UNDEAD
- Bestiary ~&~ Liber Monstrorum ~&~ MONSTRI VOLUMEN
While ghosts and spectres in the service of the Titans can be a danger to Scions, they pale in comparison to
those foul creatures that walk the razor’s edge between life and death. Called the undead, each of these beings was
once a mortal brought to the brink of death but allowed to go no farther. Instead, their souls were prevented from
moving on to the Underworld and trapped within their own corpses by the chthonic power of the Titans. The
resulting creatures are highly intelligent and powerful animate corpses gifted with powerful supernatural abilities
and an unquenchable thirst for the life force of mortals... and Scions. There are a variety of undead species across
the World—the Greek vrykolakas, the African adze, the Japanese jikininki, the Aztec camazotz — but most Scions,
ignorant of a creature’s pedigree, might simply call it a vampire.
Like the vampires of popular culture, an undead is an animated corpse. Unlike the hungry corpse, however,
the undead usually appears to be human rather than a decaying body. To maintain
its existence, an undead must somehow feed off of the living. Most commonly, an undead gains sustenance through
drinking the blood of living people, but some cultural variations require a different diet, such as human flesh,
bones or even excrement. Undead invariably have superhuman strength and endurance, amazing quickness and
limited mind-control powers. Individual undead can have even more unusual abilities depending on their cultural
heritage, as each of the Titans granted their own variations on the undead theme. All undead are nearly immortal,
however — the only way to permanently kill one is to cut off his head and then burn the head and body separately.
Anything less will be insufficient, as the creature will simply re-form the next night.
Undead have a strong aversion to direct sunlight, fire, garlic and the holy symbols of any religion, provided
that they are brandished by an actual believer in that religion. An undead must roll his (Intelligence + highest virtue) to
approach any of these effects (with the difficulty determined by the nature of the exposure), and direct skin contact
with any of them causes aggravated damage. The amount of aggravated damage varies according to the stimulus.
For example, two individuals each brandishing holy water might inflict different amounts of damage depending on
the intensity of their respective faiths.
The following template is typical of a younger undead. Older and more powerful undead typically avoid direct
confrontation with young Scions, acting instead through proxies. Such elder monsters are usually far too powerful
for anything less than an experienced demigod to face. After the template come several cultural variations on the standard.
Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 4, Stamina 4; Charisma 4, Manipulation 3, Appearance 3; Perception 3, Intelligence 3, Wits 3
Virtues: Ambition 3, Malice 3, Rapacity 3, Zealotry 2
Abilities: Academics 3, Animal Ken 2, Art (Any One) 2, Athletics 4, Awareness 4, Brawl 4, Command 4, Control
(Any One) 1, Craft (Any One) 1, Empathy 4, Fortitude 4, Integrity 4, Investigation 2, Larceny 3, Marksmanship 1,
Medicine 1, Melee 5, Occult 3, Politics 1, Presence 5, Science (Any One) 1, Stealth 3, Survival 1, Thrown 1
- Supernatural Powers
Claws and Fangs: Undead typically have retractable claws and fangs that are not noticeable unless they choose to attack. These claws and fangs inflict +2L damage.
Cursed Blood: The blood of all types of undead allow them access to the Dark Dominion of CURSED BLOOD.
Some powerful undead can grant their thralls even greater benefits, although (contrary to popular tales) only the
most powerful of undead — those with Divinity ratings of 8 or higher — can transform a mortal into another undead creature.
Epic Attributes: Epic Strength 2 (Crushing Grip, Uplifting Might), Epic Dexterity 4 (Cat’s Grace, Lightning Sprinter,
Monkey Climber, Divine Balance, Spider Climber), Epic Stamina 2 (Damage Conversion, Self-Healing), Epic Charisma 1 (Charmer),
Epic Manipulation 2 (Overt Order, Instant Hypnosis), Epic Perception 1 (Predatory Focus), Epic Appearance 4 (All Knacks from Scion: Hero)
Invulnerability: While an undead being can be killed through physical violence, it will re-form its body the next night,
no matter how badly damaged it is. If the undead is decapitated and the head and body are burned separately,
however, the undead will die permanently.
Join Battle: 7
- Attacks
- Bite: Accuracy 9, Damage 7L, Parry DV —, Speed 5
- Clinch: Accuracy 8, Damage 5L, Parry DV —, Speed 6, P
- Unarmed, Heavy: Accuracy 7, Damage 10L, Parry DV 10, Speed 5
- Unarmed, Light: Accuracy 9, Damage 7L, Parry DV 12, Speed 4
Soak: 2A/4L/6B
Health Levels: -0x9/-4/Incap
Dodge DV: 14
Willpower: 7
Divinity: 5 (higher individual undead)
Divinity Points: 25
Momentum: 3
Trophy: Undead have no innate trophy, but most are loyal servants of the Titans with access to powerful relics.
Other Notes: Undead treat fi rearms attacks as infl icting bashing damage only.
- Vile Species
- ~ ADZE
- ~ CAMAZOTZ