Horror Character: Myrmidon

[bcholmes]

I've been putting together some ideas for a personal Horror bestiary. Here's a first character. Comments? Thoughts?

 

[b]Myrmidon[/b]

[b][u]VAL[/u]   [u]CHA[/u]   [u]Cost[/u]   [u]Total[/u]   [u]Roll[/u]      [u]Notes[/u][/b]

28    STR     10   28      15-       HTH Damage 5 1/2d6  END [3]
14    DEX     12   14      12-       OCV 5 DCV 5
17    CON     14   17      12-
17    BODY    14   17      12-
7     INT     -3   7      10-       PER Roll 10-/16-
8     EGO     -4   8      11-       ECV: 3
13    PRE     3   13      12-       PRE Attack: 2 1/2d6
6     COM     -2   6      10-
8     PD      2   8/20             8/20 PD (0/12 rPD)
5     ED      2   5/13             5/13 ED (0/8 rED)
4     SPD     16   4                 Phases:  3, 6, 9, 12
9     REC     0   9
34    END     0   34
40    STUN    0   40

6     RUN      0   6"                END [1]
2     SWIM     0   2"                END [1]
6     LEAP     0   5 1/2"                5 1/2" forward, 2 1/2" upward

[b]CHA Cost: 64[/b]


[b][u]Cost[/u]   [u]POWERS[/u][/b]

24     [b][i]Exoskeleton[/i][/b]: Armor (12 PD/8 ED) (30 Active Points); Activation Roll 15- (Exposed areas; -1/4) - END=0
10     [b][i]Digging[/i][/b]: Tunneling 2" through 2 DEF material - END=1
8      [b][i]Ant Senses[/i][/b]: +4 PER with Smell/Taste Group - END=0
10     [b][i]Mandibles[/i][/b]: Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 1d6-1 (1d6+1 w/STR) - END=1
4      [b][i]Ant Communication[/i][/b]: Mind Link , Other Myrmidons (10 Active Points); Must touch feelers (-1), Does Not Provide Mental Awareness (-1/4) - END=0
4      [b][i]Compound Eyes[/i][/b]: +2 PER with Sight Group - END=0
5      [b][i]Compound Eyes[/i][/b]: Nightvision - END=0
8      [b][i]Ant Strength[/i][/b]: +8 STR (Modifiers affect Base Characteristic) - END=1

[b]POWERS Cost: 73[/b]


[b][u]Cost[/u]   [u]SKILLS[/u][/b]

3      Teamwork 12-

[b]SKILLS Cost: 3[/b]


[b][u]Value[/u]  [u]DISADVANTAGES[/u][/b]

0      Normal Characteristic Maxima
15     Physical Limitation:  Mute (All the Time, Slightly Impairing)
20     Distinctive Features:  Hideous, unnatural ant/human hybrid (Concealable; Extreme Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses)
5      Psychological Limitation:  Disoriented by Important Items from Human Life (Uncommon, Moderate)
25     Psychological Limitation:  Slavishly Loyal to Leader (Very Common, Total)

[b]DISADVANTAGES Points: 65[/b]


Base Pts: 75
Exp Required: 0
Total Exp Available: 0
Exp Unspent: 0
Total Character Cost: 140


[b]BACKGROUND:[/b] Back at the beginning of the Anno Domini epoch, the 
Roman poet Ovid learned the tale of Aegina.  A deadly plague sent by the 
goddess, Hera, killed most of the population of Aegina, and Zeus, in response, 
transformed the ants of Aegina into an army, fiercely loyal and exceptionally 
strong.  These soldiers, called myrmidons, would later fight with Achilles during 
the Trojan War.  Or so Ovid wrote in Metamorphoses.  The truth of the situation, 
he kept to himself, recorded in personal notes.

Hundreds of years later, a Roman Catholic priest discovered Ovid's personal 
notes in Costanta, Romania (formerly the Greek colony of Tomis, where Ovid 
lived, exiled, in his later years).  The notes told a different story: how King 
Aeacus had a mystic prepare a potion that could imbue the people of Aegina 
with the essential qualities of the ants: strength, armour, and slavish loyalty.  
Once the potion was prepared, Aeacus had it slipped into water resevoirs and 
cisterns around the city.  What followed was a horrific period of transformation,
as citizens of Aegina underwent grotesque changes, finally becoming powerful
soldiers.  After transformation, the soldiers appeared mostly human, although 
their armour was now part of their bodies, and their behaviour seemed slightly 
alien.

Ovid even unearthed part of the recipe of the potion, which was recorded in 
his notes.  These notes eventually found their way into the Vatican Library.   
In the 17th century, a priest who worked in the library fell under evil influences, 
and stole many dark tomes and papers (an act that lead Pope Paul V to remove 
many volumes into a Secret Vatican Archive, where they remain to this day).  
These works eventually found their way into the occult underground.

Since then, a few dark occultists have gotten their hands on the recipe for the 
potion.  But because it's not completely intact, the victims of the potion never 
attain the human-like appearance that the ancient myrmidons had.  Instead, 
they transform into disgusting half-ant/half-human creatures.  They still have 
the essential qualities that Aeacus sought: strength, armour and slavish 
loyalty, but no one who sees a myrmidon can deny that it's a foul, unnatural 
creature.


[b]PERSONALITY/MOTIVATIONS:[/b] The myrmidon is a slavishly loyal to their 
leader. Blood and hair clippings from the leader-to-be are just one of many of
the significant ingredients to the potion, and all myrmidons instinctively know 
who their leader is.  While they understand human language, they don't generally
have human-level intelligence, and cannot make logical conclusions or solve 
complicated problems.  They can perform limited tool use (build a rock wall to 
block a tunnel or pile things to be able to climb up over a barrier), but can't use 
weapons more complicated than a club.

Myrmidons will follow any order their leader gives them, including fighting to 
the death.  Myrmidons tend to cluster in groups when not under any specific 
order, often keeping busy moving things and walking in circular patterns.  
Myrmidons are distrustful of outsiders and if strangers come into their space, 
they'll generally attack, trying to destroy the invader.

Myrmidons mostly have no memory of their lives as humans, although if they 
encounter an object or place strongly associated with their past lives, they 
might experience some disorientation as if a memory was triggered.


[b]QUOTATION:[/b] None.  Myrmidons are mute.

[b]POWERS/TACTICS:[/b] Myrmidons tend to lack subtlety; once they detect 
an intruder, they attack en masse, biting with their mandibles or hitting.  
They do work together somewhat instinctively, and can use teamwork to 
try to bring down foes.  One myrmidon might, for example, try to pin an 
opponent down while another attacks the opponent's appendages with its 
mandibles.  

The transformation process has left them with several ant-related abilities.  
They have tremendous strength (much higher than an average human), and 
they often use this strength for lifting rocks and boulders.  In combat, their 
strength can be used with improvised clubs to subdue opponents.  

They also have extremely thick, chitinous armour on most of their bodies.  
Although the armour is very effective, the transformation process has often 
left exposed patches which can be targetted.  

Myrmidons have exceptional senses; their compound eyes see extremely 
well, and in the dark, and they have powerful senses of smell.  Myrmidons 
often make nests underground, and using their strength and mandibles, 
they are able to dig tunnels very quickly.


[b]CAMPAIGN USE:[/b]

Two Plot Seeds:

1) Tommy Knockers: Outside of town, Hauptman Mines has been in the news 
a fair bit lately.  It seems that three of its miners have disappeared.  One at 
a time, and on three different days.  Now there's talk of all kinds of crazy 
things.  Ghosts.  And Tommy Knockers.  The miners are getting skittish.  
Hauptman has had to deal with a number of employees quitting or calling 
in "sick".  And while this is going on, a rival company is putting pressure 
on him to sell.  And maybe Hauptman should sell, but with the current bad 
publicity, it'd almost certainly be at a loss.  Hauptman wonders if the rival 
company is somehow involved in the disappearances, but he doesn't suspect 
the truth: that Lucious Drake, president of the rival mine is using myrmidons 
to tunnel into the mines and attack his miners.

2) One of the PCs comes home to discover the police at a neighbour's house.  
There's been a murder.  Bob Spolsky can home early from a business trip, 
and was viciously attacked in his own home.  His wife is missing and there's 
a tunnel in the base of the house.  If the PCs investigate, they discover that 
Mr. Spolsky came home early because his wife has been very ill over the last 
few days.  They may even learn enough to realize that Mrs. Spolsky hasn't 
been sick; she's been transforming into... something else.  And more 
disturbing: there might be a relationship between Mrs. Spolsky's transformation 
and the new bottled water service that the Spolsky's signed up for just days ago.


[b]APPEARANCE:[/b]

Myrmidons appear like an unnatural hybrid of humans and ants.  They 
brownish-red, chitinous exoskeletal armour covering much of their bodies.  
The armour doesn't cover their bodies uniformly; instead, seemingly 
random parts will be exposed revealing almost-human skin beneath.  
This skin is often slick with some kind of oily substance.  Both the armoured 
and unarmoured parts of the body are usually covered with thick, coarse hairs.

The myrmidons usually appear humanoid in shape, with two arms and two 
legs.  A pair of small, useless, vestigial limbs may grow from their torsoes;
the myrmidons have no conscious control over these limbs.

The heads of the myrmidons are large and seem to approach the shape of 
worker ants.  Their small, compound eyes are usually black and many 
myrmidons have feelers and mandibles.  Ironically, the head also often 
contains some of the most human-looking features -- many myrmidons 
have intact ears or patches of head-hair.  Sometimes a beard or mustache 
remains around the creature's mandibles.  

If the human form had tattoos, these are often preserved as fairly clear 
images either on the armour or exposed skin underneath.

[Curufea]

Re: Horror Character: Myrmidon

 

Nice. But a few things-

 

If I were to use them, I'd play up the insectile part. Because giant insects have been done to death in b-movie horror, as have crossbreed humans, it'd be a bit tricky. I think the movie "Mimic" handles giant insects really well, and that'd be my starting point.

 

I don't think they should be mute though, there should be some clicking going on (I think, though my entomology is vague).

 

I think there are three locations ideal for this kind of monster - dark tunnels, moonless nights with lots of things to hide behind (forests or crowded alleys) - both places where glimpses in the darkness would be great. And the third place - a lab or hospital with brilliant white, antiseptic flouro lighting. Where the alienness appears even more alien in the more-than-normal light.

[Njiall]

Re: Horror Character: Myrmidon

 

What means "Anno Domini epoch"? What epoch is that?

[Curufea]

Re: Horror Character: Myrmidon

 

The "Everything after the commonly believed birth time of Jesus" epoch

[Njiall]

Re: Horror Character: Myrmidon

 

I never knew what meant AD…

Could you excuse my ignorance?

[Curufea]

Re: Horror Character: Myrmidon

 

It's latin, most folk don't know much about it.

[Njiall]

Re: Horror Character: Myrmidon

 

I know that is latin and I can translate it but I don´t know that this expression was used to

 

I know that it is Latin and I can translate it but it did not know that it was used to designate the epoch after the birth of Christ.

We used the expression DC (Después de Cristo that means After Christ)

 

It is the reason what it takes to me by surprise

[Curufea]

Re: Horror Character: Myrmidon

 

Ah!

 

I just see it a lot 2000AD and so on.