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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BookTenTiger" data-source="post: 8513232" data-attributes="member: 6685541">Threats to Bugkind, Pt 2PuppetmastersPuppetmasters come to the Empty Earth from a realm of utter chaos, where they are the prey of dangerous, mindless creatures. In our realm, the Puppetmasters have found a land where they can be apex predators. If the Bugs do not stop them, the Puppetmasters may one day control every living being.In their natural form, Puppetmasters look like masses of tangled organic strings, wriggling and writhing, dripping corrosive translucent liquid. Like hermit crabs, Puppetmasters find empty forms to fill and control. On the Empty Earth, they prefer toys. Puppetmasters will fill the hollow bodies of dolls, action figures, or stuffed animals, and with their magic abilities, bring their new bodies to life.Puppetmasters' natural magic abilities allow them to control other inanimate objects, and influence the minds of Bugs. They are dangerous foes, always seeking control in this new world.Common Puppetmaster EnemiesToy Soldiers: Puppetmasters are able to use their magic to manipulate and bring to life inanimate objects. They seem to prefer animating toys to act as guards, labor, and assassins. The most common kind of toy brought to life are Blugos (modrons), little blue plastic people that usually come in sets with plastic building bricks. Larger toys (golems) are used as bodyguards. Some toy soldiers are disguised to look like Bugs (animated armor) and infiltrate communities in order to carry out their masters' devious deeds.Puppetmasters: Puppetmasters possess fragile bodies, but powerful minds. Their magical abilities are unmatched in the Empty Earth. Each one is unique, and takes on a husk that usually matches its personality. One Puppetmaster may choose to live in the body of a doll, and uses its magic to transform Bugs into dolls (medusa). Another Puppetmaster may choose to live in the husk of a wild spider, using the spider's fangs to liquify and drink the brains of its victims (mind flayer). Sometimes a Puppetmaster possesses just a part of a husk, such as the floating head of a teddy bear (beholder).Thralls: Puppetmasters do not always use brute force to gain power. Often, they carefully manipulate Bugs through their psychic abilities, or through the inherent greed or weaknesses of their target. When a Bug makes a deal with a Puppetmaster, they may gain tremendous powers for a time. But that power eventually transforms their bodies, warping them into piles of writhing mandibles (gibbering mouther), hollowed-out exoskeletons (cloaker), or mad Bugs obsessed with secret knowledge (nothics).Puppetmaster Adventure IdeasVillage of the DollsAn entire Bug Village has been replaced by Toy Soldiers. They claim to have escaped from a Puppetmaster operating out of a nearby castle made from a dollhouse and Blugo bricks. They ask he adventurers to slay the Puppetmaster and secure their freedom. It turns out the Toy Soldiers did escape, but captured all the Bug townsfolk and sent them as a gift to the Puppetmaster, a doll (Medusa stats) whose gaze can turn Bugs into toys!Skyscraper SummoningsLightning has been striking the top of a building for weeks, and a strange glow emanates from the rooftop. Blugos have been building a strange temple from Blugo Bricks and other scavenged materials. Through it, they hope to summon a new Puppetmaster. Can the adventurers make their way to the top of the building and stop the ritual in time?Horror of Shell HouseThe town of Shellmouth used to be a peaceful beach village, until the doors to the the glowworm wizard Starblood's laboratory magically sealed shut. Now folks have been vanishing from town, and and at night strange garbled cries echo from the wizard's laboratory. The adventurers must battle through mutated thralls to find the wizard gone mad and fight his "assistant," a Puppetmaster hiding in a Bug's husk.</blockquote>

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