Rasmalarthim

A note from the author:

I must admit something to all the readers of this article who have read my Innsmouth article. I misled you. I made it sound like Rasmalarthim was a physical being. He's not. Not directly. He can be through some powers of his. But you will soon see.

A brief history

There was once an underwater proto-dimension. It was bursting at the seams with life. There were many different kinds of life. There were the water people, merfolk, fish, and anything you can find in an ocean, lake, or anything. And of coarse, there was Rasmalarthim, watching over the dimension.

This dimension also had a city built by the water people. They lived there, living peaceful lives. They had their undersea farms, hunting parties, social lives, public entertainment...anything that you would find in a typical city. The water people generally were living happy, peaceful lives.

But fate intervened. One day, in the sea of oblivion, the proto-dimension floated into Earth, colliding with it in one of Earth's great oceans. The city was buried; all the life that was native in the proto-dimension was destroyed. Except Rasmalarthim.

Rasmalarthim saw the collision coming. He did everything in his vast power to stop the destruction, but he was unable to stop the inevitable. With this, he grew very angry with Earth. Vowing vengeance for his people, he swore to himself and to his dead race that he was going to destroy all the life on the planet. He was going to make them pay.

The scientists on Earth saw the collision. The result was a vast tsunami; one of the largest and worst in human history. Many people died from it. Unfortunately, for the human race, the scientists thought that it was a horrible earthquake at the bottom of the sea

So, today, Rasmalarthim sits in his buried city, waiting to be unburied, patiently planning his attack on the planet of Earth. He wants his revenge. And who can stop him?

His Presence

If you are looking for stats for Rasmalarthim, you will not find them. As stated before, Rasmalarthim is not a physical being. He is a presence...an entity. He is very much alive and conscious. But he is an energy form. No human can see him, though any empath (EMP of 1 or greater) can sense him. And any character with the Foreboding power will have but one very simple thought once met with Rasmalarthim: run and hide.

The only stats that Rasmalarthim has involve Empathy and empathic skills. Consider his Empathy at a minimum of 20 and any empathic skill of at the very least a 10. This is due to his Synergis (sin ER jis) power. Synergis is the power to be able to get many beings to work together to accomplish something. He uses this ability to learn empathic powers and skills from the beings that he controls. And he has a memory of his own, so he does not have to keep control of the individual he learned a skill from to retain the skill. This creates an unlimited potential for skills.

When he does feel it necessary to become a physical presence, he uses his vast telekinesis skill to bring many of his servants together to form one very large being in any shape that he sees fit. If a hunter shoots at the giant, the water person that was shot takes the damage, not the giant as a whole. When a water person has enough wounds to kill him, that one part is discarded, and Rasmalarthim remembers where he discards every last one of the discarded “parts” are. The reason for this will be discussed in a little while. Simply put, the giant does not have a single hit point pool.

His one weakness, however, is that the farther he gets away from water, the weaker his powers become. All of his memories are actually stored in the waters. There are some waters that hold more memories than others. It is possible to tap into these memories, but that takes a very powerful Empathy (human or animal) skill from the PC. The usefulness of the memory is up to the GM. It could be anything from the sight of his proto-dimension colliding with Earth to a recipe for goulash. The further he gets away from water, the more difficult it is for him to remember anything (like how to control people).

Why does he remember where all of his discarded parts are? Rasmalarthim is not a heartless being bent on complete destruction. That is why he requires that people join him of their own free will. When someone joins him, he makes a pledge to them (unknowingly to the newly found “water person”) to make sure that if they die for him, he will at the very least give them a proper burial at sea. Whether his mission is a success or failure, he goes back to the discarded creature and uses his telekinesis to carry them back to the ocean. Rasmalarthim loves his people, and is willing to take anyone in under his wing.

What are his “recruiting” methods? He promises eternal life. This is not a lie. The water people do live forever if allowed to live naturally. When the person says that they do want to join him, he then takes them over. He starts to transform the victims body into that of a water person. The transformation process takes years. But when it is complete, the person goes into the ocean to their inevitable fate: slavery.

Sure, the person will live forever, but the price for immortality is high; but no one ever regrets his decision to join Rasmalarthim. The victim will be his slave until his ultimate goal is achieved (revenge). He will then set the water people free to do whatever they want, and he will watch over them like he did with his old water people.

What is he doing currently?

Rasmalarthim is currently keeping his city from getting crushed. It is all that he has left of his old proto-dimension. He feels that if he lets it get crushed by the massive weight of ocean bed that rests above the city, he will be doing his former followers a disservice.

Unfortunately for him, he us unable to use his telekinesis to push the dirt completely away from the city. He is only able to hold it above the city in a dome like fashion. So, his current effort is to have his people dig up his city. Unfortunately, they cannot use large equipment because he cannot afford to have them attract attention. So, the people are digging the city up by hand.

And there is a target for the dirt that is getting dug up. Near the city, there is an inactive dimensional portal. Rasmalarthim sees this portal as a large threat to his plans, so he is having them bury that portal. And the portal is at the bottom of a large, deep crevice in the ocean floor.

He is also reaching out to many cities in the area (Innsmouth being the closest) looking for people that are doing anything they can do to live forever. He is always looking for more followers.

His Followers

The followers of Rasmalarthim are actually in quite high spirits...especially for being slaves. They know they have a long way to go, but they also only need to look at the hole that they are digging to know that that they have come a long way, too. They know that after they are done digging, they will finally have a city to live in. And from what they can tell, it is a very large city.

They can also sense how much Rasmalarthim loves his people. They feel that he would do anything to keep them alive (which, surprisingly, is not far from the truth). In short, they see a very bright future for their kind, and they want to be a part of it.

When they are not working (hey, they need rest, too), they play games, tell stories, sing songs, anything that any society would do. There are also the hunting and gathering parties to get food. They eat virtually any kind of sea life (not coral, though). They will eat any fish, shark, whale, seaweed; anything that they can get their hands on.

Much like a factory, they work on a 3-shift rotation. When one shift is done and it’s another shift’s turn to come in, they just know (Rasmalarthim tells them), and they report accordingly. Rasmalarthim does allow one day of rest for everyone as a reward for all of the work they put in (and to help keep spirits up).

The living area for the water people is actually relatively far from the work site. Many of the followers would prefer it closer, but Rasmalarthim, their god, tells them that it is safer to live further from work. He does not want the ground to collapse from under them, their sleep disturbed, or (especially) someone accidentally turning on the dimensional portal. His concerns for his people are warranted, genuine, and plentiful.

So, if someone decides to come underwater after Rasmalarthim (dumb idea), they will not only have to deal with Rasmalarthim himself, but they will have to get through his thousands of followers, as well. They will defend him ‘til death.

The City

The city of Althar, the only place that Rasmalarthim can call home in this alien world, has an interesting, sometimes bloody history.

Before Althar was erected, there were many wars in its proto-dimension. The water people were actually divided into many different tribes, usually separated into family units. Every so often two of the tribes would band together. But that was usually to eliminate a common enemy. Once that enemy was eliminated, they would attack each other once again.

There was one family in all of this war that managed to keep a peace with its neighbors. They gave birth to many children who gave birth to more children. Because of the peace that they had established, their numbers grew to be much greater than that of any other tribe in the dimension.

Because of these numbers, the family needed a large place to live. And thus the city of Althar was erected. The name was that of the family name. With their large numbers and a city to worry about, a leader was chosen. His name was Rasmalarthim.

And lead them he did. Virtually everyone was happy with his leadership. He even, through some mystical power of his (so the people said…and were not far from the truth), managed to get the rest of the tribes to bring a peace to the tribes. He invited them into the city, under the condition that they would put down their arms except when hunting, and that they would pull their weight in labor. And it worked.

It worked for many centuries. There were no murders, no fighting, and no crime; nothing negative in the society. There were many times that Rasmalarthim was seen working along side with laborers of separate families. It was truly a golden age for the city of Althar.

But like every golden age in human history, it had to come to an end. But its ending was before the collision. No. The end came much before that. It came with a shark attack.

Many sharks attacked the city of Althar. The people of Althar all scrambled to defend the city. Including Rasmalarthim. The people all fought valiantly. It took many days, but they managed to beat off the sharks, but at a heavy cost. Many lives were lost in the invasion, but only one life that anyone cared about. Rasmalarthim was killed in the last day of the battle.

After everyone realized that he was killed, but before any real fighting for the leadership of the city started, a symbol was seen. Many free floating plants started made a symbol. An eye. The eye was the universal symbol that someone was watching over them, guarding them. Because of all of the love and grief that everyone felt for Rasmalarthim, he was still alive.

And more powerful than ever. He mystically acquired all of the powers his followers had. And he kept his word to his people. He watched over them, making sure that nothing horrible (like the shark invasion) would happen to them again.

But even with all of his vast powers, he was unable to stop the collision of his home proto-dimension and Earth. All of the people he watched over had died that night. And he blames Earth for making him break a promise that he made his people. Rasmalarthim NEVER breaks promises.

Final Note to the Readers

If you decide to try to run Rasmalarthim, remember that he is not invincible. There are a (very) few (small) weaknesses built into him. The easiest way to get rid of Rasmalarthim is to get him away from water (there is no predetermined range, just far), he will be easier to trick (though, still difficult, by any means). The only way to get rid of him, that I built in, anyway, is to trick him to go through a dimensional portal.

Any questions, comments, or requests are more than welcome. Just drop me an E-mail (address at the top of the article). If there is interest, I am willing to do something more on the water people, Althar, whatever you may want (within reason). As always, I wish you the best!