SUETHULU: Ian's Epilogue

Ian's sort-of-epilogue first. He wrote it; I've done my best to meddle with the sentences to improve the flow, but other than that it's his. I think Marty asked him somewhat differently than he did me; either that, or I was weird for formulating it as a direct response. Anyway:

I had forgotten about Ian's long term goal, so here we go.

Since Ian was basically me with magic powers sent to CT universe, the CT universe was something that needed to be fixed (as a person, I am not big on most of the Elder gods screwing around with mortals), and from my observations, the only people who could actually do anything in this (dis)utopia were cultists, I would have to create my own cult. I don’t want to be directly worshiped, so I based my new ‘cult’ off of Christianity since the entire Cthulutech setting seemed like it was basically the coming of the antichrist [2] and I vaguely recalled that at the end of the world the Archangel Michael would come down from the heavens and fight to protect the remains of humanity in their darkest hour [3]. Well, I had gotten healing powers, and at higher levels I would gain the ability to polymorph, so I figured that I would adopt the persona of the Archangel Michael -- having given up most of his heavenly powers to join humanity in the struggle against the evils that beset them. I will admit to having a bit of a martyr complex in that this plan would make me the target of most of the attacks (I’m also not sure how I ended up being the parties ‘tank’ and healer at the same time, which is a rubbish idea. As a mage I had rubbish hit points, and my racial class was completely useless).

My plan was this: I would go around being a vigilante saving people and miraculously healing their wounds while ‘smiting’ the demons  (dhohanoids) and using this vigilantism to distract from our research and the actions of my allies who were using science and diplomacy/hacking to erode Chrysalis Corporation’s nigh-omnipotent control. Turns out that Religion in general is considered cult activity and shut down, so that wouldn’t work, since they would see the Christianity/offshoot as a cult (which to be fair is probably part of the setting). The rate of experience gain was (glacially) slow due to having reduced Exp gain from things like, well the Tagers did most of the work or you wouldn’t have been able to do this without the Tagers. I knew I would never be able to implement this plan before the game was long over, since polymorph self was a 4^th level spell in normal D&D. I think that lesser polymorph self, and alter self were insufficient for what I wanted  (wings) and I think poly-self was increased to a higher level.

So I planned to have my character die in a blaze of glory, since at this point severe hopelessness was affecting me out of character; logically after spending a few days in this crap the character version of me would be clinically depressed and likely suicidal anyway[4]. Sadly I was either toggled as plot important or he didn’t want to kill me off for some reason. So I left a note (with Lord of the Rings References [5])  in the last session that I was a liability to to the team and could be stealthier without them etc… And Trekkin(Zeroller) decided to quit as well so Cael joined him, and now we are skulking around hiding the stupid thing until Marty comes by to pick it up. I was also considering keeping him, because the DM had indicated I might have Authyr powers if I wanted (since I have several of my own settings I have made), but I decided against that because:

1. It would screw me over since while I might be an authyr I’m not the over Authyr so it’s up to his interpretation/terminology nitpick, despite the fact that It doesn’t work like wishes and backfire, because It’s not the wording that matters, it’s the intent behind the words that causes the change in the setting or something like that.

2. My worlds are fairly low power, since I like worlds where armies and soldiers are relevant and low level characters can actually get things done. So would be easily conquered by Marty and I hate losing without a chance of fighting back, especially since that would mean someone else would be using my settings before I ever got the chance, and I would always think they were doing it wrong.

3. I would never get the chance to use the power since it might ruin the monopoly on ability in the setting. And since players can’t get powers, something would happen to ruin it or mind influence me or some-such.

Thus began my plan to make a freedom fighter.

1.        (Since the government was on their side completely, I was also convinced black spire was trying to sabotage us. I was applying my character aka my logic to super-secret agents wanting something done not helping at all, and actively hindering our attempts to do their job)

2.       Even I can quote scripture, so take it with a grain of salt, but in my worn out state of mind it made perfect sense and confirmation bias combined with certain biblical passages, you could possibly see how OOC I might think it could vaguely work

A.      Daniel 8:23-25 "And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.

The ‘kingdom’ of mankind is ending, the cultists are winning, A powerful ruler will take charge (dark sentences is possibly a reference to Authyr power or magic both of which Marty has).

"And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.

Marty is incredibly powerful, but not due to his actions, instead he is powerful because he wrote that he was powerful, he is fighting an inter-reality WAR where he has SEVERAL deathstars (and other equally or more destructive weapons), he is rapidly getting stronger, he is crushing any that oppose him, and many mighty and holy people are opposed to tyrants.

"And through his policy also he shall cause craft (fraud, deceit, treachery) to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand."

His political policies are laughable, and will cause abuses of power to come fairly easily. Most of his actions are for making himself more awesome. I will admit to being stumped on if he would lose to the prince of princes in his setting, and being broken without a hand pretty much just implies a leading or diplomatic loss.

B.      Daniel 7:24-27 "And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.

"And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

He basically acts like he is above gods (and kindof is in the setting), he probably convinced religious fanatics that their religion is not the superior way to do things by wearing them out? Or I ran out of patience, and I’ve been told I have the patience of a saint? He is screwing around with time and realities taking them over and imposing his view of superior laws upon them, and they seem to be falling to him rapidly. Eventually he will run into an enemy that can’t be defined by rules or systems(?)

"But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.

After his kingdom falls it will be completely destroyed, and the people who survived would inherit the kingdom (or another game, which is like heaven compared to this one :P).

C.       Revelation 13:3-18 "And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

His supervampire race cannot be killed and regenerates more impressively than the Tarrasque (Probably).

"And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

How do you kill the un-killable, superior vampire who can stop time and perfect clone himself, not to mention how you stand up to him when he can mind control you, most of his enemies surrendered and ‘worshiped’ him.

"And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

His Authyr power allows him to speak great things that are blasphemous, such as basically retconning entire realities. Dunno bout the time limit, haven’t gotten that far.

"And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

A continuation on the previous statement, but with the added breaking of basic science and reality in general.

"And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

Must I go over what power he was given to make war with the saints and to win? Authyr. His power over all kindreds, tongues, and nation would be his mind control powers which he demonstrated in Star wars.

"And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

He is not from the realities he conquered, and he basically forced them to worship him and his way of life.

"If any man has an ear, let him hear.

"He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

"And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

His clones?

"And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

Clones going around making people convert.

"And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

"And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

He does ‘miracles’ to get people in on his empire by saving them after they are seriously beaten.

"And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

He could make more clones of himself, any who don’t agree with his empire were destroyed (after being given a choice to surrender of course)

"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

"And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

The only F*cking people who can do ANYTHING in this system are the ones he LETS do things HE wants.

"Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six." (666)

7200 realities (0s are repeats of number combination to the left, counting numbers come in sets of 2, where the actual number is the first minus the second, - is used for an actual system, so XY00 is X-Y,X-Y,X-Y) ok ignore that, I find conspiracies with numbers hilarious though.

3.       Why did I choose Archangel Michael? I grew up hearing stories about how awesome he was and a few other factors. And if I was going to ‘become’ an angel to cope with the stress of the setting, may as well aim high and stick with what the script to make my argument that he was the antichrist more believable to the populace. Of all of the angels, Michael is apparently the only one directly referenced as an archangel; his name means “Who is like god?” which is supposed to help encourage humility since the answer should be no one (probably?). He is also the leader of the army of god which makes him the ideal persona for leading a fight against Cyrsalis. He used a sword (which I know the basics of using).

Supposedly he is also the one who will defeat the antichrist in the end times, and he is known for basically kicking beating the crap out of the Devil. http://www.badassoftheweek.com/index.cgi?id=31557723089

Daniel 12:1 “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered.”

4.       Everyone I knew and cared about was dead, nothing I did mattered, the world was inevitably going to end due to cults controlling everything, my spell research was painfully slow and spellcasting physically made me a liability to my current friends when I became exhausted. Not to mention at this point I had killed at least one other human (or helped kill many), and was fighting horrors not meant for humans to deal with. I had been impaled by a Nightgaunt’s tail. Reality wasn’t consistent, technology made less sense to me and was even harder to use. My entire Profession was now obsolete due to D-engines.  And several other things I can’t remember.

5.        “I will be leaving to reduce the chances of Sauron and the orcs getting their hands on the one ring, since if anything happened to me it might decide to find a new bearer amoung the orcs. It will also be easier to conceal the ring from him if it's only one or two people, instead of four. I also expect that you will continue to be a thorn in his side which should divert attention away from myself, letting me slip through the cracks. Meanwhile I will try to figure out how to use the ring and if there is somewhere like mount doom for it to be destroyed.
Good Luck,
Frodo (and sam)”

PS:I prepared explosive runes this morning.

PPS:I would have, but I don't know how to do that, so you should probably dispose of this message.”