Can we beatt he Horrors?, It needed its own thread. Options

[toturi]

Actually, the horrors will, after about six months...

...get bored and leave.

Dude, with the drugs and mind altering tech, humans can feed on the Horrors' trying to feed on the humans' suffering.

This thread has died more times than Lazarus, why oh why didn't we start a new thread?

Until those that claim the Horrors will win repent and recant, this thread will never truly die.

GO GO HUMANS!

[Wounded Ronin]

Oh well, the exquisite pain when you give them your newborn to protect yourself, or when your beloved gets torn to shreds before your eyes just to shamble to her feet again to taunt you through the window at night with a voice that sounds like the rustling of leaves - as soon as you get the pain monitor to work on these, humanity should be dandy with the Horrors.

Contemporary-world Cyberpunk-style apathy > moody gothic crap.

[Gast]

Hey, I didn't make the Horrors an integral part of ED/SR, FASA did. So that's what should have happened. If you don't want moody gothic crap, go play Cyberpunk.

[toturi]

Yes, but in SR, most of the time the Horrors are the ones getting slaughtered.

[nezumi]

In Earthdawn, the majority of horrors encountered were the sort that just ate a particular sort of thing, or enjoyed physical pain. Most of these will be easily fought with modern technology. The problem is that a few of them feed on other things that pain editors and the like don't address, and they're the challenge. The question is, given the ability to pwn one group but not the other, how will the demographics of the horror population change over time? Will there be a constant flow of approximately the same proportion of monsters to fill in the gap, but only those 'higher' monsters tend to survive, resulting in a gradually increasing population of them? Will the entering horror population naturally shift to address what sort of food is available (so if everyone has pain editors, no more horrors will come to Earth looking to feed on pain)? Is there a set number of horrors which can come over, so hypothetically you could kill all the horrors before the magic level lowers again?

[Naysayer]

Yes, but in SR, most of the time the Horrors are the ones getting slaughtered.

I thought that was only because they showed up like a thousand years too early?

Imagine you getting up after a rough night and only three hours of sleep, and then having to brawl a guy who knows you're coming for him and is crazy prepared, brought some friends and won't hestitate to shoot you in the back with miniguns and the goddam soul of a dragon, before the bell even rings.

[The ubbergeek]

Contemporary-world Cyberpunk-style apathy > moody gothic crap.

Subjective, and you know how derided the first is also at times...

Orrrr, it's 'L337 bang-bang D&D IN CYBAH!'.

Tastes are plural...

[Wounded Ronin]

Orrrr, it's 'L337 bang-bang D&D IN CYBAH!'.

What? Isn't that what the Vietnamese prostitute said in "Full Metal Jacket"?

[Siege]

Hey, I didn't make the Horrors an integral part of ED/SR, FASA did. So that's what should have happened. If you don't want moody gothic crap, go play Cyberpunk.

Um...how is Cyberpunk not moody and gothic?

C'mon now - two of the functional stats were Cool and Attractiveness.

Wardrobe & Style was a viable skill.

-Siege

[Guardian]

I thought that was only because they showed up like a thousand years too early?

Before we were ready for them. In a thousand years, we'll be even stronger. I saw Verjigorm's stats in one of the Earthdawn books. He wasn't that much better than a dragon. If he shows up, a KE Firewatch company will shiv him in the kidneys like Lex Luthor did Superman. Welcome to the 6th World, Mr. V. Hope you have a DocWagon account.

[TKDNinjaInBlack]

This is really going to sound NOOBish, but I haven't invested any time into Earthdawn, so I know nothing about the Horrors. I know about them through various Shadowrun characters constantly fighting to find a way to beat them (I know Harlequin and the Big D were advocates for finding ways to beat them), and various bits of the fluff hinting at their coming with the increase in the waveform that is the flow of mana, but what exactly are they? Just mean spirits? So far we've seen bugs, and shedim, are they part of the horror clan? Who's this big V and are they more or less other worldly (metaplaner) akin to something out of the Cthulhu Mythos?

[Muspellsheimr]

My understanding is Horrors are from the outer metaplanes, arrive in our world once the mana cycle reaches a certain level, & Insect & Shedim are supposed to be precursors - think of them like an omen of things to come &/or child Horrors.

[toturi]

Or Insects and Shedim are just different species of spirits that have their metaplanes closer to that of Earth's Gaiasphere. Not stronger or weaker, just a different place.

[the_real_elwood]

If Harlequin thinks the horrors can be beat with a combination of magic and technology, maybe cyberzombies are the ticket. If anything could beat some extraplanar horrors that feed on your fear, it'd probably be an unstoppable warrior that has no emotions.

[raverbane]

If Harlequin thinks the horrors can be beat with a combination of magic and technology, maybe cyberzombies are the ticket. If anything could beat some extraplanar horrors that feed on your fear, it'd probably be an unstoppable warrior that has no emotions.

Or just make sure whatever meat soldiers you have face them have all their emotions P-fixed away.

Or maybe instead of a combination of tech and magic. Just tech all the way. *looks to legions of AIs in tank drones*

[Red_Cap]

I beg to differ. Some Horrors likely to stick to the astral or are dual-natured (I believe this was touched on earlier). Therefore, cyberzombies will help cull the physically manifested ones, but we're going to need some slick combat mages to put down the spooky ones.

[ThreeGee]

maybe cyberzombies are the ticket.

The current ruleset seems to suggest that cyberzombies maybe part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Augmentation P156-157

On a glitch, something horrible has gone wrong with the procedure - something was brought back from the depths of the metaplanes, and has tainted the character.

[Grinder]

Or maybe instead of a combination of tech and magic. Just tech all the way. *looks to legions of AIs in tank drones*

You fool! Didn't Terminator teach you anything! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rollin.gif)

[toturi]

You fool! Didn't Terminator teach you anything! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rollin.gif)

So? There are already AIs around. Skynet's gotta stand in line for the self-aware apocalypse sthick.

[TKDNinjaInBlack]

Remember, the last few passages of Emergence detail the covert war between good and rogue AIs and with the Undernet Alliance leading the way. Could we end up seeing enemies amassing on both the astral and the digital realms?

[Grinder]

We are doomed! Doooooooomed! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

[nezumi]

so I know nothing about the Horrors.

They are the Horrors, there's really no other taxonomy which properly deals with them. However, let me relate them back to everything else.

According to the dragon creation myth, originally the earth was nothing but a horror feasting grounds. There were uncountable horrors who just ate each other and only the guys on top were happy. One day one of the horrors, Nightwing, decided this wasn't for her and she found a quiet place to stop and rest a bit. As it happens, she is the first dragon. According to the story, she created all of the metahuman races (including a few that appear to have since gone extinct).

So in theory, we are horror creations, and dragons are horror descendants. It may be that the world itself was created by horrors, that's not clear.

Horrors, like I said, don't appear to fall into any taxonomy. Some are dual-natured, some astral-only, some physical only. Some thrive on emotional pain, others on physical pain, others just need to eat like everything else. Hypothetically, there are horrors on the bottom of the food chain, who don't eat anything else but just metabolize energy from another source, but there's been no evidence of this. They all corrupt the astral (although given our history, it could be us who are corrupting and they who are purifying), and they are all limited to some degree or another by the local magic level, hence the wave theory you brought up. I think it can safely be said they are all magical creatures.

Bug spirits and shedim are not believed to be horrors, however given how little we know about any of them, that might be technically incorrect. There is one Shadowrun creature, the wraith I believe, which seems to match a type of horror, but otherwise it would appear that as of yet Earth is safe from any horror interlopers.

Who's this big V and are they more or less other worldly (metaplaner) akin to something out of the Cthulhu Mythos?

'Big V' is Verjigorm, I believe his official title is Great Dragon Hunter. He was the 'king horror' back in Nightwing's time, killed her personally, and swore to kill all other dragons. As of yet, he is believed to be the biggest, baddest horror there is, but since we have no idea how many horrors there are, that may be wrong. Suffice to say, at his level, he doesn't really notice people. They aren't worth his time. He hunts and kills great dragons, although will make detours for lesser dragons, since he's proving a point.

Many of the horrors do seem similar to what you'd see in the Cthulhu Mythos, although to be fair, the Horrors source book was a lot more frightening than anything I read by Lovecraft.

[Wounded Ronin]

Many of the horrors do seem similar to what you'd see in the Cthulhu Mythos, although to be fair, the Horrors source book was a lot more frightening than anything I read by Lovecraft.

That's just because the Horrors are more modern in terms of concept than Lovecraft's stuff from back in the 30s.

Incidentally, Blood demonstrated how emotionally satisfying it is to pwn a Lovecraftian beast with a Thomspon submachinegun.

[Wounded Ronin]

In that vein, as long as we're considering the pwnability of big scary mythos creatures to Tommy Guns, I feel like I should set up a real world analogy. If you took a tommy gun and unloaded it into an elephant, would the elephant get pwnt, or would it just get mad and stomp you? Or how about a bear? Bears are tough and all, but what if we're talking like 50 rounds of .45 ACP delivered through automatic fire?

[hyzmarca]

In that vein, as long as we're considering the pwnability of big scary mythos creatures to Tommy Guns, I feel like I should set up a real world analogy. If you took a tommy gun and unloaded it into an elephant, would the elephant get pwnt, or would it just get mad and stomp you? Or how about a bear? Bears are tough and all, but what if we're talking like 50 rounds of .45 ACP delivered through automatic fire?

Probably, but against an elephant you'll really want something heftier than .45 ACP, just to ensure that the wounds are immediately fatal. Blood loss and sepsis would certainly kill the elephant eventually, if a Tommy gun were unloaded into it, but it still might survive lone enough to crush your skull underfoot. An Ak-47 would probably produce more reliable results.

Bears? Yeah, A Tommy gun would kill a bear.