back to Morak of Madness!
coming back to Morak, these sketches are pretty sparse but might as well post something
Divided into two types, shrikes, and cuckoos.
Shrikes only keep their human mask up long enough to get close and personal, then they strike and 💀 you. Cuckoo mimics will often embed themselves in a group, either by taking on a form of a new friend or by 💀 a companion and replacing them, cuckoo mimics will spend anywhere from months to years integrated into a group of survivors, some do it for protection, others do it to hunt. Some cuckoo mimics will actually add their child to a group of survivors, with the fledgling mimic taking on the form of a lost child. The survivors now protect the child like they would their own and the mimic mother gets to live on knowing these fooled humans will keep her baby safe.
This setup justifies mimics as enemies but also opens the potential for mimics as allies or even playable characters.
Idea for a new playable race:
An average human who has been infected with some kind of parasitic life form, the lifeform cant use magic but gets a variety of biological bonuses like a hypnotic gaze, a grapple attack where the host appears wounded only for the parasite to launch out of the hosts mouth or abdomen and strike, maybe other abilities like the ability to quick heal its host body.
the persons sense of self is up to the player’s decision, maybe its like Venom from Spiderman where the host has a great deal of control and can even communicate with their creature, or maybe its closer to a husk body where the host is basically a vegetable without the parasite.
If the host dies or is severely wounded the parasite can evacuate the body and find a new host. The parasite can leave for any reason, but the creature is weaker without a host and its original host will die within a day of being without its parasite.
Interesting setups for a character
A cultist discovered a cluster of aquatic spider-like organisms living deep beneath the temple he worships in, believing the creatures to be divine he willingly infects himself believing it will bring him closer to god, now his passenger acts as a weapon against those who would threaten the temple.
A wounded soldier is discovered by a worm like monster that offers to heal her body in return for partial control over her form. Now the soldier seeks to understand the true nature of this symbiotic creature.
A prospector falls to his death in a forbidden section of mine, unwilling to risk their own lives his comrades do not come for him. In the bottom of the abyss his destroyed body joins with a massive fungal colony that revives him but with no remnants of his original personality
If the host dies or is severely wounded the parasite can evacuate the body and find a new host. The parasite can leave for any reason, but the creature is weaker without a host and its original host will die within a day of being without its parasite.
Maybe only some parasites are full body-snatcher types maybe for other people its simply a creepy burden they have to accept and deal with each day, similar to curses. Maybe hollander has a parasite? Similar to the Loathsome Hex from Nightreign where it doesn’t control the host but can grant abilities at the cost of alienating you from society.
You will always be seen as vile and inhuman, regardless of how human you still are and how many lives you save.
