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Old 03-10-2018, 11:11 PM   #11
Daigoro
 
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Default Re: [Game] Animate a Monster Hunters Setting

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Red Humans? o.O
Just for that...
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Question 6:

Among the categories of "The Dead", "The Living", "Spirits", and "Rouge Humans", which ones are the most prominent or worrying? Which are the least?
Answer 6: The Red Humans
The Red Humans, aka Les Sorciers Rouge, are a secret world-wide evil esoteric cult that practice Himalayan necromantic sorcery. They are the most prominent enemy against humanity and often operate in league with or as masters of various other kinds of monster.

They were first identified in the 1880's in French Algiers, although it's not clear how long they were operating before then. Red Human master sorcerers or cult cells have since been noted in a dozen world cities, from Paris to Peking, and as far afield as Borneo.

Due to exposure to a particular alchemical compound, the skin tone of Red Humans does in fact become a brighter scarlet the more powerful they are. Thus, they must disguise themselves when abroad with cosmetic powders or illusions.

As for the "least worrying" group, that's harder to determine. Usually in individual combat, any monster, from the cryptid were-elephant to a Babylonian efreet, can be formidable enough. It's fortunate then that these other foes don't seem to display as much organisation as the Red Humans.


Question 7:
What exactly was it that British surveyors uncovered, disturbed, defiled, upset, insulted, stole, desecrated or opened in the Himalayas that seems to have unleashed this Secret War onto the world?
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Old 03-11-2018, 03:46 AM   #12
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Default Re: [Game] Animate a Monster Hunters Setting

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Question 7:
What exactly was it that British surveyors uncovered, disturbed, defiled, upset, insulted, stole, desecrated or opened in the Himalayas that seems to have unleashed this Secret War onto the world?
Answer 7

An ancient archway linking two mountains and the callously spilt blood of a lover have caused the things from another realm or reality to trickle through. The once barren valley around the arch is now lush and fertile reminiscent of paradise on earth. However no man can leave once they have stepped across the threshold, what happens to the people who do remains a mystery.

Question 8:
Monsters Hunters 5: Applied Xenology, where/how does that feature?
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Old 03-11-2018, 09:44 AM   #13
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Default Re: [Game] Animate a Monster Hunters Setting

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Question 8:
Monsters Hunters 5: Applied Xenology, where/how does that feature?
Answer 8
I haven't read it, but I guess if there's some useful tools in there, we can include them. Skimming the preview, it looks like it's mostly useful for TL8 and/or superscience, which we don't have, and aliens, which we don't seem to have at this point. But I don't see a reason to exclude any other tidbits which might be handy- non-super TL6 Gadgeteering, in biochemistry, perhaps?

Question 9
Which specific year of the early 1900's is it?

Question 10 (Open Question)
What are some organisations dedicated to confronting the monster menace?
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Old 03-11-2018, 12:50 PM   #14
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Question 9
Which specific year of the early 1900's is it?
It's 1905, just after the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth.

Question 10 (Open Question)
What are some organisations dedicated to confronting the monster menace?

Question 11 (NEW)
Are monsters usually as intelligent as humans or animals? Or do they as to us as we are to apes?
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Old 03-11-2018, 01:53 PM   #15
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Default Re: [Game] Animate a Monster Hunters Setting

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Question 10 (Open Question)
What are some organisations dedicated to confronting the monster menace?
The small and impoverished Smythe Foundation, in Delhi, India, attempts to promote the ideas of its founder, Major Smythe of the Bombay Grenadiers.

He became convinced in the 1880s that the various types of monster, several of which he had encountered on the North-West Frontier, or in Bombay, all had a common origin. His hypothesis was that there were spirits that had somehow been freed from confinement by the personnel of the Great Survey, and had travelled with them from the remoteness of the Himalayas to the cities of India and dispersed from there with travellers all over the world. When they found somewhere suitable, they would possess and transform people and animals, creating physical monsters.

The acceptance of the theory was not helped when the Theosophical Society took it up in a mangled form. Smythe disappeared after the Anglo-Burmese War of 1885. His diary, brought back by his unit, indicates that he had arranged to meet the chief vampire of Rangoon on the evening of the day he was last seen.
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Old 03-12-2018, 08:56 AM   #16
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Default Re: [Game] Animate a Monster Hunters Setting

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Question 11
Are monsters usually as intelligent as humans or animals? Or do they as to us as we are to apes?
Answer 11
There are only a few monsters who may be considered genius or super-genius: The High Lama of the Red People, The Elder Circle of Yeti Shamans, The Dragon of the Azores, or The Iron Vampír of Odessa, among a handful of others.

The Red People do practise an alchemical method for increasing their intelligence to that of a mid-level genius, but the process is long, difficult and requires a large pool of human victims, so it is prone to failure or interruption before being completed.

Other monster species generally follow the appropriate norms for intelligence, although animalistic monsters commonly have a high level of cunning that allows them to survive hidden in a metropolitan area.

---

Let's open up the floor to having a few extra questions running- feel free to answer one or many, and post 2 or 3 each yourselves.
Question 12
Did angels, demons and other astral beings come through the archway, or are they present by some other means?

Question 13
How can PC Monster Hunters learn magic?

Question 14
Are the monsters coming through the archway doing so with any plan, purpose or organisation? Or is the process random?
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Old 03-13-2018, 02:09 PM   #17
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Default Re: [Game] Animate a Monster Hunters Setting

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Answer 11

Question 12
Did angels, demons and other astral beings come through the archway, or are they present by some other means?

Question 13
How can PC Monster Hunters learn magic?
The various astral beings have thus far only appeared as entities that have possessed people who have travelled through the arch at certain astrologically significant times.

A rare few of these victims of possession have escaped the clutches of their masters. It is these people who have been the first human users of magic. Some of these formerly possessed individuals have managed to provide the spark for powers in other rare people. The magical abilities that have been awakened seem to have no historical or mythological foundation. That is to say that humans don't yet have much knowledge of how to apply these magical abilities or even what rules they follow. The sum total of a monster hunters potential magical capability is limited to the gifts exhibited by by the formerly possessed and what they have worked out for themselves.

Question 15
Is there any reliable way of detecting the possessed, if so how does it work?

Question 16
The Tzar of Russia has sent well funded envoys to organisations in the know in England. What is the nature of the incursion to the north west of the Himilayas?
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Old 03-13-2018, 08:48 PM   #18
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Default Re: [Game] Animate a Monster Hunters Setting

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Question 14
Are the monsters coming through the archway doing so with any plan, purpose or organisation? Or is the process random?
Answer 14
Each type of monster (or species) that comes through the archway has its own agenda and purpose. Individual monsters may have their own motivations in addition to the purpose appropriate to their type.

Upon arrival, individual monsters must choose between being freelancers or joining species based clans. Most clans use a regional cell structure to mitigate the risk of the entire organization from being compromised by one captured leader. Individual cells might form alliances across species boundaries if their agendas line up. Alliances only last as long as they are perceived to be beneficial by local cell leaders.

The top leadership of each clan wants their cells to band together against the humans. But they are too busy protecting the gate and maintaining it as neutral ground to prevent intercell or interclan warfare between distant cells.

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Question 15
Is there any reliable way of detecting the possessed, if so how does it work?
Question 15
A popular method to detect the possessed is to present them with some item that the possessed regards with religious fervor. This inspires the possessed to try to regain control. Make a Quick Contest between the possessed's Will and the possessor's Will. If the possessed wins, they regain full control for seconds equal to their margin of victory. On a tie, the possessed is completely paralyzed for 1d-2 seconds. On a failure, the possessor maintains control.

Obviously, this is unreliable. Needing to know the possessed's religion and having an appropriate symbol on hand can become a nuisance in polytheistic regions. Finding appropriate symbols for atheists and agnostics can be nigh impossible. Even if you have the right symbol, you are relying on the possessed to win a battle of wills against a creature that has won before.

However, as unnatural creatures, monsters don't cast reflections on natural reflectors. This means that anyone who doesn't cast a reflection on water can be reliably assumed to be a monster. Somehow, this doesn't render the monsters invisible to the naked eye. However, monsters will still cast reflections on manmade objects like panes of glass, polished metal, and mirrors.

Question 16
The Tzar of Russia has sent well funded envoys to organisations in the know in England. What is the nature of the incursion to the north west of the Himilayas?

Question 17
What proportion of monsters join a clan, and what proportion elect to be freelancers?

Question 18
Is the clan leaders' focus on protecting the gate appropriate, or paranoia?
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Old 03-13-2018, 10:54 PM   #19
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Default Re: [Game] Animate a Monster Hunters Setting

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Question 16
The Tzar of Russia has sent well funded envoys to organisations in the know in England. What is the nature of the incursion to the north west of the Himilayas?
Clarification: Sorry to ask, but do you mean that the Russians are asking the English about the monster incursion?
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Old 03-13-2018, 11:31 PM   #20
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Clarification: Sorry to ask, but do you mean that the Russians are asking the English about the monster incursion?
Yes, the Russians are trying to find out what the English know about the monsters. A quiet word in the right gentlemen's club, a discrete inquiry here and there to the right people.
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