one platform to another. If it misses, it will fall until it hits another platform (shades never seem to fall forever, and will always fall on some platform, though typically much deeper in the labyrinth).
   

Time Shades

Time Shades should use the stats of whatever creature (typically, but not necessarily, a Skairos) they actually are. The stats below are a simple “grab and go” example of a time shade, and not definitive of what all time shades should be.

ST: 10	HP: 20	Speed: 7
DX: 12	Will: 14	Move: 6
IQ: 10-15	Per: 10
HT: 12	FP: 20	SM: +0
Dodge: 10	Parry: NA	DR: 0

Skills: Stealth-14; One of Diplomacy, Intimidation or Savoir-Faire, all at 14.

Traits: Darkvision; Divine Curse (Cannot Leave the Labyrinth); Insubstantial (Not to things on its plane; no vertical movement; ghost air); Invisible (Only to substantial; Affects Machines; Visible Reflections) Supernatural Features (Eyeless; Flickering transparency); Mute (Substantial Only)

Fright Check: +0

 

Powers

Time Shades can have one or more of the following powers. All time shade powers are psionic, and can be prevented with Anti-Psi, as normal.

Castling: The time shade “switches places” with a target. The manifested time shade must touch the target orthe target must make eye-contact with the visible shade. If so, the shade can spend 5 fatigue to make a contest of Wills with the target. On a success, the shade materializes as a fully physical being (it loses the Insubstantiability trait and the Invisibility trait) and the target becomes a Time Shade, and follows all the rules for a time shade (including the rules for “Shades of Hell” above). The death of the manifest time shade will generally “bring back” the exiled target, but a successful contest of Exorcism with the shades Will will also generally work to restore the exiled target. At the GM’s discretion, the target might also gain the powers of the ghost for the duration of theirCastling exile.

Dark Fate: The Time Shade dooms the character to make changes in the world that will bring the Shade’s desired timeline into being. This requires a touch from the manifested time shade, or eye contact with the visible shade; the shade spends 5 fatigue and rolls a contest of Wills. If the shade wins, the character gains a disadvantageous Destinyto bring about the events necessary for the time shade to fully materialize. This Destiny can be worth -5 to -15; -5 is the most common and most subtle, but at -15, treat it as a variation of Weirdness Magnet, where the character is regularly plagued by weirdness that pushes the character towards the desired set of events (a discarded knife keeps showing up in their inventory, gibbering minions hail the character as their messiah, etc).

Devour: The time shade “steals” the temporal energy of the target. The manifested time shade must touch the target and spend 1 fatigue per 3dice of burn damage that ignores DR (with no upper limit). This damage is all or nothing. Either the target takes sufficient damage to die in one attack, in which case they simply vanish, or they take 1 point of burn damage from where the ghost touched them. If the target dies, the ghost is able to materialize a fully physical body. For the duration of the effect they are no longer insubstantial or invisible. The GM determines how long this lasts: 1 hour is a good duration, though it might be as short as a minute near the surface of the labyrinth, and days in the deep labyrinth. The shade can extend the time they remain manifest by using their power gain and again.

Illusion of Time: The ghost can manifest visions of its expected timeline or reality, or of the “Hell” that it currently occupies (see Shades of Hell). This can be as subtle as changing the words of a text to as dramatic and totally engrossing all the senses of the target with visions of hell. This requires a contest of Willsbetween the shade and their target. On a success, the character might roll IQ to “disbelieve” the illusion if they have any cause to disbelieve. While caught up in the illusion, they can suffer “real” damage, but if they realize the reality of it with a successful IQroll, convert all of this damage to fatigue damage instead. The effect lasts for 1 minute per margin of the Shade’s success, and costs 1 fatigue per minute to maintain.

Manifestation: The time shade can manifest an ectoplasmic presence. This costs 1 fatigue per minute and grants them a “body” with DR 0, HP 1 and Injury Tolerance (Homogenous, No Blood). If destroyed, any “excess” damage applies their own actual HP totals (but still apply the benefits of Injury Tolerance for this attack) and their manifestation is destroyed. This typically Stuns the shade for 1d seconds, after which it might manifest again, but all manifestations after being destroyed thus cost 2 fatigue until at least an hour has passed.

Power of Fear/Friendship: The shade can undermine a target’s defenses by provoking an emotional response of fear or trust. In the case of the former, the ghost must find some way to invoke its intimidation skill against the target (appearing in a terrifying way, pronouncing doom upon the part, or manipulating their environment in a frightening way). In the latter case, the shade must ask the target if they trust it and then reveal a secret to the target (generally the shade’s name), make an agreement, or otherwise assist the target. In both cases, the shade rolls their requisite skill (Intimidationfor Fear and one of Diplomacyor Savoir–Fairefor trust) and the target resists with Will. If the shade wins, it may apply a bonus equal to its margin of victory to any use of any of its powers against the target once, to a maximum of +5; the ghost may automatically apply the full +5 bonus against a target that has failed a Fright Check against the shade.

Presence: If the manifest shade touches a target, or the target makes eye-contact with the visible shade, then the Time Shade can spend 1 fatigue to roll a Contest of Wills with the target. If the win, they “haunt” the target. They may appear before the target whenever they wish, for free, but nobody else will see them. They may also use their powers on the target at will. The target counts as “the labyrinth” for the purposes of the shade’s traits, and thus they can “ride” the target out of the Labyrinth. Shades often do this if they need something done outside of the Labyrinth. This sort of haunting can be undone with an exorcism: roll the exorcists’ Exorcismskill in a contest with the Shade’s Will.

Probability Alteration: The shade can push probability more in line with their desired timeline. This manifests as a blanket -1 to all rolls that would negate the shades desired outcome. The ghost can only affect one target at a time with this power. More powerful ghosts can also spend 5 fatigue to turn a failure into a critical failure.

Revelation: The shadecan reveal themselves without the risks associated with Manifestation. This costs them one fatigue per second. They can attempt to pass themselves off as a living person, but they look transparent in bright light, and they must hide their eyeless appearance. If a power requires them to make eye contact, Revelationcan substitute for Manifestationfor allowing the target to see the shades’ eyes.

Terror: If the shade is visible, it may spend 1 fatigue to make its gaze terrifying. Anyone who sees its eyes must roll a Fight Check at a penalty determined by the GM (between 0 and -5). Victims who succeed are immune for an hour, and all victims get +1 per Fright Check after the first within 24 hours.

Zap: The shade can damage delicate electronics. The shade must touch the object in question (but an insubstantial touch is sufficient). They spend 1 fatigue and the object rolls its HTor it’s sufficiently damaged to require repairs (which requires, at the very least, a change out of any breakers in the system).

Notes: The powers of a time shade are listed with fatigue costs to give the GM a sense of scale; the GM needn’t actually worry about fatigue totals unless the players face a “boss” time shade. A typical time shade is not much of a challenge to a properly equipped party. Psychic characters will often pick them out fairly easily, and characters who have the ability to attack and destroy intangible targets will easily defeat them. They’re mostly a danger to unsuspecting or unprepared parties while they remain subtle. That said, a Castling or Devouring time shade can be devastating. The GM should allow player characters to use an Impulse Buy point to defeat a Devour attempt, and perhaps use a variation of the Imperial Stormtrooper’s Marksmanship Academy, where characters suddenly find burns materializing on their bodies and realize that they’re under attack before hitting them with the full effect.

Alternatively, hit the party with a legion of time shades. Many time shades manifesting at once represent a great example of a “mook threat” as each manifestation can be easily destroyed, but if paired with Probability Altering shades and Zapping shades, they can bring a party to their knees fairly quickly, enough to let their leader Devour or Castle a target.

 

Character Trait Notes

Veiled Gaze [1]: The character never makes eye contact unintentionally. By default, the GM should assume the character keeps their gaze away from a target’s eyes unless they explicitly say otherwise. The GM mayassess a -1 reaction penalty, though, in circumstances where eye contact is expected.

Standard Operating Procedure (Veiled Sanctuary) [1]: Whenever the character “beds down” or sets up a camp in the labyrinth, they always create windbreaks and leave sheer veils around the camp, so they can see if a time shade has passed into the camp, if at all possible. The GM should be lenient in allowing for such a set-up (for example, if the character lacks the resources, the GM might allow a retroactive scrounging roll to see if the character could have set up something similar). The GM should almost always allow the character at least one Perceptioncheck to see if they notice an infiltration by a time shade.

Exorcism (Akashic): This is a specialization of Exorcism specific for Time Shades. Any ordained character may use it, or a character with the Licensed Exorcist perk.

Hidden Lore (Labyrinth) or Hidden Lore (Deep Time): Both can be rolled to know something about Time Shades.

h1 { margin-bottom: 0.08in } h1.western { font-family: “Liberation Sans”, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt } h1.cjk { font-family: “Noto Sans CJK SC”; font-size: 18pt } h1.ctl { font-family: “Lohit Devanagari”; font-size: 18pt } h2.western { font-family: “Liberation Sans”, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt } h2.cjk { font-family: “Noto Sans CJK SC”; font-size: 16pt } h2.ctl { font-family: “Lohit Devanagari”; font-size: 16pt } h4.western { font-family: “Liberation Sans”, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic } h4.cjk { font-family: “Noto Sans CJK SC”; font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic } h4.ctl { font-family: “Lohit Devanagari”; font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic } td p { margin-bottom: 0in } h3.western { font-family: “Liberation Sans”, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt } h3.cjk { font-family: “Noto Sans CJK SC”; font-size: 14pt } h3.ctl { font-family: “Lohit Devanagari”; font-size: 14pt } p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 115% }

Into the Labyrinth: Musings on the Monsters Within

Last week, I talked about labyrinth and the Skairos.  I’ve been hard at work writing up the labyrinth as an environment.  But once I had done so, I found myself pondering the dangers of the environment, especially the monsters therein.  These things are all tied together, so I can discuss one element, but it’s hard to fully explain without exploring all of it, but we’ll have to take this one step at a time.

One of those steps was thinking about the Skairos, which we already did last week, but in particular, the Skairos as Monsters.  What sort of weaknesses do they have and what sort of motivations do they have? If we were playing a monster hunting game and trying to kill one of the Skairos, what would that scenario look like, while remaining true to the lore we’ve already created.

This creates a bit of a condundrum, though: are the Skairos actually monsters? I find the best metaphor for them to be the fair folk, as they tend to be “dark mirrors” of Maradonian society, just as the fae tended to be “dark mirrors” of medieval European society.  But in another sense, they’re also the angels of the Akashic Order: it is from them that the Akashic Order learned to explore deep time and to transcend temporal limits in their Shadow Councils.  But at the same time, during the tumultuous origins of the Akashic Order, the colonists of Persephone were being killed by the things within the Labyrinth.  Indeed, much of the Akashic Order’s imagery are things meant to protect the Order from the Skairos.  Their gargoyles at their temples are meant to “ward away” the monsters of the labyrinth, and while the veiled eyes of the Akashic Oracles might serve as a convenient way to allow a Skairos to slip into their midst, it might also act as a form of protection, a way of tricking some things into thinking the Oracle is Skairos, or it could be a way of protecting the oracle from making eye contact with something.

So, what conclusions can we draw from all of this to work out how our sci-fi time-lost race, how you kill them, and why you’d want to.

Are the Skairos Angels or Devils?

If we think of the Skairos as “like the Fair Folk,” then the answer to the above question is “Yes.”  The Skairos have the capacity to both help and hurt humanity.  And, I would expect, even the most benevolent would have the capacity to be evil enough that one would seek to destroy them.

I would rather leave the specifics of what the Skairos are and what they come from largely undefined, the sort of thing one speculates on in theory posts and creates a personal head-canon about, but I think the easiest way to model their motivations would be this: They are time-travelers from a distant future whose future is tied very strongly to the actions of humanity and have come back in time to ensure their own creation in the future.

(There are other possible models.  They could be parachronic travelers trying to “shift the quantum state” of the Psi-Wars timeline closer to theirs so they can colonize it, and the closer it gets, the more powerful their labyrinths are.  Or they could be an especially ancient race who have the capacity to see very, very far into the future, and see a few minor options for their return to a golden age of galactic dominion. Or they’re literally just mirrors of us, reflections created by the time-manipulating shenanigans of the Akashic Order, hence their obsession with humanity is actually our own obsession with us, and why their technology never seems better than ours.  But the above model works well for creating an obvious sense of how their motivations work).

Thus, the goal of the Skairos is to ensure their specific, desired future happens.  But which future?  Well, let’s break it down into three camps, since I like doing things in threes.

• The White Court: This future is the familiar future.  A human race devoted to the Akashic Order listens to their wisdom and reshapes itself along lines devoted to a central, politically- and psychically-powerful emperor.  This humanity overcomes the Coming Storm and becomes the foundation for an enlightened, subservient society that spawns a crystal-spires-and-togas version of the Skairos.  These Skairos seek cooperation with humanity, but a humanity carefully controlled by the Akashic Order.

• The Black Court: This might be the origins of the corrupted Akashic heretics.  Perhaps the desired future here is a galaxy dominated by a corrupt and degenerate humanity, one stripped of the protective insights of the Akashic Order.  This group does not want to see humanity falter or fail to control the galaxy, but to dominate it and then become weak enough that the Skairos can later overthrow them and take control of them.  This Skairos seeks to corrupt humanity, undermine the Akashic Order, but not so much that control of the Galaxy is lost.

• The Red Court: In this version of the future, humanity overcomes the Coming Storm on their own, without help from the Akashic Order or the Skairos.  When the Skairos “return” or “arrive,” humanity is instrumental in destroying them.  This faction seeks the total destruction of humanity.

This helps explain why you might see the Akashic Order both embrace and fear the Skairos.  They are the source of the Akashic Order’s power, but also its greatest enemy.  This also suggests some infighting among the Skairos, which might be more complicated than we need, but at least it gives the GM a few options to play with.  In a sense, I see the Skairos as highly individualized based on the GM’s needs.  They are an enemy of quantum uncertainty about whom multiple contradictory things are true.  The above model helps emphasize this.

Shades of Peril

But I keep finding myself returning to the concept of the temporal shadow as the primary peril of the labyrinth.  These “ghosts” might represent beings on the edge of our timeline trying to push in. They’re trying to make their timeline, and thus themselves, real. Until then, they’re intangible, extra-dimensional beings pushing on the edges of our reality.

These seem to be the real threat. These are the things most driven the manipulate and control reality, so they can properly manifest.  And there’s likely a relationship between shades and Skairos, in that a shade is a Skairos who hasn’t yet made its way into the world. 

The original “Skairos-as-ghosts” write-up had material on them “dissolving” people by stealing their reality and then using it to step into reality.  A more interesting option might be “Castling,” where they “trade spots” with someone under specific circumstances.  They can find some way to draw you into their timeline, they can trade places with you.  This means that some shades aren’t Skairos at all, but human. If you let one of these Time Shades into the world, you might get a person instead of a monster, perhaps even an ancient, time-lost person.

If we’re going to accept people-as-time-ghosts, this opens up quite a few new possibilities.  What about alternate timeline versions of you?  An evil twin, or a fetch, who wants a particular Skairosian timeline to come into being because then they, too, will be in the timeline.  Perhaps they seek to replace you, and sometimes people go into the Labyrinth and “come back changed” because they’ve been replaced.  These temporal shadows might be other things too, things that the Skairos fight, the other monsters of the labyrinth.  We might also see “after images” of Oracles who are “walking the Labyrinth;” perhaps those journeys aren’t entirely in their own mind, but actually expressed as remote experiences in a physical place.

So these seem ripe as the primary “monsters” that the Akashic Order seeks to protect the world against. And their motivation is clear: they want in.

How do you kill the Skairos?

So, we have some imagery and some ideas about the monsters that might act as our primary antagonists.  What sort of weaknesses would “monster hunters” use against them?

The Labyrinth Trap: For ghosts, at least, it seems that the structure of the labyrinth itself is what allows these temporal shades to exist.  It’s only within the labyrinth that the walls of time grow thin enough to allow these shenanigans to take place. This explains why the colonists of Persephone weren’t overrun with monsters until they started exploring the tunnels, and even if something serving the Skairos were to “come out,” the goal would always be to pull the hapless victim into the labyrinth.  Thus, the labyrinth itself acts as a “trap.”  The patterns of it might further act as a trap for labyrinthine creations that are outside (or possibly even inside) the labyrinth.

Gargoyles: So, we know the Akashic Order protect themselves with images of “the Devils of Persephone.”  This might be symbolic, but I think this might be good fodder for a weakness, especially for the temporal shadows.  It seems likely that the temporal shadows don’t “see” or “interact” with the world the way the rest of us do, and perhaps the “skairosian beast” are dangerous to these ghosts, and thus they naturally tend to fear them and are easily fooled into retreating from them.  Alternatively, perhaps the presence of one of these beasts, or its psychically resonant facsimile in statue form, force the ghost into a state where it can be struck or attacked.

Veils: The original reason for the veils of the Akashic Order was to create symbolism for others, as well as an easy way for one of the Skairos to sneak into the order.  But perhaps the veils do more than that.  Perhaps the subtle placement of cloth blinds the time shadows, or prevents them from making attacks that require your direct site to work.  Perhaps the blind are safer from temporal shadows than the seeing are.

Noise: One of the themes of the fae is their vulnerability to “church bells.”  This rather makes sense for the Skairos, as they’re all blind and thus plausibly have sensitive ears. 

The Written Word: Less a vulnerability and more of a blind spot.  If the Skairos are blind, how do they read?  Does awareness let you pick up letters from a page?  Possibly, but it might be interesting to speculate that they interact with written mediums differently.  They might see meaning rather than words and it’s possible to deceive them with clever wording.  Their written language might more closely resemble the chimes of the Wankh of the Planet of Adventure: a set of complex symbolism that exemplified concepts, meaning, rather than specific semantics.  The Akashic Tarot might be based upon this language, preparing those who learn Fortune Telling to read the Skairosian language.

Iron?: Fair Folk tend to be vulnerable to iron, and their technology resembles ours, except for being more beautiful, but more fragile against “cold iron.”  Can we imagine an equivalent for our Skairosian technology?  What sort of material can humanity wield against time shadows and the Skairos to drive them back?  Episteel?  Diamondoid? Was the Force Sword and Diamondoid armor conceived as a way of defeating the Skairos, or a gift from them to us?  I’d need to think about this one.

Into the Labyrinth: Musings on the Skairos

At the same time that I wrote up the Akashic Mysteries, I also wrote up the Skairos, the “Devils of Persephone.”  Originally, I had intended them as a sort of “special option,” a unique “possible” race meant for mainly my patrons and “insiders,” as well as some possible hooks or monsters that they could use in a primarily Akashic game and a nice nod to one of the more creative Star Wars races: the Miraluka.

As with the rest of the Labyrinth, I’ve found interest in them has grown and, at least in my mind, they’re becoming more of a “central” part of Psi-Wars, though I think they’re exact nature and motivations should remain a mystery.  As I explore more of this idea of “Psi-Wars as Monster-Hunter game” the more i find myself revisiting works I had previousl created to provide interesting monsters to players, including the monsters of Broken Communion, the Gaunt, and now the Skairos.

(In particular, much of this was inspired by the moment I released the Skairos as a race, and one person commented on how they all had a “Secret,” and asked how they kept it. “So, do they wear armor all the time or what?” It’s a great question and one I’ve been pondering ever since.  It’s increasingly obvious that the Psi-Wars setting has “secret races” like the Eldoth and the Skairos and whatever pulls the strings of the Scourge.  So, let’s dive deeper into this particular race).

The Nature of the Skairos

When I first created the Skairos, I had created four possible interpretations for the “devils of persephone,” the grotesque, gargoyle-esque artwork that decorated Akashic temples and “defended” the symbolic labyrinths, based on the real alien monsters the original settlers of Persephone faced.  The four results I came up with were:

• Actual monsters
• “Time Shadows,” spirits of alternate timelines that dissolved the “reality” of those they came into contact with
• A corrupted bloodline of the Sabines
• An alien race

Of the four, the fourth by far seems to have the most traction and the third the least, which I find a bit of a shame, as it represents a unique set of customization options for Sabine players.  The first two don’t get much discussion but provide interesting possible fodder for our design.

What we get if we look at the total collection of creatures are something not dissimilar from the fae, which fits the Skairos-as-ultra-terrestrials: we have the Skairos themselves as the seelie/unseelie lords and ladies, their monsters as their hounds, the corrupted bloodline as their changelings and the time shadows as an expression of their otherworldly nature.

Let’s explore the ideas in more detail, but set aside the idea of a corrupted bloodline for now (our purpose here is to express new possible monster stat-blocks for the PCs to face, rather than nuanced player-character options).

The Hounds of the Skairos

This version of the Skairos space monster is a strange, dark-skinned creature, all long, lean limbs and an eyeless face dominated by a large, fanged maw that scuttles in the shadows of the caverns beneath Persephone.

The original Devil of Persephone is probably the most obvious: some sort of bestial hound-thing that raced through the labyrinthine caverns beneath Persephone, devouring colonists.  They were stealthy, preferred the shadows of the Labyrinth, had spectacular sensory abilities, and had a hallucinogenic venom that made the target “bright” to psychic senses (like their own).

Each interpretation of the Skairos was meant to be the possible interpretation for the beginning of the Akashic Order, and the venom of the Skairos, here, was meant to be that which gave the first oracles their first push into greater heights of temporal awareness.  I still like the idea of the venom, but at this point, I think the idea that the Skairos are intelligent agents is pretty central to their role in the setting.  They may have beasts, but they are not beasts.

The Shades of the Skairos

This version of the Skairos space monster is a hungry, dangerous, ghostly apparition that manifests as a dark haze of smokey shadows.  It represents either a manifestation of the dangerous astral energies the infuse the caverns of Persephone, or a dangerous fragment of a foreign timeline trying to draw people into it.  In this latter, improper use of temporal travel (see the “Secrets of the Skairos”) could result in someone “trapped outside of time” and becoming one of these time shadows.  At the GM’s discretion, should such a time shadow gather enough “temporal energy” by destroying enough people, it might manifest as a real being, a piece of lost time that has pushed itself into our universe.

 The Shades of the Skairos are were we first start to  get our idea of the Skairos-as-irruptors, beings who have “fallen outside of time” or who were never part of our timeline to begin with, seeking to find a away to force themselves in.  I find this a much more compelling idea, similar to the Ramices of Dungeon Fantasy or, of course, the Irruptors of the Madness Dossier.  Who doesn’t like a fragment of a broken timeline trying to slip its way into ours as a monster?

I think these are definitely worth exploring, though we’ll need to address the differences between a temporal shade, a hyperdimensional being, and a ghost and if that’s a distinction worth making, but I find that intangible beings are becoming more common in Psi-Wars, as are the tools for defeating them, so it’s less of a problem to more blatantly include them, especially if we allow the Akashic Order to have special means of protecting against their malign influence.

If we include all three at the same time, the Shades might not be “proper skairos,” but represent their enemies, or their exiles, or their recruits, trying to wend their way in.  They could, in fact, represent all sorts of things pushing at the thin, temporal boundaries found within the labyrinths.

The Faces of the Skairos

Ancient, and often fallen, alien races clutter the galaxy.  While the arm of the galaxy where humanity developed has a paucity of aliens, that doesn’t mean no such aliens exist.  Aliens could certainly have colonized the stars, had their wars and then fallen long before humanity ever reached them.

The Skairos could be one such race.  In this version, the Skairos have innate, racial ESP and perfected its use centuries ago.  They predicted their own fall, the rise of humanity, and the one hope their people had of weathering the Coming Storm: teaching humanity their art of deep time and guiding them over the hurdles that it would cause.

If you ask a Psi-Wars die hard “who are the Skairos,” this is the answer they would give.  They are a secret race of Espers who lurk within the labyrinth and pull the strings of the Akashic Order. They’re the only option directly included on the blog, making them about as canonical as they can get.

The original idea behind them was that they were just a particularly psychic race, not especially different from the Ranathim or the Keleni.  They’ve grown in stature and importance to match the Eldoth and, like the Eldoth, deserve a bit of a buff from “50 point racial template” to “OMG RUN!”

In my mind, they have changed from “Miraluka expies” to “ultraterrestrial conspirators who may have once ruled a part of the galaxy and sought to manipulate mankind through the Akashic Order, and can still be found in the Labyrinth.”  For example, what do you think my players expect to find in the Labyrinth beneath the botanical asteroids of the Orochi Belt?  Those asteroids, the Veridian Field, used to be a planet, Veridian, until something destroyed it.  Who do you think the players think lived on that world when it was destroyed? The answer to both is “The Skairos.”  And do they expect them to be yet-another-race?  I doubt it.  “The Skairos” have become, in the minds of my players, a race, and a very powerful race at that.

But what is the character of this new race?  I think they meld the best of the previous two entries: they have a “temporal irruptor” quality of the time shades, and a venomous, predator quality of the Skairosian hounds.  They’re dangerous and not be meddled with but you could negotiate with them.

I mention “Utraterrestrials” in conjuction with the Skairos a lot, mainly because they don’t come from another world so much as another dimension, or seem to at least draw their power and nature from things beyond our cosmic boundaries.  But I think the “fae” aspects of Ultra-Terrestrials fit too.  I don’t see the Skairos with ridiculously advanced technology.  Instead, I see them as wielding comparable technology to what the modern galaxy has, though it might seem anachronistically out of date, like they resemble the Maradonians of their height at the times of the Alexian Dynasty more than they do a modern noble, in the same way that we expect a “fae” to look medieval rather than modern.  We might expect them to be tricky and deceptive, which fits their motif as conspirators.  They are dark mirrors of humanity, possibly even projections of our own psyche, or the results of our ultimate evolution projecting back in time to help direct us towards their own creation (and are pissed that the Keleni and their True Communion managed to disrupt their preferred timeline).

One of my readers commented on how they keep their secret, and the obvious answer is a “Morphology Inducer” from GURPS Monster Hunters 5, some device that hides the Skairos’ true form and allows them to blend in as humans.  Their penchant for veils might be because their morphology inducers don’t hide their eyes (and perhaps their teeth and perhaps their shadows) especially well.  They might not even look human, and we only think they look like eyeless humans because that’s what we see with the morphology inducer which leaves open all sorts of interesting options for what they are as creatures.

I see three broad categories of Skairos to play with, especially if we treat them as “dark mirrors” of the Maradonian breed of humanity: the Skairosian Knight, the Skarosian Witch, and the Skairosian Lord.

The Knight is, of course, a dark mirror for the Maradonian Knight: an armored warrior wielding a force sword (or, perhaps, a crystal/glass blade?) who fights with one of the Maradonian styles, only differently, and in particular uses time-manipulating powers (similar to the Watcher at the Edge of time) to gain an advantage on his foes.

The Witch is, of course, a dark mirrors for the Akashic Oracle.  They would be female Skairos hidden behind veils who tell their knights what to do and offer them support via broader time-manipulation powers.

The Lords would represent the Maradonian lords or the Alexian dynasts.  They would be rare “super-bosses,” the beings in the deepest parts of the labyrinth who represent the culmination of a great hunt.  There might even be different, competing factions of Skairos, each serving their particular lord, whose psychic power and physical stature might push at the bounds of what it means to be “human-like.”

What Dwells Below

One last comment: I don’t think everything in the Labyrinth should be “Skairos.”  They created the labyrinth and rule them (or at least ruled them).  But twisted psionic energy has leaked into the labyrinth and corrupted them in the many dark aeons since the Skairos last walked the galaxy unimpeded.  Today, there are likely other monstrous beings who wander the labyrinth.  These might be standard ecological invaders, such as random space beasts who made burrows in the labyrinth or raiders who took refuge within.  There might be ghosts or the results of Broken Communion’s twisting influence in the bowels of the more monstrous parts of the Labyrinth.

But what killed the Skairos? What emptied their worlds of the race? Against what do the Skairos move in the shadows? Are some of these “great enemy” lurking within the labyrinth, and are they want the Skairos sharpen humanity to be a weapon against?

Into the Labyrinth: Musings on Labyrinth Worlds

I’ve not been as active on my blog lately not because I’ve been too busy doing other things, but because most of the things I’ve been working on aren’t “ready for primetime.”  That said, one of the points of the blog is to let people see “how the sausage gets made,” so revealing some of my thoughts and approach to things might not be a bad idea.  It at least shows you things going on behind the scenes and gives you material to chew on and perhaps do something with on your own.

Recently, the Tall Tales group chose to explore a route that brings them the most directly into contact with the Labyrinth and the Skairos.  I’ve been thinking about them for a long time, which likely is surprising to some, as the Labyrinth is just a foot note in other posts but in my head, it becomes increasingly central to the “mysteries, monsters and conspiracies” of the Glorian Rim.  They are:

• The source and wellspring of the Akashic Mysteries
• An initiation trial of House Kain
• A means of exploring the galaxy without ever getting onto a ship.
• A source of cool monsters and lost relics.

Thus the labyrinth is likely deserving of more attention than it’s getting and, with it, their creators (or, at least, the race most deeply associated with them, the Skairos).

Inspirations for the Labyrinthine Worlds

Ideas churn in my mind constantly, and I attempt to feed that churn by constantly consuming interesting works related to what I’m doing.  For the Akashic Mysteries in general, I had known I wanted something that felt a bit like the more conspiratorial versions of the actual paranormal research of the 60s and 70s paired with new age thought, mixed with the cthonic cults of ancient Greece (especially the Oracle of Delphi and the Elysian Mysteries).  I also knew I wanted something that involved multiple timelines crossing, like a council of time-shadows where people from the past consulted with people from the future.  All of this blended into the Akashic Mysteries.

Inspiration for the Labyrinthine Worlds came later, as I read the Hyperion Cantos, wherein they literally have Labyrinthine Worlds. As far as I can tell, these were just worlds hollowed out by mysterious builders who, I believe, intended to use them as mass graves for all of humanity. Pretty dark!  But I loved the idea of exploring a world of caverns and tunnels and ancient ruins deep beneath the Earth.  I think everyone does, and that’s one of the appeals of Tolkien’s Moria, which itself seems to have inspired most of D&D, which boasts some pretty vast “mega-dungeons.”  But what would sci-fi be if not offering what fantasy does, but turned up to cosmic proportions?

And if we combine this idea of worlds riddled with ancient tunnels with the ideas behind the Elysian Mysteries and the idea of seeking out the secrets of the labyrinth of your own mind, we create a nicely bisocciated mirror between physical caverns and cosmic self-experience.  To descend into the labyrinth is to descend into a metaphorical and literal underworld where one seeks to gain cosmic knowledge.  At least twice, I’ve used this metaphor, both for the initiation rites of House Kain, and for the initiation rites of the Akashic Mysteries and House Sabine, though one is martial and the other is sorcerous.

The Labyrinth as Dungeon

The Labyrinth also reveals another need in Psi-Wars, one which has been mounting for quite some time: Psi-Wars is as much a monster-hunting setting as it is an Action setting. In fact, I think you can make the case that it’s a “kitchen sink” setting, but it tends to embrace the themes of monster hunting and action more than it embraces the themes of Dungeon Fantasy and After the End.  Characters don’t descend into labyrinths to kill monsters and take their stuff (well, I mean, members of House Kain might, but that’s more of a background thing than something that’s explicitly the focus of the game design of the setting), but rather, they engage in Action-oriented stuff, like defeating the Empire or uncovering an insidious conspiracy, and sometimes that insidious conspiracy has its origins in something truly monstrous, at which point, the characters need to transition to more supernatural tasks.  Fortunately, we already have the core tools players might need to do that: this is a setting that already brims with psychic and divine power.  We just need to give them something to fight.

As we dig into the themes of the Glorian Rim, we find that we have layer after layer to explore.  We have the superficial layer of the war between the Alliance and the Empire, but beneath that we have the rivalries between the houses and the criminal empires that lurk just under the civilized veneer of the aristocracy.  Beneath that, and we start digging into the mysteries of the Alexian dynasty, and beneath that, the Akashic Order that stood behind the Alexian Emperors, and beneath that, underneath it all, beneath the feet of humanity, lie the labyrinths from which the Akashic Mysteries sprang.

If we’re going to explore them, we need to have a sense of how they work, and while I dismissed the themes of DF for Psi-Wars, they certainly provide a lot of inspiration for something like a Labyrinth or the monsters within it.  While our heroes wouldn’t descend into a Labyrinth for sweet loot and enchanted items (though a relic or two might be nice), the experiences they had in the labyrinth might not be much different from a slightly more ultra-tech version of what DF adventurers experience.  Thus, I’ve found myself buying more and more DF works, seeking inspiration.

How I currently see the Labyrinthine Worlds

I often find I accumulate layer and layer of thoughts and ideas on a topic that never actually reach you, dear reader.  Some of them come from things I’ve read, ideas I’ve had, thought about, researched and developed without ever actually writing down, or from conversations I’ve had on Discord in a heated flurry of exchanges that the rest of the community might miss, so it might be nice to lay out the rough ideas I have for the labyrinth at this particular moment.

• The Labyrinth connects all Labyrinthine Worlds

 The Labyrinth is more than just a set of tunnels through a geologically dead world.  They are tunnels through space and time itself.  Once one descends into the labyrinth, one can travel through all the labyrinths of the labyrinthine worlds and arrive at some new destination in some profoundly remote world.  This will be especially interesting (and one of the core elements behind the adventure we’ll do in the Tall Tales) for the labyrinths of destroyed worlds, as their labyrinth might remain “whole” in the weird space-time that they occupy.

Navigating a labyrinth this way will require a unique skill, at least Navigation (Underground) and perhaps some unique perk or technique.

• The Labyrinth is surreal

There are lots of “haunted locations” in Psi-Wars, from the Eldothic Deep Engine to regions of Twisted Psionic Energy, but they need to have their own unique feel, and the feel of the Labyrinth is a blurring of the real with the unreal.  The Labyrinth is not just physical tunnels, but some sort of metaphysical journey in search of enlightenment.  The dream-journeys of the Akashic Oracles have some sort of connection with and are reflections of the physical journeys of those who delve into the labyrinth.  Strange events occur in the Labyrinth that have portentous impact on the outside world.  The journey into the labyrinth begins to take on a symbolic nature, as though the entire experience could be a dream or a moment of religious ecstasy. When one completes a journey, they should be left wondering how much of it was real, and how much was delusion.

• The Labyrinth holds secrets

This mixture between the real and the unreal, between the physical and the mental, contributes to one of the reasons one would go into the labyrinth.  You might seek to “get” somewhere, but for the most part, one goes into the labyrinth to understand something.  House Kain initiates seek to understand their limits, while House Sabine seeks to master the secrets of time and the future.  If the Labyrinth is a dungeon, it’s an occultish sort of dungeon, where the “riches” find within are riches of lore and wisdom, rather than physical wealth.

• The Labyrinth explores themes of time and alternate realities

I had a lot of fun writing up the Skairos, and one of the themes of the Skairos was uncertainty. They were designed to be multiple possible things at once.  The original idea was to allow the GM to decide, and I still think that’s a good idea, but this uncertainty, the “quantum instability” of the concept of the Skairos has infected everything they were associated with, including the Labyrinth.  Obviously, they have something to do with time (hence their association with the time-exploring Akashic Order), but could they not have something to do with alternate realities and false possibilities?  When one walks the Labyrinth, is part of the surreal experience that one is walking through a maze of alternate possibilities?

Psi-Wars is still ostensibly sci-fi, and its “dungeons” should explore sci-fi themes.  I puzzled on this, because I kept returning to the imagery of stone and monsters, rather than steel and mutants, and I think I’ve settled on why: the sci-fi themes of the Labyrinth are not that it’s an ancient ruin of a long dead, highly-advanced civilization (such as the ruins of the Eldoth), or that it’s the results of a monstrous automation run amuck (as with Terminus).  Rather, it’s the result of some sort of temporal or time-line-shifting technology.  The Labyrinths represent a technology of temporal geometry; their mysteries and dangers more that of Fringe or the Twilight Zone than they are Blame!, Lovecraft or Event Horizon. The Skairos who created it are more Ultraterrestrial than Extraterrestrial.

• The Labyrinth is a dungeon

It’s dark, it’s confusing, you must delve into it, and it’s full of traps and monsters. it’s definitely the sort of place where we can draw inspiration from DF, with the caveats of fulfilling the thematic requirements above.

I also happen to think Monster Hunters could really do with a series on “Bad Places,” the hell-catacombs haunted by a demon, or the tomb complex of a mummy or the decaying ruins home to a ghost or a vampire.  I find that as I work on the “monsters” of Psi-Wars, I also need to define the environments in which they live, which gives me a lot of ideas for Monster Hunters in general.