Tiberius: the Titusening

The Talassii are expert at restraining their victims. Some favor shrinking gossamer webs that tighten as the prey struggles, others use sticky black tar that drown beneath its weight. Whatever the preference, Talassii delight in the capture, and savor the prey’s fear of what comes next. The Atavism draws the Beast’s preferred material from her Lair, giving the appearance of creating it from thin air.

Applying the snares requires a thrown weapon or touch attack (Beast: The Primordial, pp. 164-165), but activating the Atavism itself is reflexive.

Action: Reflexive

Normal Effect: On a successful strike, the victim temporarily loses (Lair dots/2, rounded up) dots of Dexterity, affecting all Dexterity-based rolls and derived traits. If the victim’s Dexterity reaches 0, she suffers the Immobilized Tilt. The effect is cumula- tive, and the Beast can attack the same target over multiple turns. Snares disappear at the end of the scene.

Low Satiety: Struggling weakens the ensnared victim. After being successfully ensnared by the normal effect, subsequent Physical actions automatically inflict bashing damage equal to the current Dexterity penalty. This effect ignores armor and the victim can knock himself unconscious though these struggles (though bashing damage accumulated from this Atavism does not convert to lethal if the victim’s last Health box is marked).

Satiety Expenditure: Snares erupt from the Beast, blanket- ing a radius around him equal to (2 x Lair dots) yards. The snares automatically entangle everyone within this area. Opponents may try to dodge (Beast: The Primordial, p. 164) to avoid being trapped. The Beast makes a single thrown weapon attack that all dodging opponents try to defeat. The snares strike with such force that they inflict bashing damage equal to the attack’s successes, as well as inflicting the usual Dexterity penalty.

Like Jörmungandr’s stranglehold on the world, or Antaeus’ fatal wrestling holds, the Talassii’s grip isn’t easily broken. When a Captor decides to hold something tight, it is often easier to sever the limb than break the grasp.

Dice Pool: Strength + Lair dots – Durability (Satiety ex- penditure only)

Action: Persistent or Instant (Satiety expenditure)

Normal Effect: The Beast locks her grip such that almost no force can make her relax it. She could hang from one hand for days without discomfort — even with others pulling at her. The Beast automatically keeps her hold under ordinary circumstances, and adds Lair dots to any rolls or resistance against opposition. The Beast also adds her Lair dots to initiate a grapple; once grap- pling, non-supernatural characters can’t attempt the Break Free move, while opponents with supernaturally enhanced strength must succeed at a Clash of Wills before attempting to Break Free.

Low Satiety: The Beast’s body resists all efforts to crush or tear her apart. She can clamp each hand on different trains and stop them from moving apart (at least until something on the train breaks free), or grab onto a passing car without tearing off her arm. This usually doesn’t require a roll as the Beast simply ignores forces that would crush or dismember her body. This Atavism provides no protection in from deliberate attacks.

Satiety Expenditure: The Beast can crush almost anything she can place her hands on. For objects too large to fit within her grasp she merely touches it with her outstretched hands and brings them together — her Horror takes hold and does the rest. The player spends a point of Satiety and rolls Strength + Lair – Durability or Size (whichever is higher). She can continue rolling each turn without further Satiety expenditure if the Beast maintains contact with the object. This power doesn’t work directly on living creatures, but can crush those too slow to escape a structure.

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The object is too well reinforced for the Beast. Her Horror is confounded and retreats, preventing her for using this Atavism for the remainder of the scene.

Failure: The object resists the Beast’s attempts, suffering no damage this turn. She may turn this to a dramatic failure and gain a Beat.

Success: The object collapses under the Beast’s force. Successes are subtracted from the object’s Structure.

Exceptional Success: In addition to subtracting successes from the object’s Structure, its structural integrity is damaged. Subtract one from its Durability.

Some monsters lurk in the darkness; others hunt in plain sight. Raptors find both approaches unsatisfying. They are the fear of never being safe, of always being vulnerable to the unknown blow, or the unexpected attack. The Ugallu strike without warning, devastating their victims in an instant before disappearing.

Action: Reflexive

Normal Effect: The Beast strikes like lightning, moving up to (Lair dots x 10) yards to attack. If the victim was unaware of the Beast’s presence before the strike, he must check to see if he is surprised (Beast: The Primordial, p. 164). The Beast’s player adds Lair dots to the Dexterity + Stealth roll.

Low Satiety: An exposed Beast is vulnerable. After conduct- ing an attack that dealt damage, the Beast may instantly move up to (Lair dots x 10) yards from her victim. If this removes the Beast from the victim’s view, the victim must check to see if he is surprised by the Beast’s next attack. A victim with a power allowing a reflexive counterattack generates a Clash of Wills to see if he strikes before the Raptor escapes.

Satiety Expenditure: By spending Satiety, the Beast is a bloody flash across the battlefield. If her attack inflicts damage, she can move to another victim within (Lair dots x 10) yards and attack again. The Beast must move to a different victim each time, and can only attack each victim once per turn.

Giants are not the only ones renowned for their size. Dragons, rocs, and kraken are all orders of magnitude larger and stronger than any human being, the cube-square law be damned. Beasts with this Atavism need not be especially tall, though most are significantly above average, but they are always intimidating, inspiring dread disproportionate to their height.

People take notice of them and immediately stand aside. Dice Pool: N/A

Action: Reflexive

Normal Effect: The Beast’s actual height and weight are unchanged, but his effective Size is raised by (his Lair dots). Greater Size produces a commensurate increase in Health.

People instinctively react to the Beast’s effective Size instead of actual Size. A Beast with 2 dots of Lair registers as being Size 7, the same as a grizzly bear, so people immediately notice and cower he walks into a room. Demonstrating his real height only compounds the strangeness of the experience. Disquiet settles over those in the Beast’s shadow, granting him the rote quality on Intimidation rolls. Furthermore, the successful application of Hard Leverage opens one more Door than usual when using the Social maneuvering system, as people rightly fear his wrath.

Low Satiety: A hungry giant is a monster terrible to behold. He inspires fear in those around him, to the point that they quake at the thought of attacking him. Any opponent whose Size is less than the Beast’ effective Size (as indicated by the normal effect of this Atavism) suffers a penalty to all attacks against the character equal to half the Beast’s Lair, rounded up. This is in addition to the Beast’s Defense and any armor he might have.

Also, after any successful attack, the Beast’s player can choose to make a reflexive Presence + Intimidation roll (with the rote quality), contested by the target’s Resolve + Composure. If the Beast wins, the target gets the Beaten Down Tilt (p. 327).

Satiety Expenditure: Onlookers suffer vertigo as the Beast’s presence is dramatically amplified. When he stretches and stands up straight, he seems to tower over everyone even though his actual height remains unchanged. The Size bonus from the normal effect is doubled, meaning the player adds (Lair x 2) to the Beast’s effective Size.

Additionally, his greater height accommodates a longer stride, making the species factor for the Beast 15 rather than 5 (meaning Speed = Strength + Dexterity +15). Many dead Heroes made the mistake of assuming Giants are as slow as in stories, and thus assumed they could outrun an angry giant.

Giants have an unfair reputation for being ponderous and stupid. It was the Greek Cyclopes whose weapons helped the gods seize power, the titan Prometheus who gave the secret of fire to mankind, and the giant Mimir to whom the Norse god Odin sacrificed his eye for knowledge. Anakim were the first pantheon of the primeval cosmos, both brutal and cunning, and they preserve secrets from the beginning of time.

Dice Pool: N/A

Action: Reflexive

Normal Effect: The Beast’s Horror sits at the Heart of his Lair like a spider in its web. It has an unblinking eye and faultless memory, and it pieces together patterns from his experience and knowledge ripped from those who suffer its nightmares. Occasionally, the Horror shares flashes of insight — so long as the Beast keeps it well fed. Its guidance yields several benefits:

• The Beast has the Eidetic Memory Merit for free.

• Any mundane attempt to deceive the Beast automatically fails. The truth is not necessarily revealed, but he knows when someone is lying to him or withholding information or when a crime scene has been tampered with to conceal evidence. Likewise, he knows when supernatural powers have been used to affect his thoughts or percep- tions (though he can’t necessarily counter them).

• Once per chapter, the Beast’s player can request informa- tion from the Storyteller that sheds light on the problem at hand. This information is impersonal in that it never identifies a specific person. However, it can answer ques- tions like, “Where is the murder weapon hidden?” or “What leverage works best on this person?”

Low Satiety: Hunger in no way dims the Beast’s awareness. It sharpens his mind to a deadly focus. He gains the rote quality on Mental Skill rolls aimed at sating his Hunger, such as Academics to research a valuable item (for a Collector) or Computer to ruin a rival by hacking his bank account (for a Tyrant). The penalty for using Mental Skills untrained is also reduced to -1, as the Beast falls back on the Horror’s knowledge when his is inadequate.

In addition, the Beast knows one damning fact about anyone with whom he comes into physical contact. The Storyteller can provide the player with this information or simply give the target the Leveraged Condition, depending on the needs of the story. The fact in question tends to be one that the Beast can use to feed. A Ravager might learn what the target values most (so the Beast can then smash it), while a Nemesis learns whether the target has transgressed recently.

The Beast still benefits from the normal effect while at low Satiety. However, the starving Horror is not forthright with its knowledge, and the Storyteller can opt to provide misleading (but factually correct) information if the player requests it.

Satiety Expenditure: The Beast digs deep into the Horror’s store of knowledge. Some consider it a drink from Mimir’s well. Others describe visions of lives other than their own. Either way, the Beast claims a treasure trove of information. He gains his Intelligence + Lair dots in temporary Mental Skill or Library (p. 117) dots for the next 24 hours.

These dots are allocated as the player sees fit, including raising existing Skills. However, no Skill can be increased above the limit dictated by the Beast’s Lair rating. This is in addition to the normal and low Satiety effects.

Not all Eshmaki strike from the shadows. Some are simply unstoppable, refusing to die or even bleed until they have utterly destroyed their prey. A Hero might think he has the ability to harm such a creature, using special weapons or poisons. Many such Heroes die wondering what went wrong.

Dice Pool: N/A

Action: Reflexive

Normal Effect: The Beast has incredible stamina and pushes on through injuries without complaint, knowing it is only a matter of time before he is at full strength again. Flesh knits together, burns pinken and smooth, and bruises shrink to nothing in seconds. Lost Health returns at the following rate:

• One point of bashing damage per turn.

• One point of lethal damage every half hour.

• One point of aggravated damage every three days.

The Beast also adds his Lair dots on Stamina + Resolve rolls made to resist poisons and toxins, and he can remain wide awake and active for a number of days equal to (10 – his Satiety dots) before succumbing to fatigue.

Low Satiety: The Beast downgrades damage equal to twice his Lair dots at the end of any scene in which he is hurt. Aggravated becomes lethal, lethal becomes bashing, and bashing damage is fully healed. Furthermore, he relentlessly pursues his Hunger. He need not eat, drink, or rest as long as he is actively pursuing a Satiety increase, such as a Nemesis working through the night to set up an elaborate trap to punish the guilty.

Satiety Expenditure: As a last resort, the Beast draws his Horror into his broken flesh, filling in the gaps and borrowing the strength to fight. All bashing and lethal damage, or aggravated damage equal to the character’s Lair, is immediately healed. Furthermore, the Beast cannot be stunned or incapacitated for the remainder of the scene, and suffers no penalties for injury. If the character’s rightmost box is marked with bashing or lethal damage, the Beast keeps fighting normally, though he still dies from aggravated damage in his rightmost Health box.

Many monsters are surpassingly difficult to kill. They have thick, scaly hides, chitinous carapaces, or stone-like skin in addition to their great size, speed, and strength. Special weapons or circumstances are often required to harm to them at all. A Beast with this Atavism stands apart from normal humans, especially under close investigation. He has walked away from car crashes without a scratch and has never broken a bone in his life.

Armor from this Atavism is cumulative with mundane sources of armor and the Iron Skin Merit.

Dice Pool: N/A

Action: Persistent or reflexive (Satiety expenditure)

Normal Effect: The Beast has a 3/2 general armor rating at all times. The effect is not obvious; he looks normal, but knives skitter off of his skin and punches never faze him the way they would an ordinary man. As part of him, this armor provides full body protection.

Furthermore, the Beast’s bones cannot be broken, rendering him immune to the Arm and Leg Wrack Tilts. His ability to lift and hold onto things is not affected, but his limbs can withstand incredible punishment without being dislocated or severed. He could effectively bar a door with his own arm, for example.

Low Satiety: It is a subtle change, but the Beast’s skin seems more leathery or weathered than usual, often with scaly patches, discolorations, or the white ghosts of old scars in ugly crisscrossing patterns. His armor rating increases to 4/3. Furthermore, he does not suffer bashing damage if his armor reduces a lethal attack to zero damage (see Armor, p. 169). The Beast simply shakes it off and keeps moving.

Satiety Expenditure: The Beast’s skin dramatically toughens as he draws the Horror into his flesh, steeling himself against petty human weaponry. Attacks from firearms and melee weapons inflict bashing damage to him for the rest of the scene. Unarmed attacks and other sources of bashing damage are negated entirely. His armor (still 4/3) applies to aggravated damage attacks.