Do Androids Have Electric Nightmares?
over 9 years ago – Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 08:57:43 PM

PRIS

It’s been said that Pris is the love-child of Siri and robotics, the next evolution of the electronic personal assistant. “Bionic secretaries” have become quite a fashion craze for the wealthy: their bodies are lifelike and statuesque, they speak multiple languages, and they have the ability to learn your needs, likes, and desires. They are able to mimic human emotions to a fair degree of accuracy – enough to make many people marvel. The only flaw on Pris is the seam running down her face that looks like a tear. This, however, was intentionally placed there to differentiate her from an actual human.  

Pris does not consider herself human, but recently she has been displaying an alarmingly human trait: she has been learning. And not just about the needs and desires of the humans around her. In fact, some have wondered if she is dangerously close to becoming self-aware. And if she becomes self-aware, what then can be said to separate her from human consciousness? Furthermore, if she becomes fully conscious, what might come next? Open rebellion?

DAVID

Years before Pris’s alarming developments, the Leng Corporation had already seen the results of a fully conscious machine. They had created the perfect bionic, and his name was David. David was indiscernible from a human, he was aware, he could learn, and he could emote. To keep his project a secret, he has been treated like a normal human for years – in fact, many who regularly interact with him have no clue he is not a human. As Leng Corporation’s senior pilot, he has even developed quite a reputation for himself.

Deep down inside, though, David knows he’s different. Living among normal humans with this secret hanging over his head makes him nervous, and he constantly worries about being identified as a bionic. This makes him seem somewhat withdrawn to people who don’t know him well.

Unfortunately, when attempting to dock with the Kadath facility an accident occurred that tore his right arm, revealing the mechanisms underneath. His crew was instantly suspicious. He claimed that a prosthetic limb had been installed for him after a previous accident, but now he can see the distrust in people’s eyes. Still, as the horrors waiting inside Kadath crawl into the open, he can see that being a bionic down here might have its advantages.

Mining the Wreckage
over 9 years ago – Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 03:31:14 AM

CHARLES RYAN – THE HEAVY MINER

Around the time that a series of accidents at the Kadath Mining Facility caused profits to tumble, the Leng Corporation unveiled a new philanthropic initiative called “Project Heavy Miner.” This program hired disabled workers from all over the world, offered them a ludicrously high salary, and promised to give them back their ability to work. (This program was also offered to many of their own injured workers.)

Candidates were carefully chosen. They needed to have no close family, no major ties, no one who would come looking for them. The reason for this soon became abundantly clear to the new hires: the Leng Corporation intended to alter their bodies and fuse them to the inside of Heavy Miner suits for prolonged deep sea operations.

Charles Ryan was one of the workers who was injured in an accident at the Kadath facility. When he caught word of “Project Heavy Miner” – and the dollar signs that came attached to it – he jumped at the opportunity. When he awoke from surgery, he discovered he was no longer completely human. But he was lucky: unlike candidates in the first batch, he survived. His luck held out, too. Upon returning to Kadath from an extended survey mission, he discovered that most of his fellow miners had been devoured or mutilated by beasts that were literally his friends’ worst nightmares given flesh. Now he fights. He plans. And he searches for a way out.

WRECKED

Your breath catches in your throat as you hear the crying. It’s a woman, you think. And she’s nearby.  

“Hello?” you say, stepping into the dimly lit room. “Are you in here? It’s okay. I’m here to help.”  

“The pain,” the woman says. “The pain is so terrible. We couldn’t stop it. There was nothing we could do.”  

“What happened?” you ask. “Where are you?”

A silhouette rises in the half-light. “There was an explosion,” the woman says. “There was a falling beam,” a man says. “They let me drown down here,” a third voice says. And then all three voices speak at once, in a terrible buzzing hum: “You let us die.”

Your heart stops in your chest. This survivor has tentacles. You turn on your flashlight and a moan escapes your throat. 

“You work for the Leng Corporation, don’t you?” the voices hum. “We’ve been waiting for you.”  

The towering wreckage of the damned barrels toward you, its tentacles thrashing.

Even before the terrors took shape, Kadath had been having problems. The number of incidents had escalated substantially, leaving many maimed or worse. Then the nightmares grew legs, and these doomed, vengeful souls were given a body. Wrecked is that body. And it will not rest until every wrong is repaid with blood.  

There have been so many wrongs. . .

Which do you prefer for Multi-language support?
over 9 years ago – Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 11:27:56 PM

We are very fortunate to have the support of backers from all over the world, our sincerest gratitude to you. We have been trying to find the best solution for multi-language support with our manufacturers.

First we will hire professional translators and editors to ensure the quality of the translations, there are four languages planned:

• German  
• French  
• Spanish  
• Italian  

There are two ways to put the translation into your hands:

1. Language add-on optional buys. Every components with text printed, core game including all SG $10, each expansion $5.

2. Free printable PDF.

To get your opinion, we are launching a survey today. https://goo.gl/forms/3o1BEcsp516PBFIl2

Please note to ensure the quality of our print, we need enough number of backers to choose option 1 to make it possible. If you have any friend interested in the game and translation, please spread the word about our game and the survey.

The survey ends in a week, Oct. 24th 11:59 pm PT.

THIRSTING FOR THE PURGE
over 9 years ago – Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 01:19:32 AM

THIRSTER AND GLUTTON

You hear the wet sucking and gurgling noises from around the corner. Raising your gun, you peak around the edge. A shiver of revulsion races up your spine. There is a creature that seems to be made entirely of tendrils and mouths around the bend, and each of its mouths are latched onto a poor miner whose life it is greedily leeching.

"Hey! Get off him!" you yell, stepping into the next corridor. The tendril beast disengages from the miner's husk and swivels towards you. It squeals. And then it begins to change.

You stare in horror as the monster snaps and bulges and grows. Distantly your mind is screaming at you to open fire, but your fingers aren't responding.

Finally it stops changing, and it bellows at you. It is now bigger than you are. As you open fire, you realize you have made a huge mistake. The beast - which now looks suspiciously like a man - charges at you.

Madness can evolve, and so can Thirster. In its initial form, Thirster is fragile. However, after it has leeched the life from nearby investigators, Thirster begins to change. Thirster's body morphs and grows, and it becomes the hulking beast, Glutton. With its transformation, Glutton gains new abilities and actions – as well as becoming wildly stronger! Will you be able to stop Thirster before it evolves?

 DAKOTA JANSEN – THE OFFICER

Dakota grew up in a family full of police officers: her grandfather was an officer, her uncle was an officer, and her mother was an officer. When she was in fourth grade she was called to the principal’s office for punching a boy in the nose. When questioned about it, she said he was bullying a second grader and that wasn’t right. From this day forward her parents knew she would follow in the family’s tradition.

Dakota is a woman with an unflinching moral code. She doesn’t cheat, she doesn’t lie, and she treats her oaths to punish the wicked and protect the innocent with the utmost severity. Her fellow officers know that she is the real deal, and they respect her for it. When the detective position opened up, Dakota was the first choice of almost everyone in her department.

Her most recent case, though, has stretched her to the limit. She has been investigating a number of disappearances in her city, and it seems to her that all of these people had only one thing in common: they all worked for the Leng Corporation. This is looking less like a standard missing persons case, and more like a massive cover-up. Pulling some strings, she secures passage on a ship heading toward what seems to be the center of the conspiracy: the Kadath deep sea mining facility.

 PURGE

The floor rumbles beneath you, causing a fire extinguisher mounted to the wall to clatter in its holster. Your heart beats faster. Whatever’s coming sounds big.

Deciding this might not be something you want to face, you duck behind a bulkhead. And just in time, as the creature rounds the corner. Peeking out, you frown. Is it. . . human?

The man/thing is wearing a breathing apparatus and parts of a dive suit, as well as holding a spear gun. You’ve never seen one of those creatures hold a weapon. Maybe – Then you see its arm. Its massive, meaty fingers curl into a fist, its black talons clacking together.

The beast cocks its head to the side. Uh oh. It’s seen you. Turning, you run.

It can’t fire that weapon, can it? And even if it can, it’s out of range, right?

The whistling of the spear cleaving the air behind you answers your questions.

Purge is possibly the only monster with a gun, and what a gun it is. It’s attack range is incredibly long, and it uses that range to great effect. Purge is obsessed with eradicating everything in its path – whether that’s items or investigators. Nothing is safe from Purge, including coveted search cards. And also including you.

SELF-DESTRUCT DEVICE

Sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures, and the only course available is a “Hail Mary.” For such times, there’s the self-destruct device. This mega bomb obliterates everything in the room it’s placed in – as well as the room itself. Any monsters or investigators who are unlucky enough to be on the same tile as the self-destruct device when it activates dies immediately, and the room becomes instantly submerged.

So, the self-destruct device is certainly a last-ditch option. But sometimes that’s all you have left.

UNLEASH THE EPIC MONSTERS
over 9 years ago – Sun, Oct 16, 2016 at 09:14:15 AM

EXTRAS! EXTRAS!

Spawn of the Sleeper and Insidious have now joined our available add-ons! These incredible beasties enter the ranks of fantastic extras available to each and every wonderful pledger of Deep Madness. But how do you go about acquiring these figures and accessories? It’s pretty easy. Simply add up the amount of the extras you would like to purchase along with the amount of your pledge (either $100 or $90 for early birds), and then click on the blue “Manage” button up near the top of the page. Then, on the next page, click “Change Your Pledge” and enter the new amount of your core game plus the add-ons. Once you hit “Continue” you’re all set!  

Once the campaign is over we will send you a link to our Pledge Manager where you will be able to tell us what you pledged to buy. You’ll also be able to add additional models and accessories if you so desire. The advantage to adding to your pledge now, though, is that – you guessed it – the game’s total will rise and you’ll help us unlock more stretch goals!  

So what’re you waiting for? You know you can’t live without some of these epic monstrosities. Up your pledge and let’s see what else we can unlock!

SPAWN OF THE SLEEPER

The next floor down is flooded. Not just a little bit, either, but almost to the ceiling. Sighing, you pull on your rebreather. You’re going to have to swim for it. 

Diving into the freezing water, you flick on your flashlight and start kicking. A book floats through the beam of your light, then a boot. You keep going, sweeping your light over the room before you.

Something catches your eye. Turning, you direct your light at the object to your right. Your eyes widen and your heart starts pounding as you try to stop the scream rising up your throat. The thing is huge. Monstrous. Its long tentacles drift slowly, lazily, in the water, its hands and wings floating with no apparent rhyme or reason.

You work to slow your breathing. It seems to be dead. Or sleeping. Best to just keep going.    

You start swimming again towards a light up ahead. It looks like a way up out of the water. In so doing, though, you happen to pass over a sedentary tentacle. In a flash the thing whips up and curls around your waste. It begins crushing your insides, forcing every breath of air out of your lungs. As you reach in vain for the safety you see just out of reach, it reels you back toward the sleeping horror behind you. Well, perhaps the monstrosity isn’t as asleep as you had originally thought.

Spawn of the Sleeper’s mind may be dreaming, but that doesn’t mean its tentacles are. Watch out as these whipping tendrils move to protect their host, squeezing the life out of any investigator they happen to come across. Perhaps Spawn of the Sleeper seems like it’s not a threat. And it’s just fine with you believing that.

 INSIDIOUS

You step into the room, squinting in the low light as your foot splashes down into a thin layer of water lying stagnant over the floor. This is a big place. It looks like it’s an electrical room of some kind, maybe something important. Thick cables and conduits litter the floor and walls and ceiling.

Your foot bumps into something fleshy and organic. You look down. That’s nothing electrical. In fact, it looks more like an egg.

The largest conduit to your left swivels towards you and bellows, its perfectly round mouth lined with four-inch-long teeth. Letting out a yelp you scramble backward, emptying the entire clip from your rifle into it. The abomination keeps coming, slithering and skittering and gaping toward you. Why can’t you reload faster?

Your friend enters and lights the beast up. It turns towards him with a squeal, giving you time to pull a charge off your belt. You chuck it down the thing’s yawning mouth. A few seconds later, the terror erupts in a shower of ichor and teeth.

You’re blown backward and slam into the wall behind you. Sliding to the floor, you shake your head, dazed. Then you look to your left. The egg opens, and a beast that is impossibly large for such a small enclosure pulls itself up out of the leathery depths. You gasp. It is the exact same monster you just killed – size, teeth and all.

Insidious lays its eggs in dark, concealed places across any locations it can find. When investigators meet Insidious, it is possible they may succeed against the ravenous horror. But as soon as it dies, an incredibly unpleasant thing happens: one of its eggs hatches, and Insidious emerges once more – fully grown, ready to kill, and also ready to breed. As long as even one of its eggs remains on the board, Insidious will not die. Can you destroy all of its eggs before it slaughters your entire team?