Welcome back, Spacers! We've arrived at the last stretch, the finish line is in sight! We're cranking up the heat with new... everything! A new spotlight for expansion Intruders - and a bunch of Spacers! - new Expansions, and the new pledge levels you've been waiting for!
GRAND INTRUDERS SPOTLIGHT (get it?!)
Hey guys and gals! It’s that time of the week again; I’ve barely recovered from the last spotlight, but time is running short, and we need to talk about these new Intruders! And so we will.
I’ll start with a simple recap of the first Intruders Spotlight preface. If you remember that, you can skip a few paragraphs! If not, here’s a refresher. First, a couple of words on the naming conventions. Ratcatcher, Butcher, Wendigo, Goatmen. Those don’t sound like alien species names, do they? We wanted to ground the story of Enormity in something real. Astronauts making first contact with something unknown wouldn’t really know what it’s called – or if it even has a name. No. To make sense of the things they’re seeing, to ‘tame them’, they would use references, labels, names they are familiar with. Urban legends and cryptids are a good reference point. When a Spacer sees a giant, winged thing with glowing eyes and a distinct shape, they will call it a Mothman, based on that superficial similarity. In fact, the thing has little in common with the Mothman. It’s not even a creature, but some kind of environmental suit. But that name… it gives some comfort. Some familiarity.
Whether humanoid or not, the alien beings of Enormity are truly alien, frightening and weird. This similarity to Earth-based myths serves to highlight the alienness; if everything was strange, nothing would be. But the uncanny? The slightly skewed, the not-quite-right? The thing that exists just outside reality, but close enough to mimic it, that is the most terrifying.
Now, what makes these Expansion Intruders special? One word: avantgarde! When designing the Core Game, any Core Game, we, believe it or not, put certain limitations on our imagination. Deadlines are, of course, a given, but we also make sure that the base experience doesn’t overwhelm you with its uniqueness or weirdness. No such reservations for the Expansions! With more time, knowing that these expansions are made for the dedicated fans, we can delve into the bizarre, and introduce new, bold mechanics! This is true for the ATO Expansions, whose battles are based on completely new paradigms, like new movement rules, this is true for KF with the TTSF expansion, and it will be true for Enormity!
So, let’s dive in, starting with one of my favorites, the Ratcatcher!
The Ratcatcher
The Ratcatcher is such a fascinating concept. This is an alien being that, seemingly, has arrived on the Shepherd to deal with the Wall Rat scourge. It’s a very mysterious Intruder, and its true nature will remain hidden until the very end of the campaign. Is it an alien being? A “relic of an ancient, star-spanning civilization that tried to play god”? The source of the problem? The solution? Is it even alive?
The Ratcatcher is a slow-moving enemy that can suddenly appear on top of you – as it has the same ability as the Wall Rats to squeeze through the narrowest of spaces, as well as to telephase/teleport all around the map. The Ratcatcher utilizes a different type of teleportation than the lamentable Fly, ‘slow teleportation’; in fact, we’ve designed its miniature to split in the middle! Meaning that, as it teleports, it’s in two places at once – this may be an opportune moment to strike, or to sneak inside the creature itself!
The Ratcatcher has a wide range of tools at its disposal: surgical nanofilament saws for devastating melee attacks, a universal solvent injector that turns all biological matter into goo, a gravity vacuum to suck everything and everyone into its body-sac, and additional prehensile limbs to hold its victims. Even a surgical laser for close to mid-range attacks!
Do you think that’s everything? No. The Ratcatcher fulfills its mission by liquifying the Wall Rats and sucking them into its body-sac. However, even in a state of primordial goo, the creatures inside the Intruder are not dead. Just… dormant. When its existence is threatened, the Ratcatcher can reverse vacuum any Wall Rats – or any other Intruders that happened to fall prey to it – outside of its body, reconstituting them into their original shape; basically, utilizing them as improvised weapons.
And don’t get me started on all the disease samples the Ratcatcher stores, to be used on hapless Spacers…
Wall Rats
You know a lot about the Wall Rats already! They can squeeze through any crack, even through the microscopic spaces of your suits, effectively ignoring out-of-bounds spaces and red lines on Location maps, as well as your EVA suits. If a Wall Rat deals enough damage to you – or stays adjacent long enough – IT WILL infect you. Infection is not a simple Condition, and it cannot be easily discarded. A Wall Rat infection has several levels, which progress with completed runs (other game effects can exacerbate the process), corrupting your soul blackbox and eventually turning you into a wall rat itself.
When dealt massive or critical damage, a Wall Rat literally explodes, showering the surrounding area with blood and gore. It’s speculated this is a disease propagation mechanism, so you’re advised to stay as far away as possible!
A lone Wall Rat specimen is mindless while, the more of them that are in close proximity, especially if bonded into a ‘rat king’, the smarter they become, culminating in truly hive mind behavior.
Most other biological Intruder species are hostile toward the Wall Rats – perhaps understanding the threat they pose – while fully synthetic lifeforms, like the Davids, simply ignore them – and vice versa. There are stories of a particular David breeding these things, treating them as pets, subjects or children, but that’s surely just a Spacer tall tale. Even a David would not be that deranged.
Gene Splicer
I’ve talked about the Splicer a bit last time! The Splicer is a representative of an extremely old alien species that reached a civilizational and evolutionary dead end, one who refused to die, preferring to subject itself to a slow degenerative disease in a vain attempt to outsmart entropy.
Splicers are extremely dangerous. They are very smart, preferring to strike at range and from the shadows. They have a vast array of tools at their disposal, from energy weapons to surgical equipment and DNA extractors not unlike those used by the Snatchers, just mechanical.
Splicer adversaries can kidnap Spacers to experiment on them during normal runs. They might harvest their DNA or splice in some alien one. The results are unpredictable. Death is the best of fates one could hope for. Each kidnapped Spacer will add to the Splicer’s database, making it stronger. If the Spacer somehow survives, they will be released back into the population, their memory of the event erased.
This is another terrifying ability of the Splicer – they can alter or fabricate memories. Make you forget you have even encountered them, forget abilities, forget your progression tree, forget your purpose. Make you forget what it truly looks like…
Splicers can also splice themselves with the DNA of other Intruder species you engage with, to become even stronger and to gain outstanding abilities – like the wall-squeezing of the Wall Rats, as described above.
Also, note the Splicer drone – made of an older Splicer that succumbed to the Grey Death or wounds – it serves the younger Splicer, even in death…
Lepers
The Lepers are what happens when a specimen of the Splicer species fails to retain its ‘humanity’ and succumbs to the Grey Death. They lose their minds, becoming mindless thralls to other Splicers. Which doesn’t mean they always act mindlessly – they can be controlled by a Splicer or its drone remotely.
Splicers often continue to experiment on the Lepers, splicing alien DNA into them or modifying them technologically, with what appears to be bastardized Gatekeeper technology. Some Spacers have reported Lepers carrying energy guns, but those sightings are as yet unconfirmed.
What is undisputable is that, due to the degenerative Grey Death disease, the Lepers essentially feel no pain. They cannot be suppressed and, missing higher cognitive functions, are very hard to put down for good.
The Gatekeeper
As I mentioned last time, the Gatekeeper is one of the most dangerous Intruders, and, along with the Journeymen, one of the few untouched by the corruption representants of advanced NHIs (non-human intelligences).
Let’s start from there. The Gatekeeper uses hyper-advanced technology, centuries or millennia ahead of humanity’s. Anti-gravity fields, teleportation, opening rifts in space-time are somehow plain in comparison energy guns and swords. All for the taking by the Spacers – if they can somehow figure out how to use them.
The Gatekeeper is also a potent psionic, capable of telekinesis and telepathy. It can literally blow you apart from the inside with a mere thought – or tell you to shoot your fellow Spacer. Not deadly enough? The Gatekeeper has access to reality-manipulation abilities too, called Glitch powers, although it seems reluctant to use them, reaching for them only as a last resort.
The Gatekeeper can surround itself with a guard detail of Coffin Golems. It can cause you permanent and long-lasting psychological damage. It can call on the Rotting Monolith. And it is pursued by something worse still.
Coffin Golems
These are presumably entombed specimens of the Gatekeeper species, kept on life support on the brink of death. These are not machines, and they are not mindless. In fact, Golems retain a surprising amount of agency, being capable of independent thought.
Due to their thick armor, they are very hard to take down. They also come with a veritable arsenal of devastating heavy weapons. Rail guns, energy cannons, plain old grand melee weapons or the dreaded smart tele-rifle which can shoot through walls! Even a single Coffin Golem is dangerous if equipped with the right weapon against your squad.
Golems will exterminate other Intruders if given the orders to do so, though their exact modus operandi is indecipherable. Sometimes they will eliminate a Wall Rat or Grin infestation with extreme prejudice, other times they are perfectly fine with abominations running free and rubbing shoulders with them. They do share the Gatekeepers hatred for synthetic life, cloning (like your Body Sleeve system) and DNA tampering, which often puts them at odds with Splicers and Snatchers.
Ghosts of Halla
Spacers who don’t want to fall into the rabbit hole of mysticism call them NCEs. Non-corporeal entities. Things that appear as ghosts, but are actually some kind of yet-unclassified alien lifeform, perhaps photon-based or who exist in some kind of parallel dimension.
This is just speculation though. What IS known is that the ghosts are incorporeal, able to move through solid matter, pass through walls or emerge from beneath the very ground itself. They literally drain life energy from you through mere contact or, in the case of the most powerful entities, through sheer proximity.
The Ghosts take the form of dead Spacers, EVA suits and all, but this appears to be some kind of advanced psychosomatic mimicry – in other words, maybe they are just taking images from our minds and projecting them back. This would certainly explain some of the Phantom’s abilities…
This theory holds water until you face an Edenite or Unknown Astronaut – because how can a being mimic the appearance of spacesuit that you yourselves have not seen before?
The disturbing nature of the Ghosts threatens not only your corporeal shells but your psyche – or, if you believe in something transcendental, your immortal soul. Ghosts can cause Fear, Dread and Terror.
Eclipse Phantom (of the Flat Woods)
There is a region of Halla that is completely level, a near-flat plain devoid of features… until you enter it. Then, gradually, you begin to see – the phantom trees and phantom spires. The vista of a non-existing landscape.
Here, the Phantom reigns. The Eclipse Phantom appears to be an extremely powerful Ghost, sharing their ability to pass through solid matter and drain life energy, however this familiarity may be superficial, convergent evolution or a common environmental adaptation. The Phantom seems sentient, though mad. It is capable of deliberate deceit, it can mimic the appearance and voices of those close and dear to you, and use your personal information to break your will and lure you to your doom – it gaslights you.
In fact, the Phantom can even tempt the most socially disassociated Spacers among you with the promise of knowledge or technology – it knows where the secrets are buried, and the intel it possesses is verifiable. It is just that each time you give in, the Phantom takes a piece of you, never to return it.
There are no known ways to kill a Phantom. The Phantom, on the other hand, can kill you in a variety of ways. It has all the tools of the Ghosts, while adding some of its own: like the strange technological apparatus it uses as a scythe for reach attacks… or as a sniper rifle for deadly long-range attacks (including headshots).
Finally, the Eclipse Phantom can completely take over its victim, possessing them. And it will not let go without a proper exorcism…
Goreghuls
Not an imaginative name, but one that conveys the terror of facing these maneaters up-close. It’s unknown if they are the original inhabitants of the ‘Gore Planet’ or if they are representatives of some migrant species that degenerated over decades or centuries of feeding on the megalithic alien corpses.
It is, however, quite clear, that the Goreghuls driving instinct is to feed on the meat of other species. In fact, observation leads you to assume their taste is discerning: they prefer ‘food’ higher up the evolutionary ladder – they will always go for sentient beings over animals, for example. In extreme cases, to keep going, they will cannibalize their own.
These maneaters possess tremendous physical strength and regeneration capabilities, are very fast and, due to their albino-white skin and adaptation to the harsh conditions of the Gore Planet, are hard to detect. In fact, they use snow and ice as camouflage, and can be very stealthy when the occasion demands it, leading some to speculate they may, in fact, be sentient themselves…
The Butcher
The Butcher is a representative of the Tantali NHI (non-human intelligence), who visit the Gore Planet periodically to harvest the meat of the megalithic alien corpses, for either utilitarian (food source), cultural or religious purposes.
The Butcher’s power armor is somehow reminiscent of what the Glorious Empire uses, though it seems even heavier and thicker, if you can believe it. It’s virtually impenetrable. In fact, the few times Spacers have managed to take out a Butcher, it’s through the destruction of its power source – less shielded, perhaps for cooling reasons – and simply leaving them, helpless, in the snow. Nobody knows what the Tantali actually look like.
The Butcher is not a soldier, it is what the name describes – a highly qualified worker specialized in slaughtering other beings and dressing their flesh. To this end, it has an impressive array of tools, from a selection of saws and knives to mining lasers.
Cornered, the usually stoic Butchers tend to go into an insane frenzy, quadrupling their strength and reflexes. It is speculated they ingest some of the Gore Planet’s meat to achieve this effect although, of course, no one can prove it without breaking through the impenetrable armor.
The Butchers engage and eliminate the Goreghuls when they know they have the upper hand, but will retreat to the safety of their saw-trawlers when faced with a pack of the maneaters.
Bloodhounds
Bloodhounds are the enforcers of the Glorious Empire, fanatical, brutal and efficient. They do not fear death, only sin and their God-Emperor. Their suits are fully powered, giving even the smaller Bloodhounds immense physical strength. They are trained soldiers, utilizing squad tactics, such as flanking, forward scouting, breaching and combined arms – yes, not every Bloodhound is armed with the standard sonic rifle, some carry heavy weapons or utilize exo-rigs, or serve as propaganda officers –you can recognize these by their bulky backpack.
Firefights with the Bloodhounds don’t use normal Blip movement. Instead, they are tense battles, made even deadlier by the nigh-endless reinforcements the imperials can call on.
Sonic firearms are extremely powerful and ignore most types of protection. This Gear is DNA-locked, meaning you can’t just loot it of their corpse, you need a way to bypass their security.
Propaganda officers utilize subliminal indoctrination, slowly converting your Spacers against their will.
Templar
In some ways, the Templar is like a big, super-charged Bloodhound. Its power armor is ENORMOUS, it’s sonic weapons more formidable, its Templar Handcannon devastating. Its antigravity harness is so massive it allows the Templar to glide through the battlefield. It also carries a larger indoctrination generator – the very presence of a Templar bends lesser minds to the will of the God-Emperor.
However, Templars are also learned masters of the holy scripture, theists who do not need indoctrination technology to brainwash other beings, deftly wielding both righteous judgement and divine mercy to further their goals.
Some Templars are said to have received the God-Emperor’s Gift; paracausal psionic powers with which to smite the unbelievers and the heretics. And, though questionable from the point of view of the Empire’s dogma, some are even able to tap into forbidden Antinomy, channel the power of the Sun or the Void, or the Outer Dark. For some in the Empire, this flirtation with blasphemy is a step to far, although the all-seeing, all-knowing God-Emperor tolerates it, for now.
Or does he? Each Templar’s power armor is rigged with a small atomic device. One false move or hesitation, and the Sun-Sanhedrin can pull the trigger, apparently from light years away. In the Glorious Empire, no one is beyond reproach, not even its zealous architects.
Goatmen
The Goatmen are fanatical pirates led by shaman-captains. It is important to understand that they are not one species, but rather a conglomerate of lesser ones, each an exile from their destroyed homeworld, united in their hatred of the Empire and the worship of the Black Gods of the Cosmos.
Goatmen utilize unique raiding tactics. Their weaponry, though often archaic or jerry-rigged, is quite powerful, even if somehow the way it operates denies logic. The shamans cast powerful tek-hexes that interfere with the workings of non-Goatmen technology.
Wherever the Goatmen show up, the spirit of their forlorn homeworlds follows. Lights darken, the air becomes cold and humid, and fills with an earthen musk.
Wendigo
The Goatmen are known to make bloody sacrifices to their dark gods, in exchange for arcane wisdom and unholy powers. One if these powers, one you suspect is tied to some sort of DNA manipulation, is the ability to brew strange concoctions, some of which can turn willingsentient beings into hulking monsters, like the Wendigo.
It’s hard to pinpoint where in the Goatmen’s hierarchy the Wendigo sits. Undoubtedly, this boss Intruder, wielding an ancestral shub cannon, is used as a siege engine, one capable of scuttling spaceships – a feat made easier by the fact that the Wendigo can survive in the void of space as readily as in the Shepherd’s atmosphere.
However, the Wendigo is not a mindless beast, and other Goatmen have been observed serving it, not the other way around. In fact, it speaks. It speaks your language, and its words alone can send you into an anxiety spiral.
The Wendigo is driven by instantiable hunger. If no other food source is around, it will devour its fellow Goatmen. It has also tasted human flesh. All of this leads some to believe it has some connection to the legendary Gore Planet, however others contest this claim, calling it narrow-minded. The universe is infinitely big and infinitely wide, and not everything can be so neatly ordered and catalogued.
Blinders
Blinders, the blind native inhabitants of the Urn-makers’ World, live in total darkness of its planet-wide cave system, and have evolved to rely on their heightened senses of hearing and smell. Supposedly a sentient species, you would not tell that from their behavior: they are territorial, aggressive and vicious.
In the total darkness of the caves, they rely on their modified luminescent tail to lure their prey - including Spacers - into bloody ambushes. Though not confirmed, they are considered maneaters.
Due to the depth and complexity of the warrens, it’s impossible to say how many blinders live on the Urn-makers’ World – it may be several thousand, it may be billions. They may be simple pack predators, or a meager vanguard of a yet-undiscovered underground civilization. That last supposition is supported by the groove writing you have found on the deeper caves’ walls, and the pheromone paintings of the ‘Tyrant’ that is believed to dwell in the planet core
Beholder
Last, but not least, is the Beholder of Ga’Roth. Is it THE Beholder? The one the urn curse warned about, the tyrant, the slaver, the tormentor? The one that is said to reside at the planetcore? It is hard to say, as there is plenty of conflicting evidence.
The Beholder is a representant of an as-yet unencountered NHI species, one possibly not native to the Urn-makers’ World. Decadent, despotic, ruthless, its designs towards the barren world you find yourselves on are unknown. Though at first it may look as if it is a vaguely humanoid being in some sort of antigravity device, a closer inspection blurs the line between one and the other. It is more likely that the Beholder is some sort of cybernetic being, and it is hard to tell which part of it preceded the other – the overgrown creature or the many-eyed machine.
And those eyes… they seem to be taken from different alien species, then grafted into those giant sockets. Every eye moves independently of the others, and each possess unique qualities, some of which are Antinomic in nature.
The Beholder is accustomed to the total darkness of the caves. It moves silently, navigating by echolocation. Its giant eyes – perhaps with the help of some advanced technology – can create luminescence. The Beholder uses this ability to lure prey just as the Blinders use their tails, before it gouges out its prey’s eyes. Yes, the Beholder does not hunt for food – just trophies it can add to its already immense collection.
When forced to fight, the Beholder can further focus the light of its eyes into acute rays used very much like laser weapons. Each eye possesses different qualities, including a mind control beam and an anti-psionics field.
I’ve mentioned there is some evidence to support the thesis that this is THE Beholder. The most convincing to date is that sometimes the Beholder is accompanied by a retinue of Blinders, slaves or worshipers, though of course, this may just be the boss Intruder taking advantage of a preexisting cult and hijacking it for its own purpose.
…and that’s it! All the Expansion Intruders in one place, and another grand spotlight down! But wait, there’s more! A gallery of some of the suits we’re designing for both the Core Game, as well as the Expansions! You will excuse the lack of written spotlight for them – I’m all spent for the moment, and I’ve got a big ATO Update coming up later this week!
Gallery of Suits!
Now you know all of our plans for Enormity for the next two years! And I know what you’re thinking: hey, there’s two more Expansions here! Where are they? Well, look no further than directly below:
GORE PLANET CAMPAIGN SPOTLIGHT
GOUGER OF HOPES CAMPAIGN SPOTLIGHT
Ok, ok, but what about new pledge levels? An all-in? Some last-minute great deal? I’ve got two! The Gameplay All-in, which saves you $29, and an extravagant everything and the kitchen sink All-in with a whopping $49 slashed off. And note, these discounts are on top of the discounted prices available during this campaign. Not only will the prices go up from here, these pledge levels will not be available in the PM.
NEW PLEDGE LEVELS
Oh, and one more thing: we’re still 48+ hours from the end of the campaign. With the right backing, anything can happen…
