These two villains were used in an older magic-focused campaign that ran for a few months in 2022, with Hugo being a dupe of the sinister organization behind most of the game's action. My heroes did manage to stop the Horror Within without it detonating, although it was much too late for poor Hugo.
Hugo Hellbinder
Hugo Schramm was a fairly minor player in occult circles until recently, but after undergoing an arcane binding ritual he's become a very big deal indeed as Hugo Hellbinder. He now believes he's on the road to godhood and intends to carry out further rituals to accelerate the process - rituals that call for mass human sacrifices and various ancient artifacts, among other things. That would be enough to attract attention pretty quickly by itself, but the vast power now barely contained within him serves as a beacon to mystic senses and supernatural creatures for miles around.
Unknown to Hugo, the rituals are all a trap. His newfound power comes from being implanted with an alien spore that gestates within him even now. Whether he completes the rest of his rituals or not the Horror Within will soon devour him body and soul, bursting forth as a apocalyptic menace that will briefly wreak havoc before overloading itself in a magical explosion rivalling the power of a small nuclear warhead. Hugo Hellbinder is a walking weapon of mass destruction, and his clock is ticking.
Description: A slender, wild-haired man dressed in voluminous layered "wizard robes" in somber hues of black and umber. They start off pristine but become more tattered and charred as a fight goes on. He wears a dozen golden rings marked with arcane sigils, which are likely to melt or vaporize as he damages himself during combat. He speaks in a surprisingly deep voice for his light frame, displaying a faint Swiss-German accent emphasized by the odd German word.
Gender: Male Age: 37 Height: 5'10" Eyes: Gray, Wild Disturbing Stare
Hair: Black, Makes Rasputin Look Well-Groomed Skin: Pale Build: Thin
Approach: Overpowered Archetype: Fragile
Health: 30 + (5 x H)
Powers: Infernal d12, Absorption d10, Teleportation d10
Qualities: Conviction d8, Deluded Demonologist d8, Otherworldly Mythos d6
Status: (Personal Health Zone) Green - d10 / Yellow - d8 / Red - d6
Abilities:
Surging Energies (I) Whenever you roll a one on a die, reroll that die.
Step Beyond Space (R) When Attacked, Defend by rolling your single status die. If the damage is reduced to zero, you may immediately move anywhere on the scene.
Unrivalled Power (A) Attack using Infernal. Use your Max + Mid + Min dice. Hinder yourself using your Max die. Take damage equal to your Mid + Min dice.
Vanishment Charm (I) Whenever your personal zone changes you may immediately move elsewhere in the scene.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Group Fighter (I) +20 Health. When you take an action that lets you make an Attack, also make an Attack using your Mid die.
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
Hugo Hellbinder is convinced that he's fully in control of the vast energies within him, and plans to use it to achieve true apotheosis by continuing the series of rituals that empowered him in the first place. He's wrong, but by the time he realizes it will be much too late to matter. Until then, he'll deal with interfering heroes by hammering them with his Unrivalled Power one after another, always opting to maximize his output by using Surging Energies even when it harms him. He relies on Vanishment Charm and Step Beyond Space for defense, and will always try to relocate himself to a safe place to continue his rituals Overcomes in peace, requiring heroes to split up or hunt him down each time.
His upgrade makes him more durable and further increases the damage he can dish out, but his mastery is the really dangerous bit since he can automatically succeed on Overcomes to achieve his destiny and release the horror within him.
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The Horror Within
This thing is more of a pseudo-biological weapon of mass destruction than a living creature, dispatched from some otherworldly dimension to wreak havoc on its environs before detonating in an eruption of uncontainable eldritch power. Fortunately they're quite impossible to directly transfer to our universe in their "primed" mature form, instead relying on magical rituals to transfer a parasitic spore to a misguided or fanatical adept. This spore grants great power while it feeds on its host's soul and innate magics, but eventually consumes them from within and bursts loose their gigantic final form.
Description: A massive alien form vaguely like a sea anemone crossed with an octopus. Its dozens of sickly translucent white tentacles end in clusters of wormlike growths. The thing seethes with eldritch energy that it can focus in enormously destructive gouts of purple-black flame so potent they wither and burn the limb(s) used to project them. It produces a cacophony of obscene burbling and piping sounds and sprays gouts of milky ichor when damaged.
Gender: Irrelevant Age: Eternal Size: ~90' Core Diameter Eyes: None
Limbs: Dozens Integument: Maggot-White Build: Mass of Thrashing Tentacles
Approach: Overpowered
Archetype: Titan (Status Challenge: Ritual Counter-Magic 00 Final Banishment 0)
Health: 65 + (5 x H)
Powers: Infernal d12, Elasticity d10, Strength d10
Qualities: Apocalyptic Menace d8, Otherworldly Mythos d8, Alertness d6
Status: Titan Challenge Start - d12 / Stage 1 Completed - d10 / Stage 2 Completed - d8
Abilities:
Apocalyptic Damage (A) Activate one of the environment's twists in its current zone.
Lashing Abomination (A) Attack multiple targets using Strength. Use your Max die. Hinder each target using your Mid die.
Magical Backlash (R) When a hero takes a minor twist in the Titan's challenge, in addition to the chosen twist, roll your status die and deal that much damage to that hero.
Resurgent Energy (R) When Attacked by a roll that includes doubles, remove one of the successes from the Titan's challenge.
Torrent of Power (A) Attack using Infernal. Use your Max + Mid + Min dice. Hinder yourself using your Max die. Take damage equal to your Mid + Min dice.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Power Upgrade (I) +20 Health. Increase all Power dice sizes by one (max d12). Gain Engulfed By Unnatural Flesh (A) Attack using Elasticity. Use your Max die. The target can either be Hindered using your Max + Mid + Min dice, or be unable to take actions other than using an Overcome to attempt to escape.
Master of Annihilation (I) If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome in a situation where a show of overwhelming force would help.
Tactics
The Horror Within is an eldritch parasite that transforms into a rampaging engine of destruction when released from its host. Largely mindless but unrelentingly hostile to mortals, it uses its size and power to wreak Apocalyptic Damage to its surroundings unless opposed by someone or something potent enough to get its attention. Against multiple threats Lashing Abomination leverages its enormous physical might, while a particularly dangerous singular foe will be targeted with a Torrent of Power. Attempts to weaken the magics that allow it to exist in our continuum risk Magical Backlash, and more direct attempts at removing it from existence are likely to trigger its Resurgent Energy reaction.
With its upgrade in place the Horror Within is even tougher to deal with, and gains another option for dealing with priority targets using Engulfed By Unnatural Flesh. It's mastery makes it even more efficient at wreaking havoc and endangering civilians before it inevitably overloads itself and burns out catastrophically.
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Design Notes
When I used these two, only Hugo (with upgrade) started the scene in play with the Horror Within "unhatched" as yet. There was an urban environment representing a small city that produced a mix of mystic effects and potential sacrificial victims as twists, divided into a number of magically significant locations that the action could move between - Hugo has a lot of repositioning tricks that make him hard to pin down. He also had a few sets of hapless cultist minions scattered around to help out. Hugo himself could take Overcome actions to try to "complete his apotheosis" and if he managed H successes (IIRC that was either five or six in this case) he'd be removed from the scene and replaced by the Horror No Longer Within, which trashed the location it was now in in the process. The Horror also popped up if/when Hugo was defeated, but it wouldn't have its own upgrade if the ritual hadn't been completed. Regardless of how the Horror entered play, the scene immediately went to Red, and some extra Red boxes were added to the end of the tracker I think I used three, which might have been a little generous, two would probably have been okay since they finished Hugo at the bottom of Yellow. If the heroes failed to defeat the Horror by the time the modified tracker ran out it counted as a Doomsday Device going off.
Both these villains could be decoupled from one another and used separately with some reskinning. Hugo's inevitable self-destruct and de facto suicide ritual could be ditched entirely, turning him into a more typical glass cannon baddie who'd probably operate with other, more durable mystic-themed villainous allies. The Horror is a little more work, but it could come boiling out of a dimensional rift in response to a summoning ritual as a sort of magical kaiju. It isn't terribly durable as Titans go and would need other elements to avoid being focused down - maybe a bunch of "endangered civilians/infrastructure" challenges that start as it arrives. The Horror Within isn't technically a unique entity but no more than one will appear in a given scene.
Alternately, you could use a less powerful host for it - probably a lieutenant with some kind of timer mechanic - and have it erupt the same way it does with Hugo. Something like this might work:
Host of Horrors d12 lieutenant (one per scene, max)
Description: A hapless dupe of a cultist implanted with a mystic spore that's swiftly growing to maturity. They are crackling with energy barely contained energy and anxious to embrace their supposed destiny as a god through further ritual magics.
Impending Apotheosis: Start a timer with (8-H) boxes (minimum 3). At the start of each of your turns mark off one box. You may take an Overcome action during your turn to mark off another box following the usual rules for lieutenant Overcomes (pg. 156). If you complete this timer you are immediately removed from the scene and replaced by the Horror Within with its upgrade. If you are defeated while this timer is incomplete, the Horror Within immediately appears in your former location without its upgrade. In either case, add two more boxes to the scene tracker and the entire track is now considered to be in the Red zone. The Horror Within doesn't take a turn until round after it appears.
Overwhelming Power: You gain a +4 bonus to Attack actions, but each time you Attack your die size decreases one step at the end of your turn. When the Horror Within first appears, remove all minions in its location and then deal d10 damage to all remaining targets there. .
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