What's the reason Spite hurts himself when he becomes a Drug-Wracked Monstrosity for each Victim "saved" by the heroes?
Is he so crazy that he can't deal with the fact he didn't get to kill all those people, so he takes it out on himself (x5) ??
Does he somehow need to feed off a humans life-force when he transforms, and if he doesn't have the victim he burns some of his own life-force?
Perhaps he goes on a rampage, breaks into the safe-house to kill all the victims, but takes horrible damage in the process (like rampaging through the Rook City Police Department while every cop in town shoots him up).
Or is >G's simply teaching us about the perils of drug use, and the damaging effect it has on ourselves and our support netwok of friends and loved ones....
OK that last one may be a little tongue-in-cheek (though it doesn't stop me saying it to my group whenever we fight Spite ;) ), but I'd really like to know the rationale for the mechanic.
edit: I didn't know whether this would go here in General Discussion or in World.
I know it's NOT the right answer, but I always imagined the saved victims grouped together and felt sorry for the horrible monster Spite has become, and the power of their caring caused him physical pain. Like a Carebear Stare laser or something.
Pydro: "Bunker doesn't shoot, he budda buddas."
I always thought it was because the surviving victims teamed up and put a beat-down on Spite.
Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm
I think it's supposed to be like since Spite needs to kill people to keep himself alive, he's slowly being hurt, and saving victims prevents him from regenerating, but he gets hurt all at once. So from a story standpoint, whenever you save a victim, Spite is like "Oh crap, I'm dying! I haven't killed enough!" And when he finally turns into the drug monster, he hasn't killed as much as he should have been, so the drugs take a serious toll on him.
You're free to do whatever you want to.
Evandan got it, as did NDRWnerd in the original post:
"Does he somehow need to feed off a humans life-force when he transforms, and if he doesn't have the victim he burns some of his own life-force?"
Note that he heals whenever he hits a hero. Same thing for killing victims. When he transforms into his Monstrosity form, he needs as much life force as he can get, and any victims left unkilled hurt him.
"Your goodness must have some edge to it — else it is none."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wow, so in addition to being addicted to his body modifying drugs and battle-stims, he's also 'addicted' to killing people! ... Thats mesed up.
Thanks Chris !