Strange Predators and Stranger Prey

[Acrozatarim]

So I figure I should probably just create one thread to throw weird new creatures, spirits, etc in, right? Also, feel free to put your own odd creatures, antagonists, monsters, and spirits into this thread - might be able to make it a one-stop shop for strange entities in the forum

The Wendigo
Through the darkness and the cold it comes, a grimacing immensity desperate for salvation. It is monstrous, massive, a towering thing that somehow stoops through the gloom beneath the branches. It strides on relentlessly after its prey, driven by an implacable hunger. Some call it the Wendigo, though it cares nothing for such a name. It only craves release from the ravening void within.

This thing isn’t *the* Wendigo—that is to say, there are many entities that can fall under such a mantle, and this one is by no means pre-eminent. There is the patron totem to the Wendigo Blood Talons. There are many spirits of cold and hunger that respond to such a title, especially those in the spirit wilds of northern America. But *this* Wendigo is by no means a pretender to such a name, either. It is likely not the origin of the human myths, although that’s not a certainty; even the Uratha have only vague notions of the giant’s origins. Some say it is the remnant of an ancient being that was forced into a Flesh form when it was broken or diminished—a god splintered apart until only its hunger remains. Some say it is the world’s repulsion to a mass cannibalism event rendered animate, the metaphysical pus from a grotesque wound. Some say it is actually an Uratha, a Predator King of such colossal power that it is essentially a bodhisattva—but that something went wrong during its enlightenment, tainting it from the glory and purity of a perfect predator into a slave to hunger instead. Most stories relate it to the Gnawed Bone one way or another, an ancient spirit court of hunger and famine, and yet this being is quite definitely not a spirit.

The Wendigo—*this* Wendigo—obeys its driving need to eat. It roams cold regions, lurching out of the darkness to lope after its victims. The thing clearly avoids light and warmth, preferring to operate at night and retreating with the warming seasons, but at the same time it craves the heat of fresh flesh and blood. It also seems to be repelled by being seen—not, unfortunately for most victims, being gazed upon by a mere few eyes, but it cannot stand being observed by a dozen or more people at the same time. In such an event, it either tries to kill excess observers as quickly as it can, or will retreat in apparent pain.

The size of the thing is deceptive. It is apparently many times the height of a man; it grows with every victim it eats, and slowly withers away again as time passes after a meal, but even at its least it must be twenty feet tall. At the same time, it is capable of passing under any obstacle—usually stalking beneath tree branches, but it can also stoop to fit, impossibly, through a door with no apparent difficulty. It is a gaunt giant, grey-skinned and with skin pulled tight over its bones apart from the pot-belly of its gut. Its fingernails are ivory, and its teeth stone. Someone cut its lips away, leaving a ragged mess of scars around its jaws. It barely ever says anything, barely ever even makes a sound. The few recorded instances of the Wendigo communicating with anyone have it that the thing asked for help, pleading with victims to feed it themselves so that it can sate the ‘void within’ and save itself and others. Although capable of chasing down and pulverising prey with its immense strength, the Wendigo has been known to treat victims with relative mercy, even tenderness, prior to killing and eating them. It is not even slightly sadistic or cruel, and indeed seems repulsed at such behaviour in others.

Although its usual interactions—mostly limited to wilder or outlying regions, with only very rare incidents of activity within built-up areas—are focused on hunting and eating prey, the Wendigo is sometimes intentionally called up by humans. Whatever forces bind its behaviour allow an occultist to treat with the Wendigo in relative safety by offering it a human sacrifice to consume. Some negotiate for a fraction of the Wendigo’s power. It gladly gives such, perhaps because this alleviates the nightmarish suffering of its hunger a little.

Despite the gnawing hunger the Wendigo suffers, it is not indiscriminate in its consumption. Some unknown parameters guide its hunt, and it does not simply lay waste to one area of victims. It is very hard to predict where the creature will manifest, and it is apparently capable of traversing huge distances with relative ease. In each locale, it will attempt to hunt and eat seven victims in total, after which it will move on—and at least three of these seven will be specific individuals who it feels compelled to pursue and eat, although if repeatedly frustrated in the hunt for an individual for seven days the compulsion will break and allow it to move on.

The Wendigo eats humans—and will grimly eat mages or changelings—but while its jaws can tear terrible wounds into an Uratha, the thing does not actively prey on werewolves. It seems to take no joy in eating flesh, looking almost nauseated as it forces flesh and bones into its mouth. Sometimes, though, it will retch an old bone back up out of its guts, and bury it in the ground. Where it does, a tree of fractal ivory branches grows up over the course of a week or so, attracting small animals who are compelled to impale themselves upon the sharp tips of the bone fronds. Owls then flock to the flesh-draped tree to feast upon the meat. When they leave their red banquet, the owls have changed—bulging with cancerous fecundity that boils within their guts. They then fly north, ever north, dribbling blood, disappearing into frigid skies and an unknown final destination. In their wake, the Wendigo strides ever on, weeping its own tears of blood.

The Wendigo
Strange & Hungry Entity
Int 4 Wits 6 Res 5 Str 18 Dex 5 Sta 19 Pre 8 Man 2 Com 2
Animal Ken 3 Athletics 6 Brawl 5 Empathy 3 Intimidate 6 Stealth 4 Survival 4
Merits: Iron Stamina 3
Willpower 7
Size 10
Health 29
Defence 11
Initiative 7
Speed 30
Dread Powers: Armored Hide 3, Frigid Presence*, Natural Weapons 3, Strange Geometries*, Void Hunger*, Winter Stride*

Dread Power—Frigid Presence: The Wendigo inflicts the Extreme Cold Environmental Tilt on the scene automatically, and is unaffected by extremities of cold itself.

Dread Power—Strange Geometries: The Wendigo can move as if it were actually Size 3, fitting through absurdly small entries or gaps despite its actual proportions.

Dread Power—Void Hunger: When using its bite attack in a grapple, the Wendigo deals aggravated damage and regenerates one point of damage of any kind. Upon consuming a victim, the Wendigo gains 1 Size, which also increases its Health. After a week, it starts losing 1 Size per day until it reaches its ‘natural’ Size of 10. The Wendigo can eat any flesh without suffering negative consequences such as disease or poison. It has the Addicted quality towards human flesh, and suffers the Deprived quality if it goes without such for a month.

Dread Power—Winter Stride: By travelling for a day without interference, the Wendigo can transport itself to any region that has subzero temperatures or that is affected by frost or snow, regardless of barriers between its initial location and its destination (including bodies of water).

Owl Vigil: The Wendigo cannot harm owls. While in the presence of an owl, it appears cowed and almost meek, gaining the Demoralized Condition. However, anyone attacking the Wendigo in the presence of owls will cause the birds to suffer the Berserk Condition, targeted at the attacker.

Wendigo Pacts: Although the Wendigo is not a spirit, it can be conjured by a human occultist who knows the correct ritual invocations. The summoning must be performed with a human sacrifice, who is murdered and offered to the Wendigo as payment, and it must be performed during cold weather. The Wendigo does not simply appear in a summoning circle—instead, it somehow attends by arriving, emerging from a door into the room where the sacrifice is taking place, or looming out from the trees at the edge of the stone circle. It will not attempt to harm the occultist for the duration of the scene, unless attacked. If the occultist offers to take on part of the Wendigo’s hunger—gaining the Addiction Condition for human flesh in the process—then they are also granted part of its power, which is conveyed by the being tearing a splinter of bone out of its own flesh and forcing its arm down the occultist’s throat to plant the splinter in the lining of their gut. For as long as the splinter remains there, the occultist gains the power to spend a point of Willpower and force a human they can perceive to suffer the Berserk Condition—with the added effect that the victim feels compelled to try and eat the flesh of anyone they manage to kill. Furthermore, at the end of any scene where the occultist consumes human flesh, they heal a single point of any kind of damage, and can even regrow severed limbs through this healing. Finally, they are no longer affected by extreme cold, and gain the rote quality on Stealth and Survival dice pools in cold environments.

[21C Hermit]

So I figure I should probably just create one thread to throw weird new creatures, spirits, etc in, right? Also, feel free to put your own odd creatures, antagonists, monsters, and spirits into this thread - might be able to make it a one-stop shop for strange entities in the forum

* eyes glint





Dueoksini

Once there was an auspicious occasion in a nobleman's household and there was a grand feast. Many were the number of relatives gathered in a single house. A child with unkempt hair stood lonely outside the hall and behind the wooden screens, with a mien most fierce. A child about the age of fifteen or sixteen.

"Is this someone's slave-boy?" But neither the host nor the guests knew. The noble had people question the child, but he spoke not. The women were angered and waved their arms to make him leave. A few grabbed him by the arms and pulled, but he stood still as if ants were pushing a rock. All were angrier. People in the men's parts of the house were told to drag the child out. All the guests in the men's part heard, and had some slaves drag out the child, but he stood unflinching.

"He must be human, so how could he not move?" Five or so warriors struck the child with a big cudgel. The strike was true, its puissance crushing and sound thunderous, but the child stood unmoved and unblinking. Only then all were astonished and frightened, and realized the child was no human. Together they fell down in the yard and bowed on their knees and prayed with clapped hands, doleful and desperate.

A while after the child grinned mockingly and left. He was nowhere to be seen just as he walked out the door. All were more surprised and afraid, and ended the feast and left for home. From the next day a terrible plague struck the houses of the host and all who attended. Those who scolded and swore at him, those who told the men to drag him away, those who struck him, the warriors and the slaves died earlier in the following days, from their heads being crushed. All the attendees too died and none were left alive.

The world calls the child "dueoksini," but none knows where the name comes from.

The above historical story from a collection of similar episodes, penned during the Joseon dynasty, details one of the most terrifying creatures to be recorded in Korea's lore of legends and myths. Anthropologists interpret the creature as the vicious cousin of the more famous dokkaebi, but unlike the latter who are often friendly and ephemeral, this specter is purely malicious and decidedly visceral in all accounts that speak of it. Some cite correspondences with the Japanese oni, and the Buddhist yaksa. Something that can be understood with a proper background. It never is so simple.

As the most commonly theories in etymology and folklore studies suggest of "du-eok," the Dueoksini is a creature of mind-addling delusions and skull-seizing headaches. Instead of settling for woundless pain, however, the monster takes delight in literally crushing the heads of its victims. The suffix of "-sini" represents a spirit or a god, elevating the entity beyond the likes of mere goblins and ghosts. The Uratha of the Korean peninsula who hear of or witness the Dueoksini are quick to discover this lore, and assume the entity is an ancient Materialized spirit or a Claimed. They have not been able to confirm whether this is so; the monster is elusive, and all the deaths it causes occur only after the creature leaves an area. However, there are still signs to look for. The creature is heralded by a local spike in headaches and mental illnesses, but a streak of fortune gracing its soon-to-be victims. What's more worrying, however, is that among the mental ills its visit causes is Lunacy. The few packs who realize the latter phenomenon are highly disturbed, and are motivated to quickly put an end to this centuries-old terror... or seize the creature's power for their own.

Another piece of obscure suggests an another origin of the entity; that it is the ghost of a slave-girl who died embittered and resentful. At least one krewe of Sin-Eaters are on to this lead and chasing her. Other pieces of lore suggest that it is indeed a dokkaebi, but warped by mad dreams made physical. A motley of changelings are seeking the entity to either rehabilitate, eliminate, or bargain with it. Yet on another side, a brood of Beasts have heard about the monster, and have concluded he is one of their own. They are content to leave their perceived brother be, but may be pressed to act if he shows up on their turf and start crushing both minds and heads.

Dueoksini
Malicious Entity

Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 4, Resolve 5, Strength 8, Dexterity 3, Stamina 10, Presence 6, Manipulation 2, Composure 5
Skills: Occult 1, Athletics 2, Brawl 4, Larceny 2, Stealth 4 (In Plain Sight), Survival 3, Empathy 1 (Pain, Fear), Expression 2 (Taunting), Intimidation 6 (Incomprehensibility)
Merits: Air of Menace, Hardy•••, Indomitable, Iron Stamina •••, Iron Will, Punch Drunk, Small-Framed, Tolerance for Biology
Willpower: 10
Essence: 25
Health: 14
Initiative: 8
Defense: 5
Size: 4
Speed: 16
Influences: Headaches •••••
Dread Powers: Headcrusher, Immortal, Immovable, Lunatic Presence, Madness and Terror (Dice pool: Presence + Stamina), Monstrous Resilience, Numen (Dement, Innocuous), Twilight Walker, Unbreakable
Bane: A switch made from the branch of a peach tree, smeared with powdered bark or leaves of a willow tree.

Dread Power - Headcrusher: If the Dueoksini successfully inflicts a mental Tilt, mental Condition or Lunacy Condition to any number of people with either its Influences or Dread Powers in a scene, it rolls Presence + Wits as it leaves the area. Anyone who still retains a mental Tilt or Condition after a number of days equal to their Resolve must succeed in a Stamina check, or suffer points of bashing damage equal to the number of successes rolled by the Dueoksini. If the Condition inflicted was a Lunacy Condition, the damage becomes lethal. Victims who die of this attack appear to have suffered cranial trauma, but from the inside of the skull. If the damage was particularly severe, their heads may literally crack open. If the Dueoksini spends three points of Essence when rolling Presence + Wits, the check for damage comes after two hours per Resolve instead of days.

Dread Power - Immovable: The Dueoksini can "root" itself where it stands by spending a point of Essene. In this state, the Dueoksini cannot be moved at all from its location with any exertion of physical force, save for moving the very ground it stands. Supernatural attempts are met with a Clash of Wills where the Dueoksini rolls Resolve + Stamina. When any of the above actions fail, the Dueoksini can reflexively use its Influence on the aggressor without Essence cost at any dot rating.

Dread Power - Lunatic Presence: By reflexively spending a point of Essence, the Dueoksini provokes Lunacy on all onlookers as if it were a werewolf in Dalu form. If it spends a point of Willpower too, it can select which Lunacy Condition is inflicted to which victim.

Dread Power - Twilight Strider: The entity may enter or leave Twilight as an instant action, or reflexively with a point of Willpower. (Originally by Acrozatarim in here)

[Vent0]

This is far ahead of the season, but I was wondering what a Generosity Spirit-Claimed Santa Clause would look like.

[Acrozatarim]

Fielding’s Ghost
Sometimes the blood of the wolf’s passed down by ancestry; sometimes it’s an affliction born of the Warden Moon’s capricious whims. Fielding’s a different kind of Wolf-Blooded, though, to the point where some wonder if he should be in an entirely different category, all to himself. He wasn’t born with the blood, but nor was he an ‘adoption’ of Wolf or Moon. Best guess, he was ‘adopted’ by Death Wolf herself, but even that’s just an attempt by the Crescent Moons to make sense of the strange circumstances surrounding his existence.

Fielding came out the womb a normal human like any other, not a trace of the bizarre or the weird in his veins. He was one day old, though, when something weird did happen. Exactly what went down in that house that night isn’t clear to anyone but Fielding’s parents, and they refuse to say even under the intense scrutiny of werewolves, but several facts are evident.

One, just prior, the local pack felt something ripple through the Shadow - ‘like someone had thrown a big stone into a pond’, as a pack member explained. They scrambled to respond and stumbled upon a gateway to somewhere else entirely that had breached in the heart of their territory, a yawning schism between realities from which gibbering ghosts were clawing their way free and that, somehow, tore through the Flesh, the Gauntlet, and right into the Shadow. In that gateway, they got a brief glimpse of something big, something really horrendous, snapping and snarling with anger, before it all sealed up.

Two, after the gateway, reports of a ‘glowing dog’ or ‘ghost dog’ came in across the area. Now, there were lots of other reports of ghosts too – presumably from phantasmal escapees from that dark rent – but this seemed different. Human witnesses said it looked ‘frightened’ or that it was trying to get away from something, even though they couldn’t give any evidence as to why they thought that.

Three, Fielding’s home lit up like a ghost-lit Christmas tree that night, complete with corpselight in the windows, shutters banging and slamming from an unseen force, and a cold mist seething off the ground in the yard.

Of course, there was no trace of ghost dog nor other phenomena at the house by the time the pack arrived – just two terrified parents, lips tightly sealed, and one calm, sleeping baby. The best that’s ever been gotten out of the mother and father is that they’d done what they had to for their son.

These days, of course, Fielding’s all grown up. He’s a rangy fellow with an easy smile, piercing eyes, and keen wits. Truth is, he’s the lynchpin of the local pack in many ways – their moral centre, their sanity-checker, their common sense. He’s also got a real knack for dealing with the dead, one way or another. Thing is, though, the Bone Shadows have got a close eye on him. It’s not just because of his odd origins, or his useful tricks, but because they’ve quite literally been told to.

Great Mother Death, Kamduis-Ur herself, wants Fielding watched. It’s not a malevolent sort of surveillance – not at all. Indeed, Death Wolf seems to think of him more as a favoured cub. The best anyone’s gotten to a clear answer on the matter, from one of the Firstborn’s servants, was this:

—She got away. She tore herself free and got away, and fled back to our embrace. She deserves this peace, this place of hers in flesh and bone, and he deserves her. Let them together be safe—

As to who ‘she’ is, well, that’s not too hard to guess. The pack eventually figured out where the ‘ghost dog’ went. When Fielding’s severely hurt—or when he wills it—he’s caught by violent convulsions. His throat twists and swells, his ribs creak, and up out of his mouth vomits forth a stream of white and grey ichor that coalescese into an opalescent wolf. Fielding lies unconscious as his mind rides out with his phantasmal guest.

For his part, Fielding takes it in his stride. He’s had his companion since the earliest times he can remember. She’s been there always, whispering to him, comforting him, guiding him. It’s a strange experience to ride out of his body, born aloft on her ghostly tides, but he finds it soothing—and empowering. Questions of the hows, whys, and wherefores of his state and his companion don’t bother him much—there’s plenty to concern him in the here and now, after all.

Fielding, Sinecure of Kamduis-Ur
Wolf-Blooded
Virtue: Benevolent
Vice: Unambitious
Attributes: Int 3 Wits 5 Res 3 Str 3 Dex 2 Sta 2 Pre 3 Man 2 Com 2
Skills: Academics 2, Computers 1, Crafts 3, Occult 4 (Ghosts), Science 2, Athletics 2 (Running), Brawl 2, Drive 1, Stealth 1, Weaponry 2, Animal Ken 3 (Canines), Empathy 5 (Kindness), Persuasion 3, Socialize 2
Merits: Contacts (Various) 3, Fleet of Foot 2, Kamduis-Ur’s Blood, Pack Bond 3, Resources 2, Status (Bone Shadows) 2, Tell (Piercing Eyes), Totem 3
Willpower 5 Health 7 Initiative 4 Defense 4 Speed 11
Tells: Ghost-Vessel, Piercing Eyes

New Tell – Ghost-Vessel
A strange, ghostly presence dwells within the Wolf-Blooded, its ectoplasm slithering through their arteries. If the Wolf-Blooded is knocked unconscious or otherwise incapacitated, other than via natural sleep, the ghost emerges from their body and they cannot regain consciousness until it returns.

Boon: The wolf-ghost within is protective of the Wolf-Blooded, and can be intentionally called up by spending a Willpower point; doing so causes the Wolf-Blooded to fall unconscious, which they remain until the ghost returns to their body.

Whenever the ghost emerges, the Wolf-Blooded literally vomits the wolf up. It takes the form of a Rank 2 ghost, and the Wolf-Blooded’s consciousness goes with it—they are able to perceive through its senses and can influence its actions, caught in benevolent union with the phantasm. Every time the ghost emerges, its Essence pool is full. It treats the Wolf-Blooded’s body as its anchor and, if destroyed, will reform within the Wolf-Blooded over time; destruction of the ghost immediately hurls the Wolf-Blooded’s consciousness back to their body, and inflicts the Shaken Condition on them.

Should the Wolf-Blooded’s body be killed while their consciousness is in the ghost, their spirit permanently merges with the wolf ghost. The ghost itself will seek vengeance upon the one who slew its host, and will gain the wrathful aid of Death Wolf herself in this endeavour.

[Kleptomania]

Is the phrase 'opalescent wolf' deliberately referencing the Firstborn mentioned in the Sundered World, or only incidentally? Either way, I'm overjoyed to see more stuff related to Kamduis - the best totem.

[Second Chances]

Oooo, I can think of multiple places I would want to use this Tell! That's awesome Chris, thank you for sharing!

[Gryphon's Feather]

I feel like sharing a particularly strange prey here, so here's my first ever homebrew for any version of the WoD. I used to think about a larger homebrew project that tied into my love of "Surreal Horror", these are part of that, nowadays I consider bringing them back as a minor antagonist for Wolves and Mages. This particular one is also a blatant reference reference to something I liked once upon a time, and I'll have to ask forgiveness for that.

The city was infested with 'serpents', creatures that weren't, an entire pack would have to be blind not to notice the blatant defiance of the laws of blood and bone. The twilight was crawling with things fashioned into the semblance of eyeless, limbless reptiles. Some had hides made of leather, skin, or scale, some have flesh of wrought iron, plastic, or paper. Many were completely hollow inside, others are filled with rare gases, motor oil, human organs, or other, seemingly meaningless substances. Massive snakes coiled around skyscrapers, barely visible threads that swam in puddles in the sidewalk.

It didn't make sense. Their existence and behaviors are oddly spirit like, but they occurred exclusively found on the flesh side of the gauntlet, they did not speak the first tongue, any forced across the gauntlet would gorge themselves on essence, until they filled with sickly ephemera and burst. They congregated on and around towers where they could, or fled to the deepest tunnels possible, only every gathering in man-made structures. Energetic and careless, they blindly coil and thrash, gnawing at the world of flesh without even noticing.

The Nest of Serpents
Is an example of a twilight-based [Name goes here], and a relatively harmless infestation due to their low corrosiveness. The conditions for its manifestation are simple, when a mortal construction greater than fifty floors is shaken by an earthquake, there is a slim chance that the screeching and flexing beams reach the proper occult frequencies to summon the Nest of Serpents. Which begins as an eye-shaped pattern occurring in cracks, stains, or graffiti in the structure, which slowly begins to produce a softly audible static, and eventually seeps a waxy substance that forms a primitive idol as it builds up. Destroying this natural will temporarily banish the nest, but only sealing the cracks, or defacing the eye-pattern beyond recognition ensures a lasting remedy.

Once the Nest itself has fully manifested an idol, the serpents began to manifest across the entire city at once, starting their 'lives' as a mass of white sludge and grit, which coalesces over a period of several hours to form the Serpent's body in a process resembling reverse decomposition, before taking on the appearance and properties of a non-living substance in the creature's surroundings. Within a day of manifestation, a Serpent's form is flickering and holographic, and fades into solidity only after both a sunrise and sunset have passed. Five percent of all Serpents are 'stillborn', and, after several days of non-action, vanish from the world with a sound similar to radio static.

A serpent's internal 'tissue' grows continuously over the course of its existence, until it becomes so dense that bloating, tearing of the outer flesh, and other physical abnormalities develop. This degradation leads to increasingly erratic behavior, and eventually death, as the essence it gorged itself on gushes back out into the world. Upon death, the creature's empty husk dissolves into an inert, ink-like white sludge, best known for the ability to bleach out substances in the physical world even while remaining in twilight. Other serpents refuse to touch this substance when possible, only making an exception only to gently dip their tail in the matter and paint elaborate halo or mandala forms around the 'head' of a fallen companion.

A quick example; the mechanics are dodgy, I'm sure, but I wanted to share anyway.

Example Serpent
Rank: 1
Attributes: Power 3, Finesse 3, Resistance 2,
Willpower: 5 (A Serpent regains one point of willpower for each hour spent withing proximity to an idol )
Essence: 10 (A Serpent's essence reservoir is equal to twice their size, and stored internally in the form of a substance present when it first manifested. Serpents can store essence above their maximum, becoming warped and bloated in the process, a Serpent that exceeds twice its maximum essence explodes.)
Initiative: 5
Defense: 3
Speed: 11 (The Serpents use size as a species factor)
Size: 5 (A Serpent's size is generally linked to proximity to the Nest itself, with exceptionally large examples only occurring on or within the building housing it.)
Corpus: 7
Corrosiveness*: Inorganic Matter 1 (Rarely, a Serpent manifests in the nest with Organic Matter as its Corrosiveness, but those are the exception, not the norm.)
Ban: Serpents cannot drain essence from any entity marked with the remains of their dead kin.
Bane: Artistic deceptions of itself.
Manifestation: Twilight Form, Manifestation
Numina: Drain, Left-Handed Spanner, Stalwart

*Corrosiveness acts as Influence for flaws and damage within the domain represented, as a [Name goes here] slowly gnaws away at the world's integrity.

[Tessie]

Fielding’s Ghost

Have someone (you or a possible requester if this is from Patreon) been inspired by the Geist previews?
It's weird, doesn't fit how ghosts usually work, and I really like it. Only thing I would change is replacing Shaken with Soul Shocked, but perhaps you didn't want to reference Conditions outside WTF?

[21C Hermit]

Had this idea of Moon Rabbits for the last few days; fluffy little critters using illusion powers playing off pareidolia of all kinds, a little more intelligent than normal animals and surprisingly diligent when tasked, capable of producing wondrous items, and supernaturally nutritious. Usually prey, except when they snap and go vorpal.

[Acrozatarim]

Have someone (you or a possible requester if this is from Patreon) been inspired by the Geist previews?
It's weird, doesn't fit how ghosts usually work, and I really like it. Only thing I would change is replacing Shaken with Soul Shocked, but perhaps you didn't want to reference Conditions outside WTF?

It wasn't inspired by the Geist previews, no, but it is a kinda oblique reference to something else I've been working on.

[espritdecalmar]

Here's my first pass at something weird that suddenly jumped into my mind while rereading the Sundered World:

The Pure despise Luna, and in violent, scarring rites, rip her essence from their bodies and souls. They have no need for a mad moon-god, for it is only the Great Predator who should rule this forsaken land.

But for those who know history, Wolf was an absentee father. And the world has no need of more shitty dads. Who provided solace to the uratha in their time of need? Who gave them purpose? Who elevated them from mere predators in the great-but-meaningless cycle of life into something more? Urfarah could not. Would not. And now, obviously, won’t.

The past is far behind us. Wolf was slain for a reason. Werewolves should pledge themselves to something greater than them, to someone who stuck around, the parent who actually seemed to care about them, under whose loving embrace they are empowered to greater acts.

They call themselves Luminaries, and hope you never meet one.

To see one of these moonlight wolves is to invite madness into one’s soul. They glow with purified essence, bodies ripped apart and remade to scour away all traces of Urfarah. They hunt in the Shadow for something only they know. They howl at the moon in the most passionate lovesongs imaginable. They would go there, if they could. Or bring there here.

It is only right to wish to be close to one’s mother.

Mechanics

To become a Luminary requires stripping Father Wolf’s essence from one’s own, in a rite that appears like an inverted version of the Pure’s. The details will be skipped here for the sake of the reader, but rest assured, it is painful.

After this, the newly Illuminated werewolf takes on a distinctly inhuman cast in all their forms. Some glow with a soft light, others take on new shapes. They are now more spirit than flesh, and follow their own, arcane rules.

Scorn Flesh: An Illuminated werewolf’s Harmony can never rise above 5. If an action would cause a breaking point toward Flesh when they are already at their limit, they instead take a Condition.

Maddening Glow: All of a Luminary’s forms cause Lunacy. Hishu and Urhan provoke Mild Lunacy, while the bonus to the Breaking Point roll in Dalu and Urshul is reduced to a +1.

Spiritual Power: A Luminary has dots in Influence (Auspice Moon) equal to their Honorary Rank. In addition, they have four Numina; each is associated with one of the Bans a werewolf gains at falling Harmony. The Luminary only has access to a number of their Numina equal to the number of Bans they currently possess. At Harmony 0, a Luminary can still cross over into the Flesh at a Locus, though they exist in Twilight Form. A Luminary has additional Manifestations equal to their Honorary Rank.
NB: Despite their more spirit-like abilities, the Illuminated are still werewolves. They are immune to powers that affect solely spirits, and use the nine Attribute spread rather than an ephemeral entity’s simplified three. If an ability of theirs calls for Power, Finesse, or Resistance, the Illuminated werewolf uses their highest Attribute in that category.

Wayward Souls: Luminaries can still receive Gifts, but only favor those connected to their Auspice.

Lunar Power: A Luminary gains their Auspice Renown in Essence when they first see their Auspice moon in the sky. They also gain a single point of Essence each night they first see the moon in the sky when it is not in their Auspice phase.

Enhanced Auspice: The Illuminated are closer to Luna, so they claim, than their more corporeal kin, and are blessed with a strengthened Auspice ability.

Cahalith: The Gibbous Moon’s Prophetic Dreams come more often now, even while the Luminary is awake. The Cahalith may take the Madness Condition at any time to use their Auspice ability, on top of its normal function.

Elodoth: The Illuminated Half Moon is intimately familiar with the art of turning Darkness Into Light, and gains an additional use of their Auspice ability in a chapter whenever their Harmony rating shifts.

Irraka: The darkness radiating from the No Moon Luminary eclipses all; they are always Closer Than You Think. Irraka may use each facet of their Auspice ability once per chapter.

Ithaeur: The Crescent Moon’s Spirit Howl can be heard on both sides of the Gauntlet. Any human who hears the howl must check for Lunacy. On a failure, they gain the Reception Condition. Until it resolves, the hapless mortal can intuitively understand the First Tongue.

Rahu: The Tenacity of an Illuminated Full Moon should never be underestimated, now that their flesh means so little to them. Their Auspice benefit lasts for their Purity in turns, and, once activated, the werewolf may reflexively spend a point of Essence to extend the duration by the same amount of time once more.

[Acrozatarim]

Can't remember if I've posted this anywhere else on the forums yet - here's the Explosives Claimed write-up that I had as one of the options for my Horrible Henchmen vote earlier in the year!


Explosives-Claimed

A mad giggle, a broad grin, and wide, excited eyes—that’s the face of an explosives-Claimed, just ready to go off. These bizarre hybrids usually have only fleeting existences, since they crave oblivion through detonation—and they’re armed with the panoply of fleshly grotesquerie needed to pull it off. When finally primed for the grand finale, an explosives-Claimed wants nothing more than to get close and personal before showering the area in a spray of cartilage-shrapnel, bone flechettes, and gore.

Explosives-Claimed are, unsurprisingly, rare occurrences in the ‘wild’. A few arsonists or would-be terrorists suffer such a fate when their incendiary obsessions draw an explosive spirit’s attention to their Flesh vessels; these mayfly monsters usually carry out brief but ultimately nightmarish rampages with whatever crude home-made bombs they can get their hands on, targeting whatever enemies the mortal may have had with scant regard for whether any wrongs inflicted really deserve a grenade through the window. More commonly, though, they are ‘manufactured’ by powerful Claimed or even human occultists who want disposable horrors or surprises up their sleeve against their enemies—particularly Uratha. Sometimes a suitable human can be pushed into the sacrificial role by letting them indulge a simmering passion for fire or explosions, keeping them busy making crude weaponry until they’re resonant enough for an explosives-spirit vassal to be fettered to; other times, victims are forcibly prepared, imprisoning them and daubing them with chemicals used in bombs, torturing them with flame, even injecting or forcefeeding them with ballbearings or flammables.

An explosives-Claimed of this kind usually looks like a twisted, hunched human, the shoulders and upper back bulging with ghastly internal growths of hardened cartilage, metal casting, and threads of sinew-fuse sprouting from skin stretched taut. They sweat flammable ichor, and deposits of volatile substances thread through their meat. Most are giggling wretches, twitching with eagerness to bring a detonation to the world, but some are silent and calculating, and it is those who are the most dangerous.

Despite their monomaniacal obsession with their own end, explosives-Claimed won’t just detonate themselves at the slightest provocation and be done with it. Such Claimed gain real satisfaction only if their explosion served some sort of purpose—if it had a real meaning that will outlast their volatile fusion’s violent transformation. The spirit will survive, after all. As such, explosives-Claimed naturally latch onto a tyrant or master who can give them that sense of purpose, directing them to a particular time and place and enemy. Even so, in the rare event that one of these Claimed survives more than a month, they get increasingly twitchy and trigger-happy; even the most iron-handed master will eventually find their pet Claimed’s mind inventing a reason for itself to go up in smoke. There’s reason to avoid sending a Claimed right to their death, though; the things can be talented grenadiers, crafters of weaponry, and demolitions experts.

Not every Claimed of a spirit of an explosive ends up like one of these crazed bombers; some are far more fearsome, especially those born of explosives that have lain in quiescence for long ages. The spirits of unexploded bombs from World War 2 sometimes manage to seize the fleshly carriage of a hapless human—particularly a bomb disposal expert or a historian—and while they still have explosive urges, they lack the immediately suicidal cravings of these creatures. As such, it is this brand of short-lived explosives-Claimed that tends to end up as a brief henchman for more powerful being; the quietly seething war-spirit bound to a resting ICBM in a silo is far more likely to play the role of master than of the slave who blooms in bright fire and blood.

Explosives-Claimed

Int 2 Wits 5 Res 5 Str 3 Dex 4 Sta 4 Pre 3 Man 2 Com 1

Athletics (Throwing Explosives) 3, Brawl 3, Crafts (Explosives) 4, Intimidation (While On Fire) 3, Science (Chemistry) 3, Survival 2

Merits: Demolisher 3, Fast Reflexes 3, Fleet of Foot 3, Indomitable, Iron Will

Willpower 6

Essence 10

Health 9

Initiative 8

Defence 7

Speed 10

Influences: Explosives 1

Dread Powers: Detonate, Juggernaut, Pull The Pin, Swift

New Dread Power – Detonate: By spending 2 Essence, an explosives-Claimed can explode in a thunderous detonation of fire, shrapnel, gore, and force. Anyone immediately adjacent to the Claimed at the moment of explosion takes 5 aggravated damage; anyone within 1-10 yards takes 5 lethal damage; and anyone within 11-20 yards takes 5 bashing damage. Damage is doubled against structures and large objects. Characters of Size 5 or less must succeed at a roll of Strength + Athletics – Claimed’s Strength or be subjected to the Knocked Down and Stunned Tilts as well.

New Dread Power – Pull the Pin: The explosives-Claimed may spend 1 Essence and roll their Presence + Wits to immediately trigger the detonation of explosives they can directly perceive with a total Size equal successes rolled or less.

[SchismNavigator]

Re: Explosives-Claimed

I really liked reading about these guys on your patreon. They definitely have something of a Joker vibe to them.

[wyrdhamster]

As I have Wolf-Blodded player character - that is connected to real world terrorist groups - going through First Change I just found great enemy on First Change for him! Will probably made Explosive-Claimed as one of his previous colleges that 'get's in touch' - and bomb triggers - with PC.

[Acrozatarim]

Here's a stab at updating the Adarusharu, the Wolf Hosts, to a sorta 2e form with a sample. The idea with this is that it's building on the 1e write-up rather than a complete replacement for that.


The Adarusharu

Some Uratha look at the changing state of the world and wonder if there isn’t some sort of singularity of awfulness on the horizon. Everything seems to be speeding up. In the last few decades alone, numerous new—or perhaps very old—threats are emerging from the darkness; the idigam, the Mimics, the Adarusharu. It feels like the world’s on the brink, like a rising tide of hungry maws lie open at the boundaries, waiting to reap a bloody vengeance upon the People for whatever transgressions, real or imagined, give them their burning drive. Of course, the thing about new threats is that most Uratha haven’t heard of even half of them. Take the Adarusharu, for example. The bulk of Uratha give little credence to the absurdity of ‘Wolf Hosts’, assuming it’s another demented branch off of the conspiracy theories around how werewolves are all Shards of the Great Predator. Hive-minded bands of wolves that feed off fear seem more likely to be the work of a spirit, bizarre Claimed, or just fallible memory of something entirely less supernatural. Hell, even Uratha who have encountered the Adarusharu baulk at the latest stories, of how the Shards can infest human bodies now.

Oh, yes, by the way: Adarusharu can infest human bodies now.

It’s not the thronging mass of vermin that other shartha appear as. Rather, it has more in common with the very Uratha knack of stealing a human victim’s skin. A single wolf from the infested pack tears open the human’s belly and crawls in, meat rippling and cartilage crunching, gorging itself on innards until it fits, impossibly, within the hollowed-out flesh suit of the victim. Then the stolen body animates like a grisly puppet. It remains part of the wider hive-mind with its pack peers but, should it survive long enough to metamorphose into a hybrid, it’ll turn on its fellows in an orgy of carnage and devour their bodies.

A full Adarusharu hybrid is a horrible thing, a ghastly blend of wolf and human features. It’s not like the blended form of a werewolf’s shapes, but instead a mismatched garble of the two creatures, marred with ragged mouths breaking its skin in places where they should not be. It’s a bogeyman, a nightmare, rather than a proud or powerful beast; Wolf Host hybrids radiate terror. No-one is entirely sure what an advanced form, an elder hybrid, might look like—because this new evolution of the Host hasn’t existed for long enough. Some wonder if it’s not a step down—after all, a pack of Hungry Teeth can form a multi-headed, deadly monstrosity, which an infested hybrid cannot.

How did the Adarusharu gain this ability? It’s possible they had it all along, and have only recently been stirred into using it by some instinctual reaction to a stimulus. Perhaps it’s just taken the Shards this long to learn how to infest humans, or perhaps their hunger for fear has led them to usually kill victims rather than bothering to infest. Perhaps the sense of acceleration some Uratha have felt is accurate, and indeed the Adarusharu are gaining power from some growing source of darkness that waits just over the horizon. Perhaps the Wolf Hosts have been doing this all along, and the Uratha have just never noticed before.

Maisy McGuire, Infested Wolf Host

Virtue: Cautious

Vice: Gluttonous

Int 3 Wits 5 Res 3 Str 4 Dex 4 Sta 2 Pre 3 Man 3 Com 2

Athletics (Foot Chase) 3, Brawl (Biting, Grappling) 4, Empathy 2, Intimidation 3, Investigation 2, Occult 2, Stealth 5, Survival 4

Merits: Fast Reflexes 3, Fleet of Foot 3, Iron Stamina 3

Willpower 5 Initiative 9 Defence 7

Speed 16 Size 5

Health 7 Essence 5

Dread Powers: Discorporate*, Hunter’s Senses (Fear), Profane Gauntlet, Reality Stutter, Swarm Link

*If an infested or hybrid Wolf Host discorporates, a single wolf Shard bloodily tears its way out of their body in a moment of gore and gristle, rather than a mass swarm of creatures.

Dread Power – Profane Gauntlet (Adarusharu only): By spending a cumulative hour inflicting fear or terror on humans in an area, costing 1 Essence in the process, an Adarusharu can warp the Gauntlet with a profane claim to the boundary’s power. This affects an area of 10 square yards; however, a single act of terrorizing a human might prepare an area of up to 100 square yards for repeated application of this power. When within a profaned area, the Host may use its Reality Stutter Dread Power to translocate itself directly across the Gauntlet rather than its usual effect. Furthermore, Uratha who enter an area bordered by profaned Gauntlet immediately lose the Siskur-Dah Condition, if they have it; not only that, but any Adarusharu present in the area at that moment gain the Condition, including any Tribal or Lodge benefits associated with it, with the targeted prey of the Hunt being the Uratha in question. Finally, areas with profaned Gauntlet are denied to the Hunting Ground rite and cannot be sanctified as a werewolf pack’s territory.

Dread Power – Swarm Link: The entity is connected to a wider swarm or pack—the remainder of the wolf pack, in the case of an Adarusharu. The entity gains the 8-again trait on teamwork rolls with members of the swarm, and doubles the Defence penalty they inflict on targets for additional attackers from their swarm.