Specific tailored heralds are the best after all. I only play heralds with their matching AO's

Saldre said:

Again, she works thematically with Glaaki or Nyarlethotep :') although I would imagine the story would be very different depending on which you play her with.

Avi_dreader said:

Yep, scrolled through dozens and dozens of google image pages, and got this off deviant art (only a page and a half of... interesting... Brown Jenkin takes there). So I went with the justification that they only had B&W photography back then, anyway.

Thanks for the encouraging words, everyone. I figure in the base game, a simple seal on the Witch House would negate Walpurgis Night, so wanted to make just being there somewhat dicey; and with expansions, a gate burst would add a token as well... Wasn't sure if I should make the Witches more present, or just leave them pumped up. Maybe make a Witch, if available, the first monster placed on the Witch House on Walpurgis Night openings and surges? Though the card's pretty dense as it is.

Rat-Things! *smacks forehead*

Hecate GOO... hm, someone feel free, I'm not sure where to begin with that.

Ah... I see that Brown Jenkin has a Lovecraft background already. Hrm... And here I thought it was just a Boogiemanesque picture ;') ::shrug:: well...

Here's an alternative. Try it out (you might want to clip it from the torso up though).

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

Saldre said:

:'D I'm glad you liked the text, writing the flavor text and trying to keep it suggestive without being too explicit about the meanings was one of my favorite parts about writing the card.

Indio said:

:') why not. Your herald was nice, I'm sure you could make a good Hecate AO to go with it. You could toss the witch and rat-thing bonuses onto its card, and turn cultists into rat-things (or witches, which-ever you prefer, personally, I'd go for rat-things :') de-evolution is cooler). You could put in some sort of madness or corruption cost to using spells (perhaps based on a die roll). Ummm... I'm trying to think what else... You might also want to give Warlocks some sort of boost. Perhaps physical resistance :'D Um... You could make it so that gates at The Witch house can be closed but not sealed (although you might also want closing a gate at the Witch House remove one doom token— it only seems semi-fair after all, as it will be a bleeding wound through out the game) :'D You'd definitely want to go with a 14 Doom track... Um... Thematically magical immunity and physical resistance would sound reasonable. Haven't the slightest idea what to do about an attack though.

::Shrug:: anyways, beefed up rat-thing cultists, unsealable witch house (which removes a doom token only if Brown Jenkin is the Herald), corrupting/maddening spell use (I'd rather see corruption personally, the corruption deck isn't used enough), perhaps based on an accompanying die roll. I think those'd actually be enough of an in game effect (especially if coupled with the herald) to make for a really great game.

Perhaps the final attack could be a decreasing Lore Check that causes players to draw a madness and corruption on a failure. If a player is unable to draw a madness or a corruption, they are devoured— do not return their madness or corruption cards to the deck.

Heh... Well... There you go... Would you want me to actually throw this thing together with a picture to accompany your Herald?

Oookay, done. I'll also post it in the Ancient One Thread.

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

Btw, any better ideas for her ability name? I'm not so thrilled with it as it is now :'

Perhaps Coven of the Endless Rats?

How about Mr. Wiskers the Great Mean One! but really the name seems fine to me.

Avi_dreader said:

He has a doom track of 14 with nothing to accelerate it. And even though his ingame ability is harder than Azathoth's, he's still weaker than him, as yours gives a fighting chance.

kroen said:

Uh... No she doesn't. Did you even read this card? The first paragraph of her in game abilities state that she begins with a doom token (making her essentially have a doom track of 13, despite it being 14 for the Final Battle), second of all, that's only in games without Brown Jenkin— if Brown Jenkin is her herald— he's intended to be, The Witch House will be a bleeding sore the entire game. Clearly you didn't read this card, the herald, or think about how his effect on the Witch House would interact with this card. ::Laughter:: you think an ancient one which creates double moving stalker Rat-thing/Cultists that steal double items and have a toughness of four is *easier* than Azathoth? ::Laughter:: Well, why don't you try this and Brown Jenkins and see how well you do, or even try it by itself.

Brown Jenkin is the accelerator. You should try to read cards a little more carefully before commenting (i.e. if there is a bolded name listed on a card twice, perhaps you should go find out what it is— assuming you haven't, and if you came over here from the Ancient Ones thread, I explicitly stated that Brown Jenkin can be found on page 15 of this thread).

Also, Hekate is a she, which should be obvious not only because Hekate is a major figure in mythology that reappears in Shakespeare (Macbeth) as well as pop culture, but also because she is addressed as a she in the first sentence of this card.

Hey Everybody!

First time posting here, and first custom creation! I've been kicking around the idea of Cult Heralds, because in the stories, there is frequently a cult trying to usher in the coming of an eldritch horror. Special thanks to Sothis for the "Stars are Right" Herald, which got me thinking about having cultists involved as more than just random monsters coming out of gates.

This one could have easily been a God of the Bloody Tongue herald, but I wanted to concentrate on the Cult (which appears in one of my favorite Call of Cthulhu role-playing game campaign, "The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep") I made it so it could be used with any AO, but Nyarlathotep would be a logical pairing (and there are extra abilities that beef him up if he is the AO).

I've only got the base set and BGotW, but I left things generic enough that other sets could be used with it (specifically, only having 6 cultists in the "cult stack")

I plan on playtesting it this week, and since it was my first, I wanted to see if there are any pitfalls I'm falling into. Thanks!!!

ps I think I'm going to try to color the picture a reddish color.

Slightly revised Brown Jenkin herald, mainly getting Witches and Rat-Things more action and clarifying a Black Man point.

The link: i98.photobucket.com/albums/l253/mcgee_02/Brown-Jenkin-Front-Side.png

And finally came up with a Hecate AO I put in that thread. That one feels a lot more iffy to me, but I'll leave the judgment to the experts here (especially the math-wonky stuff; not my strong suit!).

Here's a direct link to the image (because I'm sure it'll get cropped). I hope you guys enjoy it ;') after all, it would enjoy you

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

Anyone? Anything? 'ello? ::Shrug:: I'm about to post an Ancient One that you could play with The Pied Piper (The Darkness). If you're a total masochist ;'D I'm kindof tempted to play against the two of them with a team of Daisy, Mandy, and Wendy. Perhaps just Mandy and Daisy. I wonder how that'd work out ::evil grin::

i cant see most of your piper herald so i cant comment since i cant read it

pittplayer said:

::Sigh:: there's a direct link to it in the post. Also, you can view cut off heralds by right clicking on them and selecting "view image."

Here's the link again.

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

Didn't you have the same problem with my Maskless Herald?

sorry half asleep my bad. i like your herald for the rat attack theme, they are a bit brutal, after a couple hits its game over!

pittplayer said:

::Laughter:: that's right. Early game you need to avoid them (not necessarily an easy task since they're double movement stalkers— I put the first one in The Unnamable because there is a rat house encounter there, and because they can lock investigators in the unique item shop from there if they move in that direction), later in the game you'd probably want to send a heavily armed character to take it out. ::Shrug:: it shouldn't be *too* hard especially if you have a couple items on him you're willing to lose in case of failures. Just put on max fight and take the sanity damage, and then lets say you have 4 fight plus eight bonus for the combat, you should have 13 dice. Should be enough to get five successes. Statistically anyways ;'D

I'd be most worried about it cutting off access to the curiosity shop early game, or being ambushed by a Rat-thing (if that happens to an unprepared character, good luck paying the psychiatrist bills).

on no the rats in the walls, some one stop the chittering, the constant hellish chittering of the rats in the walls!!!

pittplayer said:

Wellll, it's not really, for one thing, The Rats in the Walls actually took place in England (if I remember correctly). However... :') I did want to attach the Piper to the mythos legends as well as the Pied Piper legend ;') it's really quite a disgusting card (in my opinion) if you consider its implications. I won't spell them out though :'D but I will say that you said it attacks. Attacking isn't exactly what its Rat-things are doing ;'D

madness and corruption follow in their wake!! wish we had a rat ao!

any one ever think of making a H.P Lovecraft herald?? i think its a cool idea!!

Now then, the slightly revised and hopefully final Brown jenkin:

Link: i98.photobucket.com/albums/l253/mcgee_02/Brown-Jenkin-Front-Side-1.png

And for the full effect of the Lovecraft tale, there's now --

Link: i98.photobucket.com/albums/l253/mcgee_02/Dreams-in-the-Witch-House-Front-Sid.png

Put a lot of what I'd tried to cram onto the AO here. The thinking now is, you can go for Hecate with either of these, or really slam your head against the theme by going up against both DitWH and Brown jenkin, in upcoming Dagon-and-Mother Hydra style. Hopefully they'd be useable against other AOs, same with Hecate and other Heralds/boards; I didn't want to restrict any of these elements too much, which was a puzzle.

I'm definitely going to give the double-whammy a go this weekend -- using only the base game plus Rat-Things in the cup. For now.