Here is my Helghast Agent of the Darklands, as submitted to Mr. Robinson.
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Helghast Agent of the Darklands
In the war against the Darklords of Helgedad, the Darklands have never seen a more terrifying leader than Darklord Vashna, first of the Darklords and chosen son of the Dark God Naar – and never have the free nations of Man seen a more insidious creation set forth upon Magnamund than the first time Vashna was defeated. Driven back across the Durncrag Mountains by a fleet of blonde-haired warriors from the Northern Void, Vashna’s forces reeled from the previously unknown taste of victory denied, and the Darklord’s wrath was great. From the black pits of Helgedad, a new spawn emerged, a new warrior capable of mimicking the very creature that it was to destroy, a new and terrible undead creature with flayed skin and burning eyes – the Helghast.
Sent among the human nations that had so brazenly resisted its master, the Helghast became a symbol of the terror that the Darklords would bring to every corner of Magnamund if their rule was left unopposed. Capable of changing their appearance and of learning almost any skill, the Helghasts were used as spies and assassins of note, infiltrating the human courts and sowing dissent with their poisonous words. Those that could not be swayed with words were met with daggers and steely fingers in dark alleyways, and the confusion they sowed as impersonators was great. It was only during the Helghast Wars of MS 3520 – 50 that their weakness to magic was discovered, and they were driven from the Sommlending lands.
Today, Helghast Agents can be found in virtually every human city, providing powerful voices that sow insurrection and reap chaos at every chance. Their strength lies in their ability to hide in plain sight – a knight speaking out against his liege lord, a baron taking up arms against his neighbour, a physician dealing in poisons instead of cures – and if their deceptions are ever discovered it is usually far too late. Some of the old magicks of Magnamund have been known to work against their kind, but the Nadziranim, the dark sorcerers in service to the Darklords, have been working their evil crafts for countless years, and it would not be long before they find a way of making their assassins and agents – Helghasts all – even more effective.
Being a Helghast Agent
Unlike mortals, the Helghast Agents are the result of the spawning pits of the Black City of Helgedad, and their lives are frighteningly different right from the start. Born from dark magicks and even older hatred, each Helghast Agent will step forth from its spawning place fully formed and in fully possession of its faculties. Like a human child, it will observe and learn all that it sees, but its days will be filled with murderous intent and practices instead of playful games and adventure. With the voice of its patron Darklord whispering in its minds, the Helghast Agent will ceaselessly strive to learn the skills required for it to fulfil its first task, and rare will be the day where bloodshed or deception does not accompany it.
Once a Helghast Agent acquires the basic training and experience in the tasks that will be required from it, it will be sent on its first mission, and from there the chaos that its creator has in mind will surely but steadily begin to unfold. The opportunities for travel will be great, as the Darklords have nefarious plans for every land of Magnamund, and the ability of the Helghast Agent to blend in and operate in plain sight makes it an invaluable tool.
A Helghast Agent that has accumulated all the crafts and wiles of its kind will be a deadly foe. It will assume the most unsuspecting of guise to strike from, and will do so at the moment it is least expected. It will fight ferociously when cornered, and will run ceaselessly, if it has to, when fighting is not an option. It will strike from the shadows, maiming and hindering its opponents, and any strike against it will cleave into flesh unwilling to part for most mortal means. Its laughter will tear at the mind of all those who are unfortunate enough to hear it, and the sight of its talons drawing a black staff from thin air will surely spell the end for any unfortunate being to feel its wrath thereafter. Where the Helghast walks, death will surely follow.
COMBAT SKILL and ENDURANCE
To find out what your Helghast Agent’s COMBAT SKILL is, go to page 112 at the back of the Lone Wolf Multiplayer Gamebook and pick a random number. Add 14 to this number and the result will be your COMBAT SKILL (so, COMBAT SKILL will always be numbered between 14 and 23).
For ENDURANCE, you do exactly the same thing, except that you add 22 to the random number you select (so, your starting ENDURANCE is always numbered between 22 and 31).
For WILLPOWER, you do exactly the same thing, except that you add 10 to the random number you select (so, your starting WILLPOWER is always numbered between 10 and 19).
Once you have determined what your COMBAT SKILL, ENDURANCE and WILLPOWER scores are, enter them on your Action Chart.
Helghast Agent Disciplines
You begin the game as an Impersonator. While you have a long way to go before you can consider yourself to be a Doppelghast, you are not an absolute beginner either, as your five Helghast Agent Disciplines show. The ranks of the Helghast Agent and the titles they are granted at each level of their progress are as follows:
Rank / Number of Helghast Agent Disciplines, Helghast Agent Title
1. Homunculus
2. Manikin
3. Mimic
4. Doubler
5. Impersonator (you begin at this level)
6. Embodier
7. Semblancer
8. Replicant
9. Simulacrum
10. Doppelghast
Pick your Disciplines from the following list.
Helghast Staff
Subtle as a Helghast may be, there will always come a time when subterfuge has to be discarded in favour of violence, times when a garrotte or dagger to the back are not sufficient to stop stronger foes. At these times, the Helghast will resort to summoning a magical staff straight from the vaults of Helgedad, allowing it to become an even more deadly warrior in both close combat and at range. A Helghast Agent with this Discipline may spend 5 WILLPOWER at the start of combat to summon a Helghast Staff (Special Item). The Helghast Staff is treated as a Weapon made from kagonite, and can be used in close combat attacks. Additionally, at the cost of 2 WILLPOWER, the Helghast Agent may use its Helghast Staff to unleash a bolt of blue energy as a ranged attack against an opponent, using its normal COMBAT SKILL for the purpose of the attack. The Helghast Agent cannot summon more than one Helghast Staffs at a time, and can only summon a new Helghast Staff once the previous one has been taken from them or destroyed. Furthermore, once a Helghast Agent is killed, the Helghast Staff it was using will disappear back to Helgedad.
If you choose this skill, write ‘Helghast Staff’ on your Action Chart.
Searing Touch
Helghasts are renowned for their ferocity in close combat, and will usually attack their opponents with their bare hands. It is only when their fingers close on flesh that the power of their strikes are revealed, for their touch will burn skin and flesh as if the Helghast had fingers of molten steel. A Helghast Agent with this Discipline will take only a -2 penalty to their COMBAT SKILL when attacking unarmed, instead of the normal -4. Additionally, whenever a Helghast Agent makes a close combat attack with Searing Touch that deals at least 1 point of ENDURANCE damage, the Helghast Agent may turn to page 112 of the Lone Wolf Mutiplayer Gamebook and pick a random number. If this random number is less than the character level of the Helghast Agent, all damage dealt by the Helghast Agent in that round of combat will be doubled. Furthermore, if the Helghast Agent also has the Unyielding Flesh Discipline, it may subtract 1 from the picked random number before comparing it to its character level.
If you choose this skill, write ‘Searing Touch’ on your Action Chart.
Mindshriek
Imbued with the powers of their creator, Darklord Vashna, the Helghasts of the Darklands can manifest fearsome mental energies – usually in the form of a rising howl, tearing at ears and mind alike – that allow them to attack and destroy unprotected minds within instants. In conjunction with their martial powers, this Mindforce attack allows them to mercilessly hammer any unprepared individual into submission. A Helghast Agent with this Discipline may make a Mindforce attack in each round of close combat, increasing the number of ENDURANCE lost by its opponent by 2 points for that round. However, because of the strength of the attack, the Helghast Agent must reduce its current WILLPOWER by 2 points ever time it chooses to use this ability.
If you choose this skill, write ‘Mindshriek’ on your Action Chart.
Mindveil
Created as spawn by the Darklords, the Helghasts of the Darklands possess minds that strike a fine balance between the mortals they impersonate, the undead they essentially are, and the dark, arcane processes that raised them from the black depths of Helgedad. The voices of the Darklords, speaking directly to them, echo harshly through their minds, and it is a sign of their mental fortitude that they are capable of surviving these near-divine touches. A Helghast Agent with this Discipline can resist foreign Mindforce influences or attacks, and will rarely be harmed by these abilities. Additionally, any lies told by the Helghast Agent will gain a bonus towards going undetected by observers.
If you choose this skill, write ‘Mindveil’ on your Action Chart.
Undead Essence
While all Helghast are created with a touch of un-death in them, not all will choose to embrace this undead aspect of their existence. Some missions may require signs of vitality that even the magicks of their shape-shifting cannot fake, while others may find perverse pleasure in the notion of being mortal, of being ‘human’. However, those that do complete the transformation to become fully undead will gain both blessing and curse in equal measure. A Helghast Agent with this Discipline will become fully undead, which will cause several changes in their way of existence. The first change is food and rest – the Helghast Agent will no longer require either to function. It may still eat and sleep to fit into a role it has assumed, but lack of either will no longer cause it harm. The second change will be to their digestion – all potions consumed, whether beneficial or detrimental, will have only 50% of their usual effect on the Helghast Agent. The last change will be to their vitality, and the way they deal with damage. All attacks dealt with normal weapons of steel or wood, or damage taken from falling, will be halved. Attacks with weapons made from special substances like silver and kagonite will deal full damage, while all magical attacks will now deal twice their usual damage. This increased vulnerability to magic is a side-effect of the full transformation into un-death, and is related to the arcane processes that are used to create the Helghast Agent in Helgedad.
If you choose this skill, write ‘Undead Essence’ on your Action Chart.
A Thousand Masks
Created for the purpose of spying and assassination, the Helghasts of the Darklands possess an ability which, thankfully, few other spies or assassins possess – the ability to completely change their appearance. Otherworldly magicks twist and burn beneath their skins, allowing them to assume any humanoid form they wish, from proud knight to humble servant girl. A Helghast Agent with this Discipline may spend 10 WILLPOWER to change their appearance to that of another character. This process takes only a handful of minutes to complete, but cannot be done in combat. While disguised in this manner, the Helghast Agent will gain new values for its ENDURANCE and COMBAT SKILL, corresponding to the ENDURANCE and COMBAT SKILL of the character or class that it is impersonating. Its WILLPOWER will remain unchanged, and it will still be able to use all of its other disciplines. Any damage dealt to the Helghast Agent while it is disguised will be deducted from the ENDURANCE score of the disguise; once this ENDURANCE score is reduced to zero, the Helghast Agent will shed its disguise and regain its own ENDURANCE and COMBAT SKILL scores, as initially determined during character generation.
If you choose this skill, write ‘A Thousand Masks’ on your Action Chart.
Unyielding Flesh
One of the most feared attributes of the Helghasts are their ability to simply shrug off damage as if the blow had never connected. No blood flows from their wounds, and the skin and pale flesh simply knit back together to leave a smooth, unscarred surface. A Helghast Agent with this Discipline may, whenever it takes damage that would have decreased its ENDURANCE score, instead deduct this damage from its WILLPOWER. This is not limited to damage taken in combat, but can be from any other source as well – falling masts, ingested poison, lack of food or sleep, and so forth.
If you choose this skill, write ‘Unyielding Flesh’ on your Action Chart.
Darkland Steel
As spies and assassins, Helghasts are not above employing their hands when the situation calls for a quick silencing to take place – but they are not untrained in the intricacies of the infernal devices from the laboratories and armouries of Helgedad either. They are especially apt at identifying and operating magical artefacts, and can quickly identify any artefact coming from their native lands as well. A Helghast Agent with this Discipline may add half its character level, rounded down, to any Test to identify items that are magical, or that may have originated in the Darklands. Additionally, whenever the Helghast Agent fights with any weapon made in the Darklands, or any weapon made from kagonite, it may increase its COMBAT SKILL by 1 point for the duration of the fight.
If you choose this skill, write ‘Darkland Steel’ on your Action Chart.
Mimicry
As impersonators, there are few beings still living on Magnamund that can match the skill and subterfuge of the Helghasts of the Darklands. Cunning, observant, and deadly patient when needs be, a Helghast will ceaselessly study its prey until it can replicate and match – if not exceed – every ability that the creature possesses. A Helghast Agent with this Discipline may, after observing another character using a non-magical ability, attempt to use that same ability itself, even though it may not necessarily possess the required Discipline that the ability is based on. The Helghast Agent must perform a Test of his own character level plus 2, against the character level of the character it is mimicking plus a random number from page 112 of the Lone Wolf Multiplayer Gamebook. If the Test succeeds, the Helghast Agent can perform the ability flawlessly, but only once. Whenever it wants to perform that ability in future, it must first perform the Test again.
If you choose this skill, write ‘Mimicry’ on your Action Chart.
Cover of Night
Tradition has always stated that night is the time when evil abounds, and never has this been more true than the first time a Helghast flitted through the shadows of an unsuspecting village of sleeping Sommlending. Drawing power from the darkness and the absence of the sun’s goodly rays, Helghasts revel in the cover that night brings to their nefarious deeds, and many of their most wicked acts are perpetrated at night, far from the prying eyes of witnesses. A Helghast Agent with this Discipline will, from sunset to sunrise, recover 1 WILLPOWER per hour as long as it is either outside any building, or underground. It will also be able to add +2 to any Test involving bodily strength, and will take only a -2 penalty to their COMBAT SKILL when attacking unarmed, instead of the normal -4. Additionally, darkness will cease to be a hindrance to the Helghast Agent, and any COMBAT SKILL penalties that it would normally take due to darkness can now be reduced by 4 points (to a maximum penalty of -0).
If you choose this skill, write ‘Cover of Night’ on your Action Chart.
STARTING EQUIPMENT
The Helghast Agent starts with the following equipment.
Your basic possessions comprise of a faded black robe and a pair of leather boots. You also have a backpack, a belt and a leather pouch in which you keep your money (Kika). To find out how much money you start with, pick a number from the Random Number Table and add 10, then multiply the result by 10. This number equals the number of Kika you possess (Note this number in the Belt Pouch section of your Action Chart). For purpose of conversion, 10 Kika = 1 Gold Crown. 10 Kika also takes up the same space in your Belt Pouch as 1 Gold Crown.
If you have ‘A Thousand Masks’ and choose to start with a disguise in place, you will be wearing the clothes of that character class.
You may also choose two items from the following list:
Black Dagger (Weapon, made from kagonite)
Sword (Weapon)
Quarterstaff (Weapon)
Meal (Backpack Item)
Vial of Poison (Special Item, poison of choice)
Power Cube (Special Item, palm-sized black obsidian cube; can be used to restore up to 5 WILLPOWER to the user, disintegrates after use)
