>>16779450
And what does a fine gentlemen do in an un-named giger awtting? Look creepy and somewhat attractive?

Here are some example people from the last thread:
"Dastik. He's a Charmer- a high level official who has torn out a lot of his body to give more room for pheremone glands and sensory apparatus to help him make deals and convince others. He's wheeled around in a bone-and-skin wheelchair that's made of recycled bits of himself. He looks like a slumped torso without a head or legs, instead covered in eyes, ears, and pockmarked with various glands and nasal cavities. Despite his appearance, he really is very convincing, thanks to his mouths (two, each located on the palm of his hands) and ability to exude pheremones. He's intelligent and well-spoken, and can gesture with his hands to modulate the sound of his speech."
"a family of poor humanoids, each saddled with their own crippling mutations, where basic survival is a luxury, stumbling upon an abandoned domicile, the security systems long shriveled and dead. They enjoy a brief period of rest and relaxation, before having to move on; the "building" is scheduled to be devoured by the trash-blobs"

>>16779468

Firstly, a gentleman reads the prior thread.

A thought; what kind of general professions would be available for PC's in this setting? "Kill people for money" is never out of fashion, but that alone would be dull.

>>16779512
A gentlemen is greatly impressed. Intriguing stuff. /tg/ I salute you.

>>16779512
-Scavenging through old or abandoned areas for valuable resources, parts, computers (which I proposed in the last thread to be basically the faces and minds of particularly intelligent or skilled people sewed into a wall). Of course, these older areas can be filled with aughounds, or abominations that have been born but not cleaned up and give a chance to grow...
-Nobles and noble houses are probably always at war, so sabotage, intrigue, etc. are always valued.
I like the idea that at the end of an adventure, you don't have a new sword but instead a new arm you took off the end boss.

Can't believe I missed the developing setting all day!

Anyway, I can't wait to brainstorm for this. I've actually tried several times to incorporate Giger designs and plot concepts into other RPGs, but the players usually tend to freak the fuck out/just flat out kill whatever I put in.

I think I should mention one very interesting feature of Giger's original Xenomorph concept: (I know we're not using the Aliens, just thought this was cool.) Giger originally conceived of the Xenomorph as an infinitely adaptable being that was birthed from mankind's attempts to conquer, to become indestructible. In doing so they turned themselves into a species so vicious as to be unrecognizable to their ancestors.

The catch was that he thought the plot of "Alien" could feasibly be a bunch of astronauts discovering one of these advanced creatures, which had actually gone back in time to start colonizing the primitive, vulnerable, fleshy world of the past with its superior genetic engineering.

Does that sound like a valid quest/subplot for this "Gigerian" world, or am I on a worse tangent than BLAME!guy?

>>16779512

Well, quests would probably start with something along the lines of "harvest an augment from another gutterborn" and eventually ascend to Rogue Trader type stuff like "negotiate for the safe passage of a troupe of flesh-monks through the lecherous undertunnels of the Bone Quarries."

You know. Exponential quest complexity reflecting how fast the players acquire augments/make Noble connections.

>>16779593
Sure, I guess. The setting started out as sort of post-apocalyptic with churches containing statues of original humanity, but I think it's more interesting if no one knows or cares where this world came from. That could be an origin, though. Somewhere at the center of the city there's a beating heart that belonged to the organism who came back from the future and colonized humanity.

>>16779636

>possibly having the Xenomorph, or an aspect of it, as an unstoppable killing-machine final boss, the very embodiment of everything the players are trying to become. . . or desperately avoid becoming

Hurm.

Must investigate further possibilities of this nature.

>>16779647
Anyone who gets too close to discovering the truth to the city suddenly finds every living part of the city turning against them. You haven't lived until an entire skyscraper has sprouted tentacles and razed a city block trying to kill you.

>>16779660

>this
>is
>awesome

Seriously, this is a very interesting idea. Would have to be a DM-only secret, of course, otherwise you'd get players trying to reverse-engineer the biotech that granted the First Specimen time manipulation.

Of course, that COULD be a high-level quest objective. . . one the Nobles would absolutely be all over.

>>16779698
I mean, it's basically the Key to the City and the ultimate control board. It's the ultimate McGuffin.

Got to crash soon, but just something I was pondering: could heroes exist in this world? While it is almost entirely alien to us in a number of aspects, the story with the grafter and the kid shows that human mindsets still exist, even if those with that mindset are the ones who die at the hands of those who left it behind.

>>16779758
Personally, I don't see there being a lot of room for black/white good/evil squeaky clean heroes, but there are definitely good people who don't kill their neighbours for a spare eyeball. Most people are probably unconcerned with morals but still try to avoid stealing or killing if possible.

I like the idea of tumor's becoming a plot relevant thing. They keep creating new cells, new mass, so they could function as a method of gaining strength without losing as much mental health. Of course, that kinda goes against the majority of the setting, it being a dog eat dog world.

I also like the idea of Tumor Mines and Bone Quarries. That could work.

Also, I like the idea that the city is just a player character who has gained so much biomass he has become city sized. Like a giant slug carrying a town, and trying to eat the rest of the planet they are on before the other giant slug's eat it.

Ooooh, and how bout a planet with organs, bones, all that jazz. So the wastelands are stretched skin, with bone spires rising up out of the skin.

>>16779758

Other thought: just how flexible is the biotech? Would it be limited to "conventional" limb augmentation, or could things like pic related be on the cards?

On another thought, could radio style items exist? Possibly as a parasitic organism that transmits data via very high frequency tones to other linked parasites; of course, if one were to get augmented ears that could hear in that spectrum, and were good at decoding...

>>16779806

Seems about right to me, carry on good sir, now excuse me while I go comatose, hallucinate vividly and likely have awesome nightmares about this thread

>>16779853

>pic related

I am an idiot.

>>16779806
>>16779758

I think the "heroic" aspect should be a little more Promethean in nature. Not necessarily "doing good for the sake of good," as there's almost zero incentive for that. More like, exploring the slim possibility of there being a purpose to one's life, beyond consuming and absorbing and grafting and killing.

Those who rise above the dog-eat-dog underworld have a choice, after all: to carve out their own unique place in this half-mechanized ecology, or to rise into the unfeeling ranks of the Nobles, becoming emotionless shells of hedonism and greed.

The concept of "human" should be ancient history. People are now just "things" in various states of advancement. Have we even covered how people emerge from the birth-vats? Do they come out as infants, or adults? I think adult vat-babies might be more interesting to explore: they have a simple notion of logic and the basest of social imperatives from their birth-mother masters, but little else to go on. They have to grow into their own "identity" which largely exists only inside their own minds.

>>16779879
Consesus is that most come out as children, although I'd think the rate of maturation to adulthood is much quicker. Of course, the mutations that come with every birth could mean some are just born as adults with the mental development of a child.

I absolutely love your explanation of heroism as it pertains to this setting.

>Also, I like the idea that the city is just a player character who has gained so much biomass he has become city sized. Like a giant slug carrying a town, and trying to eat the rest of the planet they are on before the other giant slug's eat it.

Oh fuck yes. This is so horrible. I love it.

I do think there should definitely be remnants of the old planet left, though. Yes, the XTREEEME modified specimens could have become city-sized or planet-sized, but I like better that the earth has only been about 75% transformed. There is still oxygen, for example, despite a lack of trees (or is there? Do the inhabitants breath nitrogen? Carbon dioxide? The pure pollutants left over from the last age?) and the world is catacombed by living caverns.

Of course, this also leaves for the awesome potential of "dead cities," immense cityscapes of bone skyscrapers, desiccated factory tube-pipes and utterly dry streets held together by fossilized skin.

>>16779900
What if there is no child state?
What if the players control their characters straight from birth, the first scene being them being shat out of a vatmother's womb, making the players basically a brood, a family.

>>16779853
I imagine the nobles would have fucked-up flesh cannons or whatever, but I don't think there's a lot of "guns but with skin on them" stuff. Most things are pure organisms and not fused with metal. That radio-style idea is a good one, though- I can totally see people with hacked-up vocal cords that can broadcast at high frequencies.

>>16779912
WHAT IS DRAWING SKILL.
I like the idea of the planet most definitely NOT being Earth, BUT AT THE SAME TIME, artifacts of an Earth like origin are here. I really like the idea of bone's forming into what is basically a firing mechanism so as to use guns.

Though we could still go with spine rifles, and all that jazz. Maybe it was just that picture from last thread with the adorable little mutants with the rifles.

>>16779876
>>16779930

As for weapons, I have an interesting idea on those.

Yes, bioaugs should be the #1 source of violence. But remember the "relics" we mentioned in the last thread? What if some of those were deadly firearms, left over from the Old World?

I imagine Nobles would fall over themselves to attach working guns to their servants. A murder tool that doesn't rely on biogel to function? It would be insanely efficient for a society that requires a plasmic goo to simply survive day-to-day.

Imagine an arms race to acquire even a single working SAW, or automatic shotgun. And if the players got ahold of it, who knows how much power they could gain by using it or bartering it?

>>16779912
>Of course, this also leaves for the awesome potential of "dead cities," immense cityscapes of bone skyscrapers, desiccated factory tube-pipes and utterly dry streets held together by fossilized skin.

Brilliant. I like the idea of seeing flashes of the old world as well, but they'd have to be amazingly rare and stupendously beautiful/bizarre to outshine the weird shit in the city already. Most of the world is underground, so ruins might be hard to come by.

>>16779919
>What if the players control their characters straight from birth, the first scene being them being shat out of a vatmother's womb, making the players basically a brood, a family.

Great idea. I always love RPGs that have chargen that creates connections between the players. Since I wrote a story with a kid in it, I'm somewhat attached to the idea of genuine children, but I like the idea of there being some kids that just never grow up, and some adults that come out fully formed.

We've talked alot about guns and things like that, but what about old human weapons? Sticks with sharp rocks at the end would be goddamn wonderful.

Water would be a wonderful currency style mechanic, because water is rare inside the cave city slug things. You could always find a vein and mine into it, drinking the blood of the slug, but drinking it could have bad side effects, cause insanity, be acid. The slug could have antibodies or something to fight the person who just rudely ripped a hole in a vein, as was suggested earlier.


Should we get a google doc set up and just start compiling ideas as they come to mind?

>>16779963
I don't love the idea of finding guns from the old world since I feel like that tips the scales on the postapocalyptic-ness. I'd prefer remnants of the old world to be almost like divine artifacts- stuff that's genuinely alien and can cause wide-scale destruction in the wrong hands.

>>16779986

Yes, please do.

Honestly I doubt day-to-day "water acquisition" missions would be very exciting to players. Perhaps the city's veins could support them easily, but pure water gives them special benefits? Not to mention they don't have to deal with weird nanites fucking up their bloodstreams or whatever.

A quest to find a pool of "pure" water in the city could be very symbolic of the race to attain physical or emotional "purity" as well.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14Po6lNzbyr9KPRsDUedUtU5xKnYLqUUjdaK5IsjKdpM/edit

Go hog wild.

>>16780035
I am unable to edit shit.

>>16779998
Not to put too fine a point on it, but I think the city should be the centerpiece here. As soon as you put in guns and ruins and stuff, the game is about leaving the city and finding these artifacts. To me, the interesting part about this is the city itself, not well-trod post-apocalyptic elements. Of course, I'm not the SETTING MASTER or whatever. Just my thoughts.

>>16780052
Fix'd.

>>16780064
We just have to make the cities AS interesting as outside. I like the idea of the cities having spaces not explored, like suddenly finding entrails that lead to a hidden society of defenseless biomass for eating, finding devoured creature carcasses from outside.

Also, jesus christ stomach's would be fantastic gigantic sea's.

>>16779879
I wouldn't go too far in this direction though. Part of what makes these settings interesting is the fact that, when you get right down to it, these are people going through life trying to find a sort of happiness. weather that happiness is in just survival, or in total domination of one's world, or self, whatever. Even if these freakish monstrosities are so totally inhuman, ultimately, its regular folks(even if a very strange degree of regular) in this world I find interesting. That and, you know, giant penis armed freaks running the world and leading the evolutionary offshoots of humankind into a new age. That's just me personally.

>>16780016
>>16780064

Makes sense. Perhaps guns and other such weapons should not be "holy" relics, but rather flashy or showy knicknacks? Clearly indicative of Noble status. Kind of like an ornamental sword: expensive and flashy, but not as adaptable or practical as the ultramodern resources available to the common freak.

>>16780146
I'm imagining almost like the stuff you find in those sci-fi books about exploring a Big Weird Space Object (Rendevous with Rama, that sort of thing). A hovering cube of metal that screams when you touch it and makes you forget the last hour of your life. A guitar-like musical instrument that cuts whoever hears it played in half. A sculpture of unearthly beauty that speaks to you in a thousand whispering voices.

What if people talked of other cities out there, but in reality, you were in the last one?

>>16780263
I prefer this idea.

Jesus christ this is wonderful

Bump for google doc productivity. It's open to all anons, so head on in!

Damn it. Gotta head off due to hurricane related shenanigans. Will be looking out for more of this thread, though. Hope my Googledoc contributions were appreciated.

Reposting the doc URL:
I've combined a lot of pertinent posts from the threads into one doc, and we're currently brainstorming stuff to flesh (heh) out the world. Even if you're just catching the thread now, there's a list at the top of stuff to read to get caught up quickly.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14Po6lNzbyr9KPRsDUedUtU5xKnYLqUUjdaK5IsjKdpM/edit?pli=1&hl=en
_GB

Why don't we just make our city a thinly-veiled copy of New Crobuzon, with a bit of original flavor as needed?

The pain was excruciating, which is to be expected from a wombless drifter ripping his/her/its own teeth out. Especially a humanoid with a mouth as pretty as mine. By pretty, I mean big. I'd say a good 20 to 30 percent of my biomass is made up of pure calcium right now. Most "Citizens" to call home make pain resistance a priority bioaug, mostly due to general usefulness; if you're wondering, it's a hell of a lot cheaper and easier to shut off the local nerves communicating hunger to the brain than it is to get the supplementary organs necessary to survive the weeks and months between properly digestible foodstuffs. Unfortunately for me and my nervous system, I'm saving up for a much more important purchase.

Although I guess the better question is, why in the name of Bios or whatever Noble you worship would you fecal things rip out your own body parts and sell them when you could just become a sex slave? Better than living as the worst kind of biomatter, clinging to life in abandoned, rotten parts of the city, living in fear of the trash-blobs, or whatever you plebeians call the parasyte that pick off such worthless scum such as myself. Believe me, I've tried.
To be honest, I just can't get it up. Genetically. I am one of the very few living beings on this planet that have no sexual organs whatsoever. Even if I were to get the parts, my mass would simply reject it. That's why I'm saving up the pips for some gene therapy sessions, so that I can stop living in fear every dilation whether I'm going to be consumed by a massive, unthinking blob of biomass, or if I'm going to wake up with my organs stolen, or maybe if the city's dying of an anti-biotic shroud, and has been quarantined. This, and a thousand other infinitely worse dangers! ...So, basically, my plan is to sell the calcium from my teeth to the highest possible bidder. Which, unless I am extremely lucky, will turn out to be yet another lowclass drifter with only slightly more pips than me. Not because teeth arn't uncommon in the part of the city, but that the people really willing to pay for it have their own sources. Frankly, the niches and Nobles would have to be crazy to buy from me, or desperate.

So, that's why this toothless, tiny little bastard is currently begging you to reconsider buying anywhere else? Eh, come on! I've been completely honest so far, that's gotta get me something. At least take the second head, it's been narrating my thoughts non-stop...

Some ideas about religion:

One of the major religions in this world would be a matriarchal faith that venerates the vat mothers and the feminine creative force in general. The vat mothers would be leaders of this religion, and its teachings would be largely practical - dedicated to strengthening ties between families and tribes, etc. Followers of this faith would be called the Brethren.

Another major religion, known as the Church, would be more masculine, vaguely reminiscent of Christianity and Islam, and dedicated to purity of form. This faith would teach that the unchanged human body is the ideal that all people should strive for and that the lethal surface world is the lost holy land. According to their scriptures, humans were banished from the surface world and their bodies were corrupted because of their sins, and by restoring their bodies to their original condition, they can erase that sin.

The richest and most dedicated followers of this religion would called Pilgrims. Pilgrims would search for unaltered human body parts in order to return their bodies to a pure state. This is a challenging endeavor, so any Pilgrim would have a team of heavily augmented retainers called Templars working for them and supporting them in their quest.

>>16781697

The Pilgrim's quest is both a process of physical change and a journey to the Church's capital city - a Pilgrim who attains a completely original human body is permitted entrance to the Shrine, a vast structure in the Church capital. In the center of the Shrine is a huge chamber that stretches all the way up to a skylight window in the planet's surface. During the day, sunlight shines through the skylight and illuminates the chamber. Seeing this is what every Pilgrim dreams of, and the Church believes that when enough Pilgrims gather in the Shrine and pray, the surface world will be cleansed and people will be able to live there again.

Many adventuring parties could be organized as teams of Templars escorting someone on a Pilgrimage. Members of the Church without pure body parts are called Laity and are basically second-class citizens, but they are afforded some respect because the Church could not exist without them. Members of the Laity who reach the Shrine may be allowed to view the sunlight inside indirectly, through a doorway. Templars who successfully escort a Pilgrim are richly rewarded, and many Pilgrims are former Templars who began their own quests for pure bodies.

Conflicts within the Church, between Laity and Pilgrims and between different Church sects could make for a lot of interesting roleplaying. Perhaps one reason the Pilgrimage is difficult is because the Church capital is in a remote, isolated part of the world where usable biomass is rare and dangerous flesh-eating creatures are common. Because of this, the bodies of Laity must be constantly sacrificed to maintain the city's integrity.

The drawfag is back!
With a picture of the amazing short story!

bumb

accidentally posted in the old thread as it was dying -

Don't know if anyone has put this forward yet but an explanation to how this place came about could be that the city itself is an ancient bioweapon that
a) went out of control and long ago destroyed/mutated its masters (perhaps the nobles could be the twisted remnants of the creators, maybe even purposefully tortured and kept alive in agony by the city ala I Have No Mouth)
b) is on a course so some distant light years away target on a hunk of rock (maybe even a tyranid style extragalactic seed weapon). in this case it would probably only be the city itself that knows its origin, if at all.

>>16783641

I think that it is best to leave the origins of the cities and what caused the world to transfor to what it is currently very ambigious. There should be hints and multiple theories abouth the origins and the history of the world, but nothing certain.

Although I liked the idea someone suggested that when someone is too close to discovering the truth, the city itself turns against that individual. Suddently the silent guardian creatures who previoysly mostly ignored you start hunting you, the grounds suddently gives in and tries to swallow you whole, the walls burst open with whip like tentacles that attempt to ensare you, new never before seen guardians start appear in the packs that are pursuing you, the tunnels that you have previoysly safely navigated are dead ends, lead to somewhere else entirely or are suddently filled with acid etc.

>>16783814
Yeah i wouldn't recommend giving that away to the players, but at least for the GM it might be handy.

Does anyone know what system they might use for this?

>>16783866

Someone suggested FATE in the earlier thread if I remember correctly, but other than that, I have no idea.
I don't play rpgs (I don't have a group), I am here to just fluff this thing out and draw.

I think that trading happens mostly by bartering. Sure the nobles may use biogel as a currency of sorts, but to most creatures biogel is simply too precious to be used as a money. The creatures trade by either offering parts they have collected ftom other creatures, their services, or even their own parts to get something they want in return.

>>16783866
I think that the GM should have multiple different origins, so that he can pick or come up with something suitaple for his campaing, oso that it might not be the same when they are playing another game in this setting.

"It's a very spewing simple concept, Kob. Take it or leave it." Mench's complex mouth knitted the words, tiny feelers grasping at the air and disgorging it through the gills that lined her fluted neck. Mench was big. Bigger than she had any right to be, in these little sacks. She left a trail of fluid bleeding from the walls everywhere she went, the boney blades on her back tearing through the delicate membranes that separated the honeycomb cells. Pity they didn't bleed anything nutritious.

"I understand the concept." Kob dipped his hand nervously into the pulsing pouch that hung beneath his throat and scooped up some of the liquid inside, washing his eyes in it. Partly it was a nervous habit, and partly because the salts in his tears were so strong, they'd mask any other pheremones he might be giving off.

Playing hard to get? his othermind asked sardonically - he should have known better than to try and graft that greymatter in himself. He just hadn't believed his luck when he'd found it, and hadn't been game to take it to a skinweilder. Whoever the previous owner had been, Kob didn't like him much. "Why me?" he asked.

"I like your eyes," Mench said.

"They're a lot of work to maintain - what have my eyes got to do with anything?"

Mench just gave an irritated shudder. "Apparently, not as much as I'd hoped." Kob was obliged to press himself against the wall as she ambulated past. He swiped quickly at his eyes, clearing them of the fluid that dripped down.

You're pathetic. I'd rather have been eaten by an aughound. Kob normally avoided talking to his othermind, but he wanted a second opinion. "What did she want with me?"

Exactly what she said. A whole head covered in massive eyes and you can't see what's in front of you. The othermind seized control of one of his arms and prodded viciously at his underside. Look at this!

"I can't see underneath me, and stop prodding!" He wrestled back control of the arm. "That's an extremely sensitive area."

Yeah, and you've got six of them. Such a spewing waste.

>>16784104
>>16784106

YES! Moar writefaggotry!
Godspeed sir!

Veis pressed the sensitive pads of her three fingers against the wall. Dull. The eyes that ringed her ovaliod head were covered in a thick layer of chitin that was supposed to be transparent. Blurred. Her ears were little more than a series of pits under her jaw, but at least they still worked fine.

They'd taken out her nose, rearranged her respiratory system, and ripped out the long feelers that normally swept down the back of her neck. This had better be worth it; House Viam seemed to think it was worth investigating, and as a vatborne she hardly had any choice in the matter.

So off she went, her four legs, each terminating in a long bone has hard and sharp as she was clicked over the bone cement. Something in the valves was eating more than it should; she had to admit she was curious.

If she'd still had her feelers she would have sensed him coming a mile away, but it was her ears that warned her of the danger, a split second before his massive jaws sheared through the space her long, slender torso had been. She leaped, twisted, and dug her legs deep into the fleshy ceiling, folding her delicate hands against her chitinous forearm, revealing long, serrated bones.

"So, the rumours are true. House Viam has an intrest." Mnarr grinned at her, his mandables spreading like arms. He folded his feet up underneath him and Veis prepared to dodge another attack. It didn't come. "What have they done to you?" Mnarr asked.

Veis rubbed her wrist bones together, making a rasping sound. Without her usual respiratory system; she couldn't talk.

"They took your fronds away too. They were quite pretty. Of course, you're still quite pretty." Mnarr was still grinning, but his ears twiched nervously. "That's a lot of augs for one job. You have information we don't?"

Veis hung from the ceiling, swaying slightly.

"Right. Well, this no longer smells as good as it once did. House Chot will withdraw its interest." His mandables relaxed, "Be careful in there, Veis. Remember, I owe you a swift death."

Any good? Continue?

>>16784264

Yes please proceed! This shit is golden.

This reminds me of dogworld... *shudders* ...dog world...

>>16784322

Dog world?

Veis did not move from her position on the ceiling until she was sure Mnarr had gone. When all was clear she pulled her legs free and landed on the ground, skewering a wiggling thing with weak, grasping hands that had just been born. She shook it free without a second glance and skittered off towards the valves.

Dangerous places, the valves, but also safe. The spasming walls were strong enough to crush almost anything caught between them, but that meant the collectors couldn’t sweep through the area. So if you had a good sense of rhythm and a good grip, there were far worse places to make your home.

Veis heard the valves before she sensed them. Damn those missing augs. It was like the after-effects of indulging in tainted biomass – disorienting. The place was crowded too; the walls and floor were alive with a salivating horde of gutterspawn, and those preying on them. Veis had the symbol of House Viam etched onto her back in visible, infrared, and pheromone signature marking her not only as property but probably Too Much Trouble to try and disassemble for her augs. Not that her chitinous body held anything of much use other than her carapace and bones on this particular job.

The reason for the sudden interest was obvious when the valve spasmed, and a fine mist of blood and bonemeal drifted over the adoring crowd. Veis climbed the wall and watched for a while, and listened. One thing she did notice was that the crowd was slowly moving forward. Just one or two gutterspawn, every time.

The obvious thing to do was to go in and find out what was happening to them. Veis picked her way through the crowd, ignoring the curious or the merely hungry who touched, licked or otherwise fondled her feet and legs as she strode through them. She paused on the brink of the valves, adjusting her grip. Wait for it, wait for it.

Now.

She tucked her arms against her sides and leaped through the opening and into the chamber beyond. She folded her hands and used her wrist bones as extra grip, spearing all her limbs through the tough membranous walls. The gutterspawn who had stumbled in with her, dragged themselves forward, and more by luck than judgement managed to avoid the next spasm. Veis followed, carefully.

>>16784342
The Doggy Dog World thread descended into bad grammer jokes that were a Diamond Dozen.

>>16784081

I suggested in the other thread, using wood for currency. There would be very few living trees and very few places capable of supporting any kind of plant-life. Small wood discs could be the equivalent of a dollar or coin and nuts/tubers as brown and dull as they are would be equated to gems.

Now fruit. Most wouldn't even see or smell such a commodity. Anyone other than a noble holding a grape or apple would be cut-down by everyone in sight.

>>16784426
>>16784342

Actually, I think he was talking about dog-scape, which is a terrifying world where everything is made from dog-parts.

http://plus4chan.org/boards/coc/res/29988.html

No idea where this shit started, but it is somehow more frightening than this thread. I thin because you are completely human and cannot adapt like you can in the gigerverse.

Any name ideas for this setting?

In here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14Po6lNzbyr9KPRsDUedUtU5xKnYLqUUjdaK5IsjKdpM/edit?pli=1&hl=en
_GB

someone suggested Mundus Carnis (world of flesh), wich I found quite fitting.

>>16784450

Perhaps, but I can only really see it amongst the nobles; gutterspawn and their ilk likely would be more interested in biogel.

>>16784405

Hey, it was just getting interesting, where did you go?

bumb

The people of this world, if you can call them that, are not given their names. And if they are, they are not pleasant. No, most name themselves, and this can change over time.

Enkidu is one example. Despite his scolarly role in society, he is a mad man. Leading many excursions deep into the world facing aughounds, ancient traps, and the ghosts of man. Enkidu seeks old books and tomes. He occasionally reads them, hence his name, but he normally gives them to nobles. He does not ask for body parts, even wood or metals. No he only want soil.

Actual soil. When you brush the tendrils in the hive, it opens a sphyncter to his room. And you will find him here, in inches of soil with small mold-covered sprouts surrounding him. Fibrous cables reaching the surface of the world provide minimal light to grow is creations.

He wants only to give life, which cannot take his own.

Poor Iaz never knew when to shut up.
Eventually the grafters put that ability to their use.
Now she speaks for the grafters her aluring voice attracting new creatures to the flesh sculptors.
Perpehaps it was a fitting end for her, after all, she always loved talking. Now

found this over on /r9k/.

Seemed to fit this thread.

>>16785513

an avarage gutterspawn.jpg

>>16783004
Holy shit someone liked my story enough to draw something. Thanks, drawfag!

>>16783641
I'm definitely leaning towards multiple origins. Personally, I like the idea of every city being, at one point, a living human who absorbed enough biomass, and is still alive in there somewhere. Alternately, after some kind of apocalypse, the only thing to survive were these city-seeds who were used to grow buildings and such. The few ones who survived absorbed a fuckload of mass and became entire cities.

>>16785377

NOW a superior version with more shit in it!

>>16785760

I really like these pictures.

I will admit, I would like to see things as a bit less xenomorphic. I understand this universe is very giger inspired, but I think making things more fleshy/boney would be more appropriate. (there is a tubey style to giger which reminds me of tyranids)

I prefer barlowe's style. He even described hell's landscape as a blanket of flesh.

I want to clarify that I very much like your art, and your contribution to the thread. But I think we should draw inspiration from other places as well.

I would love to see creatures like this spread throughout the setting.

>>16786032
I concur. I've been imagining a much fleshier, less chitinous look to this stuff. Still, nice art, sir.

Archive of last thread is here:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/16748756/

>>16786032

Actually, I kinda agree with you. I just drew the tubes there, so that the creatures would look more interesting, in addition to imitating Giger's art (wich I really can't pull off properly).
Inspirational pictures would be nice, esspecially for environments. The backgrounds in my drawings have been runninh with the same tubey tyranid/alien theme for a while now, and I am quite honestly tired of drawing those god dam organic holes and tubes everywhere.
Nothing too surreal though, as this setting isn't a surreal one.
Thanks for the input!
Btw, where you in the first thread, as I posted my drawings there too. Just wondering if you are basing your input on the two drawings here, or all of them that I have posted concerning this setting.

This thread will live dammit

>>16786129

I was in and out of the first thread. But it was something I've only just now noticed.

This is the only scenery kinda image I have. But I imagine huge torsos shooting out of the ground with small bores that small creatures can crawl in and out. Or perhaps Trees that look like arms with smaller hands branching off each other to resemble branches.

I'll see what I can dig up.

(Awesome) new write- and draw-faggotry added to the doc.

I posted these in the previous thread. I feel like these work well. Girders of bone with flesh grown over them.

I've always loved this pic. Seems appropriate.

Personally still more in favour of the xenomorph aesthetic, but hey, it's a big horrifying mutated world; there probably is some glossy chitin around somewhere.

>>16785513
Later.

Alright boys!

So we've settled on referring to player characters and most citizens as "Freaks." This isn't mean to be derogatory, but rather as a general method of discourse, like "guys" or "people." Perhaps it was appropriated from the time before the City? You decide.

Anyway, we're making a couple backups of the Googledoc in case BLAME!guy decides to come along and fuck with it. Can't be too careful!

One thing I'd really, really appreciate would be if someone could please dig up that old /x/ comic about a kid who gets mutated into a twisted monstrosity of flesh after being dragged underground by a giant bug. That shit was nasty and would fit perfectly into the "feel" of what we're trying to accomplish here. I'd like to add it to the doc as reference material for our source inspiration.

>>16786209

I think that we can use both the flashy and the gieger style together on this setting. Differend parts of the city have differend looks. The insades of the tubes and lcaverns are mostly covered by the pulsating flesh, while the hard parts, exosceletons and the parts exposed to hazardous environments are more Gieger-esque.

Imagine a large and hard shelled Gieger styled tube decending to a lake of digestive materials, while smaller, less armored and more fleshy tubes conect ot it's base.

>>16786209

I actually put a Xenomorph hive under the "locations" segment of the in-development RPG. Players are told it's only a rumor used to scare small vatborn children; in truth, it's a very real menace somewhere very far away, but growing a little closer every day.

THE MORE YOU KNOW

>>16786298

Of course, whether this feature is actually located outside of any given DM's version of The City is totally up for grabs. Incorporating Giger-esque or Dali-esque appearances and storylines should be up to the game master, in the end.

>>16786284
You're welcome

>>16786288

*Fleshy style

Goddam these spelling mistakes! Maybe I should load some spell checker addon, but then my grammar will be even worse without it.

This thread has given me a sudden urge to re-read Abara.

>>16786383

I remember that.

I still say Digimortal was better though.

>>16786332

>>16786332

Awww yeah.

That's tha good stuff.

Is it just me though, or is it missing a couple panels?

>>16786332
more?

Sergent Bump of the 308'th reporting in, sir!
Our setting has evolved to a Level Two complexity, sir, but we need an emergency dosage of writefags if we are to sustain growth.

Malkeep crawled. The slimy surface of the ribbed flesh pipe felt cold against his exposed abdomen. Like a shadow, he slowly descended the giant structure, silently approaching the unsuspecting creature bellow.
Malkeep had stalked this prey for many hours now. The pale creature was far larger than him, but the smell of blood that reeked from the pale bloated thing indicated that the prey was wounded. A surprise attack would bring Malkeep the opening he need to sink his poisonous claws to the creature. Then he would only need to wait.
The creature was vigilant however. Many times it had almost spotted him, forcing Malkeep to relocate and wait for it to calm down.

>>16787332

The area the creature had chosen to die in was an old plaza of sorts, almost nothing but filthy aughounds lived here. Malkeep wasn't an aughound however, he couldn't be, he was sure of it. First of all he wasn't insane, secondly he was completely able to control hiself, except when the blood frenzy hits, but that has always happened. He just needed a little more of biogell, just so that his arm would stop spasming every now and then, that the pains in his legs would stop and that he could seal the wound in his scull where his third eye used to be.

This creature would grant him that precious augjuice, he was sure of it. His unblinking eyes fixated on the prey again, as he continued his descend. Movement by movement, the distance between him and his goal. The slimy chitin protecting the flesh tube was not an ideal surface to climb on, but Malkeep's hands and legs were long time ago been replaced by ones with paws that could stick to any surface.

>>16787336

Suddenly Malkeep's feelers smelled something familiar. He looked at the direction of the odor, and there he was, that dammed aughound who had cost Malkeep his eye. standing in one of the ventilation openings of the bonespires the creature looked straight at Malkeep, and then at the pale bloated thing resting on the ground. Without a though Malkeep surged towards his prey, and so did the hated nemesis. Like silent birds of prey they both homed towards the unaware creature, skimping and jumping from pipe to pipe.

When the distance between Malkeep and his prey was only about thirty feet, the creature noticed it's pursuers. With a pained how, it lifted itself from the ground and raised it's crab like arm in defense, but it was too late. Malkeeps fangs and claws tore in to it, and almost immediately, so did the fangs of the other creature. The prey cried in agony as it was being mauled by two frenzied creatures, it's breaths were quick and erratic as it struggled to free itself in vain. Soon it fell down, as it's bloated body refused to fight anymore.

>>16787350
Malkeep glanced at his opponent, still biting the neck of the dead thing. As their eyes met, the hound snarled and hissed: "You leave now, or I take the rest of your eyes with me!"
Enraged, Malkeep leaped at the creature. The hound dared to speak! They could not speak! He was the only one who was allowed to speak!
The two creatures clashed and within seconds only a mess of flailing claws, sharp teeth and blood could be seen.

The struggle was over almost as quickly as it began. Malkeep rolled the dead hound off of him and slowly rose up. He couldn't see. His remaining feeler inspected the damage, and found only mangled holes where his eyes should have been. He whimpered in agony, and started physically inspecting his surroundings. The dead creature was still there, it's face largely intact. The thing still had eyes. Quickly, with the aid of his feeler Malkeep plucked the eyes out of their sockets, desperately trying to keep them intact. After a moment of hesitation he stuffed the eyeballs in to his skull.

>>16787358

It didn't work. Well, he didn't really expect it to work initially anyways. But if he stuffed some biogell in to his eyes, they could very well merge with him. Malkeep started limping towards the smell of the pale bloated thing, quickly noticing that the hound tore his his stomach open, as he felt his intestines dribbling out and dragging behind him. The pain was maddening, but he continued. If he could just get some augjuice! Just a little bit, then everything wold be fine. When he finally reached the body of his prey, he was almost exhausted. He quickly tore the fat lumps open, and started sniffing out biogell.

He couldn't find much of it. Desperately, he started blindly tearing the carcase apart, searching for some hidden pocket of the precious fluid. Biting and ripping, he tore to the body, but found only the bitter taste of cancerous growths. As his body started to give in to the damage and his consciousness began to fade, the realization hit him. He was going to die, the bloated creature never had any biogell it's apparent fatness only caused by the tumors it was full. With a faint whimper he curled up and died.


The harvester moved. The plaza was cleaned. Only tree noticeable sources of exes biomatter. It's body quickly digested them and it's small mind churned up happy thoughts. Then it and it's guardians moved towards the hals of beating veins.

bumb

what kind of materials are there other than biological and in what frequency?

Metal? Plastic? Plant/fungi?

Also where would we get drugs like pain killers?

Slaves are common in the city. Creatures can either be born in to slavery, or be subjugated later. Subjugation most often happens with the use of neural interfacing auguments, such as neural whips like the slaver is using. These augs allow the creature wielding them to connect and dominate the nervous system of the victim, and then trough conditioning make the victim obedient. The whips can also inflict horrible sensations of pain, that can be used as punishment for disobedient slaves who are fighting against their conditioning.

They weren’t all so lucky, and soon Veis was streaked with blood and vicera as the gutterspawn were pulverised by the valves. She, however, had learned the rhythm, and bounded forward fearlessly. Something else was off about the valves today; aside from the gutterspawn, they were empty. Just where was everyone?

The air was getting thicker too, and not just with meat. A dark haze hung in the air between beats. Veis received no input from it; she no longer had the sensory organs to identify it, whatever it was. Indeed, that was the point. By the time she approached the first hearthome, great billows of it were drifting past her, and the gutterspawn writhed furiously forward through the muck of those who had gone before.

Veis didn’t need her feelers to know there was real danger here.

The heartdome was almost empty. The tunnels and cavities and bulbous growths that had housed the previous inhabitants were shrivelled and dry, or weeping sores. Towards the bottom of the space, the fleshwalls had turned an angry, infected red, and sitting in the middle, at the lowest point, was a white mound of flesh.

No. Not inert. Not a mere infection. Might be an aughound, there might be a mind in there. There was a mouth. A huge black hole, ringed with needle like teeth, although not much that tumbled into the maw required chewing. From the hole spewed a black haze – the heartdome was thick with it.

Veis did not miss her old respiratory system.

I fell asleep. There'll be more after I get back from work.

>>16788067

Metal is very rare, and any new sources of it are quickly taken over by the nobles. True plastic is as rare as metals, but plastic like materials are more common, as some of the organic structures that grow in the city have plastic like properties.

The city is a giant living ecosystem, there are some plant like organisms that photosynthesize and bear fruit etc and fungus like growths, but the distinction between them and the city itself is less clear compared to the moving creatures.
Organisms like algae exist too, as they are grown inside the city and then processed to the nutrient gruel that feeds the massive population.

Drugs might come from various sources, groups of creatures dedicated to manufacturing them, maybe the vat mothers or even the nobles, who wish to get hordes of freaks to their side, by supplying them with the drugs.

The necessary ingredients for the drugs could be found from certain specialized neural augs, some rare growths of the city or processed biogell.

I was spawned in the gutter below the great Yellow Bridge that links Achar to Below City. Like most of the uncounted, I had no sense of purpose. No gentle vatmother tore my amniotic sac to set me free, no - it was a four-limbed gutter-runner, a few hours my elder. He became my first kill. Eating his heart, I came to realize that it was up to me to find my purpose.

I harvested a few spawn with appealing augs and gathered strength. Finally, I felt confident enough to appear at the Great Bazaar in Cylth. I took a job as a caravan guard, keeping biomass safe from the predations of raiders and hounds. This claw I have as a memento from that time, it extrudes a paralytic poison that saved me many times in the Skinless Desert.

Once my skills as a guard had been noted, it was only a matter of time before I found a new job. This time, as a bodyguard for the Reverend Mother Tholexa, keeping her safe as she toured the countryside. When she returned to the Capitol, her usual guard took over our duties; I imagine that's why that assassin grub found its way into her bedchambers. Anyway, working for her earned me this chitin exoskeleton. My pride and joy.

I then joined Ixolom and his band of ruin-raiders. Those were great times, dangerous but fun. We waded through aughounds, fought off competing raider parties, and when we returned with relics, our words could topple great houses. I still have this scar on my back from the acid-spitters that House Bydolon unleashed on us when we stormed the Bone Towers. Most of my band fell that day, but I survived.

Listen, fledgeling. Don't give up hope. Even those of us born in the gutter can rise and become the bane of those that used to tread upon us.

For fuck's sake, every time I try and archive something, I manage to fuck it up somehow. Thread's been saved, but when going to http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/16779450/ , you get a file listing. HTML file seems to work, but have I horrible feeling it's fucked.

Sorry guys.

I don't want to kill immersion, but what of other species? I get that every individual will be different and I love it. And I'm cool with most animals being absorbed into the collective allowing men to have bull legs and gorilla arms.

But what about insects? Those persistent little buggers who were the first creatures on land. The ones who survived EVERY mass extinction on the planet.

In the very least, I want to see spiders and other carnivorous species living among us. Even ant colonies borrowing into the walls of flesh.

Not to mention, they keep things creepy.

>>16788653
I can totally see that. Flesh-eating-ants as bioweapon seems like it has potential. I don't think they'd be super-common, but I doubt they would all be extinct.

>>16789236

agreed. Weapons and pets.

Also, how would alliances form? So far every motive has been mostly selfish. Is there nothing to stop man from achieving humanity again? Or are most doomed to care only of their own survival?

>>16789467
Sometimes, groups of vatborn arrive all at once with similar mutations. These groups are as close as you get to families and generally grow up together and watch each other's back. More wide-scale, you can ally yourself with one of the Noble Houses.

Lets set the mood a bit here;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBk13Yv3juE&feature=feedf

Some lyrics are very fitting. Like "vagabonds in flesh tuxedos, cannibals feed like mosquitoes"

>>16789467

>>16788358 appears to have had a sense of camaraderie, both with a fellow gutterspawn and his band of mercenaries; in the end, no matter how fucked up they are, bros are bros.

>>16789956

What the fuck, why did that greentext?

Ah well: also, if you haven't already, give the google doc page a look.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14Po6lNzbyr9KPRsDUedUtU5xKnYLqUUjdaK5IsjKdpM/edit?pli=1&hl=en
_GB

>>16789615

youre not thinking this trough systematicaly

if you have a hierarchy of some sort, a social order of some sort, that social order momentarily dictates the modes of reproduction and they determine the social order in turn(dialectics, no)

what i eman is that if you have what we now call "noble houses" it is those same noble houses that controll and commision reproduction, so if youre vat-born, you are born into the noble house, or into some form of social structure, othervise there would be no reason for you to be produced in a vat, since that presuposes an intentional industrial process, which presuposes knowlege, infrastructure, resources, labour etc... you might be disgarded if you turn out bad but generaly you are born into the house - klan - tribe - family - hive - whatever...

what could i compare this with to make this more obvious than it allready is

WOD vampires - right... you exist only as a specific tipe and as such you are of a specific "tribe" or whatever, and your very existance presuposes, most often, a structure of some kind, a system by which you are made, not just random proliferation, and trough this your basic traits and character profile is determined

in the same way here, if you are produced, vat-born, then you are produced in a specific system, with a specific social/political position, in a specific political entity, say a house or a klan, and for a specific purpose, so you have a tipe, character class, "worker", "fighter" "managment", "inteligence", whatever, determining your traits, avalability of auguments, number of points or bonuses you get etc...

the same goes even more so if you are hive-born, because then you are asigned a function by birth itself, even if you might belong to a different caste

if you are free-born, however, then you are simply free

you are also literaly scum and you likely have no kidneys, if your organs work at all, but at least youre free to follow your dreams

>>16790049
I'd recommend reading through the google doc or past threads to get a handle on the way reproduction works in the setting. The noble houses aren't in charge of creating new children (although they do sometimes make their own to spec). The city itself creates new children out of biomass, usually into the vats under the city but sometimes an apartment will just squirt a kid out onto the street when it's trying to shed some mass. The vatmothers are generally impartial, although they'll sometimes refer children who show promise to noble houses for further education/modification. In short, almost everyone is born free and on the streets. You aren't born into a caste and you aren't born for a particular job. Rather, you modify yourself to fit in to a particular niche.

>>16790049
Man, learn to spell.

>>16790155
How come this guy thinks he has ownership over the whole thing? I thought we were brainstorming and discussing, instead it seems to be whatever bits he wants.

>>16790175
Er, I'm not claiming ownership over anything. My post was an explanation to the guy of how reproduction works, which we've hammered out collectively over the past thread and in the google doc. Hell, the ideas of the noble families and the city creating children in vats didn't come from me at all. I'm not trying to be the voice of god here, but restating what we've come to agree on as a group. Apologies if I sounded arrogant or something, but his post kind of indicated he hadn't bothered to read anything else.

>>16790175
>>16790220

Lobster's contributed quite a lot to the setting, including the story of the grafter and the child; he's not claiming ownership, he just knows more about what's currently been decided on the setting than disjointed anon seemed to.

>>16790049
How about ripping off the Necroscope series for your vampires. True the actual writing in any Lumley books sucks but the decriptions of the vampire lords and their castes are pretty cool.

I know we already have nobles but vampire lords dwelling in mountains or volcanic laccolith towers in the middle of the wastelands.

In the stories the vampires are parasites that fuse with a human's nervous system and alter their flesh. They can also infect other organisms with infusions of their flesh but these beings are less powerful because they don't have the actual vampire organism to assist them in regeneration. They use vampirized flesh in place of machinery, creating flying mounts and warrior beasts that act like flying tanks.

>>16790633
The castles they build on mountain sides are also made out of vampire flesh they ossify into walls and buttresses.

>>16790633
The setting doesn't currently have vampires and I'm not sure it needs them. There could definitely be people with vampire-like traits, but since there aren't any unified species any more, there can't be a race of vampires.

>>16790865
Well they don't and shouldn't be exactly the same obviously. But lets say the parasites are archeotech versions of a Evironmental Hazard Suit, that alters the wearer to be inured to any harsh environment rather than actually protecting his flesh. The parasite fuses with the host and allows him to metamorphose his own flesh to suit him. And since the area of the wastelands the hosts lived in contained bat-like organisms and shaggy wolf-like predators they often take on bat or lupine attributes since that is what the parasite is keying on as being "adaptive" to the current environment. And since they have to fuel these changes they have to eat a great deal of raw flesh and blood to be broken down and "vampirized" into flesh they can use in their own bodies. And since they can mold their bodies they developed ways to do it to others who they have infected against their will to make beasts of burden.

>>16791053
I'm not thrilled with finding ways to fit tired fantasy tropes into every setting. Do we need to talk about how elves are really just humans who wandered the dark wastes and evolved bigger ears to hear better? Regardless of how tortuous the conceit, it's still just elves. Again.

>noble houses
>clans

How about just a big fucking organism in charge and everyone who serves him either needs to collaborate with him in order to exist (symbiotic relationship) or is force to serve by the might of whatever weapons that guy posses.

Survival of the fittest cranked up to eleven.

bumb

>>16791355

Well the city itself kinda fits that role.
The creatures inhabiting it serve it, without even realizing it. As the freaks for example mine the tumorous growths of the city, they are essentially treating the cancer corrupting the city.

this tread won't die!

Whatever this black substance was, House Viam would want what was making it. Luckily, Veis was equipped for field surgery. She skittered forward, wrist bones at the ready. The mound shuddered and twitched at her approach, and the edge of the mouth grew shiny with salivating anticipation. It knew she was here.

It was in for a shock if it thought she was just another meal. She circled it carefully, picked a likely spot – a particularly full-looking roll of flesh, and dug her wrist bones in. She’d found a stomach – she ripped through the flesh and it disgorged a great wave of half-digested meat and bones, and she danced out of the way of the acidic spew.

The mouth closed. She was surprised it still could. The entire mound drew itself up defensively, and she could make out flabby, useless limbs under the bulk, stewing in the infection of the floor and the mound’s own excrement. It thought it could stay here indefinitely?

She charged in again, looking for more internal organs. The mound shuddered, convulsed, and spat thick black liquid into the air. It splattered down over Veis, but the membranes kept it from harming her eyes, and it trickled harmlessly off her chitinous skin. If she was capable of smiling she would have; she was perfect for this job.

Almost.

>>16791355
I like this idea actually.

All nobles allready operate through symbiosis in real life. Its called getting a job.

The city is ofcource the monarch. But the lesser nobles find ways to gain favour and control. Theyd be stupid not to!

The liquid trickled down her arms, and soaked into the skin of her three-fingered, sensitive hands. She noticed immediately; a warm, comforting feeling enveloped her mind. Safety, affection – these were the things promised chemically – a place to sleep peacefully.

She shook her hands, flinging the black liquid away, but more was raining down. Veis went on the attack. She leaped on the mound, stabbing and slicing, now looking for something, anything no matter how vile, to wash her hands in that wasn’t stomach acid. Her mind was clouding, her will was wavering. She stood astride the mound, her legs stabbing deep into its flesh as she sawed through tendons and muscle, looking for a nerve center – an off switch.

She swayed, and nearly tumbled into the mouth, that was opening again in anticipation. This place was so wonderful, so safe, so warm.

This wouldn’t do; she could die here. She braced herself, and flexed several powerful internal muscles in her abdomen. Pain bloomed through her nervous system, as she crushed the glands that had been implanted. This was a one-use-only aug, but it was worth it.

The pain, the noxious black substance, all higher rational thought was swept away in a wave of adrenaline and neurochemical rage. Veis didn’t think anymore. She couldn’t. She sliced and tore and stabbed, her muscles protesting uselessly to a mind that had gone dark.

When the fury receded, she was the victor. The gutterspawn that had successfully run the gauntlet of the valves were now edging closer to the unmoving mound, sensing biogel and nutrients were on offer. The prey became the scavenger.

Veis was only interested in one thing, and despite her exhaustion and the thudding pain from her ruptured internals, she started methodically searching through the carnage for the source of the black liquid. She was lucky that she hadn’t destroyed it in her rage, but it was buried deep; a round, black organ, full of liquid and slightly spongy. Satisfied that the connective tissue was merely standard ligaments and blood supply and neural connections, she sliced it free, holding it carefully in her hands.

She stood under a weeping sore in the wall that might have been a home once, letting the clear liquid wash all traces of black from her body. Exhausted, she started making her way through the valves again and at least this time she wasn’t fighting the current. But she was just a bit too slow. The final valve caught her midsection, and she nearly lost consciousness in pain as she was momentarily squeezed hard enough to crack her vertebrae.

There wasn’t much left to go pop. Without a digestive system, Veis relied on intravenous nutrients, but it made her very hard to crush. She staggered free from the valves, and waved her wrist bones at the curious crowd that had seen her mishap. One soul didn’t get the hint, and tried to throw a pair of limbs with at least seven joints each around her legs. Veis stepped nimbly to the side – more pain – and sliced his throat open. It may not have been a particularly deadly strike, but he seemed to get the hint.

Veis summoned her reserves and skittered on, back towards the center of the city and back to her House.

Mnaar was waiting for her, as she suspected he might be.

“You look tired, Veis,” he said. “Would you like me to hold that for you?”

She held the black object carefully in one hand, and freed her wrist bones. He couldn’t possibly see what kind of internal damage she’d taken, and she knew to show weakness now would be a mistake. She raised her first set of legs off the floor – another two weapons.

Mnarr shifted his grip on the floor. “All right then.” He leapt.

Veis skittered out of the way and opened a shallow gash in Mnaar’s side as she did so.

“Are you playing with me?” Mnaar grinned at her, his mandibles flexing.

If Veis could have laughed she would have. Like it or not, this was the best she could manage right now.

“Wallowing bile, I wish you had your voice box. This isn’t as fun if you’re not swearing at me.” Mnaar leapt again, and Veis danced away, too late realising it was a feint, and the bulky Mnaar changed direction, knocking her off her feet. She managed to avoid his lower jaw, just, and hauled herself upright.

Mnaar narrowed his eyes, “You are in bad shape, aren’t you? Well, I appreciate that you came back to me for your swift dea- aaah!” Mnaar whipped his head to the side as Veis leaped forward and put her right wrist bone through one of his eyes.

“Yeah, I know what you’d say, ‘Mnaar, you talk too much, you handsome aughound.’”

Veis fought like she had never fought before. Mnaar managed to crack the bone of her left front leg, and it now did little more than get in her way. Unable to leap accurately trailing a limb, she was resorting to running, darting in and slicing, and running away again.

She was wearing him down. He was dripping blood from dozens of rends in his flesh, and his sudden lack of depth perception had thrown off his aim when he leapt at her. But she had nothing left. Her insides were a soupy mess of pain, and every flex of her spine threatened to crack it completely, losing her use of legs for good.

Eventually, she just couldn’t dodge. She saw him coming, and she raised her wrist bones as a last defense. He smashed them both into the wall, the black sphere she held popped and her bones dug deep into his chest, grating between ribs, and making him gasp in pain. His mandibles closed around her neck, grating against her skin, as he held her life between them.

Black liquid dripped down their arms and chests.

“Veis?” Mnaar said, as his mandibles relaxed. She could feel all of him relaxing. He barely shuddered as she pulled her bones free from his chest. “This is kind of …good.”

She wanted to tell him this was kind of stupid, but it probably didn’t matter. He wrapped his arms around her gently, but it still made her vision waver in pain. She could feel his blood pouring down from his chest, and saw it trickle across the floor. She freed her hands and slid them over his shoulders.

To die in battle with her oldest rival. To kill him in the process. To not die alone. If she’d managed to complete her mission, it would have been pretty much perfect. Such things, if one stops to think about them, are rare and precious here. As it was, it was all right by her. It was all right, all things considered.

She rested her head against his jawbone and although she couldn’t close her eyes, everything slowly went dark.

It would be nice if I could keep my own characters' names straight.

>>16794081
>>16794197
>>16794250
>>16794339
>>16794344
>>16794354

Bravo.

Potential quest and party hooks in different levels of play:

1. Gutter level: The party is a litter of gutterspawn, possibly from the same spawning, that have banded together to survive and prosper. Starting quests will be to acquire augs and biogel and make it through the day. Eventually, the characters can make a name for themselves and become important power players within their home turf, or take work from higher-level creatures.

2. Minor House level: While the great houses can afford to commission armies of purpose-built Freaks, a minor house can bankrupt itself by commissioning one or two. Often, ambitious minor houses will form temporary alliances and pool their forces together for a sensitive mission, such as recovering new mutations or investigating relics in the lost regions. For such missions, parties are formed, each house providing one individual vatborn. Such parties are prone to intrigue and backstabbing; gameplay-wise I think Black Crusade-style compacts could work.

>>16794354
>>16794344
>>16794339
>>16794250
>>16794197
>>16794081
>>16793983
>>16788131
>>16784405
>>16784375
>>16784264
>>16784251

Daym son! This thing was great!
I aplaud your amazing writing and story telling skills. You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.
If my phone had an aproriate picture to show my amazement, I would post it.

>>16794565
>>16794519

This was my first attempt at writefagging here. Glad it was a worthwhile contribution.

>>16794596

It was great. The characters were interesting and you made the environment live.
I might do some drewfaggotry about it when I get home.

>>16794596
Fantastic work (first-time writefag here as well). >>16794559
This would work well with the Unknown Armies rules hack I have going in the google doc (https://docs.google.com/document/d/14Po6lNzbyr9KPRsDUedUtU5xKnYLqUUjdaK5IsjKdpM/edit). I'd love it if contributors could come take a look and leave some comments to make this setting even more awesome!

bumb

Hasn't this bindun? There was a small-press RPG called "Zero" released around 2000. The artistic aesthetic was basically a straight Giger knock-off.

I'm not trying to troll; I just want to save people effort reinventing the wheel.

Link related: http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=340

>>16795566

I have to ad that the premise seems quite similar, but without further info on this, I cant really say anything else.

bumb

>>16795566
Other than a general "dark underground" kind of thing, there aren't many similarities. Zero is more cyberpunky and doesn't have any of the "living city" or biological augments that distinguishes this setting.

BUT! Even if there were a lot of similarities... who cares? We're having fun with our worldbuilding and writefaggotry, and that's more important than being the first people to ever come up with an idea.

>>16794661

Delivered as promised, although a little later than I predicted.

Some thoughts on nobles:
First of all, although the nobles may look frail and pretty, when compared to the most of the freaks, they are still fully capable of defending themselves. As their augments are superior in almost every way, they can hit and move harder and faster than most of the freaks.

Their true strength in battle lies however in their pheromones. They have almost exclusive access to certain glans that produce pheromones that allow them to influence the actions of other creatures. in the google dock is a quest seed which exemplifies this. They can make other creatures shover them with adoration, run with irrational fear and compel them to obey. Only strong willed creatures can fight these chemical signals.

Facing a noble in direct combat, even without it's guardians should be a high end encounter, as a powerful noble is almost a demigod, when you consider their skills in combat, and their simple ability to manipulate the players and other creatures. They could just compel the npc freaks to attack the players, if they so desired.

Of course, there are ways to fight this. Strong will power enables the victim to resist the manipulation, whereas weak willed creatures can be swayed almost instantly. There are also augs that either neutralize or weaken the effects of the pheromones.

Another idea. Someone earlier in the development suggested that there could be radio like augs. What if these kinds of augs allowed a limited kind of telepathy between the creatures implanted with these such augs?

bumb for discussion!

final bumb

>>16797326

Nice work. Kind of d'aww if you sqint and tilt your head.

I like the Idea of some augs being symbiotes. Like Weapons you can put on and off, but they are parasitic. So one could keep one hooked up to the city (or a small unfortunate creature), then when they need it equipped, they can put it on.

An Idea I've always liked was a small mouth with claws and a tube. The claws dig into your skin and the tube goes into you body and connects to the stomach. Then it causes you to over-produce acid so you can shoot it at people.

I think we need a Colosseum within the cities. Citizen freaks can all sit around and watch gutter-spawn duke it out.

The victor would rip augs off his opponent and become stronger.

>>16800197
>>16801598

These are both great ideas

Bumpan.

Also the old thread did not archive.

>>16804814

yes it did.
it just is on the second page

>>16804814

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/16748756/
Link here.

bumb