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Battlelords of the 23rd Century Scenario

                               

Dwarven Deathseekers

Dwarves all over the Megaverse have a tendency to go over the edge, their bouts of anger are legendary amongst other species. Something that is both feared and respected. It is rightly seen in awe by other species, for as the old tales or myths as most call them tell over and over again that many a dwarf has turned the course of history let alone a battle by going over the edge. 

There is truth to these folktales told to entertain youngsters around the campfire. For these tales speak of those dwarves that have slipped into madness in the heat of battle and becomes trapped in their berserker rage. This is no myth or legend, it is fact, a unique ability given to dwarves by the gods they worship. Many scholars of antiquity say this was an ability given to the dwarves by one of the Old Ones or an Unnameable being who used dwarves as his pawns against another Old One or Unnameable being- and that one used Elves as his pawns. This may explain why the two species are so opposites of each other and why the two species are always clashing and fighting across the Megaverse. What a team these opposites will be if they unite. 

There are some dwarves who don't just lose it, but go over the edge and revel in it. These dwarves seek out powerful foes to fight against and be killed by. These match ups appear to be on the face of it, suicidal. These dwarves who are totally over the edge, find it hard to understand why the unbeatable opponent lies dead at their feet once they have fought him. When they were led to believe that this particular opponent they chose was totally unbeatable. For there is something that makes it really difficult for them to achieve this noble goal of theirs, and that is in their madness and fever they don't realise that they also happen to be Invulnerable, which rather puts the breaks on them being killed in combat.

These dwarves are known as Deathseekers, sometimes called Deathstalkers or Dreamchasers, many make the mistake thinking they are suicidal. Those who think this are very wrong, a fact proven over and over again, by those foolish enough to start a fight with them, thinking these dwarves will just stand up and wait to be killed, and thus they will get a reputation, for slaying the berserker. These dwarves do not seek to commit suicide but look for worthy opponents, whom they see an honour to fight against and by whose hand it will be an honour to die by. To die fighting and being defeated by a worthy champion is what they seek, not to die sleeping or by the assassins blade. These dwarves seek to die a glorious death fighting the ultimate fight. A fight, whose tale will be sung, remembered and talked about throughout history from that moment on.

Once these dwarves lose it, they aren't just mindless killing machines. In fact they appear to be more devious and cunning than a so called sane individual. They aren't just lashing out, but fighting the ultimate fight, where they are pitting themselves up against a worthy opponent. It is this that sets them apart from other species berserkers and makes them such dangerous and great warriors. Who you are glad are on your side and not your enemy. 

What drives dwarves so over the edge, is magic. In the tales of old, dwarves dealing with magic in the dwarven/elven wars were referred to as mad, and many sought out evil partnerships and magics to win, like rune weapons-enslaving sentient beings for their weapons, but this was driven by the madness caused by the magics and not encouraged by normal dwarves. Whereas elves revel in magic, dwarves just go over the edge, when they are surrounded by it for a long time.

Those dwarves who used enchanted weapons and used dwarven battle chants or battle cries were the ones that eventually became Deathseekers.  Many Dwarven battle chants were invocations of magic of days gone by, though many who uttered did not know they were invoking magic. Usually harmless, but when you held an enchanted weapon, it became inevitable that you were encased in magic, eventually the magically energies drove you over the edge.

In the saturated PPE world of Rifts Earth, you don't need enchanted weapons, because all dwarves are surrounded by magically energies, slowly driving them over the edge, and those who utter their battle chants of old, eventually become the Deathseekers.

Optional:  a dwarf who has lived a while on Rifts Earth (7th lvl) has a 25% + 5% every level chance of losing it, first it will be frenzy, then it will be berseker rage, but eventually the dwarf will become a deathseeker.

Most Deathseekers lose their memories of the past, only remembering tiny fragments, like family, friends, enemies, outlines of battles they have been in. Most realize something is wrong, and as such tend to put their trust in their family and friends to guide them. Most Deathseekers will look to the person they trust for guidance. like hired muscle, they will wait for instruction to attack someone, like a child they will look at their guardian with expectancy when they want to go and fight someone, waiting for the go ahead to let lose.

In game terms, a Deathseeker player will look at his player group or a fellow player character as his Guardian, and trust him. Most Deathseekers if not told what to do, will end up fighting. If they see a fight going on, they will go and join in, unless restrained by their guardian. This trust could be abused by the guardian player character, however it must be pointed out, that the Deathseeker is not slow on the uptake, even though they appear to be by their reliance on a guardian. If they realize that the guardian player character  is taking advantage of them, then it will the right time for the GM to tell the guardian player character to roll up a new character, because only his character sheet is going to be left by the time the Deathseeker is through with his character.

At night it is  good idea for the Deathseeker to be tied up in a cage or cell, as they generally lose it, when sleeping. If they are constrained and alone, they tend not to break out and attack anyone in sight.

Deathseekers are the sort that knock on the front doors of Chitown fortress and ask if Emperor Prosek will come out and play, or they sit on the beach waiting for the Lord of the Deep turn up. Deathseekers choose to go to the Atlantis preserves so they can play seek with the Conservators. If their is someone with a reputation in a new town they visit, then it is most likely they will get a call from a Deathseeker. This is why a guardian is so important, to keep a leash on them, otherwise they leave a trail of utter destruction in their wake.

On Rifts Earth, many people speak of Lord Myriad having two muzzled Deathseekers on a leash of enchanted chains with him and he kept them in tiger cages.

 

Attributes/Attribute Requirements: None other than being over the edge.

Alignment: NOT APPLICABLE. They're Insane. It is more of a warrior's code that they act by in their "lucid" moments, when they aren't pulverising anything that they think makes a good target to have an argument against. They tend to be quite and in self thought, usually in a day dream state. It is really a very bad idea for whoever snaps them out of this state, as more than likely a Deathseeker will come out in a berseker rage. Rule of thumb, use their Guardian's alignment, as they will see right what their guardian does/likes and wrong what he/she dislikes or doesn't do.

Horror Factor/Awe: 13


R.C.C/O.C.C Abilities:

1) battle chant - When charging into battle the Deathseeker utters a war chant that protects him from harm and invigorates him with mystic energy, making him a supernatural creature (convert HP+SDC to MDC and PS becomes supernatural - able to harm creatures such as vampires). The chant also creates a HF of 16 +1 at level 3,5,7 and 9!. A save versus horror factor must be made for each attack of the dwarf while he does the chant for the melee. Also gives +1 attack. Add +1 to all saving throws and combat rolls.
Battle chant takes a melee to activate and lasts one minute + minute per level, each time it is invoked. NB: This battle chant is usually performed before or during a charge. During a charge a one off bonus is given, which multiples the dwarves Speed attribute by ten and allows them to leap ten times high and ten times across of normal leaping distance. For a one off charge and leap attack, the leap attack will also do X3 damage. This only works if they are charging and attacking. This can not be used for just leaping or attacking, it has to be a charge and end in an leap attack of the last attack of that melee. This attack will do double normal leap attack damage. It is this incredible charging leap attack that takes even elven battle lines by surprise. Suddenly in less than two melees they are on top of you when you thought you were standing a safe distance away. The dwarves after standing around and uttering an almighty guttural animalistic chant, well more of a scream that appears to be from the very bowls of hell start charging across the empty ground between the two battle lines. Then they suddenly appear to soar as they leap, and their enemies find a rather large axe or hammer embedded in their head in less than thirty seconds after the dwarves started chanting.

1) Insanity: Battle rage power: An extreme frenzy that grants the following unless a save vs insanity is made in any tense situation:
ALL HTH/MELEE attacks do double damage IN MDC! 
The death seeker is effectively temporarily invulnerable with 800 MDC and cannot be stunned/KO'd or knocked down!

This invulnerability regenerates 1d6X10 MDC per melee. 

Also add 1d6 to PS attribute each melee during this rage, 

also add 3d4 X10 MDC to invulnerability each melee of this rage. 

Add +2 to all saving and combat rolls, and then add +1 to all saving/combat rolls per melee of this rage. 

+1 attack for each melee for the duration of the battle rage power.

This means the longer the fight lasts, the more powerful these dwarves become.


In this rage these dwarves add their PS damage bonus to attacks. If their PS gave them +5 sdc damage, they add they will add to the damage they cause with their attacks. So if vibro knife did 1D6 MDC, for these dwarves it will do 1D6 + 5 MDC

These dwarves tend to be fighting the ultimate fight in their heads during this rage. They cannot tell friend from foe in this state, however as long as there are threats to them in this state and friends stay away, they will concentrate on their enemies. If friends try to force them out of this state, then it is good luck to the friend. These dwarves do not like to snap out of this state due to the high they are in and like to experience this high for as long as possible. They are addicted to it. This means when all enemies are defeated, the dwarf may turn on his friends, if they are attacking him to snap him out, they suddenly become part of the dwarves ultimate fight rage, and they will be treated as enemies and dealt as such. If friends and innocents do not interfere there is a good chance that the dwarf in this rage will concentrate on inanimate things to keep this high going. Mainly parked vehicles, robots, trees, stones, wall. This will involve attacking these things, head-butting walls is a common thing they do, until they are destroyed.

2) Insanity: Obsession, obsessed with defeating undefeatable oppenents. aka Abolishers, GB's Thornheads and so on 

4) The reason this occ keeps on going for even more powerful enemies is this: 
Addiction: This character gets huge amounts of euphoria when they take on these unbeatable opponents. Each lvl they go up they lose these bonuses and euphoria they get, and only get them back when they move onto an even more powerful foe, and the process repeats 
itself and then they move onto another more powerful foe and so on and on.
Roughly between 2000-3000XP, after a worthy opponent has been selected, these dwarves find themselves losing their high. In game terms this means, that their battle chant lasts for a melee + melee per level rather than a minute + minute per level. Each melee they fight they lose 10 MDC per level each melee of their fight. A third level dwarf will lose 30mdc per each melee that is provided by his battle chant. 
They also lose 1 attack per melee, and they also get -1 to all saving and combat rolls per melee.
They also start losing1D4 of each attribute per melee of battle chant.
The GM & player should agree a reasonable opponent who the character will become obsessed with at each level.
NB: this dwarf will not go up in level irrespective of how much experience he has, until this foe is defeated in a fair fight. one-on-one, toe-to-toe. The opponent can have as much helps as he likes, but the dwarf must defeat him on his own, without outside help. If the dwarf even thinks there was outside influence that helped him to win, then he has to go through the fight again. It must be their doing, and not others. They will not accept help for this. A player will tolerate other players stopping the helpers of his opponent from interfering, but if an outside even appears to have assisted the player defeat his chosen opponent, then as far as a Deathseeker is concerned, he did not fight the perfect fight. Until he does fight the perfect with the chosen opponent, he cannot move on. It isn't a question of going toe-to-toe, the planning part of executing his fight is just as important to the Deathseeker. It is fighting and executing a perfect fight against a worthy opponent. Those chosen targets defeated by a Deathseeker, don't necessary have to be killed, though in their berserk state, they usually leave a trail utter destruction in their wake. The Deathseekers will look to pick a much better opponent next time.

Player characters at every 3000XP.These dwarves start losing euphoric effects after 3000XP of choosing target. For Player characters this can be at each new level between level 1-4, and after that it has to be 3000XP before euphoric effect is lost. If Player character has not defeated his opponent in ultimate fight and chosen a new opponent by the time they have earned enough experience points to reach level two. They will 1) not go up a level until chosen opponent is defeated and 2) they lose their euphoric effects. Same goes for reaching level three and four, but once level four is reached, the player only has until he has achieved 3000XP to defeat opponent in ultimate fight and pick a new worthy opponent, and the cycle repeats itself.

The Deathseeker will not be satisfied with defeating this obsessed foe, just once in a fight, a deathseeker may fight their chosen opponent dozens of times, before moving onto the next target. Some opponents they may only encounter once. If the Deathseeker wants to defeat a member of the Lazlo Militia, and he is sitting in China, he is unlikely to come into contact with a Lazlo Militia.

There are many things that may cause a deathseeker to develop an obsession with an opponent and these should be roleplayed out. For a deathseeker can only move on (go up in levels) once a new opponent has been chosen by the deathseeker and the previous opponent has been defeated or failed to kill the deathseeker.  The opponent should not be unique target if the Deathseeker is below level 10. They should exist in numbers, so the Deathseeker can seek them out. This does not mean the deathseeker won't fight anyone else. They are in a semi-permanent rage most of the time, and anything that looks like a fight will push them over the edge.

5) Deathseekers appear to have a form of sixth sense and advanced sixth sense. 

They have a sort of insight, that means they notice stuff that others don't. This is why it is so hard for their guardians and enemies to take advantage of their trusting and childlike nature. 

In game terms, a GM may tell them things that players have not noticed, but for some reason the Deathseeker has. Most people tend to ignore the Deathseeker, as nothing more than muscle, forgetting that they have these insights and because they are trying to fight the ultimate fight, they can be valuable contributors to the cause if given a chance, in their more lucid moments.


6) Other than restraining them somehow or Knocking them out somehow, there is little you can do to snap them out of this state. There is one method that appears to slowly bring them out, and that is the Warlock spell Rainbow. In the Berserker state, this allows these dwarves to concentrate on their enemies and then if they focus on the Rainbow, they will slowly come out of the range. The euphoric effects of the magically induced rainbow in their berserk state seem similar to the euphoric dwarf, and they snap out of the rage. Then they try to understand why they were looking at the rainbow, why would they be fascinated by a rainbow of all things, aren't only kids and those sissy elves and squishy humans meant to be into that sort of thing. It is said that the Deathseekers seek this death in combat and refuse to come out of their rage because they are seeing heaven in this state and dying in glorious battle is the keys to their heaven. Maybe in this altered state of mind, these dwarves are able to see into other worlds. 

R.C.C/O.C.C Bonuses:

As dwarf with the following bonuses
+1D6 to ME
+1D6 to ME
+2D6 to PS
+D6 to PP
+2D6 PE
+2 attacks.
+2 to all saving and combat rolls

S.D.C/M.D.C::

+3D6x10 SDC + 2D4 X10 SDC per level
+D6x10 HP + 4D6HP per level

P.P.E:

normal

I.S.P

normal

R.C.C/O.C.C Skills:

As headhunter occ

Hand to Hand: as headhunter occ



R.C.C/O.C.C Related Skills:

as headhunter occ

Communications:
Domestic:
Electrical:
Espionage:
Mechanical:
Medical:
Military:
Physical:
Pilot:
Pilot Related:
Rogue:
Science:
Technical:
W.P Any



Secondary Skills:

as headhunter occ

Appearance/Size/Weight:

As dwarf

Equipment:

as headhunter occ. Deathseekers usually use unbelievably large and heavy melee weapons. Which they wield as if they using toothpicks. They use weapons like double headed axes, hammers, maces or halberds. These are usually two handed weapons, but they use them one handed. In the past Deathseekers would have one enchanted melee weapon, but on Rifts Earth as the change is caused by the saturated PPE environment, this may not be the case. So optional whether your Deathseeker starts out with an enchanted melee weapon. Most Deathseekers do not use guns. Guns preferred would be multiple weapon systems, of the rail gun, particle beam variety, extremely heavy and uncomfortable to use for normal people. they tend to favour explosives rather than lasers or small arms. For Deathseekers there is nothing quite like feeling your fists or your axe impacting your opponents face. Using firearms is not quite the same as that. 

Money:

as headhunter occ

Enhancements

Optional as headhunter occ. Usually getting enhanced is seen as cheating, unfair on the Lord of the Deep you challenged to a duel at high noon. If he doesn't have any why should you.

This webpage was created by the OneTen rp'ing group. All work that appears on this page is (C) Copyright the OneTen rp'ing group 2011.