[Beast]Atavisms

Beast: The Primordial

(I apologize, I know it’s a terrible movie, but he actually uses the word “atavism” in a monologue.)

OK! So! I know I’ve been a little lax in Beast updates this week, and the reason for that is that another project I’m working on – not for Onyx Path, but for my own company, Growling Door Games – just went up for sale in PDF and I’ve been wrangling that. But I promise I’m not going to turn this into a commercial for Chill. We’re here to talk about Beast.

Atavisms

A Beast’s true self is a mythic monster armed with natural weapons and fearsome abilities, some of which bleed over into his human form as Atavisms. Atavisms are intrinsic. They are the Giant’s strength or the Raptor’s talons, and using them is as natural as breathing. Manifesting aspects of his Lair is just as instinctive. They are part of him, too, from the oppressive cold of a Makara’s underwater abode to the darkness of a Namtaru’s subterranean refuge. Unleashing them feels good. The Beast breaches the illusion of normalcy and exposes his true self to the world.

A Beast can pass for human because his Atavisms are typically subtle. They manifest in surreal ways reflecting the nightmarish nature of the Primordial Dream. The Beast can dig deep in times of need and force more of his Soul into the world, abnegating natural law with nightmarish consequences. The Raptor’s hands still look normal but he can dismember victims as if he were the legendary monster in the flesh.

Beings with supernatural senses, however, catch a glimpse of the Soul when the Beast activates an Atavism. This includes any supernatural creature (vampire, werewolf, changeling, Sin-Eater, etc.), normal human beings with the Unseen Sense Merit (no matter what it usually detects), Heroes, ephemeral beings and anyone else with sensitivity to otherworldly phenomena at the Storyteller’s discretion.

Glimpsing the Soul in this way doesn’t grant the witness any real understanding of what he is seeing. The witness sees the Eshmaki inhale deeply and then exhale a gout of blue fire, but if he is at all supernaturally aware, he always sees the mighty dragon superimposed over the Beast’s mortal form, unleashing its hellish breath. The Makara activates Monster From the Deep and everyone in the room feels the pressure of the tentacles around their necks, but only the Beast’s Promethean companion actually sees the kraken lurking below.

Systems

Atavisms are not magic spells. They are inherent abilities and require little to no conscious effort on the part of the Beast who possesses them. At the same time, their effects are straightforward, physical, and typically confined to the Beast herself (or her victims). A dragon can breathe fire, for example, but has no control whatsoever over existing flames.

A handful of Atavisms, such as Shadowed Soul or Storm-Lashed, draw down aspects of the Beast’s Lair and project them onto her environment. They create a temporary convergence between the mundane and the nightmarish landscape of the Primordial Dream, similar to imposing the Environmental Tilts of her Lair Traits, but with augmented or unusual effects and greater control over how those forces play out.

The one thing Atavisms cannot do is directly control someone’s mind. A Beast can leverage heart-stopping beauty (Alien Allure) or prey upon victims’ natural curiosity (Siren’s Treacherous Song), but she cannot control what they think. Hence, resistance rolls — including supernatural resistance — rarely apply. Direct emotional and mental influence is the realm of Nightmares, not Atavisms.

Many Atavisms resemble Merits in that they have persistent effects, which need not be activated, such as modifying other actions or dice pools, or they confer abilities that are available at no cost, such as a special attack form. Dice rolls are rarely required. When they are, they are usually reflexive and folded into another action such an attack. An Atavism’s dice pool always consists of an Attribute plus a Skill.

Atavisms have three levels of effect depending on the Beast’s Satiety:

Normal Effect: This is the Atavism’s default effect and is available whenever the Beast’s Satiety is 4 dots or higher. Normal effects never cost Willpower or other resources to use. Such an effect may be overtly supernatural, like superhuman speed or blasts of wind, but the Beast still looks human while doing so.

This is the Atavism’s default effect and is available whenever the Beast’s Satiety is 4 dots or higher. Normal effects never cost Willpower or other resources to use. Such an effect may be overtly supernatural, like superhuman speed or blasts of wind, but the Beast still looks human while doing so. Low Satiety Effect: The Atavism has a modified effect when the Beast’s Satiety drops to 3 dots or less. This is often an enhanced version of the normal effect, such as extra damage or an increased bonus, and gives the Beast an edge when her back is up against the wall. However, it may come with risks as Hunger increasingly sways her behavior.

The Atavism has a modified effect when the Beast’s Satiety drops to 3 dots or less. This is often an enhanced version of the normal effect, such as extra damage or an increased bonus, and gives the Beast an edge when her back is up against the wall. However, it may come with risks as Hunger increasingly sways her behavior. Satiety Expenditure: The Beast unleashes a powerful effect by spending a dot of Satiety. Doing so is a reflexive action unless otherwise specified. These effects are often dramatic and obviously supernatural as the Primordial Dream overrides the material world, threatening panic.

Different levels of effect are cumulative as long as the Beast meets the requirements for each. The Beast could combine the normal and Satiety expenditure effects, for example, or the low Satiety and Satiety expenditure effects if spending the dot of Satiety would reduce his current rating to 3 or less. This is particularly true when the Satiety expenditure effect is an enhanced version of the normal effect and not a separate ability. Each Atavism’s description states whether effects can be combined this way.

Infestation [Namtaru]

No Beast is ever truly alone, not even in his own head. The Soul constantly pushes him to fulfill its Hunger, and a Beast with this Atavism has it worse than most. Instead of one Soul, he has many, perhaps hundreds of insect voices. He hears them buzzing and chewing and crawling over each other at all hours of the day. He can — and must — surrender to them on occasion, dissolving his body into a cloud of angry red wasps or a carpet of writhing maggots. He is them and only them and their only united thought is to feed.

Dice Pool: N/A

Action: Reflexive

Normal Effect: The Beast need not surrender completely. He can squeeze through narrow gaps just by loosening himself a little, turning his body into a gestalt assemblage of insects that still — barely — looks human. His skin ripples and bulges as they move underneath, and individual insects occasionally crawl from his mouth and other openings. They are quickly swallowed or burrow under his skin again, but the effect is…unpleasant to say the least.

The Beast can safely squirm through any opening at least one foot in diameter, including many air conditioning ducts and major water pipes. He can hold his breath indefinitely while doing so, effectively being many insects instead of a single bony mammal. However, his Speed is halved and he is unable to apply his Defense against attackers in a confined space, not that anyone is likely to attack him while he is in a pipe.

Low Satiety: The Beast’s appearance as a unified whole is just an illusion, and a fragile one at that. Being less constrained by his bulky human form, though, he can go faster while squirming, moving up this normal Speed.

Push the Beast too hard, though, and he nearly falls apart. Pieces of him get dislodged and turn into a mass of chewing insects before reforming seconds later. The Beast takes bashing, not lethal, damage from firearms and piercing weapons. Since he can activate this Atavism reflexively, the Beast can use it to avoid damage from an attack in combat, assuming he isn’t surprised. Ordinary fists and bludgeoning weapons do full normal damage, however, crushing multiple insects at a time. The Beast can brace himself for an attack, however, and turn the tables in horrible fashion. By giving up his Defense for a turn, the Beast can automatically inflict lethal damage equal to his Lair rating on any opponent foolish enough to strike him. The Beast’s skin ruptures and thousands of tiny bugs or creatures sting the attacker.

Satiety Expenditure: By spending a dot of Satiety, the Beast surrenders to the hive within, and his entire body disintegrates into a mass of insects or spiders, leaving his clothing and worldly possessions behind. In so doing, he becomes a swarm with a radius of two yards per dot of Lair. The area is reduced proportionate to the amount of damage inflicted on him. In other words, the swarm is reduced to half size once half of his Health boxes are filled with damage. The Beast can also condense to attack a single target, inflicting lethal damage each turn equal to his Lair dots.

In swarm form, the Beast can move at double his normal Speed. That includes through any opening, no matter how small, and in three dimensions, since the swarm can crawl or fly over virtually any surface. Furthermore, he can use other Atavisms, Nightmares, or supernatural abilities that do not require human faculties such as speech. Witnessing the swarm in action may be a breaking point for someone with a phobia of insects.