Garden- Reality Warpers + 8 Reality Warpers

Reality Warpers are psychics who have ascended beyond mastering a single power, and now have the ability to change reality. While many begin with only minor mental instability and only a few powers, in just a few weeks reality warper powers grow exponentially along with their insanity.

All Reality Warpers are crazy. Most are narcissists and many are homicidal. You can't play as these.

However, it may be possible to run into one as city explorers or as Garden Enforcers- the lay police force that tries to keep the anarchistic city running. Instead of a traditional stat line, all reality warpers instead have three stats, which are all measured from 1 to 10.

Potence is the measure of the warper's power level, mostly in relation to which reality warper wins if two try to change the world in opposite ways. Even a warper of power level 1 is omnipotent. The potence level is also the number of weeks any impossible changes or items made by the reality warper last until entropy brings it down to Earth again.

Awareness is the measure of the reality warper's passive perception of the surrounding world, including its range in city blocks. Reality warpers are all potent psychics as well as just being able to change anything, as such they can easily read the minds of everyone in their radius. This is how far you have to be away or else the reality warper instantly knows your plan to kill them and the special artifact you brought along to do it.

Lucidity is the sanity level of the reality warper. This is not the same as Awareness; Lucidity is the X in 10 chance that they process any given information in a way a sane person would. It is highly likely a reality warper will just ignore you if you walk up to them with a gun; they'll assume you're the milk man because of your hat and bag full of clinking ammunition.

When you first create a Reality Warper, roll 1d10 for each stat. Every year reduce their Awareness by one point. Every year, Reality Warpers also have a 1 in 4 chance of increasing their Potency by 1 point, and at the same time, reducing their Lucidity by -1 point. If a Reality Warper has a Potency of 10 and a Lucidity of 1 or 0, they have a 1 in 6 chance of disappearing from Garden forever every single week. Nobody knows where they disappear to, but many believe they create their own universe, or achieve a sort of advanced disassociation that causes them to erase themselves from existing.

What Reality Warpers are Capable Of

These are all the things a Reality Warper can do at a Potence level of 1;

• Change someone's species, features, or biological sex, permanently.
• Curse someone so every single dollar they try to find or spend is lost or wasted somehow. If this curse hits a millionaire they'll be dead from starvation in a few months.
• Give someone a distinct smell that makes everyone they meet want to fuck them.
• Noneuclidan connections between spaces; go through closet to visit neighbor's house
• Conjure any amount of any matter they want.
• Read any person's entire life story, including memories they have forgotten or things they have deluded themselves into believing and knowing about that, just by looking at them.
• Killing anything within their Awareness range, instantly.
• Bring back any dead thing, as long as they possess at least one molecule of their corpse.
• Fly or levitate at any height or speed. Themselves or anyone else they want.
• Create an engine of any horsepower that never runs out of fuel, or a gun that never runs out of bullets, or anything like that.
• Making a place x1000 times bigger on the inside then the outside.
• Make everyone within their Awareness radius forget they exist.
• Reverse time and go back 10xPotence minutes (or Turns equal to Potence). Only they and other Reality Warpers remember what happened in the “first” timeline.
• All of the above and anything else they want.

Whenever a Reality Warper tries to change reality in a way that violates a law of physics, it is ignored totally and the change just happens, that's of little concern. Whenever a Reality Warper tries to change reality in a way that violates logic, have them roll under their Potence level. If it rolls under, it succeeds. If it rolls over, they still succeed by there is a psychic backlash or unforseen consequences. Ie; they create a squared circle but every right angle within a few feet of them curves unnaturally into a circle shape, like bones or gun barrels.

Whenever a reality warper creates something plausible or within existence already; it is indistinguishable from the real thing. It IS the real thing. They can give people mutations or change their forms; from human to animal or alien to another, and these changes are totally permanent. Anything conjured by them that is a regular bit of matter is permanent and totally real; This is the reason why Garden uses paper money. Whenever a reality warper gets down and inflates a hundred million dollars of Garden's currency, the government just switch over the mint to use a new design and new dollar bill. It's happened enough times to be an issue. They can even create or resurrect living beings which are real and will live on to the rest of their biological lifespan, unless if they were created poorly. Impossibly strong monsters or beings made of unnatural materials may die soon after the reality warper is defeated or forgets about them; their biology cannot sustain a creature of the imagination.

When reality warpers create things that are impossible, supernatural, or highly psychically charged however; these things have a limitation. They begin to lose their power after a number of weeks equal to the warper's power score. This includes things like manipulations of luck or fate, localized distortions of the laws of physics, or anything involving extradimensional spaces or time. These gross manipulations of what is and what isn't correct themselves quickly; the blunt laws of reality snap back into place like rubber from the twisting hands of the warper.

Fighting a Reality Warper

You lose.

You can't beat a Reality Warper in a straight up fight. The only way to “beat” them is to destroy what little interests they have out of their zone and to avoid them and their territory at all costs. The sole exception is what happens when two Reality Warpers clash. If you could somehow convince a reality warper (who doesn't want anything) to reduce the powers of a weaker Reality Warper, then you might actually have a chance.

Any reality warper with a potency of 0 remains an incredible psychic and psychokinetic. At 0 Potence, a reality warper has the following stats;

• 10 HD
• Mastery of all unarmed, firearm, and melee martial arts
• Superhuman strength, speed, intelligence, and perception. Treat any stat modifiers as +5
• Can conjure any weapon it wants and use it once each round.
• Regenerates 2d6 Hit Points and 1d6 Psychic Stress per round
• Automatically deflects the first 1d100 bullets, shells, and cartridges fired at it each round.
• Kills anyone it can see, one per round. If you survive the first attempt, it kills you on the second round, regardless of the number of immunizes you've acquired.
• Total freedom of movement, levitates self at fast running speed, break free from all traps, containment, or snares in one round regardless of material or strength.

With enough firepower, it could be possible to defeat a Reality Warper through sheer force of arms and numbers. If so, the Reality Warper cannot revive itself from the dead as long as its body is sufficiently destroyed and ashes scattered to the winds.

What Reality Warpers actually Do

While all this above paints a pretty obvious picture; Reality Warpers are Gods. Something about Garden has awoken incredible power in some individuals. Reality Warpers don't exist on other worlds, even if psychics do, as whatever special feature makes Warpers here doesn't happen anywhere else.

However, Reality Warpers are Gods, but they don't act like it. They're all insane, and almost all of them are incredibly insular. Newly awakened Reality Warpers may be a bit more lucid and aware of the world then others. Many may get involved in local politics, conjure a few hundred kilos of high quality steel to build a new skyscraper, or slaughter entire gangs on their own. But as time goes on, they all become more and more withdrawn from the world. The vast majority of Reality Warpers stay in a single place; usually their old home or place of work, and just exist in a sort of dreamlike fairyland where all of their baggage is aired again and again. Perhaps their old apartment complex which has become like a utopia; the people there without control of their muscles or mouths and seeing everything they are doing and saying as little more then puppetry, a facsimile of kindness and neighborhood. Maybe the reality warper goes back to the job they hated, tormenting their coworkers and boss for years through mutations, constant humiliations, all of them unable to leave or find even the release of death; as they cannot die while the reality warper wishes them to live through his torments.

Once a Reality Warper has gone totally insane, lost their Lucidity, and gained more power and control over reality, they will eventually just leave. Everything inherently impossible they made will stop functioning after a number of weeks equal to their power score they had before they left.

Reality Warpers Table – Roll 1d8

[1] King Leo the First

Potence 4, Awareness 3, Lucidity 4

This lion-like alien is from another world. He lives in an apartment complex whose walls have been dissolved away, an artificial river runs through the floor, old couches and refrigerators turned to stones and sand on the floor. The area within is much larger then the area outside, though the ceiling is still the source of light, it stretches outwards. The various neighbors of all species have been stripped of all clothing and personal items except for loinclothes and primitive weapons. Guns don't work in his domain; everything is based on tribal warfare and primitive spears and shields.

King Leo is delusional and thinks himself as a King of a primitive empire. It has a Lion-King esque power structure, with the Lion and his family on top, noble beasts below, and those are above anything he views as a “cowardly scavenger” like anything resembling a hyena, vulture, or insect. At first, he may have created this “kingdom” simply to rule over his neighbors, but now he has started to fall into routine and may think that this Kingdom is his actual birthright, as he plans to give to his son when he is born.

Unconsciously, King Leo's wife has had her pregnancy extended and delayed for six years. She's still happily pregnant and thinks the baby will come any day, but doesn't know why it won't happen. She also doesn't know why she feels so tired and ready to die all the time. She goes along anyway. Leo's psychic powers are manifesting to keep his son from being born, perhaps as a subconscious desire to not accept Leo's own morality or desire to rule on his own, without sons or daughters or anything else to take it away from him or to share his prestige.

[2] Kamipo

Potence 5, Awareness 6, Lucidity 3

This is a female ice-skipper, a penguinoid race of aliens from a cold planet. Even they miss their weak, blue sun that gave the only life-sustaining heat in their icy world. Kamipo unlocked her psychic powers and currently lives within an underground subway station, part of an abandoned subway network that was built for mass transit. Doors along the train tracks lead off into the white-washed service tunnels of garden. The deeper you go through these tunnels, the colder it gets.

Kamipo is very aware of intruders within her lair, but has little grasp on reality. She views other beings as distractions, who she freezes in place and never lets leave her lair. She stays down here in absolute stillness and the cold. She manipulates the air around her body in a 10 ft radius to be almost absolute zero, but due to her psychic powers she can move and live in that environment. Needless to say, this will instantly freeze any body part coming close to her solid, even the air is sluggish and half liquid, though her reality warping means it doesn't react exactly as you'd expect.

Kamipo has become a bit of a “big game” label, somewhat more famous then some of the loose reality warpers in Garden and due to the many members of the population she has frozen in permafrost many wish to see her dead. This may also be the cause of some of her paranoia; the constant swirling of cold air around her body is to freeze bullets solid and slow them to a crawl before they touch her, not that she has let her skin and downy feathers retain their normal weakness from when she was a mortal. Regardless, there is a bounty of $100,000 on her head.

[3] Ozy

Potence 7, Awareness 2, Lucidity 2

His physical form is gone. Whatever species or type of being this once was, perhaps even female though now presents with a masculine and domineering voice, it is nothing but a spirit. His “body” is a shroud of fabrics that constantly fold and clean themselves ever moment, immune to being lit on fire and a dark mass where the face in the folds of the shroud would could speak to you.

Even as far as reality warpers go, Ozy is powerful. There is a great buzz of unreality when you are nearby his, thankfully, short range. He typically spends his time in the destroyed ruins of an old factory where he was “awakened” to his powers. Since then, a great fence has been erected around the place and people are warned heavily to stay away. He has not moved from that spot since then, and seemingly has no interest in the outside world or his continued gloomy self introspection. He spends all his time sitting on a half melted throne of chrome and iron, forged together from materials found in the factory, and staring at a wall while thinking to himself.

As a final note; there is a great number of rumors that people who climb the fence and visit this living god will be rewarded with a wish at random, if they go to him when he is in the right move or they have a righteous cause. There is seemingly no known origin for this myth, and as such it is believed to originate from the warper himself, perhaps to see how far people will go to chase an ideal. It is likely that within the next few years, Ozy will ascend to a higher plane of being or disappear from Garden as whatever is left of his sanity and universal awareness fade to nothing.

[4] Heavy Eyes

Potence 2, Awareness 1, Lucidity 8

This creature is a relatively new reality warper. They are from a genderless species of strange, doll-like people with set facial expressions from when they were born. “Heavy Eyes” looks like they're half asleep all the time, when in reality they have awakened to a cosmic level of being. However, for a reality warper they are quite weak, and are not in full control of their powers, requiring to be in the same room and taking a round to force any change on the world by staring at their target and concentrating while mumbling to themselves.

In exchange for their relative weakness, Heavy Eyes is much more sane and “awake” to the world then most reality warpers, and for the past few months has been trying to find ways to “help” people. Unfortunately, several warring factions such as an aggressive expansionist work union and a few street gangs have been trying to align Heavy Eyes against their enemies or make them fabulously wealthy by conjuring masses of money and gold for them, and as such the doll is soon going to be burnt out of trying to help people entirely. Social isolation is the eventual reality for all reality-warpers, but this will only speed up a loss of lucidity into mental decay.

Finally, Heavy Eyes as a person seems to be well meaning but idealistic. Those with sleeping psychic powers who speak to this being will find it moving to touch them; its touch unlocking their psychic powers and causing a few days of intense insomnia as their mind adjusts to the new powers. Heavy Eyes has also accidentally killed a few people this way, its touch having caused a sort of psychic resonance where the person turns inside out and dies pitifully. Heavy Eyes will always reach to their own eyes in shock and panic, and then within a moment, delete the memory from their own mind. It has no recollection of these events, and refuses to accept them even if you tried to prove it to the entity. While more sane then any other current known reality warper, it is still prone to bouts of irrationality to defend itself.

[5] Burnstar

Potence 5, Awareness 7, Lucidity 0

This reality warper is a strange exception. Having no “mind” left to speak of, it is merely a psychic manifestation that goes without thought or ending. Burnstar appears as a burning ball of plasma that falls in on itself each second, before billowing back out in fractal patterns. It has no understanding of the world or of sentient beings, but is aware of its surroundings and has a decent level of power.

Burnstar appears once every few hours randomly in the city, usually hovering over a building or interstate. For most people, they will see it in the distant as a bright street lamp and pay it no mind, but those who pass under the being may find themselves starting to sweat as it burns their skin through radiation. It may take an interest in something unusual, or strangely people wearing the color green, floating over them and following them around for a large distance. It is very difficult to lose the Burnstar once it has noticed you, usually only losing interest if you escape to the underground tunnels where it refuses to follow or you are dead and become a charred corpse.

It is highly likely that whatever psychic echo created the burnstar will wear off in the next few weeks as its lucidity means it has deleted itself from being.

[6] Cruise Malta

Potence 3, Awareness 1, Lucidity 6

Cruise was once a industrial worker turned rogue. Killing several of his coworkers after being laid off from his job, he developed a racially motivated killing urge against several species in Garden, as they made naturally better workers then his race. His rage and hatred seemed to also unlock his psychic potential, and with focus Cruise was able to transform his physical body.

Since those days, “Mr.Malta” as he is called is plastered with sheets of metal welded to his body, with rivets drilled into his skin and bones painfully to keep them together. Without his reality warping powers he would have died of infection or organ damage a long time ago, but as of now he's nearly indestructible. Unlike other reality warpers, he rarely uses his powers directly to change reality or emit energy, instead of he mostly just uses his supernatural physical strength and speed to destroy things in his own way.

In the past few years, Malta's mind state has deteriorated and he stalks an old trainyard. His mental state is such that several greedy conductors have been able to get him working for them; pushing train spikes into the ground, twisting sheet metal into place, loading and unloading cargo, even picking up and moving entire train cars. However it must be carefully monitored who goes near him, else if one of his hated races appears nearby he will fly off into another rage that may take weeks to die back down again. Unless Malta's creativity and intelligence increases over time, it is unlikely his potence stat will increase over time and as a result his lucidity will drop from it. It seems like being a reality warper means also needing a certain amount of creative force or imagination to power the changes, as Malta lacks most of those traits and mostly just judges things as they appear.

[7] Briers

Potence 9, Awareness 8, Lucidity 1

Among all the reality warpers, Briers is the most feared but well understood. She only cares about one thing; a single special object. This object is a pair of reading glasses with one lens removed. It is old and dusty, stained with a foreign yellow smear over the left rim, and despite this it is one of the most revered objects in Garden due to their reality warper's influence.

As far as everyone knows, this Reality Warper has no physical body, or her body remains asleep underneath the ground at all times. Any consciousness she has is abstract during this time, or perhaps instigating the psychic web of connections and fate that tie the city folk together, perhaps why these glasses keep being found again whenever lost. The reality warper is incredibly powerful and dangerous, but remains in this totally dormant state until someone touches the glasses. If you wear the glasses it grants a mystic sight in the remaining lens; you can see psychic energy in people and flowing through the air, and it also grants a +2 bonus to psychic attacks by anyone who wear them.

However, once someone has touched the glasses, Briers begins to look for them. Her psychic power has incredible range and perception, meaning that with each night it sweeps the city to find the person who touched the glasses, and homes in on them, hence her high awareness score. Once she has found them, several strange and unfortunate accidents beings to befall them, and plant life nearby them begins to become agitated and grow faster and stronger. Within a week, they are always found dead with their body being torn apart and decomposed by numerous brier-barbed plant tendrils growing through walls or mattresses, burrowing into their body and ripping them apart. It is almost impossible to hide from this entity once you have woken it up, even the mysterious service tunnels which most reality warpers seem to instinctively avoid she will reach to kill you with ther powers.

Strangely, while this reality warper has no known mind or personality, she seems to have enough lucidity and sanity left to spare exactly two people; the first is her great granddaughter who was the ones who found the cursed glasses and lost them the first time, and was never killed by her power. The second person was a museum coordinator, who after finding the glasses respectfully cleaned them, repaired them, took photographs, and kept it on display for a few months in a glass case until they were stolen. This person treated the glasses with such respect that the entity seemed to not have any ill will towards them, or it could be a long lost family or old friend who the entity knew back when they were a normal person. It is unknown how much longer this warper will remain in the city; most with high levels of power and low lucidity burn out shortly, but with Briers and her obsession with the pair of glasses she may remain until they are destroyed or lost forever.

[8] Gye Oceans

Potence 6, Awareness 4, Lucidity 4

Once a fairly standard musician down in his luck in Garden, he had since unlocked a great power inherent in the playing of his music. Around him now is a constant droning beat, which is muffled through walls and sounds very much like soft bar or speakeasy music, this noise somehow stretching for a city block or so around him in all directions. Those who live nearby it often question if a new place has opened up, just before it leaves the very next night. Gye is a mobile reality warper, which is not the standard for these beings.

Every few days, Gye will set up and move somewhere else. He will transform himself into different forms, different species and looks, and play music on the sidewalk to panhandle for music. This is not an uncommon sight in Garden. Those who do not provide coins for Gye will be cursed by his reality warping power- they will receive bad luck for a whole day. Treat all rolls of 2 as a roll of 1 instead.

The true terror of Gye is if he encounters another musician. If you carry an instrument, or claim to be able to play music to any level above an amateur, Gye will take interest and stalk you. When he has cornered or isolated the musician, he uses his power to strap them down and take off their skull and skin on their head; painless and gorelessly opening a hole into their body to examine their brain. He seems to have some kind of ability to psychically detach body parts and warp them to examine them closely, and can seemingly spot “talent” and “inspiration” inside his victim's brains. It is unknown how these abstract quantities actually exist in their brains, or if this is merely a delusional brought on by his reality warping abilities. He will then take away the “skill” of the player and seal their head back up. Unfortunately for the victims, this reality warping power doesn't stave off all of reality; losing skill in music usually means losing most fine motor control of the fingers, become illiterate, developing a mild form of epilepsy, and sometimes infections and death if bacteria enters the brain during his “surgery”. For this reason, Garden's Big Brass Band gang has a price on his head, and treat him a bit like a boogeyman, even though there is very little they can do against a reality warping demigod.