Nuigim, The Unseen (2E)

[Deionscribe]

The pavement buckled and cracked, a quintet of grooves cut into its surface, spreading out from the indentation. It did it again, two yards away. Amelia shook her head in disbelief, her eyes telling her what her nose couldn’t. Each crater was a footstep, and they were coming quicker towards her. She wanted to run, but the murderous scent tangled her limbs, her ability to think... And then wounds opened up across her flesh.

The Unseen is not distinctive for its invisibility; it is defined by it. It cannot make itself visible, and it’s uncertain whether it would even understand the concept of visibility at all. It is a blind aberration, completely cut off from light and vision. Yet its blindness does not keep it from hunting. In fact, it is a hunter with few equals capable of moving its bulk with great stealth.

From the pattern of its steps, the Unseen seems to be a quadruped, or a mostly bipedal creature that walks on its knuckles as well. It clearly has great claws on all its limbs that scar the earth and even asphalt where it strides; the terrible wounds it leaves on its prey also serve as grim evidence of its talons. It must also have powerful jaws or mandibles of some sort, though this is harder to determine; it does not bite its prey in combat. When it pauses to devour its prey, huge chunks simply vanish from the corpses with a terrible grinding noise and the occasional splatter of falling blood. It is presumably blind, for it is apparently unimpeded by mist, darkness or smoke.

The Unseen is not simply invisible — it can not be seen, even when circumstances might indicate otherwise. Blood or ink splattered across its form fades to translucence and then invisibility in less than a second. Mist or falling rain displaces, but only in the roughest outline. Whatever facet of its nature (or unnature) hides it from sight seems to work on an almost metaphysical level — the world refuses to regard the Nuigim, and will not make it visible.

Nuigim, The Unseen

Potency - ooooo

Attributes
Intelligence - ooo
Wits - oooo
Resolve - oooooo
----------
Strength - ooooooooo
Dexterity - oooo
Stamina - oooooooooo
----------
Presence - oo
Manipulation - o
Composure - oooooo

Skills
Academics
Computer
Crafts
Investigation
Medicine
Occult - o (Spirits)
Politics
Science
----------
Athletics - ooo
Brawl - oooo (Claws)
Drive
Firearms
Larceny
Stealth - oooooo (Moving Silently, Remaining Still)
Survival - ooooo
Weaponry
----------
Animal Ken
Empathy
Expression
Intimidation
Persuasion
Socialize
Streetwise
Subterfuge

Merits
Ambidextrous - ooo
Direction Sense - o
=> Advanced - oo
Eidetic Memory - oo
Fast Reflexes - ooo
Hardy - ooo
Iron Stamina - ooo

Dread Powers
Armored Hide (ooo)
Chameleon Horror*
Maddening Scent*
Natural Weapon
=> Bite (o)
=> Claws (oo)
Stalks Without Seeing*
Regeneration*

Health: 19
Willpower: 20
Defense: 4
Armor: 3
Speed: 20 (Species Factor 7)
Size: 9

Notes

• Chameleon Horror: In addition to the standard effects, the Unseen cannot be seen under infrared or ultraviolet light. It also will not show on film, though it can still be detected by techniques such as echolocation, and devices like motion detectors.

• Maddening Scent: The Nuigim constantly gives off a peculiar scent that interferes with other creatures’ abilities to focus properly. The scent affects everyone within roughly 10 yards of the Nuigim, and potentially farther downwind. Creatures that have roughly a human level of scent acuity are at a –2 penalty to all Dexterity, Social or Mental dice pools while within scent range of the Unseen. Werewolves, dogs, vampires with a supernaturally heightened sense of smell and other creatures with a similar level of scent acuity are more powerfully affected, and suffer a -4 penalty instead.

• Regeneration: The Unseen regains either one level of lethal damage or two levels of bashing damage each turn as a reflexive action. It will regenerate lethal damage first, regenerating bashing only when no more lethal damage is left on its health track. Aggravated damage is healed at the rate of one level per day.

• Stalks Without Seeing: The Unseen is blind, but is able to perceive its surroundings through supernatural means. It is immune to any supernatural powers that require eye contact, as well as any penalties for darkness or visual impairment. The Unseen can accurately discern objects or creatures from one another to a distance of about 60 yards.

[Deionscribe]

Another Horror from Predators converted to 2E. I'm still not sure, though, how I'll handle a Sundered World write-up for it. Especially since I like the two default options that were presented. As always, critique and suggestions are welcome.

For more information on the Unseen, see pp. 183 to 186 of the Predators supplement.

[Reighnhell]

The Unseen may be one of my favorite monsters published in CofD so far (for more fun, unleash it on supernaturals that aren't Werewolves!) I look forward to how this creature would work for Sundered World.

[nofather]

Yeah. Those guys from the back of Predators were always up there in my 'most want to run' encounters, unfortunately tied with, 'most likely to destroy everyone.'

The second edition update for werewolf, frankly for everyone, seems to give them some increased survivability though, so we'll see.

[Reighnhell]

Yeah. Those guys from the back of Predators were always up there in my 'most want to run' encounters, unfortunately tied with, 'most likely to destroy everyone.'

The second edition update for werewolf, frankly for everyone, seems to give them some increased survivability though, so we'll see.

Agreed. If they do another Werewolf -centric Night Horrors, I would like to see even more examples of the "Things that Should not Have Been". I think that there is a solid niche for things that aren't Spirit, Idigam or Pangean, but not wholly of the flesh either.

[Deionscribe]

The Sundered World: Unseen and Unknowable

In their journeys to the Border Marches, the Wise quickly learn that not all of its residents are wholly Flesh or Spirit in nature. The Pangaeans, as well as the Uratha and similar shapechangers, are the most notable of the realm's true natives. But other stranger things call the Marches home, and some hunt even the children of Wolf as their prey.

The creature known as the Nuigim is one such hunter.

No tale can really say how it came to be. And many possible truths have risen from different mouths. But the Nuigim has cemented its place as a terror to the People by its predations. Untouched by light of any kind, its forays into the World of Flesh leave villages in shambles while most of their occupants are slain and devoured. Few could stand against it, and not even the Wise could put up effective resistance for long. For the Nuigim is true to its name. It is invisible to mortal eyes, and any attempts to expose its form - mundane or otherwise - briefly work before failing altogether. Hence, most who have the misfortune of meeting the creature are forced to rely on their other senses to know where it is. Few live long enough to succeed.

Because it is difficult to track the creature, the People seldom encounter the Nuigim beyond falling victim to its hunts. And given how suicidal an attempt to pursue it into the wilds can be, the Wise choose to fortify their villages against its intrusions whenever a sighting is confirmed. Those of the Sky and Blood Paths are especially crucial in such a defense, as the magic they favor allows them to detect its approach and thus avoid being caught completely off-guard.

Werewolves face similar problems hunting the Nuigim. The overpowering scent it gives off not only has more pronounced effects on them, but it is also impossible to use as spoor for tracking it. This remains an issue even in the deepest parts of Pangaea, as the Nuigim's skills as a predator are greatly enhanced while the Uratha must still contend with its natural defenses. Certain Gift Facets can level the playing field somewhat, but the best chance of victory against the Nuigim for a werewolf lies in hunting it as part of a pack.

Ultimately, though, none manage to truly kill the Nuigim before the Sundering destroyed Pangaea. And as it finds itself trapped in the World of Flesh, and subsequently underground, it continues to hunt. How it will survive the following millennia is a mystery that may never be solved. But survive it will...

Until it surfaces once more in modern nights to prey upon the descendants of the People.

[Acrozatarim]

Yeah. Those guys from the back of Predators were always up there in my 'most want to run' encounters, unfortunately tied with, 'most likely to destroy everyone.'

In *practice* that wasn't always the case.

In one long-running 1e Forsaken campaign, we took a small break from the main game to do a side-arc with different characters - a group of extremely experienced Uratha in Cornwall. This had stuff that fed back into the main game with the pack there, but it was also a chance for us to crack open high-end Werewolf play, let the players try different characters to the ones they'd been running over a year, etc etc.

The final battle of that side-arc was the veteran pack versus two The Deeps and a quintosaur fomori Master mage (quintosaur fomori ripped shamelessly off of Slaine - basically, think a fish-monster/man hybrid and Atlantean sorcerer-priest - the Deeps were serving as elite bodyguards to it) on an island. Both The Deeps were significantly buffed from their baseline stats with weapons and extra abilities. The pack still triumphed, but at heavy cost - both Rahu died, while the other three pack members survived relatively unscathed.

If I hadn't buffed the Deeps heavily and included a Master Forces mage, two Deeps wouldn't have been enough to make them break a sweat.

[Deionscribe]

Agreed. If they do another Werewolf -centric Night Horrors, I would like to see even more examples of the "Things that Should not Have Been". I think that there is a solid niche for things that aren't Spirit, Idigam or Pangean, but not wholly of the flesh either.

Especially for a Sundered World game, where things were much stranger.

In *practice* that wasn't always the case.

In one long-running 1e Forsaken campaign, we took a small break from the main game to do a side-arc with different characters - a group of extremely experienced Uratha in Cornwall. This had stuff that fed back into the main game with the pack there, but it was also a chance for us to crack open high-end Werewolf play, let the players try different characters to the ones they'd been running over a year, etc etc.

The final battle of that side-arc was the veteran pack versus two The Deeps and a quintosaur fomori Master mage (quintosaur fomori ripped shamelessly off of Slaine - basically, think a fish-monster/man hybrid and Atlantean sorcerer-priest - the Deeps were serving as elite bodyguards to it) on an island. Both The Deeps were significantly buffed from their baseline stats with weapons and extra abilities. The pack still triumphed, but at heavy cost - both Rahu died, while the other three pack members survived relatively unscathed.

If I hadn't buffed the Deeps heavily and included a Master Forces mage, two Deeps wouldn't have been enough to make them break a sweat.

Now that is an epic storyline.

[nofather]

In *practice* that wasn't always the case.

Our games have never really gotten that high, though. Even when the characters get to middle-levels of power they're generally dealing with tier 1 issues, with tier 2 stuff being the massive story wide stuff.

I think to break myself out of it next time I'll start them at middling levels, maybe put them in a solidly tier 2 position to start.

Too much Batman and other street and personal level stuff for me, need to get inspired by some more grand scale stuff.