On the Nature of Horrors

Yet, I awoke with a terrible start.
Screams of the dying. Echoing madness.
Their cries for help shaking my tiny bed.
Burning hair filled my nose, choking my voice.
Drenched in fear I faced a swirling darkness.
My being shook. My throat ached. I was lost.
Surrounded by a mad bloody tumult,
I desperately cried for my grandparents.
Violent, twisted wreckage surrounded me.
In the flickering light of crimson flames,
Shadowy forms shifted about me.
I saw my grandparents dear friends bloody. Mad.
Fury filled their eyes. Ichor stained their hands.
Awakened like me, yet so unlike me.
In my terror I crawled away from hell,
Hunting the deep shadows for my grandma.
Hiding in a hole, trembling with such fright.
Compassion, hope had died. Killed by Madness.

~ from Testament - The Epic Journey of Yggdrasil

In that moment Horrors were born on Yggdrasil, my son. It is unclear from Kask how this wave of Madness came about, but the emphasis on the word darkness implies a connection to that which lies in the Outer Darkness. And yet, Horrors have also been long associated with the Orange Prince, who has bedeviled the inhabitants of Yggdrasil since before we began marking time. Either way, they are bound to Yggdrasil as much as we are and can likely never be truly destroyed.

In my efforts to create a working tool for you and others to use in the endless fight with these inhuman fiends, I have drawn from Testament, Taubh’s Lesser Book of Names, and other fragments to compile something like a working guide for surviving an encounter with a Horror. All of my material has pointed me to how they, time and again, despite being banished or even bound in chains to the soul of Taubh, reenter the Nine Realms. For the Ghost Gate and Hot Gate are well guarded and nothing has passed their portals since the days of the Jutun.

The answer is a term I have coined called progressive transposition. Much like the method in which one might send a coded message, exchanging letters in a pattern, Horrors do so to enter the Nine Realms. From my research, it appears to always begin with an evil act, be it intentional violence or the giving into darker urges in a moment of weakness. Either way, this opens the door for the coded conversation to begin with the Horror.

It should not be all that surprising that the Horror anchors onto the fears and insecurities of its victim, encouraging greater and greater acts of depravity. Over time they begin to physically transform, at first appearing as gifts in return for their deeds. Eventually, the terror of their bodily transformation becomes apparent, but at this point it is too late without outside intervention. It is merely a few more terrible acts that shift the Horror’s victim to the Charred Garden and replace them with the Horror, body and spirit.

~ Excerpts from Letters of Yurek Ayensetoi, 3928 - 3930NA

Progressive Transposition

When using progressive transposition in a Torchbearer game you can leverage the following systems to add a bit of body horror to your game. As illustrated above, the process begins with a triggering event and then progresses through three stages prior to full transposition. The triggering event is always an act of evil, such as violence against an innocent, neglect that leads to death or destitution, or wanton depraved actions. The kind of things that happen all the time in table top roleplaying games, but usually don’t have too many consequences.

Once that action takes place, the player of the character makes a Will test against an Ob equal to the Might of the Horror the game master has picked to focus on them. If it was a group effort, it can be a group of Horrors or a single one looking for multiple ports of entry. Up to you.

When a character enters stage one of the process, they now must make that same Will test every time they perform a depraved act. Additionally, if they fail a test while using a corrupted location as a Wyrd battery1 they take a step down the path to the next stage as well as gain an additional Corruption Twist2.

Stage One: The Connection

The following things now happen to the character:

• They add the Corrupted (L1)3 trait to their character.

• Select a Corruption Twist and apply it to the character.

• The character gains a help die for any actions that reflect the descriptors from the Horror. This is from the whispers of the Horror in their mind.

Stage Two: The Corruption

Following a failed Will test after another depraved act or a failed use of a corrupted location as a Wyrd battery, the following things now happen to the character:

• If the Corrupted trait hasn’t advanced yet, it does so now to Corrupted (L2).
• Select a Corruption Twist and apply it to the character.
• The character continues to have access to the help die.
• The character now gain either a Weapon or the Armor of the Horror to use in Conflicts (their choice). They take on the physical manifestation of it if appropriate.
• Any failures that the character has from now on can result in a Corruption Twist regardless of the situation. The game master has discretion to decide.

Stage Three: The Malformation

Following a failed Will test after another depraved act or a failed use of a corrupted location as a Wyrd battery, the following things now happen to the character:

• If the Corrupted trait hasn’t advanced yet, it does so now to Corrupted (L3).
• Select a Corruption Twist and apply it to the character.
• The character continues to have access to the help die.
• The character continues to have access to the selected Weapon or Armor.
• The character can now use one of the Horror’s special abilities and is susceptible to the use of the Horror’s name. They take on the physical manifestation of it if appropriate.
• Any failures that the character has from now on always results in a Corruption Twist on top of any other Twists or Conditions.

Stage Four: Transposition

At this point, after a final failed Will test, the character is replaced by the Horror, body and spirit. The character then finds themselves trapped in the Charred Garden, a paradise that was destroyed and is now home to the towering, monstrous Jutun, and those Horrors who have been banished from the Nine Realms. This could be an opportunity for brand new adventures as they try to find their way back to the surface of Yggdrasil or an opportunity to play a new character that now hunts the Horror unleashed on the world.