04 February 2020

[Review] Terror of the Stratosfiend #1.5: Preamble to the Melancholic Terminal Ascent for DCC

To begin with, I'll reiterate that Terror of the Stratosfiend feels very RIFTS from the words and the art. And after talking with Sean, that is exactly what he meant to do. So yay. Therefore I feel comfortable saying that they are like Rifts but more coherent, weirder, with editing, and with layout not done in the 80s.

#1.5 has:
one class, the Comm-Artist
two patrons, Acceptance, the Root Organ-Fractal and Razor-worn, Henceforth the Shaft
and spells for all of these

The Comm-Artist is a combat-engineer so like a thief or a rogue. But this is a high-techlandia so shit is high tech. They wander about fixing the busted communications infrastructure, dealing hostile traps, and making friends out of traps. Keep in mind that the high tech shit in orbit is all now Orbital Intelligences and there is a Bat God that is a murder death kill sat, so part of this class gets weird magic-like powers because of the weird. It has roguy disarming and setting traps, but also the "fix up shit for talking" and turning traps into "living" companions, the details described in the spell Animate Trap.

Acceptance, the Root Organ-Fractal is a headless body of fractal bodies. The invoke patron, patron taint, and spell burn tables are all horrific body horrible results, as befits being in the service of a fractal headless body made of bodies. One of the patron taint results can go from losing the face to losing the head, and spellburn result can be sprouting extra heads. Like fuck.

The patron spells are:
Crash the Flesh, which grants an extra action die of a size based on the result with the wonderful effects being limbs erupting from the caster's body in places those limbs shouldn't
Quell the Pain, which is various biological effects that restrain, immobilize or otherwise make hostilities cease for a time. Such as limbs erupting from the targets to hold them in place, the targets singing uncontrollably to the exclusion of all other activity.
Organ-Fractal Strike is "I CAST FIST" but with "FIST" sometimes being "FISTS" or "TEETH" or "TENTACLE EXTENDO FIST" or "CHAIN ARM PUNCH."

Razor-worn, Henceforth the Shaft is the bodiless heads who is god of elevators. All elevators. Its patron taint effects involve bits of the body disappearing or becoming more elevator-like.

The patron spells all require a door, because elevators have doors.
Elevator Going Up summons an elevator that moves the targets up....and then crashing down if they have left the elevator.
Mind the Door weaponizes the door the caster needs to cast the spell in interesting ways.
Elevator Going Down summons an elevator to strike a target while bringing friends attack the targets.

If this interests you, you can find it here on Exalted Funeral (sold out), and there is more material coming in Terror of the Stratosfiend #2 currently on Kickstarter.