Art by Brad Hicks
There are shoggoth lords, and then there are shoggoths who may advance to a certain degree beyond their primordial ancestors, but one would be remiss to call them “lord.”
Kyle Zanfield is what would be properly termed a shoggoth middle manager. He evolved to a certain level of intelligence in the distant past, and has since learned to control his shape and exercise rudimentary cunning in his hunting.
Throughout the long years, Kyle has been successful at ingratiating himself in with the powerful men and women he came in contact with and installing himself as a trusted aide.
He worked as a priest in the medieval years, a lieutenant in Napoleon’s armies, and an orderly in an insane asylum during the 40’s. He’s now reached what he considers his perfect hunting ground: middle management.
Kyle works as a shipping supervisor at a very large, very successful, and very faceless online shopping company. His personal fief is his warehouse located on the outskirts of a mid sized rust belt city.
The company he works for has a horrible record for employee relations, but they’re monolithic enough that that don’t care. Efficiency is king. As long as Kyle’s shipping metrics are met, he is left alone. To his distant managers he is a example of exactly what they are looking for, a model manager who consistently delivers the numbers they’re looking for. His employees view him differently, however.
Kyle staffs his warehouse with the poor, the desperate, and those who won’t be missed. He has ample prey given the location of his warehouse, as the city he works in always has unemployment issues since the factories closed years ago.
On their first day a new employee is warned in whispered tones not to let their numbers slip. The company has a reputation for micro managing it’s workers, so many people think that all they have to worry about is being fired. To the poor souls working there, however, it is a death sentence.
Kyle watches his herd with a keen eye, and when one of his sheep falls behind, he knows it’s time for a “performance review.” He’s cunning enough to follow corporate procedures to the letter to avoid any unwanted attention. His chosen victim is given a write up, and told to work harder. Kyle will be watching. What follows next is a gradual turning up of the pressure as Kyle increases the work load and schedules the hapless victim for untenable hours.
When the poor soul inevitably slips behind, Kyle schedules one last meeting after closing. With the warehouse shut down, Kyle brings the worried worker into his office and shuts the door. The script is the same every time.
“I’m sorry, champ. I’ve been watching you’re metrics and they’ve slipped too much.”
If the poor soul protests and begs for his job, a cruel smile spreads across Kyles face. “No, like I said, you’re metrics are just not up to par. I’m going to have to terminate you.”
The pseudopod lashes out Kyle’s corpulent stomach and latches on to the poor worker, dragging him gasping and screaming to his doom. The panicked face gets one last look at the world before being dragged into the gelatinous mass, which soon reforms to look like an overstretched, stained white button down.
Kyle smiles and licks his lips. He likes it here.
KYLE ZANFIELD, a true manager from hell
char.
STR
CON
SIZ
DEX
INT
POW
APP
EDU
Hit Points:
Damage Bonus:
Build:
Magic Points:
Move:
human form
60
80
90
45
55
65
30
55
17
+1D4
1
13
7
true form
120
160
90
45
55
65
n/a
n/a
25
+1D6
2
13
10 slithering
Combat
Attacks per round: 2 (unarmed/weapon) or 1 (crush or engulf).
While Kyle can punch and kick, he most wants to engulf his prey in his gelatinous body to feed.
Engulf: a successful attack means the target is seized and begins to be sucked into Kyle’s body mass, where it can be digested. While being digested, the victim suffers the creature’s damage bonus in damage each round from caustic acids and digestive fluids. Those held may attempt to break free with an opposed STR roll per round. Unlike his larger cousins, Kyle may only engulf and feed on one victim at a time.
Fighting (human form) 60% (30/11) 1D6+2+DB
Crush (true form) 80% (40/16) Damage= DB
Engulf (true form, mnvr) 80% (40/16) damage= DB
Dodge 23% (11/4)
Skills
Charm 70%, Eat All the Donuts in the Break Room 99%, Eat Your Lunch and Blame Somebody Else 75%, Intimidate 60%, Micromanage 80%, Language (English, French) 40%, Stealth 65%, Tell You How To Do Your Job Despite Never Having Actually Done it 99%.
Armor: none; halve damage caused by fire and electrical attacks; mundane weapons (incl. bullets) deal only 1 point of damage per hit; regenerates 2 hit points per round (death at zero hit points).
Spells: Cloud Memory, Enthrall Victim, Mental Suggestion.
Sanity Loss: 1D6/1D20 Sanity points to encounter Kyle its true form; plus 1/1D3 Sanity points for witnessing Kyle change from human to shoggoth form.
Christian lives in Rhode Island where all this started. He thinks people are much more terrifying monsters than any nameless thing from the stars. He’s one of the hosts of the DMsAfterDark rpg stream.
