Gut’Drel “Guts” Grownan
I created an psionic-ghost-like entity that haunted my PCs for years (game years), and might be inspirational to others… we called him Guts.
Squad: Thirty-Fourth Special Infantry Division for the Third Quadrant, Ascension Colonies;
“ChromRittern”; C-Level 98.
Final Rank: Colonel
The History:
Guts was a renegade from the beginning, but never subordinate to his superiors. He was always obedient to the ChromRittern honor. This was true up until the raid on a secessionist planet in the far reaches of their sector; a world called Bregon. There, the battling was viscous. Intelligence on the rebels were sketchy at best. The 34th were unused to the harsh environment, and the unique, seemingly alien tactics of the colonists. The planet was settled by a fringer group who believed they were led there by their version of God. What was later found out was that they were lead there by psionic influence, through an alien distress beacon. The colonists found alien weapons, and other technology on the planet. They learned from the psionic presence there, how to use the technology, and they used it to fight the ChromRittern.
A major battle broke out at Fort Hellicutis, with the rebels holding fast in one of the most fortified positions on the planet. Guts, and his troop were sent in to take a higher position on the west flank of the fort. When they took the hill, the remaining rebels set off a weapon never seen before or ever seen again. It seemed to be some kind of a bio-weapon with some psionic qualities to it. The bio-weapon drove the troop mad, causing them to slaughter each other. The troop was all but wiped out. The disease continued to spread, and when it was all over, Guts stood alone. It was later discovered that this disease not only drove the men insane (as if they weren’t already from the unstable cyber), but also caused a psionic imbalance in their bodies, which in turn perpetuated the insanity. This imbalance turned these men into psionic absorbent-batteries. Each death they cause fed their hunger, but only to urge them on for more. They would absorb each other psionic essence, and in the end, Guts had absorbed them all.
From there, he slaughtered the rebels in the fort, and continued onward to who ever opposed him. The disease spread further and some of those infected joined him, forming a small band of raiders. They became known as Grownan’s Gargoyles.
After some time, and several planets plundered and raped including the then famous Comsi’ Massacre, the ChromRittern Honor Guard caught up with the Gargoyles, and proceeded to hunt them down like rabid dogs, until they had killed all but the leader. The ChromRittern Admiralty took pity on Guts. They stowed him away in a phased Q-Space hyper-sleep pod, and launched him into deep space as punishment.
The Rest of the Story:
Gut’Drel’s pod wondered for decades until it reached the edge of the ‘Zone. The remote area in which the pod had dropped from Q-Space had yet been explored by anyone, except for a group of aliens who had mastered, among other things, navigating the ‘Zone. They called themselves the Yaudel, an ancient race of strong empaths. The Yaudel haled from a world on the other side of the ‘Zone called Korbalus, and were exploring the ‘Zone when they came across the pod containing Guts. Their full talent of empathic understanding was not realized until they found Guts, for they had encountered very few emotional races and they themselves were near emotionless much like the Glahn. His emotions of rage and desire for revenge permeated from the pod, and they admired the purity of the emotion. They learned much from the experience, calling it their “enlightenment”, attributing it all to Guts. They felt it was a gift from the gods themselves, even though they had the power all along, but never had the subject to fully utilize it on. In return for his “service”, they gave him the knowledge and technology to help him in his quest for revenge. His insanity drove him into a megalomaniac rage, fed by the sainthood that the Yaudel had given him. He used this opportunity to his best ability, learning everything he could of their technology and their talents. Much of their technology revolved around psionic power, the transfer and storage of it. When the Yaudel realized Guts’s disease, which they seemed to be immune to, the sought to study it and cure him. However, they could not. Guts’ situation grew worse. The craving for psionic power was too great. Even with the Yaudel sacrificing their young to Guts, his body began to deteriorate. Because of this and the fear of the disease mutating and becoming dangerous to them, the Yaudel created the Casket and the Guardian. The Casket would act much like the pod; not only sustaining him physically, but also feed his need for psionc energies, and allow him to build upon his own psionic talents using some of the energies he had already tapped. They used some “Psi-berware” to enhance his psionic talents, and enclosed him in the casket, a large complex puzzle box. The Guardian was created artificially to be his watcher, to help release Guts when he finds a way to defeat the deterioration of his body, and to help in his quest for revenge. Normally in the shape of a man-size sphere, the Guardian is made up of an organic metallic substance, enhanced with a nano-neural network and psionic energy nano-transmitter/receivers. The Guardian is powered by its own bio-matrix, absorbing solar energy, as well as psionic when it could. They released his back toward the Core, with the Guardian.
The Yaudel served the OverMasters, a dark race of great power. The OverMasters are also known by another name; the Ka’Abrel. The OverMasters received the intelligence of the Yaudel’s recent “enlightenment”, and were concerned of an uprising. They sent a team of spies to determine the nature of this incident, and what came back enraged them. They could not believe the Yaudel would be so careless of their technology, and immediately sent out deep space hunter drones to search out and destroy the Casket and the Guardian. For punishment, the Ka’Abrel all but wiped out the Yaudel race. The remaining few dozen survivor were enslaved, and to this day, every Ka’Abrel noble family has a family or two of Yaudel psi-slaves.
The Drake Connection:
The Drake are another servant race of the Armagons, a dark creature with great strength and ferocious battle sense. They rely on their ability to strike cold fear in their enemies, and some say they have a psionic ability to drum up the deepest fears of any race. Guts and the Guardian encountered the Drake when the were drawn in through the temporal worm hole emanating from the Shatfrag Nebula in the now Ka’Abrel sector. For a time, the Drake captured and tortured the psionic essence of Guts, which was housed and preserved in the Casket, his body long gone. The Guardian broke free and saved Guts, and both were able to find the worm hole entrance before it closed. The Drake are the only thing Guts truly fears.
The Guilded Shadow & Guts
Guts, free of his physical body, needed a new housing. The Guardian sought to help, and they found the ship called the Valkyre. At the right moment, the Guardian reconfigured its matrix to infuse with the ship, creating a perfect housing for the psionic essence that was preserved in the Casket. Once the Valkyre was fully infused by the Guardian’s shell, it was renamed to Guilded Shadow. In a sense, Guts was able to “possess” the ship.
The Core
The Guardian’s “heart” infused with the ships reactor, creating a quantum Q-Space bubble around the core. The Guardian then established an empathic link and drew the psionic essence of Guts into the quantum sanctuary. The Guardian, its energies beginning to deplete, created a synergetic reaction with the empathic power of Guts, its own bio-matrix reactors and the ship’s reactors. The process started as a symbiotic cycle with Guts’ insane empathic power amassing into the Guardian collectors, and the Guardian feeding Guts psionic energies. This cycle contained in the Q-space quantum bubble creates a powerfully energetic field that is used to power the ship and the psionically based technology that allows Guts to exist in the ship. The cycle must remain unbroken for both the continue to exist.
The Casket also is involved in the cycle but only tangentially. With its energy, Guts can find the power to do occasional feats and tasks, like attack passengers or crew. or control certain physical ship functions. Killing crew or passengers also gives Guts more mobility, because he still absorbs psionic essences. He can even summon the absorbed essences as slaves in his matrix.
The Matrix
Guts is able to travels through out the Guilded Shadow and torment the crew via a psionic-photonic/positronic synthesis with the ship’s Matrix. Guts can create his own world in the Matirx. The psionic-photonic/positronic synthesis is possible because of the Guardian. He creates the interface between the Consortium technology and his technology.
To Destroy Both
To ultimately destroy Guts and the Guardian, you must power down the system by stopping the cyclical reactor core the Guardian created. To do that you must weaken Guts by first spacing the Casket after it has been opened. Then Guts must be battled on his own ground to weaken him further. This will create and imbalance in the reactor, the Guardian will overwhelm Guts, and both will be destroyed
To Destroy Guts
First above all, open and destroy the Casket. This will destroy his reserve energy supply. However, to destroy Guts with out loosing the Guardian makes it more complicated and some what fatal for at least one person. First the Guardian needs someone else to replace Guts as his charge. In order to do this, the Guardian must be reprogrammed to except his new charge. This takes a unique form of psionic-cyber hacking, and is extremely difficult. Second, the psionic-empathic cycle reactor must continue uninterrupted, which means the psionic essence of the charge must replace Guts. This is done by jacking into the Matrix and getting to the reactor Core. Once there, someone must kill the physical body of the subject. Thirdly, while the new subject is being placed, Guts must be battled with in the Matrix, on his own ground, to distract him from the work being done on the Guardian. Once the Guardian will accept his new programming, then Guts can be destroyed, for he no longer has the Guardians protection.
Later Additions
The Caldria Ruins – Lisere System. In an asteroid field are a group of exiled alien scientists that were involved in the technology that created Guts.
Korbalus – Gut’s Coffin puzzle solution.