The Fleshweaver & my PCs (ideas requested)

[Kaodi]

I wonder what would happen if you tried to mash together a warforged and a rust monster...

 

[joshhg]

First off: Grafts are a good idea. A lot of things you can do there.
A few random ideas: Give them all access to a few body based preq. classes. Like the life-warforged one, psy- classes, or others without meeting the requirments.

Animals start to shy away from the PCs.

If the druids have animal companions, don't let them get away clean either. I say slowly mutate one into a grey render or into something else. And if the alienist has a familiar, one which is mutated, change it back to being utterly normal.

If you won't switch bodies, switch body parts among PC's.

Just change a few traits of thiers. Change hair color, make one a bit taller, or change their favorate food. Something subtle, and easy to miss. Make this the only change for one of the PCs, make them suspicious.

Remove thier bellybutton. Or give one, a real one, to the WF.

Make one of them pregant.

A few specific ideas: Make the Silver Flame paladin a were-something. Thats evil. . . Or better, give him a parasite which gives him that, but doesn't let him spread it. Or make it a more literal STD. Or maybe it just kicks in randomly, not during a full moon.

Replace one of the druid's arms with the Warforged one, and give the warforged another one, like a troll's or something else. The odder, the better.

Give one of the druids a new animal companion. A dino or another very rare or unusual animal. But is won't talk to him or her, no matter what. It'll follow them around for as long as it can, everywhere, even when they try to kill it or trap it. He's a spy for the Fleshweaver, and was an adventurer they had met in the past.

 

[shilsen]

1) Use mind-reading spells on the party, to determine if they pose a threat and if they have the potential to become unwitting tools.

That's definitely happening. The nice thing with the SC's Probe Thoughts is that it gives access to all of one's memories. And Nameless has a few that he really doesn't want to share with anyone.

2) Clone all of them. While some kind of nightmare-chimera made from all of them has a certain special charm, it isn't a particularly efficient use of rat-bastardry. Given your groups level and transportation capabilities, multiple potential opponents would be preferable. Especially if they look exactly like the PC's and happen to be causing trouble in widely-separated parts of world.

...

6) I'm picturing Mordain exploiting the party's reputation via the duplicates, using it to facilitate their committing of any number of crimes, against any number of people, in any number of places (worlds?), so that the PC's will have to overcome various former allies and innocents in the process of collecting the clones.

Mordain's got too little interest in the outside world to really care for some sort of majorly complex plot, but I can definitely see him sending off various clones to different places for 'field testing', and trying to have it happen in places where the PCs aren't, in order to avoid trouble. With the PCs zooming all over the place now, of course, as well as being internationally famous, it's quite likely they'll either end up in a place where crimes have been committed by their clones, or hearing about it.

Besides, you could always have the clones join together a la Power Rangers for a climactic, albeit goofy, battle.

Oh lord! I was actually thinking of having a particularly special version which could manifest the powers of a couple of PCs at once. All I'd have to do is throw together a gestalt NPC and it's good to go.

Considering he is a transmuting alienist who desires the party to remain alive to protect the Nameless, whose death could/will destroy a large chunk of the camaign....

Geas each with the task to guard Nameless (granted it only lasts two weeks, but THEY dont realize that)

Actually, they would work it out very quickly, since Nameless is a genius and walks around with a permanent Arcane Sight, but that wouldn't make it any the easier to get rid of it.

Imbue each with:
- troll blood for regenative powers
...

- unqiue were-forms, useable at will over time

Nice suggestions. Thanks.

I wonder what would happen if you tried to mash together a warforged and a rust monster...

First off: Grafts are a good idea. A lot of things you can do there.
A few random ideas:

Ooh - more nice ones again.

Make one of them pregant.

You know, the shifter has been wanting to get pregnant, so ...

 

[Solarious]

Ah, you're accepting suggestions for the torment of Luna and co.? You're too kind, shilsen. Allow me to introduce you to a few ideas that I've massaged while in the shower.

Six - Justify Six's paranoia of his 'fungus', and have Mordain fuse his floating-eye symbiont with his harness. Now Six will have wooden-metal-iris-eyes sprouting all over his body, giving him an equivilant of an Eye of Robes that see in the dark. They shall, of course, be sensitive to over-bright light too close to them.

Luna - I've wanted to fool with her ever since she picked up those symbionts, and this is the PERFECT opportunity to do so! Thank you, dark Shadow, drifting Traveler, and hidden Mockery. Thank you very much. Have Mordain expand and improve the symbiont's abilities (I'll leave that up to you): in particular, they no longer affect her normal forms in any way, especially the band that makes her overweight; but everyone's favorite maker of monsters has not eliminated these side-effects, but rather shunted them off to her Wildshape forms. Now, whenever she Wildshapes, they are morbidly overweight, and have tentacles with clawtips in place of teeth. The extra layer of blubber adds 3/- DR as they heal up and seal at an abnormal rate (and incidentally make her immune to bleed effects at your discretion), and the tentacles can channel low level spells on striking as an immediate action. So, they're bonuses, but also highly disgusting. Also, give Luna an aura of 'something-is-wrong-with-her-but-I-cannot-place-what' by introducing a -1 penalty on all rolls against her. Make it an effect of prolonged exposure to the symbiont's abilities on her Beast Spirit, but only brought out by Mordain's tinkering.

Gareth - Ah, the Paladin-who-is-not-a-Paladin. Mordain has always liked to experiment with sentience in his creations, and now he has a centuries-old shapeshifting sword to play with. The Endless Blade is now capable of Mind Switching with it's wielder, if both consent to do so. Since bodies don't need really need actual sleep, just very light activity (the mind is the thing that does need sleep), it can potentially switch into his body and keep Six company while Gareth dozes as the Endless Blade. It also gives him the ability to avoid various complusions by switching into the weapon while the Blade takes over for him (to varying degrees of success). Of course, things might get... complicated, but I'll let you deal with that. You might want to give him some unique abilities that replaces the Endless Blade's standard abilities while switched, to represent two different personalities influencing the magical enchantments in different ways. This can also awaken the Endless Blade as a legacy 'leveled' item, to avoid the indignation of handing 'him' over to Cannith for an upgrade.

Korm - He's the hardest person to think of something to fool around with, but considering his Wild Shape is the Aspect of Nature UA variant, the aforementioned 'were' forms comming out is a great idea. Have Mordain supplement his Aspects with more... interesting forms from abberations and other delicious iky monsters. Perhaps he can 'gain' new Aspects now by eating new and exciting creatures! Oh, he should also grow a ring of waving tentacles in his chest, but that's me.

Nameless - Ah, the plum prize of the collection. Nameless. Don't do anything to him physcially, he is plenty weird already, and might view more modifications as an extension of his comming apothesis. No, we need something to mess his mind up, the one posession that any Wizard worth their salt values above all... I suggest returning 'Edgar' as a shadow commentator who knows more than Nameless does about everything that is wrong about him. Characterize it as a bonus to his Knowledge skills and perhaps an enhancement to his Alienist abilities, but have him loose control of his limbs/words/peripheral actions when he's not intently focused. Such as when he's negotiating (hypothetically) with Sora Kell, he'll go "... so Luna should die first. No, wait, the shifter druid is a friend, definitely Rakshashas first," and so forth. If you have the PHBII, refer to the 'posessed' character tait under Warlocks. It's a really neat idea that should work well with Nameless. For additional unease, 'Edgar' should hint that he wants the ticking time bomb to trigger, or even that he is the thing that will be called if things to all fecal-matter-misty.

Know that I love your players, shil. I'm just providing you with material to keep their attention utterly rivited to where it is most important.

 

[hong]

Remove thier bellybutton. Or give one, a real one, to the WF.

But for maximum points, do nothing else. Revel in days, if not weeks, of fruitless paranoia.

Make one of them pregant.

Ideally the warforged.

 

[shilsen]

Ah, you're accepting suggestions for the torment of Luna and co.? You're too kind, shilsen.

Always. As I told my players, Mordain is only slightly less kind, generous and gentle than I am.

Allow me to introduce you to a few ideas that I've massaged while in the shower.

Hong is getting slow. I can't believe that he posted after you and didn't say anything about massaging anything in the shower.

Six - Justify Six's paranoia of his 'fungus', and have Mordain fuse his floating-eye symbiont with his harness. Now Six will have wooden-metal-iris-eyes sprouting all over his body, giving him an equivilant of an Eye of Robes that see in the dark. They shall, of course, be sensitive to over-bright light too close to them.

Great minds Number one on my list of things to do with Six is having the eye implanted into him. And there are a couple of nifty possibilities for the fungus as well.

Luna - I've wanted to fool with her

I think you are the first person other than Kessler who has ever wanted to fool with Luna. IYKWIMAITYD.

ever since she picked up those symbionts, and this is the PERFECT opportunity to do so! Thank you, dark Shadow, drifting Traveler, and hidden Mockery. Thank you very much. Have Mordain expand and improve the symbiont's abilities (I'll leave that up to you)...

I'm planning to go with her symbionts being planted deep inside her, as opposed to Six, whose eye will be on the surface. And she's been going on about wanting to get huge in wildshape, which works perfectly here. Higher Str, lower Dex, and a couple of other things should work well. The DR and other stuff are nice options too.

Gareth - Ah, the Paladin-who-is-not-a-Paladin. Mordain has always liked to experiment with sentience in his creations, and now he has a centuries-old shapeshifting sword to play with.

Did I mention that one of the first things Mordain will tell him on awaking is, "Don't worry - I made you into a paladin" ? And the whole mindshifting thing would fit well. He also has all sorts of issues with losing the sword, so I may go with a metal hand that the sword is permanently fused to, but can disappear inside (modified Glove of Storing).

Korm - He's the hardest person to think of something to fool around with, but considering his Wild Shape is the Aspect of Nature UA variant, the aforementioned 'were' forms comming out is a great idea.

Yeah, Korm is tough. But messing with the Aspect of Nature is definitely the way to go. "Ooh, look - you have an Aspect of the Illithid now!"

Oh, he should also grow a ring of waving tentacles in his chest, but that's me.

Man, you're like Nameless! And I mean that in a good way, of course.

Nameless - Ah, the plum prize of the collection. Nameless. Don't do anything to him physcially, he is plenty weird already, and might view more modifications as an extension of his comming apothesis. No, we need something to mess his mind up, the one posession that any Wizard worth their salt values above all... I suggest returning 'Edgar' as a shadow commentator who knows more than Nameless does about everything that is wrong about him.

Aww - that's beautiful! Now we know why he's had Edgar around all this time.

Know that I love your players, shil. I'm just providing you with material to keep their attention utterly rivited to where it is most important.

And they love you too. Red hot flaming love, like you get when you stuff someone inside a volcano.

 

[The_Warlock]

Hmmm...mutation...mutation...mutation...

Ok, first off. If you don't have it, consider picking up at least the PDF version of Chaositech by Malhavoc. Not only would it blend extraordinarily well with the Daelkyr/Abomination kind of stuff that can happen in the dark places of Eberron, but it has mutation templates, and tables of vestigial and mechanically effective mutations. My personal favorites are the Serpent and Dragon grafts - shoulder mounted, flexible, poisonous or fire breathing combat "heads", and the various "hives", like the mini spider swarm spewing arachnid hive that the user releases from under their tongue.

Having immensely enjoyed mutating some of my own players' characters, this would be an excellent resource, I'd think.

On the matter of cloning, perhaps something a bit more bound to your PCs. Eric Boyd did several monster conversion of old FR monsters on his site at:

http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/monsters.html

In the first bestiary is the Alias Vessel, based loosely off the old Azure Bonds novels. Perhaps in an interesting vein, these are the permanent "variant" clones Mordain comes up with. While he can regain a certain level of control or program them with tasks based on various glyphs and sigils embedded in their flesh, they are otherwise free-willed. The Guardian Angels find out about them much later on, and may ally with some of them against others which has gone completely bad. Imagine if you will, the Anti-Gareth. Wait, I'm not sure how different that is.

Anyway...the previous posts are appropriately villainous, here's some added spice:

What about tying either the Shifter's forms, or the Druids Aspects to the Lunar cycle, the seasons, or the zodiac of Eberron. Thus, they shift over time. While this obviously involves a heap o' paperwork, it would keep the player on their toes, and give a the opportunity for giving the vict...beneficiary a wide range of powers over a wide series of play sessions to discover.

Look at the characters' skills...if they have something that they have spent points on, but isn't a primary focus, give them a +2 circumstance bonus...when they use their new improvement. This will be a reflex at first, but they should be able to learn to control it over time. For instance:

Better climbing - 4 spider legs extrude from the body and assist
Better spot/listen - the fingernails of the user pop-up revealing mantis-like eyes, or extra tympanic membranes push out along the tendons on their neck
Better Intimidate - bloody bone spurs temporarily grow forth from the user's brow ridge and jaw


Given Gareth's frequent use of Detect Evil/Thought, there really should be something affecting this. Perhaps giving a boost to the DC, but silver-white light flows from his eyes like Smaug in the old Rankin-Bass Hobbit cartoon.


Perhaps give Six a hive of "fleshweavers", small insectile creatures that live in him, but over the course of say, an hour, grows him a full living skin with cartilage to make those necessary bumps and divots on a living being. He detects as a living being, but it only lasts say, an hour & a half (ala Darkman), before it rots away. But otherwise gives him an excellent disguise skill. It can only be used 1/day perhaps, and occasionally rotting odors and lumps of rancid flesh will fall out of him when he walks when it's not used frequently.


As for geasing them, making that the defense of Nameless seems paramount, since the limitations on the spell in terms of duration with open ended commands wouldn't really keep them away. I always liked the old Contracts of Nepthas, myself, but both parties must willingly sign. Shucks.

Perhaps a variant on the Psionic power (whose name escapes me) that implants a death wish in the target. Instead, whenever they approach Mordain or his demense, they receive images of killing themselves or being killed by doppelgangers of themselves in gruesome ways which causes mounting fear penalties to their rolls, perhaps even a queasy feeling that mimics a negative level when in his personal presence. EDIT: This could probably be a custom curse using the Bestow Greater Curse from BoVD.

I think the best thing to be in place when they wake up should be that they are drained, and I don't mean level drained - I mean they have no spells in memory, all their supernatural or spell-like abilities for the day are used, and perhaps hand out no swashbuckler cards for that session. Until after they've had an actual day of rest in game. That, more than anything else, should worry them immensely about going head to head with him when they wake up. He apparently drained their heroism.

That's all I can think of for now...

PS: Oh, and he should have a Liquid Pain Extractor (BoVD), and should have gotten a nice supply off of them during the experimenting, even if he was nice enough to mind wipe them of the experience later. I'm sure it'll come in handy in a plot later.

 

[The_Warlock]

Hey, wasn't Mordain the name of one of the evil Monster Creating Wizard Villains in the old Ultima series computer games. I swear he was the first one...

 

[fafhrd]

Give Nameless a Silthilar heart and a geas induced wanderlust. The apocalypse can be such a distraction to research.

Edit: I'd also be tempted to have them run into familiar NPCs who slowly reveal facts contrary to the PCs experience. It's a nice chance to use the players memories as the false(implanted) ones. Perhaps Mordain's involvement isn't as circumstantial as he'd like the PCs to believe.

 

[Solarious]

Always. As I told my players, Mordain is only slightly less kind, generous and gentle than I am.

Yeah, show them the Mockery's mercy. That is to say, none at all.

Hong is getting slow. I can't believe that he posted after you and didn't say anything about massaging anything in the shower.

Hush. You'll get him all innuendo on me and before you know it, he'll want to feel me up and everything. We have to keep this thread clean and Eric's Grandma friendly. Well, as Eric's Grandma friendly as psychotic shifter druids who's a little too friendly with the Flame Strikes can be.

Great minds Number one on my list of things to do with Six is having the eye implanted into him. And there are a couple of nifty possibilities for the fungus as well.

Oh, I have to say I agree, especially with... I'll save that for later. I don't really know exactly what we can do with the fungus, since it is a custom creation of yours, but I suppose we can add some shapeshifting powers to Six, since Warforged are more assuredly self-mutable: look at the Warforged Juggernaut and the Reforged. But then, I don't think Six is going to quite get a choice if he wants to change or not. Or into what, for that matter.

I think you are the first person other than Kessler who has ever wanted to fool with Luna. IYKWIMAITYD.

I'm curious about the abberviation. And also, we're very well matched, Luna and I. She's a psychotic, wild druid who spreads chaos for her own amusement and really has more in common with the Greensingers than the Gatekeepers. I'm... well, a generous person who desires only to improve on other's people's experiences in life through unexpected and exciting situations. We make a great pair... although I wouldn't want to live with her either.

I'm planning to go with her symbionts being planted deep inside her, as opposed to Six, whose eye will be on the surface. And she's been going on about wanting to get huge in wildshape, which works perfectly here. Higher Str, lower Dex, and a couple of other things should work well. The DR and other stuff are nice options too.

Well, as long as Luna turns into a morbidly obese Dire Bear in the end! Or, knowing Luna, she'll want to become a Horrid Bear at one point or another. Well then, Morbidly Obese Horrid Bear Luna!

Did I mention that one of the first things Mordain will tell him on awaking is, "Don't worry - I made you into a paladin" ? And the whole mindshifting thing would fit well. He also has all sorts of issues with losing the sword, so I may go with a metal hand that the sword is permanently fused to, but can disappear inside (modified Glove of Storing).

This is what I was talking about when I said great minds do think alike! I was trying to communicate this kind of idea, but the words wouldn't come! Evidently, you have less inhibitations than me when it comes to meddling with the sacred cow that is Paladinhood: I keep forgetting you made Cedric. I can completely see Mordain trying to force a divine epithany by linking the conciousness of Gareth and the Endless Blade. I mean, both need each other: Endless here needs power from the Silver Flame from Gareth, and Gareth needs to understand the real underlying principals behind Paladinhood beyond just smiting evil and being sanctimonious. Don't go with a metal hand: give the Endless Blade a Soulknife flavour. It would fit, seeing that the Silver Flame is empowered by the dead spirits of Couatls, who are fairly potent psionic creatures. Everyone forgets that little detail, for some reason. If anything, the Endless Blade can always emulate a (spiked) gauntlet anyways.

Yeah, Korm is tough. But messing with the Aspect of Nature is definitely the way to go. "Ooh, look - you have an Aspect of the Illithid now!"

Well, apparently Krom's specialities seems to be be bad luck, being teased, and getting beat down by icky monsters who want to him to grow tentacles out of his stomach. I suppose this is but the latest continuation in a Series of Unfortunate Events. And I still think he should be able to get new Aspects now by eatting Abberations.

Man, you're like Nameless! And I mean that in a good way, of course.

What can I say? A ring of tentacles offers so many opportunities. They could wear rings. They could do tricks. And if he's right about druids: he could make them grow.

Aww - that's beautiful! Now we know why he's had Edgar around all this time.

Well, it could undermine the entire foundation of his previous realizations. The Daelkyr didn't really do anything to him that gave him something that he didn't already have: there was an Eberron-wreaking abomination in him all the time, and the 'calling' is only there to finish the birthing process that will re-initialize the plans of Xoriat. Nameless was simply a mistake, a freak chance, an.. err... abberant abberant. Edgar was always the one who was the focus of the ritual, and Nameless was the result of the Daelkyr screwing up because of all the barriers in the way. So... that 'footprint'? That's Nameless. If that gets healed, Nameless ain't loosing his wonderful Alienist self, he'll basicly cease to exist. Even if that doesn't turn out to be the case, it's one thing to have a rock around you that you feel represents your old boring self, but to have it turn around and actually talk to you about yourself and your darkest, innermost secrets is going to be rather unnerving, even for Alienists. I mean, 'ole Mostin got chased out of the Far Realms once with a poorly worded Metagnostic Inquiry, didn't he?

And they love you too. Red hot flaming love, like you get when you stuff someone inside a volcano.

It's a very good thing that I'm completely immune to fire and can hold my breath for inhuman lengths of time, now isn't it?

EDIT: Nameless' idea has been expanded; he is the footprint!