Monstrous Monday: The Taunter for GURPS Technomancer and WaRP System

Well it's finally here: Monstrous Monday! I would have posted this sooner today but I got a little bit busy today. For my monster I present The Taunter, a demon for GURPS Technomancer (3rd Edition rules) as it was originally presented in All of the Above, the GURPS APA issue 39, December 1999. Also included are stats using the Wanton Role-Playing System from Atlas Games. Enjoy.

The Taunter 

The demonic beings known as Taunters are not known to the general public at large. They walk behind the scenes, tormenting loners and people on the edge of society. The victim of a Taunter is plagued with paranoid and increasingly nightmarish dreams until the victims kill themselves or are institutionalized. After this, the being leaves to go torment the next victim in line. A Taunter will never kill a victim on their own. It is believed that several suicides and murder-suicides were caused by a Taunter.

A Taunter takes a particular delight in driving a person mad. They will use all of their abilities to make the victim appear foolish, driving away friends and family until the victim is alone by themselves. Then the visions and a barrage of madness spells begin. If a person somehow overcomes the influence of a Taunter, the Taunter will leave the person alone, and he will be "marked" as someone the rest of this demonic race will not touch. They also seem to have a deep dread of the truly insane; maybe this is because the perceptions of the insane can truly identify them.

Taunters in their natural form are thin chalk white beings around 6 feet tall. The skin of a Taunter is wrinkled with a slightly oily sheen. The hairless face has no features but milky white eyes, two slits where a nose would be, and a wide mouth that takes over half of the face. They are always smiling. When they use alter body, the human form is usually of average appearance, with the exception of the milky white eyes and insane grin.

The Taunter rarely speaks to its victim, but when it does it is with a rich voice. In the one recorded instance of a discussion with a Taunter, it was asked it's purpose. It responded "We exist. That is all."

Taunters (223 points) 

Attributes: IQ+3 (30), HT+2 (20).
Advantages: Demon (see GURPS Technomancer p 62) (34), Fast Regeneration (50), Extra Fatigue +5 (15), Invisibility (Switchable +10%, 44), Invisibility to Machines (Switchable +10%, 22), Terror (Eye contact only -20%, 24)
Disadvantages: Dependency: Fear, common, daily (-15), Dread (The truly insane) (-10), Frightens Animals (-5), Pacifism (Cannot attack anyone who overcame a Taunter) (-5), Sadism (-15), Vow (Will not personally kill their victim) (-15).
Innate Spells (includes +1 for Magery): Alter Body at IQ+5 (Nuisance Effect: Eyes always remain milky white -5%,11), Madness at IQ+5 (12), Nightmare at IQ+5 (12)

Wanton Role-Playing System Stats 

Attack: 4 dice (nightmarish visions)
Defense: 4 dice (demonic constitution)
Hit Points: 28

Tormentor Demon (4 dice) The Taunter is a demon who feeds on the fear and terror of their victims. A Taunter can induce fear and madness in their victim. Patient beings, they can spend years driving an innocent man to acts of murder and mayhem. Even causing slight mishaps for others makes the demons day. They also share some of the resilience of their infernal cousins. (Smiles at the misery of others)

Shifting Form (3 dice) Form is fluid to the Taunter, and is used to torment it's current prey. A Taunter can shift into the forms of people they have met or images they have seen. They can also cloak themselves from everyone else other than the person they are tormenting, thus increasing the isolation of their victims. Any form the Taunter takes is marked by the milky white eyes of their real forms. (Milky white eyes)

Demonic Bans (Flaw) While powerful, the Taunter is bound by certain "rules" that can curb their power. Taunters will not kill their victims directly, for a dead victim provides no fear. A person who overcomes the attentions of a Taunter will be never again be tormented by another one. The truly insane will drive a Taunter away, and certain madmen have been rumored to banish them all together. (Cringes when the crazy bag lady goes by)

Monster Monday: Scarecrow Ninjas for Risus

This is a re-post from July. I thought it would be perfect for Monster Monday. Enjoy...

Scarecrow Ninjas 

The Occult World has had animated scarecrows and their ilk for centuries. Once mocked for being a poor wizards's golem and mere protector of crops, recent events both random and meditated have raised their standings. In the past two decades their have been enough spontaneous eruptions of scarecrows that a phrase has been coined for a group of two or more: a murder of scarecrows.

Only recently has there been an effort to catalog the variety of these scarecrows. One of the more unusual scarecrows that have been witnessed is what has been called the Scarecrow Ninja. Inhabited by the spirits of ninja summoned by a powerful necromancer, these scarecrows are a blend of jerky stumbling and terrifying grace. The pliable bodies filled with straw can bend and flex in ways a mortal body cannot. The only way to stop them is to burn them to ash, or for a mortal ninja to defeat them with the Ancient Arts of the Ninja.

Scarecrow Ninja (Stats for Risus the Anything RPG)

Cliches:
Animated Scarecrow Ninja [4]
Inhumanly Flexible Destroyer of Crows...and People (3)

Hook: Weaknesses to Fire and Ninja Combat: When fighting a fellow ninja, a scarecrow ninja loses the Inhumanly Flexible Destroyer of Crows...and People cliche, and the double pump on the Animated Scarecrow Ninja cliche. It can still pump the Animated Scarecrow Ninja as per the normal Risus rules.

*The Scarecrow Ninjas were inspired by the Fighting Fantasy gamebook cover above that I saw on the fuckyeahbritisholdschoolgaming tumblr page. You have to check this tumblr out--its full of old school British gaming goodness!

Check out the magic and all the fun:

Monster Monday: Tomb Harvesters for WaRP

Here's my first entry for Monstrous Monday using the Wanton Role-Playing System for a monster inspired by some horror movies. I have some stats for the tomb harvesters in Space Princess, but I can't find them right now. But anyway enjoy...

Tomb Harvesters
You think that when you die, you go to Heaven? You come to us!  The Tall Man, Phantasm II

Tomb harvesters appear as 7 foot tall male or female humanoids dressed in the funerary attire of whatever place they are currently inhabiting. Their skin tone range from a sickly white to ashen gray or washed out colors. The tomb harvesters slowly infiltrate the less advanced planets for the purpose of harvesting the dead of any humanoid species.  First the dead are harvested from the cemeteries of small communities, and the bodies are sent to unknown dimensions via strange and unpredictable gates. As the harvester and their servitors become more entrenched the body theft become more brazen and the living are soon targeted. Living victims are transformed to various minion forms or drained of life force to fuel a variety of strange machinery. Unopposed by anyone a tomb harvester can wipe out a small planet in a few years, the entire world becoming an empty husk. Even if prevented from their task, the harvesters can cut a swath of death and destruction throughout an area.

Although they appear to by humanoid, tomb harvesters are theorized to be some kind of engineered being or revivified undead. They are superhumanly strong and very hard to kill, often shrugging off small arms and laser fire. Many harvesters have revealed the equivalent of psychic abilities such as telepathy, telekinesis, and illusion projection that are used to injure, kill, and confuse their victims . While all foes are seen as a danger, tomb harvesters will especially target opponents who demonstrate psychic abilities activated or latent. Psychics and espers have been known to sense tomb harvesters long before others, and untrained psychics seem to be either desired or feared by them.

The presence of a tomb harvester slowly starts to corrupt the reality around the areas were they lair. In some ways the harvesters are an extension of the gates that they use to transport their harvest. As their influence grows, the harvester can move in the shadows to confuse and capture their opponents. Time and space seem to bend around them, and many people who thought they have escaped for the tomb harvester have found that road winds back into the clutches of the fiend they were trying to escape.

Most Tomb Harvesters have abilities beyond the stats below. Each is in response to their environment and their personal interests.

Attack Dice: 4 dice (unnatural strength)
Defense Dice: 4 dice (Technomantic Body)
Hit Points: 35 (unnatural)

Engineered Technomantic Construct/ 5 dice

The tomb harvester appears as a creepy human but is actually a technomantic construct designed to withstand pressures and environment that would kill most humanoids. Their build makes them superhumanly strong and resilient, and able to regenerate most forms of damage. Hand to hand combat with a tomb harvester is not recommended. (Blood doesn't 'look right')

Funerary Rites/ 3 dice

Wherever the tomb harvester is, it immerses itself in the funerary rites of the culture they have chosen to infiltrate. In most cultures the harvester becomes a priest, a mortician, or an executioner. In more barbaric cultures the harvester acts more like a ghoul on the outskirts of society feeding on the refuse of the dead. Whichever the result, the reverence, respect, and sometime fear that those who work with the dead are given allows the harvester to work in the shadows.  (Wears funerary attire)

Warper of Reality/ 3 dice

The very nature of the tomb harvester warps the reality where their gates lie. The harvester is not omnipotent, but it can sense beings that invade it's complex easily. The harvester can cloak its nature from most people, appearing as a tall, albeit creepy humanoid   As their influence grows the harvester can torment its victims with a variety of psychic abilities. A tomb harvester can follow a victim through the shadows silently, always appearing when they least expect them. (Appears where you know there wasn't a door)

Servitor/ Flaw

While very powerful, the tomb harvester is ultimately a servitor to the alien powers that created it. They have a tendency to follow their instinct to harvest the dead, and little else can get in the way of that goal. This can be used to overwhelm the harvester with unusual tactics it does not expect. (Listens to something that isn't there)

Warper of Reality/ Flaw

The tomb harvester's warping of reality can be noticed, especially by those with psychic or mystic ability. Things begin to change as the harvester works, and those who have dealt with tomb harvesters can trace the signs, and possibly stop them before it happens again to another town. In addition, latent mystics and psychic abilities seem to affect the warped reality of the tomb harvesters. The latents begin to dream of the harvester and the gates, and they are noticed back in kind. These people are either destroyed or used as templates for new tomb harvesters. (Flashes of the harvester's true form)

Inspired by the Phantasm movies and City of the Living Dead by Lucio Fulci.

BOYYYYYY!

B-Movie Monday: Horror VHS Cover Art

Here is a video complilation of some of the best horror VHS box art that came out since the 80s. I wish that half of the videos out today had as good the art. Sure sometimes the movie had no relation to the cover, but you roll your dice, you take your chances... And for an amazing collection of VHS covers of all genres, check out the fine folks at VHS Wasteland.

B-Movie Monday: Gargoyles (1972)

One of my favorite horror movies when I was a youngster, I first saw Gargoyles when they played in on the Milwaukee version of Shock Theater in the early 80's. Easily one of the best horror TV movies outside of The Night Stalker, Gargoyles is an interesting take on the Gargoyle myth. This movie features the Mighty Bernie Casey as the Gargoyle and the first onscreen work of legendary special effects artist Stan Winston.
And like many b-movies of the era you may find the ending open for sequels. Like maybe, I don't know, perhaps a RPG campaign...