Lurking Shadow

What video game are you looking forward to in 2019?

Iron Harvest is looking really good. There has not been a particularly good rts since Forged Alliance, only decent ones. (Excluding Wargame and Steel Division as both are quite good games, just has a learning curve that makes you climb at a 200 degree angle)

What alien race would you be?

Virtually everything in the Cthulhu Mythos can be deemed extra terrestrial, at least in origin. I can only think of a handful of the many many things I can certainly say originate on Earth (besides the obvious Humans and various flora/fauna of Earth). Even less so if you consider Earth's dreamlands to be separate from regular Earth, It certainly appears vastly different and contains many things only seen on the dreamlands.

Oh, and don't forget that the Great Race of Yith is currently inhabiting the bodies of a different race and not their own (as they fled the destruction of Yith by mass migrating their minds to some primitive Earth creature) so it can be argued that they are indeed foreign from both the concept of time and space.

Overall, it's really a question of semantics that needs to be answered.

Cinema General

I try to ignore movie trailers as they often either misconceive what the movie is about to some degree or spoil it. I'll prob check out the spider-verse movie at some point but I'm short on funds and what I do have is going towards They Shall Not Grow Old as I enjoy most of Jackson's films and I am interested in seeing all these old Great War films restored and colorized even if I'm paying a premium for 3-d.

What Are You Listening To?

Raiders and Ruins

S’Hraa silently cursed his luck. Though he and the others managed to fend off the raiders, they did make off with most of their supplies and a hefty body count. Now there is just four left and enough food for only a few days at most. At least he managed to eat one of the dead raiders and though it was one of the smaller races, a halfling if he recalls correctly, it will sustain him enough for nearly a week.

With a new day comes new problems, they would need to scavenge food and fuel before something else befalls them. A fact only reinforced by Zim’s words. S’Hraa needed no time for mourning with the matter at hand being more urgent, not that he would otherwise.

” And they shall never truly die as long as our hearts continue to beat. We are living on time they gave us and sitting around is a luxury we cannot afford right now. I can go look for something to eat while you all figure out the fuel situation.” S’Hraa then got up and walked out of sight of the others. Confident in his distance he abandoned walking in favor of slithering, giving his limbs some rest as well as letting him cover more ground. As far as he knows, the others see him only as he wishes to be seen, as a Human. He often had to sacrifice comfort to keep up appearances, his legs were not meant to travel as much as he did recently, and even after sleeping were still sore. The respite, even if it would end up brief, is welcome.

S’Hraa surmised the hotel would certainly have some place for storing and preparing food and after a little bit of searching found the kitchen. Unfortunately, it seemed the place was picked clean long ago and nothing edible remained. But before he could let out a string of obscenities, he detected something nearby. At first, he thought it was one of the others but, after probing the air with his forked tongue, he detected an unfamiliar scent. Dropping low and after a few corners he found a fawn passed out on the ground. ” A victim of the dry heat, hopefully it won’t claim us as well. A pity it is like this, I’d prefer something still moving. But I’m good enough for now, the others would need this more than me.” After ensuring its death with his dagger, he carried it back to where the others were. A handful of hours and all he had to show for it was this small thing, but it’s better than nothing.

“It seems that, this building at least, was picked clean long ago but I did find this fawn. Not much meat on it but it should last us a meal or two. Did we get enough fuel? I’d like to get out of here before this dry weather affects my scales… er skin.” S’Hraa said, hoping no one noticed his gaffe. “Speaking of the heat, how is our water situation? Did we manage to get away with any?” He added, in an attempt to distract from his mistake as well as being a genuine concern. Though he like any snake was well suited for going long periods without water, he figured the others probably would not last half as long as himself. He did not like having to rely on others but he would need to put his trust in them to survive the coming days, weeks, or however long it will take. And he can’t trust the dead to do anything but rot.

Raiders and Ruins

@Rydude17 So are we going to wait for more interest or are you thinking of getting this started with the 4 we have now? I'd be fine with either.

Raiders and Ruins

Well, I did figure it'd be something like Mad Max where anything really interesting was probably turned into scrap long ago, I was thinking about the idea of some long lost cache of unused military grade equipment (which even if defective due to age or certain resources being in short supply would still make good scrap). Though anything of the sort would likely have already been picked clean, false information, or outright a trap.

Raiders and Ruins

far as me personally I'm indifferent. I'm more familiar with the tools available in the earlier era as a solid fourth of my CoC sessions take place in that time but I have done plenty in the modern era (which generally take place between 2000 and 2010). Although we have some pretty cool technology now such as curved barrels on guns allowing one to shoot around corners, and the US Navy was doing pretty well on making railguns, the latest prototype able to fire 23lb ammo at a speed over 5000mph.

Raiders and Ruins

Ok, put it in the CS tab with some minor edits to help deal with aforementioned concerns about knowledge of the race in general and about the invisible tail.

@Rydude17 Also was wondering relative to ours what time period does this take place in pre-armegeddon? As since the Manhattan project we have had about 70 years of advancements especially with weapons technology.

Raiders and Ruins

S’Hraa

Name: S’Hraa
Race: Serpent Folk (also referred to as Serpent People)

race description

Serpent Folk are a humanoid race that appear like large serpents but with arms and digitigrade legs. Compared to the average Human, they stand a head taller (though their long tails lead to a longer overall body length head to tail). Serpent Folk have poor vision in normal lighting conditions but have great vision in low light conditions and a specialized heat detecting organ that gives them a sort of ‘heat-vision’. Serpent Folk produce a paralyzing venom in their fangs to weaken and kill prey that they swallow whole due to their carnivorous diet. A Serpent Folk can swallow something up to slightly smaller than them and can go weeks without having to feed again.

Serpent Folk are relatively low in number, residing primarily underground, and prefer the company of their own kind and thus are rarely seen by other races. Others have been in contact with them, especially those located close in proximity to one of the subsurface communities, but most people would only be familiar with them through passing knowledge if at all. As a race they tend to be adept at alchemy and are inclined to magic, most knowing a spell or two at the least.

Age: 37
Appearance: S’Hraa stands 6’8” tall and is 11’ head to tail. His scales are a pale green on color with a finlike dorsal appendage consisting of spikes connected with a thin membrane running along most of the back. He wears a small enchanted silver necklace depicting a human-like face and carries several pouches filled with various alchemical ingredients poisons and potions.

pic for reference

He also has an alternate appearance with the aid of his enchanted necklace. With a little bit of focus, he can almost instantaneously take the appearance of (though not the form. He still has the same physical ophidian form but visually appears differently) a 6’4” tall Human with a lean build and pale white skin. This illusion appears like a human in every way except for the eyes, the only thing the necklace does not alter, which still betray its beastly origins. In addition, other clues may betray the illusion such as the footsteps not matching (for a particularly observant individual) or the odd mannerisms of S’Hraa (as sometimes he may forget or be unaware of how a typical human would react to a particular situation such as his preference to consume live prey, though this might be attributed to eccentricity) This is the default appearance S’Hraa takes with those unfamiliar with him and often uses this disguise to blend in unnoticed with society. This Human form often wears a hooded robe concealing most of his features, especially the face. As the overall size of this illusion is smaller than his physical form (owing mainly to the extra length from the tail) S’Hraa attempts to keep as liberal distance between others as possible and will regularly be no closer than 5’+ when possible.

Skills and abilities:

Alchemical expert. He is fully capable of crafting beneficial potions and crippling poisons.

Stealth.

Due to a slow metabolism, he eats much less often compared to others. Fully fed (with large enough prey like the occasional bandit), he can be sustained for weeks at a time.

His potent venom can incapacitate a fully grown human in minutes, and often death in about an hour provided no treatment is given.

Adept at illusion spells.

His scales provide some resistance to weapons like sword or daggers and small arms outside of close range.

S’Hraa is surprisingly agile for his size. While by no means untouchable he does a good job of slithering out of the way of some attacks and hazards.

Weapons:

An ornate dagger with grooves for storing and injecting poison in any wounds inflicted.

A drilling with side by side shotgun barrels over a rifle barrel.

A pair of Fangs that can inject venom from his glands.

Other Equipment:

A wooden staff with a pair of snakes intertwining near the top which is used as a magical focus.

Various ingredients and containers of potions and poisons. Some empty, some filled and all contained within three pouches S’Hraa carries with him.

A metal tool resembling a fang meant to inject potions/poisons while minimizing tissue damage (like a syringe). Primarily used for medicinal purposes like injecting a healing potion directly into the blood stream rather than having to wait for it to normally be absorbed through ingestion for example.

Enchanted necklace that disguises S’Hraa as a Human (The disguise is ‘bound’ to S’Hraa and will not work with any other wearer unless they have the know-how to enchant it to them specifiacally).

Background:

S’Hraa was a little different than the rest of his kin. While most were content to live away from the other races, S’Hraa had a curious nature and sought to learn a little about these other beings he shares the world with. The only problem being he resembles a very large snake. Something often tied together with venom and a quick grave. Not ever hearing of Serpent Folk before, most people reacted negatively at a snake the size of a man.

S'Hraa quickly realized the solution and enchanted a necklace to cast a spell he would use often. With the convenience of appearing as a Human at a moment’s notice he began to mingle with society. After a few awkward encounters (Learning a language is tricky, learning the slang is trickier) he quickly acclimated and only occasionally slips up.

Of course, with the whole battle for survival thing going on now most anything resembling society would tell strangers to get lost unless they were trading or were adept at something, which fortunately for S’Hraa was alchemy. With the usual potion to cure a sickness, heal some dismembered fingers, and the occasional poison, S’Hraa became a highly regarded figure. Or, at least the Human form did. With the occasional bandit corpse (following a raid) going missing, like anyone cared, S’Hraa was content for the time being.

Eventually S’Hraa had an urge to move on. Satisfied with the stories he gained from socializing he decided to look for a new group with new stories. He never did feel close with any of them, feeling trapped in a form unlike his own, having to monitor his words and actions. Perhaps with others he might reveal a little about himself, might act like himself, or perhaps it will be more of the same. Regardless he decided to leave, to see where the road leads him to next.


Other stuff:

As one might expect, S’Hraa has a fondness of snakes and takes great care to not harm one. He thinks less of those who harm snakes intentionally or not and may even outright attack anyone who does so.