Ugh... I don't know how to display this correctly. Just use this url if you want to see it without downloading it first.

http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/TheMaskless.jpg

Oh crap ;'D

Hrm... Time to edit in a url.

You should be able to shrink the image using the normal reply box - maybe it depends on your browser or something.

Anyway, the Maskless thing is incredibly nasty! I do love Mask monsters. If anything, I wouldn't worry about upgrading the speed, toughness etc. of the existing Masks - just having them around so often is bad enough. It would be more fun to simply make up a couple of other nasty high-speed Mask monsters. I may give it a try.

The bonuses for Nyarlathotep's cultists are a bit elaborate. And I wouldn't bother with all the algebra in the final ability. Just have it that when Nyarlathotep awakes, each Mask adds 1 additional Doom token. That's almost the equivalent anyway.

Is this based on a particular bit of theme? If not, I humbly suggest connecting it with Queen Nitocris, a genuine Egyptian queen of the Sixth Dynasty, whom Lovecraft name-checks in Imprisoned With The Pharaohs and whom Brian Lumley later used as the basis for a short story. Anything even a bit Egypty can be connected with Nyarlathotep. Nitocris is basically only mentioned once in the whole of HPL's fiction, but it's good stuff:

"Then we saw the vast pyramids at the end of the avenue, ghoulish with a dim atavistical menace which I had not seemed to notice in the daytime. Even the smallest of them held a hint of the ghastly -for was it not in this that they had buried Queen Nitocris alive in the Sixth Dynasty; subtle Queen Nitocris, who once invited all her enemies to a feast in a temple below the Nile, and drowned them by opening the water-gates? I recalled that the Arabs whisper things about Nitocris, and shun the Third Pyramid at certain phases of the moon. It must have been over her that Thomas Moore was brooding when he wrote a thing muttered about by Memphian boatmen:

'The subterranean nymph that dwells

'Mid sunless gems and glories hid -

The lady of the Pyramid!'"

thecorinthian said:

I really didn't want to do the algebra. I was very tempted to just stick with a plus one formula. What I'm worried about though, is five masks or more masks being on the board when Nyarlethotep awakes (*very* possible, since there would be 4 5 toughness masks, and of course, I have no idea what else will exist when IH comes out). Of course, masks will be banishable by gate closings :' so that takes care of some of them... (Probably the larger ones). I wanted to make sure that Nyarlethotep has a minimum of a -6 combat modifier, but I was hoping it would be higher, because lets face it, he's a bit of a push over in combat. Ummm... Okay, how does this sound? Add -X to his combat modifier. X is the number of masks on the board plus two. The problem with that though is it will probably end with him having a -10 combat modifier :' unless the investigators go for a combat victory by constantly fighting the masks.

Bleh... Add -X to his combat modifier. X is the number of masks on the board plus one. How's that? I think he'll be a bit weaker than I wanted, but with the Bloody Cultists, he'll still be quite a lovely monster :')

Hrm... I need to get rid of that dash in front of The Necronomicon.

As for the Herald movement and theme (it's not based on any Lovecraft or Lovecraft related stories, but I did want it to feel like it *could have been*)... Welllll... I don't really want to explicitly spell out thematic ideas behind The Maskless, but the card was intended to suggest some sort of relationship between her and Nyarlathotep in the form of one of his avatars. More importantly, the card implies that she's a face snatcher (First and third quotes). As for the whats and whys behind the relationship, I'll leave that to you :')

I was tempted to use what you posted on Nitocris, for a moment ;') however, I prefer the idea of Nyarlathotep's undead consort preparing herself for him, by hunting for human flesh— materials she can use to decorate herself. I gave The Skinless One a special effect in this game because skinning is, um, thematically significant for this herald :')

Hrm... I kindof wanted to give The Dark Pharoah a special something (but I forgot). I think I will amend that. I think I will also return Haunter of the Dark's toughness to normal... I have a different ability for him ;'D Omnipresent Shadows. It's quite a fiendish idea, and I'm quite proud of it. I'll repost this thing in a few minutes.

http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/TheMaskless2.jpg

There's a direct link in case there's any problem.

Anyways, I hope you guys like this. I designed it to make fighting Nyarlethotep a much more exciting experience. I think a fast Beast, God of The Bloody Tongue, and Superfast Skinless One should keep you on your toes (keep in mind though, they're not actually fast, they just move twice, the reason I didn't say they were fast is because I didn't want to go into conversations about whether they keep their original movement type, clearly they do with this wording). :') I think the modified Haunter of the Dark and a truely powerful Dark Pharoah should keep you on your toes ;') (the double movement rule means he'll take out two stamina every time he moves ::laughter:: he's like four Cthonians, a bit worse really, at least he moves out of the way, I guess). And last but not least, lets not forget, The Shadowy Figure will be working overtime ;'D

Enjoy! :'D

Btw, for those of you who don't have KH ::cough cough:: Dam, just print out copies of the Kingsport Horror masks and use them as spawns if you'd like to play this (and you should). It shouldn't be much of a problem, outside of ethics and aesthetics, since they don't go into the cup.

Also, Dkw, I hope you try out my Narlethotep herald ::laughter:: although you might want to play it a few times prior to coupling it with Nyarlathotep (for whom it was really designed).

thecorinthian said:

A (+2)[2] check isn't too hard, I'd just leave it. Plus the chance for an unwanted battle is half the fun.

Seriously ;.( no one else is going to comment on my herald? I spent over an hour on it. No one liked it? Hated it? Took any notice of it?

it looks like half your herald is cut off i cant read it

Yeah, from what I can see it looks cool, but I can't really evaluate something I can only see half of.

Just right click and choose "View Image". Then you can see the whole thing whenever there's a picture cut off.

I think this herald would be horrendously difficult to play against, simply because masks are brutally tough in any situation. Having them all over the place, moving fast, sometimes buffed up, etc would be very hard to survive. Investigators will need to outfit themselves Rambo-style to have any chance in the frequent combats against these things.

On the other hand, my standard suggestion for most heralds applies to this one as well. It only really does one thing! Masks are everywhere, and some of them are slightly more powerful, but that's it! The game is the same otherwise. And yes it's plenty to make it hard, but I still prefer to emphasize theme. There must be a couple other effects that would make the game seem more Nyarly when she's the herald.

Nice job on the quotes and professional look of the card, too. That's something nobody seems to bother with, but personally I think it's crucial.

pittplayer said:

I posted a link to it :')

http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/TheMaskless2.jpg

The Message said:

Aaaand again :') I posted a link to it.

http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/TheMaskless2.jpg

Sothis said:

Weeeeelllll... I'm not saying it wouldn't be very difficult (it's intended to be). However.... :') The masks only come out when new gates open, so theoretically, one monster slayer can help keep the streets clear for the other investigators (granted, it would be a full time job). Also, you can knock the maks dead by closing gates (they're killed when their symbol gates are closed), so that's another way of avoiding combat with them (and keep in mind, they'll only open with new gates (so I'd say it'd be reasonable to expect maybe seven or eight of them in Arkham a game), the ones in Dunwich you can kill by just letting them going into vortexes ;'D granted, that strategy might have a negative side affect. I'd say the main way of dealing with them indirectly would be gate closing/sealing. I think with the herald, Nyarlethotep would be in the top four in terms of difficulty ;') but I also think it'd be a hell of alot of fun to play against (and would make an unusual and exciting game without requiring drastic alteration of your card set-up).

Anyways... I just had an alternative idea where masks are put on gates instead of regular monster placement; however, if you are out of masks, all other monsters are treated exactly like cultists (with the God of the Bloody Tongue transmutation rule still in effect). Personally, I'd prefer going after this for a combat victory though ;') think of this struggle as more physical than metaphysical. ::Shrug:: and if you could pull off a sealing victory I'd be particularly impressed.

Wooo

Finally i can post again

Computer errors... Either way, The Queen Herald is pretty cool, I will comment on it more extensively when i come back from my day out!

First off, big thanks to everyone coming up with these great custom creations. Finally made the time to check out Strange Eons myself, after thinking about some possible story-specific thematic heralds. (I got this insane game last Christmas, became as obsessed as anybody -- yeah, all 5 expansions the past 4 months... sigh... and it got me to dig out the Lovecraft again, which I hadn't read in decades. I've been binging, so most of the stories are fresh in the head.)

So, diving right in, thought "The Dreams In The Witch-House" lent itself well to this idea, especially if it stars everyone's favorite man-faced rat demon....

I honestly couldn't decide if this little menace was too rough or too easy. Probably a little easy, but could get interesting...

(now to see if I figured out how to post it...) Well, halfway there. R-click View Image works, but here's a link: i98.photobucket.com/albums/l253/mcgee_02/Brown_Jenkin.jpg

Indio said:

Pretty cool card. Very thematic. One major complaint though. The picture. It's a nice picture, but it doesn't fit the Arkham Horror aesthetic. Find some art with color :')

I know, I know! I looked and looked, and could find nothing nearly as well drawn of the little creep, and in color. So I went with quality of pen work, minus the Technicolor... I guess one could rename it simply "The Dreams In The Witch-House" and plop a generic spooky house on it.

Anyway, thanks. Any suggestions gameplay-wise? I'll probably give it a whirl with just the base game, see how that goes.

That is a fantastic herald. One of the most thematic on here. Kudos.

again that is prob the best player made herald i have ever seen. that is def going to be played by my group great job!!

p.s. i really like the b&w picture, it is kind of creepy!

Indio said:

Have you tried google images and deviantart?

Also another epic herald! but i like the picture. It would have been MUCH better in color, but you have to make due! I especially like how the Black Man jumps around, he was always my favorite Mask.

As for the mistress (Dont know why i call her the queen), Also a great herald in that it brings in the masks into the game. Though... The fact that it's tailored specificaly for Nya (though very thematic) takes away from most of the card seeing as most of the changes come from it's final ability. Her "Fetch me my faces" ability however, just because of its name, is probably my favorite ability EVER.

I have a suggestion. Make a Hecate GOO to go with it.

Saldre said:

The intention was that it would only be played with Nyarlathotep (as it is, after all, his consort) :') I left out the Nyarlathotep abilities in the main card for two reasons. One, I wanted to thematically emphasize that she *belongs* with Nyarlathotep. Two, I wanted players who wanted to try an easier version to be able to before tossing her with Nyarlathotep. Besides, you can do some other pretty insane things with her :') like coupling her with Glaaki (also somewhat thematic, as he is associated with the undead), in which case you would have to deal with her spawns *and* his spawns :'D a pretty **** tough game in my opinion. Those are really the only two AOs I would want to play her with though.

@Indio

How about *this* picture? If you don't like the purple coloring it should be fairly easy to change. Just have someone with a photoediting program (unfortunately I don't have photoshop anymore or I could do it myself in a few seconds) select all and change the hue.

http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs39/f/2008/319/c/c/Boogieman_by_darknatasha.jpg

Oh... One other thematic suggestion, give the Rat-things some kind of nasty bonuses also. Double movement at the very least, and perhaps three or four toughness :') then they'll make *real* nightmare things. ;') you could also play around with their damage (here's one situation where you might want to have them do less damage). Perhaps give them four toughness and zero damage, however have them force players to discard an item if they fail a combat check against it ;') and if a player has no items left, the investigator is delayed and combat ends (or you could be even nastier, and have a terror level rise).

::Evil grin:: and if you make a Hecate Ancient One, you could make all the cultists Rat-Things :'D

::Shrug:: or you could put all this rat stuff with Hecate. It would add to the theme and the challenge.