Godbound: Refluffed Gifts

The Godbound manual state that "you can spend 2 points to learn a lesser gift from another Word if you can explain how your own powers are creating that effect." So there's quite a bit of potential for refluffed Gifts in there. Personally I think Fate, Luck and Time are the most powerful Words in term of their ability to incorporate the Gifts of others into themselves but that is neither here nor there.

Mist On Water (Alacrity)

This is the power to move fast and unimpeded by matter. While associated with Alacrity, there are many other words which could allow this kind of power as the key elements of the gift are rapid re-positioning and ignoring physical matter.

• Fast As Wind (Sky)/Earth Glide (Earth): The Word of the Sky embodies the air and open space, so holding it down isn't easy. The Godbound of Sky dematerialize into either a burst of air and crackling lightning and reappears where he needs to, ignoring matter wherever he goes. While the Earth is considered a slow element it is certain one which is omnipresent and difficult to impede. By warping earthly matter around himself, the Godbound can rapidly travel, phasing through matter.
• The Traveler's Path (Journeying): A Godbound of the Word of Travel generally has power over long distance movement but, with sufficient mastery of their power they can extend and fine tune their gifts. The Godbound of Journeying cannot be impeded by matter.
• Form of Mist (Shapeshifting): The Godbound's mastery over their own form allows them to flow in and out of matter akin to a fine, particulate mist.

The Storm Break (Alacrity)

This is an Alacrity Gift which allows the Godbound to Commit Effort to gain a bonus round before the initiative order. Its a very powerful Gift but it is also one whose mechanics are so simple that it can easily be refluffed:

• The Warrior's Edge (Sword, War or Peak Human): The Godbound is so innately gifted and blessed in the ways of the warrior that he can never be truly taken off guard. Such is his skill that he can act in the blink of an eye, reacting to any and all combat scenarios.
• Split Second (Fate, Time): Either through their connection to the Word of Time or Fate, the Godbound is able to perceive events a few mere seconds into the future and immediately react before they come to pass.
• Perceived Patterns (Knowledge): The Godbound's knowledge is so vast that it come with a massive understanding of any and all possible scenarios, at least on some fundamental and instinctual level, allowing him to react within split seconds.

Deceiver's Unblinking Eye (Deception)

The power to spot lies isn't solely restricted to that of the Word of Deception. There are many ways to grasp that something is a lie without oneself being a complete and utter liar.

• Scent of Lies (Beasts): Even animals are known to use deception to achieve their end and the Godbound of Beasts can spot lies and deceptions, apex of beasts that he is.
• Light of Truth (Sun): The Word of Sun has power over truth, vision and purity and this is embodied by this gift which makes it nearly impossible to lie to someone bound to its power. Even the most minute of lies can be perceived.
• Know The Liar (Knowledge): The gifts of the Word of Knowledge come with such an understanding of words and others that lies can be easily spotted for what they truly are.

Cha'alt: A Very Early Impression (Not Actually A Review)

This is not a review because I'm too lazy, incompetent and irrelevant to do proper reviews. These are just rambling initial thoughts on Cha'alt. There's a lot of reasons I might end up regretting buying this, namely that I've never been good at running dungeons (let alone a megadungeon). The other one is that I've got some seriously mixed feelings on Venger Satanis, as he's one of those awful OSR-related people who at times is much more interested in his own ego and brand name than anything constructive and he's also a raging edgelord much like the other egomaniacs of the OSR scene, namely Pundit and Raggi.

Do I think Venger and his ilk ever deserve to be on the receiving end of cancel culture? Absolutely not. However that doesn't mean I can't think these people, at times, seem to be wasting genuine talent on childish drama, temper tantrum and a dick-measuring contest of 'edgier than thou', with Raggi getting on the receiving end pretty bad of social media-driven nonsense and rage. Ultimately there is nothing wrong with edge if done right but its hard to not think of them as shock jock that are trying too hard to be as politically incorrect for the sake of some punk-esque desire to give our current culture the middle finger. That's fine and dandy but the question deep down is: is there anything good in all this or is it going to be just edgy bullshit? Time for me to find out. Fitting with these people being a bunch of edgelords, I too will channel my own inner edgelord a tad more for this post.

Inital-est of all Initial Impression

Okay so, Cha'alt. "The Black Pyramid is like nothing you've ever seen before.  Unique design, purpose, feel, magic items, NPCs, monsters, factions, motives, agendas, strangeness, the works!" says the description (and presumably Venger). Not gonna lie, I do have some decently high bars set when it come to weird settings that are both interesting yet also usable, with Yoon-Suin the Purple Land being my all-time favorite. Will this other purple weirdness live up to the hype?

The cover, but everyone already knew that.

Honestly I can't say I dislike this cover, it looks like some cringy-yet-kind-of-funny drug-fueled indie band, which may or may not what Venger was going for. If his (or whatever the fuck his alien pronouns are, 'cuz yeah apparently he now identify as a tentacle alien!) intent was for it to look like the cover to the debut album of some weird '80 band then it totally work because that's the vibe I am getting. Internal layout and coloring is nice, simple and eye pleasing no problem there. Its in color, its good looking and looks quite polished so nothing to complain. At least it isn't MYFAROG (you know, the RPG made by that crazy fucker) whose interior use the Papyrus font. Maybe its unfair of me to put Venger in the same category as an actual murderer, however.

Overall its a decently good-looking book and maybe of even better production value than some of my favorite OSR books. That's praise I am not ashamed in giving where it is due, this isn't a bad looking book. Next question then is will it be filled with nothing but a thirteen years old definition of cool and edgy or will there be really good stuff that is genuinely inspiring? Because its hard for me to take a work where a major location is called the 'Gamma Incel Cantina' which I'm sure will age as fine as a joke as any single joke about Margaret Thatcher made back then or any jab at Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau once they leave politics. In general, socio political jokes age very poorly to the point many of them become meaningless once people get older. Will people know what an 'incel' is in 2040, for example?

More Disconnected Impressions

The initial setting description isn't particularly impressive, to be honest. Cha'alt tries to sell itself on uniqueness but we see basically yet-another-rethread of warmed over H.P. Lovecraft. Cosmic Horror, especially of the Lovecraftian bent, is becoming increasingly trite and the opposite of scary. Cha'alt was once a generic fantasy world but then generic evil tentacle cosmic alien gods came, then there was a high tech age and then finally Old Ones stirred again causing an apocalypse. Meh. Overall it isn't particularly unique so far but I can somewhat start to see where people have mixed it with Godbound, so maybe there's some good stuff in there for me to salvage.

Cha'alt already has a bit of a naming problem too, such as abusing the cliché of making stuff sound alien by adding an apostrophe: Cha'alt, Mela'anj, Kra'adumek and S'kbah are words used. One could be a lot more charitable and say this is a deliberate attempt to evoke the cheese of older Pulp works, in which case its fine enough in my book. Maybe I'm feeling a bit annoyed by it because it is a cliché I too indulged a tiny bit too much in the past with my own failed attempts at making weird fantasy and planetary romance. It wasn't very good or original which I why the project got axed and buried in concrete at the bottom of the ocean.

Drilling home the point of how trite this is compared to something like Yoon-Suin, the race section appoint with not one but six breed of elves. Yeah, fucking elves. That's so original and unique, Venger I've never seen that before. Adding insult to injury there aren't really any other new race added by default: while I'd be all in favor to leave this space blank for GM to invent their own thing, at least one truly unique race could have been neat. This section is a disappointment. I'd say make some table of the traits in Machination of the Space Princess and generate some weird alien freakazoid races, at the very least, to salvage this.

Overall, So Far?

This is honestly pretty disappointing and only further cement my belief that major OSR personalities are often more hype than actual content, with only RPGPundit out of that bunch so far having truly produced anything I find to be quite good. So congrats, Venger, my own curiosity to check this out got me suckered. I'll keep reading and see what else in there but this does not hold a candle to the works produced by Sine Nomine or to Yoon-Suin.

So far Cha'alt is kind of a dud. I know this will not earn me any fans but its true.

Random World: What I'm Keeping/Salvaging

Last year I worked on something called the 'Random World': it never got a name or anything, it was an attempt at fleshing out a setting simply off the names and randomly generated geography. With nothing but a landscape and some rough and/or previously abandoned setting material I ended up crafting a setting which was both generic enough to be usable with any version or derivative of D&D (but especially OSR systems and OSR-derivatives) but which still had some interesting and usable ideas (do note that it doesn't mean creative or original ideas, really). In the end the setting was phased out as I set out to work on Tellus and left the nameless Random World to wither off as a thought experiment.

Probably the best part of the Random World was the fleshing out and categorizing of the many low HD 'monstrous humanoids' of D&D (plus other monsters) into a system where there is a general origin and more importantly purpose and role to monsters often deemed interchangeable.

• Goblins are creatures of the dark and/or wild places, like caves, the underworld and deep forests. They are akin to fey creatures and, indeed, many beings we'd label as fey-like are actually part of this category, such as Hags. They are physically weak (barring those with magical powers to enhance this), mischievous, malicious and cunning. Dwarves are also a type of Goblins, as are Gnomes. In combat they will either use mobility, trickery, the terrain or magic which cause non-damage effects. The low HD monster role is taken by goblins, hobgoblins and fey knights.
• Trolls include all manner of Giant-Kin, taking cue from the ancient word Eoten. Like goblins they are somewhat tied to nature but the more primal, feral and powerful side. Even the smallest of these creatures is taller than the average man and should they display magical properties they will either be passive (troll regeneration, camouflage by turning to stone) or destructively potent (earthquake, fireballs and ice breath). Their low HD monster role is taken by Ogres and Ogre-kin, which are fairly small by Troll standard and non-magical by comparison, basically just big dumb brutes. They are, however, shockingly cunning and vicious in battle as they feel the need to compensate for their small size.
• Orcs may appear similar to the other two categories but are completely different in origin, born of black magic used to raise armies of cheap, obedient and biologically immortal soldiers. They are all ugly, lopsided and inhuman creatures born of mud and filth. They lack a soul and most orcs are mostly personality-less beyond being belligerent and nasty. Most are goblin-sized but a few 'Ogre Orcs' could exist. Orcs which consume the flesh of a particularly gifted being and/or a spell caster may steal some properties of their soul, cannibalizing enough to become full individuals who their master must placate and please to keep loyal. They tend to be the least likely to have more than a few HD (barring exceedingly skilled chieftain with a stone soul) but unlike Goblins they are innately organized and proficient in battlefield tactics and the use of weapons. This is to be expected as they are born as soldiers and minions.

Urban Fantasy: Shadow People

Neither fully ghost, demon or bogeymen are entities born of mankind's literal shadows. These...are the shadow people. The Shadow People (or Shadow Person, as Wikipedia name them) aren't quite spirits but they aren't quite physical either.

Nature and Creation

Spooky.

There is no true-breeding race of Shadow People, much like how Bogeymen aren't a true-breeding race of supernatural beings. The two type of creatures share much in common as they are born of the thoughts and emotions of humanity and they slowly coalesce into a self-aware being. However where Bogeymen are more born of collective fear, Shadow People are more specific. They have common root (or perhaps even are!) beings which folklore call 'Evil Twins' or 'Doppelganger', evil supernatural creatures which bring about an omen of death.

Generally the birth of a Shadow Person requires a specific individual and some specific traits which can vary. Generally these people have a latent or obvious connection to supernatural and spiritual forces or have been exposed to such forces without realizing it. Those who can read the aura of such individuals will find it either unusually potent or seemingly separating slowly but surely into two, as if undergoing a form of mitosis. In other, stranger cases this Shadow Person is born as an individual undergoes great changes in its personality and mannerism, often rejecting a former lifestyle or even identity. Other times there is seemingly no particular reason why the individual is undergoing such a change. As with many supernatural phenomena sometimes there is no clear answer and it just is. In any case, as the process continue the individual will slowly 'shed' more and more psychic energy, seemingly to no ill effect to itself as its thoughts, individuality, fear and more seemingly double and split until it create a self-containing, but unformed Spirit. In many ways its like a person's ghost but they never died.

Shadow People do not share the memory, identity or even appearance of their (accidental) creator, at least not by default. Most will appear as loose, vaguely human-shaped forms. Much like Bogeymen they slowly take shape and become some haunting monster, albeit one much more focused on its creator, like some sort of obsessive stalker ghost. Some are driven by a desire to connect or even re-connect with their creator while others, the more dangerous ones, actively seek to harm them. Very often a Shadow Person will be akin to some sort of anti-person. Their personality are reversed, twisted and inhuman. Human empathy. Understanding. Love. These do not exist in the shadow person, which now exist as some sort of literal 'evil twin'. This is where they overlap with Demons and, indeed, perhaps some Demons could have begun their existence as Shadow People. Or, then again maybe not: we just don't know.

SHADOW PERSON

HD: 1 AC: 17 (9 if exposed to light)

Atk: +1 (can stretch limbs and fingers up to 10 feet!) Dmg: None, Special: Drain INT, WIS or CHA by 1d4 (2d6 on creator)

Effort: 2 Manifestation: Between E and C

Shadow People aren't particularly powerful creatures and would go down easily if directly confronted. However they are not fully physical and destroying them, let alone spotting them isn't always an easy task. They have some unusual abilities:

• Shadow People are always aware of where their Creator is.
• Shadow People are able to hide inside the 'psychic shadow' of their Creator. As long as the creature is within 30ft of its Creator it cannot be automatically detected by whatever effects detect the presence of Spirits and it always get a chance to avoid detecting with a Saving Throw with a +4 bonus.
• Anytime the Creator spots the creature, it must make an immediate Mental save or suffer the creature's drain effect. It can only be affected by this vision once per 24 hours, but if the creature attack it can simply drain it.
• If the Creator is reduced to 2 or less in any Mental stat the creature drain, it must make a Mental Saving Throw or die, at which point the Shadow Person take its place, becoming a seemingly normal (if very creepy or weird) human.
• Some may have abilities other Spirits have.

Rumors persist of entire secret societies or odd 'court' of independent and 'advanced' Shadow People serving some master or sinister purpose, which may explain stories such as the Men in Black. Time will tell.

Urban Fantasy: Bogeymen Revised

Before I started working on the Urban Fantasy setting, I wrote about one of its monster categories (if such a thing even truly exist), entities born of human primal fear, the dark and alienation. These creatures are known as Bogeymen.

Nature And (Lack Of) Origin

The Creeper, from Jeepers Creepers.

Bogeymen are wholly corporeal creatures, at least when alive and active. While they embody certain things and concepts they are not Spirits. A bogeyman can be touched, its pulse will be felt (if it has a heart, anyway), its skin will have sweat and it will bleed when cut. As long as the creature remain alive, it is mortal flesh and blood although often of a particularly hard to kill variety, as these creatures sometime display a baffling anatomy and an uncanny ability to resist mortal wounds. In form, they are humanoid but all similarities with human end there: these creatures never look human up close, indeed they are horrific mockeries of humanity at the best of times. Their skin may be pale and waxy or it could be a horrid mass of scabs and scars erupting in bony spikes. It may have scaly skin, four eyes, a jaw that can open like a snake or even bugs living in its flesh. Even the most human-like of these creatures would look like someone who has been disfigured beyond what one would think is possible. Unlike Witch-Breed they never have the ability to appear human, relying on dark lighting and bulky clothes to hide briefly among ordinary people.

Where they come from is a mystery. No one has ever observed them raising their own children nor displaying any kind of familial link, safe perhaps for the myth of Grendel (who was definitely a Bogeyman in many aspect of its behavior) and the appearance of his mother. They are not transformed from ordinary people, as those are Witch-Breeds. Bogeymen simply come into existence over a period of time until they just exist and take their first life at which point the monster is indeed a fully realized entity. Some speculate they are a form of transformed Spirit of Fear and Darkness somehow given flesh but there are several holes in this theory. Beyond their connection with primal fears no one know where they come from or how they come to be. They just are. They are monsters lurking in the shadow, trolls under the bridge and manic monsters too bizarre to be considered a true Slasher. To make a comparison from movies: the Creeper is a Bogeyman and Jason Vorhees is a Slasher. One is a mostly inexplicable monster, some demon-like entity while the other is a supernaturally tough killer-later-turned-undead.

Abilities

The abilities of Bogeymen are quite varied, given that each is a mostly unique monster. These are not particularly impressive or potent supernatural abilities most of the time but simply quirks of their implausible biology manifesting as minor gifts such as being able to resist a specific type of damage (from a tough hide or spongy flesh), wall-crawling or stretching their limbs and/or jaws. As a whole, however, Bogeymen do display a few commonalities:

'It' is too powerful to be a Bogeyman but its motives
and the way it mess with people are spot on for their nature.

• Bogeymen are Hard to Detect. At the very least they are hard to take recordings of, as their innate nature will corrupt the recording, ranging from distorting the image to a mere smudge to rending a video completely corrupted and unreadable. More potent Bogeymen can extend this ability to a greater degree, such as causing all lights in their vicinity to crackle or even go out at will. In ancient time, this snuffed all candles and fire but in modern times it turn off lights. Finally their corpses tend to disappear and/or crumble to dust in some fashion. The most human-like may very well leave a corpse behind but to medical examination it would simply appear to be a horrifically deformed human, all supernatural properties having left the body upon termination.
• Some Bogeymen rely on minor and passive mind-influencing powers in addition to the basic abilities. These creatures could, for example, put out a minor aura of confusion and/or forgetfulness which only affect adults for example, prompting a Saving Throw to remember seeing the creature and not just a vague, blurred shadow.
• Finally all Bogeymen can see in the perfect darkness. Those who can't usually have other ways of detecting their prey, such as advance echolocation or scent.

These basic abilities, while rather minor and of no use in a direct fight if cornered by some supernatural investigators of some sort, exist to aid the creature's nature as a nocturnal predator. Many Bogeymen prey on children (possibly because children are easily afraid of the dark and the unknown), for example and these minor abilities are enough for it to devour a few kids here and there. No one will ever believe these children who DO see the creature due to the aforementioned mind influencing powers.

Previously in this post, the Bogeymen were described as mostly identical stat-wise to the Slashers. Because the Urban Fantasy game tend to involve more potent characters with a better chance of fighting back, the Bogeymen is instead re imagined as 3-5 HD monster with above average attack bonus and damage. The Slasher's immunity to non-magical attacks is missing but it might exist in more powerful Bogeymen. Potential new abilities include:

• Licking the blood of a victim gives the Bogeyman the ability to instantly sense the victim's presence within 30m even through walls.
• Either through eldritch geometries or the disgusting ability to break and reshape its bones the Bogeyman can take 1d4 rounds to squeeze through any hole no bigger than a human fist. It can also seemingly hide in similar spaces or larger even if it would not fit normally. Yes, this include hiding a seven feet tall monster under a child's bed.
• As long as the Bogeyman remain in areas of even partial darkness, its AC become 17. Blows either miss or seemingly glance off the obscure form of the monster as if having its horrid form hidden by the darkness made it harder to wound.
• Much like its relative the Slasher, Bogeymen are known to fake death. When taking damage the creature can pretend to drop dead from the wound as it extend its mind-clogging powers as a defense mechanism. Anyone that see the Bogeyman fall must make a Saving Throw or be compelled to think its 'dead for good, now'. They will be compelled to move on, tend their wounds, maybe turn around or talk to each others as if all tension is deflated. The creature will then either spring back to attack then or wait for them to leave its body unattended at which point it will scuttle off and prepare for a new offensive.Note that this 'off screen body disappearance' is akin to a teleportation effect and works even inside of a room so long as it has more than a single exit.
• Some Revenant abilities associated with Slashers also work, such as Sense Victim or Pursuit. The ability Long Tongue can also be given to Bogeymen.
• Like some Demons they can sometimes also Sense Sin, even if its limited to weird things like misbehaving children or horny teenagers.

Bogeymen occupy a conceptual zone which overlap with ogre-like monsters, demons and slashers but they are neither. They are monsters born of fear and nightmares which are made flesh. They are not tied to specific mythologies nor are they truly powerful creatures which can be a threat on a massive scale. They are a simple yet potent archetype of the monster in the dark.

Urban Fantasy: The Witch-Breeds

There's a lot of critters out there that don't really fit any categories. Attempting to categorize everything is a fruitless endeavor. However, this is Halloween so we'll have to talk about witches. But not the 'neo pagan fruitcakes' or the 'hot goth chick' style of witch. No, these are weirdos at worst and mortal spellcasters at best. Depraved or evil as some may be they retain their humanity.

Some spellcasters don't. And some become monsters long before they even learn the simplest trick.

The Witch-Breeds

There are many promises in magic: power and immortality tend to come up a whole lot due to basic human fear and needs. Supernatural powers, when acquired by mortals, always come at a price and some are more terrible than others. In certain era, where knowledge was rare and limited (or restrained), the more researched forms of magic remained beyond the reach of most individuals. In modern times, the same primordial urges and darkness remain and sometimes, even when readily available, the 'slow path' to power can be seen as not being enough. There is always greater sacrifice to be made. There is always more to offer to dark and chtonic powers if it mean more secrets revealed in less time. And then there are others who simply never know of another path, whose own wickedness and ambitions damn them so quickly they never find out about other means and paths to power.

These are the creatures which myths and folklore have recorded as Roogaroo, Obayifo, Soucouyant, Pricolici, Strega and Tlalicque. They are the witches and ogres which eat children.

Art by Larry Wilson.

Witch-Breed is a loose term to refer to a magical being which are similar in nature to Bogeymen, albeit one of human origin. They straddle the line between mortal, bogeyman, cryptid, demon and more but are none of these. Some vague power or cursed tied to primordial and terrifying things of the dark have imbued and transformed them into the evil witches of folklore, the type who look like hags with green skin covered in warts and eat children. They are monsters born of the meeting point between wickedness and the knowledge/desire for supernatural powers. They are evil and cursed beings, stunted in true arcane might but swollen with minor and dreadful abilities which make them the bane of ordinary folks. Like bogeymen they live in the shadows and are elusive even to modern technology.

In modern society, one would think that such beings have no place. This is untrue, in fact they have never flourished more! We live in an era where parents are deathly afraid of letting their children interact with strangers. We are hyper connected yet increasingly alienated from others. We love to paint ourselves as open-minded people, tolerant of what is different yet...how many of us have recoiled when they met an ugly old man or woman clearly suffering from some mental illness, muttering to themselves and reeking of alcohol? Or perhaps we've been scared of an unusually tall and broad man, with a misshapen face and scraggly beard, thinking he might be some violent brute. 

In most cases there are people like any other and we let out prejudice get in the way. But at the corner of our vision or in the shadows lurk creatures feeding off our mundane fear and spite. Many of them are hidden behind veils and illusions and we never know we've met them. Their magic is weak and flawed but its enough to foil people long enough to trick them. That they often resemble the dregs of our society, the mentally ill, the ugly, the outcasts and the poor is a useful trick for them. Many poor innocents have been framed as the killer when in reality, Jack the Hobo was the only one who saw that little girl being taken by the old lady with the monstrous shadow of a horned giant with the barbed tongue. He tried to help but it was too late. The old hag snatched the child and went down the sewers, leaving poor old man Jack with a bloody arm. There was no other evidence and he was condemned to death for the murder of that little girl. Such tragedies repeat themselves time and time again...

Modern Wicked Witches and Ogres

This is the archetype the Witch Breeds embodies. They are the wicked, warty children-eating witches and villainous kidnapping ogres of the modern era. Their origin, however, hints at the potential flaws in one's quest for arcane power, as Witch Breeds are either failed magicians who were weak and, in their craving for power, sacrifice too much for too little or they are those who never even considered the greater cosmic power (or weren't even aware of it!) and went straight to the part where their humanity is sacrificed. Some people are wicked and jealous and sometimes they might even attract equally vile patrons who care not that the bargain is inherently flawed and destructive.

Common Witch-Breed Abilities

Beyond their connection to the dark corners of the world and the human mind, as well as magic, few of these creatures share much in common. Their abilities are a wide and disparate lot and their unpredictability make up for their otherwise lack in truly powerful magic. These are not monsters which fight openly, preferring trickery and corruption most of the time.

Flawed Glamour

Most, if not all Witch-Breed end up twisted from a mixture of their inner darkness, the evil source of their powers or simply age. These creatures very commonly age more quickly yet also live longer than any human should and the more they age the worst they get as their bodies both break down yet also warp and twist. Skin become unnatural colors, nails grow thick and dirty, teeth lengthen while others rot and fall off. Eyes become swollen and bloody or clouded by cataracts yet somehow still see in pitch darkness. For others it is a subtle wrongness such as a creepy glare, a monstrous shadow or a foul smell. Their twisted from can be clouded with a simple Glamour at will but there is always a flaw to it.

D6	Flawed Glamour
1	The Witch-Breed’s human appearance is purely an illusion rather than a mixture of biological transformation and supernatural illusion and as such will appear distorted or even in their true form when viewed through other means (such as a mirror, a camera or cell phone). Note that, when it comes to recording devices they might still be able to have powers which negate/corrupt the recording, in which case it will only appear in its true form through ‘live’ footage from the device itself.
2	The creature’s true form can be exposed if it is touched by a specific category of people, such as men, women or children. Alternatively, this category could be ‘a legally recognized holy man/woman’ such a priest, a nun or a rabbi for example.  If touched by such an individual the Witch-Breed must immediately make a saving throw or temporarily (or until the end of the scene, depending on the creature) lose its disguise. Even if the effect is temporary, lasting a mere few seconds, it is enough to reveal it to be a hideous monster.
3	Specific materials or objects repel the creature and weaken its disguised. If touched by a specific material, such as salt, silver or iron, for example, the creature must immediately make a saving throw or recoil in pain/fear and temporarily lose its disguise. Even if the effect is temporary, lasting a mere few seconds, it is enough to reveal it to be a hideous monster.
4	The creature’s disguise is flawless...against human. Animals, on the other hand, always sense that something is wrong and will become agitated. Particularly large animals, such as a large dog, will become enraged and even vicious an attack the creature.
5	The disguise is seemingly flawless, safe for a telltale sign which is blatantly unnatural, such as causing milk to curdle in its presence or for its shadow to be that of its monstrous true form. Those who know what signs to look for can identity the creature for what it truly is.
6	The creature’s disguise cannot be used once the sun has set and it will always revert to its true form under the cover of the night. In some cases, such creatures might even be unaware of their monstrous form and live a double life.

Lesser Witchery

Providing an exact and complete list of powers such creatures can have is pointless. However, generally speaking the powers of Witch-Breed are weaker than high level spells and generally quite specific and situational. Most of them also Commit Effort for the day rather than scene.

• Animal Form: The Witch-Breed Commit Effort for the day and assume the form of an animal. Generally it is very likely this form is limited to a single creature type and requires some ritual/has some very specific drawback to assume this form or to revert from it.
• Lure Child: The Witch Breed Commit Effort for the day, select a child it has some view of and spend a minute enacting a ritual. At the end of the ritual the child is put into a daze and is compelled to trust the Witch-Breed. This power obviously can be modified to fit another category of people.
• Open The Path: The Witch-Breed Commit Effort for the day, selects a building and takes a full minute to enact whatever ritual she need. After the full minute of casting is complete, it can now walk through the walls of said building until the next sunrise.

Most Witch-Breeds are fairly average monsters in the 2 to 6 HD range, albeit with potentially an higher-than-their-HD's-average amount of Effort to fuel their abilities. Some of them are able to cast spells up to the 2nd level and usually know a number of spell equal to half their HD.

Godbound: Necrotitans In Ancalia

Continuing the theme of horror in October, some unique undead monstrosities to haunt Ancalia. A few of them are semi-identical monstrosities, close enough in appearance and behavior to warrant the same stat line while others are truly unique abominations. This is a part of an old post which I'd forgotten to finish before moving on to more generic Undead.

Necrotitans

At least three of these things have been sighted in Ancalia: away from cities, for now, fortunately. Their passage across the land is more noticeable than their surprisingly elusive actions. Each of these creatures is a monstrous undead giant, warped far beyond the size and shape of any ordinary human. They wander around, away from other Husk swarms, leaving behind gigantic footprint, collapsed bridges and destroyed ruins as they lumber from location to location.

• The Leviathan of Anderaccha: Rarely seen up close, the Leviathan appears to be a massive and bloated creature of slimy, clammy grey fused flesh that wanders in circles in the Anderaccha Lowlands. It frequently goes back into the Bay of Gojeb, which explain the barnacle and other sea life which is encrusting itself in its hide. Those who observe the creature up close will confirm that it is vaguely humanoid, but walking on all four due to it's bent shape. It's fingers are whole human torso and it's 'head' is made of a thousand fused jaws. It's motives are utterly unknown but it will attack anything it perceive as a threat.
• The Knight of the Tower: Formerly an Ancalian Knight of the Tilahun bloodline, the Knight of the Tower is a fallen hero driven mad by grief and despair which, rumors say, went to look for a cure to the Hollowing Plague in the dark corners of the world. Whatever happened, he is now a gigantic Energumen whose innate gift of great size and strength have become twisted even more in death. Seventeen feet tall but wiry, he is a creature of fused bone, metal and stone which carries a gigantic cleaver, it's face hidden behind its old helmet. The Knight goes around murdering specific people for reasons unknown, perhaps as part of some dark curse or covenant or as some mad attempt at curing the plague. He is the most intelligent and tactical of all the Necrotitans.
• The Plagued Matron: A hideous, corpulent abomination which was once a woman.  Monstrously swollen, obese and constantly growing new boils the size of a man's head. The Plague Matron is a monstrous giant undead with a strange desire to collect children as it move around Ancalia. As the smallest of the Necrotitans, a mere twelve feet, she is capable of surprising stealth, possibly through some miracle. She cannot speak and is mostly insane but, somehow, this creature can perceive children affected by the plague and seek them out...and eat them, crying and weeping as she does so.  She's been known to destroy entire settlements if their population of infected children reach critical mass, turning into a horrific beacon for the creature.
• There are rumors of a fourth, fifth and maybe even sixth Necrotitans going around Ancalia in the past two or three years. Their whereabouts, origin and nature is currently unknown. Only signs of their existence being sightings, hearsay and villages devastated by what appears to be a massive creature leaving vaguely human-like footprints of enormous size. Each description of the monsters, glimpse on the horizon, differ greatly. It is unclear if the creature's form is changing or if they are indeed different monstrosities.

Necrotitans are monsters with a range of HD between 13 and 18 HD. They have all abilities and traits of Ancalian Husks and their physical might is such that they count as having Bound the Words of Might and Endurance. In practice they never really create over miracles, preferring to use the power of their Word to display god-shaking might and an indestructible nature or to overcome the physical prowess of their enemies (usually a transhuman Ancalian Knight who will quickly regret trying to stop the monster!) with raw unholy size and bulk. Their movements are extremely slow and their AC tend to be low, however.

Godbound/Scion: Titanspawns

The Titanspawns are monsters and enemies of the Gods. In practice however, the lower ranks of Titanspawns are enemies of the God's children, meaning they are the primary major threat that a Scion will fight. They are creatures like the Hydra, the Kraken or the rank and file Giants of Norse mythology among other things. Some are unique, one off monstrosities while others are whole races of Titan worshipers and servants. Titanspawns are dark creatures, filled with evil intent and devotion or dark virtues as the Scion rulebook calls them. Ambition, Malice, Rapacity and Zealotry are what drive and define the Titanspawns.  Some are nothing but animals and brutes while others are exceedingly intelligent.

Giants by Greg Danton

Chimeras & Nemean

Named after the Greek monster, the term Chimera is a catch-all term for Titanspawns which are an amalgamation of two or more things. The most obvious and common forms of these are either a mixture of different animals or animals+human body parts but in modern times it also include machinery. Nemean, on the other hand, named after the Nemean Lion are any form of mundane animal which has been infused with the power of the Titans making it grow in size and aggression. Mechanically these creatures are the easiest to stats as they are well-represented with the various stats for particularly large animals, such as the Big Hunter or Predator King. Larger Nemean would be similar but with more HD while Chimera are likely to posses one or two gifts befitting their bizarre nature or, in some cases, completely at odd with it!

Giants & Thralls

The being most often associated (and conflated) with the Titans are the Giants, or Gigantes in Greek. They are most recorded as Titanspawns in Greek and Norse myths but in truth they are quite universal, unfortunately. A giant physically resemble a large humanoid, most between eight and fifteen feet. Some look like perfectly formed human, albeit very large and muscular. Most....don't. Giants tend to be ugly looking brutes which would remind people of cavemen, what with their beetle brow, hunched shoulders or even more deformities. Most of them are just big, dumb, ugly and smelly brutes. Their ranks also include Frost Giant, Fire Giants, Cyclops, Oni, Trolls and more.

A Thrall is the byproduct of a mortal being fed a Giant's blood, or Eitr. The transformation make them into battle-crazed, hulking brutes with little regard for fear or wounds. These angry bastards are the primary minions of Giants and are used muscles to reinforce their ranks.

Giants have HD, high attack and damage but are somewhat slow and easy to hit (being quite large). Generally the higher the HD the larger the Giant's stature and the more powerful it is in terms of having Gifts. More powerful Giants may require magical weapons or Gifts in order to harm.

GIANT	HD	AC	Atks	Dmg	Move	Morale	Saves	Effort
Thrall	3	7	+3	1d8	30’	11	14+	1
Lesser Giant	6	10	+6 x2	1d10	20’	11	12+	3
Giant	10	9	+10 x2	1d12	20’	11	10+	4
Greater Giant	14	8	+10 x2	2d6	20’	11	8+	5

The Gifts of most Giants are straightforward ports from the Words of Might and Endurance, with a few from Earth perhaps for Giant spawned from the Greek Titan Avatars. Fire Giants obviously are immune to fire and Frost giants are immune to cold. Trolls are a bit trickier and have various odd powers, including possibly those of Sorcery while Cyclops can have gifts of Artifice.

Godbound/Scion: Foes and Monsters

Scion has a lot of monsters taken from all the mythologies of the world. Of course, there is a bit of an issue when it come to mythology and pre-made monsters: in the myths, very very few creatures were part of a coherent 'species'. There were only three Gorgon, for example and Grendel was a unique creature unless you assume his mother to be a similar monster. When it come to Scion monsters, there need to be a tightrope where the GM walk between recognizable myth and usability in game, especially since monsters which players are familiar with tend to lose their impact because everyone already know what they are.

As with most tabletop RPG, Scion 1st edition classified monsters into somewhat coherent categories. That's just the nature of tabletop, one could argue. Players and Game Masters like the way things just make a certain sense. Except mythology, by nature, does not make sense. Far better writers than I have written about this issue.

Lesser Immortals

Art by Helen Rusovich(?)

While they might take issue with the term, the 'Lesser Immortals' refer to any manner of sapient divine being which is kind of like a god but not a 'capital-G' God and member of a pantheon. They are creatures usually bound to the World (as in the mortal world) rather than the Overworld (the world of the Gods). These beings are often (and sometimes mockingly) called 'elves' or 'fey' but this is not always completely accurate, as the only truly elvish beings in this category would be the Alfar of Norse mythology.

Major categories of Lesser Immortals include:

• Alfar: The 'light elves' of Norse mythology are classified in Scion as lesser fertility deities, with the Vanir having members of their ranks in the Norse Pantheon proper. The Alfar are all blessed with superhuman beauty, charisma and just presence in general as well as a connection to the land and fertility. They are vulnerable to iron, as per the myths on fairies.
• Kitsune: These beings are humanoid foxes and natural-born tricksters generally associated with Japan and, to a lesser extent, Korea. While ostensibly on the Gods' side, they are fickle and self-serving beings as one would expect of tricksters.
• Kunitsukami: These beings are the 'land gods' of ancient Japan. They are very tied to their own Pantheon and people, although a few beings similar to them might be extremely ancient and associated with the ancient people of prehistoric Japan, such as the Ainu or Emishi.
• Nymphs: These beings are either whole groups or unique/semi-unique Lesser Immortals tied to a specific location, object or landmark. The Greeks classified them in specific groups such as location type (Oreads for mountains) or even specific locations (Acheloides for the Achelous River). There are non-Greco Roman creatures which are very Nymph-like, such as Nixies or Chaneque. The key feature of these beings if that they weaken (and maybe even die) from being away from their landmark for too long.
• Peri: Associated with the Persian pantheon, the Peri are beautiful winged Lesser Immortals. They are very similar in appearance and function to the Alfar, safe for different focus when it come to their gifts.

Lesser Immortal as Antagonists

Each Lesser Immortal is an individual being, with its own name and a very long history unless they are, somehow, relatively young by their standard which isn't implausible if these beings can reproduce. Because they (usually) have such autonomy and free will it is entirely possible that one could become an antagonist to a band of Scions for a variety of reasons, from perfectly logical to completely stupid and petty. Some of them might also be motivated by ancient grudges toward the Scion's divine parent and might want to enact revenge by proxy. This could be an event recorded in myths or it could be something which is more recent and has gone unrecorded.

Some Lesser Immortals could very well end up joining with the Titans, too. This may very well be bad news, since a Lesser Immortal is still a lesser divine being. Assuming it is not too corrupted by the Titanic essence and powers and retain its full sanity it can be a truly dangerous foe, combining its human-like appearance/shape shifting, age, wisdom and the might of the Titans.

Most Lesser Immortals are beings in the 4-6 HD range (with their more powerful kin with more HD, obviously), with attack bonus and AC which is appropriate to their power level. They have a variety of 'lesser abilities' which may or may not have any mechanical effect, such as being able to assume a near-human or completely human (but very striking) form at will and being immune to mundane problems such as mundane diseases and poisons. Aside from Passion, Command or Desire (very common Words for them in general) their choice of Word could include:

• Alfar: Fertility or Light. In addition, remember Alfar are weak to 'cold iron'. Vanir, meanwhile would have Fertility or Earth as possible Words.
• Kitsune: Shapeshifting or Deception. Kitsune receive a penalty to Saving Throws exploiting their hedonism.
• Kunitsukami and Nymphs: Variable, but can include Fertility, Sea, Earth, Fire or other 'elemental' Words. Kunitisukami could also replace their Passion/Command/Desire Word with Sword or Bow. Nymphs are weakened and cannot regain Effort when separate from their landmark while Kunitsukami receive a penalty to Saving Throws which involve manipulating their sense of duty and honor.
• Peri: Light or Fire. They can fly and have the Alfar weakness to 'cold iron'.

Undead

Art by Zelldweller(?)

Ah, a classic of this shitty blog: undead monsters. They have been a staple when it come to quick and easy but still terrifying monster. The mythological and cultural significance is fairly obvious: we all fear the inevitability of death, something which gnaws at us. In the case of undead it might literally gnaw at us. Scion is no different and feature its own menagerie of the undead.

Obviously, ghosts and undead monsters have their roots in mythology and Scion has its own way of classifying them. The explanation for their sudden rise is that when the Titans broke free of their prison they shattered the walls and paths to and from the Underworld, basically making the whole process of travel to the afterlife a mess while also basically breaking the walls which kept the ghosts inside it. The common categories of Undead are:

• Ghosts: These are regular vanilla incorporeal undead. They are dead people. Some of them are aligned with the Gods and can even act as allies and guides to Scions. A quick and dirty run down on Ghosts could use the work I have already written for my own Urban Fantasy game as the basics would probably still apply.
• Spectres: Taking some cues from other White Wolf games, the Spectres are essentially stronger and meaner ghosts which have abandoned/lost their humanity and aligned themselves with the Titans. These beings are generally those with the suite of freaky powers like poltergeist, possession and filling mortal minds with visions of dread and despair.
• Zombies, Skeletons and Mummies: While the name has very different connotation in Voodoo, 'zombies' is a common name used in modern pop culture for all animate and dumb undead that shambles around.
• Hungry Corpses: Mythologies are rife with the type of Undead with a wicked intellect, strong purpose and/or a strong desire to eat the flesh of the living. These category cover a wide variety of beings such as Draugr or Civateteo.

All in all, one could say that what applies to my Urban Fantasy game mostly applies to Scion, just scaled to Godbound and with the addition of the connection to that game's arch villains, the Titans. Refer to these various posts for a basic on the core ideas. Of particular note are the Nephwracks of Exalted (and other White Wolf games) which are described here: these being, within the lore of Scion, would be the corrupted ghosts of extremely powerful mortals, of past religious figures or even of dead Scions who have wholly dedicated themselves to Titan Avatars tied to particularly destructive forces.

Because the Titans are actively trying to build their armies for the day when they finally destroy the Gods, such beings are likely on the rise. The most desperate people or the worst of scum, or rather their ghostly forms, are infused with the power of Titan Avatars such as those of the Drowned Road, Soku-No-Kami, Xibalba (The Titan of Death, see the fan-made Mayan Pantheon supplement), Zrvan (The Titan of Time, see the Persian Gods supplement) or Crom Cruach. However in theory any Titan who isn't banned from the Death purview could have started assembling such monstrosities under their banner.

Godbound/Scion: Divine Knacks, Tricks and Refluffing

Seems my crude work on Godbound+Scion had made one of my players (and sometimes GM) want to run something which take cues from Scion with the Godbound system. Now obviously, not everything in one game translate perfectly to another so here are some random thoughts on Gifts being refluffed to be used with another Word to vaguely emulate some Scion knacks and boons.

Remember, as per the Godbound core book on page 12. "You may only learn gifts from Words you have bound, with one exception; you can spend 2 points to learn a lesser gift from another Word if you can explain how your own powers are creating that effect."

Epic Appearance

Helen of Troy by Genzoman

There isn't an 'Appearance' stat in D&D or derived systems, at least not usually. Yes, Charisma might include great beauty or eye-searing ugliness but this is not the only focus of Charisma. There is no Word of Beauty or Word of Ugly in Godbound but in Scion multiple deities are tied to the Epic Appearance Attribute, such as Aphrodite (more on the 'beauty' side) or Tlaloc (on the 'fugly' side). Generally, the two closest Words for both options are either the Word of Desire and the Word of Fear embodying the two opposite ends of the Appearance spectrum; the former so beautiful that it compel desire and love while the latter is a horrific atavism which draws upon primordial fears.

• Fair Mortal Mien (Shapeshifting): As Scion with epic appearance, they can likewise reshape and control said appearance to suit their needs.
• Love Me And Despair (Faerie Queen): Turn lesser foes into drooling thralls through either sheer beauty or sheer fear.
• Liar's Perfect Grace (Deception): As perfect actors, Scion with Epic Appearance can spin lies as much as they want.
• Mantle of Quietus (Death): To assail such a paragon of beauty and to mar its flesh inflict spiritual wounds. On the opposite end, the fear which the ugly Scion exude can damage attackers.
• Queen of Air and Darkness (Faerie Queen): Make lesser foes unable to even strike you out of pure presence.
• Royal Grace (Faerie Queen): Self-explanatory for beautiful Scions. They can never appear dirty. awkward or incapable.
• Sans Merci (Faerie Queen): A damage power of using one's own presence and gaze to cut into people's hearts.
• World Greatest X (Peak Human): Anything related to beauty or uglyness works.

Epic Appearance in Scion covers interesting ground, with a mixture of manipulation and shape shifting. This is presumably because the attribute is called appearance and covers not only static ability of being of impossibly striking appearance but also manipulation of one's own appearance.

Epic Perception

Likewise, there is no Perception stat: that usually come under the purview of Wisdom. As such, these refluffed Gifts are a good choice for anyone who wish to focus upon the power of Perception. These powers can be considered an expansion of the sense of mere mortals and the ability to process said information. There is also a Word of Sight: a homebrew of the Word of Sight in the Librum de Verbis. It is well suited as the baseline Word to apply these refluffed Gifts to.

• Bolt of Invincible Skill (Bow): Superhuman senses mean superhuman accuracy. One doesn't need to be magically gifted as an archer to be really deadly, especially not with perfect visions. Now obviously combining both is overkill.
• Eyes of the Cat (Beast): Perfect night vision.
• Feathered Tempest (Bow): Nothing can escape a Scion with Epic Perception. See the other Bow gifts.
• The Storm Break (Alacrity): While this is obviously a power associated with raw speed it does not need to be. Scions with epic Perception are just that good at reacting to what they perceive around them to act first.

Epic Perception isn't as far-reaching in thematic as Epic Appearance but it definitely has more application than just 'see well'.

Epic Wits

Epic Wits in a nutshell.

If intelligence cover knowledge and the ability to retain it, then Wits is the speed and efficiency in applying it in the proper situation. Intelligence and social grace are great but with Epic Wits the Scion gain the ability to think at a speed and to a level of detail which is simply impossible for mere mortals. "They react to trouble almost before the trouble occurs, compressing the line of causality into an instantaneous flash point" is how Scion: God describes the highest level of power of this Epic Attribute.

• Furious Counterstrike (Vengeance): The Scion guess they are going to be hit this time and cannot avoid it in that specific time, thus turning this into a situation where they can at least set up a chance to counter attack, turning a bad moment into a chance to defeat their foe.
• Immediate Foresight (Time): Remember when was written above about 'compressing the line of causality'? Yeah good luck surprising someone with Epic Wits.
• Reflex of Regret (Time): The Scion is so good that, for all intent and purpose, they can mechanically undo actions. These actions are not rewritten out of reality, mind you. They just represent predictions the Scion had on the coming actions and their course correction.
• Unbreakable (Endurance): Quickly think up a way to counter an attack made against the Scion, negating damage.

Always remember, whenever a character with Epic Wits alter an event which happen during a battle, they are not reshaping reality. That's not what they do. Their ability to undo or change actions represent them being so good at predicting stuff that it allow their player to 'cheat'.