Tower, the Ghoul Titan

Jannis Mayr

The Nine Cities of the Tributary Houses of the Starklands are built on the graves of more glorious republics. Each sits upon a convergence of the Tireless Highway, whose immutable tiles were first laid in the forgotten past by the Empyreans who created the mega-constructs that still walk the world. All along icy coasts, boreal forests, and sulphur pits of the Starklands travelers can follow the Tireless Highway and unfailingly find their way to one of the Nine Cities. 

Before the Heritor came with their shining fleet and subjugated the Nine Cities, the Starklanders were known for their unique funerary customs. Young or old, man or woman, the dead were garbed in fine armor and equipped with blades and other weapons before being placed along the Tireless Highway for the coming of the Tower. 

As certain as the phases of the moons, with the coming of the first thaws of spring the Tower will descend along the ring road of the Tireless Highway and make his circuit, trudging past each of the cities before ascending once more to the Battle Peaks as Winter's grip sets in. With him comes his army of the dead, and his approach causes the dead to rise once more and join their ranks. Like a natural disaster for those not prepared, the undead swarms that attend the Tower flood over the lands as he passes by. At the core of the army, in rank and file at the feet of the Tower, dead kings and generals preside over the assemblage and shepherd the slavering ranks forward. 

Jonah Lobe

The Tower is a 300 foot tall Titan. His endless journey is heralded first by the approaching swarms of feral dead, and then by the stench and march of the army proper. When he begins the trek in Spring, his skin is pale and tinged blue, his figure gaunt and eyes black. As the year progresses, he steadily rots and chunks of skin and meat fall to the ground along the highway, attracting clouds of flies as well as adventurous adherents to the Tower or Exiled Sorcerers.

For the people of the Starklands, his legend is well known. The Tower was a great hero of the Empyreans and won many a battle against the enemies of civilization when the world was young and in its spring. When Winter first cursed the seasons, the Tower set forth with his armies into the Battle Peaks to break Winter and its curse. His battle was mighty and shook the foundations of the world, but in the end he broke Winter. However Winter's curse was laid, and as the seasons turn it grows in strength and inevitably overtakes Autumn. The Tower swore to defeat Winter, twining their fates and setting the Tower on his eternal path along the Tireless Highway to gather his armies once more and break Winter each year. Starklanders remember this legend and their heritage, and thus they set their honored dead along the roadside to join the Tower in eternal struggle to break Winter and rescue the land from its frozen grip each year. 

When the Heritor came and subjugated the Starklanders, his governors set the Tributary Houses to expunge this funerary tradition as an abomination and replace it with their standard of cremation, as the Heritor would not tolerate any encouragement of what were seen as necromantic practices. Some of the old folk still tell the tales, however, of how the Heritor's First Failure was when his legions tried to break the Tower. In the end, the Tower's path continued and the Heritor left the Starklands for his next conquests. 

Mika Koskensalmi

The seasons have turned and the curse of Winter has been broken dozens of times since the Heritor enforced cremation amongst the Nine Cities. Each year since then, the Tower has begun to slowly rot more quickly, and his disciplined army of the dead has grown thinner, their weapons broken and armor torn, replacing their numbers only with the slavering corpses of feral dead. Each year, the Tributary Houses hire Ghoulhunters to clean the lands of those that are left behind by this wild horde in the wake of the Tower, and each year the dead that wander the forests grow more numerous. 

Winter comes more quickly now, they say, and its icy tendrils remain longer and longer as the years go by. Cults of the Old Ways have sprung up throughout the Starklands, fueling a secretive worship of the Tower, whose countenance grows darker and more foul each year. The beer-halls grow more rowdy with disquiet and dread, as the elders whisper that the end times are coming. Brushfires of rebels have sprung up and have even blown the sole rail that connects the Starklands to the Heritor States. 

As the Tower finally breaks Winter once more and Spring is returned, the fires of rebellion are stoked around the Starklands.

Second Course, Doppelgangers

Finnian MacManus

INT. CRAB DUNGEON. SPECIMEN THEATER 1

Downward sloping metal plates dotted with warning lights and walkways occupied by figures wearing obscuring hazmat suits. At the edges of the room, industrial turrets keep aim at a glass specimen container in the center of the room. The container is currently empty. High up, along the outskirts of the room, an observation theater overlooks the scene. CRAB and LISETTE enter the observation theater and CRAB begins manipulating the various controls.

LISETTE: I'm still spinning from the last lesson. Those were a lot of names and I'm not sure what any of that will will do for me when fighting these monsters.

CRAB: Oh, really may not help. But also could- you know? Important thing to take away is that doppelgangers work off of fear, and that fear is created by cultivating a disruption to the expected order. 

LISETTE: Is that why they seemed to toy with me? And others?

CRAB: Ah, well your doppelgangers were a particular variety. We'll get to them at the end, but for now we're going to go through some samples I've collected of doppelgangers and study them a bit.

With a final button press, the specimen container is lifted via a great piston into the ceiling with a burst of steam. The grinding of gears and a clunk and whirring seal follow, before the piston descends back down again. Inside the observation theater, holoscreens light up with various camera angles of the specimen container as well as documentation detailing the specimen.

The specimen container is now occupied, a plain looking man in a suit stands inside, looking confused. He knocks on the glass.

CRAB: This is the first one, and the oldest specimen that we could find. 

GREYHAWKLEGANGER

OD&D Book IV, GREYHAWK

The first instance of a doppelganger shows up in the OD&D Greyhawk supplement. Spelled as a dopple* as opposed to the more commonly used nowadays doppel*, these creatures exhibit the traits that would become common to all that came after. They are not affected by sleep or charm spells, and are extremely magic resistant. Our only guidance for how they are used is that they can change shape into any person they observe and will then attack- or choose to attack later at surprise and for great advantage. 

Greyhawk has these creatures appearing in groups from 3-12, an attack of a whopping d12, with an armor class of 5, a move of 9 inches, and HD 4, with a 25% chance to be encountered in their lair. Most notably of these creatures, the doppelganger is of a Neutral alignment.

LISETTE: 3-12? How does one even cope with that many shapethieves? 

CRAB: Yeah, pretty hard to manage or run that. Imagine your group of adventurers running into twelve copies of themselves, kinda challenging to even conceptualize that. Of course, in those days you dragged a large amount of followers along with you, meaning that you could just have some followers suddenly attack you after they've been replaced. 

Hissing steam signals the piston moving and a new canister is swapped out. Inside, a tall, gaunt, humanoid with vaguely reptilian features and large, glowing eyes sits in repose. Its brain is clearly visible distending from its skull.

AD&DOPPLEGANGER

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual 1E

CRAB: Now this, this is the classic doppelganger. We can see that some significant improvements have been made over the Greyhawkleganger. While still having the same basic armor and attacks, we also see that the AD&Doppleganger (still spelling with *le as opposed to *el) surprises on a 1 in 4, with specific instructions that when a AD&Doppleganger surprises someone then it becomes indistinguishable from the person being copied, explicitly creating the infamous Spot the Imposter doppelganger situation. 

LISETTE: How is one supposed to discern the real one then?

CRAB: The first option would be to cast a sleep or charm spell. This isn't going to be 100% effective though, as normal folk can also resist the effects of these spells and thus become a "false positive". These creatures can also use ESP, something that becomes near universal in subsequent doppelgangers, however their ESP is only 90% accurate. If you know your friends and followers well enough, then you can interrogate both copies at length, however the AD&Doppleganger is very intelligent and would try to avoid such a situation.

LISETTE: What about that last note? They only form likenesses of materials, yes? Could a magical trinket be carried and used to discern real from fake? 

CRAB: A good eye, yes that could certainly work. Something small like a glowstone or any other trinket could not be replicated at will. However! In the event that you are trying to determine if someone you have just met is a doppelganger or not, this would not work, as they could have taken the trinket from their now deceased double. 

In Dragon #080 (1983) Fraser Sherman contributes some supplementary information on doppelgangers with his short fiction in "The psychology of the Doppleganger". At the end of the story, we get this appendix: 

"Since the doppleganger’s armor class and attack damage are partially derived from its ESP abilities, it will suffer against an ESP proof opponent, such as a monk, or a character with the psionic discipline of mind bar. Against such foes, its armor class will equal leather armor (AC 8), and it will do only 1- 6 points of damage per attack. A doppleganger’s ESP abilities are considerably different from the ESP spell or the psionic power of the same name. A doppleganger can continuously monitor the surface thoughts of any one character at a time, but can also probe more deeply into the character’s mind, becoming aware of deeply hidden facts about the character’s life, nature, and habits. This furthers the illusion that the doppleganger actually whoever it is imitating, and adds to its combat abilities.

Dopplegangers have never been known to sleep; they appear biologically incapable of it, though in their altered forms they will, course, pretend to be asleep when such of action is appropriate, and/or when it will prevent them from being discovered for what they are. Though dopplegangers can form their bodies into the appearance of clothing, equipment, weapons, etc., they generally avoid doing this because of the obvious problems they would have if asked to drop. something they appeared to be holding or wearing. Often they simply borrow materials from the body of whomever they are imitating and wear or carry those. Though listed as being neutral in alignment, dopplegangers might be more correctly viewed as neutral evil, or at least neutral with evil tendencies. They show little respect or concern for humanity and allied races, except when doing so benefits them. They are not prone to go out of their way to promote wickedness, however, and can act in a helpful manner . . . again, when it suits them."

LISETTE: I see, so then these beasts use their ability to read minds in order to both form their identity and to amplify their attacks. And these clothing and equipment imitations... they are part of the bodies of the doppelganger? 

CRAB: Yes, hence why they are keen to take up the equipment of those they slay. While often assumed to be solely magical, this reveals a more... biological take on the doppelganger. Take note as well the addition here of doppelgangers being able to fake sleep, effectively removing the sleep spell weakness.

The specimen container ascends back into the ceiling and swaps once more. A small group of grey humanoids squat inside. They bare fangs at the observation theater.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition Monstrous Manual

CRAB: As with all other monsters, the bloat continues as we get further along on the editions. The second edition monster manual details more about how doppelgangers work. Specifically, per 2e, doppelgangers work in groups and infiltrate other groups. All doppelgangers belong to a single tribe, and therefore are all allied with one another. The manual goes on to say that doppelgangers are all basically lazy and greedy, and therefore work to assume the roles of influential people with means and then survive off their accrued wealth. Here, the manual adds this new weakness to doppelgangers of the 2e variety: greed and cowardice. 

LISETTE: Is that grey pallor what they look like in their natural state? 

CRAB:Yes, these 2e dopplegangers and indeed the 1e dopplegangers have a "true form" either implied or explicitly stated. This can be most often seen when slaying a doppleganger, as they revert to their true form on death. Here, we see the doppelganger as a monster move away from being a trap-monster to instead being an entire race, entities with human-like thought patterns and motivations. These creatures are sapient, whereas the Greyhawkelganger could well be a biological automaton- depending on how it is used. 

3.5ELGANGER

Dungeons & Dragons 3.5e Monster Manual [1]

Another specimen container swap, and a tall, gaunt, alien creature stands within. Bulging green eyes and taut skin- the creature had no visible mouth.

CRAB: Well, this one looks better but is pretty much just the same as the ones we saw before it, except that now we've upgraded to the more commonly accepted doppel spelling [2]. Honestly, Wizards of the Coast has such a way about codifying each and every detail of fantastical beasts, rendering them as bland as hard tack. Here, let's just skip this one to the 5e one. 

5TH EDOPPELGANGER

Dungeons & Dragons 5e Monster Manual

The knobbly grey flesh of the doppelganger in the new specimen container shimmers. It stalks the perimeter of the container, dragging a clawed finger against the glass.

LISETTE: This is the most cruel appearance yet. 

CRAB: Certainly, I'm most fond of this style- if we're adopting the idea of a true form at all, that is. The actual text of the monster's description here is more bare bones than the 2e text. With this newest revision, the doppelganger is described more in its role as a spy, an infiltrator, a plot device. No longer a beast that wanders the halls of dungeons, these are the latest evolution of the 2e tribal form, they are strong and cunning, still working in groups though and still lazy. 

Curiously, we get a link to the changeling added in with the 5th Edition. The fae changeling archetype being that of baby snatching, here the doppelganger is described as "assuming attractive male forms to seduce women, leaving them to raise their progeny. A doppelganger child appears to be a normal member of its mother's species until it reaches adolescence, at which point it discovers its true nature and is driven to seek out its kind and join them". So much is said and left hanging here. How do social dynamics of doppelgangers work in 5e? How do they find one another? What would Freud say about the doppelgangers impregnating women and leaving? This is left for us to examine. 

LISETTE: Most of these creatures read thoughts, but do not absorb memories- it seems. Could this be used to identify a doppelganger? 

CRAB: Ah, you're on to something here. For these doppelgangers, in order to truly infiltrate a role well they need to capture and interrogate someone to learn everything necessary to impersonate them. Watching from afar and scanning their thoughts for awhile can get you there too, either way it takes time. 

Now, for the case of when you have a Spot the Impostor moment and you capture both suspects, how do you tell who is who- knowing that one of them can read minds? This gets complicated, but to circumvent their ability to read thoughts- thus adopting the expected personality- you need to get a third party who does not know the suspected candidate. A traveler, or someone otherwise disconnected, can thus pose questions that can be confirmed with a separate third party. Again, however, this takes time, and is only really feasible if the doppelganger can be captured first. Enough of the Wizards and TSR though, let's look further afield. 

Generally speaking, there are two types of doppelgangers used in roleplaying media, though their distinctions can blend at times:

• Type One: The Person: As with 1e+ from TSR and WotC products, the Person is a doppelganger that possesses all of the qualifications for humanity plus the supernatural abilities of shapeshifting and sleep/charm resistance. They can be reasoned with, bargained with, and act more as a race of humanoid than monster.

• Type Two: The Monster: These are not people. This is a monster, a creature that has poorly understood, if they are even capable of being understood, or even animalistic instincts. A creature that has adopted shapeshifting as an evolutionary mechanism. It may act with the semblances of intelligence, but it is only a Chinese Room aping sentience. The Greyhawkleganger, as written, could be one of these. 

 Let's examine some works from around the sphere and see what everyone else is doing with doppelgangers.

GOBLINGANGER

Obligatory Oglaf

An Arnold K. classic, this is both a GLOG class and a brief on the race of doppelgangers. These Centerran doppelgangers have a silver weakness and lack the ability to read minds. Created by wizard experimentation that fuses 10 people into one, these are biologically immortal creatures.

Arnold's doppelgangers are distinctly Type Ones, they have distinct, individual personalities and are afraid of losing their identities. Doppelgangers can meld with other doppelgangers, or those affected by a drug made from their blood. During this melding process, the memories and XP of the participants of a meld are equally distributed, thus mixing up everyone in the meld. This is seen by many as horrifying, but the drug is intoxicating and so people take it. For the doppelgangers, some fear losing their memories and defined sense of self. Others embrace transitioning to a Type Two doppelganger, becoming "...an intelligent animal-- not a person-- filled with unrelated memories and no real intention... these doppelgangers are the most dangerous, because they are all mad."

 

THE THING

Inspired by John Carpenter and a dislike for how often doppelgangers have been used as the crux of poorly formed social mysteries, The Thing comes to us from Great Job at boxfullofboxes. This is a Type 2 doppelganger which works by absorbing creatures, gaining the ability to perfectly mimic, mentally and physically, any creature that it assimilates.These Things can then split apart and create new, independent things that can communicate with one another but do not act as a hive mind. 

 

Type 2's are generally like this, acting as parasites that can grow exponentially in human environments and can present a dire threat to society if not handled. In the case of these doppelgangers, I'd say they could best be used in a Mothership adventure with a good group of NPCs in an isolated environment, with the crux being identifying who the Thing is sooner as opposed to later. 

 

DUNGEON MESHI PLUG

Dungeon Meshi (go read it)

Coming to us from a post at riseupcomus, these are a variant of doppelganger creature as experienced by the adventurers in the wonderful Dungeon Meshi. These doppelgangers are Type 2, but not the horrible world ending hateful variety. A doppelfungoid can be any sort of slime or mold in a dungeon. The fungus creates an approximation of an adventurer based upon the perceptions of their companions. As in the manga, this leads to a blooming number of imperfect copies of the adventurer, with each doppelfungoid being a representation of how the others view their companions. 

A neat idea, and there some added bits about running these beasts and how they operate, ultimately the doppeloids are hallucinogenic fungal colonies. These aren't the social gaming assassin kings of some worlds, but instead an interesting challenge to encounter in a dungeon.

 

GRADIENT DESCENT

Androids from Gradient Descent

An honorable mention here! These androids are indistinguishable from humans, and you can only tell that they are infiltrating society after killing them and scanning their bodies. Otherwise, totally indistinguishable. Infiltrator androids feature throughout the wonderful scifi megadungeon and are used as ways to challenge whether or not the players have already been replaced by means of the Bends mechanic, which builds up over time and can result in a player character being revealed to have been an infiltrator android the whole time. 

These are not-quite-doppelgangers, lacking a shapeshift ability, but fit in the same broad categorization of "creatures that assume the shape of others and infiltrate society". 

GOODMAN GAMES DOPPELGANGER

The Complete Guide to Doppelgangers

A product made for 3.5e, this supplement changes up the formula of the WotC doppelganger significantly. These doppelgangers are part of a greater gestalt, their telepathy creating an almost hivemind-like functionality which allows perfect communication, destroying the identity of self inside of individual doppelgangers and instead creating a community of moving creatures. 

 

These doppelgangers have a lifecycle, being born as nascent doppelgangers they can eventually become mimics, and the mimics can be fused into doppelstadt. These doppelstadt are the central nervous system of a doppel colony, they birth new doppelgangers, maintain memory wells of all past experiences that the colony can draw upon, and can communicate over great distances telepathically. Doppelstadte of the same geneline come together to form gestalts, and these gestalts are all in competition to consume the planet.

Junji Ito- Hellstar Remina

On an individual level, these are Type 2s, but the supplement applies so much personification to the doppelgangers here that they function, as a whole, as a Type 1. Gestalts have personalities and idiosyncrasies that are shown off in all members of the gestalt, and they have wants- as well as myths. All doppelganger gestalts have the myth of the Zeitgeist. They believe that the world is alive, and all life is part of the communal spirit of the world. Through overtaking the whole planet, a gestalt becomes the spirit of the current age and will ascend to a new plane of existence. Humans and others are insignificant and nothing, their communication imperfect in the face of the perfect and total communication of the telepathic gestalts. To them, the races of men do not qualify for sentience, and they are pitiable for that. 

This supplement is filled with some really great ideas that I haven't seen picked up elsewhere. Urban doppelstadte can be buildings, filled with mimics and doppelgangers, whole cities replaced. Dungeon doppelstadte are orphans from their gestalts and are often deranged, living dungeons that can make pacts with monsters to live within and attract fresh nutrition (adventurers). Then there's the rustic and elf friendly doppelstadte, groves of trees with doppelgangers unable to read human thoughts but instead communing with animals. 

Going even further there's the ideas of urban doppel gestalts following the individual lives of people in the city as one would watch a TV show- this is fertile ground for usage. There are avatars, great doppelgangers who can take on the full class level and abilities of identities long gone- recurring villains as emanations of the same doppelstadt. These doppelgangers are not parasites or leeches, they are apex predators that pit societies against one another to make them more ripe for replacement.

THE CHANGELING

David Romero

Yet another new specimen container settles into place. This one contains an exact duplicate of LISETTE. It smiles and waves at the observation theater.

CRAB: And finally, we have your doppelgangers. In your world, they would be known as changelings, but what's in a name? 

 

LISETTE: The others revealed their true forms in your cages, what of this one? 

 

CRAB: Well, your beasts are special. You see, we're dealing with another Type 2 doppelganger here. An unnatural monster which eats distress and distrust. They feed off of causing pain, and act in whatever way can create the most distress and suffering. What's worse, these creatures don't read minds. They don't need to, they assume the form of their victim and in doing so duplicate their exact personality, memories, everything. They can do this change in an instant, to. As I'm sure you recall, they can change so quickly that the brain can't keep up, and you have no way of recalling which was the original. 

LISETTE: Surely there must be a weakness?

CRAB: These ones are nasty. Unlike our other specimens though, they're evil to the bone. A Detect Evil spell will catch them, easily. They're also immune to sleep and hold type magic, and like others they can't replicate magical gear, nor can they cast spells. The final kick is they have a single distinguishing feature- a small jewel in their hearts that doesn't transform when they do.

LISETTE: Perfect memory duplication? How in the world then do we determine which is a doppelganger without the use of magic? 

CRAB: I'm afraid that's really it, unless you want to resort to some long-drawn out torture sessions, but even that may not be successful. No, your particularly challenging doppelgangers can only be found out by magic, or death. 

A slight vibration fills the room. Octarine mist pours in through the theater doors. 

CRAB: That sounds like Athena is here to take you back- LISETTE, take this and use it well! We don't have time to finish any more training, take what you've learned here and finish the job!

Producing a wrapped brown paper package, CRAB shoves it into LISETTE's hands as the mist spirals around her.

 

LISETTE: But what's my job-

 

A blinding flash of Octarine fills the room, and on clearing- CRAB stands alone.

END TITLES 

"Maximum Love - Sometimes" begins to play.

 

DEREK enters the observation theater and looks around.

CRAB: Too late, she's gone. Athena grabbed her before we could teach her anything else.

DEREK: Coo.

CRAB: Well, I gave her the goggles, so that should help her a bit. She should do fine with your training after all. Hey, what's this? 

As the mist disperses, a small statuette of a silver owl remains where LISETTE once stood. 

DEREK: Coo.

CRAB: My thoughts exactly. I'm not done with beating the doppelganger horse to death, there's still at least one more course to go. Come on, let's take this up to the Scryatorium.

As CRAB and DEREK leave, the shot pans slowly across the industrial examination hall and back to the specimen container. Inside, the changeling is laughing.

FADE OUT

Notes and Rants

[1] Whenever I look at a stat block from 3.5e+ products my eyes glaze over and all I hear is rising static and a tinnitic crescendo. Is that just me?

[2] Not harping on the point here, just documenting the linguistic trends. Even scholarship from the 70s to the early 2000s was spotty on how to spell doppelganger.

Third Course, Doppelgangers