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.