Archive for Creatures

He was tall and slender, with pale yellow skin, all-black eyes rimmed in red, and a long, silver-grey pony tail. His ink-stained fingers were unusually long, and cold to the touch. His clothes were old fashioned, from decades ago, and formal–black tails and a top hat. They were slightly worn, but in good repair.
His voice was like gravel, yet deep, warm, and strangely soothing. His forehead was mostly occupied by a strange, yellow tattoo. Just seeing it made me cry, and I was terrified. Still, I knew I needed him. He would make it all better.

–Dr. William Larson, neurosurgeon, convicted axe murderer, and cannibal.

The Katachi no Shouyu is an experiment gone wrong. One of the functions that the shouyokai fulfill is that of an organic battery used to power ongoing spells such as gates. Vast numbers of shouyokai are linked together using technology absorbed from the knowledge of countless civilizations that have fallen to the mold. One such array was disrupted in Edo Period Nippon during the reign of Tokugawa Iemitsu resulting in the creation of a formless mass of viscous black protoplasm reeking of soy sauce. The faces of the individual shouyu occasionally bubble up and are visible along the surface of the Katachi, and there is a constant screaming sound coming from it as its once-human components writhe in pain, constantly being consumed.

Shouyokai are revenants reanimated through the agent of the Shouyu mold. Shouyu is an alien parasitical mold that has enslaved planetary populations. Every part of the Shouyo is connected to its collective consciousness, and therefore, part of the whole. There is no central intelligence or body: each colony of mold IS the collective consciousness, and that trait is extended to the beings that it infects. The only goal of Shouyu is to expand.

These creatures are shape changing humanoid predators. Their natural form is a large, powerfully built creature with long claws on both hands and feet. Their powerful jaws can open quite wide and are filled with sharp teeth and bone crushing shearing plates. Their eyes are red and they possess night vision equal to that of a tiger. However, they are usually found in their camouflage form, appearing as a normal average human being. Shifting into their natural form can be done in about 2 minute, but assuming their human form takes half an hour. Their camouflaged form is typically 35-45 SIZ points smaller than their natural once in appearance, but their weight remains constant.

This is a “Lovecraftian” monster for use in a traditional fantasy roleplaying games. Slithering Rats use rules and stats from MAZES (a new RPG in 9 th Level Games’ new POLYMORPH system line of RPGs).

A Note to Our Readers: The Mazes RPG uses a modern rules system focused on dungeon adventures – Mazes FEELS like games from the 1970s but runs like RPGs from today. An integral part of the Mazes design philosophy is the idea of “keeping it weird” – specifically players throwing players off their game by always presenting them with strange things that they’ve never seen before – which used to be a key part of the 1970s RPG experience that we’ve largely forgotten today.

“Though I had mayde the pact with the Lorde of the Great Abyss and knew this being would visit, I could not have been prep’red for its majesty. Its skin all over midnyght black, it tower’d over me, wielding the great trident.
In my mind was spoken a demand for the reason I had summoned it.”

–Written on a scroll, circa late 18th

This non-corporeal parasitic entity from another dimension is one of a number of creatures that feed upon very powerful human emotions. This particular variety desires the feelings of profound loss and mourning. The first Beloved Dead was summoned to earth by a reckless wizard seeking to restore their beloved to life. They opened a gateway to another dimension and invited the soul of their lost love back into its body. What they got instead was a powerful, malevolent parasite which played upon their grief and ultimately claimed their life.

System: Paranoia (all versions)

Category: Monster

Class: Thaumiel

Shouldn’t it be ‘lies beneath’? – Ron-O-KTH-2

No, everything else in Alpha Complex lies.  This is far worse. – Alice-B-KTH-5

R&D notes, year 214

ULTRAVIOLET CLEARANCE ONLY

WARNING: COGNITOHAZARD LEVEL MAXIMUS

BELOW TEXT CLASSIFIED THOUGHT PROTOCOL ZED-FIVER-GAMMA

These strange creatures violate most laws of physics. They existing in a parallel dimension of darkness and possess the ability to briefly manifest in our reality through interdimensional weak points created by sinister magic. They serve the Great Old One Nyogtha, Thing That Should Not Be. Powerful wizards who serve Nyogtha are sometimes taught the ritual needed to open a doorway for a Parcel of Darkness. These creatures then lurk near these weak points, waiting to ambush and attack anyone not directly under the protection of Nyogtha.

There had to be a dozen or more, black and glossy, a cross of spiders, beetles and lizards–all of ‘em half the size of my boot. I kicked away a few, but the bastards were fast, so I started stomping. They were hard, their bellies hit the floor with a loud clacking sound. The 12- gauge worked fine though, cracked ‘em open, and some kinda’ thick, black fluid splashed out of
‘em. Bit the shit out of me, but I killed them all.

Gave the damn wizard time to escape, though.—William “Knuckles” Johnson, SSgt, United States Army (Ret.), Security and Combat Specialist for the Manchester Foundation.

Cutter Bugs are black, chitinous creatures with a high gloss. They appear as a cross between spiders, beetles and lizards, and have saw-like legs, similar to those of a cricket. They have no internal organs, and have a thick, black ichor, rather than blood. Cutter Bugs are very fast, entirely focused on task, and fierce in combat. However, they have very limited intelligence.