Weirdo bad guy - which is scarier?
Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2017 11:05 pm
I've got a bad-guy in my game who's been through a lot. He'll be re-appearing soon in a cut scene, and I have a decision to make on how to present him. The bad guy in question is Baron Metus, Van Richten's vampire nemesis. IMC, he became a Crimson Mist when Van Richten slew him the first time, then he was "destroyed" by the PCs in battle. Then his vorlog lover pulled off a heavy-duty ritual to bring back his spirit and put it into a human victim's body, but the ritual got disrupted by the PCs, which led to possessing the body of a nearby clockwork golem instead. The golem had been through a lot himself, having been "destroyed" by the PCs as well, and then having his head stolen by one PC, and then having his head replaced by a fir artificer with a glass dome full of gears, ending up looking something like this:
<deep breath>
... AND THEN... the golem/vampire/ghost hybrid thing got tripped and entangled by the PCs, forcing him to "eject" the fir-made head like an escape pod, which ran away on mechanical spider legs that the fir had installed for whatever reason, with Metus's spirit and the vorlog's tear-puddle form inside.
Still with me?
So, we now have a vampire's ghost inside a glass dome full of gears on mechanical spider legs. He can manifest his face translucently within the dome, so it looks like a head in a diving/astronaut helmet, with gears showing through the face. But he wants a real body of course, so he's going to take a cue from the Head Hunters, and decapitate a body and put his head on top, as sort of a reverse Jacqueline Montarri.
But I can't decide how to describe how he controls the body. See the poll. The first option seems more plausible (if that word has any meaning here), but less useful (in terms of fine motor control). The second seems more useful, but a bit odd, in that the glass dome feels like a container that his spirit shouldn't extend out of. (But we know the dome isn't sealed, because the vorlog's tear-puddle got in, and, presumably, back out.)
One might wonder why this matters at all, and if it was just the PCs facing him down again, I could just say his weirdo head is sitting on a body and controlling it, and leave it at that. But I feel that in a cut scene from an omniscient perspective, the mechanism should be described a bit. It also has ramifications for how coordinated he is, and how much (if anything) he can feel, and how I describe the placement of his spider-legs (visible, gripping the body's shoulders, or tucked inside.)
So... opinions?
<deep breath>
... AND THEN... the golem/vampire/ghost hybrid thing got tripped and entangled by the PCs, forcing him to "eject" the fir-made head like an escape pod, which ran away on mechanical spider legs that the fir had installed for whatever reason, with Metus's spirit and the vorlog's tear-puddle form inside.
Still with me?
So, we now have a vampire's ghost inside a glass dome full of gears on mechanical spider legs. He can manifest his face translucently within the dome, so it looks like a head in a diving/astronaut helmet, with gears showing through the face. But he wants a real body of course, so he's going to take a cue from the Head Hunters, and decapitate a body and put his head on top, as sort of a reverse Jacqueline Montarri.
But I can't decide how to describe how he controls the body. See the poll. The first option seems more plausible (if that word has any meaning here), but less useful (in terms of fine motor control). The second seems more useful, but a bit odd, in that the glass dome feels like a container that his spirit shouldn't extend out of. (But we know the dome isn't sealed, because the vorlog's tear-puddle got in, and, presumably, back out.)
One might wonder why this matters at all, and if it was just the PCs facing him down again, I could just say his weirdo head is sitting on a body and controlling it, and leave it at that. But I feel that in a cut scene from an omniscient perspective, the mechanism should be described a bit. It also has ramifications for how coordinated he is, and how much (if anything) he can feel, and how I describe the placement of his spider-legs (visible, gripping the body's shoulders, or tucked inside.)
So... opinions?