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Old 07-21-2018, 08:01 AM   #11
roland
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Default Re: GURPS King in Yellow

The Fury

"The Fury" is the codename of the countess Giada Nicolodi, seventy years old. She lived a life full of wealth, success and love, at least in the seventies.
Since then she experienced a long span of decline, and went mad. Giada begun to attend a weird circle, presided over by the phantom Elena Markos, the would-be "Bride" or Lady of Sorrow.
The circle's meetings ended with orgies in front of a hideous effigy wrapped in a yellow shroud.
Once, her husband, Carlo, found Giada while having sex with two man and another woman. Deranged with anger and revulsion, assaulted her. The woman, with great strenght and speed, stroke first and killed the man with naked hands.
The lady hidden the corpse in the basement of her mansion, located in the Bologna next outskirt, aided by her lovers and.... killed them, too.
Gradually, the relationship between Giada and Elena became always more icy, and the two witches ended up by cursing each other.
The countess, now, lives in a luxury attic of a building in the Bologna centre. Sometimes she kills. When a little boy offends her, when a post employee is oafish, when she sees a woman who don't treat her with all due respect, she puts on a white raincot and a wide-brimmed hat and kills the offender with a cleaver.
The countess Nicolodi has weird powers. In addition to a amazing strength, dexterity and astuteness, obtained thanks to orgiastic rites, Giada is a "Probability Blender" (see Monster Compendium, pag. 370) and a Psycho-Killer (see Horror, pag 67).
The probability-blender powers of the countess are so great that she can, wittingly or unwittingly, change the reality, making it "weird".
Into the basement of the old mansion, for example, the four corpses hidden here return to live and attack the heroes which nose around. The dolls, too, come alive and will help the witch to kill her preys or will attack on their own volition. It's the awful and cursed willpower of Giada to animate objects, items and the old mansion, too. The latter is soaked with wicked psychic energy and will cause nightmares, evil thoughts and hallucinations to whoever enter it.
The scene against the Fury might take place, besides the current dwelling of Giada and the old house where she concealed the corpses of their lovers and husband, in the dark alleyways of the centre, or in the home of the victims.
If you did not understand it, the whole events follow plot of the movie “Deep Red” by Dario Argento and the section should be roleplayed just like a dream-like experience. In the above mentioned italian movie there are many improbable situations that elevate to proper gruesome, visionary art.
The investigation should follow, just as in the film by Dario Argento, a series of urban legends and not be of a scientific nature. If the PCs were to make photosignals, detect the fingerprints, they would not find any clues to solve the case.
The heroes, otherwise, should pay attention to rumors, slander, legends about strange satanic cults, and screams in the first suburbs of Bologna.
On the other hand, some clues can be found in the homes of the victims of Fury.
This chapter is subdivided in three sections: “fortuitous encounters” (outdoor or in the victims home), the “old House” (that is the spot of her first multiple murder), and the “attic” (current dwelling).

Fortuitous encounters
1. The first victim of the Fury is an old companion of "games", the widow Gorelli. A former singer who has fallen into disgrace, for some time he lived in a dilapidated house in the district of Bologna known as the "Bolognina". Knowing some fragments of the Countess's past, he decided to return to the limelight by blackmailing his old friend. If Giada had not given her money, a lot of money, Gorelli would have reported her to the authorities.
The blackmailer was found with her throat cut and her legs broken a few weeks ago.
The investigators initially thought it was one of the Iguana murders, even if the modus operandi was different. If the heroes had to do some investigations, they could easily discover elements of the dark past of Gorelli, as well as, sifting through the lyrics of his youth, they could discover one that speaks of the night of Bologna, with its yellow reflections in the suburbs.
2. The second of the most recent victims is a child of no more than a decade. Her little body, torn by several cleaver shots, was still clutching a sheet on which a nursery rhyme was written: "Audinot, Audinot from the Pope's petticoats to the King's petticoats, that your spirit is always damned".
The child's family is particularly rich and it is rumored that the child's father was a sort of holy man of a strange cult of black magic. They will be particularly hostile to the heroes and if the PCs will try to investigate the family more thoroughly, they will receive threats or something even more serious.
3. "The .... is the number of the devil", the old parish priest of the Basilica of San ........ always murmured, killed with his head broken by an ax a few days ago. The parish priest was a regular visitor of sexual parties and this is more than a rumor. It seems that the parish priest had been sick for a long time and that before dying he wanted to free his conscience by confessing to his superiors his own misdeeds and talking about his acquaintances.

Collecting information, the PCs should understand that something strange happens in the outskirts of Bologna, via Audinot ..... By doing so, arriving at the old house

Last edited by roland; 07-31-2018 at 09:02 AM.
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Old 07-21-2018, 08:02 AM   #12
roland
 
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Default Re: GURPS King in Yellow

continued.....


The Old House
As soon as the PCs come in Audinot Street, ...., in Bologna next outskirt, they can feel that the ambience gets tenser and heavier. No one goes around the street, no auto run about the way. The birds, the insects, too, are silent. The feeling of solitude and anguish is depressing.
In the distance the PCs can see four red dot that get closer. The heroes turn pale when they can make out two huge drooling snarling hounds. The beasts are Terror Hounds (see Monster Compendium, pag. 428). The creatures are former Giada's mastiffs gone rabid by the nearness with the old mansion. They got strange powers (see creature description) and use their abilities to project fear and malice, causing the subject to make a Fright Check. The hound can also "bark" a psionic attack to stun an opponent.
They are fearful opponents, but nothing compared to what waits for the PCs.
If the heroes defeat the dogs, they can get closer to the Mansion and approach the gate. The house is imposing, in the Liberty style, beautiful and in sharp decline. The feeling of anguish is getting heavier.
The PCs can see can see a shadow moving furtively at the borders of the internal garden. A huge shadow. The gate is ajar and the heroes can easily enter. The noise of the iron makes the skin crawl to the protagonists. The garden around the mansion is huge and the heroes take a few minutes to cross it. The grass is very tall, untreated. There are a lot of climbing plants. PCs can perceive the shadow approaching, as something indistinct, dark and rapacious. Suddenly very fast and very heavy steps are heard nearby, and finally the terrible figure of a praying mantis appears. The creature is 12 feet tall, with a pale greenish burr, and the scythe-like legs are dirty with blood. The critter is a “Praying Horror” (see Monster Compendium, pag 366).
In reality, the creature is the embodiment of the most hidden fears of the heroes. If defeated, the body will melt into purulent sludge and vanish, as if it had never been.
This does not mean that the creature can really kill the PCs, with its claws, the spitting acid from the jaws, and the ability to mesmerize the opponents.
The creation of such a creature is yet another proof of Giada's ability to manipulate reality and probabilities.
Once the creature is defeated, the heroes can approach the door. It seems, however, that even the house does not want intruders. As soon as they approach the walls, something falls near them, which is a fragment of glass or a pot of vase. Someone, something, or maybe the same house does not want the PCs to come in.
The entire first floor of the mansion is extremely bleak: cobwebs everywhere, a strong smell of mold, strange little jewelry and dolls, puppets, looking macabre and scary. Above all the living room, with paintings depicting murders, orgiastic rites, mythological animals, makes the skin crawl. The sofa, the armchairs, the chairs next to the table, are full of puppets arranged to mimic a lunch. Every now and then a rat runs around.
If the heroes just move their eyes from the grotesque "banquet", they will hear a noise, like something that falls.
At first, unless someone has eidetic memory, they will not notice the difference. Everything seems like it was before, but a puppet actually moved, and brought a surgeon's scalpel.
The doll, life size, has come to life and will try to cut the throat on the first PC he sees from behind. This is the effect of the powerful psychic energy of the Countess. Evidently the puppet has been impregnated and vented with a murderous instinct. The creature is strong, very fast, is prey to a relentless fury and murderous madness.
The second floor of the villa is almost completely devoid of interest, if not for a room: a large room with an altar in the middle, depicting a ragged figure with a yellow cloak. Only the observing the creature makes nausea to the PCs, it gives them powerful palpitations, to the point of making them almost faint.
The basement is the heart of the villa: in the deepest room of the mansion there are the corpses of the first victims of Giada. The bodies are inside a large niche whose door has been hidden by a heavy cupboard specially shifted for the occasion. The cupboard is so heavy that its movement left deep marks on the floor. An unmodified Per roll is enough to understand what happened and that the heavy thing hides something. As soon as the wardrobe is moved and the niche door is open, the heroes will be attacked by four repugnant monstrosities. They are the corpses of Carlo and the three lovers of the Countess, transformed by the enormous psychic and entropic energy of Fury into four living deads. They are particularly strong and resistant (ST and HT +3) Zombies (see Horror, pag. 90), they will attack the heroes in sight and give off a suffocating gas like the creature Asphissiant Corpse (see Monster Compendium, pag. 48).
If the PCs, once the zombies are defeated, they linger to check the room, they will be able to hear a dull, repeated sound coming from below.
They will be able to find a trapdoor that leads downwards; if they continue, the small tunnel that descends will become wider and wider, until it flows into what looks like a cave.
Meanwhile, the noise is intensifying. To all it seems the beating of a heart. a series of boulders partially bar the road to the heroes. Once the boulders are over, the PCs almost lose their senses when they see the creature beneath them. They can not help thinking of Dante's Hell. The critter is a huge “Crimson Horror” (see Monster Compendium, pag. 120). Perhaps the enormous psychic energy of all the misdeeds in the house has conjured up an entity from some alien universe or perhaps has shaped an otherwise harmless creature in this monstrosity.
The fact is that all the evil of the house or perhaps the neighborhood seems to come from that thing. It must be destroyed, even just to preserve the hero's sanity.

The attic in the city center
The new Jade's den. Here the Countess hides from past crimes, planning the future. The apartment is the classic home of the upper class, except for a room: here are all the stills and jewelry necessary to fuel his madness, together with knives, cleavers, dolls that come to life, adulate her and help to kill.
Here the power of Jade is maximally large. Add ST +3 and HT +3 to the statistics below. It will also have 2d puppets and dolls armed with razors and knives that will help her defend herself.
Her "friends" will also help her outside the home, acting as spies and informers. No one can approach the attic without the Countess knowing and preparing for it.
If she feels she has not yet been discovered as the Fury, the Countess will open to the guests with a smile, she will behave a bit like a daft. Once the guests will have sat down, the Countess will pour them a poisoned drink that will kill them or immobilize them. If immobilized, the unfortunates will be tortured to death.
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Old 07-21-2018, 08:20 AM   #13
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Default Re: GURPS King in Yellow

The Iguana

Iguana is a formidable villain: his ability to disguise into his victims and simulate their voice, makes this character a hard quarry. The Iguana is very strong and resilent, but is utterly insane, tormented by the "Hell's Bells" who "hears" in his head. His only goal is to achieve other victims for trying to soothe the bells....
When Luca Belli was a child, saw his mother who had sex with her lover. The child killed both and was closed in a psychiatric hospital. Here, he begun to hear the bell's tolls, each year, each month and each minute too louder and louder. Guilt, psychiatrists confirmed. In the meantime, Luca dreamed high spires, dark stars and a black, huge church whose belfry emanated a powerful, hypnotic, horrible clap. The bells, the bells, Luca sworn, tell him to kill and kill and kill.
After 12 years of isolation, Luca escaped from the asylum, killing two guards. His body was changing: he got stronger, smarter and faster. Luca got the power of imitating the voices of other people and the calls of the beasts. Above all, he got the power of morphing his visage and his body, turning into another person, at will.
But the bells..... that ****ing bells from the Hell. Kill, Luca, kill, and we will relieve you........
The Iguana kills every person within arm's reach, to soothe his ailment. To suffocate the "bells", he wears headphones, which emanate a very loud metal music. The Iguana, anyway, prefers to kill women, above all if they remind him his mother.
The struggle against the Iguana should be a classical game of cat and mouse, where the detectives and the villain play either roles.
The home of Luca Belli find itself in the "Bolognina", a debased district of Bologna, back to the train station. It is an area full of immigrants, dark alleys, concrete. The street is "Donato Creti" and the house is a small two-story building.
This section should be among those that is most affected by the "Years of Lead" climate that is still breathed in this alternative Italy.
The Iguana, in fact, tends to attend social centers, university premises and other meetings of the extreme left. Just a trifle to spark a clash with the police or with young people of the extreme right, especially if belonging to the group of Umberto Salvini.
The places where Luca Belli can be found are those close to the university, via Zamboni, the pub called "Le Scuderie", the area of via Irnerio and obviously his house in via Donato Creti
Le Scuderie is a famous restaurant located in Via Zamboni and Piazza Verdi, frequented by university students from all over Europe who come to study in the Faculties of Bologna.
In this alternative Italy, it is the meeting place of the student underground, of the antagonists of the bourgeois and fascist system that rages in Bologna and in the entire country.
Here the student revolt is inflamed and here numerous clashes have taken place with the police and with the youths of the right-wing parties. Numerous times the place was set on fire and rebuilt. Virtually every week there are police raids and arrests.
This is also the favorite hunting area of the Iguana. Four are the girls who frequented the Scuderie who were killed by the fury of the serial killer. The girls were very similar physically to each other: blond, of medium height and of discreet schooling. Assiduous frequenters of the left circles, they were filed by the police as seditious people.
When the heroes begin to investigate, an improper attack by the fascists should take place. Molotov cocktails and stone throwing should take place throughout the night. The police intervened charge both the fascists and, more vehemently, the boys of the extreme left.
PCs should be in the middle.
Meanwhile, a blonde girl who entered in any way in contact with the protagonists should disappear in disarray. His body, broken, should be found the next morning in the nearby streets.
Via Zamboni is the university street par excellence of Bologna. And it is another hunting territory for the Iguana.
In via Zamboni, Luca moves especially at afternoon, at twilight. He likes to watch his future victims in the oblique light of the setting sun. The GM should describe the street with a dreamy look, vehemently highlighting the shadows, the desperate and frightened faces of the boys. It should give to the players that these are perhaps their impressions or maybe they are objective data.
Also remember that we are in the Years of Lead. At any time he can mount a protest that is violently repressed by the police.
The heroes should at all times feel followed, spied on. They should always be on guard, also because the Iguana of prey will try to become the hunter. He will mercilessly kill someone who is close to the PCs (a colleague, a friend, a lover) and will take the form. After looking closely at the PCs, he will try to separate them and kill them one at a time.
If discovered, it will move away and disperse in the crowd.
Luca will take on the appearance of a helpless girl and will raise a series of accusations against the PCs both to the authorities and to the boys of the social centers.
Luca in this way could put dozens of people against the PCs, as well as an entire command of the carabineers and the police.
It will not be easy for the heroes to find out who the Iguana really is and stop him. The heroes could approach some of the social centers to ask questions. At which point they would be approached by a boy who knew one of the victims. He could confess to having seen her approached by a strange guy with headphones in his ears. Then he saw them walking away together past the station, in the Bolognina district.
In the area near Donato Creti, Luca is known by some as "the Howler", because from his home come in the night screams

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Old 07-22-2018, 06:59 AM   #14
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Default Re: GURPS King in Yellow

I haven't read the whole thread but I might suggest that recent uses of the King in Yellow links the whole idea the King and his city with the Arts. In the Eldrich Skies RPG the King in Yellow is a memetic disease bring insanity along with it.

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Old 07-22-2018, 09:43 AM   #15
roland
 
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Default Re: GURPS King in Yellow

Quote:
Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
I haven't read the whole thread but I might suggest that recent uses of the King in Yellow links the whole idea the King and his city with the Arts. In the Eldrich Skies RPG the King in Yellow is a memetic disease bring insanity along with it.

Is this idea useful to you?
the idea is very interesting .... but the whole campaign is intended to describe, in fantasy terms, a period of time in which Italy has been the target of more or less hidden powers. If I can finish the campaign, the reader will see a King in Yellow very ..... material
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Old 07-22-2018, 09:46 AM   #16
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The Bride


Elena Markos has many names: Mater Suspiriorum, Our Lady of Sorrow, Weaver of Death, and The Bride. In effect, she's the first wife of the King in Yellow. The two horrors knew eons ago and that union given birth to all of the evil in the world.
At least the legend has it.
In fact, she's a being of great power, a Rift Hag, able of manipulating the time fabric. Elena settled in a tailor's shop, surrounded by lesser witches, and occupied to sing the praises of her prior husband. The shop actually is a "tesseract", and is dimensionally folded. The tiny building has many rooms and locations for crushing unwelcomed guest.
In addition to the scores of witches, Elena has many servants, brutes with huge strenght and resilience, shadows, spectres and demons.

The Shop of Elena is located downtown. Enter in the tiny building is not hard, it suffices ring the bell..... An attractive young girl, Maria, will open the door, and will accompany you amid clothes, until the laboratory, and will introduce her two sisters, Elisabetta and Aurora.
Beyond a crimson curtain, you can hear Elena, the mother of the three young girls, sing a nursery rhyme softly.
If you are polite, if you pay the check, if you smile and, above all, do not pull the curtain away, you can leave smoothly. Otherwise, the four women will drag you to hell.

Interior of the Tailor's Shop
There are three categories of monsters inside the Elena's shop. The first type are companions of the Witch - magical animals who have lived with Elena for some time. Some are intelligent and know many of the secrets of the shop (including several of the secret knocks and passwords), while others have only an animal intelligence.
Because Elena sometimes mistreats them, they may offer assistance to PCs who treat them well.
The second type of creature found inside the shop are those evil humanoids, monsters, and planar creatures that Elena has summoned to serve as henchmen. Some are fanatically loyal, while others hate and fear Elena and must be kept in line by threats and powerful magical spells.
The third type of creature found inside the shop are Elena's visitors. Some are welcome guests (for example, the servants of the King) while others are prisoners.
Still others act as Elena's unwilling servants. Elena normally teleports from one area of the shop to another. But when using a door, her touch is sufficient to open any lock. To move from one level to the next through a door, she too must utter passwords or use secret knocks. When passing through a door from a lower level to a higher level, she too winds up in a randomly determined area.
Mapping the Shop is impossible: it is a tesseract, so its foundations take root in the space and time.
It has three sections that do not necessarily need to be explored in a row, nor should all of them be explored. Keep in mind, however, that each section will have an object that will be extremely useful for driving Elena Markos back to the hell she came from.
Once the heroes are sucked into this delirium, they will find themselves in front of four doors, each with the name of the witches written above, Elisabetta, Aurora, Maria and Elena. The heroes will be able to enter freely but not go out as easily from the territory of their respective witches.
Upon defeating her three daughters and finding the Golden Strand of Elena, the adventurers can approach the witch and exit from the Shop.
The first part of the adventure, that of Elisabetta, Maria and Aurora, is heavily influenced by Dickens' story "A Christmas Carol". The past belongs to Elisabetta, to Aurora the present and to Maria the future of the characters. The psychology of the characters is fundamental to these sections and therefore the whole adventure must be modeled on iconic characters. The GMs feel absolutely free to modify all or part of the adventure to model it on their PCs.

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Old 07-22-2018, 09:48 AM   #17
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continued....

Elisabetta and the Past
This section must be subdivided into as many sub-paragraphs as there are PCs.
Each sub-paragraph is played by a single PCs as it relates to an event of its past. As explained above, these sub-paragraphs are modeled on iconic PCs.

The Past of Gerard Reno
Even a rough mercenary can undergo experiences that mark him deeply and do not sleep at night. Adis Abeba, Eritrea, August 2010. The company to which our hero belongs was swept away by the Communist Liberation Front which launched a counter-offensive on the territory occupied by government forces. The only survivor is Gerard, who hides inside a shack in a small village forgotten by God. The men of the Liberation Front have gathered men, women and children in front of a minefield. The camp must be cleared and the Liberation Front soldiers have neither time nor men to lose. They therefore use the villagers found on site. The first is a girl. It is no more than a decade old. A few steps and then the click of the mine. In the bustle, the click is heard perfectly, like a thunder. The girl stops, knowing that if she lifts her foot, she will die from the explosion. Out of the corner of his eye, Gerard sees the patrol chief drawing his rifle and aiming. A second later the girl's leg is cut off by the bullet and the mine explodes, making it into pieces. Gerard has killed a lot of people and done really bad things, but the remorse for not doing anything for that child continues to haunt him the night like the worst nightmares.
Now he can change things. He is no longer hurt, he can catch men by surprise. There are only a dozen soldiers and he has automatic weapons with him.
The ensuing shootout would be a real battle and not a mere removal of memory. If he were able to kill the Liberation Front soldiers, the child could even be seen again in the future as an NPC.
If Reno were to be killed in the clash, he would really die.
The Past of Franco Ulyanov
Bologna station. It is 10.23 am on the morning of August 2, 1980. The waiting room is packed with women, men and children. Franco for a few tens of seconds can not figure out where it is. Then, suddenly, the blood freezes in his veins. Recognizes the place, immediately sees his parents. He immediately sees himself, as a child.
10.24 am. Franco turns around. He sees a suitcase at the northwest corner of the waiting room. It's there, he's sure. The bomb is there.
Franco has 30 seconds to act. He can save the lives of his parents and 80 other people. He can avoid to himself the heavy mutilations caused by the explosion. It can radically change one's life.
First of all it is necessary to overcome a Will Check with a penalty of -4 to see if Franco manages to remain calm and, therefore, to act. If he can not get over it, he can roll a second time after 10 seconds but the penalty increases to -6. If the second roll is wrong, Franco can only escape or stay on the spot and die.
If Franco were able to save at least his parents and himself, his wounds would heal. Remember to modify the disadvantages to compensate for the loss of the Lame and One-Eye disadvantages. In place of these, the PC could gain the disadvantage Powerful Enemy. In fact, those who put the bomb would not be very happy to know that someone has foiled their plan. Then, the fact that the American administration commanded by Reder put the bomb is another complication.
The Past of Lucia Delli Santi
The worst day of Lucia Delli Santi's life was when, at the age of 12, they reported to her that her father had been killed during the service. Lucia's father was the Vice-Questore of Milan and was shot dead by a commando of terrorists of the extreme left, on the steps of the Police Headquarters. Since then, Lucia has voted her life to make a contribution to eradicate terrorism, whether red or black, from the country. Now Lucia finds herself in front of the steps that have been fatal for her father. In the distance the girl can see a car approaching, at full speed. she is dazed, also because she has her father in front of her, as she remembered from the time of the funeral.
The girl must win a Will roll to a penalty of -4 to be able to wake up in amazement. He can repeat the roll every 5 seconds, but the second time will have a penalty of -6. There will not be a third chance, as the car will come around after 10 seconds and the commando will start firing, mowing the two. If Lucia were to recover in time she will be able to fight back. The terrorist group consists of four members.
Lucia can hide and hide her father behind the columns. Even the father is armed and will fight too.
If Lucia manages to survive and save her father, he can become a Patron of the girl and the whole group of PCs
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Old 07-22-2018, 09:50 AM   #18
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continued....

After this experience, the three will appear in a large hall. The room is illuminated by a faint candle, on a table in a corner. A creepy voice, as though it originated from thousands of snakes, invades the scene, making the heroes flesh creep. Two "gates" open, showing infinite cruelty. They are the eyes of the Avatar of Nyaga (see Monster Compendium pag.60), a hideous creature trapped in a massive glass sphere. How the creature expounds to the PCs, Nyaga is a dark god, bitter enemy of "the King in Yellow", master of Elena. The beast will not talk at lenght of the King but will tell to the heroes that if they free it, it will help them.
Actually, the Avatar will try to kill them. The PCs have to persuade it help them. It is a challenge, because the creature is very smart and cautious. The only weak point is its hate for Elena. If the heroes succeed in swiping the creature trust, the beast will offer a very hasty explanation of the working principles of the Shop: this place is a kind of prison for Elena and her daughters who had the audacity, aeons ago, to betray their spouse and father respectively, trying to gain absolute power over the world and to poison the King. Since then they have been forced to to reign over a small hypercube, which at the same time imprisons her and gives their guests the ability to find useful items to kill Elena Markos herself. For this same reason there are creatures inside the tesseract that hate the witch and her daughters-bitches in a visceral way.
Once the heroes defeat the Avatar, whether by cunning or by force, they can cross the room and see that a huge mountain rises before them.. There's nothing apart this monolith and an impassable pathway encircling the mountain and arriving to the top. The climbing seems infinite and the heroes can observe that they are aging more and more as they climb. When on the top, they will be ninety-years-old persons and will be tired to such an extent that they will can barely catch their breath back. On the summit surrounded by a loose mist, there's a white-haired old man. As soon as he sees the PCs, smiles at them and asks heroes to sit down. Then he speaks to the PCs: "As you can see, my friends, more you go away from the plain more the Time passes quickly. It's a physical law. If you thought the Time flow uniformly all over the globe, you are fools. The Time isn't uniform, as just as the life." The old man then begin to give an account of the PCs lives accenting the negative aspects of their existences. He depicts also the better facets of their lives casting a misleading light on them. This man is a singular kind of the "Road Ghost" creature (see Monster Compendium, pag. 388). This man will try to drive the heroes, already prostrate with the premature aging, to despair.
Only if the PCs manage to stand the Ghost' psychic attacks, they will become young again but the Ghost will turn into a rocky giant.
By climbing down the mountain, the PCs see a hovel. The door is half-shut and from within comes a muttering and moans. On the door there's the writing: "the heat cannot pass from a cold body to a warm one". If the PCs enter the hut, they can see a young man who drops a caoutchouc marble. At any bounce, he moans and mumbles. As soon as the man sees the PCs introduces himself, speaking with a thick german accent: "good evening, my friends... do you understand what i'm doing, do you? Do you understand that if i drop a marble, it can reascend, but if i turn on the thermosiphon, the heat that it will emit won't get back...." Now, the PCs see that the hut is actually an alchemical laboratory, full of alembics, animals in formaline and sundry horrors. The man moves a lever, and starts a 35-millimeter film. It lasts a few seconds and shows a rolling marble. "Can some of you tell me if the movie is screened forward or backwards? It's that simple: you cannot! As just as in the physics, there aren't any clues as to the time direction. None but...." The man grasps a lance, supposedly throwed away on the table, that emits a cone of fierce flames.
"Only the heat knows the difference between past and future; i'm the only reasonable thing in this ****ing world. Elisabetta's trying to destroy my sanity and my world, but she won't manage!!" The skin of the man is turning into steel and his figure becomes that of a flaming knight. Suddenly, enters the hut a harnessed warhorse, that will try to traple the heroes. The two critters form a Hellknight (See Monster Compendium pag. 270).
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Old 07-22-2018, 09:51 AM   #19
roland
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Default Re: GURPS King in Yellow

continued....



The PCs, getting out the hut, emerge in the middle of a wide field, encompassed by a racetrack. On the sides of the racetrack there's a gate, sufficiently big for a person. From this opening, comes out an humanoid who start to run clockwise. He has the flesh stripped off and one can see throbbing veins and exposed organs. He is a Flayed (see Monster Compendium, pag. 222). The creature takes speed as it whirls around the protagonists. It is so fast that at a certain point it becomes invisible. The PCs start to choke and see blurry figures on the outside of the racetrack where they are trapped by now.
"The more an individual moves fast, the less time it injures him, my friends. I can move back and forth in time, my friends, simply running". The heroes feel bad and are about to faint, when the sky above them becomes covered with planes, black as crows. The planes are old propeller models, they carry a hooked cross on the tail and they drop tons of bombs nearby.
The Flayed returns visible and attacks the PCs with unprecedented speed.
The battle should attract unwanted attention. A dozen Wermacht infantry soldiers come along with a Tiger tank.
If the heroes manage to save the skin and kill Elisabetta's servant, they will return to their "present".
Three characters appear in front of the PCs. Two of them look solemn, the third a little less. The first is dressed in a peplum, a garment that used the ancient Greeks. He has a broad forehead and his eyes flicker with intelligence.
The second carries eighteenth-century dresses, sluggish and over-treated. Even his eyes give off insight, but they are even more violent than those of the previous individual.
The third has a decidedly more good-natured appearance, the dreamy air and the hair turned upward, as if electrified.
It seems incredible to the heroes, but they are sure to recognize the third individual. They recognize the pop image, have studied him in the scholastic books of philosophy and those of science. They are sure: they have Albert Einstein in front of them.
Einstein cordially greets the PCs and presents, with its German accent, the other two individuals: Aristotle and Newton. "Dear friends", says the German philosopher "we are trying to solve a diatribe between us three poor thinkers".
"According to my Greek friend Aristotle, time is the measure of change, things change all the time and we call Time the measure, the accounting for this change.
According to my English friend Newton there is a flowing time even if nothing changes.
So, for the former, time is just a way to measure how things change, while for the latter there is an absolute time that flows by itself, regardless of things ".
Albert laughs: "if you think about it, it's a bit like that Chinese dilemma that if a tree falls in the forest and there's nobody to hear, does the tree make a noise?" I think the answer is that yes, it's true, the time that Newton sensed exists in the world beyond the tangible matter actually exists, but it is by no means absolute, not at all independent of what happens, not at all distinct from the other substances of the world as my English friend imagines.
We can think that there is the great Newtonian canvas (or Elena?) on which the history of the world is drawn. But remember that the canvas, any canvas is, even that of Elena, is made of the same substance of which the other things of the world are made, such as stone, light, air ".
Einstein rummages in his jacket and after a few seconds he takes out an old gun, a Bodeo, made of silver. The gun is strange, seems to quiver, disappear and reappear in the hands of the scientist.
"Hold this, it has only one bullet in it, of "phasic" silver. It will serve to kill that bitch of Elena The witch has already manipulated our beloved time enough.
As soon as Einstein says so, it freezes, as if it were petrifying. Even the other two are immobilized. Elisabetta appears, with feline movements and angelic face, which seems to transfigure as she moves forward. "Before you leave my kingdom" says the witch "you owe me a pledge: your charred hearts". Elisabetta is a Flame Hag (see Monster Compendium, pag. 254), a very powerful witch. It will try to carbonize PCs immediately, not giving them the ability to extract or use weapons. Elisabetta, moreover, will be accompanied by three Azer (see Monster Compendium, pag. 62), who will use flamethrowers.
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Old 07-22-2018, 09:52 AM   #20
roland
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Default Re: GURPS King in Yellow

continued....



Aurora and the Present
Also this section must be subdivided into as many sub-paragraphs as there are PCs.
Each sub-paragraph is played by a single PCs as it relates to an event of its past. As explained above, these sub-paragraphs are modeled on iconic PCs.

The Present of Gerard Reno
"Who are you Gerard Reno? You're a killer, a brute without a brain, a person unable to live without using violence," says a voice in Gerard's head. The man is in a pitch dark place.
"Now you are looking for Elena, wife, servant, traitor of the King. But before you get to her you must overcome me and my three servants: Violence, Hatred, Fear".
The light turns on and Gerard sees the place where he is: a large prison. He has no weapons, just a long knife with a sharp point.
Suddenly the door at the end of the gloomy room opens, and a four-armed beast comes out, a Annihilator (see Monster Compendium, p.40).
Once the creature is killed, the next door opens and a beautiful girl comes out, approaching with lust for the man. If Gerard allows the girl to whisper words in his ear, Gerard, suddenly, will go mad with rage and will be so furious to turn the knife against himself. To avoid this he must win a Will roll -4. The creature is a Hate-Monger (see Monster Compendium, p.267).
If Gerard manages to slay this creature too, the third door opens and a Horror! (see Monster Compendium, page 282) comes out.
The Present of Franco Ulyanov
"Who are you Franco Ulyanov? You are a murderer, a magic user who uses his art to mask a deep insecurity, you kill, you have killed, but now you will not kill anymore because you are looking for Elena, wife, servant, traitor of the King. But before you get to her you have to overcome me and my three servants: Arrogance, Loneliness, Underestimation. "
Franco finds a door before his eyes; when he opens it he sees a long corridor and barring his way there is a gigantic humanoid, with a greenish complexion and curved horns. His eyes give off a malicious, particularly arrogant intelligence. The creature wields a long sword and begins to murmur arcane words. The humanoid is a Ogre Magi (see Monster Compendium, pag. 353), an arrogant and self-confident being, with very few weaknesses.
Once the creature is defeated, Franco finds himself in front of another door, which fronts a room so filthy and stinking that it is nauseous. Suddenly he hears squeaking and an ever-increasing number of rats enter every crack in the room, from under the door, from the cracks in the floor. After a few seconds the rats are hundreds and joining together they form a vaguely humanoid figure from which emerge two murderous red eyes. The creature is a Many-in-One (see Monster Compendium page 323).
The opposite door opens and Franco can see a wonderful and placid pond. Here and there the birds can be heard, the wind can be heard. Then suddenly everything is silent. In the distance, Franco sees a shadow. At first Franco believes he is in a masked woman. Then, when the woman approaches, he sees that the face is of flesh, and the mouth has been horribly cut from ear to ear. The creature is a Kuchisake-Onna (see Monster Compendium, pag. 301).
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