Tylandriels' First Child

Hello all,

This was something I sent to Carl, but I wanted to post it in it's raw form here as well for anyone who was interested that wants to look it over. Also, any feedback is always appreciated.


So I was putting in some thought on Desire’ and wanted to kind of hash out some ideas as I go…now this is all just straight from brain to text, so it’s pretty rough.

Dance as a martial art: Perhaps the ability to use Charisma in attacks that inflict varying amounts of damage, though I’d rather see the damage not be as big as varying penalties or bonuses based on maneuvers. Some examples:

· Feinting in an attack that inflicts minimal damage but increases the chance of dodging the next incoming attack(perhaps in the form of a minus to their attack roll). Perhaps even with a chance of counter-attack on that target. Using a dance move that sweeps you in close but leaves your balance on your feet behind you, allowing you to dip away quickly. Think cobra-style martial arts. Fast, quick attacks that aim for vulnerable areas and provide lots of mobility.

· Tripping the opponent, using something akin to a dip in a dance move to use their own weight against them and sweep their feet.

· Dance allows for you to be mesmerizing as well as dangerous. This could perhaps throw a target off if the character appeals tot heir sexual appetites, making it less likely for them to attack the target until attacked by the target, giving the character time to close the distance for close-ranged fighting.

· With a flexible dancer’s body you could easily work your way into tight spaces and pin or grapple a character. This comes in handy in more than one way.

· A lot of martial arts work on using the opponents momentum and striking vital spots to hinder the opponent temporarily, or for longer periods. Dance helps you take the lead and move your partner’s body into positions most beneficial for you. I think this would make a devastating combination in close quarters combat. It would allow you to slither into an opponents blind spots and strike at the soft underside of armor, or spaces on the body where they are less protected.

· Using this in conjunction with simple tools: Garrote, rope (silken veils), knives, daggers, fingernails, poisons(hallucinogens), needles, and even more advanced things like laser wire or electric diodes. All of these things can be easily concealed and used to devastating effect.



The ability to scan creatures to find their desires and wants as part of the shadow modules is a super useful ability for this character. A minor psychic ability might be useful as well, maybe the ability to simply sense a creature’s/being’s/etc. desires at surface level without much effort, but deeper as mental contact remains. I am not sure what all modules the shadow panther had. I know it was able to track and follow things through the shadow, so perhaps even the ability to travel physically into and out of shadow. An innate sense of shadow (being borne of shadow) or something like that.

I was also thinking of building some of the modules (after hopefully obtaining some of Corpel’s notes) out of that fungus that can be linked to various power sources to obtain energy and usage. This would give her the chance to grow on a cosmic level and perhaps even allow for the expansion of her modules beyond the simple. Giving her the energy to power the potential of a far-stretching combination of modules beyond drawing energy from the shadow world itself.

Unusual Ancestry: Succubus/Incubus. I guess you could also say he is a shadow creation as well. I figure since devils and demons seem closely related to the shadow, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say Succubae and Incubi spawn there too. They are simply a devil focused on harvesting the lust or love of creatures and using that as an in to steal their life energy. A bonus to Charisma and Willpower seem like the most likely stats, perhaps even Constitution, but what would be more compelling (beyond the bonus to Charisma/Will) would be the ability to drain the essence from beings, essentially draining a stat. Perhaps it could be random at first, but gain the ability to be chosen upon leveling. It could be temporary, and would definitely require being in the target’s presence and even intimate contact for best effect. (There are some creatures that feed off energy just being around people) This would be a curse and a blessing, because it would be hard to be intimate with someone you actually enjoy being around, without draining them as well. Perhaps the ability to do this once per day, but compound the effects if it’s done multiple times within a set period. Say a week. So the first time you do it you drain d4 points from a stat of the target and gain a d4 for the day. After a day and proper rest, the target regains those points but if you do it again within a week of the first time it becomes a d6 the next time, then a d8, then a d10, then a d12, etc. until you drain the victim to 0 in the given stat and absorb their essence, killing the target. This would be difficult at best, because it would require repeated contact with the target. Perhaps a bonus for being intimate each encounter (d6 then 2d6 then 3d6 etc). The downfall would be: Going without draining a stat or using something like Vampiric Field for a week would cause the character to go into withdrawal. A being that craves this on a regular basis must feed (as a vampire would) and unless they save on a check each day beyond that week (increase the penalty to the check by –2/day) they will lash out and drain/rape the nearest creature that can provide this sustenance. If there are no victims present then s/he could begin losing hit points, or a random stat each day. This is just a thought similar to what some mythos have vampires going through who refuse to feed. If you subscribe to that philosophy.

Vampiric Field: Draining the life force from your enemies for temporary hp. This is a great ability for a succubus/incubus. The only thing I would like to see is the ability to treat it more as the energy of life and be able to focus it down to a cone shape/single target/hit only those she wishes in the area/etc. The ability to transfer the temporary hp as “soul” energy or life energy to others. This could be a form of payment to devils/demons, or even a way for her to bolster allies in times of need. Though, I can’t see her doing this often as this energy is precious and hard won. I like what Tylandriel is doing with the energy he gains and I feel this may be what gives her the idea, or the ability to absorb and harness the energy in an even better fashion than Tylandriel could. It also may be feasible that this and the stat drain type of deal I mention above are similar. Perhaps they could both provide an expendable energy to create marvelous effects or activate certain powers of her shadow creature heritage. (IE: A bonus to a die roll or even powers that require so much energy to activate. I am drawing some of this idea from your blood tattoos) I don’t necessarily see this soul energy (once hard earned) as temporary. You can use it to shrug off damage from an attack (temp hp) which would expend it, but I see it like trading someone else’s life to preserve your own. I’m going to try and clean up this thought because I had it while typing….

Perhaps it’s a Will based attack (Vampiric Field) when you’re near someone and wish to dominate and steal their life essence. This is more permanent than temporary as the damage takes awhile to be renewed, but it’s still temporary because it can be healed. Let’s say you kill the target(s), well this is a lot more permanent. Perhaps this gives a benefit, as you’re consuming their actual essence rather than just sampling it. You could even continue to drain away their life each round. I could see a cap to the temporary hp, or just converting it into an energy that can be used in other fashions.

Now, if you were to be intimate with someone in order to steal his or her life energy, this would be more of a Cha based attack to see, in simple terms, how good you were in bed. How well you kept them going and managed to keep them on the brink of mad lust to continue feeding your hunger. This kind of reminds me of your creatures from the D&D campaign that wrap you up and feed you hit points to keep you alive. I could see a succubus feeding someone willpower, or desire, if you will to keep the person aroused and full of need so they can finish draining their constitution or strength. Same idea, but they feed on the desire instead of the fear. This also would eventually result in death, granting that sweet center of the being’s essence that is beyond anything else, like the center of a tootsie pop…only with more layers.

I relate this somewhat to old school D&D where you had creatures that would drain your statistics. Some were a temporary drain, some permanent. Permanent and temporary alike could kill you, but they didn’t always gain that energy as what they drained. Often it was converted to hit points or temporary hit points beyond their maximum. Sometimes it would empower them to use special abilities. Undead were most known for this, but I don’t see an incubus/succubus being so far removed.

I could see this temporary energy being used as temporary hp, small bursts of strength/dex/con/will/int/cha, whatever you need. (IE: A bonus to a roll for a small period of time) Perhaps even going so far as to use the energy in a reverse effect, simply to harm someone.

The more permanent energy could be used to power various abilities or even draw out abilities of those s/he kills. If I were to relate it to D&D, something like that dagger Goudy had. You kill someone and gain the use of a mutation they had for either a set number of uses, or days. Perhaps if you encounter and absorb that mutation enough it might even hang around you in small doses. Writing this kind of reminds me of a Mind Flayer (next unusual ancestry! lol)

THE SECRETS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND

I also had a thought. What is Tylandriel, or Tylandriel’s subconscious is directing him to create this creature to absorb and sample various parts of the alien virus to rebuild it? I mean…each mutation stems from it in the shadow and the small part is already known to exist in the real world…so what if this creature is drawn to mutation in order to slowly rebuild the string of the virus inside of her that hasn’t been found? Even scanning them she could learn about it, but actually drawing out a little bit of someone would imprint it on her forever. This adds some really creepy and eerie insights into Tylandriel. I just started thinking about this and Tylandriel kinda scares me now. He’s going about it in a different way, but he’s doing something very similar to Corpel. He’s going about it in a nicer way though. I kind of feel like I’ve just discovered something that my own character was holding back from me…that’s scary and probably a bit crazy on my part. I seriously got shivers when I realized this yesterday while typing some of this up.

Well, this certainly could lead to Tylandriel making something like Merlin in the future. In some sort of paradoxical way, it kind of makes sense that he would be trying to help his creation in the past to differentiate himself from Coprel, not wanting to be a tyrant in the same fashion. My head is spinning just thinking of all the implications.

Well, tell me what you think…you can ignore that last bit as crazy ramblings. It makes me sound slightly schizophrenic.

-Mike P.

Musical gift

Here are some ideas for benefits from leveling up musical gift.

• replace 1 D6 with a D4

• gain a charisma bonus

• allow a song to stay active for 1D4 or 1D6 rounds without sustaining the song.

• ability to use the "let it ride" rule on songs that succeed but have a chance of failure. (We have yet to discuss if I can already do this but I thought I would post something about it since some songs auto succeed based off my high charisma.)

• make a single target song have an aura that hits anything in range (friendly fire or enhancing the enemy issues exist.)

• gain a passive bonus that makes it easier to succeed at a song when not facing an enemy alone. (group safety bonus, could possibly require that I'm not in direct line of fire with an enemy.)

• sacrificial ability (example: I get stunned for 2D6 rounds to auto succeed something extremely hard, such as a 7D6 or 8D6 song.)

• entice: sacrifice my next turn to force an enemy to "let it ride". The sound I produce is just that bad. (another example of a sacrificial ability)

• emotional guidance: It is easier to influence emotions through song.
  

I tried to give a lot of different ideas so that maybe musical gift could have several levels. Let me know what you think and hopefully we can scrap together something off my suggestions and your feedback.

Woo the Ladies, Wow Your Enemies, and Weaponize Your Wear!

Here at the Mice Manufactured Mystery, Magic, and Mayhem (5M) we want you to be in style, while not compromising your security. We have just the thing for you Mr. Bomb, I am Tylandrial, but you can call me “T”.

Now that I’ve gotten your attention….


…on to the description! (This is just an idea I was throwing out there for your suit Carter. I came up with it while working on my cyber-harness conversion)

Liquid Metal Strands: This weave allows for the suit to change shape, retain a measure of physical defense, and the ability to adapt to situations when needed. IE: Creating the frame of a hang glider when falling, while mycelium creates the panels.

Eco-Buttons: These are similar to the eco-orbs I use, but are varying styles. Some are shadow touched, some are normal plants that contain various ecologies. This way they can create the suit, shirt, tie, etc in various colors and in a tight spot, be used as grenade like objects with various effects.

Conductive Tissue: This is threaded through the suit sparingly, enough to create a field over the suit, but not affect the look of the suit much. This is to give some added protection from a “force” field. It could also be used as a liner if threading it through isn’t sufficient enough.

AI Control Unit: I was thinking these would be cuff-links, a tie pin, maybe even just a collar piece that goes around the neck. This would provide a nice interface with the user, mild AI that reacts to pre-determined situations, and something like…I guess an Iron Man suit interface.

Ring: This would be to control the plant fibers, eco-buttons, and use the plant in utilitarian ways. IE: Create a rope, make a parachute/hang glider, or camouflage yourself by changing what your outfit looks like. Created by Tylandrial or someone with equivalent quirks.

The most important part: The Look

Here you have a suit that is completely adaptable to environment and situation. You can switch from a police outfit, to a space suit, to an underwater diving suit, to bikini bottoms in a few quick steps. Beautiful suits shimmering (due to the metal and conductive flesh) a bluish hue and looking like silk. The mass displacing itself into bracelets, earrings, and various other adornments as necessary. An extremely useful outfit for our beloved spy James Bomb.

Obviously with an outfit like this, imagination is the limit! Let me know what you think! My feelings won’t be hurt, I just thought I’d throw out my ideas in an easier to read format.

From Metal to Wood: Updated with Text!

So, I was hashing out some ideas for my liquid metal “Doc Oc” harness. I wanted to take it from being a harness into being more a personal attachment or extension of myself. This involves two things to be true.

1) The AI of the suit being able to control the shape and structure of the liquid metal it is compromised of. I was hoping this would be somewhat believable, considering how we met. I am hoping with the help of the mice, it won’t be a far stretch.
2) The ability for the AI to grow the highly conductive flesh that is used to produce power and fields of energy. I am hoping this can be achieved by using some of the research found in the shadow cube entity we “collected”. It seems able to grow and manipulate the flesh-like substance, so that could be very handy.
3) Using my Bio-Sphere/Eco-Spheres to help create the tentacles with my elvish magic. This doesn’t seem too far out, but it is a requirement at the moment.

Now! We get into the think-tank bit of things and what I would really like to achieve. I would love feedback and if this seems too crazy…well so be it, I’m a mad scientist of Nature….I guess.

My goal is to completely replace my spine and cranium with the things we have available to us. I am going to try and break this up into parts.

Bone: I was thinking of replacing the bone structure with a hard wood, thus reducing or keeping weight similar to that of bone, but making it easier to replicate/replace/re-grow/repair. I was thinking of using a tree that, today, is found in South Africa if I remember correctly. It is an ebon wood used to make wind instruments. The true wood is light weight, but incredibly strong. I remember watching a video of tribes people carrying a sack full of axes and spending a day, taking turns, sharpening and cutting through a 1-2 foot thick tree. The stuff is incredibly durable and still maintains weight limits. I was planning to use this as a base material and modify it’s growth to provide the microscopic, porous nature of real bone.

Marrow: To fill the marrow spaces of bone I was planning to use a modified version of the protein mycelium we discovered. It grows fast and can be used as a substitute skin with modification. Being protein packed I didn’t think it was too far of a stretch to modify this into a marrow-like substance that could replace bone marrow.

Spinal Cord “sheath”: This is kind of like insulation on wiring. It would help keep electrical signals running their course on the nerves and insulate against interference from outside sources. It also protects the overall wear and tear on the nerve. I was planning to do some work with Bosco(probably spelling that wrong) and see if he could help recommend a good vine-like coating.

Spinal Cord/Nerves: I was planning to replace the spinal cord (and possibly even my nerve structure) with the conductive flesh we found. It seems highly conductive of electrical signals, and able to pull in energy of it’s own from outside sources. I figure it would be an excellent substitute, being as our signals sent to and from the brain are composed of electric current. With its super conductivity, I may even stand to benefit from increased nerve reaction and signal transmission, helping in the control of the tentacles without as much delay.

Liquid Metal Coating: Finally, I was planning to coat my vertebrae and cranium in the liquid metal that was used to create the harness. This would depend on the capability of the AI to control their liquid metal. My goal being to create a type of core. I want to remain light-weight, but increase durability. Even if I am obliterated bodily, this would allow perhaps my mind/central nervous system/etc to be recovered.

Bio/Eco-Spheres: The name I’m giving my little globes that contain a self-sustaining eco-system. I would place six of these, larger in size, in my back. They would be attached to the spinal column with a liquid metal coating, leaving holes for the plants and things I grow to sprout from. Honestly, I would like them underneath the skin so that I could grow the vine/flesh cored tentacles directly from my back…but this may pose issues I can’t deal with at the moment. My best adaptation to this is to replace my skin with the protein mycelium, at least in those areas, so that I can regenerate it after I suck the tentacles back in. The other option is to have the spheres half imbedded into my back, so that half of the dome peaks out of my skin.

Ok so, that is kind of a breakdown of where I want to go with things…here is the general setup. This contains some theory crafting obviously.

I am not sure how much I exactly learned about the shadow world, souls, and what Julius Corple was trying to do from that shadow cube, but I had an idea occur to me. He was using two pathways to try and create this AI that could have mutations, but essentially be an artificial human. Well, the soul, has 3 pieces as we’ve bantered about around the table, but I’m not sure if my character knows that. I would have to go back and look at my notes, but I believe there is a piece in the shadow world that represents your connection to a spirit, a piece that represents your Personality/Will, and a piece that represents Life. I was thinking of using this to modify the AI in my harness to represent those 3 pieces of the soul. Using the shadow tools to create the pathways, I would have 3 nodes in my spinal setup that would each be a piece of the AI. Their position and setup, focusing on those bits of the soul…but not giving the AI a full soul, so much as an interface with my soul. I would have one node near the base of the skull, representing the connection to Spirit and a sense of presence. Your thoughts control your presence in the spirit realm and you project yourself via your mind there, so I felt this appropriate. I would have one node near the heart for Personality/Will. This also being the piece of the soul that can be corrupted with hate and revenge, causing it to come back as a vengeful spirit of rage, but also being the place where compassion and love can soothe those in need and allow for a transcendence of being. The third being the part of the soul that represents Creation/Life. I would put this near the pelvic, near where the Asian ideal of the power center of the body is located. I have seen it in many martial arts where they focus all their “Life” energy at the end of a fight/routine just above the genitals and just below the stomach. I felt this was an excellent place to put the node that represents that energy. These three nodes would all be parts of the single AI assistant that would help in the control, use, and safety of my tentacles/spine. If one is destroyed it would impact the whole, but hopefully wouldn’t completely shut down, just go into a more…routine pattern of recovery. Similar to a person going into emotional shock over an intense event. I also felt that this would help if I were ever mentally compromised in that the AI could take over and go about simple survival tactics and basic communication until I could recover. Like I said, this is a lot of theory crafting.

I was hoping to have this AI soul link, simply so the AI could make use of some of my mutations. Perhaps, not having it’s own mutations, but being able to grow and shrink the tentacles, turn them into useful tools, re-grow a piece of the spinal column that is shattered while I am unconscious, etc. It has this ability over the basic tentacles now, to the extent of being able to control and shape them, but if I change them into a flesh core/wood shell type of tentacle it would reduce their control some without this capability. I think it would be an interesting concept at the least. A good use of resources at hand to create something new and unusual. It may even help to determine how we can help the shadow cube infant perfect itself into a true being beyond controlled construct.

I am assuming Julius will eventually learn to make something like a Warforged from 4e with mutations, or already has. This is a scary thought, but I plan to make a true artificial creature that is three parts of the soul, unlike the usual Warforged, so that our cube can live an existence it prefers.

However, it would be creepy as hell to see a metallic spine, with a skull atop it (missing it’s lower jaw), glowing shadow pool eye sockets, being help up on six wood tentacles that seem to glow with an electric-pink flesh in between the joints, and moving about like some crazy spider that has incredible flexibility and reflex reactions. So I hope that I’m not reduced to that anytime soon, barring any mental scarring.

If this works out I eventually hope to carry this further, replacing all of my bone with this setup, sans the liquid metal coating(that feels like it would make me too heavy). Instead, I’d just weave threads of the liquid metal through the bone on a microscopic level, so that if the bone broke the threads could pull taught to hold it together until repaired or re-grown. It would weaken the structure when broken, but at least keep me going until we had time to sit down and take a breath.

Well these are just some ideas that were bouncing around in my head after last session. Let me know if you have any ideas or what you think!

Note: Picture updated with a better representation of where I think a good place for the nodes would be, the side view is a little off from what I wrote. Also: I couldn’t remember the exact pieces of the soul as I don’t have my notes, so I kind of winged it for now…

Sorry for the long post!

From Metal to Wood: How to get the most out of your Doc Oc Suit!

Heya! This is BJ/Mike P./Tylandrial. This is just a placeholder for now until I get some conformation on a few pieces and I will update this post with my real post in a few. I am also testing image posting to make sure it works! I am not sure how many of you follow this currently, but I guess here is a teaser pic until I post my real deal. I am happy to have found out about this last Sunday and am happy to get some ideas off my mind!

Stay Tuned!