Thursday, August 29, 2013

Fianyarr: Magical Beasts

The Gnawer is the type of magical beast you don't befriend.
(The Witcher)
What is the point of running a fantasy game like Fianyarr without something interesting and bestial to throw against the players?  Magical beasts have their own Power Stat (Potency) but they spend essence rather than glamour and can regain a point of essence for each devoured creature.  If they consume a creature with a Wyrd score they can also consume the creature's glamour and convert it into essence.  If they have an Intelligence score above Negligible they are also capable of sentient thought.

Gnawer

The gnawer is a dangerous and violent beast with the body of an insect, sharp and pointed limbs, a horned chitinous maw and a scorpion tail lined with poisonous spines laced with a powerful paralytic.  It eats every part of its prey from clothing to bone to the sword they wore on their belt.  They live in nests of around five individuals and take care minding for the piles of eggs which they carry using tiny pincers on their underbelly. They are both male and female.

Intelligence 1, Wits 3, Resolve 3, Strength 6, Dexterity 5, Stamina 4, Presence 4, Manipulation 1, Composure 2.  Size 6.  Health 12.  Potency 3.  Essence 12.  Willpower 5.  Initiative: 7.  Defence: 5.  Speed: 20.  Athletics 3, Brawl 3, Stealth 2, Survival 2..

Claw +1L: 10 dice.

Tail +1L: 10 dice.

Paralytic Poison Tail: Toxicity equal to the Gnawer's Potency.  The victim must also make an additional Stamina roll versus the Gnawer's Potency or take a -1 penalty to all physical attributes.  They must make this roll each time they are injured and once the penalty is equal to any of the victim's attributes they immediately fall unconscious.

Alkonost

The Alkonost has a birdlike body and the head of an attractive woman whose song is so impressive that it can cause a person to become an amnesiac who wants for nothing but to hear the being sing.  She spends part of her life in the Underworld and only ventures out through cliff-face caves to lay her eggs on a beach and roll them to sea.  When those eggs hatch the area will be rent by a terrible thunderstorm and such an event rarely occurs more than once every fifty years.  While it spends much of its time in the Underworld it is actually a living being.

Intelligence Negligible, Wits 3, Resolve 3, Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2, Presence 4, Manipulation 1, Composure 2.  Size 2.  Health 4.  Potency 3.  Essence 12.  Willpower 4.  Initiative: 5.  Defence: 2.  Speed: 20.  Athletics 2, Expression 3, Stealth 2, Survival 3.

Amnesiac Song: The Alkonost can choose to use a particularly beautiful song to remove the memories of a particularly irritating listener - often if the listener has noticed where the eggs lay - and thus must make an opposed Presence + Expression roll versus the listener's Resolve + Wyrd.  All listeners within 60 yards must make this roll.  This song can be cured by true love's kiss, the tear of a siren or by convincing the Alkonost to sing this song backwards by revealing to it an incredibly beautiful artwork made in the land of the dead. 

Crocotta

This hyena-lion hybrid switches between a female and a male form and can simulate human speech, often learning a person's name, and then trying to lure them out of their homes so that they can tear them to pieces.  The animal also digs up corpses though it rarely does more than nibble at them.  If spotted, it can be identified by eyes that are simultaneously a thousand variations of color, and a Crocotta hiding as a normal dog can also be detected by passing another dog through its shadow.  If that real dog loses its voice then the identified creature is a Crocotta.  Crocottas rarely move in packs and prefer to roam either singly or in mated pairs.

Intelligence Negligible, Wits 4, Resolve 2, Strength 4, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3, Presence 3, Manipulation 3, Composure 3.  Size 6.  Health 12.  Potency 1.  Essence 10.  Willpower 5.  Initiative: 7.  Defence: 5.  Speed: 20.  Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Stealth 3 (shadows), Survival 2.

Bite +1L: 8 dice.

Ventriloquism: With the expenditure of a point of essence, the Crocotta can call out a name it has heard before and make it sound like any voice it has heard and make the source appear to come from anywhere within 30 yards of its present location.

Steal Voice: The Crocotta reflexively spends a point of essence to steal the voice of any dog which passes through its shadow.  It need only do this once.  From this point onward it can sound like that dog with no roll made.  The dog can never bark again.  This does not work on dogs that are magical beasts themselves or otherwise animal companions due to their connection to the Wyrd - either through themselves or through their masters.

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