Page 158 - Hunter the Vigil - Mortal Remains

NEW DREAD POWERS

animal totems for advice and guidance. This Dread Power gives an Twist Desires ( to )
otherwise human-appearing monster the ability to take on a feature To some, greed is a virtue and lust is an everyday part of
of a totemic animal spirit. Often, mummies use a Totemic Form to life. To monsters, however, finding out what makes a mortal
take on the head of a patron animal like a lion, jackal, or crocodile. tick allows them to assert control over his psyche. With this
Some malevolent fairies will take on animal traits as a way to trick Dread Power, the monster shifts a victim’s weaknesses and char-
humans into believing they were cursed. Totemic Form affords a cer- acter flaws to one of his own choosing. Some demons will alter
tain supernatural majesty and is near impossible to hurt. a victim’s Vice to suit her particular desires. Others will use this
Cost: 1 Willpower Power to effect a mortal on a base level. Many mummies will
Action: Instant use this gift to build like-minded cults of personality. Regard-
Dice Pool: None; this Dread Power is not rolled less the reason, knowing a victim’s Vice and shaping it to a
Effect: When purchasing this Dread Power, choose the de- monster’s desires is an invaluable tool.
sired animal trait. Each instance of the power allows for only one Cost: 1 or 5 Willpower (see below)
such modification; further purchases allow for other changes. Action: Instant and Resisted
The modification must be tied to an Attribute. While changed, Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion + Twist Desires –
any rolls with the chosen Attribute gain 8-again. The changed Victim’s Resolve
body part has an armor rating equal to the dots in this Dread Effect: Twist Desires allows the monster to choose a new
Power, as it stands as an icon of the monster’s spiritual identity. Vice for the victim. If she invests a single point of Willpower,
Onlookers, who have Composure scores less than the dot rating, the effect lasts one night per dot of the Dread Power for a maxi-
must spend a point of Willpower in order to attack the monster. mum of five. If the monster invests five points of Willpower, it
Transmutation ( to ) lasts one week per dot of Twist Desires. Thus, if she has three
dots and spends five Willpower, the effect lasts for three weeks.
For centuries, mortals have attempted to change lead into
gold. This Dread Power allows the monster to do just that, by When the effect does take hold, the victim’s player may
changing one physical substance into another. The monster’s take a Beat to make the change permanent.
creativity and the object’s size and availability are the only limits Roll Results
as to how the inorganic matter may be altered. From water into Dramatic Failure: The monster fails to change the target’s
wine, or copper coins into silver, the monster is able to shift Vice. As a result, the would-be victim now has a new Virtue:
the chemical and structural properties of the substance into destroying the monster. This effect lasts as long as the monster
something completely different. lives.
Cost: 1Willpower Failure: The monster fails to change the Vice.
Action: Instant Success: The monster succeeds in changing the victim’s
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Occult + Transmutation Vice. For one Willpower, the change lasts one night per dot of
Effect: This Dread Power transforms one inorganic sub- Twist Desires. For five Willpower, it lasts a week per dot.
stance into another. The monster can affect and create substanc- Exceptional Success: As above. However, the victim can
es with a Size and Availability (see The God-Machine Chronicle, make the one Willpower effect permanent for a Beat. With the
p. 232) no greater than her Transmutation dots. Though it only five Willpower effect, the victim can also choose to allow the
affects inorganic substances, err on the side of allowance. Objects monster to change her Virtue for a second Beat.
that are long since dead, like a bone shard or piece of driftwood, Uncanny Reflexes ( to )
should count as inorganic for the purposes of this power. Well-timed bullets miss their mark. Attackers punch thin
As a rule of thumb, most commonly-found substances air where a monster once stood. With this Dread Power, a mon-
like water, rocks, or soil should be one dot Availability. Two ster’s reflexes are honed to a frightening degree. Her aim is per-
dots reflect most industrially-processed substances, high end fect, her balance impeccable. Uncanny Reflexes may be caused
manufactured alloys are three dot, and gold and other precious by pure physical acumen, a supernatural degree of spatial aware-
metals are often four dots. Diamond, alongside other high-or- ness, or even a decelerated perception of time. Whatever the
controlled cost substances, are five dots when attempting to reason, a monster who’s fast on her feet and can dodge incom-
transmute anything but the tiniest quantities. ing attacks is a formidable foe.
Roll Results Cost: 3 Willpower
Dramatic Failure: The object not only remains the same, Action: Reflexive
but the monster’s body partly transforms into the desired sub- Dice Pool: None; this Dread Power is not rolled
stance. This causes 3 lethal damage to the monster. Effect: Once activated, the monster can count a number
Failure: The substance does not change. of Dexterity-based actions equal to her Uncanny Reflexes dots
Success: The object changes composition from one inor- as rote actions (reroll all failed dice). An additional point of
ganic material to another. Willpower allows one of these uses to be decided after rolling
Exceptional Success: The object changes to a perfect el- the dice.
emental example of the target substance. Add +2 to its Durabil-
ity and Structure (if relevant), and +1 to its Availability value.

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