By: redneck@txdirect.net (Redneck Gaijin)
Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, and the Ukraine are absolutely crawling with undead. What was Romania (Transylvania, to be exact) has more undead than living humans in it. In lesser numbers, the undead are spreading through all the other continents at an impressive rate.
Saminga himself no longer makes undead, but his dukes and barons and other subordinates do, and more than ever before.
Meanwhile, Vapula has released his own creations onto the Earth, a mixture of corporeal and celestial energies; resembling the fantasy monsters of dozens of cultures, like the chupacabra, the faun, and others. As a class, they can be called 'Jerseys' after the legendary Jersey Devil.
CORPOREAL FORCES - 3 (usually Str 4 Agi 8)
ETHEREAL FORCES - 0 (Int 0 Pre 0)
CELESTIAL FORCES - 2 (usually Will 5 Pre 3)
(Charisma -3) (animal head)
Songs: Numinous Corpus: Fangs, Horns, Tail, Feet, Tongue, WIngs (all at 4)
Rite: Feed from the body of a human being they have slain (+1)
Vicious as a rabid dog and dumb as a bag of hammers, Jerseys exist only to (pardon the pun) bedevil Mankind. When people live in cities, they stay away. When people live in small groups, they harass their livestock, eat their pets, and vandalize their property. When a person lives alone....
Jerseys are solitary beasts. Vapula never bothered to give them a mating instinct- they were bred via test-tubes - so the creatures tend to attack each other on sight. When not in 'attack mode', the creature looks like a pygmy human with an ugly animal head - horse, lizard, rabbit, dog, and goat being most popular. When in attack mode, however, the creature often blows all its limited store of Essence instinctively on Numinous Corpus songs, morphing into a creature capable of ripping a human into hash.
A turn of events which Hell did -not- count on, but which it embraced, was the awakening from the depths of the oceans of the race of giant sea monster known in the Bible as Leviathan.
CORPOREAL FORCES - 4 (Str 12, Agi 4)
ETHEREAL FORCES - 1 (Int 2, Pre 2)
CELESTIAL FORCES - 0 (Wil 0, Per 0)
(Attack Power: Lots.)
Some have described Leviathan as a giant squid, others as an armor-plated shark, others yet as a sea serpent. Whichever is the truth, what is known is that few ships have met the Leviathan and lived. Aircraft carriers and fishing boats alike have vanished beneath the waves, with the only clue being the silver-backed giant swimming off, leaving the life rafts and humans clinging to debris for smaller predators. It is unknown whether or not Leviathan actually feeds off its 'kills,' or if it is territorial in some way. It -is- known that it will not swim in waters less than 300 feet deep, and will not swim in enclosed seas like the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean. It does not swim the Gulf of Mexico, but visits the Carribean Sea now and again. It has sunk ships making the Murmansk run around Scandinavia and freighters sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. Aside from these tiny 'safe zones', however, there is no telling where, or when, the creature will strike...
Average stats (a Hidebehind always has at least 2 Corp Forces and 1 Celestial Force)
CORPOREAL FORCES - 3 (Strength 2, Agility 10)
ETHEREAL FORCES - 0 (Intelligence 0, Precision 0)
CELESTIAL FORCES - 2 (Will 2, Perception 6)
DISCORD: Obsession/2 (must hide behind and stalk people walking alone)
RITE: Spend two hours hiding unseen behind a human or Celestial (+1)
SONGS: Corporeal Motion/4
SKILLS: Tracking/4, Survival/6, Move Silently/6
Hidebehinds are a fairly pathetic predecessor to Jerseys in Vapula's experiments. He'd heard of these creatures and decided he wanted one... or two thousand, or some number, he forgets. Anyway, he cobbled Forces together and molded flesh and got a skinny woolen creature about eight feet tall with large claws, large feet (nine toes on the right foot, eight on the left - unless the hidebehind is left-handed, in which case the reverse is true) and a total lack of any courage at all, ESPECIALLY when it knows it has been seen.
A Hidebehind is so afraid of being seen that -it takes a Soul Hit every time someone sees it!- It's scared to death of Jerseys - if you find a Hidebehind, there won't be any Jerseys around for about twenty miles in any direction. Celestials and humans terrify it almost as badly, but it has a compulsion to stand directly behind them - as close as an inch! - without touching. It does this -only- when these people are alone with nobody around, so nobody sees the giant fluffy pink thing with large terrified eyes flinching back from the person it's walking in step behind...
You -can- look at a Hidebehind using a mirror - the Hidebehind just assumes you're looking at a different Hidebehind. Their intelligence is only rudimentary - the following is a sample of what you'd get from one if you used a Song of Tongues on them.
"No, I see nothing, not want to see nothing, I'm a good hidebehind, notseen, not -see.- You not see me, yes? Don'tlook, notsee me!"
(Presumably Hidebehinds can bear to be seen by other Hidebehinds... their numbers are growing...)
There has been only one case of an agressive Hidebehind... a specimen with three Celestial Forces became infatuated with a blind person living alone in upstate Kentucky. When a group of bandits barged in, the creature actually -charged- them, scaring them off before they realized just how ineffectual a combatant it was. All other Hidebehind sightings have been peaceful affairs. Still, when you get the forboding feeling something is standing *right behind you*, you might want to check that hand-mirror... not everything that hides behind you is a Hidebehind...
There are many, many more unusual creatures, but since I'm a bit
lazy I'll leave those to others if they want 'em. }:-{D
--- Redneck
Kris Overstreet, will write for food... | Do not taunt Happy Fun Belial. http://www.txdirect.net/users/redneck | * * * c/o White Lightning Productions | "I love the sweet smell of http://www.jurai.net/~redneck/wlp/ | humiliation in the morning!" Webmaster for Antarctic Press | --- Kobal reaffirms himself http://www.antarctic-press.com/ | ***QUESTION EVERYTHING***
Back to the INC Mainpage.
Back to the Dark Victory page.
Elizabeth McCoy <arcangel@prismnet.com>
Archangel of Archives