Friday, May 24, 2024

The Un-Being, Endangering Reality Itself

Came up with this one due to Major Twist in an older campaign, and it's been trying to unmake my shared universe ever since. 

The Un-Being

The Un-Being is difficult to describe and impossible to fully understand.  What is clear is that the thing isn't part of reality and seems to damage and degrade its fabric simply by existing within it - if "existing" is even the right term.  Those who've studied the aftermath of its occasional appearances claim that it erases whole swathes of space-time if given enough time and freedom of action to do so.  Even when stopped before the process is complete it leaves scars in the form of dimensional breaches, unreliable local physics, and gross physical distortions of the environment.  Several supers have managed to briefly contain the Un-Being but neither communication nor greater understanding have resulted before its inevitable escape or return to whatever non-real state it originates from.  It's quite possible that the Un-Being is not a unique entity, but to date no more than a single specimen has been encountered at a time.    

Description: A wavering distortion in space roughly in the shape of a human being, visible as a sort of colorless, featureless silhouette that's painful to look at directly.  It doesn't seem to truly be part of reality, silently stalking through objects as though they weren't there as it goes about its inexplicable activities.  Anything its form overlaps for an extended period slows fades away, growing cold, colorless and brittle as it does so.  It does not or cannot speak, and telepathic probing reveals nothing but a hole in the universe. 

Gender: Uncertain        Age: Unknown        Height: Unstable        Eyes: Unseen

Hair: Uncut            Skin: Uncovered            Build: Unnatural

Approach: Dampening                      Archetype: Inhibitor

Health:  35 + (5 x H)

Powers: Unravel Reality d10, Intangibility d8, Remote Viewing d8 

Qualities: Otherworldly Mythos d10, Alertness d8, Conviction d8, Unmaker d8

Status: (# Heroes With Penalties) 3+ - d10 / 1-2 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Attacking Emptiness (R) When Attacked by someone with a penalty you created, Defend by rolling your single status die, and the Attacker suffers that much damage.

Bound To Nothingness (A) Hinder using Unravel Reality.  Use your Max die.  This penalty is persistent and exclusive.  As long as this penalty is on the target, reduce their highest power die of your choice by one die size.  Attack with your Mid die.

Gaze of the Abyss (A) Hinder multiple targets using Unravel Reality.  While a hero has this penalty, reduce all their power dice by one size.

Witness Your Mistakes (R) When a nearby hero you can see invokes a twist, roll your single Unravel Reality die to Hinder them.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Power Dampening Field (I) +10 Health.  While the scene is in the green zone, all heroes' powers of d8 or higher are reduced by one die size.  In the Yellow zone all of the heroes powers of d10 or higher are reduced by one additional step (two die sizes total).  In the Red zone, all heroes' power dice are treated as d4.  Heroes can remove this upgrade with three overcome successes.  If a hero takes a minor twist while taking these Overcomes, they lose access to a power until this upgrade is removed.

Master of the Unfathomable (I) If you are in a situation involving otherworldly forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome to do the bidding of unknowable entities beyond our reality.

Tactics

The Un-Being's goals are inscrutable and there's some doubt as to whether it's even sapient rather than some form of unnatural anomaly, but its actions are actively harmful to the fabric of reality and everyone within it.  Sufficient effort can disrupt the thing, causing it fray at its edges until it withers away to nothing - if it was truly there to begin with.  If interfered with it will first use Gaze of the Abyss to sweep the area with an eyeless glare, then spread Bound To Nothingness penalties around as many targets as possible - quite possibly including those who mistakenly believe it to be their allies.  It reacts to simple aggression with Attacking Emptiness while watching for openings to use Witness Your Mistakes.

Note that its Remote Viewing power represents the fact that objects, people, and even distance are largely meaningless to whatever passes for sight to the Un-Being.  Neither walls nor smoke nor darkness can hide you from the Gaze of the Abyss, and if you have its attention it can Witness Your Mistakes from almost any vantage point.

Its upgrade reflects its activities weakening the fabric of reality itself, while it mastery is the best reflection of its otherwise unknowable goals.

Design Notes

This thing (or possibly un-thing) was the result of a Major Twist coming up during a clash with the villainous group known as the Odds in my second-to-last campaign.  Specifically, the villain Vestige got hit with the Final Wrath ability, and while the damage did put her Out it wasn't long before the Un-Being manifested where she'd fallen.  While it was apparently hunting for her (she was being carted away to a supers detention facility at the time) it was doing immense damage as it did so and the heroes were forced to confront it.

The Un-Being made a couple of return appearances in the next campaign.  It was apparently hunting the former campaign's hero team, who made cameos as NPC lieutenants interacting with the new set of PC heroes.


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