Omphalos 1

THE YEAR IS 199X AND THERE'S SOMETHING WEIRD IN THE OCEAN. ARE YOU TOUGH AND SMART ENOUGH TO FIGURE IT OUT BEFORE THE SOVIETS SINK THE WHOLE OPERATION?

Robert Caney

Below is the session notes of the first session of a 90's schlock deep sea megadungeon(?) loosely inspired by The Abyss I ran today followed by the initial idea from my slush pile and the WAY too detailed notes I wrote up (and somewhat kept to) before running the session. I wanted to show the whole- incredibly rough and hard to read process from small idea to usable (by me) notes and then the session results. 

Players in this game beware! There are spoilers within!

CREW LIST: 

Player One:

Cean [Kohn] Shonnery: USSR defector, former member of the undersea Spetsnaz (Wetsnaz)

Bhey Hab: Marine Biologist, completely unintelligble

Player Two:

Billy Lowstat: America's least capable navy SEAL

Gregor Redacted: USSR defector, nuclear engineer

Player Three:

Lt. John Jack Foster: SEAL and commander of the crew

Emma Kolchek: Medic

It's the last days of the USSR and the world is scrambling to prevent loose nukes! A collection of clandestine Western agencies dispatch our crew to a Soviet research site 2.5 km undersea in the Northern Pacific. The goal: Recover the fissile material from the research site's reactor and extract Dr. Zharkova Filippovna and her research. They're told that the cover story they'll be using for the mission is as an inspection from the IAEA but not to expect that to hold up with the research team at all.

 

 

After a lengthy discussion of what equipment to bring and what was viable in 199X ("Computer stuff? There might be computers right?") the crew gathers and gets their briefing from their handler, Milos, on the contracted Oceanography ship the R/V Protean. They get the initial readings of the sensor equipment on the Protean, revealing that the site below, a geothermal well catalogued as the OMPHALOS site, is a sea mount rising 1 km up from the sea floor with its plateau'd peak at 2.5km below the surface. Eight protrusions, probably sea volcanoes, as well as some strange protrusions that are possibly rock formations towards the center of the sea mount. 

The target is the Soviet deep sea research habitat, KURNAKOV-4, and from the maps and readings they got off the Protean the crew ID'd that it was probably attached to one of the sea volcanoes.

Billy Lowstat is put at the helm of the crew's modified bathyscaphe, Channer-9, and against all advice decides to descend "fast as hell and drift this baby straight up to the docking port". At 2000 meters the vessel suddenly suffers colossal malfunctions as its overpressurized interior emerges into a sudden low pressure zone- exterior pressure readings indicating a depth of only 14 meters evenly as they continue the descent. The crew is able to keep the bathyscaphe together and control the descent to the sea floor.

Bhey Hab is keenly watching for sealife and is rewarded with the massive amount of varied sea life all around them now, fish that shouldn't be able to survive at this depth and- even more shockingly- extinct species that he had only ever seen drawings of. As he's explaining this to the crew he catches site of a huge, bloated, 25 foot long megalodon lazily swimming in the distance.

 

On noting the megalodon the players have a quick panicked discussion about how sonar works and Bhey Hab pulls Cohn Shawnery away from the sonar panel to prevent him from pinging and possibly attracting the megalodon in the distance. 

The crew notes what looks to be debris and shipwrecks towards the center of the sea mount but continue on to the supposed site of Kurnakov-4. As they get closer, with thermal and visual observations they make out a 30 meter tall black pillar of stone coming out of the sea mount with a habitat built next to/on it, cables for communications and lighting arrays running off into the dark. No exterior lights are on and the habitat looks quiet. 

Identifying the pressure lock easily the crew barely avoids a catastrophic collision with the habitat (Billy Lowstat is still piloting the craft) before managing a seal and lock with the habitat. When they unseal and open the hatch they find the pressure differential to be lower inside the habitat than expected and nearly suffer an explosive decompression.

The pressure lock has a hacked in modification to one wall with a scrawled sign in Russian that reads "Dive Pool", but the crew ignores this and aims for the main habitat- noting that the whole habitat is dark, quiet, and the air stale. 

Entering the main habitat ring they take scope of the other decks, identifying the engineering room, laboratory, medical lab, communications center, and armory. Nuclear engineer leading the way they beeline to engineering with a geiger counter out ahead, detecting trace radiation. They find the engineering deck has had its reactor half disassembled and the fissile materials removed, replaced with a hacked and wired in featureless black 1x1x1 cube that has had wiring attached with a switch. Flipping the switch the station powers back on as the engineer notes with confusion that the habitat's batteries aren't charging and the cube is outputting the precise power requirement for the station's equipment. 

Billy Lowstat and Cohn Shawnery are up in the main hab ring meanwhile, investigating the duty roster and identifying the last time anyone was on duty was over four months ago. When the power kicks in they hear a fire alarm from the laboratory and a radio call from the communications center. Cohn Shawnery disables the fire alarm in the laboratory and says "We'll deal with that later". 

Meanwhile meanwhile, Bhey Hab has been back in the Channer staring out the windows at the miraculous sea life. After staring long enough he begins to note and grow confused about the fine spread of silvery particulates across his vision and notes with greater concern that the fine particles are both in the water as well as in the Channer and the station. 

Gregor Redacted and Lt Foster get to work in the communications center and quickly realize they are receiving an encrypted hail and have a discussion about whether or not they should respond to the request for a status update- ultimate deciding to leave it be as Billy Lowstat finds the vodka stashed in the communications center and then gets distracted by the padlock on the armory. 

Emma and Cohn Shawnery head into the laboratory and note with dismay the acrid smoke pouring out of the room was from what looks to have been a hasty fire set to burn documentation. This is quickly overcome by the discovery of the strange airlock attached to the surface of the stone pylon they'd seen from outside as well as an aquarium tank with a huge Giant Pacific Octopus with a label reading "Kusachiy" (Bitey).

Emma has a brief moment of dismay as she remember what the Bends is and realizes that everyone present should be horribly sick but isn't. She call Bhey Hab in to see to the octopus and, on hearing about his particulate discovery, sees the particulates herself and tries to catch a sample of it with some tape- unsuccessfully. Bhey Hab notes there's no food at all for the octopus in here but that it appears healthy and in fact intelligent and watching him- but on the food comment everyone has the realization that the food in the main hab ring was virtually untouched and that none of them have any hunger pangs at all. 

Lt Foster and Gregory Redacted are reading hydrographic maps and identify that the communications crewman had been using sonar and tracking two large objects, revealing that there are actually two megalodon that prowl these waters- as well as identifying a large metal object with a note "submarine?" towards the shipwrecks they had seen and an instruction to "ping the sonar if the sharks get within 100m". They then head to the laboratory where Gregory finds a journal hidden in the smashed computer and desk remains belonging to Dr. Filippovna and quickly discovers most of it to be encoded but the later portions contain frantic harried writing about Kusachiy, indicating that Dr. Filippovna discovered it to be extremely intelligent and had developed a rudimentary communications means with it- effectively teaching it Russian and learning how to read its color changes as alphabetic letters. They also discover a perfectly preserved, or at least maintained, German Luger pistol secreted under Dr. Filippovna's presumed cot in the corner.

Lt Foster picks the padlock to the armory and enters along with Billy Lowstat, finding it to be mostly bare- including the troublingly empty explosives supply- as well as the slumped body of one of the Kurnakov's crew- apparently alive but with a sphere of red metal encasing their head and loosely anchored to the wall and floor. They spend some time poking at the metal carefully, finding it soft but that it responds violently when pressed with force- as well as each time they were able to hear screaming from within the sphere while very carefully avoiding touching the metal at all.

Bhey Hab and Gregor are completely blown away by the discover of an octopus that understands Russian and begin chatting up Kusachiy, learning that it wants to know where Dr. Filippovna went and also wants to play hide and go seek. When asked about the red metal sphere in the armory, Kusachiy pulls itself out of the water tank, pokes its head into the armory and leaves immediately- signing "red goo bad". Bhey Hab spends a good amount of time asking about the particles he and Emma have been seeing, finally getting the meaning through to Kusachiy who calls it "mesh".

A brief trip to the well deck later and Kusachiy is swimming freely in water that should be extremely pressurized. Bhey Hab pokes his head in and finds the water to be somewhat warm, after which Billy Lowstat jumps in and plays tag with Kusachiy for awhile. When asked how long Kusachiy has been here they respond with "long, keep track in time cave at Martina" making gestures in the direction of the shipwrecks.

Back in the main ring, the crew discovers a live squid tied with belts to a surgical table, partially burnt with a nearby acetylene burner, and after reading the log book of various experiments done to it and recovery times (fire had none listed) Emma cuts her finger and watches it heal near instantly- confirming some suspicions but adding even more questions. They take the squid out to the well deck and return it to the ocean. 

After some discussion, the crew ask Kusachiy where the Soviet crew went and get a response of "don't know, down pillar" and the crew decides they'll have to investigate the pillar eventually- but first want to check out the shipwrecks. With Bhey Hab and Lt Foster manning the Channer and the rest of the crew in SCUBA gear, the whole gang plus Kusachiy make their way over to the shipwrecks, carefully dodging a megalodon. 

 

They find the shipwrecks to be of varied make and model ranging back hundreds if not thousands of years. The SCUBA team investigates the wreck of a galleon that Kusachiy heads towards while the Channer team inspects the buried hull of an apparent submarine with its conning tower ripped off. Inside the galleon, they discover everything has been stripped from the hammocks to the nails of the ship- with the captain's quarters left untouched and door shut. Half the crew heads with Kusachiy into a hole in the hull, finding the "rock" of the sea floor to actually be years of fossilized coral. Kusachiy leads them through into a large, open cave seemingly hand carved from amongst the coral, bits of shiny detritus carefully arranged but- most notably- millions of small marks covering the cave- which Gregor interprets as Kusachiy having carved out and representing millions of days of time tracking. 

The other half of the team enter the captain's quarters and find the perfectly preserved- completely untouched by time and water- body of a Portugese captain who watches them as they enter. Using a diving board and testing a few languages they know, they settle on Spanish and find both they and the captain can write and talk in a limited manner to one another. He introduces himself as Henry Dias and this ship as the Santa Martina, indicating that one day in 1667 "the sea opened up and swallowed it whole". The crew notes a massive depression on Dias's head, flash healed over but still clearly a head wound, and Dias says he was hit by a beam when the ship went down. When asked he says the rest of the crew took everything and left "into the dark glass" and haven't been back since. He says simply that he didn't leave as it was his ship and the captain stays with the ship. Thoroughly creeped out, the SCUBA team heads over to the buried submarine.

On the Channer, Foster and Bhey Hab identify the submarine to be a sunken U-boat and pass its markings to the R/V Protean, discovering that it is a missing type XX1 U-boat last seen off the coast of France in the spring of 1944. The SCUBA team enters, has a brief "Indiana Jones realizing now we're fighting nazis" moment, and scour the sub to find that it too has had its valuables stripped but that its complement of sea mines and torpedoes are intact. They all then head back to the Kurnakov-4 and Billy Lowstat has a brief terrifying encounter with a megalodon, seeing it open its mouth and that its gullet is filled with squirming, living sea life. They find a poem scratched into the access hatch of the U-boat and Lt Foster identifies it as the latter half of Goethe's Wanderer's Nightsong I, (roughly):

"I am weary with contending!
Why this rapture and unrest?
Peace descending
Come, ah, come into my breast!"

At the Kurnakov the crew finds more messages in the communications center and identify that there will be a rendezvous with BEZDNA in 12 hours- a number that decreases to 6 hours after they fail a verification check while trying to convince them to "come back tomorrow". Finally, they decide they have to investigate the pylons and try and find the crew of the Kurnakov as fast as they can. While asking Kusachiy about the Santa Martina the crew is curious about the response "feel bad, sank ship" and the follow up "used orb, sank ship, down pillar, feel bad", asking Kusachiy to lead them to the orb. 

Kusachiy heads into the laboratory and Bhey Hab opens the rudimentary air lock attached to the pylon wall, watching Kusachiy latch onto the wall, bite, and disappear into an opening that pours out water before closing. After Billy Lowstat heads in and bites the wall himself, the crew discovers that cutting the soft stone of the pylon easily opens it. Suiting back up in wet suits and refilling their oxygen (despite some discussions of "well if we drown we're in the mesh so we'll be fine").

Entering the pylon the crew finds it to be filled with water and note a dim blue light from below ("Cherenkov radiation!" "No, normal readings on the Geiger counter- but slightly higher" "So we're dog sniffing out those nukes?" "Probably?"). Descending 50 meters they find the pylon connects with similar descents to the other- eight- pylons all connecting in the center of the sea mount. The blue light is coming from the bottom of this central cylinder, another 100 meters down, and Kusachiy relays "orb, sinks ships, feels bad". A brief retcon warns the R/V Protean about the BEZDNA being a possible Soviet submarine and to "maybe head like two nautical miles away". 

 

Cean Shawnery pokes at the orb as the ceiling suddenly becomes transparent, revealing a clear view of the ~2.5 km of ocean above and amplifies both the R/V Protean as well as a large, dark shape vaguely "Soviet submarine shaped". With another poke at the orb they see a large dark space opening up and, with horror, see both ships sinking into it and realize that the most recent poke began dropping the ocean's surface down, dragging the ships with them. Another panicked poke reverses this, explosively refilling the enormous empty space and creating possibly (probably) devastating tidal waves but discover that the R/V Protean appeared to be upright and the submarine appeared to be at an unhealthy 45 degree angle from the normal plane. 

Emma spies the northern wall at the base of the cylinder to be covered in a thick green mossy membrane and on investigation finds it to be soft and permeable. Pressing an arm through it she feels air on the other side and relays this to the rest of the crew. Deciding to head through, they relay with gestures and head nods their intent to Kusachiy who signs back "I stay, no mesh in there, careful", and the crew has a brief panic that they will be "mortal again" through the membrane. Cean Shawnery throws himself through the membrane at full speed and hits the air on the other side before dropping into a one foot deep pool. A large, dark room is beyond with dark tiled floors on the other side, a doorway beyond, and a thick mist hanging low to the water. Cean Shawnery takes off his SCUBA mask and finds the air to be cold but breathable... 

And that's where we ended! Both for time constraints and, conveniently, because that's all I had written down firmly. Check out below for some more details from my write up and to see how my process (ish) of translating it to play worked out.

THE INITIAL SCRAWL FROM THE IDEA PILE: 

wreck of another submarine, lampshades danger

wreck of another another submarine, nazi uboat?

posthuman demon in the basement of an ancient ruin [editor's note: look we'll get there with this place eventually be patient]

THREE HOURS OF UNEDITED WRITING AND GOOGLING STUFF ABOUT THE OCEAN- I AM SO SORRY NO ONE SHOULD USE THIS AT A TABLE

Omphalos

0. The Setup

THE YEAR IS 199x, and the ongoing turmoil within the USSR has worried minds tracking their dissolving tendrils around the world for loose nuclear weapons and covert operations acting without oversight.

Your team has been contracted, nominally, by the International Atomic Energy Agency to investigate an alleged deep sea nuclear research facility by the name of Kurnakov-4 located at a deep sea geothermal site in the northern Pacific designated OMPHALOS. Publically, this mission is a peacekeeping action to assess safe usage of fissile materials by the USSR, but your real handlers, a collection of covert organizations around the world scrambling to curtail the USSR's reach, provide the classified brief and real objectives:

1. Recover any fissile material from Kurnakov-4
2. Ascertain the purpose of the research team at Kurnakov-4
3. Recover Dr. Zharkova Filippovna and all of their research materials

If the site is deemed by your team to be unrecoverable or otherwise hazardous:

4. Destroy the Kurnakov-4, all of its personnel, and secure or render unusable any hazardous materials

For this mission, you will be working with the R/V Protean Oceanographic Research vessel and its clandestinely heavily modified bathyscape Channer-9.

Handler Milos

A cold, ruthlessly efficient man who insists to be called Milos and will not reveal who he works for exactly is in charge of the general operation. He will remain on the R/V Protean and provide support from there as long as he can, but if contact is lost with the party for forty-eight hours without explanation he will deploy the R/V Protean's low-yield nuclear depth charge and scram the OMPHALOS site. The Protean can be contacted as long as the Channer-9's communications cable is intact, but can also be contacted using the 2c. Communications Center.

Dr. Zharkova Filippovna

Russian-borne mechanical physicist, employed in top secret research by the Academy of Sciences for the past twenty years. 8 months ago contacted Milos's agency through a proxy promising "The most important research ever done" if she can be extracted. No communications since.

Channer-9

A heavily modified bathyscape that can just barely fit its pilot, navigator, and eight passengers. The bathyscape is equipped with a remotely operated vehicle (sea drone) that can be operated out to 20 kilometers. A cable runs from the Channer to the Protean for ease of recovery as well as communications. The skin of the Channer can be electrocuted to scare off ocean life.

The Crew

Crew should be a mix of security specialists, engineers, and a smattering of scientific experts in fields such as: Oceanography, Biology, Nuclear Physics, Geology. All crew should explicitly list which languages they can speak.

In the event of a character death while exploring the Omphalos, the pilot or navigator of the Channer should serve as replacements, or a notional "backup crew" filling the extra passenger spots.

1d6

1. Navy SEAL: Diver, Military Training, Damn Tough To Kill
2. Intelligence Analyst: Cryptography, Radio Equipment, Additional Language
3. Nuclear Engineer: Nuclear Reactor Maintenance, Engineering, Physics
4. Marine Biologist: Marine Biology, Diver, Oceanography
5. Medic: Medicine, Field Surgery, Anesthsia
6. Demolitions Expert: Explosives, Mechanical Engineering, Scrap & Craft

1d10 Languages (English Assumed):

1. French
2. German
3. Bengali
4. Russian
5. Japanese
6. Mandarin
7. Spanish
8. Portugese
9. Hindi
10. Arabic

Hydrographic Readings

The Protean's inital readings of the Omphalos site reveal the shape of the sea mount and the location of the Kurnakov-4, but anything further is out of range and fidelity for their radars. The pylons register as probable ridges of undersea volcanoes in a strange uniform distribution.

12 hours after the initial descent the Protean will detect an unidentified submarine loitering nearby. This is the Bezdna, a heavily modified Akula class nuclear powered attack submarine awaiting a signal from the Kurnakov-4 indicating it is safe to approach.

1. OMPHALOS Site

2.5 kilometers beneath the sea somewhere in the northern Pacific Ocean is a seamount that rises into a 10km wide flat plateau. At its center, eight 30 meter tall glossy dark stone pylons rise out of the sea floor. They form the outline of an octagon with 223.561 meter long sides. The area is known as the OMPHALOS site.

Attached around two pylons is a sealed deep sea enclosure (2. KURNAKOV-4) of recent make, with a series of modules attached and circling fully one of the pylons.

The center of the octagon contains a variety of wrecks of ships ranging from the early 1600s to present day. Most of these are buried in silt but diligent searching would reveal two miraculously intact vessels: 1a The Santa Martina, a Portugese galleon, and 1b. U-2556, a Type XXI U-boat.

Any lights shining in the area around the seamount will reflect tiny silvery particles in a fine mesh. Sampling the water and analyzing its contents will reveal these silvery particles to be clumps of nano-particles (Mesh) that are inactive and dissolve outside of the seamount.

Note: Pressure Anomalies

Water pressure readings in a rough cylinder rising 500 meters straight up from the sea mount indicate that this region of the ocean is inexplicably low pressure. What should be ~500 atmospheres of pressure (500 times that of surface pressure) instead registers as about seven atmospheres, allowing SCUBA divers to operate without additional gear in the area. Careful measurement and observation of this pressure boundary will note that its size and exact location fluctuate slightly.

Any pressurized vehicle crossing this anomalous pressure boundary will groan and squeal loudly as it suddenly adjusts to the massive pressure differential and all but the sturdiest vehicles will spring leaks and suffer other mechanical failures due to the stress of crossing the boundary.

For the Channer-9 this will result in it requiring 6 hours of repairs before the pilot is willing to bring it back up through the barrier. If the Channer-9 ascends without these repairs being done there is a 7 in 10 chance of a catastrophic hull collapse.

Observant crew will notice that despite the pressure shifts they do not suffer any degree of Decompression Sickness.

Note: Mesh

Mesh is the autonomous nanite cloud finely dispersed throughout the water of the seamount and similarly infiltrates the vessels therein. It functions by preventing any degree of harm or degeneration to organic material that it is exposed to, repairing any wounds or damage while exposed to the Mesh. This includes repairing your lungs if you are drowning in the Mesh, allowing unaided and unencumbered diving. Mesh only knows your biology while you are exposed to it, meaning any wounded who are then later exposed to Mesh may have horrifying repairs to keep them alive in their wounded state.

In particular, brain damage is "patched" preserving the appearance of life but in a zombie-like state of intelligence lacking consciousness. These consciously dead simulacra of people (C-Dead) retain as much of their personality and memories as well as behaviours as they can from their pre-dead life, and can converse politely but are otherwise unable to change their patterns or desires without prompting.

High heat as from an explosion does disrupt the Mesh and could be used to kill something by temporarily neutralizing the Mesh.

Upon leaving 1 and 2 the Mesh is no longer propogating or active.

Ocean Exploration

Any marine biologist will be able to spot an enormous variety of supposedly extinct sealife (Up to 26 million years old) living in abundance throughout the OMPHALOS site. The only predators to be found are a pair of Megalodon and they are the only thing to show up on an encounter roll here. When rolled, there is a 50% chance they will be sleeping, drifting by lazily.

MEGALODON
Lvl 10 Def none Thrash 2d6

Immortal - The Megalodons are kept eternally alive by the Mesh and have long since stuffed themselves full of similarly immortal yet continuously digested sea life. This makes them very slow and very large, but their natural killing instinct still drive them to at least ram into things they could eat.

Boot and Rally - If antagonized sufficiently, the Megalodon will vomit up its squirming totured meals and replace its Thrash with Devour 3d4. If this attack reduces a character to 0 HP or lower they are devoured and kept alive by the Mesh in the stomach of the Megalodon.

1a. The Santa Martina

Stripped paint and soaked wood poking out of the silt reveal the remains of the Santa Martina, a Portugese galleon constructed in the early 17th century. A single entry into the upper deck can be dug out of the silt revealing the interior to have been stripped bare, all of the fittings, cannons, and other acoutrements have been removed.

Wading through the 1/2 meter of silt to the back of the ship reveals the captain's quarters, where captain Henry Dias sits contentedly at his desk.

The captain was nearly killed when the ship sank but was preserved by the Mesh as a C-Dead. Much of his memories and personality are confused and lost due to the patching, but he responds politely to inquiries and knows the following:

1. The Santa Martina sank while exploring the northern Pacific in 1677 as if the ocean opened up and swallowed it whole.

2. His First Mate, Bonifacio Ramos, took the still conscious crew and as much of the ship's goods as they could "into the glass pillars" and have not been seen since.

3. Two great sea beasts (See Megalodon) prowl the waters nearby but are usually asleep unless disturbed.

To actually speak with Henry Dias you will need to bring him to somewhere dry. He speaks Portugese, Spanish, and a bit of French.

1b. U-2556

The U-Boat's conning tower has been completely destroyed, the only indicator of its presence is the rough outline and the open access hatch. Scratched into the metal exterior near the aft hatch someone has written:

"Ach, ich bin des Treibens müde!
Was soll all der Schmerz und Lust?
Süßer Friede,
Komm, ach komm in meine Brust!"
[Der du von dem Himmel bist (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)]

The interior is flooded and its electrical systems are completely ruined. There are no human remains within the U-boat and all documentation is ruined beyond use but careful searching will reveal that the watertight containers for documentation were removed from the radio room.

16 sea mines and 8 torpedoes are still usable in the torpedo room, though the firing mechanisms no longer function.

1c. The Pylons

The eight pylons appear as pillars of glossy dark stone. If struck or cut the impact site will open a tear into the interior of the pillar which can be pulled further open. If left untouched for a few seconds these tears will seal.
The interior is a vertical shaft filled with water that drops 50 meters and then slopes inwards, connecting each of the pylons into one central shaft that drops another 100 meters. At the bottom, on the northern wall, the glossy stone material of the shaft is replaced with an archway of thick, water-impermeable membrane that can be walked/swam out of.

2. Kurnakov-4

The deep sea research facility Kurnakov-4 was first constructed by elements of the USSR Academy of Sciences Oceanographic Research Fleet in 198X. It consists of a central hab structure anchored to the ground with a module enclosed around one of the pylons.

2a. Kurnakov-4 Pressure Chamber

The Channer-9 can dock with the pressure chamber and gain access. The chamber itself contains the necessary airlocks for pressurization as well as a side deck with a well for direct diver access to the site nearby. Lockers outside of the airlock contain 2 usable SCUBA tanks with wetsuits.

2b Main Hab Ring

Trash and detritus are scattered around. The air is stale and smells of body odor- but breathable. The power is out (2f. Engineering). In total there are eight cubbies strewn with personal effects as a still well stocked galley that's barely been touched. Searching can find the duty roster:

• PO2 PETROV [SEC]
• SEAMAN SOKOLOV [SEC]
• PO2 OSIPOV [COM]
• SEAMAN MAKAROV [SEC]
• SEAMAN RYKOV [ENG]
• INNA OSIPOV [MED]
• ALEXEEVA [CMD]
• LCDR NOVIKOV [CMD]

Also strewn around are a half-empty pack of cigarettes, a small journal containing a lewd fan fiction [Russian] of LCDR Novikov and a sea sponge, a machete, and a large nautilus shell.

2c. Communications Center

A bank of radio consoles and controls for a sonar array dominate the communications center as well as a half dozen binders and notebooks. The binders contain cryptographic information for one-time message passing and the notebooks are logs of messages sent and received.

Flipping through them reveals it starts from wehn PO2 Osipov was transferred here last year and most messages are routine updates of status good or bad, with the last update passing a coded message signed off ALEXEEVA. The last message was recorded four weeks ago.

When powered, the center can be used to communicate with the Protean as well as with the Bezdna which will be hailing the station using Soviet cyphers that can be reconstructed using the binders.

Stashed under the desk are three and a half bottles of vodka as well as a loaded pistol.

BEZDNA

The Bezdna was dispatched to deploy a recovery team to the site and is ready to descend and offload two platoons of Spetsnaz once the pressure barrier has been adjusted for them. They are monitoring a series of deployed sensor buoys and simply lying to them that the barrier is adjusted will be obvious.

With its depth modifications, the Bezdna could cross the barrier as it is but would lose half the crew before the Mesh went into action. After 24 hours if there is no contact they will cross the barrier.

Running silent, the Bezdna is unaware of the presence of the Channer-9 but is aware of the Protean but not its mission or allegiance.

The Bezdna is fully armed with a complement of 30 torpedoes, 2 SAMs, and 10 cruise missiles.

2d. Armory

A small, secured closet. It is locked from outside with a chain and padlock. The gun racks indicate that there were 6 rifles, a heavy machine gun, eight pistols, and several explosives that are now missing aside from one rifle with ammuition and two pistols.

Chained up in a corner is Seaman Rykov, as indicated by their uniform and dog tags. A mass of red, sticky, metallic goo surrounds their head and has grown small tendrils to anchor it in place. If rescued from the Red Goo, Seaman Rykov is already completely insane, their brain fully rewritten to experience only pain.

RED GOO
Lvl 2 Def Leather Ruin

Regenerative - Goo is a singular mass of nanomachines that restores itself rapidly when damaged. Unless killed with fire, heat, or anti-goo weapns it will regenerate itself fully within a minute of apparent destruction.

Overheat - The most effective way to defeat any mass of nanomachines, other than weapons specifically designed to destroy them, is with heat which will rapidly break down the machines and render them unviable.

Ruin - A single glob of Red Goo is about the mass of a watermelon and acts as one entity. It is programmed to dynamically affect the human brain to suffer continuous states of agony and despair, adjusting and restoring any weakened anatomy to ensure the human lives through the process and their neurotransmitters do not dull the experience. When not attached to a human, the Red Good will locate the nearest one it can and attempt to attack them.
On a successful attack, the Red Goo encases the head and invades the skull to begin applying its attack. For every ten minutes of exposure there is a 1 in 10 chance that the human, if rescued, has become irrevocably insane.

2f. Engineering

At the base of Kurnakov-4 is the engineering section which contains a series of ballasts, air tanks, batteries, and a nuclear fission reactor anchored to the sea floor.

The reactor is currently disabled and has been ripped apart. Its fissile core is missing and instead a black 1x1x1 cube has been wired directly into the battery supplies with a flippable switch that is currently off.

Black 1x1x1 Cube
When wired into a power supply and provided a low watt input, the cube of smart matter encasing an ultra-dense pack of nanobatteries will modulate and output the required power to fill the power supply with a continuous charge. This cube currently has enough power to run the Kurnakov habitat without interruption for 10,000 years.

Careful searching reveals a series of explosives designed to destroy the facility in an emergency have been removed.

2g. Medical Bay

A small suite of first aid and surgery supplies is dominated by a large surgical table in the center of the suite with a large squid retrained with several belts and wound medical gauze to the table.

Amongst the medical supplies is a small journal of notes kept by Inna Osipov that detail a series of experiments done to the squid testing the limits of the miraculous regenerative and healing properties of the Mesh, noting that everything aside from heated incisions was near instantly recovered. The squid is still alive and panicked but one of its tentacles has been burned.

2e. Laboratory

The laboratory module is the second largest of the habitat and is anchored to the sea floor as well as a Pylon. If the door is opened before power is turned back on the room will be filled with acrid black smoke. The source is a metal waste basket in the room that was stuffed with documents and burned haphazardly.

The laboratory contains a cot, a sealed glass water tank, a desk strewn with papers and diagrams, small personal effects of Dr. Filippovna including a photo of a german shepherd and a field of sunflowers, a large metal gate-like apparatus around the bare exposed wall of the Pylon, and a computer and printer that has been smashed to pieces.

Inside the tank is a large Giant Pacific Octopus, a note taped to the tank labels its name as Kusachiy.

The papers strewn about the desk have been picked and thrown about haphazardly, the ones that remain, if studied, are sensory readings outlining the pressure anomaly around OMPHALOS. Hidden inside the case of one of the computers and somewhat readable is a Dr. Filippovna's Notebook which explains the experiments taken that uncovered how to enter the pylons as well as describing a spherical device that is able to control the pressure anomaly- including lengthy asides about how to communicate with Kusachiy and how they taught Dr. Filippovna how to operate the device.

The metal gate apparatus is a crude airlock that allows one to open the Pylon without flooding the habitat- cycling the water back into the pylon at the press of a button.

Kusachiy

Large for its species, Kusachiy is a rust-red Giant Pacific Octopus and the oldest sentient earth-borne organism in existence. 22 million years ago Kusachiy accidentally entered the Pylons and was force uplifted to be sentient. Despite this, Kusachiy lacked socialization and has spent the last 22 million years living peacably around the sea mount.

Having not explored much of the OMPHALOS facility beyond the Pylons, Kusachiy is unfamiliar with any of its inner workings but is aware of how to use the Pressure Modulator in 3c. to alter the pressure field around the sea mount- having used it several times for fun and unknowingly resulting in the sinking of the Santa Martina as well as several other vessels.

Despite being sentient, Kusachiy has limited means of communication. Dr. Filippovna first identified Kusachiy as being extremely intelligent and developed a rudimentary way of communicating with Kusachiy through careful observation of color-shifts. Kusachiy, meanwhile, has a rudimentary grasp of Russian now and despite their advanced age is eager as a child to learn more now that they have had a conversation partner. Effectively, with the journal and by speaking Russian you can communicate one syllable intentions back and forth.

Chapel of the Living God (GLoGtober 2024)

Sacred Body Horror for GLoGtober.

On entry into a Chapel of the Living God most visitors will first be in awe of the hundreds of Beneficent Saints lining the walls, smiling down from the rafters, whispering their rapturous chants and cloaked in woven gold. Older Chapels are said to be so filled with Beneficents that their very roofs and shrines are upheld by smiling, chanting saints- gold-flecked skin and swirling golden irises.

Kris-3d

Feast days and memorials will usually see families visiting with and caring for their relatives that have become Beneficents, cleaning their skin and making offerings of their favorite foods. I have even heard of some sects that allow families to take their Beneficent out for the day to visit and bless each of their households before returning them into the care of the Chapel once more. 

The two other most significant features of your average Chapel of the Living God are the Supplication Basin, where appeals are made to the Living God in the presence of the oldest Beneficents of the Chapel, and the closed off Ritual Chambers, where the priests perform the Benefaction Sacrament.

Entei Ryu

Most are familiar with the general practice of Benefaction as a means of ritual preservation and recognition of services to the Living God, however the details aren't well understood by those outside the faith. The history of Benefaction goes back to the early days of the Living God, who would bless their chosen as Avatars that would wield a fraction of the Living God's power against their enemies. The saying holds true, however, that absolute power corrupts absolutely. After a time, Avatars would begin to be corrupted by the Sacrament as it grew and warped their bodies and minds with unfathomable power. Eventually, the Living God introduced the practice of Benefaction as a means of preventing Corrupted Avatars from wreaking havoc. 

Depending on the suitability of an Avatar candidate, they are assigned a date for their Benefaction. Great heroes of the Living God are known to have borne the Sacrament for years on end, though most last a month or a week. Once the date is reached, the Avatar returns to a Chapel where the priests ritually sever their limbs and burn them, then wrapping the strands of the Sacrament that remain around their torso into a golden cloth. Now a Beneficent Saint, they are put under the care of the Chapel- or transferred to their home chapel- where they will be cared for eternally. 

What's Going On?

The Living God is a hivemind organism that lives in the bodies of the Beneficent Saints. In the form of the Sacrament, it is a bundle of carefully grown tendrils that are ingested by candidates. Over time, it grows in the candidate and grant it extreme powers of strength and agility as the tendrils reinforce the candidate's natural body. As the growth progresses, the Living God and the candidate begin to act as one- however eventually the Living God will overtake the host where it then risks severing from the hivemind and growing its own- something like a sub-cult. Knowing this unfortunate feature of its evolution, the Living God uses ritual and tradition to curtail its Avatars early- maintaining its existence in the body of the Saint and allowing it to continue to grow. 

Evgeny Romanov

These facts are known by some of the highest of the clergy of the Living Saint- who maintain that these abilities could only be those of a God. Their God is tangible and, if it needs their service, then they will carry it in their body and become its lever upon the world.

One Clown Theory

Recently there was some clown discussion. Here's the thing about clowns:  

There's only one clown and there has only ever been one clown. 

These are all the same creature

One clown! It's all the same clown! No of course I don't mean it's some sort of clown hive mind or the same clown time travelling around and around- actually the second one isn't far from the bullseye. 

There's something that happens at the biological, psychological, pharmacological, ontological level to someone who starts walking down the clown path. At a point somewhere after they don the d-red nose for the first time and when they're chainsmoking with fourteen brethren in the back of a tiny car on their way to commit mischief, the neurological pathways in their brains form into just the right configurations of comedy meets tragedy, of necessity meets frivolity, and eventually there's a wet popping sound as the circle is completed, the ritual satisfied, and that person is gone and in their skin is the clown. 

same clown

And it's always the same clown. Always. Yes yes, who among us hasn't turned a corner and averted their gaze from a group of clowns dismembering and devouring one of their own- but that's just what this creature does! The madness locked in its big-tent striped brain is the insanity of eons! 

Blind and deaf inquisitors of the most holiest and secret of orders have thoroughly worked over many a subject and the results of their studies are thrice sealed and buried in the deepest vaults of hidden sacred monasteries- but one fact has made its way out of these sanctums: each clown is a different iteration of the same tormented soul- born anew atemporally into the host body. Can you imagine it? A thousand thousand thousand lifetimes in a thousand cities? A thousand worlds? We can only guess at the limits of it, but these concurrent lives lived out over the eons have driven the creature horribly, hilariously mad. 

this too, same clown

And this clown, the clown, it knows what is happening to it. After each death and renewal into a new host it remembers all of these previous lives- and so they tend to congregate into troupes amongst itself. Why else are the jokes so similar, the acts all the same, the colors the paints it's all the same clown! Experiencing itself in another maddening circle!

There's no coming back to one stricken by the disease, unfortunately. They become the clown irrevocably. Maybe the clown is feeling whimsical and will act the role of the dutiful son, daughter, husband, wife and wipe off their face paint- but never forget it's not who it once was. Late at night they will feel the inevitable pull to the trunk in the basement, beneath all the boxes of coats, and they will pull out their tiny trumpet and honk their red nose. It's best to just ignore it. Live blissfully ignorant and thank your lucky stars that the clown has decided to show you mercy.

honk

Maybe you can drag one along on an adventure- but be warned this timeless twisted creature has no experience of time as you or I do. Each life a new joke, a new shadow on the wall, and a new opportunity for comedy. Or maybe they'll spend this one weeping in the sewers, screaming against the gods that have cursed it so. Roving bands of ageless deathless clowns aren't unheard of- and some heresiarchs are whispered to have intentionally summoned this creature to extract boons and knowledge from it. 

For it has lived every time and place and knows the past, the future, the present, the great magics, the lesser magics, banana cream pie recipes, all locked under the harlequin mask of madness. Luckily the jocular cults of the clown tend to run their course and burn out quite quickly- most ultimately succumbing to their idol and becoming a new clown of their own.

always the same clown

But there are ways to commune with this creature, for those willing to risk the ire of an eternal horribly mad creature. 

1. Acquire a simpleton or other such willing peasant
2. Train them in the arts of clownery. Once they don a red nose, or should one appear suddenly, ensure they are locked well and safe in a cell. 
3. When the mad cackling reaches a peak, you may now attempt a bargain

The only thing you can offer to an eternal being is novelty. Jokes, gags, bits, stand up, should you prove to impress it then there's a chance you will be granted your request. Illusions, jocular magics, stories of mirth and hilarious secrets of history are the best bet for boons.

Be warned, there can be no guarantees it has not seen such before, and clown magic is not to be trifled with. If the clown waivers or seems uncertain, do not hesitate to kill it, change your face, and seek another life as far away as you can. Be ever vigilant for floppy shoes- though that clown may be dead one of them- many of them- will remember. Whispers near carnivals tell of hidden cells of assassins, given lists by their own ready to act in the funniest way they can to extract vengeance. Dynasties aflame, cities collapsed, livestock inverted all at the cost of the wrong joke.

what makes a mad god laugh

Some say the original iteration, the first clown, Clown Prime, was born and cursed long long ago- the first man to tell a bad joke, to slip on a banana, to laugh at the gods. Others believe the first clown is yet to be born, a creation of the mad sciences of man and a warning of our boundaries. At the very least, we can think ourselves lucky the poor twisted soul has a sense of humor.

 

To Swallow a Spider

Once, there was a young milkmaid. Fair-haired and soft-hearted, the envy of her sisters and the pride of her family. Day by day she milked her family's two cows and carried her pails through the winding village roads, warm and joyful faces greeted her at each delivery. 

On one such ordinary spring day she saw a shadow fallen along the roadside, couched in mud and grime. The shadow hacked and coughed, no shadow but a haggard old woman in deep- painful throes. As the milkmaid neared the shadow resolved to a cloaked, old woman- heaving on all fours and mewling in the mud. 

A hand shot out from the shadow of the cloak, the hood falling, and the old woman pled to the milkmaid "Oh golden-haired maiden, please! But a drink of your sweet harvest would set my humors right!" The fallen hood revealed the gurgling buboes and boiling warts that sloughed about her stricken visage, and terror beat its drum in the milkmaid's stomach. She cut wide around the woman and turned her face away, hurrying along her route.

With another hack and bloody cough the haggard woman pled once more- but the milkmaid hardened her heart and took to a run. Hauling herself to her knees, the witch then gestured and damned her curse to the milkmaid: 

"May you be ruin! May your beauty be your bane and your heart be hollwed! May your presence curdle the virtues of good men and may you be a crawling hive! May you die unburied and only then succumb to the rot you spread!" 

And with that last issue, she heaved her final breath and fell stricken in the mud, the terrified milkmaid fleeing along the road. 

The curse laid by the wayside witch festered in the milkmaid's mind, but she dare not repeat it for she feared the torch. 

That day, the milk she delivered was found to have spoiled overnight.

All through the night, the milkmaid tossed and turned with dark dreams of crawling claws and the evil eye, ever glaring. But, she woke and set to housework before making her deliveries as normal. All through the day, she would swat at an especially persistent fly and would jump at every shadow she saw.

It did not take long for the milkmaid to realize the witch's curse. At first, the hens stopped laying eggs- with their final clutch found rotten and molded. Not long after, the cows stopped giving milk, and her families' debts began to pile. 

Next, her father was stricken with a terrible sickness that soon consumed her sisters and mother as well. All bed ridden but the maid herself, who now was plagued by the flies that found her throughout the day. She slapped and swatted, catching hundreds until the house was empty of them, but then come morning a cloud of the biting, buzzing, swarming menace was back and stronger. 

The very frames of the house began to sag, mold sporing in the corners and consuming the rafters. One by one, the milkmaid buried each of her family in the churchyard, and with each death the village turned. Day by day, they shut their doors to the milkmaid and turned their faces to her plight. What's worse, those who did still speak with her told of the villagers turning cruel to one another, spats and fights sprung up among the kindest of folk and a hate boiled in their hearts. 

Despite her plight, a rowdy crowd of suitors began to plague her home- each a young farmhand or apprentice from the village who began turning to a cruel visage spotted through a window or a figure standing in the dark of the wood. They quarreled in her yard and pled for her hand- though the maid shut them all out of her home as she saw their teeth sharpening and eyes yellowing day by day. 

One night, the maid shut up each window and barricaded herself inside as the shouts became cackles and the suitors beat upon the home. Howling and shouts from outside ebbed and flowed, smoke and iron were on the wind and she sat up swatting flies all night, daring not to sleep.

Come morning the maid discovered what had become of her village and her home- now sagged and mold-ridden it would not stand another night. Blood spilled throughout the village, homes burnt and twisted- cruel faces smiled down at her from hanging bodies in the square. All that stood was the church. 

She sought sanctuary inside with the young priest- himself bloodied and bereaved by the terror of the night before. In begging prayer, the milkmaid came to realize the issue of her misfortune- as she choked and coughed- a black clot of wriggling flies coming up in her hand. Using a silvered plate as her mirror, she watched as the biting flies that plagued her would one by one issue from her mouth.

The church filled with these flies and everywhere they touched began to rot, benches falling to pieces, stone spotting with mold, hanging cloth shriveling and flower turning to fungus. Despite the horror unfolding, it was the priest's eyes yellowing and breath laboring that finally drove the milkmaid to flee and lock herself in the undercroft. 

In desperate prayer the maid sat by light of a single candle, the flies buzzed angrily around the locked crypt. The shroud of biting darkness swallowing up the light bit by bit- it parted suddenly as salvation crept into the candlelight.

Palm-sized, rose red, legs clean and sharp black, eyes gleaming with quiet hunger, the maid's mind slowed and began to set cold and clear as she made eye contact with the great spider.

Perhaps not an answer to her prayer, but a solution to her plight. The maid wiped away her tears, her heart emptied of fear. She reached out her hand to the spider.

Bringing it to her lips, she opened her mouth and the spider crawled inside with measured care, fluttering step by step down her throat.

It did not take long for the flies to stop, as the spider swallowed them up. Not long after, the spider too swallowed up the maddened priest outside.

The maid stood in the rotten chapel's archway and faced a new morning, the corpse of her village strewn about in front of her- but the rot stench could not bother her anymore. Fear and sorrow too, the spider swallowed. 

And still, it was hungry.

Tatum Cho

 

"The average person swallows 8 spiders per year. Susan Spidermouth, who swallowed 30,000 spider eggs thus becoming the ultimate spider incubator, is an outlier and should not be counted."

Tarna the Spider-Maid

8 HP, 8 STR, 14 DEX, 14 WIL (d6 dagger or d10 bite)

• A pretty young woman, cannot speak. Her insides are hollowed by the spider that symbiotically lives inside, keeping her limbs moving. Hungry. Can eat curses.
  
• Charms as per spell and can kiss a willing target to spit a Hollowing Spider into their mouth.
• Critical Damage: Paralyzes target (d8 DEX damage) with a spider-kiss. 
  

Hollow Zombie

4 HP, 6 STR, 6 DEX, 6 WIL (damage as weapon)

• An unwilling host to a Hollowing Spider. Hungry.
• Young Hollows are ravenous and mindless. Older Hollows can mimic human behavior but cannot speak.

 

An aside on curses.

There are many kinds of curses, from little malisons that bedevil a wayward adventurer to bloodline-tethered divine retribution. 

Some tables never use curses, some do. Delta did a good look at the history of the curse, Jon of Medieval Melodies did a look as well, and Noisms wrote a bit about curses as insanity too. I'm most partial to the table of flavorful curses from Swords & Scrolls.

Let's take a gander at what a curse looks like mechanically from something like Lamentations of the Flame Princess (though this is similar to most retroclones' format of the curse):

Bestow Curse (the reverse of Remove Curse) can bring about any number of unfortunate effects upon a being, determined by the caster and Referee. Some limits of effect must be enforced. Typical possibilities are limited to no more than a –2 pen alty to saving throws or –4 to hit, an ability being reduced by 50%. These effects can have any number of creative symptoms. The victim can avoid being affected by Bestow Curse with a successful saving throw versus Magic.

For best effect, players getting cursed should have a bit more flavor to it than just the modifier penalties above, and and iteration of a straight Remove Curse should be used with caution. A setting environment filled with curse-slinging witches and undead loses its luster if you can just hit up the local cleric for your monthly curse-check and get an inoculation just in case.

Curses should be unique and curses should have weight to them. To lay a curse is to set wrong a right, bend fate to a twisted bend and set a foul spirit on someone. 

In the worst of cases, anyone can lay a curse with their dying breath and enough vigor behind it- at the cost of the curse-layer's soul becoming that maleficent spirit enforcing the curse- and no curse worth a soul should be something generic.

A curse should have two components. 

1: A unique effect that impacts how a character functions in the world, whether this be changes to rolls or NPC reactions- make it work within the fiction and make it be felt.

2: At least two ways to break it. Some unique format is best- as with Noisms' take of unique breaking conditions to be met- but make sure that the player knows how to break a curse. Both a unique condition and some ludicrously expensive resolution as a backup would do the trick.

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