Chilldren of the Unknown: October 2018

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

The Babadook


The Babadook, also known as Mister Babadook, is a supernatural creature that is said to be the embodiment of grief, anxiety, and depression. It is said to haunt those who would be foolish enough to read a pop-up book, disguised as a children's book that talks about it. While believed to be a spirit or demon, the Babadook is merely a tulpa, a thought-form which can manifest in our plane of reality due to the amount of fear and belief in its existence.

Appearance

The Babadook most generally appears as a towering, shadowy bogeyman wearing a black coat and hat, with long, claw-like hands and a pale frightening face. The Babadook haunts whomever reads its poem and hides inside a pop-up book that mysteriously appears in random homes. As its prey becomes more frightened, the Babadook becomes more monstrous.
The Babadook is considered to be the embodiment of grief and as time goes on, it slowly brings its victim to the brink of insanity through their five stages of depression. The first stage is denial, meaning the Babadook weaves scenarios where the victim listens to a conversation that reminds them of something traumatic and thus perform all that they can to avoid the topic and the mention of this event, consequently isolating themselves from society including their own family members.

Abilities

The Babadook has been shown to have the ability of possession. When the Babadook weakens its victim's will and spirit to the point where they can barely walk, it plunges itself into the victim's back, which is described like having a large knife be slowly shoved into their spine. Its influence over its prey is great to where it can cause conflict and turmoil between family members, even those who are quite close in relations.
It demonstrated the ability of shape shifting. The Babadook can take the form of any person, animal, or insect. The entity usually takes the form of a person that the victim was once involved with, have a history with be it unpleasant or not. The Babadook uses this as a method of manipulation of the victim's emotions, to where it took the form of a single mother's deceased husband and convince her to offer it her son in order to devour him.
Being a tulpa, the Babadook cannot be defeated by normal conventional means. However, being the embodiment of grief, the Babadook can be defeated through acceptance. Meaning that if the victim ceases to be scared and come to terms with the tragic event that occurred in their past life, the Babadook loses its power over them. It can also fade from existence if those who believe in it, do not think about it so much to where it is real. However, given the Babadook’s methods of inducing fear into its prey, it is a task considered to be highly difficult.

Statistics for the Babadook

EWS: 80 (Notable) REF: 65 STA: 75
Injury: N/A
Disciplines: Whisper, Terrorize, Possession (deadly), Corporeal Manifestation, Change form (Deadly)
Aspects: Unfeeling, Unkillable, Unliving, Bloodless, Parasitic (grief),
Special Weakness (Bravery): The Babadook feeds on grief and fear – so the opposite is a true means of keeping the Babadook at bay, the victim of the Babadook must make a successful General willpower check If the roll fails, the Babadook is not affected and the victim needs to try again. If the roll succeeds
Will Power Check Results
Botch
The Babadook inspires more terror in the victim – the victim receives a -30 modifier to all target numbers for 1d5 rounds
Failure
The Babadook is unaffected by the attempt
Low Success
The Babadook receives a –10 modifier to all target numbers
High Success
The Babadook receives a –20 modifier to all target numbers
Colossal Success
The victims will is strong enough to create a sphere of protection naturally. The Babadook receives a –30 modifier to all target numbers
After 5 successful attempts the Babadook will dissipate and all traces of his existence will be gone – this is the only way to drive the tulpa away.

Culebra


Origins

The Culebra are an ancient race of serpentine vampires that inhabited the world for centuries. They were also known as the Waxaklahun Ubah Kan or Los Culebra which in Spanish meant Serpent. It is said that the first Culebra was created by the Nine Lords of the Night – a group of priests and priestesses who worshipped the serpent god Amaru. One night, one of the nine lords received a dream message from the serpent god tasking him with finding the virgin priestess Kisa who had ran from her tribe before she was to perform a ceremony which would have her sacrifice a baby in a blood offering to Amaru. When she was found, the High Priest Amancio ordered her to be the sacrifice to Amaru and after slitting her throat she was thrown into a pit that contained the children of Amaru (blessed snakes of Amaru) who bit at her and injected her with the poison of the culebra transforming her into the Mistress of the night and the first Culebra..

Physiology

Culebra , are a semi-reptilian race of immortal and feral creatures that feed on blood and are somehow related or descended from the Aztec snake gods, particularly a goddess. According to Professor Tanner these Culebra look more like snakes than bats and have a reptilian form. These Culebra are from Mesoamerican, Mayan or Aztec regions, unlike other vampires in the world, due to their appearance of reptiles (in other regions, vampires monstrous forms look like rats or bats). These Culebra have monstrous faces, cone-shaped fangs that fold up against the gums, flaked skin, vertical pupils, red/orange/yellowish glowing eyes and claws. Some Culebra that were large in their human form become horned and burly. Some Culebra have hardened scales while others have flaked skin like other snakes.
The blood of the living is the main component of a Culebra's diet whether from the source, from a cup or container, or from the flesh of humans, which the Culebra make into a raw delicacy. It is undetermined when Culebra need to feed, how long they can go without feeding and what ill affects it has on them if it fails to feed, while it is known that they will lose themselves to their animal instincts and behavior due to their bloodlust. They can also consume human food, but it's uncertain whether they gain sustenance from it, or simply do it to pass as human.
Despite their monstrous traits, they still retain many human traits that allow them to further the illusion that they are normal humans, such as sweating and breathing. As such, they still need to sleep, which they do during the day time. Culebra even produce waste and still grow hair like humans do.

Traits of the Culebra

Vampirism of a Culebra makes its victims immortal and gives them many supernatural powers.
·        Immortality - Culebra do not age nor decay and are immune to death by disease or sickness.
·       Accelerated Healing - Culebra heal from physical wounds much faster than humans without any lingering side effects of such injuries.
·        Superhuman Strength - A Culebra’s strength increases with age, the 1,000 year old Santanico was able to eviscerate humans much bigger than her with ease, swing her hands through a person and maul them in one strike, and throw them with one hand across a room. Freshly turned Culebra are as weak as humans and one human can easily defeat them until they are overpowered. The master Culebra can at his or her discretion create Culebra that are stronger than a normal freshly turned Culebra.
·       Steal Memories a Culebra that so much as touches a human will instantly know everything that human knows. Culebra are also able to see, hear and even feel the past of the blood they've consumed. This is why some criminal organizations have pacts with the Culebra. Knowledge in exchange for victims
·         Shapeshifting - Culebra can shape-shift into a reptilian form that is stronger and far more feral than their human form or their regular Culebra form. It causes them to mentally degenerate into mindless animals that can be killed easier as they are not as smart in a fight and are more blood crazed, though when partially transformed, they are simply more aggressive and can speak, while other are more like hungry zombies and even hunt in hoards or packs. They either have flaked or scaly skin with sometimes hardened scales and horns.
·         Wall-Crawling - Culebra are capable of scaling on surfaces opposite to the ground and on walls, possibly with their claws.

Special Abilities
Some ancient Culebra can have a special ability, such as growing a pair of bat-like wings, one ancient Culebra was able to crush someone like a boa constrictor.

Weaknesses

If Culebra are killed, they and anything they wear turns to desert-like dust with no trace that it was ever a creature.
Sunlight - Direct, strong sunlight burns their skin and, if fully immersed in it, they will die and turn to dust along with what they wear. The touch of direct sunlight will either cause their skin to burn in smoke or be set ablaze. Only direct sunlight can harm a Culebra, while one that remains in shade or shadows will remain unaffected by the sun. However, if a Culebra has recently fed, it is able to walk in sunlight temporarily.
Heart Destruction- Damaging or destroying their heart, the organ of blood and the source of their strength, usually by means of stabbing it, kills them and turns them and whatever they were into nothing but dust.
Snake Venom - It appears that snake venom can incapacitate a Culebra. An S.A.V.E. envoy was told to put some rattlesnake venom into a goblet filled with blood that would be presented to a Culebra elder. Minutes after the elder consumed the poisoned blood from the goblet, he started to choke and became paralyzed, allowing the envoy to kill the elder.

Stats for a Culebra

EWS: 80 (Notable)       REF: 70           STA: 80
Injury: Superficial, Minor –10, Serious –20, Major –30,
Critical –50, Lethal
Disciplines: Change Form (fog), Influence, Slow, Stifle,
Time Stop (Unique)
Aspects: Bane (religious symbols, holy water), Parasitic, Special Weakness (sunlight, wood), Supernatural Speed, Venomous, Sustenance, Unfeeling, Unkillable, Unliving
Special Weakness (sunlight): A Culebra dies if it is exposed to sunlight for at least one minute. However, if a Culebra has recently fed, it is able to walk in sunlight temporarily
Sustenance: Culebras must drink the blood of a living human or animal at least once a month in order to survive but like a snake they can exist up to 6 months without feeding – though they weaken as time goes by. They need only inflict a Minor Injury with their bite in order to be satisfied. Every night that goes by without feeding inflicts an Injury (beginning with Minor and escalating every day at sunrise). If the vampire reaches Lethal Injury from starvation, it becomes inert and will not revive unless human blood is spilled on its mouth.
Venomous: a bite of a culebra is venomous at the end of the scene in which the envoy is bitten, the envoy’s player rolls a General STA check. If the roll fails, the envoy is poisoned with the culebra’s venom. The venom is persistent and escalating (see p.225 of Chill). The envoy loses 5 STA a day, and the player must make a General STA check each day of game time. If the envoy succeeds in the STA check 5 times (one for each day in game time), the poison has dissipated in the envoys systems and the recovery process can begin. If the roll fails, the character suffers an Injury. If he fails the STA check five times in a row the character suffers a lethal injury and dies only to raise as a new culebra. Restorative disciplines can help the player replenish STA and Injury levels, but they don’t halt the poison. While poisoned, the envoy suffers fevers, intense pain, hallucinations, and bleeding from mouth and eyes (all of this means a -20 penalty to all target numbers, in addition to any Injury penalties).

Redneck Gators


Note: This conversion is based on the movie “Ragin’ Cajun Redneck Gators” or by its alternate name “Alligator Alley” I think these “Gators” could add something to your chill game. I know if I was a player faced with red tinged gators that can shoot spines from their tails I would piss myself and run away.

Appearance

Redneck Gators were alligators who had been mutated by tainted moonshine spilt by some of the locals into their swamp habitat. The Gators were larger than regular alligators, had a reddish coloration, a spiked carapace, and they are able to shoot spines from their tails.

Origin

The Redneck Gators were created when some Louisiana alligators ingested some toxic moonshine or they were created as a goof by some unknown being with a sense of humor. The mutation causes the gator to take on a red tinge to its skin while enlarging the gator to an average of 10 feet. It also mutated the plates on its back to become denser and provide better protection. If the mutation stopped there the redneck gators would be an impressive sight to behold…but that’s not the case – they have the ability to shoot spines from their tails and any person whom they bit would slowly transform into a Redneck Gator, retaining some traits and physical aspects of the person that they had been (for example, one Gator retained the gold tooth that he had possessed when human).

In addition, at least one of the Gators was able to remember his life as a human when he fought another Gator to protect the woman he had loved as a man. This gator later lived with the woman in her house on the bayou.

Redneck Gator Stats

EWS: 65 (common)    REF: 65                      STA: 75
Injury: Superficial, Minor –10, Serious –20, Major –30, Critical –50, Lethal
Disciplines: Hunters Mark
Aspects: Deadly Attack (Serious; tail spines only), Sturdy, Tough, Native Environment (underwater), Vigor
Infective bite:  anyone who survives a bite from a Redneck Gators is doomed to slowly become one of them. Any envoy bitten can attempt to resist the change if the player makes a general WPR check (–20 for every marked Injury box from an Redneck Gator) he or she resists the urge to change – this just delays the inevitable – the only way to undo the infection is to kill the gator that bit the player and eat the creature’s heart chasing it down with some Jim bean follow that up with a dose of the restorative form of the art such as Sphere of Protection.