In the other thread going at the moment Chantrel's horror has come up a bundle of times - for those of us without the horrors sourcebook, is someone able to post ballpark stats for the horror and a description of the life, time and dismemberment of Chantrel and her family?

I realise there is the whole copyright thing, hence rough estimates of stats and brief descriptions of the powers and how the kinda worked in ED would be all we ask...

The horror in question follows a somewhat similar pattern with its victims.
1) wander the astral and dreamways for someone sociable and empathic enough
2) enter the person's dreams and create a link between the two
3) methodically shred everyone the targetted cares about (while still in the distant astral and out of most harm's way)
4) if the targetted is still capable of deep empathy, allow it to build a new life somewhere, waiting patiently
5) repeat steps 3 through 5

As for stats of the astral beast:

If they've published the karma manipulation abilities for dragons in SR, the horrors have something similar. A horror can quit often influence your use of karma too.

One of the things not mentioned is that the horror will make the marked person nigh immortal/indestructible. Also, is will pick off the marked ones loved ones one by one (think serial killer/horror movie over a period of about a year), usually leaving them a very messy corspe. Since the mark one can't commit suicide (see indestructibility) they tend to suffer alot, and the horror eats it up.

For fighting the horror, since it spends most (all?) of its time in astral space, and can do bad stuff to the marked person from quite far away, even getting the horror in a stand up fight would be difficult. Your best bet would be to find a high circle horror stalker (heh) who has also studied one of the magical disciplines to try to track the horror via the mark...

As for horror stalkers, a really cool disciple, those without a deathwish need not apply. But you get all sorts of abilities to resist the standard back of tricks, and can (if you live long enough) gain some anti-horror abilities that work vs horror marks.

For Cursed Luck I'd keep the opposed Willpower test, but make it a Free Action that also takes up the Horror's next Complex Action, otherwise it'd be useless.

~J

This specific horror doesn't have the powers to mess with karma use. The closest is karma tap, but that is a temporary benefit to those it chooses (help the mark survive easily instead of having to rebuild the body).

As for free action that uses up a complex action vs. delay actions and use a complex to interrupt, it's more of a style of play difference. If you want to define it as a complex action that can be used early as an interrupt, that would also work. The main point is that it can make your astral munchkin with an 11 foot pole weapon focus (reach of 3) get a critical failure at just the wrong time.

Also, the Horror can only attack people who are astraly linked to its victim; friends, family, contacts, and people who are connected to the victim through a foci are all vulnerable. Low level business contacts require more successes than friends. Blood realitives and people who have bonded one of the victim's old foci require the least successes.

The Horror can also put a hurting on anyone who confronts it on astral.
It lives in a metal frame (which physicaly exists in astral space) made of orihalcum and various other precious metals. The frame is covered with deadly whirling blades. The horror itself appears to be a victim of its own brutal disections and has no vocal cords. It "speaks" by varying the speed of the rotating blades.

Chantrel was cast out of her kaer during the Scourge because of a dream she had about the horror. It is quite possible that her faimly lived into old age, because she never had any hope of contacting them. She wondered the horror-filled wasteland with her "Eternal Friend" It was a lonely existance, but no other horror dared to mess with her. After several thousand years, the scourge ended and her Eternal Friend left her. She started a new life and took an apprentance. She began to grow old rapidly, as if your body were trying to make up for the many centuries of agelessness but she was increasingly happy.
Then, one fatefull day, she found her apprentance and his family brutally disected, the horror spoke to her through her aprentance's mutilated corpse. Soon, her body began to grow young again.
Once, out of dispair, she threw herself into a river of lava. The horror, however, just deposited her essence in a new clone body made using its blood-memory power.

Horror Stalkers are cool, they have an ability that kills them instantly without any chance of resisting if they ever knowingly or unknowingly aid any horror in any way.


Edit: Also, the horror ability to preserve its victims is limited. It doesn't use any healing magic. Instead, it makes healing tests for its victims, essentialy giving them its regenerative abilities. However, should it have to use those tests for itself it may have a tough choice to make.

The test to "mark" a victim (other than Chantrel) - what stats were used and what were the modifiers?

Like everyone's said, family are dead meat and business associates are marginally better off - but by how much?

To mark someone the horror need you in its 'sight', holding a marked object, or similar 'spell casting target' thingys. IIRC it then spends a point of karma and rolls against your spell defense. For SR, maybe somthing like Willpower + initiate grade or will power + essence -6 or something... The horror should make most people rather easily, but have some trouble with powerful mages, horror stalkers, and related disciplines.

I'm not sure if essence should figure into it, assuming the most sams come off as blood elves (i.e. too screwed up to be good food) then the horrors will usually have a slightly harder time marker them, and usually be un interested.

Horror marks are esentially permanent, and (IIRC) hard to notice (treat them as masked auras?), with an initiate grade based on the horror power level, so that an attempt to break masking can reveal marks.

The marks themselves work a ritual links (both ways) allowign the horror to use its power on a marked person from far away (and with a lower TN?).

Through a ritual horror stalkers could attempt to isolate the horror mark from their pattern (aura) that kept the horror from influenceing them through it

Marks are difficult to spot, and this horror's marks are even harder. I'd suggest that marks are visible with 6 successes on an assensing test and under a low grade passive masking, then they can then be furthur identified. However, in this case, I'd consider the mark under constant active masking based on an effective initiatory grade of at least 8 (based on the 8th circle elemental magic).