Chapter Concept: The Corrupt Perceptions Chapter (Feedback welcome)

Chapter: The Corrupt Perception

Killer: The Charlatan

Swanson Jones was always a shady figure. Swanson gained notoriety within his local town for being a cheat and a swindler, constantly scamming anyone he could to make a quick buck. When he wasn’t tricking people into giving up their money, he was stealing it. Before long, Swanson was driven from his home due to his rotten reputation.

Taking the small fortune he had already gathered in his dealings at home, Swanson began investing in various fake businesses, building a large web to con more innocent victims.

However, Swanson’s biggest scam was to be his last. A mass sale of regular musical instruments, being passed off as rare collectibles used by world famous artists. Swanson arrived at a cabin in the middle of the woods, the location the wealthy buyer had designated as the drop-off point. Swanson dismissed his concern about the dangers of a ripping of a client in a remote area and adopted his usual cocky attitude.

As the deal neared its end and the “expensive” instruments were all off loaded, the client finally announced that he knew all about Swanson’s history, before continuing that the police were on their way to arrest him. The two broke into a shouting match, until the dire consequences of this mistake became clear to Swanson. In a panic, he rushed to the door to escape justice. On his way out, however, the client grappled Swanson and refused to let him leave, with the two coming to blows. Swanson reached into one of the off-loaded boxes, and angrily struck the client with a guitar he had grabbed. Eventually, pure rage took over and Swanson continued to viciously beat the man.

Swanson looked down and saw the bloody mess around him, before casting aside the cracked electric guitar he had used to kill his foe. Trembling, Swanson stumbled out the door in pure shock. He disappeared into the dark woods blanketed by a thick fog, as police sirens wailed in the background. Although the public were free from the manipulation of con man Swanson Jones, a team of ragged survivors were now at the mercy of The Charlatan. Through his series of lethal illusions, this haunted trickster would gain the Entity’s favour, one way or another.

Perks:

Hex: Critical Extortion – Mastery of conning people has taught you to use others strength against them. While this Hex is active, the “damage generator” action is replaced with the “manipulate” action. You gain one token every time a manipulated generator reaches a quarter in progression (4 tokens per gen) up to a maximum of 4/6/8 tokens. Cleansing the Hex totem reverts to the damage generator action. For each token, the damage generator action provides an instant 1.5% generator regression and the passive regression speed is increased by 10%. Once the maximum number of tokens is reached, the Hex automatically cleanses itself. All token bonuses currently held when the Hex is cleansed remain, however no more can be gained.

Eagle Eye – Your heightened senses allow you to watch your prey. Whenever you are at least 36 metres from a hooked survivor, if the survivor is unhooked you see the auras of all survivors except the unhooked survivor for 5/6/7 seconds.

Mechanical Manipulation – Technical prowess allows you to keep track of the gadgets within the trial. Once they reach 50/45/40% progression, any generator that you have damaged will be highlighted in dark blue. The higher the generator progresses, the lighter blue the aura will become. Exit gate levers will also be highlighted in blue once they reach 60% progression.

Load-out

Weapon: Cracked Guitar

This Guitar is a sleek red electric guitar covered in fake signatures from various famous musicians. The bottom of the guitar is cracked due to use as a blunt force weapon.

Power(s):

Hear No Evil:

·      The Charlatan has access to [5] Modified Music Boxes, which he can place similarly to Freddy’s snares. The Music Boxes are small, about 2/3rds the width of a Bear Trap and double the height of one.

·      The music boxes are triggered when within range of a survivor, like Hag traps, with a slightly larger range than regular Hag traps. When a music box activates a loud bang is emitted. This gives any survivor within range the “Deaf” status effect.

·      The Deaf status effect builds over time, reaching maximum power after [25] seconds. As it builds, the survivor’s hearing distance is decreased from its original value down to [24] metres. This includes all sounds, such as generator noise and the Killer’s terror radius. This status effect ends after [45] seconds at max value.

·      Music boxes will not be triggered while crouching, and can be defused by crouch-walking towards them and performing a 6 second animation. Defused boxes will make a clanking audio cue to show they are disabled, and will return to normal when the Killer comes within 10 metres of the box.

See No Evil:

·      Every time a generator reaches 30%, 60% or 90% progression, a considerably difficult skill check occurs. If the skill check is failed, the “Dazed” status effect is applied.

·      The Dazed status effect builds over time, reaching maximum power after [35] seconds.  As the effect builds, a dark fog covers the map for the affected survivor. Once at full power, all vision beyond [24] metres is obscured. The Dazed status effect ends after [40] seconds at full power.

Speak No Evil:

·     The Charlatan can stitch together the lips of a downed survivor. This applies the “Solo” status effect.

·     The Solo status effect stops affected survivors from committing co-operative actions (ie. No gen stacking or heal stacking). The Solo status effect also obscures all aura reading abilities for affected Survivors.

·     The Solo status effect ends after [70] seconds, however this timer only goes down whilst not on a hook or in the dying state.

·     The Charlatan only has [3] stitching kits per trial

Add-ons:

Common;

->Fake Gig Tickets- Slightly increases the “Deaf” duration and hearing penalty (3 seconds, 22m,stacks)

->Shoddy LED’s- Slightly increases “Dazed” duration and sight penalty (3 seconds, 22m, stacks)

->Faulty Speaker- Adds one extra music box, slightly increases music box range (+10% range, stacks)

->Cheap surgery kit- Moderately increases the “Solo” duration (10 seconds, stacks)

Uncommon;

->Dodgy Earphones- Moderately increases “Deaf” duration and hearing penalty (7 seconds, 20m, stacks)

->Flickering Camera- Moderately increases “Dazed” duration and sight penalty (7 seconds, 20m, stacks)

->Cut Cable- Adds two extra music boxes, moderately increases music box range (+25% range, stacks)

->Dirty Gauze- Moderately increases “Solo” duration, adds one stitching kit (10 seconds, stacks)

Rare;

->Novelty Flute- Considerably increases “Deaf” duration and hearing penalty (12 seconds, 18m, stacks)

->Blinking Bulbs- Considerably increases “Dazed” duration and sight penalty (12 seconds, 18m, stacks)

->Knock-off clothes- “Dazed” applies the Exhausted effect for the duration

->Jagged Pliers- Considerately increases “Solo” duration (17 seconds, 8% action penalty, stacks)

                       The “Solo” status effect applies a moderate action penalty

Very Rare;

->”Signed” Guitar- Moderately decreases “Dazed” and “Deaf” penalties (7 seconds, 20m, stacks)

                           “Dazed” and “Deaf” status effects don’t end

->Crate of Instruments- Adds 3 Music Boxes (stacks)

                                     Adds two stitching kits

                                   Stitching kits apply the “broken” status effect

Ultra Rare;

->Blood splattered merchandise- Survivors affected by all three unique status effects can now be mori’d

Additional Information

·      115% movement speed

·      Normal attack range and speed

·      Normal terror radius

·      Killer difficulty: Hard (This Killer has lots of moving parts to mess with survivors, using lots of game altering dynamics to stop typical survivor patterns like gen stacking)

Appearance and Animations

·      The Charlatan wears a muddy black suit and black leather driving gloves. He has dirty, grey-brown hair and pupil less white eyes.

·      After a successful hit, The Charlatan wipes the end of the guitar on his leg then flicks the blood off it into the air.

·      The Charlatans’ Memento Mori: The Charlatan strikes the survivor on the thigh as they try to get up. They then plant a foot on the survivors’ back and leans down, before using the neck of the guitar to strangle the survivor to death from behind.

Survivor: Ben Carlson

Ben Carlson never truly fit in at home.  Ben felt very unfulfilled with his lack of life direction, constantly unsure of his ultimate goals. As he neared the end of his school career, he began to panic. After lots of pressure by his parents to chose a career, Ben settled for a tour in the military while he got his mind in order.

Throughout his training however, Ben found that the rigid command of army life helped drive him forward. Soon enough, Ben was thoroughly linked with military career. His biggest trial came when he was sent abroad to face real combat. The fear rose within him, but Ben battled against it, determined not to abandon the life direction he had finally discovered.

His time in the foreign warzone was brutal on Ben and his squad mates. The horrors he had seen inflicted on the innocent civilians scarred Ben forever, and he swore he would fight until his last breath to protect these people.

However, everything changed during a routine patrol of a local town. Ben woke up in the rubble of his small convoy. Scorch marks adorned the surroundings and his troop transport was blasted to pieces. Around him, fellow soldiers struggled to their feet, some sporting gruesome wounds. From all around the shooting started, bullets striking the wounded soldiers as they scrambled for their own weapons. Ben scurried throughout the ensuing gunfight, dragging his injured allies to cover. In the middle of a hail of bullets lay a soldier, bleeding heavily from a hole in his gut. Ben sprinted towards him, narrowly avoiding the sea of gunfire filling the air. Just as he reached the soldier, a grenade landed between them. Ben instinctively shielded his face from the explosion.

When he took his arm away however, Ben realised he was no longer on the battlefield. Although his environment resembled that of the middle eastern village he had been fighting in, everything seemed off. The oppressive desert sun was obscured by a haunting gloom, and the scorching heat was replaced with a shivering cold which induced Goosebumps. Ben’s stomach churned and his raw emotions returned, the feelings of despair and anger he felt at war time atrocities being dwarfed by the impending dread of this new realm. The only thing Ben understood about this strange new world is that he was a soldier, and he would fight to protect those in danger, no matter what.

Perks:

Disciplined – Your professional training helps you persevere where your allies fail. Every time another survivor is hit by the Killer, you gain one token. For every token, skill check success zones are increased by 8% and great skill checks provide an extra 2% generator progression. You can have a maximum of 2/3/4 tokens. Every time you are hit by the Killer you lose one token.

Imminent Light – Experience at prioritising key objectives in the field has given you key leadership qualities. Whenever a Generator you are working on reaches 80/75/70% progression, its aura is revealed to all other survivors. The auras of any survivors within 14 metres of the generator are also revealed.

Sacrificial Lamb – A true survivor will give risk everything for his team. When you are placed in the dying state, all other survivors gain a 5% action speed increase for 30/35/40 seconds.

Map: Shrouded Settlement

This map is medium sized, and has the appearance of a small war-torn village. It would feature multiple small houses, many of which would be blasted open and only chest height whilst others would be intact homes. The layout would be similar to Haddonfield, however the area outside of the buildings would be more open than that map. The outside ground would be mostly sand, however there would still be large patches of grass.