Slay The Ascended: Full Premise

This is a rework, rewording and expansion of my Slay The Ascended! post which, hopefully, better outline the ideas and concepts since that original post was an old draft I one day decided to just overhaul a bit and finish just because it was the mood for the day, not knowing it would become one of my most viewed posts. The original ideas, outlined less formally, can be found in that post and its recommended to read it first.

The Time of Ending

On some fundamental level, Mankind always understood there would come a time where our species would end. It could be a species-wide fear of the inevitability of Death as every civilization out there, every culture, speak of the end of time: be it a permanent end or a great cataclysmic era which will usher in a new era. From the Mayan Calendar to the Book of Revelation to the cycles of the Kalpa to Ragnarok. On some level we always knew it was coming. Or maybe its just species-wide neurosis and fear of death and change or, perhaps, we knew that whatever great unknown would follow would cause is great distress and reveal to use new fears beyond our imagination.

Art by Mario Alberti.

The Ages turned. Around 2030, it just seemed humanity was falling apart: pandemics were in increase even after the somewhat hysterical (at times) response to the 2020 pandemic. The first superbugs arose in the following years and made a Chinese flu look like a complete joke. Entire species of animals and plants died in a mere year or two. Those were the easier times. As the world seemed on the verge of collapse, political and social tensions of all stripes just seemed to unravel at an ever escalating pace, with every continent erupting in either war and/or civil disorder and millions died. More died from the superbugs. The rest? It was merely the start of a new nightmare in a depleted world. The voices started. There were spikes in mental cases which many attributed to the decade of chaos but as time progress, it seemed as if some deeper madness was gripping humanity as mental breakdowns escalated and turned people into monsters: cannibalism, cults and the likes arose in this period which only fueled the chaos.

By 2040, the brief Age of Monsters had begun. Unexplained freak mutations had dramatically increased in the past decade but by the 2040 it had reached a boiling point as nature itself seemed to unravel in ways which past science could not explain. Cancerous growths of unexplained fleshy matter, parasitical worms with mind control and farm animals reverting to an almost primal state, such as chicken growing teeth and a taste for flesh. As mad dreams and visions kept increasing, the humans changed as well, only further driving humanity in a frenzy. Entire new religious branches were born then, only to fuel the fires of war, as entire population began accusing each others of devil worship or similar concepts. Others blamed the government mandate vaccines of the 2030 which had prove ineffective at best or dangerous at worst. It seemed humanity would never catch a break. The wheel of the Ages was turning. There was a new reality boiling on the surface of the world which seemed ever stretched. Night kept growing darker. Madness kept running deeper. Stars burnt out in the sky. Freak or still births peaked to three quarter of all births in a single year. It rained blood. Entire populations shuffled into the wilderness, naked and screaming the names of what could be alien gods. The end of days had come.

The Ascended

No one knows for sure when exactly the first of the Ascended arrived. Perhaps they had always been among us, even if this seems unlikely or, more likely, they are the byproduct of those times of ending when the ages of the world turned. When they appeared it didn't take long for people to take notice and, within days of their appearance, small towns and outpost had fully surrendered to their new master without a single weapon being fired. There was something so fundamentally perfect about the Ascended which, combined with their innate gifts, just made them natural leaders. Some were gurus and philosophers while others presented themselves more akin to warrior-gods who would help their faithful reclaim their lands from raving bands of lunatics or particularly dangerous bandits and traffickers. One by one, the various remaining pockets of human civilization bent the knee to their new masters, the new rulers of mankind and our species direct successors: the Ascended. Their reign had come.

Ascended Culture and their Thralls

Art by Anthony Jones

The Ascended are called that way because they are above and beyond the mere humanity they emerged from. They do not hide that they were once human, because much of their perfection is an improvement upon humanity. Ascended have a language of their own and their own word to describe themselves but this language cannot be spoken by human or even understood by our puny, primitive minds. They communicate in a language with concepts utterly beyond our understanding but beyond that little is truly understood of their emergent culture. Ascended see themselves as above and beyond human failings and the natural leaders of our species from here on out. They have emerged across all human cultures and all creeds and claim to be beyond and above petty distinctions of mankind, even if many speculate they must have their own cliques, philosophies and beliefs but we would not be able to understand them.

An Ascended is the master of any settlement, with the largest settlements on Earth hosting a population of Ascended in a certain hierarchy which vary depending on the local culture. Different Ascended groups, called either pantheons or cabals have different societal organization depending on the ruling Ascended's specific plans for humanity, as they organize mankind and tend to them much like in a way we would tend a garden. Some Ascended have created military-like places, ruled with an iron (but just?) fist, with a meritocratic system rewarding skill and loyalty for the human soldiers as to encourage them to see themselves as mankind's defenders. In other places, they create almost anarchist commune of pot-smoking pseudo hippies which encourage free love while in others they could create religious cults or even hyper traditionalist places with the goal of ensuring a steady breeding of new humans for generations to come. War between different pantheons and their thralls should be seen as non-existent, even if in reality it is more complex.

Those who serve the Ascended are wholly devoted to their new masters. After all, are they not perfect? All Ascended have an innate charisma and magnetism which borders on mind control and they are able to draw strong emotions from entire human populations. This is not pure mind domination, however: very few Ascended (if any) can truly order a human like a full puppet. Rather, they built their devotion through the years by engineering a culture where the Ascended are not only seen as infallible gods but also by ensuring people have a reason to believe it. Ascended-ran settlement are the most prosperous, stable and safe of all the world's remaining human cities. Any mutated monster in the area is slain in glorious combat by the local Ascended, their heads display on pike or their skins turned into coats and capes. The Ascended cultivate an image of heroism and godhood which help reinforce the belief system they have created. Slowly but surely, humanity has slowly changed and simply accepted that they must defer to the superior Ascended, much like how a child defer to their parent because their parent knows more. To be a second class citizen and chattel to the Ascended is a gift and a privilege, for who would not want to be loved by living Gods? Some are driven by love, by faith or even by lust as many Ascended have such a perfected physique and raw animal magnetism that entire crop of humans willingly surrender to become their sexual slaves and perhaps one day hope to help them birth Ascended children.

Ascended Biology

Art by Nyctoinc Illustrations

Each Ascended began its life as a mortal human and was transformed into another Ascended through infusion of genetic material. The process is dangerous and unstable as well as excruciatingly painful as well as utterly destructive to a human sense of self and identity. After days of agonizing with a body riddled with ever creeping cancerous, alien growth the flesh will slowly dissolve and the body will seemingly melt and then harden into a crystalline cocoon, at which point transformation into an Ascended can begin. Nothing of the original body remain unchanged and the individual is changed at a cellular or even molecular level. The trauma and confusion of Ascension leaves the individual original humanity behind no matter what. There are no 'friendly neighborhood Ascended' who secretly retain their old personalities. While they can retain their memory of past lives, most willingly discard them as their newly born body continues to mature.

Ascended appear, at least initially, as physically perfected humans even if this can somewhat vary. They are tall (most start at six feet and a half and can grow to eight feet tall), clean limbed and perfectly symmetrical. Some appear eternally youthful while others have a completely cosmetic age, appearing as well formed and well preserved older individuals: these tend to radiate more a sense of wisdom, kindness, paternal love or intellect. Yet even the 'old' looking Ascended have a supernatural, nay, unnatural beauty and perfect to them. Their skin tone and hair color can vary and can include all human permutations and even colors or traits which do not exist in humans, such as green hair, pure white skin or even blue skin. Their eyes tend to almost shine in the darkness, with some even having flat out glowing eyes. Some are elfin, with a thin and tall wispy beauties while others are brawny, with a perfectly sculpted physique no human could ever hope to match. Different strains of Ascended have different styles or even fashion to their biology, such as those who prefer a more divine or even almost 'demonic' appearance, with horns and fangs or even growing an extra pair of arms. One must keep in mind that the subtle mind warping of Ascended ensure that human thralls are not bothered: indeed, should a particularly popular Ascended decide to reorganize their biology on a whim, expect sycophants to self mutilate to emulate their master or mistress. To some extent, Ascended biology is just as much sculpted and engineered as it is part of their biology, as each represent an idealized form of perfection to their old human selves. Several Ascended are also hermaphrodites or, in some odd cases, utterly lacking in sexual organs if such was the perfect the individual desired.

This, however, is a lie.

Art by Marcus Siergiejew

The idealized human form of an Ascended is not their true form. Their 'godly' form is a coping mechanism of the newly reborn Ascended, as their real form is utterly alien and disgusting. While there is an eldritch, unnatural and alien mindset inside every Ascended they retain enough of their humanity for vanity. Indeed, such vanity is generally enhanced to an absurd degree. The true form of an Ascended is always unique and always alien and disgusting to look upon, with some even lacking a human form at all are nothing but a head and snapping, razor-tipped tentacles or stretched multi limbed bug-forms with ephemeral wings or floating piles of organs held aloft by gaseous excretion. The Ascended never show these forms to their followers and most, if not all, are unaware of them.

Ascended are eldritch monstrosities, with an unnatural physiology. They are by default stronger, faster and smarter than the average human and able to heal extremely quickly without any lasting consequences, even if healing larger wounds require consumption of human biomass. As one would expect given the thematic, the Ascended are vampiric creatures and they sustain themselves off of humans. Actual consumption of flesh and blood is rare, usually every few months and rather they live off the mental energies and devotion of their human thralls. Through a mixture of pheromones and psychic abilities, the Ascended inspire the blind devotion in humans they crave so much and in turn slowly feed the mental energy this generate as human minds are slowly warped and sucked of their sanity. The full abilities of the Ascended are unclear and it is likely even they are not aware of their full potential and limitations.

Despite their clear advantages, however, Ascended are not immortal (even if its likely they do not age). They are still flesh and blood, even if said flesh and blood can sometimes appear to bend the rules of reality a bit. When not surrounded by their entourage of thralls and servants, an Ascended can be cornered and killed with human weapons. Blowing their brains out and then setting the twitching remains on fire usually works, as does hacking or blowing them apart. According to their own propaganda they are true immortals but this is false: around the world, some have already been killed in gruesome manners. They are not Gods. They are creatures of flesh. They can be killed.

The 'Slay the Ascended!' Sandbox

Art by Lina Porras

A 'Slay the Ascended!' campaign is very well suited to a sandbox and a lot of it can overlap with typical fantasy setting sandbox, even if it is set in the near, post apocalyptic future. There are ruins to explore (the lost cities, full of mutations, madness or cults) and there are monsters roaming around, namely the remaining mutations from the Age of Monsters. The key difference, however, is that player characters plays the part of the 'Rogue Humans', which are these human populations which have either not submitted to the Ascended or composed of people who have slowly broken away from the brainwashing and fled their fellow thralls. The key locations in a Slay the Ascended campaign are the various settlements under Ascended control, which own the most resources be it food, water and/or guns. Functionally, this mean players are either going to be functionally bandits and raiders or they will be saboteur, spies and 'fifth columnist' inside the Ascended-ruled settlements.  The more characters attack Ascended stronghold the more they will be hunted. This can be a good chance to take down an Ascended for good, should they be goaded to attack themselves.

One issue they will need to deal with is that most of their enemies are humans too. A life freed from the Ascended is not an easy life nor is it a good life. It requires, more often than not, to kill and steal from fellow humans and to uproot their way of life and ruin their day. The world of 'Slay the Ascended' is a bleak place and doesn't shy away from the realities that a resistance group can be a particularly violent and dangerous group that often cause more harm than good. To oppose the Ascended may be morally right in terms of human freedom but it requires one to actively harm other humans which is a difficult moral choice to make. Rogue humans are seen, by the thralls, much in the same way we see dangerous fringe groups and/or insane preppers who amass guns in their bunkers for the 'coming race war' or similar concept. From the POV of a Thrall civilian, a 'Rogue Human' is a dangerous, narrow minded, bigoted and irrational unbeliever at the best of times and an absolute monster at worst. Even those few in the Thralls who know the Ascended brainwash (and sometimes eat them), the life of a Rogue Human seems dangerous or even destructive: after all, modern society of the 21st century generally required us to accept that sometimes, things are rather imperfect and that we sometimes work for bad people doing morally dubious things. To those folks, serving a flesh-eating alien man-god isn't really much different from their parents who worked for a soulless global mega corporation which exploited uncertain child labor laws in foreign countries while pretending to be virtuous. At the end of the day, its meet the new boss same as the old boss, right?

Who is really in the right here, anyway?

One difference, of course, is that the Ascended are not human. Not anymore. They are creatures of an alien origin, even if they were derived from human stock initially. Many 'Rogue Humans' are individuals afflicted by some odd form of 'madness' which fills them with a revulsion for the Ascended. Perhaps this is akin to a species-wide immune response to a parasite having entered the body of collective humanity. The same alien dreams which drove people mad in 2030 and onward are still there. There is an unspoken fear that the Ascended are but the first step toward...something? Slowly the Ascended are changing humanity society, creating these assemblages of human civilization toward a certain goal they themselves perhaps don't understand. They have only ruled for a few decades, after all. Whose to say their existence is not the mere first step toward a horrific transformation for humanity, as we are turned into food, cattle or who knows what else for alien powers. After all, where did the First Ascended come from? Who created them? And why?

You can feel it gnawing at your brain. The wheel of the ages hasn't finished turning. You know it in your gut: this is just the start. The parasites must be removed from humanity before its too late, before they consume us and make us into something else.

Silent Legions: Fighting Zombies (And dying doing so!)

The Resident Evil 2 remake may very well end up being one of the videogame highlights of 2019 and sets a really high bar really early into the year. That said, it has got me interested in survival horror and zombies again. Zombies were a monster that became rather over-exposed and over-used in fiction in the past decade but having a flesh-eating walking corpse grab my character and tear out his throat in gruesome detail while turning a dark corner of a police station reminded me why these bastards are terrifying.

"Hi sir may I help you? Anything you want?
Oh you want my warm flesh, okay that's...nice."

Zombies In Combat

In theory, a zombie is a truly pathetic monster: slow and stupid it doesn't have the combat presence of eldritch abominations. It's 'just' a walking corpse. The thing with zombies is that in zombie stories they are the main threat and when you combine survival horror with OSR resource management you realize the two are basically the exact same thing. The 'dungeon' is an abandoned hospital or some other locale. The torches are replaced with batteries for your flashlight. Arrows are now bullets. The zombie is a weak monster individually, yes, but the problem is that where there is one there is ten and you only have so many bullets.

Special Attacks

That said, to think the average zombie is completely harmless in combat is a lie. This is especially true in tight, dark spaces where your escape options are limited. Once the zombie is up close and personal, it will try to eat you. Even the most basic zombie can be spiced up with these special maneuvers which make them far deadlier than their presumably low HD make them out to be.

• Lunge: Moving past a shuffling zombie is dangerous as most varieties are capable of a sudden burst of speed. This is usually accomplished by lunging forward and basically almost falling on their prey. This is simple and similar to attack of opportunities. When running past a few feet of a zombie, it can make a free attack as it basically stumble forward in the general direction of the prey.
• Vomit: Some zombies spew vomit and/or blood on their prey, either their own or the chunky goop of the last poor sod they just ate. After lending a successful attack on a target, a zombie has a one-in-six chance to 'zombie vomit'. The target must make an Evasion save or become blinded by the horrible goo spewing all over their face, which they can wipe on their turn as a free action. Obviously, there are downsides to being blinded that need no explainingé
• Throat Rip: Once a zombie has you in its cold, icy grip it will attempt to bite the throat and rip out as much flesh as it can. Obviously, this is fatal in humans. After lending a successful attack on a target, a zombie has a one-in-six chance 'to go for the throat'. Doing so sacrifice the damage of the first attack as it represented a painful, but ultimately not lethal grab. It must roll a second attack and if it hit, the attack now inflict 2d6 damage. In addition anyone bit this way is now bleeding to death and will die in 1d4 rounds unless it is somehow stopped.

Silent Legions: Quaint, Quiet Little Town, Part 2

The month of October is the month of horror. And so we begin this month with the second part of something started last month. Mostly just some random ideas and leftovers from last time to kick start more coherent ones...maybe? Who knows: if one is channeling Twin Peaks you have to learn to make stuff up on the go.

Will there be more to the series beyond this?
Time will tell...

Allies and Enemies
D12	Ordinary People	Supernatural Forces
1	A crazy, cooky (possibly pirate) radio host that believe there is a conspiracy. Unfortunately what they think is wrong.	An evil, shapeless force of aggression and malevolence that tear people and animal apart. Likely not the true mastermind.
2	A local cop that’s way over their head and seem to have trouble recognizing the supernatural.	A beast in the woods, which is nearly impossible to see due to some truly exotic camouflage, be it biological or supernatural. Roll again on Supernatural Forces for its true master.
3	A hunter who lives in the woods and only come to town for a drink and supplies. Has seen some...things in the woods.	An angry, evil old person who cast a long, twisted shadow and has flies around them. Their words twist the heart and souls of all pure people.
4	The local priest who has some pretty….unusual beliefs. Can be a weirdo or malevolent depending on role.	A conspiracy of strange men that nobody seem to recall the names of or where they come from: they've just always been at the diner and nobody asked.
5	A crazy survivalist who think the government and/or aliens are out there and about to take over the world.	Your own reflection out to kill you for past sins, real or imagined. It is an agent of a force of dark reflection and antagonism.
6	A weird old lady with a garden full of unusual, possibly deadly plants. She can be a helpful healer or someone out to poison you.	The past itself, in the form of murderous shades and past wrongs out to kill those who have made the wrong choices, possibly leading the world to it's doom. Roll again on Supernatural Forces for what it is trying to stop.
7	The local weirdo who is into new age stuff, yoga and maybe vivisection depending if they are an ally or foe.	A cult of demon-worshipers (or any thing eldritch, evil and supernatural) and their summoned minions.
8	A local tough guy who can knock you on your ass. Has a lot of personal problems behind the bluster.	A vile substance and corruption seeping from the ground which give people visions at the cost of their sanity. It seek to consume the minds. Roll again on Supernatural Forces for its true master.
9	The sheriff who think every outsider is out to cause problems. Even as an ally, he doesn't like you.	Seemingly FBI agents with blank, forgettable faces.  Roll on Ordinary People for the one attempting to expose them.
10	Local serial killer: if an ally, they've been killing people possessed or controlled by a supernatural evil.	Nothing. Maybe? You're not sure, there has to be something but you can't seem to ever truly perceive it. Roll on Ordinary People for its apparent agent.
11	The local doctor and/or psychiatrist. If an enemy, they will try to gaslight and manipulate their foe.	A wise, if foreboding figure (man or woman, young or old, pick what fit) which speak in cryptic warnings and prophecies of doom. Seemingly an ally against something else. Roll again on Supernatural Forces.
12	The local drunk. May or may not be something else entirely.

Silent Legions: Quaint, Quiet Little Town, Part 1

I've just finished replaying Alan Wake and while it is rather lacking in the 'gaming' department it was still a worthwhile experience. Normally I'd be a bit harsh on games which try to be lighter on gameplay and heavier in the story content (in spite of being a fan of Metal Gear, go figure) but Alan Wake manage to really sell itself when it come to the world and story, especially on the part of doing eldritch mind-screwing horror without entirely resorting (only) to the usual cavalcade of Lovecraftian names, ideas and creatures: if there was one video game I'd recommend any Silent Legions Game Masters it would be Alan Wake. Granted, the game has been removed from the Steam market so anyone interested may have to resort to legally dubious means of obtaining the game unless one is willing to track down a physical copy of the Xbox version.

Let's just say he's not having a good day right now...

Alan Wake is very much the child of Twin Peaks, which makes it the younger brother to The X-Files. There's a certain something which is appealing about the concept of the somewhat isolated (north) American small town where seemingly bizarre things happen. Perhaps it's because they seem like the last dark and unknowable spots in an increasingly connected and known world: odd places away from the greater whole of civilization with a deeply entrenched history intertwined in the location and people. This sense of deeper, more connected history and local culture is alien to us city-dwelling folks and can appear, shall we say, creepy at times. It's fairly easy to take these utterly mundane places and start imagining some terrifying secret to it. They also tend to follow a 'two word' format:

D12	First Word	Second Word
1	Night	Springs
2	Mirror
3	Twin	Vale
4	Summer
5	Dark	Lake
6	Winter
7	Midnight	Peaks
8	Light
9	Daybreak	Fort
10	Spring
11	Crow	Grove
12	Dusk

Of course, supernatural happenings and fictional nature or not, the place invariably has some real-world history tied into it for an added layer to make it seem like a believable place which could exist somewhere. In general these stories are set in the United States (especially the New England region or the Appalachian) but such towns can (and do) exist in Canada too, especially the less populated and wilder provinces such as the 'middle Provinces' (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba), the rural parts of Ontario and Québec or the more remote and less-known-internationally provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. If one feel like adding extra cold, there's Alaska and the coldest Canadian provinces (and the northest parts of Québec and Labrador).

Any of these areas breed isolation and a foreboding sense of of 'not being welcomed' for city-folks. These places are smaller, closer-knit communities, almost like an anachronism or atavism to those used to the anonymous masses of the larger cities and the quaint boredom of suburbs. There is also the sense that such villages are isolated islands of civilization in the deep, dark wilderness, with bears, cougars and maybe some rampaging moose. It may sound silly but at night, when you're alone in those woods, it can get lonely and terrifying. If you fall in the dark nobody will ever find you.

These are all perfectly mundane and rational dangers. But what about these dangers which aren't mundane? What if there's really something out there? Or what if there's something in there in the village too. What if it's not just paranoia and isolation?

D6	Investigator’s Hook	Traveller’s Hook
1	A missing person case is what brings you and your colleagues to this town.	Someone or something destroys your car and maybe attack you/your family while you are on a visit.
2	Someone who has been missing for 2d10 years reappear. They haven’t aged a day.	Someone or something keep leaving cryptic messages warning you to avoid a certain thing.
3	Cryptic visions have led you or a colleague to this place. You must untangle their meaning.	The local are way too damn nice. You wake up to find you are suddenly married to someone in town you’ve never met.
4	A sociologist, archeologist or someone similar has gone missing. Their last whereabouts were studying the this town.	Someone in town keep saying you/your friends/your family is a long-lost relative of a local figure.
5	The town has vanished into thin air 1d4 decades ago. When you go there investigating something, it apparently still exist and never disappeared.	According to the locals you’ve been visiting this place for years and they have in depth memories of your misadventures. You don’t.
6	You wake up covered in blood, weapon in hand with the wall smeared with your writing saying how you ‘stopped the calamity’. Nobody knows what this mean, you don’t remember and the locals want your head.	A strange man has been stalking you/your family. Just when you’re about to confront him/you think he’s about to attack you...he is killed by an unknown force and leaves a cryptic warning to you with his dying breath.

The Arachnid Invasion of Fernveld

There's an interesting pattern where I get some loose idea for a game, throw it in the idea pile and forget about it until the idea randomly pop back on when I'm looking for something else.

The ONLY picture of a spider in this post
because I am a wuss afraid of the damn things.

The Arachnid Invasion of Fernveld!

The land called Ferveld is a suitably generic locale for down-to-earth D&D antics: a remote wilderness region with semi-isolated settlements. The region itself can be as fleshed and interesting as I need it to be but conceptually it doesn't need to be anything unique because it's what is going to happen in that region which matters more. And that something is a mass-invasion of disgusting, horrifying, giant creepy-crawlies.

It's become a D&D staple of associating Dark Elves with spiders and this here is no different. Could I make these Dark Elves more interesting and unique? Sure, I could but it doesn't matter because within the confine of this game all that need to be known is that they are A) evil invaders from below the earth and B) breed monstrous spiders to attack the surface-dwellers. Indeed, the main enemies of such a game would be an endless horde of monstrous spiders bred to be bigger, meaner and smarter. Like arachnid attack hounds, in a way. These creatures would pour over from every unguarded hole to the dark realm below, from every sewer, every dungeon (explored or not) and cause utter chaos as they first eat the livestock and then people.

The first sign of the spider invasion would not be spider themselves but rather goblins or kobolds or some suitably crummy low-HD monster which dwell underground. Their underground lairs taken from them by the advancing spider hordes they would spill over to the land in spite of how much they loathe sunlight. These would be hordes of angry, hungry and terrified goblins/kobolds with nothing to lose. When these pathetic creatures fall, there would be a brief moment of relief. But then come the spiders. Small ones, at first, isolated cases even but they would slowly eat away at the local ecosystem. Forests, already foreboding, would become covered in cobwebs where the local wildlife and even predators such as wolves are found in cocoons, eaten alive. Livestock would disappear soon and people would retreat behind the city walls and into the keeps. However, as one would expect, walls are of little use as defense against spiders. People will grow increasingly hungry, scared and isolated as more and more land is taken by hordes of semi-intelligent spiders.

The Spider Types

Spiders are creatures I personally loathe and am terrified of, which is all the more a reason to use them. They are truly fascinating creatures with a great variation in shape, size and methods of hunting and killing. Combining these ideas with magically-augmented breeding from the Dark Elves would open up a staggeringly large variety of spiders both grounded in reality and fantasy. Even if more than 3/4 of the enemies in such a game would be a type of arachnid you could still see a terrifying variety of tactics and situations emerge. And that's not even getting into size variations! The classic web-weaving spider is but one variety of spider, after all.

• Spider Swarm: Countless tiny spiders crawling over you and eating you alive. Sweet dreams.
• Scorpions: Not actually spiders but still an arachnid which the Dark Elves could have imported from a far-away land.
• Jumping Spiders: These are ambush predators with great jumping capacity. They are unlikely to be seen before it's too late.
• Mimic Spider: Magically-bred to be able to fold their bodies and change texture. Can even fit inside suit of armors and briefly pretend to be a humanoid. Can't speak but can mimic sounds.
• Poisonous Spider: Many spiders have a deadly bite but these have been magically-bred to have extremely potent poison.
• Razor Spiders: Not based on any real-life spiders, these creatures have been magically bred to have razor-sharp fangs and legs which make armor less effective as they slice you down.
• Trapdoor Spiders: Hide in a hole and then jumps you. Part trap, part monster.
• Web-Spitter Spiders: Have a ranged attack which binds you into place.
• Wolf Spiders: These creatures, named after the spider type, actively hunt down their preys. Could have been bred by the Dark Elves to be more intelligent and use pack tactics.

A single creature with a staggering variety of means to kill you. Spiders are disturbingly good hunters. Gotta love spiders...

Silent Legions: Enter The Survival Horror

One game which has haunted my childhood memories is the original Resident Evil and it's direct sequels. While extremely dated by modern standards, these games were at the time a horrific experience actively trying to make you panic and waste your resources inter spaced with ridiculously convoluted and often silly inventory management puzzles. But, oh man, was it tense.

What a nice, homely place. Heh.

Having started replaying the PC port of the Gamecube remake of Resident Evil (or REmake) what can safely be said is that it remain just as much of a horrific experience. The original Resident Evil is very much designed to be a playable horror movie more than a monster-shooting game. It also inspired me to take back many of these old yet still-relevant game elements and apply them to a Silent Legion game concept mixed with a dose of Hexcrawl.

The Core Survival Horror Tenets (Or how it all 'mesh' together)

Survival Horror isn't a very popular genre in spite of how many games claim to belong to said genre. The reality of it is that the best and greatest of the Survival Horror franchises have either been lost and abandoned or have morphed into more of a horror-themed action game series.

• The environment is closed off: You can't leave wherever you are, be it some kind of mansion, a lab complex or an island. Given that players would want a bit more freedom than in a video game where everything is pre-scripted I would say an island or some similarly isolated location is well suited to such game.
• Resources are limited: This one is obvious and merge very well with the more dungeon-crawly OSR games. However whereas a more typical fantasy dungeon crawl has you carry torches and arrows, now it's lamp batteries and ammo. Similar concept but re skinned. Likewise, it would be best to limit the maximum number of ammo and guns on the locale.
• Fear of death: The players should not be aware of their total HP, only have a general idea of how wounded they are. This should help make the game genuinely scary as now the players need to ask the GM (or be described) how their character's current overall shape is.
• Okay maybe you do need some inventory management: Obviously your character won't be limited to some arbitrary inventory space mechanic as badly as early Resident Evil but it is worth keeping in mind that becoming a pack rat in a game where you need to keep on your toes and avoid fighting as much as possible may be a bad idea. Keep an eye on your character's carrying capacity.

In many ways this is hardly different from what you'd already see in many tabletop RPG.

My Core Game Concepts

The core ideas of the hypothetical survival horror game I'd run:

• Limited Monsters: The amount and/or type of monsters would be limited to a certain amount and to a certain density. These are unholy abominations which are greatly feared and can rip apart even the toughest of people, not basic orcs or zombies meant to be mowed down in mass. In the event I do use zombies (or a zombie-like monster) they still are more likely to be an ambush creature or a hazard than something which will swarm in mass to be gunned down.
• Monster Lair: These individual monsters (or maybe specific breeds, depending how it goes) would be limited to a certain environment/part of the map. At least, in theory, as that is barring some truly unlucky random encounter as I'd add the monster from a nearby area in a random encounter table as it represent the creature wandering outside it's territory.
• Know Your Foe: In turn, players have time to observe the environment of these creatures and learn how certain locales or condition indicate the lair of a specific type of monster. While this does make the monsters more predictable in the long run it does reward players for being smart and learning to plan around a specific creature.
• Only So Many Survivors: There would be only so many spare survivors when a player gets a character killed. When the last character fall it's game over with no save-scumming. Think of it as the tabletop equivalent of Aliens: Infestation. Each of your lives/spare character sheet has a name.

But What About The Monsters?

Oh right, what would the monsters even be? Zombie, mutants, eldritch abomination....mutated zombies animated by eldritch abominations perhaps? A good question and one there currently is no answer and, given that some of my players do in fact read this very blog it mean whatever idea which may or may not exist will have to remain in my mind for now. One thing is certain: the less players expect/understand a monster (at least initially, see above) the better. Zombies are obviously the most stock of all modern horror monsters and difficult to take seriously as a threat unless one make them much more powerful than the stock form, not to mention everyone know their iconic weakness. So, odds are, it probably won't be zombies.