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| Anime + Patrick Nagel = This. Art Mostly By: Me |
Art
Mostly By Me: So
I used a few very basic outlines of some old photographs and public
domain images, I am really bad at proportions and distance but
passable at shapes and shading. Using the rough shapes and tick
marks, I make my pictures. So... yeah, partly tick marks and a few
lines, mostly me.
Author's
Note: I
don't write for realism, I write to play with crazy ideas and images.
Now, if you found something wrong with this post please see the
following two 'points' to know how I will feel about you.
If
you find that my writing is difficult to follow, written strangely,
poorly worded, hazily described, or anything having to do with how I
wrote the post, please
say so. I want to become a better writer, and the only way to do that
is to know my short-comings and work to fix them. I know I have
faults that I am not aware of, by pointing them out you are helping
me, for which I am very grateful.
If you are saying to
yourself, “This is preposterous! This thing he is writing about
could never happen in REALITY!!!” please see the following youtube
link. (CLICK HERE) See that guy who asked the xylophone question then
ate a candy bar? Yeah, that's you. I am going to play my magic
xylophone with the poly-tonal bars over here while ignoring you.
Now, for our feature
presentation...
Anonymous
“How it hits them like a bolt” Undiluted Truth (Infinite City)
24th
of Gamelion 6M – 282 pg. B4
We have seen them,
they are impossible to miss even when you are pretending to be blind
to their pleas. Men and women, huddled in alleyways, leaning on
lampposts, shivering in winter's nightly gusts. Their standard issue
helmets are always close by, wired like a madman's impression of a
telegraph switchboard.
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| A well crafted example. |
Eyes sunken to pits,
staring out of heaven's waiting room, hoping to score just a few more
coppers for cheap batteries to send them back to paradise. It's not
just in their eyes, it's in the way they look at the world when they
aren't riding the current; like a child who just watched the circus
leave town. It's in the two spots on their bodies that they will
meticulously care for, closely shaved areas on the left sides of
their heads and the bases of their skulls.
We all know why
they're like this, and we should know how, though many don't like to
remember. Remember the war? Sure you do, vaguely, like the rest of
us. Our beloved City Works Agency making sure our memories stayed
vague with the Redaction. All of it for our own safety, they assure
us.
During the war, the
Marchen had such destructive weapons, that medicine and drugs
couldn't cope. The pain these weapons caused was so intense, that our
beloved poppy and its child Morpheus couldn't hope to fix. Options?
One. Kill the patient. You'll never find a doctor that will admit to
it, but there were more than enough 'accidental' overdoses that will
tell you how they felt about the possibility of alternatives.
 |
| The doctors and their machine. |
In comes the Process
Company, a business started to 'assist' the city's war effort. Their
'assistance' entailed vast amounts of capital being funneled into
projects the City Managers didn't want to soil themselves with. They
gave the hospitals and doctors a new way of fighting pain. No more
worries over addiction, they said, we have something that doesn't use
drugs at all.
This
innovation couldn't fix our soldiers, but it meant they could die in
peace. The Process Company gave the world, the 'Pain Relieving
Process Helmet', you see how humble they were. Shave two parts of the
skull, attach electrodes, apply electricity, and the pain was gone.
Our fighters were allowed to smile as their bodies melted, ossified
into teeth, disappeared, became other
or myriad of alternatives that all lead to death.
They were right, the
Process Company, no addiction, the voltages were low enough just to
cut off the pain and induce a mild tingling feeling and slight sense
of euphoria. As with so many inventions meant to ease pain, it was
quickly perverted by the pushers and hustlers.
Within
a year, back alley electricians were selling 'Love Helmets' and
'Pleasure Caps', offering their own form of hard relief to those
who've been broken by the casual cruelties so often found in life.
These weren't the 'medical models'. No, the voltage had been spiked
has high as it would go before it could kill most
people.
Rest assured, this exact voltage had been reached through rigorous
experimentation on the those unfortunate enough to 'volunteer'.
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| Medical miracles. |
Now, we have zaps,
volt-heads, sizzle-brains, and a host of so many other euphemisms to
add to our language, thanks to the Process Company and folks with too
much ingenuity without any compassion to fortify it with. It seems no
matter the problems we fix, the solutions always find a way to create
more.
But the question, no
matter how much of a prude you are speaking to, is always the same.
How does it feel? This is how:
“L-like...
Like home. Like everything is great, and always will be. Your body
feels light again, like you're a kid and it's summer, like you're on
your way to the circus. There is nothing like it... No... It's like
before my wife and kids got burnt up in that apartment fire. Like I
still have something to give to the world.” - Alistair Bencroft.
Alistair was a Meritorious and Valorous Service Medal recipient.
Before losing his wife and children, he was an accountant for the
Aderist Bank. Three days after my interview with him, he was found
dead, having succumbed to exposure due to the extreme cold of the
previous night. His 'helmet' was still strapped on.
Anonymous
“Our god lives in the wires and waves” Undiluted Truth (Infinite
City) 11th
of Skirophorion 6M – 283 pg. A1
The rumors are out
there. Zaps, volt-heads, and sizzle-brains creating their own
religion from the insanity they find in their 'helmets'. Have your
pub-buddies, co-workers, and temple-mates been telling you the truth?
Yes, and no. As with
all things in this world, the reality is far more complicated.
They call themselves
the 'Electric Life Church', and their popularity has been growing
steadily, despite crackdowns by the City Works Agency. Their purpose?
To expand the mental abilities of all sentient races, and to come to
understand their god/goddess/deity that is in essence electricity
itself.
While their claims
border on the ramblings of madmen, they have proof to add credence to
their teachings. This proof is hard to dispute, and I witnessed it
with my own eyes.
I met with a
high-ranking member of the church named Sister Kells, a dark skinned
woman in her early thirties, with a number of brain-filled tubes
running down the center of her head.
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| Sister Kells. Art Mostly By: Me |
“I know I look
like something out of those penny-dreadfuls by that William Son of
Gib character. By the way, he spent quite a bit of time with us
before writing those things, so not all of those books are fiction.”
she told me as we entered one of their 'Electro-Temples'. I had to be
blindfolded while I was transported there, their main source of
security from the City Works Agency is secrecy.
It was a open area,
with a number of use-worn pews leading up to a podium, two
statue-sized glass tubes, and a meshed speaker-box the size of a
horse-cart. The box was emitting a static laden hum that was actually
quite pleasant to listen to. I wasn't the only one who seemed to feel
the same, because many of the pews were filled with men, women, and
children who were enjoying the sound in each their own way.
Sister Kells:
“It's our god.”
she told me as she motioned to the speaker-box. “Our god lives in
the wires and waves.”
What came next was
three hours of explanations of their beliefs and exhibitions of the
proof behind those beliefs. While it would taken an entire
encyclopedia volume to completely cover all that I saw, felt, and
heard, I will try to relate the core of it here.
“Our belief is
pretty simple. Electricity is life. Your body generates it, and your
brain is completely run by it. Without it, you're just meat.”
“Thing is, it's
more than just a force or phenomena, electricity doesn't just promote
life it is alive itself. There is a being, or perhaps beings, each of
us has our own pet theories, that either is electricity or lives
within it. It, or they, are very difficult to talk to, but very easy
to listen to.”
“Our founder,
Doctor Ephram Coleridge Azif, was an electrical enthusiast. While
playing with a primitive radio, he stumbled across The Frequency, the
exact amplitude that you heard earlier in the gathering hall.
Whatever he heard, inspired him to look deeper into the manipulation
of brain functionality through the use of electricity.”
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| Diagnostic equipment used by the church. |
“Through
the assistance of The Frequency, he developed a whole new kind of
technology to improve the thinking and reflexes of people. These
tubes on my head are the most recent development of this new
technology.”
“My tubes contain
the brains of rats. Yes, I know that sounds like madness, and begging
for the plague, but hear me out. The brains have been re-purposed to
augment the processes my brain engages in all the time.”
Pointing to each
tube she listed off its function: language reception and expression,
spatial perception, visual perception, hearing perception, empathy,
and procedural logic.
“Each brain had
its original functionality removed from it, and was changed to
fulfill a new function. These augmentations aren't quite as swift as
if they were truly part of my brain.”
“Despite our
incredible developments, there is still quite a bit of latency
between input and output. Granted this latency only adds about half a
second to the whole process, but as far as the brain is concerned,
the augmentations move at a snail's pace. We have developed a system
to improve the overall reflexes of an individual, but it works using
a completely different setup than my rodent friends.”
“We know we have
been painted as volt-heads who have found religion, but I assure you
that you won't find anyone here with the telltale signs of
electro-cerebral-stimulation abuse here. While the science behind the
'Pleasure Caps' formed the foundation of our achievements, everyone
here knows that the helmets are a dead end path.”
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| Capable of strange powers. |
“While
it is always dangerous, and can even be deadly, to apply voltage
directly to the brain, it can lead to some incredible results.
Someone using a 'helmet' can only really expect two things: an
incredible euphoric experience that always
ends,
and the subsequent addiction to the experience. Using our technology,
you can exceed the very limitations that your body places on you.”
“We're
even developing technology to completely replace the body itself,
though we have yet to begin human trials. There was a Thought-Whale
from the Inner City Sea, that desperately needed a way of becoming
terrestrial. I am proud to announce that we successfully helped 'I am
the one whose mind swims deep in the Mathematical Places',
Thought-Whale names tend to be very long. 'Math' only gave us the
briefest portion of her name, any shorter and it would have been
'unspecific'.”
“While we have,
and continue to, improve the abilities and lives of normal folks like
you or I, we are now focusing on improving the lives of the mentally
and physically indigent. We give parents the ability to finally be
able to converse with their children, and those who were too
physically and mentally broken a chance at a normal life.”
“We don't know why
the City Works Agency wants to shut our practice and worship down. We
can only assume it has something to do with the Smilers and their
Radio Idols. While some of our clergy possess the ability to use
faith arcana, it is no more or less intrusive than all the other
religions who are not hounded by the city as we are.”
“All we want is to
be heard, by the people who need our help the most.”
While I was with
Sister Kells, I saw incredible feats of cognition and physical
prowess that I would not have believed were possible:
- A 5 year old girl doing, what I was told, was advanced mathematics.
- An 18 year old man who was able to accurately guess the exact playing card that was being presented face down after watching the deck being shuffled face up. He did this with all 52 cards.
- A 29 year old woman, who was previous mute, exhibit the 26 languages she now spoke fluently, and the 3 that she had created herself. Her goal is to learn a new language for each year of her life.
- A 47 year old man, who accurately described: my breakfast, dinner, and supper as well as the newspapers I read while eating them. He did this after giving my clothes a cursory inspection before having me walk around the room once.
- An 8 year old boy, who was previously unable to speak, dress, or feed himself bring his mother and handful of flowers before saying how much he loved her.
After the boy, I was
convinced of how much our city needs the 'Electric Life Church'...
In Plain Language
These folks believe
that by applying electricity to the brain and body, you can improve
and even heal it. I used real terms to make this stuff official when you're telling your players about this stuff. This idea is rather old in the real world, but has
some data to back it up. If you want to learn more about real
Electrotherapy, I have provided a link to Wikipedia. (CLICK HERE)
Back to the fiction.
So, the Electric Life Church believes that there is some kind of
god/goddess/deity/being that either is electricity or at least lives
in it. Their hidden temples each have a huge radio that they use to
tune into their electro-deity's messages, the point on the dial they
find these messages they call 'The Frequency'.
They mostly gork-out
to the weird euphoric static that comes through, improve people with
Teslapunk devices, and invent more stuff after prolonged periods of
'Tuning In'. As Sister Kells stated before, their radio proclivities
bear a striking resemblance to the Smilers and Radio Idols. Don't
remember/know who they are? (CLICK HERE).
Below, you will find
some basic NPC stats for a cleric of 'The Frequency' as well as some
nifty gadgets the church can hook you up with for a sizable donation
towards their more charitable augmentations. Be forewarned, if you
are caught with these things around the Infinity City, be prepared to
either run, fight, or try to explain your way out of getting arrested
by a City Works Agent.
I am presenting the
cool do-dads first so you know the rules for the NPC stats later.
OSR
/ LoTFP / AD&D
Most temples have a
cleric who is experienced in the installation of Electric
Augmentations. The cleric will have a base 70% chance to correctly
install the augmentations, this chance receives a bonus equal to the
character's level. The chance receives a penalty of -3% for each
piece of Electric Augmentation the character already has installed.
A roll that would
normally fail, results in the character having to make a saver versus
Paralysis or permanently lose 1 point of Constitution. A roll of 100%
results in the character permanently losing 1 point of Constitution
(no save).
Wear and Tear:
Each time a
character takes a critical hit, there is a 25% chance that one of
their augmentations will become broken in the process, roll randomly
to see which one. While broken, the augmentation is useless. Cerebrum
Expansion Ports and Expansion Tubes are considered two different
items.
Someone who is
skilled in the crafting of these Electric Augmentations will charge
10% of the item's total value in order to fix them.
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| Poor Mister Bananas. Art Mostly By: Me |
Cerebrum
Expansion Tubes:
Using a rat's brain,
cat's brain, or squirrel monkey's brain that has been re purposed for
a specific brain process. How they re purpose the structures of these
brains is a proprietary secret that the church closely guards, but
undoubtedly it involves the use of electricity. Once someone has been
fitted with expansion sockets, it is an easy task to add or remove
tubes.
Each tube takes up a
single port on a character's head. The number of tubes a character
may have active is equal to the number of ports they have available.
These expansion
tubes can increase certain skills, or even increase mental
statistics. Rat and cat brains are used to augment specific brain
processes (skills), while the squirrel-monkey brains are used to
improve more general processes (Stats).
Rat
and Cat Brains
As stated before rat
and cat brain tubes provide bonuses to certain skills. Rat brains
provide a bonus to skill values, I am presenting, X out of 6 skill
type, Skill Proficiency type, and Thief Percentage Skill Type.
X out of 6
Rat
brains provide +1 while cat brains provide +2. A character may only
ever have a +2 bonus to a single skill.
Wernicke and
Broca Augmentation: Bonus to
Languages skill.
Auditory and
Visual Cortex Augmentation: Bonus
to Search skill.
Right Parietal
Cortex Augmentation: Bonus to
Sleight of Hand (It's all about timing)
Skill
Proficiencies
Rat
brains provide +5 while cat brains provide +10. A character may only
ever have a +10 bonus to a single skill.
Wernicke and
Broca Augmentation: Bonus to
Languages skill.
Visual and
Auditory Cortex Augmentation: Bonus
to Perception based skill checks.
Amygdala Emotion
Cognition Augmentation: Bonus to
Disguise, Etiquette, and Forgery.
Thief
Percentage Skills
Rat
brains provide +10% while cat brains provide +20%. A character may
only ever have a +20% bonus to a single skill.
Wernicke and
Broca Augmentation: Bonus to
Read Languages skill.
Visual Cortex
Augmentation: Bonus to Find /
Remove Traps skill.
Auditory Cortex
Augmentation: Bonus to Detect
Noise skill.
Right Parietal
Cortex Augmentation: Bonus to
Pick Pocket skill. (It's all about the timing)
Owl
Monkey Brains
Larger than the Cat
and Rat brains, they can handle the processes of more general
portions of the brain. This grants bonuses to one of the 3 mental
statistics. Each Cerebrum Expansion tube used grants a +2 bonus to
its designated stat. A character may increase a single stat by up to
18.
Dorsolateral
Prefrontal Cortex (DLPC) Augmentation: Improves
working memory, organizational skills, reasoning, problem solving,
and abstract thinking. (Intelligence)
Orbitofrontal
Cortex (OFC) Augmentation: Improves
impulse control, maintenance of set, monitoring ongoing behaviors,
and socially appropriate behaviors. (Wisdom)
Anterior
Cingulate Cortex (ACC) Augmentation: Improves
overall 'drive states', this improvement results in higher levels of
confidence and determination to complete goals. (Charisma)
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| A quick sketch I did of the SMPS Augmentation. Art Mostly By: Me |
Spinal Motor
Pathway and Signal (SMPS) Augmentation:
Using a number of
biological and electronic components, this augmentation improves the
reaction time and reflexive capabilities by expanding motor
transmission pathways within the spinal cord, allowing more
information to be passed at a time. The augmentation also boosts
certain signals it receives from the brain, decreasing the time
between brain command and muscle reaction. This augmentation takes
the form of small metal boxes anchored to the vertebrae, that are
connected to each other with thick wires. While this augmentation
speeds reaction times, it causes the user to have minor, but
numerous, muscle twitches as the signal boosters produce “false
alarm” or “echo” signals. The side-effects of this augmentation
are generally an impediment to normal/daily activities, resulting in
the augmentation system being given an off/on switch.
Activation/Deactivation requires a Standard Action that provokes an
Attack of Opportunity, the effects of activation/deactivation are
instantaneous.
Bonuses: +/-3
Dodge bonus to AC, + 3 Equipment Bonus to Save versus Breath, +3
Equipment Bonus to Initiative.
Drawbacks:
During
Use: -3 (Skill
Proficiencies), -1 (X out of 6), or -15% (Thief Percentage) to all
skill checks requiring fine motor control. -1 to all ranged attack
rolls due to slight uncontrollable twitches, all range penalties are
also increased by 1.
After
Deactivation: A character
can neither run nor charge and takes a –2 penalty to Strength and
Dexterity after using the augmentation for any amount of time. These
penalties go away after 8 hours of rest. A character may have the
unit activated for a number of rounds equal to their current
Constitution score without adverse effect. After exceeding this
number of rounds, the character must make a saver versus Paralysis at
-1 for each round over their Constitution limit. Character's who fail
the save take 1D6 points of temporary Dexterity
damage, due pulled and sprained muscles. The accumulated rounds of
use reset after 8 hours of rest. A character regains 1 point of
Dexterity damage for each full day of rest.
Costs
(GP for standard DnD Economies, SP for LotFP)
Cerebrum
Expansion Port: 2,000 gp/sp
Rat
Brain (Low Skill Bonus): 2,250 gp/sp
Cat
Brain (High Skill Bonus): 13,500 gp/sp
Owl
Monkey Brain (+2 to Mental Stat): 6,000 gp/sp
SMPS
Augmentation (AC, Reflex, & Initiative Bonus): 44,000 gp/sp
Clerics
The
Frequency
Alignment:
N
(Though the Electric Life Church treats him/her/it as being Neutral
Good)
Granted
Power: Shocking
Grasp (Use Cleric level for caster level) 1/day +1 for every 4 levels
after the 1st
(ex: 5th,
9th,
etc...)
Favored
Weapon: Handgun
(Must choose specific type)
Holy
Symbol: A
brain emitting two lightning bolts
 |
| They can have strange powers. |
Electric Life Church Cleric
Type: Humanoid
Activity Cycle: Any
Diet: Normal Human Type Food
Intelligence: High (Int: 12+)
Treasure: Pepper Box Pistol (As Wheel Lock Pistol
but w/6 Shots), 2 Owl Monkey Brain enhancements (+2 Wis each), and 2
x Cure Light Wounds Potions
Alignment: Neutral (Good)
No. Appearing: 1 OR 2 to 4 (1D3+1)
Armor Class: 16 / 4 (Leather Armor and Dexterity)
Movement: 40 ft
Hit Dice: 2
THAC0/To-Hit: 17 / +3
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage: 1D6 (Club) or 1D8 (Pepper Box Pistol: S –
25', M – 50', L – 100')
All Saves: 14
Experience: 800
Special Abilities
/ Attacks -
Prepared Spells:
Caster Level 2
Granted Power:
Shocking Grasp 1/Day
1st -
Bless, Cure Light Wounds, and
Sanctuary
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