After DEMON wins...

[bigdamnhero]

Disclaimer: Anyone who hasn't read DEMON: Servants of Darkness and doesn't want The Good Bits spoiled might want to avoid this thread. (Also -- go buy the book, it's awesome!)



I'm putting together a scenario where the heroes are transported ~10 years into the future to find that DEMON has won. Black has achieved his ascension and now rules Earth alongside the other Kings of Edom. Heroes see how much the world sucks and how important it is that they stop Black. Heroes are then returned to their own time and must use the information they learned to try and prevent that future from coming to pass.

The plot is straight-forward enough, but I'm looking for some ideas on what the world would be like under Edomite rule? Yeah, okay, pretty grim obviously, but I'm hoping for a few more details than that. Is humanity extinct and earth a smoking cinder? Or is it more Gothic Horror World, where people try to go about living their quiet lives without getting eaten. How do you see it?

[Korvar]

Different continents could have different horrible things happening. There could be places where humanity has been wiped out, and others where they cling to existence in desolate wastelands the Edomites have left behind.

Huge machines made of people. Still living people. The machines are gathering/refining soul/spiritual energy, which the Lords of Edom are going to use to send a mystic pulse to Aldebaran, as part of spreading their reign over the entire universe.

[Balabanto]

There is a flaw in this plan. The flaw is "What are the EGo scores and Power Defense scores of your group?"

Likely, they'll all be reduced to EGO 0 and become half-insane madmen within a few short minutes.

[Flames]

Black and his cohort have been using the existing mechanisms of government to administrate their world-wide rule, residing, as it were, in a hideously transformed White House, now known as the Black House, a surreal and pestilent monstrosity that looks like what an executive mansion might resemble had someone only partially succeeding at magically metamorphing it into a massive slimy insect.

Military and civilian leaders the world over have pledged obedience and fealty to Black out of desperate fear, and have ordered their armies to subdue the Earth's populace, eradicate its heroes, and round up civilians who meet certain criteria for use in the most unimaginable rituals and experiments.

Nearly all resistance has been utterly crushed. Previously renowned supers, heroes and villains alike, have been slaughtered and left staked out like bugs in plain view of the cowed citizens of the largest cities in the world, their mutilated bodies and tattered costumes allowed to decay to just the right point of hideousness before being covered in preserving shellac as an eternal warning to all.

Humanity's numbers dwindled for a short time, as large-scale death and destruction took its toll, but Black, in his desire to have subjects over which to continue to rule, has been, well, doing things to increase humanity's numbers once again. Too horrible for me to speak of, let it be merely hinted at.

Human existence has become the ultimate nightmare, and the Earth its charnel house.

Possible additional plot hook: Black desires a queen to sire an heir to his throne. Perhaps a female PC or a male PC's female DNPC fits the bill.

[ghost-angel]

Oh Crap.

There is a flaw in this plan. The flaw is "What are the EGo scores and Power Defense scores of your group?"

Not. High. Enough.
---
The Kings Of Edom do not play the "I want to rule over you" game, they play the "Splat, you die" game.

Black was a vessel, he's dead now; a King Of Edom needed his body to break through, so Black is currently festering somewhere as the King slowly drags itself into the dimension. Even this little bit would make Dr. Destroyer look like Foxbat though.

All kinds of evil is happening, demons (for lack of a better word) have torn civilization to pieces. Toppled cities, killed a lot of people.

What sky? The sky is a constant mass of storms, turmoil and really icky things - this prevents outside intervention. There are a few Gods that don't want to try and get through the upper atmosphere. This has the added bonus of removing the sun, most of the time. You still get enough to keep the ecosphere going - if barely - over some of the planet. Some parts are just screwed. (it's a Superhero universe, we can abuse Science like a punching bag.)

Think Terminator - small pockets of Resistance in the form of humans and the remaining superheroes. For added bonus - Dr. Destroyer is the leader of this resistance, he's a Hero now. He's The Hero now. (this gives the PCs someone to work with to get the "backstory" through in game scenarios.)

It should be made abundantly clear that once the Kings Of Edom actually come through in force things immediately move to "Splat, You're Dead."

...some thoughts on it. (no, I haven't read DEMON yet).

[Flames]

ghost-angel's right, the Kings of Edom would crush Black, and he knows it, that's why he wants to become one of them rather than just help them get through.

It's kind of like Mayor Jenkins in 3rd-Season Buffy.

Black himself does desire to rule the world using the power of the Kings of Edom, but he is loathe to actually let them through, lest they kill him and everyone else on Earth.

[FenrisUlf]

There was an adventure involving Lovecraftian beasties called 'the Anopheles' in 'Horror World' published way back in a book titled Champions 3-D, I believe. That could be a major help if you can find it somewhere.

Best ask Lord Liaden for help, he seems to know where everything is.

[ghost-angel]

ghost-angel's right, the Kings of Edom would crush Black, and he knows it, that's why he wants to become one of them rather than just help them get through.

It's kind of like Mayor Jenkins in 3rd-Season Buffy.

Black himself does desire to rule the world using the power of the Kings of Edom, but he is loathe to actually let them through, lest they kill him and everyone else on Earth.

Black may think he's gaining ascension to become a King. What that actually means is he's becoming the King's new body in this Dimension, he's just misinterpreted it due to a tinge of megalomania shading his vision just a wee bit.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Not high enough, not dark enough. There's a plothook in Arcane Adversaries that works here. It is a Matrix world. The few surviving humans live in a very thinly veiled illusory world that they cling to haplessly until the very moment they are harvested, while outside the tiny little pockets of life, non-Euclidean structures loom over a black, blasted cinder, except for the Congo and Amazon basins, where Elder Worms and Thanes prepare to move on.
I wouldn't put in a Resistance at all, except that the heroes have to talk to someone and get out.
Leader? the only one it could be. Takofanes. The Crowns are his toys. So are Teleios and Mechanon. Other than that, he knows better than to trust human flesh in his desperate fight. He is more than willing to send the characters back in time to prevent this outcome, but he doesn't even bother denying that he is using this opportunity to engineer his past ascension. As far as he's concerned, it is Takofanes or the Lords of Edom. Your choice.

[Highwayman]

I’d suggest it would be more survivable if the PCs arrive after the Kings have moved on. There’s no reason they (or Black, now that he’s one of them) would stick around Earth when they’ve got a whole universe to play in. They used the world like we would use a paper cup; drink it dry, crumple it, and throw it aside. Now the skies are red, the oceans are gone, and the cities look like a Dali painting. Only a few unlucky humans are still alive, unmutated, and sane enough to notice the new landscape. They live in tiny improvised strongholds and try to hold off the lesser things that are creeping through the shattered barrier between the Kings’ world and ours. Time and space themselves are behaving oddly, and it’s getting worse. Either the Earth is falling into the Kings’ world or the Kings’ world is taking over our universe, but either way the Sun’s getting dimmer and the meteors falling from the shattered Moon are screaming in a more disturbing way every day…

[Lord Liaden]

There was an adventure involving Lovecraftian beasties called 'the Anopheles' in 'Horror World' published way back in a book titled Champions 3-D, I believe. That could be a major help if you can find it somewhere.

Best ask Lord Liaden for help, he seems to know where everything is.

Compliment gratefully accepted. In this case it happens to be justified.

Actually, author Allen Varney has the full text from that adventure on his personal website, free for the viewing (with Hero Games's permission). You can see it here: http://www.allenvarney.com/anopheles.html

BDH, the world that this adventure describes is almost exactly the kind of scenario you're looking for. The inhuman Elder Horrors have won, mankind is a dying species, and the world has become an unspeakable nightmare. It's brilliantly, disturbingly frightening and would likely need few details changed to use for your purposes. I guarantee that after experiencing this, your players will be supremely motivated to stop DEMON.

EDIT: Several of the suggestions posted above would readily segue from this scenario, as well.

[bigdamnhero]

Oh Crap.

Not. High. Enough.

Actually, I'm thinking of this for a convention game, not for our home group. (Yeah, I could've said that up front, but I figured a little mortal terror would give your heart a workout.)

Thanks to everyone else, especially LL & FenrisUlf. I figured someone must have done something along these lines before, and Anopeles/Horror World looks like just the ticket! Great ideas - feel free to keep them coming!

[Edit: Rep stick recharging...]

[Lord Liaden]

Pursuant to the Anopheles scenario, it might be ironic if Luther Black in his arrogance miscalculated the magnitude of the forces he was trying to control, and has ended up in the same straits as Gregory Kulik. He might then be the only one who could help the PCs undo what he brought about.

[ghost-angel]

Actually, I'm thinking of this for a convention game, not for our home group. (Yeah, I could've said that up front, but I figured a little mortal terror would give your heart a workout.)

Part of me just went "whew" and part of me went "dang."

[fredrik_nilsson]

The plot is straight-forward enough, but I'm looking for some ideas on what the world would be like under Edomite rule? Yeah, okay, pretty grim obviously, but I'm hoping for a few more details than that. Is humanity extinct and earth a smoking cinder? Or is it more Gothic Horror World, where people try to go about living their quiet lives without getting eaten. How do you see it?

I would probably run it as Palladium's Nightbane setting. For those who aren't familiar with the setting take a look at linked review.

I would ascend Black to "President" (thinly veiled dictator). The Edomites would never gain full control over the world for the main reason that the can't fully cooperate. The heroes would be fugitives hiding in the shadows trying to do their best to manipulate the Edomites towards each other and at the same time fight their minions.