NPCs
Sheep
It's a sheep. Functions as the sacrifice item in the first level (key). In other levels, is a roaming NPC with no particular effects on gameplay. Unless, depending on the player's infamy level, it may be a grub hive. If so, will gib when the player gets within a certain distance, producing multiple grubs, at lower levels of infamy it will merely spew grubs if killed.
Villager
Innocents who are the target for any nearby monster, and react to the player depending on a global value called infamy.
This value is 0 at the start of each level, and rises whenever a Villager is Killed by a monster or Murdered by the player.
Villagers come in three types:
Type Description Murdered Killed
Armed Will attack aggressors +5 0
Unarmed Will run away from aggressors +5 +1
Child Pretty much helpless; slow moving etc. +10 +2
Infamy 0-5
Unarmed villagers will heal an injured player when touched, this happens over time and is capped by the infamy value.
Child villagers ignore the player.
Armed Villagers and children will ignore the player.
Infamy 6-7
Unarmed and child villagers will run away from the player, no healing. Small chance that unarmed villagers will instead be possessed.
Armed villagers will not attack, but will stop patrolling and stand and watch the player.
Small chance that when dying, they produce a handful of grubs.
Infamy 8+
Unarmed and child villagers will run away from the player, no healing.
Armed Villagers attack the player on sight.
High chance that any villager who dies will contain grubs, and some unarmed / child villagers will gib on sight.
Monsters
Ogre
These seem to have followed the player somehow, along with various crates of ammunition and equipment.
Possessed Villager
A villager that has been physically possessed by a grub. They act normally until the player gets too close, when they will lurch over to attack them in melee. Three things can happen when killed, invarying graduations of 'bad': Nothing, spawns a worm, or a Flayn. Which thing happens depends on the player's infamy. Does not affect infamy when killed.
Grub
Tiny leaping grub, causes 1 damage to the player (ignoring armour) and dies on hit. Too small to be attacked normally but can be trodden on between leaps. Villagers killed by it will become possessed and children will gib into more grubs.
Worm
Adult grub, can be attacked as normal. Essentially a partial skull on the end of a spinal column. Can burrow underground and leap out to attack the player.
Zombie
Vulnerable to the axe, otherwise works as a normal zombie with a couple of extra features - like being able to spwn directly by digging itself out of the ground.
Flayn
Recently zombiefied villager, fast with a melee attack. Vulnerable to most attacks. Is able to leap short distances. When killed, may be torsoed - the torso will quickly crawl after the player attacking them or may become a worm.
Boil
Explosive zombie, creates multiple flesh grubs and radial damage when killed. Has a landmine mode whereby it is nailed to the floor and explodes if the player gets too close.
Flesh Golem
Large zombie creature made of multiple body parts, used as a hive by flesh grubs. Very high health, same size as a shambler. It lurches around barfing sprays of gibs at the player. When killed, it spawns a number of worms and grubs. While alive, can spawn grubs.
Hound of Tindalos
Dog that teleports when hit. Is partially transparent, constantly flickering. Its leaps are almost like a projectile attack, able to launch it at the player across great horizontal distances.
Rhynch
Flying crustacean / jellyfish which latches onto the player's face and drains thei blood as a melee attack. While attached, the player's view is obscured and they must shoot to knock it off - not a good idea to use explosive weapons when these are around. A bit like an aerial fiend with the ability to blind the player.
Xorb
A very large noclip creature that can drift through walls and is effectively immune to most types of damage. Only eplosives disrupt it, and if it touches the player it drains their life force (health) and slows their movement speed until they can run away or escape. Not intelligent at all, so can easily be kited around if the player has the mobility in their current area to do so.
Bosses
Leviathan
A gigantic worm that lives in the depths of the planet. Apparently it was sealed away by arcane magics, or else was merely dormant until the player intrudes upon its burial place - a forgotten tomb in the wilds. The player is seeking passage from one side of an area to the other, which leads them through the tomb, where they encounter an effectively bottomless pit, within which the worm sleeps. Passing through, they disturb it, and the uncounted larvae buried along with the mother.
The life cycle of the species is strange, perhaps unique. In the first stage, they burrow into a living host, the tiny grub quickly attaching itself to the cerebellum where it uses electrical impulses to manipulate the host and make them a more effective host, and possibly, hive, able to support multiple grubs. This occurs when a single grub is able to effectively ingest enough liquid and the proteins provided by their unsuspecting host, where a process of asexual reproduction creates the maximum amount of grubs that the host system can support without collapse.
This process may last years, the grubs lying undetected within their host. They are however connected by an instinctual preternatural sense, which goes beyond the host, to others of the same race. Individually low in intelligence, dense formations, either within a single host or multiple, have proven to be of a higher level of intelligence than most vertebrates, at least when considered individually. This group consciousness has proven to be sufficiently powerful to completely sublime the will of a given host, leading them to to not only perform actions mildly out of character, like excessive intake of fluids or preference for cold places, but to real acts of self endangerment or aggression, which even if they endanger the grubs within the host, ultimately work to the betterment of the worms as a whole.
One item of note is that the grubs, perhaps because of their innate ability to manipulate low level electrical impulses (and therefore a host) tend to die around strong electromagnetic fields. This is the primary reason why technological societies face relatively little threat from this otherwise overtly hedonistic species.
The second stage in the life cycle is called a lesser worm. This is actually a rare occurrence and an evolutionary dead end for the species, whereby a grub has grown too large to live within a host for any period of time - their demands on nutrients and fluids, and their actual size being so great that they quickly eviscerate most living organisms they come into contact with. It has been theorised that rare occurrences of the worm stage later evolve to become the leviathan, or mother, stage. But this has never been witnessed since a massive raw supply of organic material would be necessary for a worm to move from a pupal stage of roughly 1 metre in length to the tens of metres a leviathan worm typically boasts.
Worms are vicious combatants, untethered by the weaknesses of the smaller grubs, and without the nesting instinct, they use serrated exoskeletal forms near the snout to batter and hack at potentially dangerous bioforms. Worms are still mandated by the group conscioussness of the species and therefore driven to perpetuate the whole. Despite this, they often show individualistic traits, such as rage, or cowardice.
The hosts themselves have many states, the most well known being those of humans - which are the preferred hosts of the worms. Presumably for their high level of upper brain function and potentially high fluid intake.
The basic state is almost completely human. It takes some time for the worm to take full control over their victim. During which the host gains a subtle liking for darkness, moisture and warmth. All of which are conducive to the asexual reproduction of the parasite they carry.
The Nameless
Headless demon summoned by player in first level. Immune to most damage, can be hurt by the thunderbolt. Throws scatterings of deathbolts but usually relies on melee and creating rifts through which demons attack the player.