Historia Aetherium: Twisted Hound
Historia Aetherium
This collection investigates the place of Etheric phenomena in the setting and story of Metroplex. For more practical information on the opponent, see Twisted Hound.
This page is far from complete. Feel free to contribute more interpretive / speculative information below the quotes or in its own section.
An Overview
Living creatures of bone and crystal, often seen searching for prey or attacking without warning.
Twisted hounds are among the most complex creatures of the ether, appearing in a multitude of locations and pursuing a mysterious agenda. They are among the only etheric creatures you can encounter even in a sober frame of mind, in places where reality itself seems to have been damaged: the Slags near the site of the Incident, and the underground Midgard lab following the massively destructive 'Omega order'. (Also note that in the buried lab, even the drone hounds before the omega order move "far more fluidly than you would expect".) Nonetheric people can also see them in the hall of doors summoned by the Third Eye sorcerers.
Elsewhere, they inhabit the bodies of drone hounds (appearing crystal to Eclipse-users, and robotic to the sober). This is likely the first form they took in this world, although whether they were created or summoned it is impossible to say. Their appearance everywhere from the ghost ship to the mushroom cavern does suggest a much greater independence than most etheric creatures. Or alternatively, a greater dependence. After all, they are protecting the ghost sailors and mushroom men. Yet they seem to serve the Flickering Guard unwillingly.
Third Eye Sorcerers have discovered how to summon these creatures in order to control them and direct them in combat, and the protagonist can learn to do the last two as well. Another power has also been seen directing the hounds, using different methods.
Origins and Purpose
Fragmentary information gathered from a multitude of sources.
Entering this world:
Eventually they resolve into a scene of a young, cleanshaven man pouring over mechanical diagrams. His head jerks to the side and a creature like a hound with black pits for eyes and bone spikes ripped from its skin, burrows its way out of his forehead and into the drawing.
He places one hand on his head and goes back to drawing.
This man almost certainly is the same genius behind the mysterious puzzle box, a project lead research scientist studying the composition of a bizarre Asian flower shortly before he was apparently killed by the Incident. This scene is a vision of events from 10-15 years ago.
You follow his gaze back towards the Quad, eventually finding a festering pit in the ground as though someone wounded the earth. Something about it seems strangely familiar, but before you can determine what, two dark shapes circle around the pit towards you.
As they howl and close the distance, the pit shrinks, leaving little more than a scorch mark.
Now this is very interesting. An extremely miniaturized and temporary Incident? What on or outside of earth is going on here? In fact, why do the hounds appear on the quad at all, unattached to drones? What are they looking for in the crowd?
You move a bit closer, just enough to see the twisted figure. He's still wearing a lab coat and glasses that look Midgard issued, but he's hunched over a pile of rubble whispering to himself.
Using chunks of metal and concrete, he constructs an approximation of… some sort of quadruped, you guess, it's hard to say exactly what. Looking over his work, he smiles to himself.
He stretches out one taloned hand and a spectral shape, like a crystal twisted into a hound's shape, passes from it into the effigy. A few moments later, it pulls back slowly into his hand.
He sighs heavily and raises his voice, sounding only a little exasperated. "Well, I knew it wasn't going to be easy. Let's try another one."
You hold out the tome, muttering its words quietly. It seems to almost push back against your wishes.
Eventually, though, it gives in and a spectral echo of the hound passes from the tome to Johnson's strange facsimile. For a moment you think it hasn't worked, but then it jerks to life.
Johnson throws his hands into the air, letting you see that one of them is twisted into a terrible claw. "Yes! Yes! Ha ha! So perhaps this is how he caught them! He understood! Ha ha ha ha ha!"
He flashes you an unhealthy grin and follows the hound, which has begun stalking the area, at a safe distance.
The tale of Wotan and Loki:
In the beginning, men were mortal.
But one, who called himself Wotan, sought to change this.
He sought to free humanity from the bounds of life and death.
It would not be an easy quest, so he began gathering an army to him.
But he trusted his greatest secrets to his son Loki.
Wotan was a fool for trusting Loki.
At the first sign of trouble, Loki betrayed his father.
At first, Loki's sorcery could only raise twisted things.
Wolves, serpents, and dark spirits called him father.
He raised an army of twisted things and foolish men to assault his father.
War is not a pretty business and Loki was ill-suited for it.
Wolves, serpents, and dark spirits were ground to dust. Foolish men died in battle.
But Loki lived and escaped. None could find the traitor.
Thus began the Hunt. None would survive.
The Hunt searched through all corners of Midgard.
But they could not find him, even in the darkest corners.
Even now he waits in the shadows, like a wolf circling his prey.
So when you hear 'the wolf has slipped his bonds' it is time to join the Hunt.
The puzzle does not arrange these lines in a particular order; this is our best guess.
Are the hounds part of Wotan's Hunt, or among the wolves and serpents summoned by Loki? There is evidence for both - perhaps they are created or summoned using the entrusted secrets.
Hunting:
The record picks up with a team finding a young woman washed up on the nearby beach, covered in the toxic sludge Lake Metroplex has become known for. After a strange altercation where the team's drone misidentified her as a target and had to be put down, she was brought in for treatment.
Aside from two factors, she was found to be in perfect health and sound mind. She suffered from a mild case of "Slags Toxification" after exposure that would have melted the average person. And, more interestingly, she suffered from a strangely functional amnesia.
The report goes on for almost a dozen pages discussing her resistance to toxins and swift recovery from the drone attack, but leaves the amnesia mentioned only as a passing irritation until several weeks later.
Given what we know about the hounds, there is a strong possibility that the drone mentioned here was a hound. After all, you're amnesiac and self-healing, and how many drones have attacked you? It's unclear what exactly these symptoms signify and why the hounds would care. They seem to result from a process (or perhaps processes) developed either by Midgard, or Loki, or both.
Even better evidence that the hounds attack anything slag poisoned. Perhaps… they're protecting the aether from us…
The last piece of advice is a bit stranger. "Anyone suspecting they have been poisoned should make contact by comm for treatment rather than returning to the facility directly. Until that time, avoid any patrolling AD or CD units."
A doctor stands in the cell, examining an unmoving man. She flickers a light from one of the man's eyes to the other.
She sighs and begins draining the contents of a vial into a syringe. As she finishes, the door swings open, briefly clipping into your view.
She barely has a chance to scream "I told you never to bring drones into the cells!" before a hound drone fluidly leaps forward, its face ripping open into a jagged mouth and tearing into the patient. It only takes a moment before the blood-spattered drone winds back down and moves mechanically back to the door.
After that, it's all over but the incoherent screaming at the stammered apologies.
A young girl, perhaps eight or nine, sits in one corner of the cell wearing a buttoned shirt several sizes too large for her. She rocks back and forth, singing gibberish to the cadence of a lullaby.
It takes a few verses, but you recognize it… or at least part of it. It's similar to the invocation you learned to call the hounds.
The video crackles for a moment and she pauses her song. "Hello. I'm glad you came." She speaks almost lovingly, staring towards the center of the cell, although nothing seems to be there.
"The nice man next door said you keep here here and there there. Is that right? Is that why you keep helping us? I could use some help…" She pauses, still blankly gazing towards the empty space.
"They say I'm sick… so they keep giving me medicine. I didn't feel sick… but after last time, I'm not sure. They said they were giving me someone's blood… I'm not sure it helped." Her gaze drifts down, staring at her knees.
She pauses for almost a minute and you think you can see tears in her eyes. Finally, she nods and leans back.
A moment later, the front of her throat disappears, leaving a jagged wound. She remains strangely peaceful, her blood draining out as the video fades to static.
Needless to say, this makes matters even more complex. Are they preying upon this class of people, or showing mercy? How can the girl communicate with the hounds? Is it related to the blood transfusion?
The artist claims everyone who takes Eclipse can see them, and that the ghouls protect him from them:
He shakes his head. "I know some other people have seen 'em too. These big damned dogs with no eyes and hair like razorblades. They were there every time I took Eclipse, but the ghouls fought them."
For a moment, you feel utterly compelled to hunt outsiders. Not entirely sure who the outsiders might be, you stand confused until the compulsion passes.
(note that smoking eclipse is made from hound material)
You can see dozens of hound-like things made of twisted crystalline spines passing among and through the students like shadows. It's like they're hunting… searching for something.
Hopefully you're not it.
A pair of twisted hounds catch your scent and chase you through the halls deep in the lab. They never seem to tire and when you falter the first bit, they're on you.
You hear a strange, rapid beat and turn around to discover it's the sound of two crystalline hounds running over concrete. They're barreling right for you, like they've found their mission in life.
A crate near you shakes, then explodes, leaving a swirling, oily mass floating in the air. A twisted creature lopes from it, baring its teeth.
This last one deserves mention for three reasons. 1, the crate (I suppose there could be a drone packed in there). 2, the oiliness. 3, this appears even while nonetheric, deep in the Slags.
You feel a presence watching you, pushing down on you, long before you could hear the echoing howls. But the howls came and soon you could see their source, spine-covered things shaped like hounds racing towards you.
You have a moment to wonder what you did to make them think you're prey before they come into range. Of course, it's always possible they just don't like you.
These hounds are provoked by violence against mushroom men, bizarrely enough.
Serving Others
Third Eye sorcery:
As you open the door, the chanting winds down. A beast crackles into existence between two Third Eye members, both of whom seem delighted to see you.
The result of their ritual.
You open the door and the chanting stops suddenly as one of the men inside looks towards you. Blue energy, like lightning, rips through his body, leaving him a smoking husk.
His companion tears his eyes away and extends his hand towards you.
Apparently, this is what happens when they fail.
The hounds in combat:
The hound collapses into a pile of dust in moments. You call out with ancient words from the tome you carry and gather the hound's energies.
You trap a spectral echo of the hound within the pages of the tome, feeling exhausted afterward.
You call out, invoking the twisted hounds that haunt the ether. The hound appears as a spectral echo and tears into <opponent>
You call out, invoking the twisted hounds that haunt the ether. Your pair of hounds circle <opponent> and tear into it with their spectral teeth
Your pack of hounds descends on <opponent>, tearing into it with their spectral fangs.
Hounds fight as a pack.
one of your hounds blocks the brunt of the attack, absorbing x damage.
Hounds can block etheric attacks for their summoner.
You call out to the hounds that haunt the ether, but they refuse to attack their kin.
Hounds, even when bound, refuse to attack other hounds.
I don't have the text for this, but they can even be used to capture horrific spiders which can also fight for you.
All of the above messages are for hounds directed with a tome of binding + Release the Hounds. But Channel Inspiration + Inspired Imagination + inspiring horn also works, whether held by the protagonist or by a Flickering Guard:
The warrior sounds his hunting horn. A hound of crystal and green fire appears, accompanying the horn with its howls of pain, and lashes out at you
The warrior sounds his hunting horn. Two hounds of crystal and green fire appear, matching the horn with their howls of pain, and tear into you
The warrior sounds his hunting horn. A pack of hounds appear with a howl that drowns out even the horn, moving so fast they appear almost serpentine, lance into you
You call a serpentine mass of crystal and emerald flame from your crystal horn.
The connection here between serpents and wolves is particularly interesting, as well as with the green 'witchfire'. Also note that the hounds are howling in pain, apparently unwilling to serve the guard (and herald?).
Hounds fight even at the sides of etheric ghost sailors, though for what reason or under what compulsion is completely unknown.
A specter emerges from the mists, a dark form loping along beside him. When he sees you, his face twists into a scowl.
"Kill" is all he says, gesturing the shape towards you.
Heimdall's involvement:
The secured files haven't changed since you looked last, so you open the next one in the list. This file covers the drones used in and near the facility, referred to as CD and AD. The terminology is unfamiliar, but you recognize the CD line as the hound drones that accompany Midgard Security and ADs are apparently mobile weapon platforms held aloft by a rotor.
Apparently, CD security is standard at Midgard facilities, mandated from someone called Heimdall. However, he also mandates a wireless net to monitor their progress and allow them to sound alerts. You haven't noticed anything of the sort in their systems here.
Crystal and Bone
A quick collection of hound-related items:
hound crystal, hound dust, fine hound dust, hound Eclipse, artificial hound crystal, gritty ointment, toxic crystal, crystal dust], crystalline mushroom, crystallized octopus eye, crystal hand, crystal hound's tooth, porous crystal, ruby apple, glimmering crystals (and related items), black crystal orb, crystal syringe, burning ectoplasm, smoking blob, smoking eclipse, fiery blob, putrid blob, plasmic acid, poltergeist solution
Even its etheric/chemical structure seems able to mesh with many other etheric phenomena.
And effects:
bone spikes, bone scales, calcified organs