It is a curious notion that even beings such as SuperMankind are prey to a predator, but in a universe of impossibilities this is yet one more impossibility that is also a truth. SCEPTRE was created by Her Majesty Victoria Regina to fight foes of Great Britain that fall beyond mere mortal forces, and as such we must look at the threat with squared shoulders and resolute mien.
No one is certain of the origins of the beings known alternately as Elders, Elder Gods, or Demons of the Outer Night. A thousand names for a thousand visages of horror and mayhems, they nonetheless share a few traits in common. Most notably of these are a desire to break the walls that hold them in their domains to unleash chaos on the Earth and its denizens.
Elders feed on most any other living being they encounter. All organic material is food for them, but intelligent beings seem to be their most desired meal. Their penchant for intelligent beings has been described as akin to a farmer. The farmer doesn’t worry about the feelings of the wheat or corn in his field, or how they die while he reaps the crop to feed himself and his family. He takes it all, with the possible exception of seed corn to plant again the next year.
If a normal man or woman are food to an Elder, a member of SuperMankind is much more. Whatever spark within Man that draws these creatures to our world, the light of SuperMankind burns much more desirable to the Elder race. Whenever they manifest in our reality, they inevitably strive to consume the Super-heroes and heroines in our midsts.
This is the very crux of the problem facing Civilization today, in our year of 1890 AD.
As Queen Victoria’s faithful servant, I am sworn to defend her and her realm. In this regard, how do I tell Her Majesty that the number of emerging SuperMankind here in the heart of the British Empire, might indeed draw the attention of threats so dire our mere mortal minds cannot even begin to grasp it? Do we betray those heroes and heroines who have saved us time and again, because their very presence might spell doom for us all?
I have no answer, and this chills my blood.
— Mycroft Holmes
Organization
Elders can have a million shapes and two million abilities, as their very nature is chaos. However, their lower forms of life, their “foot soldiers” if you will, bear some hallmarks in common. Most tend to congregate in masses, most are either semi-intelligent or clever animal cunning, and all will fight to their own destruction to prevail in combat.
A sample creature follows:
The Ebon Eyes
This is an Evil Extraplanar creature whose vital statistics are:
Hit Dice: 12d10
HP: 60
AC: 30
Primes: Physical and Mental
All attributes are between 19–26 (1D6+18)
Supernatural Powers
Fly 120’
Invulnerability +6 Temporal
Lightning Speed – Rank 3
Might 1d12
Special Power: cause all to make a WIS save or be stunned for 3d4 rounds
The Ebon Eyes are a gelatinous mass of living pseudopods and eye stalks that are a constant writhing force of Supernature. They are summoned on occasion by mad cultists to to the macabre bidding of their demented minds. Once summoned, the many eyes of the creature are shown an image of their prey, and left to hunt in the darkness. The Ebon Eyes will use stealth where possible, but will make killing their prey their first goal. Once their grisly work is done, they return to the outer night from whence they came. If they have not destroyed their prey within dusk to daylight (they are rarely active during daylight) they will return to their dark dimension, but will hold an enmity to that being forevermore.