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If Horrors can be daunted by puzzles, you don't even need fancy footwork involving the Matrix or orichalcum or whatnot, just put some really good pure mathematicians in a room together and get them to put together a problem that combines some of the nastier issues of the field. The sort of stuff that, while technically solvable, tends to take about one to three generations and one to a dozen geniuses each to work out.
Those weren't puzzles per se - they were desinged to draw the attention of Horrors and lure them into the 'puzzle', which caused them to lose their 'concentration', and be forced to leave Earth. They obviously needed to put some effort into staying, but that was a big amount of their mental capacity only in the case of lesser Horrors. For example, Wormskulls breched many Kaers, because of their cleverness and patience...
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Yes and no. Many failed kaers are the result of a horror slipping through and marking someone, after which it becomes a long slow descent into the mouth of madness. The beauty of it being also that the horror can use you as the point of origin for LOS for its abilities, spells, etc. Once you are marked most horrors will wait until the perfect time to reap the maximum misery. Did you make the mistake of going home? Enjoy waking up the next morning to a village full of corpses, or a brother who is also marked, but the horror enjoys tormenting him in a more direct fashion so you suffer more. It goes on and on. Horror Mark is the single most vicious ability they have.
And in some cases, kaer resident magicians used their flawed techniques without knowledge of consequences, creating a link for the Horrors, or even tried to 'sneak a peek' on what's happening outside (via Astral Projection, which is pretty much suicidal in ED, due to the corruption of Astral Space and Horrors residing in it).
And a Horror can use his abilities on the Marked one, even if he runs away. Range is a factor, but being 1000 km away simply doesn't let the Horror use damaging powers on you - anything else is still working, so he can easily drive you crazy, and work from there.
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Also, my main problem with Matrix Horrors is that the Matrix simply isn't old enough to support that kind of development, especially Matrix 2.0. I have trouble believing they'd even KNOW it existed, it's all invisible unless you're already a user. If there are Matrix horrors:
1) What, did they just sit around the last few invasions bitching about having nothing to do AGAIN?
2) In, say, the 1980s did a bunch of Horror's just look up and think "Man, I should really get into electronic data transfer. Especially wireless data transfer. That gonna be big."
3) It's very hard to make Horror's a realistic threat on the Matrix. There's no way for their magic to function online so they're essentially just another user, another user ignorant of the past 70 years of Matrix history with no experience using the system.
4)This is one of the few areas of Shadowrun where there is a powerful central authority, GOD, which could legitimately take direct action to control the threat.
Horrors don't need physical form. And then can use a Marked or Possesed (yes, some of them can do that too) human with a commlink, or better, datajack. There are ways for Horrors to use a Marked person's skills and knowledge, or turn him into an obedient abomination (Horror Construct)... As i wrote - some of the Horrors could use the 'trix as just another means of getting their wictims. What exists in the Matrix by the year 2072 is enough do drive people insine, or kill them dead. Who says Horrors won't use that? They're
smart in a alien, insidious and evil way. They figured how to work against powerfull magic wards and traps, they'll learn how to surf the Matrix too. Who says they can't coerce a doc into implanting them a commlink and datajack?
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1. In some ways this just reminds me of the Blood Elves, and their radical solution. While Tech and Magic don't mix yet, in my mind it is only a matter of time.
2. I agree I don't think there are horrors on the matrix YET. They kind of have to get here first.
3. Someone mentioned that ED versions of ghouls and vampires are not the same as those in SR. What are the diffrences?
4. Where did Bone Crown rear his ugly head? And I can't be the only one who thinks HMHVV *reeks* of the Horrors.
5. More that the traits of the virus seem like something the Horrors would use - or a step toward Verjigorm's great vision for the world.
6. Magic doesn't work like that.
7. Huh. "Orks would become savage", well, canon Wendigo have generally been portrayed with some degree of refinement but I could see how one could consider the whole "engaging in cannibalistic feasts" thing to qualify.
1. Don't worry. In a hundred years tops elves start sprouting thorns all over the world. If some of the IE and their allies don't find a way to avert the Ritual of Thorns magic, that is.
2. No, there aren't. Probably. As there probably aren't any other kind. Yet. The few attempts of invasion were supposedly thwarted.
3. Ghouls
are different in being true undead. Dead and raised as walking corpses with apetite for flesh and nasty poison. And their minds are mostly degenerated to the level of cunning critters with understanding of the world on metahuman level - a bit like some feral ghouls from ED.
4. There was mention of a Horror trying to get in, and he worked just like the Usurper. Check the threads on the official forums. And there supposedly was another attempt like that somwhere in the arctic...
I would seriously bet on it, since Yrsgranthe appeared already, and he's just a bit more powerfull (but doesn't have that much in the way of smarts and manipulation).
And HMHVV could be a leftover from the last Scourge, a memetic form of Corruption given form. And there are no vampires of any kind in ED, only Horrors, undead, spirits, and all kinds of abominations that work in a similar way.
5. Oh, Big V doesn't need that. He was powerfull enough to
stay there during the downcycle before the Age of Legends. He is something more than just a badass Horror... So there might be some truth in the draconic creation myth (in which all comes from V, including dragons).
6. It does, if you take ED magic theory into account. Blood Magic (the 'not-evil' kind) and Disciplines both hold their power through use. In the former case, Namegivers (Metahumans)
believing in their power and using them reinforced the True Pattern of Blood Magic enough for it to work. In the case of Disciplines, when many, many Adepts followed the same way, it was formed into a Pattern. That's why in 1st edition of Earthdawn some Disciplines didn't have higher circles - their pattern wasn't strong enough. So, yes. As even in SR Will is fundamental for magic, and believing in something is involved too (like traditions - they're the new Disciplines).
7. Current SR Orks are as 'savage' as their ED versions. So, no worries here.
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If I remember right, some Horrors need little more than you reading their name to be able to mark you. Mark one geek, then his buddies from the computer club, then it's spamfest time.... Nasty.
You mean Nebis? Yeah, but that wasn't a true mark - only a kind of symapthethic Nebislink to the careless NebisvictimNebis. And itNebis wasntNebis even NebisNebis his Nebis True NebisNebis NameNebisNebisNebisNebis...