Saturday, December 28, 2019

SOS: Do you believe in a Smiling God? (part 2)

                                                         source unknown

You can find part 1 here.

Agents of the Smiling God are protected from death, though not from injury.  It is said that you can judge a Strexcorp Executive, or Priest of the Smiling God's rank by his scars.  The more he has, the higher he rises in their esteem.

But there are those among the ranks of Strexcorp that do not seem scarred at all.  They glow with vitality, an ageless quality to their bodies and a blinding quality to their smiles.  These individuals take orders from few and give none themselves, but their word is always heard and respected.  Most of Strexcorp's personnel have never seen one of these strange people and even fewer know who they serve or why they have so much authority.

Only the Agents of the Smiling God, those gifted his mystical protections, know the truth.  For some of the Agents of the Smiling God are granted the right to "See him smile".  This is a ritual of grave importance, one terrifyingly dangerous.  Not all who are called to this fate take up the Unscarred People's offer.  Of those that do, some of them never return.  They vanish and are never seen or heard from again. 

Some are, though.  They return, all smiles. 

They never speak of what happened to them.  But they have been changed.  Their scars are gones, replaced by smooth flesh, youth and a wide, toothy grin.  Their cheerful masks never slip and they never, ever express any emotion besides happiness. Even when doing unspeakable things to their former brethren, they never crack.

This is the truth: these people have become the Children of the Smiling God.

                                            from The Stepford Wives

Statblock:

Child of the Smiling God
HD 5  AC 12 (natural DEX) Atk Shuriken (+3, 1d4/1d4/1d4 + save vs disease) or Concealed Claws (+4, 1d6+2/1d6+2 + save vs disease)
Mor 19      Saves special

Saves: Agents of the Smiling God are ludicrously lucky.  When forced to roll a save, they instead roll a d6.  On a 2-6, count that as a successful save.  The Agents are also hard to kill; if they take fatal damage, they may roll a save.  On a success, they survive with 1 HP.  This can only apply in situations where it is possible for them to survive without bending the laws of reality.  Note that even if they survive, they are still likely to suffer some kind of terrible injury. 

Save Steal: If this creature fails a save against death or damage and a lesser Agent of the Smiling God is nearby, this creature can remove the 1d6 save from that creature and pass the save. 

Superior Stats: Children of the Smiling God have a STR and DEX of 16(+2).  They are incredibly quick and athletic, despite their mundane appearance.

Filthy Touch: The Children of the Smiling God carry dangerous viruses and pathogens in their blood, flesh and tissues.  When wounded by their claws or shuriken, make a CON save.  On a failure, you have contracted Sunsmile.     

Tactics:
- Sneak up, attack from ambush
- Get into melee range if possible
- If outmatched, throw shurikens and retreat

<Referee's Note>

Sunsmile:

A disease that does 1d4 WIS damage a day.  It causes the infected to be sensitive to light and easily dazzled and disturbs sleep.  It fills the minds of the infected with dreams of the Smiling God.  It does not cause death by itself, but it causes the infected to eventually have their senses so addled that they can barely sense anything, leading them to all sorts of terrible fates.  The primary cause of death for the infected is accidents, whether that be getting hit by a motor vehicle or falling off a ladder.

</Referee's Note>

                                                             source unknown

Slaves of the Smiling God

They are almost unknown to anyone, not even guessed at by 90% of all Strexcorp.  The remaining 10% might have heard of them, but have always never seen them.  Only the tiniest fraction of all Strexcorp's employees have ever seen one of the Slaves and lived to tell the tale.  The Children are the only ones who seem to interact with them, but this is idle speculation among the few who know.

All of Strexcorp, knowingly or unknowingly, advances the will and plan of the Smiling God.  But sometimes, a more direct approach is called for.  Sometimes, divine intervention is necessary.  This is what his Slaves are meant to do.  The Slaves of the Smiling God are his avatars, his hand directly at work.  This a truth that all who have the misfortune to meet one of these creatures come to know, along with the ghastly truth about the Smiling God.

As far as we know, there are four of them.

                 by Nicolaes Maes (1643–1693), and to Abraham van Dijck (ca. 1635?–1680?)

The Happy Mother        

She is the "Mother" of the Children, as well as all of Strexcorp.  She resembles an older woman, with a kind smile and crinkles around her mouth.  But her skin, it seems subtly tinged yellow, as if she has jaundice.  And her smile, it seems to radiate no warmth.  Her teeth gleam, flashing like knives, but no warmth comes through.  Her eyes are wrong too.  They are distant, as if she was not looking at you, but staring out into the naked void, or scrutinizing the way your RNA duplicates.  And while she's definitely old and wrinkled, she seems to walk and move with definite grace and radiates a strange vitality.  This is a bit odd, as she has been old for as long as people can remember.  When the current CEO was just a child playing in the company nursery, hearing stories of Strexcorp's virtue and the bravery of her soldiers, he saw her, watching him- and she was old back then. 

Signs the Happy Mother is near:

- Yesterday, people began to suffer small bouts of amnesia.
- Time seemed to slow to crawl.  The clocks must be malfunctioning, or maybe you were just tired, as the hours crawled by.  An hour feels like a day, which feels like an entire week.
- Sometimes, when you opened a door, it did not lead to the next room, but to a beach of black sand, bordering an ocean with waters the colors of absinthe.  Wait and watch and eventually, two suns will rise to fill the sky and turn the shallow water emerald.  If the door closed behind you, you would be stranded on an distant world far from where you are.

Statblock:

The Happy Mother
SHP 5  AC 13  Atk Serrated Fingernails (+5, 1d10 poison)
Mor 17    Saves special

Damage Threshold 5: All Outsiders have a Damage Threshold.  The Happy Mother only take damage from sources if the amount of damage equals or exceeds her Damage Threshold.  If a source of damage cannot equal or exceed the Threshold, instead ignore it, as if it did no damage. 

SHP: Stands for "Super Hit Points".  The Happy Mother has 5 SHP.  Each time the Damage Threshold is equaled or exceeded, she loses 1 SHP.  When she hits zero SHP, she dies.

Saves: Agents of the Smiling God are ludicrously lucky.  When forced to roll a save, they instead roll a d6.  On a 2-6, count that as a successful save.  The Agents are also hard to kill; if they take fatal damage, they may roll a save.  On a success, they survive with 1 HP.  This can only apply in situations where it is possible for them to survive without bending the laws of reality.  Note that even if they survive, they are still likely to suffer some kind of terrible injury.

Save Steal: If this creature fails a save against death or damage and a lesser Agent of the Smiling God is nearby, this creature can remove the 1d6 save from that creature and pass the save. 

Regeneration: The Happy Mother regains 1 SHP a round.

Seize: As an action, the Happy Mother can pull an object or creature toward her using her will.  If it is an object, people nearby will pick it up and toss it to her.  If it is a creature, he must save or walk towards her. 

Tactics:
- Value your own life above others   
- Focus on the mission
- Get irrationally angered if your skin is breached
- See that the will of the Smiling God is done

When the Happy Mother is wounded, her skin seems to crack like porcelain, to reveal dark-green, almost black, inhuman, necrotizing flesh underneath.  Her skin quickly regenerates, covering up this unsightly part, but this angers her.

If you crack open her shell, she will fixate on that person, trying to kill them more than anything else. 

                                              by Dwight D. Eisenhower

The Joyful Knight

He is called a Knight, but looks nothing like one.  This is an intentional choice on his part.  He is the Smiling God's fist, his vengeance made manifest.  He is all-but unstoppable.  He hacks and coughs and people rarely think him dangerous, until far too late.  He smiles at people and they burst into mad fits of giggles or wheeze until their chests scream at them, their diaphrams contorting unnaturally.  Then he stares and those same people begin coughing up blood, hacking up their lungs in bloody chunks, killed from the inside by some horrific disease that took only seconds to shred their respiratory system.  Count yourself terribly unlucky if you see him, as it's likely to be the last thing you ever do.

His appearance changes, but he tends toward being male, with sallow skin, his veins red with blood-poisoning.  He looks terribly unhealthy, haggard and ash-faced.  He seemingly attempts to conceal his frailty with an overcoat that is much too big on him, flapping about his malnourished frame like a sail, along with a broad-brimmed hat, which he pulls down to shield his face as much as possible.  And while this looks odd from a distance, it shouldn't be any different than any other person dressed that way.  But there is something about the Joyful Knight that is unnerving and unnatural.  His movements are too precise, as if he is following an instruction manual, or inputting commands into a computer terminal instead of rambling forward like a human normally would.

Signs the Joyful Knight is near:
- It all started yesterday, with strange voices speaking out of TVs and radios, promising "That the light of his smile would warm us," and that "He feels such joy at being able to see us".
- It then escalated to terrible dreams afflicting certain members of the populace, nightmares of terrible, consuming light and of enormous, pearly-white teeth.
- Then strange music began to play, filling the ears of all nearby.

Statblock:   

The Joyful Knight
SHP 5  AC 13  Atk Toxic Touch (+5, 1d10 poison)
Mor 16    Saves special
Immune to Poison, Toxins and Disease

Damage Threshold 5: All Outsiders have a Damage Threshold.  The Joyful Knight only take damage from sources if the amount of damage equals or exceeds his Damage Threshold.  If a source of damage cannot equal or exceed the Threshold, instead ignore it, as if it did no damage. 

SHP: Stands for "Super Hit Points".  The Joyful Knight has 5 SHP.  Each time the Damage Threshold is equaled or exceeded, he loses 1 SHP.  When he hits zero SHP, she dies.

Saves: Agents of the Smiling God are ludicrously lucky.  When forced to roll a save, they instead roll a d6.  On a 2-6, count that as a successful save.  The Agents are also hard to kill; if they take fatal damage, they may roll a save.  On a success, they survive with 1 HP.  This can only apply in situations where it is possible for them to survive without bending the laws of reality.  Note that even if they survive, they are still likely to suffer some kind of terrible injury.

Save Steal: If this creature fails a save against death or damage and a lesser Agent of the Smiling God is nearby, this creature can remove the 1d6 save from that creature and pass the save. 

Infectious Laughter: The Joyful Knight can, as an action, cause those whose eyes he can see or those who can see his smile, to save.  Those who fail their saves start laughing uncontrollably.  They can either choose to spend their action laughing and nothing else, or they can do something else but take 1d6 damage as their body convulses.  Even if you pass your save, being able to see the Knight's smile or letting him see your eyes causes you to take 1d6 WIS damage a round.  If this damage ever exceeds your WIS score, the Referee should treat that as a failed save.  The Joyful Knight may only use this ability once every 1d4 rounds.

Pneumoniac: As an action, the Joyful Knight can cause up to four creatures to save.  Those who fail their save take 1d10 damage and start bleeding out of every orifice.  Those who pass their save take half damage and only start bleeding from the nose and eyes.  The Joyful Knight can only use this ability once every 1d4 rounds.

Tactics:
- Pretend to be a sick person
- Open with "Pneumoniac"
- Assault the most injured person
- Retreat if your life is ever endangered

                                                          by Mike Walton

The Laughing Maid

A ghoulish creature, a feminine skin over a whirlpool of malevolence.  The Laughing Maid pretends to be human, but she's very, even intentionally, bad at it.  She is tall and her skin seems stretched, pulled taunt over a frame that's just a bit too big, her muscles bunching and twisting underneath in strange, malformed coils.  All her features seem a bit too sharp, as if they're made of knives.  On top of that, the Laughing Maid's behavior is so odd it cannot be written off as normal.  She's always chuckling to herself, laughing at some joke she refuses to share.  She will touch the faces of others if allowed, her razor nails pricking their soft skin.  She kills easily and thoughtlessly, and if confronted with a baby or a small animal, she will usually take the time to kill it.  She never seems to understand why you might find this objectionable.

Signs the Laughing Maid is near:
- Began a week ago with phone calls from an unknown number.  It was this woman who was attempting to explain a joke.  She never finished though, as she keeps breaking out into fits of giggles.  She apologizes profusely, but never manages to finish the joke.  The phone calls get cut off after about a minute.
- Then Time began to flow strangely, the days stretched on and on, with no end in sight
- Then a door opened to reveal a planet of enormous ferns and mud flats, underneath an alien skies that eventually fills with two suns.

Statblock:


The Laughing Maid
SHP 7  AC 11  Atk Barbed Appendages (+6, 1d8/1d8/1d8)
Mor 17    Saves special
Immune to Cold Damage
Immune to Acid Damage

Damage Threshold 7: All Outsiders have a Damage Threshold.  The Laughing Maid only take damage from sources if the amount of damage equals or exceeds her Damage Threshold.  If a source of damage cannot equal or exceed the Threshold, instead ignore it, as if it did no damage. 

SHP: Stands for "Super Hit Points".  The Laughing Maid has 7 SHP.  Each time the Damage Threshold is equaled or exceeded, she loses 1 SHP.  When she hits zero SHP, she dies.

Saves: Agents of the Smiling God are ludicrously lucky.  When forced to roll a save, they instead roll a d6.  On a 2-6, count that as a successful save.  The Agents are also hard to kill; if they take fatal damage, they may roll a save.  On a success, they survive with 1 HP.  This can only apply in situations where it is possible for them to survive without bending the laws of reality.  Note that even if they survive, they are still likely to suffer some kind of terrible injury.

Save Steal: If this creature fails a save against death or damage and a lesser Agent of the Smiling God is nearby, this creature can remove the 1d6 save from that creature and pass the save. 

Shape-Changer: The Laughing Maid has two forms, her human and her true form.  Her human form she can change as an action.  Her human form is always female and usually looks like her description above.  She can attempt to alter her human form to look like another woman, but this requires her to make a Disguise check.  She may also switch to her true form as a free action, regardless of her previous form.

Baleful Charm: As a free action on her turn, the Laughing Maid can exude an aura of dreadful charm that unnerves all who are in her presence.  Those who can see her must save.  On a failure, they take 1d6 WIL damage.  If the amount of WIL damage taken ever equals or exceeds someone's WIL attribute, they are charmed by the Laughing Maid and come to find her presence comforting.  They now love her and will not lift their hands in violence against her.  They also gain the Conviction, "I love the Laughing Maid.  I will not fight her and I will seriously consider any request she makes of me."

Mistress's Command: As an action, she can force someone to save.  The person receives a -4 penalty if they are already charmed by the Laughing Maid's aura.  On a failed save, that person will mutilate themselves with whatever is handy, most likely their weapon.  Drinking the blood that flows from this wound will heal 1d8 HP to any creature who does so.  The Laughing Maid may only use this ability once every 1d4 rounds.
   
Glass Nails: As an action, the Laughing Maid can forgo two of her attacks and make a special attack against one creature.  This causes 1d8 damage on a hit, plus it inject poisons into the creature that causes it to take 1d6 damage a round (max 3 rounds/3d6) as heat like a terrible fever burns through the veins of the afflicted, turning their skin a subtle yellow.

Tactics:
- Pretend to be human for as long as possible, but be unconvincing on purpose
- When forced to fight, activate "Baleful Charm" immediately
- Use "Glass Nails" on the strongest target
- Then focus your attacks on the next strongest person
- Use "Mistress's Command" to harm those affected by "Baleful Charm"

Her true form is millipedal, covered in a shell of golden chitin that is easily shattered.  When it is, the smell of rot and corruption oozes out, along with viscous fluids.  She has two liquid eyes, three arms and many dozens of legs.  Creatures that are exposed to her fluids or spend too much time around her mutate into freakish monsters.

                                                            source unknown

The Gleeful Servant

His spiraling laughter spills down the staircases of Strexcorp's corporate headquarters, as well as the abandoned apartment complex you are investigating and the gloomy home of your grandfather, where you spent your summers during those gray years of childhood.  He is utterly mundane in terms of appearance, about average height, maybe a bit shorter than normal, with a face that's neither ugly nor handsome.  His smile is hollow though; his eyes know too much.  He is always impeccably dressed, favoring a vest over starched shirt and slacks, sometimes with a long jacket laden with shining buttons, or a fetching bowler hat.  Yet there is something about the man that makes your skin crawl.  Is he just massively insincere?  No, it couldn't be.  He seems so earnest.  After all, he is always smiling. 

Signs the Gleeful Servant is near:
- It began a few days ago with some residents of the local area suffering bouts of amnesia
- Then for some of those same people, they began suffering from terrible dreams where a mild-mannered man in a fetching hat helps them commit terrible crimes.
- Then when he comes, memories begin to overlay reality, leaving characters fighting their inner demons and suppressed traumas as he comes through.

Statblock:

The Gleeful Servant
SHP 8  AC 10  Atk Poisoned Spurs (+6, 1d8/1d8/1d8/1d8 poison)
Mor 16    Saves special
Immune to Poison, Toxins and Disease

Damage Threshold 5: All Outsiders have a Damage Threshold.  The Joyful Knight only take damage from sources if the amount of damage equals or exceeds his Damage Threshold.  If a source of damage cannot equal or exceed the Threshold, instead ignore it, as if it did no damage. 

SHP: Stands for "Super Hit Points".  The Gleeful Servant has 8 SHP.  Each time the Damage Threshold is equaled or exceeded, he loses 1 SHP.  When he hits zero SHP, she dies.

Saves: Agents of the Smiling God are ludicrously lucky.  When forced to roll a save, they instead roll a d6.  On a 2-6, count that as a successful save.  The Agents are also hard to kill; if they take fatal damage, they may roll a save.  On a success, they survive with 1 HP.  This can only apply in situations where it is possible for them to survive without bending the laws of reality.  Note that even if they survive, they are still likely to suffer some kind of terrible injury. 

Save Steal: If this creature fails a save against death or damage and a lesser Agent of the Smiling God is nearby, this creature can remove the 1d6 save from that creature and pass the save. 

Shape-Changer: The Gleeful Servant has two forms, his human and his true form.  His human form he can change as an action.  His human form is usually male and usually looks like his description above.  He can attempt to alter his human form to look like another man, but this requires him to make a Disguise check.  He may also switch to his true form as a free action, regardless of his previous form.

Flesh Destruction Wave: As an action, he causes one creature to take 3d6 damage, save for half.  Those who fail their save have their flesh distorted, cancers blooming in their body like reverse radiation decay.  They also gain a mutation.  Those who pass their save are burned by an invisible heat source, blistering light from an unknown source burning their flesh, searing it like an ant under a magnifying glass.  The Gleeful Servant can only use this ability once every 1d4 turns.

Blink: The Gleeful Servant can, as a free action on his turn, cause the lights to flare, dazzling all nearby.  This also causes him to teleport to anywhere within 50'.

Clairvoyant: The Gleeful Servant can, as a free action at the beginning of combat, roll 1d6 d20s and use those numbers for his next 1d6 rolls.  If he does not wish to do so, he can discard the numbers and roll normally.

Tactics:
- Open with "Flesh Destruction Wave"
- Teleport next to the most dangerous person
- Rip them to shreds
- Repeat as necessary

His true form is that of camouflaged, millipedal creature with no eyes (he sees fine but cannot be blinded) and three arms.  His head is half-missing, in the part that's gone, there is an invisible sphere that displays floating, moving 3D images of the vast, eternal War raging in the Heavens.

                                                 by raerae

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