Vat-Grown [construct]

Discussion on game mastering Earthdawn. May contain spoilers; caution is recommended!
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Tattered Rags
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Joined:Mon Nov 28, 2016 12:04 am
Vat-Grown [construct]

Post by Tattered Rags » Mon Jan 11, 2021 1:01 am

Origins
Created by the Theran magician Eleriana Mancharine, a human Wizard-Nethermancer, to aid her in her research, these creations share some similarities. The vat-grown have charcoal black skin and leathery skin that has grown to shroud the body in some fashion. Long limbs end in sharp claws, and rows of teeth fill their mouths. Inheriting the bipedal shape of the Namegivers they came from, they move with unnatural speed, grace, and silence. Each kind was created with a different purpose in mind, and their individual characteristics stem from this.
Eleriana's primary goal was to create soldiers loyal only to her with which she can take over Barsaive and install herself as queen. By building labs in Barsaivian cities, she sought to limit damage to the great Theran Empire should something go wrong with her experiments. As well, with labs in various major cities, she thought she would be able to have soldiers in place when she was ready to strike.
She targeted the homeless and the dispossessed, expecting that no one in authority would notice or care when they disappeared. Her first breakthrough led to the creation of Prowlers from elven and human stock in Urupa, made from the lower rungs of Liandrill and Zenicce society, those who could not or would not fit in to the communal life of those sectors. This success prompted her to move to a more integrated city to see what new creations different stock would allow.
Prowlers, coming from Eleriana's horrifying experiments on humans and elves, undergo a painful transformation over a period of two to four days. During this time the victims are suspended in a viscous, translucent green fluid in large, sealed glass tubes with various potions and concoctions flowing in. The initial preparation of the subjects for these vats requires infusing magical energies into their bodies and making strategic incisions and other alterations, such as removing nails and teeth, always while alive and generally while awake and aware of what is happening. A similar process is used to create the other kinds of vat-grown. Each kind of vat-grown is able to perform the necessary operations and infusions to create another of their kind. In the case of Prowlers, for instance, their poison serves to instill the proper magical essence to prepare the victim. Vat-grown need no sustenance other than the magical rituals and potions fed them by Eleriana and never seem to sleep, though they may enter a trance-like state during the day when they are least active.
Eleriana eventually found ways to create different vat-grown from each major Namegiver race except Obsidimen. Though she theorized their connection to a Liferock protected them from her mutations, they all died screaming in agony and madness.

The Vat-Grown
Prowlers
Prowlers are long-limbed and tall, standing over six feet. Their bodies are thin and lithe, their hands ending in wicked claws and rows of sharp teeth filling their gaping mouth. Their skin turns charcoal black. Leathery flaps grow from all over their bodies, forming overlapping layers and giving the Prowler the look of being cloaked, or at least from a distance. Close inspection during the day reveals these monsters' apparent clothing for what it truly is.
Able to use their naturally stealthy physiques combined with specialized magics to avert attention, Prowlers tend to ambush victims. Their paralytic poison incapacitates for up to eight hours, allowing them to kidnap new subjects for Eleriana's experiments or to make new Prowlers. The primary drawback of the Prowlers is their longevity, which is a similar concern for all vat-grown. Without continual influx of magic from Eleriana, their minds degrade to the point where they die in a feral frenzy. Other Prowlers typically sense this beforehand and kill the dying one before it gets to that point.

Brutes
Unable to remedy the mental degradation, Eleriana moved to Travar and began experimenting on orks and trolls, hoping to bolster their basic strength and fortitude. These Brutes were designed to fight, able to take down a frenzying Prowler. Brutes are massive, hulking beasts with the same long limbs, wicked claws, and toothy maws of the Prowlers, though significantly more heavily muscled and standing upwards of seven feet. Their bulging frame gives them a hunched look. The leathery growths still give the appearance of a cloaked figure, but nothing can hide their bulk. Further, this extra layer of skin is thick and tough, providing natural armor. The Brute combines massive strength and resilience with a physically damaging poison secreted through their claws, rather than the paralytic of the Prowler. Despite their size, they still move with an eerie and unnatural silent grace.
Unfortunately, for Eleriana anyway, Brutes still suffer from mental decay. While Prowlers are normally calm predators until their mental decline turns them to frenzying monsters, the normally aggressive Brute becomes docile and childish, eventually turning comatose and dying. Other Brutes will ignore a dying one, though after it dies they will typically rip it apart and consume it, despite never needing to otherwise eat.

Magus
Finding delight in the success of different vat-grown based on different Namegiver races, Eleriana moved to Bartertown to set up a new lab with an abundance of dwarves available. Looking to create something capable of moving heavy burdens for her and acting as menial slaves without the bulk of the Brute, the dwarven tendency towards order and attention to detail was enhanced. These keen-minded monsters still have the intended strength and the now stereotypical claws and teeth, but they also developed natural spellcasting abilities. These short-statured vat-grown, dubbed by Eleriana as Magus, tend to cast Nethermancy spells, though some learn Wizardry from their twisted queen. They have no poison, and Eleriana, having learned some more techniques, crafted their leathery skin growths to take on the shape of magician's robes.
When a Magus undergoes mental degradation, they begin to wander more and more aimlessly, like a lost person. Eventually they begin to walk slower and slower, as if tiring, until they die in an explosive release of magical energy. Other Magus might follow a dying one on its wanderings as if they were leading a devout on a pilgrimage. These Magi will sometimes even leave other work that they have been set to do, lending further credence to the idea. They will abruptly stop as the dying one continues forward until it explodes. The others are always just outside the range of that volatile death.

Sorrow
While creating the Magus, Eleriana also captured windlings living near her lab in Bartertown. Unsure of what she would get, to her delight she grew the perfect interrogator and torturer. Their wings ripped off in the preparation stage, new black leathery wings grow in their place. These monstrosities are known as Sorrows because of the strange aura of suffering they project. A cloud of despair seems to follow them around, inverting the stereotypically joyous windling demeanor. Their mere presence can cause a subject to give up hope and submit in a desperate attempt to garner a quick end. Combine this with a debilitating and deadly poison that causes excruciating pain and few are able to resist an interrogation that includes a Sorrow. Unlike windlings, the tiny Sorrows suffer no consequences when their wings get wet.
Sorrows undergoing mental decline begin to suffer from their own despair. Other Sorrows actively avoid a dying one, and eventually, alone, they violently end their own lives.

Overlord
Following these atrocities, Eleriana moved south again, setting up a lab not far from the Serpent River, this time away from civilization. Using a troop of vat-grown, she caused a riverboat to run aground. "Rescuing" the surviving t'skrang, she tried something new. Rather than turn individual t'skrang into vat-grown, she melded the entire crew into a large vat-grown she called an Overlord.
She considered the Overlord her masterpiece. This monstrous creation has massive mental powers capable of subjugating others to its will. While the other vat-grown are cloaked humanoids, an Overlord is a bulbous, writhing mass of scaly flesh covered in unblinking eyes, gnashing mouths, and thrashing tentacles. Furthermore, the mental control of an Overlord finally solved her problem with the others' mental degradation.
Exerting control over other vat-grown, the Overlord not only prevents the decay, they also provide boosts to the vat-growns' abilities, making them even more formidable. An Overlord latches on with its many tentacles and asserts control. This creates a connection between the Overlord and the controlled which allows them to command it over several miles. There seems to be no limit to the number of vat-grown that can be controlled in this manner. This power also extends to creatures and Namegivers. While control of vat-grown tends to be permanent, the resistance of other creatures causes the control to last only a few seconds to a few hours at most. As well, while controlled like this, their abilities suffer, likely due to the mental struggle. Killing an Overlord instantly causes all controlled vat-grown to undergo mental decay, which can sometimes be even more dangerous than simply dealing with the Overlord last. Dealing with a sudden horde of frenzying Prowlers and the imminent explosion of a group of Magi can spell doom to most adventuring parties.

Queen
Feeling confident in what she created, Eleriana put her final experiment into action: turning herself into the Queen. Incorporating pieces from all the successful races, the Queen stands six-and-a-half feet tall. Leathery skin grows from her body to form regal-looking like robes with a high collar behind her head. Four tentacles, unwillingly given from sacrificed t'skrang, writhe from her back. These provide her the ability to mind control victims and vat-grown like an Overlord. Her spellcasting powers grew immensely after this transformation, her strength was greatly augmented, and she now moves swiftly and silently. Her wicked claws inject a venom which eats away at the victim's insides, and her teeth can rend even an obsidiman's skin. Her gaze induces fear and despair in everyone she looks at, forcing people to avert their eyes or succumb. Having become the Queen she set out to be, Eleriana now seeks to be acknowledged by all, to hear her subjects beg for mercy and her enemies howl in eviscerated pain and death.
Adventure I'm running:
Under the Stars

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Under the Stars Postmortem

Tattered Rags
Posts:374
Joined:Mon Nov 28, 2016 12:04 am

Re: Vat-Grown [construct]

Post by Tattered Rags » Mon Jan 11, 2021 1:11 am

No stats as of yet, and if anyone wants to lend a hand at that, I'd appreciate it. My players will be encountering the Prowlers in Urupa soon enough. The intent is that Prowlers are a circle 4 or 5 threat while the Queen is circle 10 or higher. Each other vat-grown would range between those numbers.

Pieces of the backstory on these creatures can be easily adjusted to fit your own narrative. How I'd suggest they be introduced into your campaign is for players to stumble on an abandoned lab with some clues as to how they were created, maybe even who did it (such as a book written in Theran, though they fit Iopan plot lines very well, too) with a couple Prowlers hanging around to fight. As you play and the story moves to other locales, this plot line gets expanded. Labs more recently abandoned, Brutes and Prowlers together, etc. Eventually they should meet Eleriana (or whomever) as a human, preferably at least twice. This sets up the big reveal of the Queen, which she potentially is driven to just to deal with the meddling heroes. Until she transforms, she's likely rather risk-averse. Being a powerful magician, she'd rather her slaves and creations deal with annoying adventurers.

Clearly, they could also just be Horror constructs rather than the creations of a mad mage. How that plotline plays out I leave up to you, but I'd suggest renaming them from "vat-grown" unless a Horror simply inspired their creation.
Adventure I'm running:
Under the Stars

Adventure GM post-mortem:
Under the Stars Postmortem

Tattered Rags
Posts:374
Joined:Mon Nov 28, 2016 12:04 am

Re: Vat-Grown [construct]

Post by Tattered Rags » Mon Jan 11, 2021 1:43 am

Oh, so far all I have written down stats-wise for the Prowler are these notes.
  • Fast, hard to hit, low hitpoints
  • Movement 20
  • Init 10
  • Stealthy Stride 15
  • Ambush 10
  • Unarmed Combat 14
Adventure I'm running:
Under the Stars

Adventure GM post-mortem:
Under the Stars Postmortem

Slimcreeper
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Re: Vat-Grown [construct]

Post by Slimcreeper » Mon Jan 11, 2021 1:53 am

That's sick. She has made herself into a horror, complete with constructs.

Tattered Rags
Posts:374
Joined:Mon Nov 28, 2016 12:04 am

Re: Vat-Grown [construct]

Post by Tattered Rags » Mon Jan 11, 2021 2:23 am

Slimcreeper wrote:
Mon Jan 11, 2021 1:53 am
That's sick. She has made herself into a horror, complete with constructs.
Somehow I knew you'd like it.
Adventure I'm running:
Under the Stars

Adventure GM post-mortem:
Under the Stars Postmortem

flower
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Joined:Tue Jan 12, 2021 12:40 pm

Re: Vat-Grown [construct]

Post by flower » Tue Jan 12, 2021 12:44 pm

thank you for help :)

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