In ancient times when the codes of civilisation were being worked from the raw stuff of human sociality there were great kings and wild beasts and they ruled their subjects together, in strange and circular lockstep, as gods might rule.
In those elden days the great kings and queens fought with monsters from the deep chaos and named them Destroyers; for whatever they gazed on, that thing died. They named them Deceivers, for they wore the skins and took the souls of men; they named them Ruiners, for they went about the world tearing down the cities and walls and great temples and libraries. After many centuries those terrible beings were slain or sealed away at great cost of life.
The monster destroys the polis that is the world.
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Great Satan
A core extremophile with the plastic form of a person. The Great Satans were destroyed by the Kings of the World in ages now long past. They have many names in the muddied histories of the ancient days: Chaos Thanes, Executors, Serpent Men, Slaughterers, Destroyers; in the histories they make ruins of towers and walls, they poison crops and wells, and they burn armies to cinder and charred bone.
A very tall, very thin, apparently human body slick with oil, mud, stinking gasses, and other effluvia. Wrapped around in jewels and metal chains from the centre of the world. Steam cascades from their bodies and they are surrounded by a halo of shimmering heat. The face is smiling, old-and-young, cruel, penetrating. There is a grinning, shrieking serpent between their thighs - true for male and female Satans - and another in their mouth in place of a tongue.
HD14, Grasping Hands that crackle with the unmaking energies of the core (roll to-hit as unarmed, damage as per SORCERY, detailed below) and SORCERY, a Treated Skin wrapped around dense, liquid iron (AC 20, DR2), movement: as person who can be without a skeleton when it would benefit them, disposition: unmaker of the intelligible world. In addition: petty and cruel.
The Treated Skin allows the Satan to maintain a glamour and appear genuinely human while it is intact. This also suppresses the great heat within its body, and all other tells of its true nature. The Treated Skin can assume the face of anyone who has invited the Satan across a threshold, or entered into any form of oath or legal agreement with it. One hit (or a turn of using SORCERY) is all it takes to tear the skin and destroy the glamour and reveal its unglamoured, though still humanoid, form. As the skin degrades further the true body of the Satan is revealed: a huge, thin, hairless ape, with skin of molten iron and a face and hands that subdivide into an increasingly fine forest of waving tendril manipulators and sensor probes.
Twin Serpents: the serpent in the mouth can speak with anyone's voice, and knows all of your secrets. In combat it deals d6 fear damage per turn to everyone in the combat who doesn't have their ears stopped with max or similar. It can also forgo this damage to make an attack (its to-hit is +4) and a medium weapon. The serpent of the loins is a poisoner, and its venom can permanently foul water sources and fertile cropland. In combat it makes an attack like the serpent of the mouth, but in addition to weapon damage the target must save CON or die.
Dense Metal: a Great Satan can move anything made from magnetic ore towards itself or away from itself (must choose one or the other per turn) at high speed. This ability has a range of 50ft, and can pull weapons out of your hand etc. Small objects like swords or lanterns fly the full 50ft in a turn (you can make a STR save to keep your grip on them), larger objects (people in armour etc.) move 20ft per turn and must save to keep their feet.
SORCERY
Great arcing discharges of energy, fire and lightning, reeking expanding gasses, roiling stuff of the inner hells. Sorcery is an area of effect, with the following effects on beings inside it (excepting the source of the SORCERY):
- 6d6 radiation damage per turn, with a CON save for half.
- blinded and deafened while inside, and for d6-CON mod afterwards.
- flammables are set alight, paper is destroyed, weapons and armour are damaged.
- corpses (including those slain by the SORCERY) are raised, and act for a single turn under the control of the one who commands the SORCERY, after which they are burnt to ash and destroyed.
- no lie can be told inside an area affected by SORCERY.
A Great Satan may lay down any AOE of sorcery that they wish, although the whole of the AOE must be visible to them. They can lay down as many zones as they wish per turn. Each zone laid out this way takes a full turn to charge up, and then takes effect from the next turn, for however many turns the Satan wishes. You will know which zone has been designated because it will start to heat up and feel dense with energetic charge. Any adventurer will recognise that something very bad is happening, even if they have never seen SORCERY before (read: make sure your players know that these AOEs are death zones).
For every turn that a Satan uses its SORCERY (not on the charge up turn, only the turns where the SORCERY is taking effect), it loses 2d6 hp as it burns up in the act of channelling such vast energies.
Satans do not experience interiority or selfhood, and do not fear death at all. They will prioritise killing over survival every time. If any of these terrible beings have survived to the current age they might be found in the great subterranean palaces of the Red Apes.
Lesser Satans
Strange humanoids who occasionally venture up from the depths of the underworld. They claim to be people, but when interrogated fabulate memories from many different lives. Their origins are obscure, and they are usually killed on sight by right-thinking adventurers and other surface dwellers.
Lesser Satans are tall and thin, with exaggerated, neanderthal-ish facial features. Like the Old Heroes, they tend to inspire awe and fear in modern humans.
Unlike most adventurers, (and like the Old Heroes and Royal Woses) Lesser Satans roll stats with 5d6 down the line. They are not balanced for 'normal' adventurer play. Their starting HP is 20 + their CON mod, and their unarmed punches hit as heavy weapons.
Angels, demons, and any other being of Law, will attack you on sight. Pious people might also do this is they become aware of your origins. Apes (not surface converts) tend to have a wary respect for Satans. Serpents consider you an ally; perhaps even an old friend.
Gear: a cape of strange, shimmering material; strong, light, and insulating. Usually white or a bright primary colour. Otherwise heroically nude.
Skills: none. Amnesiac, no memories of your life before you wandered up into the upper hells of air.
A: SORCERY, Geas, Seeming
B: COMMAND
C: ILLUSION
D: WORDS OF POWER
SORCERY: you have the command of terrible forces of the core. This functions identically to the SORCERY section in the the entry for Great Satans above, with the following differences:
- You do not need to 'charge up' your AOE for a turn, but take d6 fatigue in addition to the 2d6 damage per turn you use SORCERY.
- To begin with, the only AOE you can place is a 60ft sphere centred on yourself. You can spend a turn channeling SORCERY to make this AOE more precise, in the following steps: a 90 degree cone 60ft long > a line 60ft long and 10ft wide, emanating from you or a 30ft sphere AOE anywhere in your LOS > an arbitrarily thin beam that travels for 1000ft or an individual you can lock eyes with. For each template in Lesser Satan you posses, you may choose to begin this track one position further along.
Geas: you cannot lie, and cannot willingly harm anything if you have not first informed them that you intend to do so. Shouting 'ALL SHALL FALL BEFORE ME' or 'BURN, WORMS' as you kick the door in and turn into a human tesla coil is acceptable for the purposes of the Geas.
Seeming: you can remove the face of someone who has lied to you, invited you to cross a threshold, or entered into a legal contract with you, and make a seeming from it. This takes a day of work with the face. You can wear the seeming and appear to others as that person. Your voice and appearance, other than your face, are not changed. The seeming is fragile, and is permanently destroyed if you take damage of any kind while wearing it.
COMMAND: you have an awful majesty at your shoulder and in your eye. You can use SORCERY to command someone who can understand you instead of laying down an AOE. They can save CHAR to resist, otherwise they obey you for a turn. Anyone who has ever lied to you fails the save automatically. Does not work on royalty or priests (angels are not priests).
ILLUSION: When someone fails to save against your COMMAND, you can inflict up to [templates] of the following effects on them, which last for the rest of the combat (or one hour if it becomes relevant). PCs and other powerful individuals may save INT to nullify one effect per turn. The target:
- Rolls to hit with disadvantage.
- Takes d10 fear damage per turn.
- Has their movement direction and speed both randomised or the ILLUSION wielder chooses either the speed or direction.
- Has their attack target randomised.
- Takes 1 psychic damage per turn.
- Cannot attack a single target at all, chosen by the ILLUSION wielder.
- Becomes immune to fear damage, and unable to test morale.
- Has their melee attacks count as Vorpal.
These effects are written for use in combat - ILLUSION outside of combat may have more subtle and long-reaching effects, to be determined in discussion with the DM.
WORDS OF POWER: your COMMAND ability can now be used on stone, metal, fire, water, electromagnetism, and radiation. Against these targets you must expend a use of SORCERY per word of the COMMAND, which will never be contested.
