MetalWeight

Hellscape: A Metropolitan Nightmare

Niiice. Also I've just created the 0th post for the IC section if anyone wants to check that out!

Hellscape: A Metropolitan Nightmare

The Collapse

Incomprehensible corruption, flesh forbidden from life now alive, an assembly of cells not too different from the creatures...

No one really knew how it happened.

All memories had become a blur, crowds running, buildings burning, looting, killings, the slaughter of entire peoples in miliseconds, strange weapons of war altering reality, interdimensional beings flooding space...It took a long time for everything to truly become apocalyptic, yet at the same time it seemed like it took only seconds. Perhaps reality itself now longer considered time a means of measurement? That everything in the past had become condensed by some god, like a force of nature it did what its instincts told it, shortening time and altering memories, the perception of life itself...

Or perhaps stress and insanity had invoked such trauma few could reasonably calculate what had occurred, no one really knew what had happened in all this time- perhaps nothing happened at all? It was just a trick of the mind, a en masse hallucination event that made everyone a savage on some isolated realm while everything else was normal. Or maybe it was that life itself had been transferred from one universe to another, pulled away from safety as someone summoned the attention of some sort of dark entity, who took all too much interest in causing chaos...

No one really knew how it happened.


Even war had become merciful, for there were the dead, liberated from their hell. Now that liberation was gone as corpses walk...

In the countless existences that stretched beyond into the endless abyss that had become life, the darkness- seemingly alive and inclined on
moving forth like a wall of darkness, swallowing up everyone into it's cold, deathly clutches -had consumed everything. The word, safety, meant nothing, it was hard to tell if that word was still remembered by people as well, it's definition altered after countless thousands of years spent hiding away, safety seeming to mean more that "The walls wont extend with tentacles to choke you and there aren't rivers of lava with golems rising from the corrupted streams." rather than actual safety. It wasn't like you could live in one place for long anyway, creating safehouses and safe zones- there was simply too much out there in grandiose and murderous abyss that life had become, lurking out when they smelt even the slightest hint of joy or happiness, attracted to a sizable group of survivors like flies to a flytrap. And much like those flies, the various monstrosities that existed were driven by pure instinct, there was no negotiating, no pleading, no distracting. Only death.

Which is why it'd be astounding to hear of one message... that there was a chance to escape. Escape? It wasn't a word easily understood. You could escape from the various killers out here in this dark universe, but escape this Hell itself? It seemed all to good to be true, but so many different people proclaimed it to be true. Within the abandoned wilderness and remains of civilization, here were writings on walls, scribbles in some degree of language understood, there were encampments with recorded messages for other people, radios- voices faintly heard thanks to the endless storms -and road signs pointing in some sort of direction, towards a massive city, deep within the dense red fog that covered the universe.

It had to be a trick, that some elaborate trap was being set by a entity out there keen on gathering as many people as possible, but...was there a choice in the matter? The endless apocalypse only grew more dangerous, the city itself- now a likely destination for the thousand or so sane people left -had some form of makeshift barrier from the outside world and if other survivors had travelled there before, that they could get these messages out, then perhaps there was a chance it wasn't an absolute death trap.


Through the endless fog, ruins jut out from the ground like old trees, their histories long with stories no one will ever know...

Getting there hasn't been an easy trek, the wilderness surrounding the city is dense with trees and the cursed red fog, monsters and the insane lurk within, small abandoned buildings dot the landscape that could provide safe haven, yet seemingly always occupied by something desiring to kill. The roads, abandoned of bodies or wreckages, would be facing harsh winds that kept spreading the endless clouds of crimson. Strange screeches heard in the morning and even more at night, as well as the heavy breaths of unseen watchers.

Yet the get inside the city had been a sight even worse.

If all these disturbing things lurked outside, to have them all jammed into tight streets and small hallways, within residential blocks alongside all-too vulnerable survivors...The entire city was left to look like a battleground, that a war without end had been waged here. Gunshots, the cries of beasts, strange anomalies and packs of mutated flesh, the laughter of mad gods alongside the chants of their cultists, war machines with their lights blinking within the dark, strange people who watched from unreachable locations, immortal beings who merely sat and laughed at the chaos, flying monstrosities who floated down and captured people traversing the streets, a hovering eye who drove people mad when staring at them, convoys of men adorned in military gear shooting everything on sight, sapient diseases that argued with each other as the infectious spores floated in the air, city blocks flooded with strange green liquids that melted some and mutated others, a few original dwellers of the city not trying to go insane from it all...

And soon enough, there would be you.

Hellscape: A Metropolitan Nightmare

@Xandrya I like it. Consider it approved. And it works within the very fantastical sci-fi nature of the setting. In possession of so little leaves me great concern for her safety but, hopefully that ghosting ability is useful.

Good to know about the flashback, I'm planned on having a post for the IC section of the thread soon, so people can post ICly asap.

Hellscape: A Metropolitan Nightmare

@Dark Cloud Befitting man for this type of apocalypse.

Hellscape: A Metropolitan Nightmare

Awesome! Looking forward to it.

Hellscape: A Metropolitan Nightmare

@Dark Cloud Nice! Look forward to the finished sheet.

Hellscape: A Metropolitan Nightmare

Footage before the fall...

Name: Carter
Age: Incomprehensible, presumably prior or just around the collapse, possibly centuries to a couple millennia old.
Gender: Male

Anything of Note:
Armed with nothing more than a ballistic styled weapon, a knife and uniform, the man has survived essentially any and all things thrown at him for as long as he could remember. Strangely carrying himself similar to a soldier yet nowhere as deranged as a militiaman, he seems to carry with him bags of ammunition, a sleeping bag, tent supplies, pots and pans and two large canteens of water. He comes across strikingly more like a living embodiment of an ox in human form.

He also has a gasmask and hood, the hood going beneath the helmet and gasmask presumably worn at all times outside. One can also assume his survival is thanks to the various medical technologies utilized prior to the collapse, from life extension to enhanced an immune system. Astoundingly absent of any cybernetic enhancements.

While nowhere as capable as the deranged wildlife, dangerous interdimensional creatures or strange magic-using apocalyptic shamans, Carter's survival seems entirely based on practical applications, manual labor and good work ethic. He is seemingly self sufficient, though reliant on workbenches and gunpowder for ammunition.

Hellscape: A Metropolitan Nightmare

Character Sheet

[IMAGE]
(Not gonna make it mandatory, but if you can't find or post a image, just place an appearance section in the sheet

Name:
Age:
Gender:

Anything of Note: This is magical abilities, equipment, or anything else that has helped your character survive so far. This can be a list of stuff, elaborate paragraphs detailing things, doesn't matter how you write/show it. I'd say its the most important part of the sheet though.

Biography: Completely optional and not needed, but if you think something in the past can help indicate who they are or how they've survived this far, write it here.

I'm keeping this sheet ridiculously short for both ease of entering the thread, ease of creating characters, ease of approval, but also because I'm going in with the philosophy that we'll get things sorted through IC chatter not OOC stuff. If you think something needs to be added to the sheet, feel free to, but I'm going in with a minimalist approach.

City In Red Fog Trapped In Cosmic Horror Nightmare: Try To Escape Edition

Alright, for those interested

roleplayerguild.com/topics/185394-hel…

I put it together, feel free to join.

Hellscape: A Metropolitan Nightmare

Understanding Why

It All Fell Apart

Only Drove Men Mad

And Nightmares Manifest

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

With unlimited possibilities within it's grasp, civilization had become a self-made heaven. Contemporary politics, economics, philosophy and scientific understanding had been dwarfed, rendered a footnote in history with the sudden explosion in humanities capabilities in changing reality itself. Had humanity of the modern era stood beside those of the future, it would seem like two separate species stood aside each other. All ills plaguing the body and mind had been removed, the soul transcended mortal barriers, the very universe becoming nothing more than a massive controlled environment that was monitored and controlled regularly, creating the ideal worlds for society to inhabit. Endlessly stretching out across known existence, fertilizing the dried up soil, colonizing the vast empty space and creating life where there was none, humanity had become a boon for all known life.

Vast stretches of time had now left that era behind.

As if evil, long suppressed by the good brought forth by humanities discoveries, suddenly arose. Who, why, when, where- none of it mattered as it spread across, drowning everything in a tidal wave as lights across known existence went out one by one. Perhaps someone cracked, a portal to another dimension opened, a war finally broke out, people became too decadent, or reality itself had enough of societies perfection... No one will ever figure out why it broke down.

But society now was caught in a horrific limbo of pain. The magic and technology that had been so perfect and infinitely capable kept civilization alive in it's bleeding and apocalyptic state, as if a dying patient constantly reawakening to experience the nauseating experience of being near death, people kept living. Instead of the apocalypse ending, it kept burning, with more people drowning in endless bloodbath that so commonly spewed forth wherever life was found. Yet life kept growing, then kept dying, then came to life and drew the ire of whatever wanted to squash it out again. The more the apocalypse went on the more imperfections formed, the more life became not only similar to our own, but worse than whatever Earth could ever foster, for all those incredible discoveries made had now turned into a endless assembly line of monstrous inventions, disturbing discoveries and more ways to decimate life itself.

With conflict now found wherever and whenever, it seemed safety was impossible, yet there were words written in marker and blood hinted at a safe zone. Deep within the city, covered in corpses, blood, monsters, decorated by bullet holes and with everlasting buildings poking out high from the red fog, there sat an answer to get out of this artificial Hell, that- bypassing all the dangers -there was still a chance to find the heaven that existed once a long time ago, finding a chance to breathe, to truly survive and to escape the clutches of endless death...

____________________________________________________________________________________

The Wilderness

The city had been surrounded by vast stretches of wilderness, sparsely dotted with well maintained infrastructure, seemingly abandoned buildings with eerie darkness from the windows, seemingly no light nor life within yet creaking with noises all too familiar with any survivor, hidden monsters, waiting cannibals, horrific self-aware molding that spewed forth killer diseases...Anything could dwell within the strange wilderness, anything but the old wildlife that lived here. Even in the tall grass and beautifully kept trees, they were abandoned, silent, as if every animal and insect, every living thing absent of vegetation had suddenly gotten up and left.

It was so easy to die, so easy to get shot by someone hiding away beneath some advanced invisibility cloak that they hoarded from others as everything fell apart, their high-tech equipment and weapons self-cleaning with advanced nanotechnology, never falling apart as they went day to day slaughtering innocents in the name of some god, or just their own survival. It was possible that the person laying in wait was being hunted after, firing upon an innocent traveler in rampant fear of being discovered, that perhaps a search party had been sent out to find them after liberating some slaves meant for dinner...

Or, perhaps, you'd be killed by a man with nothing more than a club, who knew no language nor anything other than the basic instinct to kill.

And that was just the people, the wide range in between deranged madman to professional killer was like a merciful gift from god compared to the creatures out there, people were predictable in their assumptions no matter how savage, their animalistic drive to survive the wasteland of this universe meant everyone was on the same footing. But they weren't the only hunters here.

The monstrous entities that now existed were numerous, there is no specification that can be given on what they look like or who they are- it could be anything. Terrors from the shadows, living shambling corpses, humans experimented on and driven insane, cosmic demonic forces from another dimension, creatures that had predicted the collapse and finally arose to build civilization anew...

The City

The city would be even worse than the wilderness, if not for the massive makeshift walls surrounding it.

Barricaded, suppose to be protected, the whole place was a short-lived fortress. Large bones jutting from the ground surrounded the walls of the city, with entire seas of skeletons coming in from the major roads- creepily none of them laid upon the concrete road itself, as if hollowed ground from the dead -while the gigantic gates to enter the city were decorated with hanging bodies and heads on spikes. The fortifications seemed to have been cracked open by blunt force and explosives, though no weapon from battle remained, thoroughly scavenged time and time again over the centuries.

Only wind howled out here, the sound of creaking metal greeted visitors, with bodies above hanged by ropes swaying in the harsh winds that blew the thick red fog over the landscape.

Within the city was an endless urban nightmare of mazes, streets torn apart, wreckages everywhere, blood on walls and hastily written warnings both coherent and insane. Some parts of the city had been forcefully risen from the earth, while buildings simply hovered a short height above city blocks, large craters and boarded up residential buildings, all while massive cracks can be found throughout the streets leading to a large abyss...

Strange creatures howl, gunshots ring out throughout the streets, every now and then the light from a building flashes with the shadows of people staring at the outside world. It was a place like any other encountered before, simply with more signs of life and fighting than normal.

Survivors

(also: you)
Those unlucky enough to have both sanity and life in them.

A survivor isn't anyone from a specific background, their history of being here long or short, their ideals, their pasts, their crimes or good deeds. Everyone is on a equal footing now, all caught in the same dangerous hellscape that they so desperately wish to leave.

Despite what you might thing, a survivor- a sane being, possibly armed and not dead or ravaging a corpse -is a very rare person. Roving bands of bandits exist, militiamen, humanoid monsters, they're easily found...but people who resemble civilization are a dying breed. Anyone who can even hold up a basic discussion is like finding an angel, a blessing which is seldom given even to other survivors sneaking around in the endless red fog that covers the universe.

What can be expected outside of your usual sanity and life, is that survivors are well armed and experienced. To have survived this long means you're good at hiding, good at scavenging and good at killing, or at least very good at hiding. No survivor has a home of any kind nor a place of belonging, usually excluded from other communities- though this is a benefit in disguise, as any organized community that exists has some degree of insanity and driven by murderous intent -and survivors often are alone travel within very small groups. There isn't any known safe place for survivors, which is specifically why you may find yourself driven to the metropolitan nightmare.

What Lurks Within, some things you might encounter and short lore

Nothing and no one good survived the collapse

In the endless apocalypse that has now consumed known existence, hostility not just the rule of law, its everything. There are likely more out there who know how to effectively capture, kill and murder than those who speak a fluently in any known language. Countless times have those who talked ended up becoming food for cannibals or creatures whom feign the sounds of wounded people. Its all too common to find the remains of previous diplomatic or mercantile meetings, for in the end times, no one has need for bartering or friendship, only supplies.

Certainly there are groups, tribes, conglomerates of people or families who work together to survive, but none have interest in cooperation outside of their known circle. Its a dangerous world, diseases transferred by vocabulary, demonic entities pretending to be people, interdimensional slavers waiting for the right moment to capture people, or merely bandits trying to lure out victims for more loot. Anything could be feasible- so, in such a world, people prepare accordingly with violence first, talking second.
------------------------------

A group of armed soldiers, also known as militiamen by survivors

Militiamen aren't known for being idle, inaccurate or merciful

After the collapse, you could expect militarism to run rampant. Communities had to protect themselves, as did various societal and government apparatuses that existed within pre-collapse society. However, militarism never declined, it didn't shrink back or degrade technologically. With the ability to produce guns without needing ammo, or have nanobots create tanks in a milisecond, it became a natural rule of law for people to take up arms and begin wiping out hostile monstrosities that came into existence. What naturally came after was warring with each other and, as this phenomenon grew as more and more people took up arms against each other and the monstrosities, innocents began to get caught in the crossfire until, then kept getting caught and, in time, shot on the spot. Various groups began to nickname them these folk the militiamen.

Militiamen are what you'd expect from a group of armed, well trained and combat adept individuals. The buzz of their radios and the gunfire from executing all they deem to be against them is a familiar sound, they sweep through towns and cities, purging entire areas in their endless drive to finally rid the universe of all known evils, with themselves being the judge of who is good and who is not.

The scary thing is, the militiamen seem to be strikingly similar to the monsters they've set out to destroy. As such, survivor groups have associated with with being the same thing, treating them less as people and more so as a catch-all term for some sort of species of creature. As such, like any monster, natural disaster or other hostile phenomenon, they're best avoided at all costs.



------------------------------

Monstrosities, demons, killer wildlife, corpses raising diseases, soul eating apparitions, autonomous weapons, genetically engineered beasts...

The words one could mash together and use are endless, for the hostile creatures that exist are just as infinite. Various hostile lifeforms exist within the new all-too-hostile existence that has been created. Be they humanoid or feral, from another dimension or beneath bedrock, made in a lab to an assembly line- the possibilities of what might kill are unfortunately impossible to predict. It seems as if something new comes into existence every day, like the gods themselves mock and despise all life that exists, planet-eaters to worms that crawl their way into the brain and control the body...

Nothing good has come from these new inhabitants of the universe, lurking within abandoned blood-covered motel lobbies, crawling about within the sewer systems, watching from high perches like skyscrapers and elaborate monuments- if at all intelligent, they watch as life is suffocated and intoxicate themselves in the suffering, acting on it, causing more of it. Most seem to act on animalistic impulse, like wildlife frenzied in a fit of rage induced by rabies, frothing in near death as they try to chew and spread their disease of death to others, if not downright murdering everything that falls victim to them.



------------------------------

The cosmic and the strange

Other things lurk out there as well, beings from across the stars with only ill intent in mind. What they can do, or what they wish to do, is completely uknown.

Character Sheet

[IMAGE]
(Not gonna make it mandatory, but if you can't find or post a image, just place an appearance section in the sheet

Name:
Age:
Gender:

Anything of Note: This is magical abilities, equipment, or anything else that has helped your character survive so far. This can be a list of stuff, elaborate paragraphs detailing things, doesn't matter how you write/show it. I'd say its the most important part of the sheet though.

Biography: Completely optional and not needed, but if you think something in the past can help indicate who they are or how they've survived this far, write it here.

I'm keeping this sheet ridiculously short for both ease of entering the thread, ease of creating characters, ease of approval, but also because I'm going in with the philosophy that we'll get things sorted through IC chatter not OOC stuff. If you think something needs to be added to the sheet, feel free to, but I'm going in with a minimalist approach.

Rules

I hate rules, or at least on internet stuff, really ruins the mood, feels all tense and anxiety inducing...

Anyway, I'd call myself laissez-faire but I guess that isn't 110% true if we have some sort of hierarchy to things, like me being a GM. Just pass stuff by me if you're unsure, but there really isn't any definitive rules to me, not as of right now anyway, people seem keen on respecting each others boundaries and stuff so I don't think I need to lay down anything really specific.

No killing characters I guess? Thats the only thing I can think of right now.
Oh, and your characters are survivors.

_______________________________________________________________

And thats about it. Anyone should feel free to join as long as you don't mind the overly dark tone.



Watch yourself out there.