Leliel
2009-04-17, 07:19 PM
Well, some time ago, I made a thread about an intelligent Silent Hill WoD monster and asked how to show he was a cunning, plotting being, as berfetting a group of supernaturals.
Well, after reciving a few responses, I have enough to write his fluff, and then his stats in a later post.
Note: I used Mr. Gone's book on a Silent Hill setting (didn't find the link, will put it in edit) to create his stats, along with Book of Spirits and Inferno. The merits and abilites from each will be noted in the stats.
Now:
The Rasping Surgeon: Manifestation of Rationalized Guilt
Quote: "Hrrrssscchhh....*wheeze*"
Background: He was a man. He never was.
A paradox, perhaps, but then again, so is Silent Hill. And by mortal logic, he is, like the town, something that shouldn't exist, and yet does. Perhaps not in a form that could be understood by any human, mortal or supernatural, but still, he lives. And unlike so many other monsters in that accursed place, he has a past.
To understand who the Rasping Surgeon is-or perhaps, was-one must first understand the actions of Jeremiah Wright. A Christian Reconstructionist, he followed a radical, fundementalist agenda which taught that their particular version of God had decreed the apocalypse was nigh, and that humanity had to be saved to protect them from Hell when it came to Earth-and that anyone who fought against their rethoric was a pawn of the devil. Wright took this fringe theology to it's natural conclusion, believing that the "houses of sin"-namely, abortion clinics-had to be destroyed in order to protect humanss from their "corrupting influence". He was, simply put, a terrorist who happily bombed ultimately innocent institutions-subconsciously beacuse he was striking out at his doctor father, who left him after his mother died at 14.
His series of high-profile crimes continued until he attempted to destroy a Planned Parenthood building in Maine. Unbeknownst to him, a Dr. Hans Licthammer-a brilliant proctologist who, by any means, had thoroughly earned his last name, which means "hammer of light" in German-had decided to volunteer for the night rounds, something Wright had not planned for. At that very moment where he was strapping up the bomb to a boiler room gas line, Lichthammer entered the room to warm himself. Panicked, the terroist knocked the surgeon over and scambled outside, detonating the bomb.
Beacuse of it's improper setting, the bomb, while it made a nice boom, failed to collapse part of the building, as Jeremiah had hoped. Not being the most intelligent of criminals, he returned to the boiler, in hopes of replacing the explosives and destroying the building properly. He got as far as taking out the spare canister, when Hans-or more accurately, what was left of him-lurched out of the darkness and grabbed him.
He was, by any means, a horrific sight. What was left of his face had been shredded by shrapnel, and the glob of charred flesh and bone where his left hand was had been partially fused with scapel that he had drawn in self-defense earlier. What was most grotesque, however, was his neck-a rouge piece of pipe had loged himself in his larynx, and when he spoke, it sounded more like an ashmatic's last breath then speech. As it was, he only spoke one word before dying, which despite it's German origins, did not need to be translated for his killer to understand: "War...um?" And when the police found him, Jeremiah still didn't have an answer.
In a bit of a scandal, Jeremiah did not go to prison: As it turns out, the judge-who was later brought up on corruption charges-was an ascriber to the particular brand of apocalyptic theology that Wright was acting on, and only gave him a stiff fine and a lifetime of community service, which he ducked out of on his second day. Mentally, though, the wannabe warrior of God was in turmoil. Although he continually tried to justify his action-the doctor was working in a house of Satan, he didn't deserve to live, right, right!?-yet no matter how hard he tried, all he saw was the nearly dead man with sadness in his good eye, asking him why he did this. And so it continued for four years, with Wright's sanity slowly dying, when he got a brochure in the mail:
"A Study of The Human Response to Guilt: A Medical Forum Sponsored by Hans Licthammer, M.D.-Alchemilla General, Silent Hill".
Naturally, Wright was shocked. How could a man who died by his own hands be still alive? After a week left alone reviewing the incident, Wright convinced himself that Hans-who couldn't be dead, he sent the letter, obviously-and that somehow the surgeon would forgive Wright for nearly killing him. And so, Jeremiah went out to Silent Hill.
He never came back. Perhaps the guilt of all the things he had done drove him to kill himself, perhaps some other victim of the town did after finding out what he had done, perhaps it was the vengeful shade of Licthammer, or, anticlimatically, a random monster. Whatever the case, on occasion, a survivor of the cursed town will report of having been stalked by an unusally intelligent creature, one whose face has been destroyed except for that which has been shredded by shrapnel, with a scapel fused to a burnt remmnant of a left hand, and with a bit of pipe sticking out of it's larynx...
Appearnce: The Rasping Surgeon appears as Hans Licthammer did at the time of his death-a badly burnt man of about 35, with a thread of tissue connecting a rusted scapel to his left sort-of-a-hand (it doesn't really look like a proper one), and a shattered pipe sticking out of his throat. He wears a booldied lab coat with bits of metal shrapnel attached to it, and a C4 explosive fused to his chest. He doesn't speak beyond a raspy wheeze (thus his name), but it's easy to tell he he has a dark sense of humor, giving a coughing laugh when he sucessfully executes a trap or he grapples a victim. Intrestingly, obsevant people will note he has a hoodie similar to a Pyramid Head's helmet-which frequently, his targets are able to see, but strangely are ignored by them beyond an intial seizing up-perhaps due to the fact that they know that someone is already being stalked.
Storytelling Hints: The Rasping Surgeon is like a Pyramid Head, with one crucial difference-he has the ability to plan long term. Wether this is beacuse he is the ghost of Licthammer twisted into a dark form by bitterness over a pointless death, Jeremiah after being given a fitting fate, a combination, or something else, not even supernatural means can say-like an Infernal demon, he has a Keeper of Secrets ability that pervents people from looking into his mind or past-which is perhaps for the better. In any case, he is a master of traps and ambushes, and his Pheremone ability only adds to his natural skill at leading other monsters to attack his target. However, he isn't always chasing after somone when he sees them. Sometimes he intentionally performs actions that force a target to confront his guilt, such as leaving articulate graffiti sutibly neediling him about his past, or medical journals that examine the nature of rationalizations. Indeed, guilt-assaging justifications are what the Surgeon is attracted to, as opposed to a Pyramid Head-it's for that reason that he often targets supernatural targets, who have a tendancy to perform actions they know are worng but try-lamely-to convince themselves were the right thing, or that they had no other choice. Even stranger, he occasionally helps his victims, pressuring them into comitting actions that get them closer to whatever objective they have in Silent Hill-why he does this, only he can say, and as mentioned before, he doesn't speak.
(Stats coming up later)
Edit: Found the link (http://mrgone.rocksolidshells.com/pdf/NWOD/Silent_Hill.pdf).
Well, after reciving a few responses, I have enough to write his fluff, and then his stats in a later post.
Note: I used Mr. Gone's book on a Silent Hill setting (didn't find the link, will put it in edit) to create his stats, along with Book of Spirits and Inferno. The merits and abilites from each will be noted in the stats.
Now:
The Rasping Surgeon: Manifestation of Rationalized Guilt
Quote: "Hrrrssscchhh....*wheeze*"
Background: He was a man. He never was.
A paradox, perhaps, but then again, so is Silent Hill. And by mortal logic, he is, like the town, something that shouldn't exist, and yet does. Perhaps not in a form that could be understood by any human, mortal or supernatural, but still, he lives. And unlike so many other monsters in that accursed place, he has a past.
To understand who the Rasping Surgeon is-or perhaps, was-one must first understand the actions of Jeremiah Wright. A Christian Reconstructionist, he followed a radical, fundementalist agenda which taught that their particular version of God had decreed the apocalypse was nigh, and that humanity had to be saved to protect them from Hell when it came to Earth-and that anyone who fought against their rethoric was a pawn of the devil. Wright took this fringe theology to it's natural conclusion, believing that the "houses of sin"-namely, abortion clinics-had to be destroyed in order to protect humanss from their "corrupting influence". He was, simply put, a terrorist who happily bombed ultimately innocent institutions-subconsciously beacuse he was striking out at his doctor father, who left him after his mother died at 14.
His series of high-profile crimes continued until he attempted to destroy a Planned Parenthood building in Maine. Unbeknownst to him, a Dr. Hans Licthammer-a brilliant proctologist who, by any means, had thoroughly earned his last name, which means "hammer of light" in German-had decided to volunteer for the night rounds, something Wright had not planned for. At that very moment where he was strapping up the bomb to a boiler room gas line, Lichthammer entered the room to warm himself. Panicked, the terroist knocked the surgeon over and scambled outside, detonating the bomb.
Beacuse of it's improper setting, the bomb, while it made a nice boom, failed to collapse part of the building, as Jeremiah had hoped. Not being the most intelligent of criminals, he returned to the boiler, in hopes of replacing the explosives and destroying the building properly. He got as far as taking out the spare canister, when Hans-or more accurately, what was left of him-lurched out of the darkness and grabbed him.
He was, by any means, a horrific sight. What was left of his face had been shredded by shrapnel, and the glob of charred flesh and bone where his left hand was had been partially fused with scapel that he had drawn in self-defense earlier. What was most grotesque, however, was his neck-a rouge piece of pipe had loged himself in his larynx, and when he spoke, it sounded more like an ashmatic's last breath then speech. As it was, he only spoke one word before dying, which despite it's German origins, did not need to be translated for his killer to understand: "War...um?" And when the police found him, Jeremiah still didn't have an answer.
In a bit of a scandal, Jeremiah did not go to prison: As it turns out, the judge-who was later brought up on corruption charges-was an ascriber to the particular brand of apocalyptic theology that Wright was acting on, and only gave him a stiff fine and a lifetime of community service, which he ducked out of on his second day. Mentally, though, the wannabe warrior of God was in turmoil. Although he continually tried to justify his action-the doctor was working in a house of Satan, he didn't deserve to live, right, right!?-yet no matter how hard he tried, all he saw was the nearly dead man with sadness in his good eye, asking him why he did this. And so it continued for four years, with Wright's sanity slowly dying, when he got a brochure in the mail:
"A Study of The Human Response to Guilt: A Medical Forum Sponsored by Hans Licthammer, M.D.-Alchemilla General, Silent Hill".
Naturally, Wright was shocked. How could a man who died by his own hands be still alive? After a week left alone reviewing the incident, Wright convinced himself that Hans-who couldn't be dead, he sent the letter, obviously-and that somehow the surgeon would forgive Wright for nearly killing him. And so, Jeremiah went out to Silent Hill.
He never came back. Perhaps the guilt of all the things he had done drove him to kill himself, perhaps some other victim of the town did after finding out what he had done, perhaps it was the vengeful shade of Licthammer, or, anticlimatically, a random monster. Whatever the case, on occasion, a survivor of the cursed town will report of having been stalked by an unusally intelligent creature, one whose face has been destroyed except for that which has been shredded by shrapnel, with a scapel fused to a burnt remmnant of a left hand, and with a bit of pipe sticking out of it's larynx...
Appearnce: The Rasping Surgeon appears as Hans Licthammer did at the time of his death-a badly burnt man of about 35, with a thread of tissue connecting a rusted scapel to his left sort-of-a-hand (it doesn't really look like a proper one), and a shattered pipe sticking out of his throat. He wears a booldied lab coat with bits of metal shrapnel attached to it, and a C4 explosive fused to his chest. He doesn't speak beyond a raspy wheeze (thus his name), but it's easy to tell he he has a dark sense of humor, giving a coughing laugh when he sucessfully executes a trap or he grapples a victim. Intrestingly, obsevant people will note he has a hoodie similar to a Pyramid Head's helmet-which frequently, his targets are able to see, but strangely are ignored by them beyond an intial seizing up-perhaps due to the fact that they know that someone is already being stalked.
Storytelling Hints: The Rasping Surgeon is like a Pyramid Head, with one crucial difference-he has the ability to plan long term. Wether this is beacuse he is the ghost of Licthammer twisted into a dark form by bitterness over a pointless death, Jeremiah after being given a fitting fate, a combination, or something else, not even supernatural means can say-like an Infernal demon, he has a Keeper of Secrets ability that pervents people from looking into his mind or past-which is perhaps for the better. In any case, he is a master of traps and ambushes, and his Pheremone ability only adds to his natural skill at leading other monsters to attack his target. However, he isn't always chasing after somone when he sees them. Sometimes he intentionally performs actions that force a target to confront his guilt, such as leaving articulate graffiti sutibly neediling him about his past, or medical journals that examine the nature of rationalizations. Indeed, guilt-assaging justifications are what the Surgeon is attracted to, as opposed to a Pyramid Head-it's for that reason that he often targets supernatural targets, who have a tendancy to perform actions they know are worng but try-lamely-to convince themselves were the right thing, or that they had no other choice. Even stranger, he occasionally helps his victims, pressuring them into comitting actions that get them closer to whatever objective they have in Silent Hill-why he does this, only he can say, and as mentioned before, he doesn't speak.
(Stats coming up later)
Edit: Found the link (http://mrgone.rocksolidshells.com/pdf/NWOD/Silent_Hill.pdf).