Page 156 - Chronicles of Darkness

at a child’s birthday party. Seven people had their faces chewed Mental Skills: Academics 2, Computers 2,
off by a supposed “birthday clown” over the course of three Medicine 2, Occult 2, Politics 2, Science 2
hours. The survivors (including Leticia Brown, now 70 years Physical Skills: Athletics 10, Stealth 5,
old and the birthday girl) later claimed to have no knowledge Weaponry 3
of anyone hiring a clown for the party. Similar stories about Social Skills: Empathy 2, Intimidation 3,
a “Ghastly Man” and a “spindle-legged brute” go back to Subterfuge 10
Renaissance Venice, and Roman journals held in private col- Merits: Cheap Shot ••, Choke Hold, Fast-Talking
lections describe a thing that haunted the Forum Romanum •••, Fighting Finesse (Knives), Striking Looks ••
and tore the faces from drunken revelers at Saturnalia.
Records are rather less clear about why the creature eats Potency: 8
faces and wears them as its own. It never seems to keep a Willpower: 17
particular face for more than an hour or two, and never seems Virtue: Playful
to do anything with its stolen identities except to choose, ap-
proach, and torment its next victim. Perhaps it can’t retain an Vice: Capricious
identity for very long and it’s searching for the one perfect face Aspirations: To chew off peoples’ faces, to ter-
that will fit it. Or maybe it’s just a creature of chaos, reveling rify them by revealing itself at the worst possible
in the bloodshed and fear it leaves in its wake. moment.
Description: Once it’s stolen someone’s face, Nibbles the Initiative: 11
Clown is able to mimic that person precisely for a short time — Defense: 16
usually a scene or two. At that point (or earlier if someone has seen Speed: 30
through the ruse), Nibbles unfolds its body, peels off the stolen
face, and reveals its true form. Nibbles stands nearly nine feet tall, Health: 10
though most of that is in its long, spindly, stiltlike legs. It appears Weapons/Attacks:
variously garbed as a classical opera clown in the style of Pagliacci, a
modern “tramp” clown, or in an exaggerated, clownish caricature Type Damage Range Dice Pool
of whatever its last victim was wearing. Its movement is broad and Gnawing 2L Melee 4
stumbling, almost drunken, but for all that it’s fast and nimble. Teeth
Nibbles’ real face is a ghastly example of the uncanny Skinning 1L Melee 11
valley effect: almost perfectly human, but just subtly off. Knife
Its skin is a little too pale, its lips a little too wide and red, Dread Powers: Chameleon Horror, Jump Scare,
its nose just too bulbous to be natural. Its voice is a shrill, Natural Weapons ••, Reality Stutter, Surprise
high-pitched shriek, like an industrial-scale buzzsaw, and it’s Entrance
fond of rhyming its statements to nicknames. (“See you soon,
Storytelling Hints: If there’s one thing scarier than a Pretty, Pretty Princess
June,” “You’re dead, Fred,” etc.)
psychotic monster clown, it’s a psychotic monster clown that <Childlike giggling and the sound of a music box.>
can be anyone at any time. Nibbles is a Horror best deployed Background: The problem with cautionary tales
in stories where paranoia, secrecy, and mistrust reign. While about monsters is that, eventually, people get the message.
you can run a game featuring Nibbles the Clown as a perfectly Thousands of years ago, sailors were enticed by beautiful fig-
standard Chronicles of Darkness story, consider going outside ures sunning themselves and singing on rocky islands. When
the game system for ways to build tension. Maybe between they sailed in closer, hoping for an amorous liaison, their
scenes of normal gameplay, have the troupe play a round of ships would be dashed upon the rocks and the sirens would
Werewolf (that’s the party game also sometimes called Mafia, feast. But the story got around, sailors started blocking their
not Werewolf: The Forsaken) in which one character is ears with beeswax, and the sirens were out of a food source.
secretly killed and replaced by Nibbles “off screen.” (Perhaps These days, not only is everyone suspicious of a perfectly
sometimes Nibbles doesn’t replace anyone at all, but lurks beautiful stranger sunning on a rocky islet, modern shipping
off screen to attack when the dramatic tension hits its peak.) lanes don’t hug the coast like the old triremes did, and GPS
During the scene, characters can then try to figure out who, navigation systems and sonar mapping make it much harder
if anyone, has been replaced, and how to deal with that. to lure ships onto the rocks. Many of the sirens of old died
out or faded into legend. Some, like the being known as
Mental Attributes: Intelligence 6, Wits 6, Pretty, Pretty Princess, adapted. The cynical modern world
Resolve 6 may be leery of the traditional image of a siren, but just about
Physical Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 8, anyone will respond to a child in danger.
Stamina 4 Description: The Pretty, Pretty Princess resembles a cheru-
Social Attributes: Presence 5, Manipulation 10, bic little girl, about six or seven years old, with a mop of curly
Composure 3 black hair and vaguely Mediterranean features — she might

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Horrors