⬠⛤⛧ (GLoG Race-as-Class: Elder Thing)

For Glaugust: Classic Monsters as Classes.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft

Radiates, vegetables, monstrosities, star-spawn—whatever they had been, they were men!

They are foreigners to this planet, not made under this sunlight- things from the outer spaces, past the many glowing holes in heaven's blackened dome, where nascent un-gods struggle to be born. Long ago, they came as visitors, hiding themselves away in obscure corners of the earth to study this unfamiliar world; the things they left behind, their discarded tools and scraps, were the Promethean fire that raised the Serpent-Men to their most terrible heights. 

Many left. Some remained, and like all things of flesh, they begat more like themselves, and those offspring lasted generation after generation in their hidden places. They have been forgotten and have forgotten much, but the Starmen will always know more.

Starmen

Skills: 1. Vivisection. 2. Mechanical Engineering. 3. Chemical Engineering. 4. Electrical Engineering. 5. Prehuman History.

Starting items: A light stone knife, a jar of wet clay with a bone stylus (1 slot,) 50' of gut cord (1/3rd of a slot,) and one Curious Implement.

+1 SKLL per template.

A Stelliform, Fivefold Eyes, +2 HP

B Hypergeometry

C Fivefold Mind

D Fivefold Body

As a Starman, you are proficient with knives and any kind of anachronistic super-technology. You are not proficient with any kind of armor, which would have to be custom-made to fit you anyways, nor with shields.

Stelliform

You are a radially symmetrical, barrel-shaped crinoid with five legs, five arms, five eyes, and five wings. You can hold five items at a time in your hands, although you can only effectively reach three arms to face any one side. You can breathe underwater and swim well, and can fly if less than half of your inventory is full. Your thick, rugose hide grants you natural light armor, 6 DR against heat, and immunity to extreme atmospheric pressures. You do not age, and if necessary you can enter an indefinite state of torpor in which you do not need to eat, drink, or breathe.

On the other end, you are not of this world on a fundamental level. You cannot possess, or even use MD. You cannot benefit from magic cast on you in any way. You cannot activate magic items, although passive self-contained effects are still fair game.

Although you may know other languages, you only speak one: Starsign, heavy with consonants and whistling tones, written in five-sided sets of dots. You cannot recognize people of this world by their faces.

Fivefold Eyes

Your head is a nest of writhing eyestalks and prismatic sensory cilia. You have a 360° field of vision and treat darkness as dim light.

Hypergeometry

The world is an equation with more variables than any mortal mind could count. Know this, and solve it in parts, and you may change it through your Operations. These superficially resemble "spells" and count as magic whenever it's convenient, but Operations have one key difference: instead of using MD, they run on Hypergeometric Points, which are points in both the mathematical and the game sense. You have [templates×5] HyP and regain spent HyP at a rate of [templates] per day. Lost HyP can also be regained through an hour-long ritual culminating in the sacrifice of a living being, netting one HyP for each HD the creature had, or twice that if the sacrifice was a sapient being.

You know the Elder Sign and one other Operation rolled from this list. At C, roll for two more. At D, choose two more.

• Elder Sign. 2 HyP. A symbol, something of a higher dimension flattened to fit this one: a six-pointed branch from one angle, a distorted star from another. Things from Outside (fairies, other aliens, newborn deities) must SAVE to come within 30' of the Elder Sign, suffering 1d6+[templates] damage per round if forced inside. Gestured in the air, this Operation lasts for one round. Crafted or inscribed, this effect is indefinite, but the HyP expenditure is permanent until the symbol is destroyed.

1. Exertion of the Unseen. 3 HyP. As one who is strong can reach out to grasp with a mighty hand, so too may one who is learned reach out with their mind. This Operation creates five 1'×1' disks of invisible force for [templates] rounds at a range of up to 100'. These disks levitate close to one another, effectively acting as the fingertips of a massive hand. This "hand" has Strength +0, +1 for every 2 HYP spent on top of the base cost.
2. Gate. 10 HyP. Between everything, there is nothing. Designate a point in space within 25' of you, and a second point anywhere you have seen before; for up to [templates] rounds, a "doorway" of wavering air will link these two points, allowing two-way travel for the duration. Heat does not pass through the gate, nor does pressure equalize through it; only by intention does anything pass through, so opening a gate to the bottom of the ocean will only catch an occasional fish. This Operation may be made permanent by making the HyP likewise permanent.
3. Glimpse. 5 HyP. There are many things not meant to be known- secrets which keep themselves. A target within 50' must SAVE or suffer a sudden bout of uncomprehending terror for [templates]×2 rounds, choosing between fight, flight, or freeze. A target that cannot run will fight, and vice versa, and one who can do neither will freeze. No matter what, they will not behave rationally or communicate coherently.
4. Infliction. 8 HyP. This is not a sophisticated Operation. A target within 100' takes 1d20+[templates] damage as they are blasted by exotic radiation across multiple dimensions; this appears as the target flickering in and out of existence with flashes of unearthly light, having some portion of their flesh disintegrated away each time. Those slain by this are reduced to a pile of clumped ashes.
5. Obscuring Song. 7 HyP. There exists knowledge which begets unknowing. Sing or play an odd staccato rhythm, accompanied by an off-kilter "dance"; for [templates] minutes, you are rendered not only invisible to all that hear this song, but undetectable through any sense but touch. This is a mental effect rather than a physical one, so it is ineffective against mindless things. Deafness also protects against it, while poor hearing allows for a SAVE.
6. Remote Viewing. 5+ HyP. Through deprivation of the senses, all things become clear. For every 5 HyP spent on this Operation, the duration goes from up to 5 rounds to minutes, then hours, then days. For the duration, your body is left immobile and insensate while your consciousness projects out from it to act independently. Your stats remain the same, although you are invisible, intangible, and can go up to 50 miles per hour in a straight line if you really focus on it. If your body dies, your projected mind dies, and vice versa.
7. Stir MANA. 2+ HyP. Speak the name of the unspeakable, the unthinkable, that which dreams the spheres in motion: MANA YOOD SUSHAI. This Operation can be activated as a reaction to a spell being cast in your line of sight; for every 2 HyP spent, reduce the [sum] by 3. If this reduces the [sum] to 0 or lower, the spell fizzles and has no effect. This can also be used to directly reduce the damage of magical attacks.
8. Voorish Sign. 1 HyP. As one may simply step aside to see what is behind a wall, so too may one move to see what is hidden from this low dimension. Perform an odd gesture, a contortion of the hand into a vaguely spiralling shape. For a round, you can see the invisible and detect magic.

Fivefold Mind 

Through pure reason, all things are possible. Instead of rolling 1d20 for SKLL rolls, you roll 5D4, treating any total of 20 or higher as a critical success. When resisting mind-altering magical effects, you can use SKLL in place of your SAVE.

Fivefold Body

Through understanding of the world, inside and out, you have acquired a greater understanding of yourself. Not your mind, nor anything as ridiculous as the "soul"- the whole of your flesh, down to the organelles, operates as you will it. Fatal Wounds do not render you unconscious. You are immune to poison and disease. You no longer need to eat, drink, or breathe even when you are not in a state of torpor, nor do you have any need for sleep. You no longer fly on anything so mundane as air, as your wings catch ethereal currents; you can fly regardless of how much you're carrying in your inventory, and can effectively levitate. If you wish, you could fly off into the outer spaces and leave all of this alienness behind.

Nicholas Roerich

Curious Implements

In the hands of a Starman, these tools are easily used, made to be intuitive to a five-sided brain. In the hands of anyone else, they are unergonomic and obtuse- a day of study and a difficulty 20 SKLL test would be required to puzzle out their workings.

1. Molecular Disturbance Weapon. This musket-shaped array of twisted metal tubes emits a ray of shimmering heat at a distance, cooking things alive from the inside. It's a microwave gun. 1d12+4 damage, -1 to hit for each 25' past the first, treats all AC as 10. Each shot costs a charge, and the weapon holds up to 5 charges at a time. An hour in sunlight or ten minutes in a fire will restore a charge. 2 slots.
2. Communications Gorget. Five pentagonal plates of finely-etched titanium, linked at their corners by thin chains to form a "necklace". This device translates your Starsign speech into any other language you know, allowing you to speak in a buzzing text-to-speech voice. 3 slots carried, 1 slot worn.
3. Loyal Shoggoth. A hundred pounds of shapeless, protoplasmic meat, conditioned extensively for loyalty. 2 HD (12 HP,) AC as unarmored, +2 to hit, natural weapons 1d6; MOVE +4, minimum damage from weapons, regenerates 1 HP/round even after reaching 0 HP unless killed with fire.
4. Stone Knife. One continuous, smooth piece of black basalt, its blade polished to a mirror sheen. An unpleasantly heavy medium +1 weapon, +2 against shapeshifters, +2 against creatures which rapidly regenerate. These latter two bonuses are cumulative. 2 slots.
5. Protective Garment. A pentagon of thin, mirror-sheen plastic with long slits at each of its faces and an elastic-cinched hole in its center- a poncho for a five-sided creature. Counts as cold-weather clothing and has a 4-in-6 chance of reflecting beams and rays. On a 1, it is reflected back at the source. 2 slots carried, 1 slot worn.
6. Grounding Scepter. A "tree" of twisted black wire with seven branches and roots of glass fiber that allow light to travel from one end to the other. If held in two hands and planted in the ground–dirt, stone, or sand, not flooring–the scepter renders its holder immune to any magic that would directly target them as long as contact is maintained, dispersing the energy with an infrasonic hum and a smell of ozone. 2 slots.