Heya! I'm doing a cosmic horror oneshot, taking place in a geometry-defying dungeon made of hands and arms (the severed arms of a creature called mother hand). Anyway, I'm trying to give some clues to her origins (sort of) through murals and a shadow puppet show, while keeping the ambiguity cosmic horror demands.
(Basically, a while ago, a cult tried to summon mother hand, but her impossible geometries couldn't emerge from the portal, so it was a portal walking around on really long arms and dragging people into it. The portal was closed, but her severed arms burrowed into the ground, made this complex, and sort of infected the people around her, recruiting them into a new cult. Mother hand herself was formed when someone's hand fell into the dream/far realm and was imprinted on by the formless form that would become mother hand. Her new summoning plan is using a willing mortal sacrifice's connection to the dream realm to give her a small bridge (her arms will come out of the sacrifice's ears while they babble incoherently))
Wow, that's a pretty cool idea. I'm going to have to think about this one. My first thought would be to do something with a marionette during the puppet show, and then create a prominent role for the hand controlling the toy. That would demonstrate that the entity is an outsider, that mortals can only understand part of it, and that it can have an effect on reality.
Wow, that's a pretty cool idea. I'm going to have to think about this one. My first thought would be to do something with a marionette during the puppet show, and then create a prominent role for the hand controlling the toy. That would demonstrate that the entity is an outsider, that mortals can only understand part of it, and that it can have an effect on reality.
The puppet show would be a set dressing thing, with a room filled with motionless cultists watching mother hand's shadow puppets telling her 'holy' texts, with the shadows not matching with the shapes of the hands. If they interact with this at all, the hands pull all the cultists into the ground and the show stops
One could have different colored hands be most of the mural. The hands would change positions once or twice and then go back to the original position. (like lenticular printing). Use these stop motion-esque murals to tell the lore you want.
Perhaps after a certain time or a number of times through the hands scatter. Crawling off to other places or slowly fading/disappearing while scuttling off.
The murals could only be visible after passing through the room. Like, only as the party is leaving and looking over their shoulder. Some murals may be missed or they could go back into the past rooms to walk out again.
The murals might stretch down a long hall and be visible only after taking damage. Perhaps only after being bloodied. Or only after a detect magic spell is used. Or perhaps after a cantrip is used.
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Heya! I'm doing a cosmic horror oneshot, taking place in a geometry-defying dungeon made of hands and arms (the severed arms of a creature called mother hand). Anyway, I'm trying to give some clues to her origins (sort of) through murals and a shadow puppet show, while keeping the ambiguity cosmic horror demands.
(Basically, a while ago, a cult tried to summon mother hand, but her impossible geometries couldn't emerge from the portal, so it was a portal walking around on really long arms and dragging people into it. The portal was closed, but her severed arms burrowed into the ground, made this complex, and sort of infected the people around her, recruiting them into a new cult. Mother hand herself was formed when someone's hand fell into the dream/far realm and was imprinted on by the formless form that would become mother hand. Her new summoning plan is using a willing mortal sacrifice's connection to the dream realm to give her a small bridge (her arms will come out of the sacrifice's ears while they babble incoherently))
Anything helps
"You remember me. Just think a little harder"
Maniacal Unseelie Nightmare Enby
She/they
Wow, that's a pretty cool idea. I'm going to have to think about this one. My first thought would be to do something with a marionette during the puppet show, and then create a prominent role for the hand controlling the toy. That would demonstrate that the entity is an outsider, that mortals can only understand part of it, and that it can have an effect on reality.
The puppet show would be a set dressing thing, with a room filled with motionless cultists watching mother hand's shadow puppets telling her 'holy' texts, with the shadows not matching with the shapes of the hands. If they interact with this at all, the hands pull all the cultists into the ground and the show stops
"You remember me. Just think a little harder"
Maniacal Unseelie Nightmare Enby
She/they
One could have different colored hands be most of the mural. The hands would change positions once or twice and then go back to the original position. (like lenticular printing). Use these stop motion-esque murals to tell the lore you want.
Perhaps after a certain time or a number of times through the hands scatter. Crawling off to other places or slowly fading/disappearing while scuttling off.
The murals could only be visible after passing through the room. Like, only as the party is leaving and looking over their shoulder. Some murals may be missed or they could go back into the past rooms to walk out again.
The murals might stretch down a long hall and be visible only after taking damage. Perhaps only after being bloodied. Or only after a detect magic spell is used. Or perhaps after a cantrip is used.