[Circle of Hands] Yoggoths...

[Nyhteg]

Ron, hi

Prep for my next scenario has come up with Rbaja Influence as the sole component and I was thinking about giving the PCs a Yoggoth to deal with.
I'm nice like that.

The text gives me a partial sense of what the things are like but I'm wondering about aspects such as size, behaviours and mobility.
I get the impression it sort of...hovers, does it? At...tree height? Head height? With oogy tentacles dangling and writhing down beneath?
Do they roam around causing havoc? Squat where they're summoned, consuming any and everything that comes near? Hunt down all life?
Does their Rbaja-zone-ness corrupt and despoil their surroundings? Do they still spawn zombies from anyone they eat (I'm pretty sure you're moving away from that aspect for Rbaja zones)?

All info and suggestions for the care, feeding and use of Yoggoths gratefully received... :)

G

[Ron Edwards]

And here I was refining ghouls and mansnakes ...

A yoggoth is strangely similar to the Phantom Monster for reasons best left to conjecture. Your physical description is exactly right, and I'll clarify that they hover/squat low enough for ordinary combat.

As for what they do, I conceived of them as simply a summoned catastrophe. They destroy whatever happens to be handy, and after that seems satisfactory, they drift elsewhere - specifically, more people. So they don't go with the wind or at random, they always seek the most populated area they can from their current location. Their progress may be slow in doing so, but steady and remorseless.

I was wondering about whether they spawn draugr (the new name for zombies) from their eaten victims just yesterday, and my current thought is "yes," as well as removing the Rbaja-zone concept which doesn't seem to be very helpful.

[Nyhteg]

Marvellous, thank you. Most promising...

G

[Nyhteg]

Couple more questions...

It can attack and defend in an area, against everyone in the area at once.

This seemed simple enough but then I tried to work it through in terms of action sequence and so on and it seemed less simple.
Does this mean that on the Yoggoth's turn it makes one roll and everyone has to clash with it? But it defends normally against incoming clashes, one at a time?

Its normal attack seizes a victim (doing normal damage) and the next round it tries to swallow him or her whole, resisted by B vs. 12.

So, if this B roll is failed, the victim is simply dead, eaten, coming back as a zombie next turn..?

G

[Ron Edwards]

Yeah, this is all a little vague.

So, your first proposed answer is correct. It attacks everyone on its "go." Otherwise it participates in clashes on a piecemeal basis, with the idea that some bit of it is groping and chomping with whoever's fighting it. Think of all these maws opening and closing, and appearing and disappearing.

The second part ... h'm. I think it might stand as is, gross and sudden as that seems. Whatever's in a yoggoth, you don't want to be there. There are some possible saves though, due to the timing. It bites/grabs you, and then its attack (not a clash-response) on you is a gulp. That gives you time to get out of its clutches before the gulp-attack.

[Nyhteg]

OK. Cool.
I was wondering if there also might be any of that thing where it never takes damage to Q, maybe?
Or would that be too much?

I imagine it as this big old thing that you can't take down except by hacking the all grabby bits off it, and until then it keeps flailing and generally being ghastly and mind-shredding at you.

G

[Ron Edwards]

! You want this horrible thing to be tougher?

As it happens, the written notes on my current draft lean in that direction. One bit says, "Anything interesting re: protection?" It has Armor 6, which is plenty. Whether it would benefit from some colorful defense in addition or instead, I'm not sure.

Also, it now gets 3 B per sacrificed creature instead of 1d6.

[Nyhteg]

Heh. It is pretty monstrous already...

Is that W vs 12 roll against Confusion applied every round to everyone?
That effect in itself is probably extra defence enough...

G

[Ron Edwards]

That works like the ghoul's howl. Once you defend against it successfully, you're immune to it, and you can keep trying to defend against it as an action if you fail at first.

[Ron Edwards]

I sure want to make this thing more interesting ...

1. Perhaps it generates an effective Storm if it's injured.

2. Ah! Perhaps a willing sacrifice, i.e., someone entirely voluntarily walking into its maw, makes it dissipate. (This is also cool because banishing is not part of the magic system, so it's unique to this creature.)

Note that I chose both of these things together to precipitate the most likely possible disaster in the social situation.

[Nyhteg]

Nifty. Would you like me to give those both a test run in my next venture or are you simply thinking out loud?

Because the players can simply read the rulebook about these different monsters and nasties, is the assumption that the Circle has prepped the Kinights fully on the various foes they'll face (supernatural ones in particular)? In this case, would the PCs know straight off that "Oh hell, we've got ourselves a Yoggoth." and start asking around for volunteers?

G

[Ron Edwards]

Please use those rules - I'm 99% set on including them as-is.

My take is that wizards are reasonably well-versed in the creatures, and probably scholars too. Other people, not so much.

I need to think about that a little more, actually. One point, though, is that I don't think player-knowledge is a concern. They can know as much as they like.

[Vernon R]

Ooh, that comment hit something in my brain that is off on a tangent. 

When I was initially reading the playtest pdf I saw several references like this to what wizards would know but  how much do non-wizard circle members understand about magic?  They have several magical abilities and have received some sort of magic training.  Would it be like a lot of knowledge and profession type things where the knowledge they have is enough to get them a wits roll (with one or two dice depending on how in depth the knowledge might be) or is it more of secret hidden knowledge that dabblers wouldnt have picked up on?

[Ron Edwards]

I think the non-wizard Circle knights have learned spells but not much else, and they don't have the wide array of knowledge, experience, perspective, commitment, and plain old crazy obsession it takes to be a wizard. They are almost more in a Vance-ian state in which they can cast these spells they've committed to memory (with re-casting, not too Vance-ian), but that's all they've got. My games have not featured Wits rolls regarding magical stuff by non-wizards at all.