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Xefas
2015-11-10, 11:41 PM
It strikes me with a great sorrow that, with a new edition, we are once again reduced to a scant handful of the Titans' souls with which to bargain, cavort, and massacre with. To the end of minimizing my Limit gain, I'll be trying to convert some 2e demons over to the new edition, using the new demons as a guideline for how much pruning and tweaking is required. In general, their clunky hodgepodge of dozens of generic spirit Charms have been cut down to a small number of Charms that actually do something, and everything else is either handwaved or abstracted into their die pools. And permanent Essence rating seems to be smaller in this edition all around. I'll try to be following suit.

Any feedback would be great, so I can tune as I go.


Aalu, The Cannibal Bureaucrats

Unsettling combinations of desert spider and locust, the Aalu are child-sized arachnids with an insectoid abdomen and thorax, translucent wings, ten eyes, furry pedipalps, and eight legs ending in tiny, highly articulate claws. They are highly intelligent and serve as clerks, record-keepers, and miscellaneous bureaucrats throughout the Demon City. They speak a racial dialect of Old Realm that includes sundry vague nuances in meaning surrounding documents and protocols that allow them to wax lyrical about tax codes for hours without saying anything helpful at all.

Aalu are naturally blind, though possess sharp senses of hearing, smell, and taste that allow them to function without sight. A unique digestive system provides the function of reading; by eating any written material, in any language, the Aalu's stomach can consume the meaning of the words and transmit it their brain. A hinge in their jaw allows them to eat tomes that are large and unwieldy by human standards. When required to write, a gland in their abdomen allows them to spin thread at rapid speed, weaving very crisp and efficient looking silken paper from their own vital essences. An Aalu offices do not employ filing cabinets, but are instead clogged with nightmarish hives of spider-infested webbing, containing vast quantities of organically forged documentation, organized with esoteric codes woven into the webs themselves, making the retrieval of anything in a timely manner all but impossible for anything other than another Aalu.

The Cannibal Bureaucrats are most often summoned in the Second Age by Dragonblooded who'd rather be doing anything but their own paperwork, and the Aalu are all too happy to oblige. Firstly because they love paperwork, and secondly because once they are returned to the Demon City, there are other demons who wouldn't mind brokering for information on the Realm's movements - even the minor tidbits that would be trusted to a lazy Dynast might be able to be resold to a Lunar Sorcerer elsewhere. When given work, they are polite, courteous, and hard-working, and insufferably annoying and spiteful when idle.

Essence: 1; Willpower: 4; Join Battle: 6 dice
Personal Motes: 60
Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-2/-4/Inc
Actions: Bureaucracy 8 dice; Manipulation 5 dice; Senses 6 dice
Appearance 2 (Hideous), Resolve 2; Guile 4

Combat
Attack (Bite): 4 dice (Damage 8)
Combat Movement: 4 dice
Evasion 2, Parry 1
Soak/Hardness 3/0

Merits

Bugfriend: Insects and arachnids naturally leave the Aalu alone, as well their belongings and the documents spun of its essence. It is also immune to any poison produced or derived from an insect or arachnid.

Miscellanous Charms

Gleanful Word Consumption (1m; Simple; Instant; Essence 1) An Aalu may activate this Charm as they eat a written document or the brain of another Aalu, adding the sum total of its words and meanings to the demon's pool of knowledge as if it had read the document, regardless of what language it was written in. In the case of eating another Aalu's brain, they glean all the information that Aalu had recorded using this Charm during its own life. In either case, it perfectly recalls the recorded information forever (though not necessary where they acquired it, or the context surrounding its acquisition).

Hurry Home (10m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): The demon fades away and vanishes on its next turn, drawn instantly to its summoner's side. This Charm is unavailable when the demon is unbound.

Record-Weaving Method (1m; Simple; Instant; Essence 1) Using this Charm, an Aalu spins its essence into a silken document written in any language that it knows (usually only Old Realm, unless taught by a sorcerer). Each activation of this Charm can create a few standard sized pages, or a single larger scroll.

Materialize (25m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): A silken cocoon weaves itself out of thin air, and then parts, revealing the Aalu's physical body.


Amphelisiae, The Teakettle Courtiers

The Teakettle Courtiers are formed as alligator-sized iguanas, with six legs, and scales of deep blue-green, though each bears its own unique color accents. Native to the sewers and swamps of Hell, they are not particularly intelligent, but nevertheless joyful and upbeat, taking to the tasks given to them by greater demons and sorcerers with gleeful excitement. Left to their own devices, they live lives of peaceful curiosity, seeking out shiny or reflective junk that they can find, and eavesdropping on passing travelers.

The most notable of an Amphelisia's traits (relative to a dimension where enormous six-legged talking lizards are, by themselves, passe) is its relationship with sound. Their essence has physical form, as all living things, but is also partially sonic in nature, emitting a perpetual, low-level hum at all times, independent of the demon's actions or desires - it is simply a part of their nature. It is even audible to material beings while the Amphelisia is immaterial. As an Amphelisia ages and accrues more knowledge of secret things, more of the hum becomes interspersed with garbled nonsense whispers, until an ancient courtier is followed by a cacophony of hushed, conspiratorial voices. If an Amphelisia's hum is somehow silenced, they die instantly, their body dissolving into nothing as their essence gutters away.

All that aside, the Teakettle Courtiers are called to Creation not for their sunny personalities or unsettling whispers, but for their poisonous secretions and command over venomous vermin, which can offer a cheap source of poison for sorcerously inclined assassins.

Essence: 2; Willpower: 5; Join Battle: 6 dice
Personal Motes: 70
Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Inc
Actions: Senses 5 dice; Social Influence 5 dice; Stealth 5 dice; Trivial Secrets About The Mundane Lives Of Random Insignificant First Circle Demons 7 dice
Appearance 2, Resolve 3; Guile 1

Combat
Attack (Bite): 7 dice (Damage 9)
Combat Movement: 6 dice
Evasion 4, Parry 3
Soak/Hardness 5/0

Merits

Bugfriend: Insects and arachnids naturally leave the Amphelisia alone. It is also immune to any poison produced or derived from an insect or arachnid.

Whispering Essence: The constant hum emitted by a Teakettle Courtier alerts anyone nearby to their presence, but is omnidirectional, and does not give away their actual position. This makes ambush attacks difficult, if not outright impossible, for them to make, but it does not directly penalize their Stealth rolls, and they might still make a surprise attack while remaining well hidden. If some form of magic or sorcery can manage to completely silence a Teakettle Courtier's hum, they die.

Offensive Charms

The Form of Creeping, Whistling Doom (5m, 1wp; Simple; Indefinite; Essence 2) When suitably motivated, an Amphelisia may assume a potent combat form. A hidden ruff of webbed skin extends forth from behind their head, and the hum of their essence increases in intensity until it becomes a loud woosh, like a great open flame. Poisonous bugs of all kinds swarm over the Amphelisia and, at the beginning of its next turn, they reach a great enough density that the Amphelisia raises into the air in a vaguely humanoid mass of writhing insects, only its head and ruff visible beneath the grotesque voltron. At the apex of this transformation, the Amphelisia's hum becomes a shrill, piercing whistle that lasts for the duration of the Charm.

In this form, the Amphelisia gains access to a number of a new Charms, noted below, as well as a new, special health track with three -0 health levels. These levels absorb damage before the demon's normal track, and when they are filled with lethal damage, they disappear along with the damage, and this Charm is forcibly deactivated. Excess damage spills over into the demon's normal health. Furthermore, maintaing this form is taxing to an Amphelisia, and they lose 1 mote of essence at the end of each of their turns in combat, or every minute outside of combat. If they cannot pay this recurring mote cost, the Charm is forcibly deactivated as well. Finally, the Amphelisia gains the Hideous trait while this Charm is active.

Poisonous Spit (2m; Simple; Instant; Decisive-Only; Essence 1) An Amphelisia may only use this Charm while in The Form of Creeping, Whistling Doom. They eject a stream of viscous, foul smelling poison from their gullet at up to short range, as a decisive attack. If the attack hits and has enough dice behind it to overcome the target's Hardness, it deals no damage, but infects the target with a poison that deals 2i/damage per round (L in Crash), for 3 rounds, and inflicts a -3 penalty.

Alternatively, the Amphelisia may simply drool the poison, potentially into a vial or other container, so that something with opposable thumbs may later use it to coat a weapon or poison some (pungent) food. This poison remains dangerous for around two days, before breaking down and becoming inert.

Vermin Swarm (5m; Simple; Instant; Essence 2) An Amphelisia may only use this Charm while in The Form of Creeping, Whistling Doom. With a gesture, they send a frothing wave of biting, venomous bugs at a target within short range. The target rolls (Dexterity + Dodge) against a difficulty of 3. If they fail, they are now at the center of a small swarm of insects that are highly interested in eating their flesh. They take 3L dice of damage at the beginning of every turn, until they make a successful Disengage action (difficulty 3) to flee the swarm. A Simple combat action with appropriate fire, magic, or stunting behind it can also disperse the swarm.

Alternatively, an Amphelisia may fill the area around them with this Charm, in which case it acts as an environmental hazard for anyone that enters within close range of them. It deals 3L dice of damage very turn and is difficult 3 to resist. The swarm disperses if the Amphelisia moves away from it, in this case.

A normal Amphelisia only has enough bug mojo to maintain two swarms generated by this Charm at a time, but may reflectively call one or both active ones back to itself to use them again.

Movement Charms

Hexapod Lizard Scuttle (3m; Supplemental; Instant; Essence 1) An Amphelisia may use this Charm to put on a sudden, if short lived, burst of speed, supplementing a Rush or Disengage action, or a contest involving foot racing. They gain double 8s on the supplemented roll. However, they may only use this Charm once per scene, unless reset by taking lethal damage.

Miscellaneous Charms

Hurry Home (10m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): The demon fades away and vanishes on its next turn, drawn instantly to its summoner's side. This Charm is unavailable when the demon is unbound.

Materialize (35m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): Two swiveling lizard eyes bob up and down in the air for a few moments until a scaly form slithers out of nothing to attach itself to them.


Gallmaus, The Hooded Lanterns

Seven feet tall, and horrifically gaunt and angular, a Gallmau from the neck down appears as a grayish-brown humanoid on the cusp of death from starvation, and with leg bones broken into the resemblance of a canine's, though functional. Its hands are hugely over-proportioned from the rest of its body, with a few too many joints, and large, wicked claws. However, its most disturbing feature is the long, sleek fleshy tube that serves as its head. Initially featureless, when a Gallmau wishes, it may peel back the skin of its head, revealing a bloated lamprey's mouth overflowing with ridges and outcroppings of jagged teeth, growing off one another in a roughly circular pattern fanning out from a central hole through which its luminescent tongue extends. This tongue, several feet in length when fully extended, exudes bright light like a lantern. And is pretty gross.

Gallmau have excellent senses of direction and minds for memorizing pathways and landscapes, and are excellent trackers. These are the services for which a Gallmau is most often called to Creation - sent to hunt down a particular creature or location, then return and lead the Sorcerer to their prey. They fulfill a similar role in the Demon City, mentally mapping out a section of its dangerous and obtuse underways, then charging other demons to guide them safely through. Their gaunt bodies can be bent and squeezed through very tiny places indeed, which aids them in traversing routes with their smaller kin.

The Hooded Lanterns are very quiet folk by nature, and what words they speak are shrill and blood-curdling to both mortal and demon alike. Still, they are good listeners, and not overtly mean or hateful, though their interests tend to align singularly with tunnels, drinking blood, and eating the tongues of humans, which they find to be the greatest delicacy of Creation.

Essence: 2; Willpower: 5; Join Battle: 6 dice
Personal Motes: 70
Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Inc
Actions: Bargaining 4 dice; Feats of Strength 6 dice (may attempt Strength 3 feats); Navigating Tunnels 10 dice; Tracking 7 dice; Senses 5 dice; Stealth 7 dice
Appearance 3 (Hideous), Resolve 2; Guile 3

Combat
Attack (Claw): 7 dice (Damage 11 and disease when decisive, virulence 2, morbidity 4, internval: one day)
Grapple: 6 dice
Combat Movement: 6 dice
Evasion 3, Parry 3
Soak/Hardness 5/0

Merits

Lantern Tongue: While a Gallmau's tongue is revealed, it sheds light as a lantern.

Light Sensitive: When operating in well-lit areas, subtract two dice from a Gallmau's pools for Navigating Tunnels, Tracking, or using their Senses, as well as their attack rolls. This increases to three dice if the light is sunlight.

Offensive Charms

Drag Into The Dark (15m, 1wp; Supplemental; Instant; Withering-Only; Essence 2): This Charm supplements an ambush or surprise attack. If the attack Crashes its target, the Gallmau may reflexively attempt to Grapple them. If they succeed in gaining at least 3 rounds of control on the Grapple, they may spend 3 rounds of control on their first turn of Grappling to take both a decisive Savage action, and a Restrain/Drag action.

Rending Claw Slash (5m, 1i; Supplemental; Instant; Uniform; Essence 1): When a Gallmau savages a grappled enemy, it doubles 9s on the damage roll. If it receives 6+ extra successes on the attack roll, double 8s as well.

Social Charms

Are You Afraid Of The Dark? (5m; Simple; Instant; Psyche; Essence 2) A Gallmau may use this Charm only in an area where the only source of light is its own tongue. It rolls 8 dice, and any creatures present that are not naturally at home in the dark gain a Minor Intimacy of fear towards dark places if their Resolve is equal to or less than the number of successes. A character may spend a point of Willpower to resist, which renders them immune to all uses of this Charm by any Gallmaus for the rest of the current story, and leads them to believe that the present Gallmau may be trying to ensnare their mind, if it was not already obvious.

Gallmau often use this new Intimacy to bargain for greater payment, once they've lead a traveler into someplace dark and scary.

Miscellaneous Charms

Hurry Home (10m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): The demon fades away and vanishes on its next turn, drawn instantly to its summoner's side. This Charm is unavailable when the demon is unbound.

Materialize (35m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): A black cloak appears from the ground like an oily puddle, and then slowly rises, the Gallmau's body appearing from under it until the cloak covers only its hunched shoulders.


Gethins, The Harvesters of Rarities

In a Gethin's natural state, it appears as a dapperly groomed salamander that stands on its hind legs with excellent posture, between five and six feet depending on the individual, plus a lengthy tail. The length of its body is clothed in black feathers, and its large glimmering eyes show great intelligence within. It can slowly walk while in this stance, which it prefers, but must assume a quadrupedal gait to make anything resembling haste. They rarely speak in this form unless spoken to, but are polite and well-articulated when doing so, using small hand gestures and ***** of the head to add expressions where its lizard-face falls short.

Their title, the Harvesters of Rarities, refers to the purpose of their creation, as expert thieves in the service of a powerful and greedy Second Circle Demon. To this end, they were given a fascination with treasure and treasure-hunts, and gladly accept jobs from other demons, or sorcerers, to seek out and acquire valuables that technically belong to someone else. As a quirk of their birth, each Gethin is born with a single object somewhere in Creation or Hell that is their heart's desire, and while they are not born knowing what it is, they will understand the moment that they lay eyes on the object. The moment a Gethin actually touches their heart's desire, the two merge together, and the Gethin happily perishes in a scintillating burst of joy, from which two new, fully grown, Gethin emerge. These children are distinct entities from their parent, and bear none of their oaths or obligations (save for those all demons share by their very nature), which is what let them slip the bonds of their creator's slavery, but they are also born unbound, even if their parent was bound to a sorcerer.

A Gethin's greatest tool in thievery is their ability to copy the appearance, personality, and memories of other creatures, while leaving them non-lethally detained for the duration. A standard Gethin job begins with identity theft, followed by the victim's house being cleaned out of all valuables, then the victim stumbling home with no recollection of what happened, and no grisly deaths leading to vengeance being sought on the Gethin in question. This is the gift for which sorcerers most often call a Gethin to Creation to make use of.

Essence: 2; Willpower: 5; Join Battle: 8 dice
Personal Motes: 70
Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Inc
Actions: Bargaining 6 dice; Performance 5 dice; Pickpocketing 6 dice; Stealth 7 dice; Tracking 4 dice
Appearance 2; Resolve 2; Guile 4

Combat
Attack (Punch/Kick/Tail Slap): 5 dice (Damage 7)
Combat Movement: 6 dice
Evasion 3, Parry 3
Soak/Hardness 5/0

Merits

Languages: Gethin have a knack for language, and most have picked up at least one of Creation's tongues, unless they are very recently born. Gethin that have served sorcerers in Creation for many years may have picked up two or three.

Miscellaneous Charms

Identity Stealing Gaze (15m, 1wp; Simple; One Day; Essence 2): With this Charm, a Gethin first makes eye contact with its target. Characters with no knowledge of this specific demon shouldn't have any reason to avert their gaze if their attention is caught by one. Someone who is aware of this power can simply shut their eyes for the round, which renders them immune to this Charm, but requires that they act blind for the interim. Creatures with an Essence of 2 or greater are immune to this Charm outright, save for Demons, who must have at least Essence 3 to be immune.

After establishing eye contact, the Gethin's shape liquefies into a nebulous blob of black oil, reshapes itself, then solidifies, becoming a perfect physical copy of their victim for the duration of the Charm, down to even their voice and exotic mutations.

Then comes the mental transfer. The Gethin rolls 8 dice against the target's Guile. If successful, the Gethin steals a substantial portion of the target's personality and memory. They know all of the target's spoken and written languages. They apply 6 dice on rolls to remember specific things about the target's past. A simple, recent fact, such as what they had for breakfast yesterday, might be difficult 1, with ascending difficulty for more esoteric and distant memories. Someone able to interrogate the Gethin for an extended period can make an opposed (Manipulation + Socialize or Presence) roll to trip up a Gethin's recollection and fool them into revealing their false nature. However, in terms of brief, superficial interactions, like small talk or a passing greeting, the Gethin mimic's their target's mannerisms and quirks perfectly.

Meanwhile, a character that has had their personality and memory stolen by a Gethin must make a similar (Wits + Lore) roll to remember facts about themselves, and are bereft of their natural quirks, seeming to be a bad imposter of themselves. In the immediate, the victim takes a -3 penalty on all actions for one turn after being struck by this effect, and forgets everything concerning the Gethin that stole their identity which transpired within the last hour.

When this Charm ends, or the Gethin dies, a victim of this mental transfer regains all their memories and other faculties. At the same time, the Gethin loses all stolen memories and can no longer recall or properly mimic them.

If a Gethin succeeds in stealing a character's shape, but not in transferring their mental details, they may attempt to use this Charm on the same target again, or they must simply have to make do with only a physical disguise.

I Know All Of Your Kung Fu (4m; Reflexive; Instant; Essence 2) A Gethin may activate this Charm to reroll two failures on an attack against someone whose shape they've stolen with their Identity Stealing Gaze Charm.

Against someone whose memory and personality the Gethin currently possesses, they may activate this Charm to turn an attack into an automatic surprise attack, or to add +1 to their Defenses against an attack from that person.

Hurry Home (10m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): The demon fades away and vanishes on its next turn, drawn instantly to its summoner's side. This Charm is unavailable when the demon is unbound.

Materialize (35m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): A dust-devil of black feathers whips up from the ground, then clumps into a shaggy ball. With an unceremonious 'pop' a lizard head pokes out from the feathers, and then the ball elongates into the Gethin's snazzy salamander form.


Heranhals, The Fervid Smiths

Short, fat, leathery, gnarled, greasy, angry, loud, hairy, gravel-voiced demons, the Heranhals are common sights in Hell, born to toil away endlessly in its many smithies, churning out weapons and armor for the multitudinous wars between the greater souls of the Titans or, in the case of the luckier ones, to toil away endlessly in the creation of musical instruments, jewelry, and glass baubles to amuse less violently inclined citizens. Tough and resistant to heat, the Fervid Smiths rarely feel the need to clothe their sweat-caked bodies, such that their factory floors are filled with throngs of surly, naked dwarves singing bawdy work chanteys in a variety of dissonant keys.

Though Heranhals are created to work, work is not their reason to live. They are, each one of them to the last, insatiably lascivious, and Hell's brothels fill to bursting at the end of a Heranhal factory's work-day. Though the average Fervid Smith does not possess the etiquette with which to articulate it, they each love and respect nothing more than those who make flesh their business, and most live very simple lives despite never being out of work, having heaped all their coins and crafts on those who can give them some brief respite from the fire in their soul.

When a sorcerer calls a Heranhal to Creation, it is always with craftsmanship in mind, though they must have some way to satiate them, lest the demon become inconsolably irate and produce shoddy work.

Essence: 1; Willpower: 4; Join Battle: 4 dice
Personal Motes: 60
Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Inc
Actions: Bangin' 4 dice; Crafting With Metal, Glass, or Thread 7 dice; Knowledge of Hell's Mystical Crafting Ingredients 5 dice; Resisting Heat 10 dice; Social Influence 4 dice (7 dice via Smoldering Passion Gift, see below)
Appearance 2 (Hideous), Resolve 2; Guile 1

Combat
Attack (Hammer): 8 dice (Damage 13)
Grapple: 7 dice
Combat Movement: 5 dice
Evasion 3, Parry 3
Soak/Hardness 6/0 (usually 7/1, see Forge-Tempered Skin)

Social Charms

Smoldering Passion Gift (4m; Supplemental; Instant; Eclipse; Essence 1) This Charm supplements a Heranhal's instill action to create or strengthen an Intimacy of Lust towards them when they present a gift crafted by their own skill to the subject of their affections. For this action, they are not considered Hideous, they suffer no penalties to their roll based on being an ugly, greasy, smelly, ill-tempered, morose, and manner-lacking oaf, and if the item they present is exceptional in quality, they may substitute the relevant Craft skill that made the item with as their social ability for the action. If this Charm succeeds in creating an Intimacy, as long as that Intimacy lasts, the owner does not consider the Heranhal to have the Hideous trait.

(Heranhals normally have four dots in the relevant Craft skill. The wording above is to clarify for an Eclipse that takes this Charm.)

Defensive Charms

Forge-Tempered Skin (4m; Reflexive; One Scene; Eclipse; Essence 1) Scarred and beaten by the intense heat of Malfean forges, a Heranhal's leathery skin is already resilient, but they may pour yet more essence into their flesh when the need arises. They add their Essence in automatic successes on rolls to resist fire or heat based environmental hazards, and may always use (Stamina + Resistance) as the attribute and ability to resist fire and heat based environmental hazards, even if other characters must use (Dexterity + Dodge) to roll away from an explosive backdraft, or (Wits + Survival) to get by in hellish weather, for example. Furthermore, they increase their Soak and Hardness by (Essence).

Miscellaneous Charms

Hammers Driven By Passion (3m; Supplemental; Instant; Eclipse; Essence 1) This Charm can supplement two different actions.

In the first case, it may supplement an act of sexual congress with someone who possesses a positive intimacy for the demon, or that the demon has paid for the services of. In this case, a Heranhal gains 2 points of silver crafting experience, turning physical passion into a passion to create. This function of the Charm may only be used a maximum of once per day.

In the second case, it may supplement an action to finish a crafting project if the Heranhal engaged in at least one act of sexual congress per day for the majority of days during the crafting. This adds two automatic successes to the roll.

Hurry Home (10m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): The demon fades away and vanishes on its next turn, drawn instantly to its summoner's side. This Charm is unavailable when the demon is unbound.

Materialize (25m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): The sound of a hammer striking an anvil comes, as if from far away. It resounds again, closer, and again and again, closer each time. Finally, as the invisible source feels as if it is directly upon the point of manifestation, the Heranhal winks into existence with a quiet, anticlimactic 'whump', and proceeds to sigh and scratch its armpits.


Sesseljae, The Stomach Bottle Bugs

The Stomach Bottle Bugs are formed of a central, broad oval of chitin about the size of an adult human fist. From this core, ten many-jointed legs protrude, ending in tiny, highly dexterous pincers, concealing retractable blades resembling the shape and sharpness of a scalpel. Each side of the demon has extendable eye-stalks, and fine indentations and minuscule hollows along its hind four legs allow it to produce flute-like singing when rubbed together. They have very high-pitched, childish voices, and simple, childish intellects to match.

The purpose and joy of a Sesseljae's life is to consume poison, rot, and corruption from the bodies of demonkind and, indeed, the fulfillment of this purpose is their only source of sustenance. They launch themselves into infected creatures, parting their meat like water, then swimming through them like a fish, causing no harm as they do so. Once inside, they systematically search for any signs of corruption, devour what they can, and excise the rest, releasing spurts of putrescence from the host's skin as they do so. They do not stop until the host is well, or some poison too great ends up killing them.

Despite what good they do, large swarms of Sesselja are still considered a grave nuisance in the Demon City, for after they have cleansed all the inhabitants in a particular district, they descend upon lesser poisons, clearing taverns of their booze reserves in a scuttling tide, and devouring opium dens whole. Creation's sorcerers, meanwhile, have the luxury of summoning only one at a time. Mortal sorcerers stand to gain much from the long-time symbiosis of having one of the Stomach Bottle Bugs live inside of them, while the Chosen might use them as protection when venturing to the East, with its many venomous plants and animals. Because Sesselja require some form of poison or disease to sustain themselves, those that wish to host them long-term tend to cultivate drinking habits.

Essence: 1; Willpower: 2; Join Battle: 4 dice
Personal Motes: 60
Health Levels: -0/-0/-4/Inc
Actions: Resisting Poison/Disease 8 dice; Senses 3 dice; Singing 3 dice; Stealth 6 dice; Treating Disease 7 dice
Appearance 1 (Hideous), Resolve 2; Guile 1

Combat
Attack (Claw): 4 dice (Damage 1)
Combat Movement: 2 dice
Evasion 3, Parry 1
Soak/Hardness 1/0

Merits

Poisoned By Purity: Certain substances are harmful to Stomach Bottle Bugs, burning them like hot iron on contact. These are: tears, seawater, silver, gold, salt, and the blood of virgins. They take one automatic lethal level of damage each turn they remain in contact with such a substance. For this reason, the application of these substances around an area will ward it from their passing, unless the alternative for the Sesselja is immediate death or if a sorcerer that has bound them commands it.

Support Charms

Demonic Meatgliding Prowess (5m; Supplemental; Instant; Essence 1) This Charm supplements a claw attack by the Sesselja, allowing it to synchronize the essence of its flesh with that of its target, entering and swimming through their body like a fish through water on a successful hit. Against a willing target, the attack automatically succeeds and deals no damage. Once the Sesselja is in the target's body, it remains synchronized with the body indefinitely until it willingly leaves, or is removed. A character with a Sesselja in its body may spend a miscellaneous action to vomit the demon out of itself, albeit with some minor tearing in the process which deals 1 level of bashing damage. While inside of a body, a Sesselja's attacks automatically hit without an attack roll necessary. Only one Sesselja can live inside a single human-sized body at a time.

Monotonous Meat-Maintaining Methodology (5m; Simple; Indefinite; Essence 1) Once a Sesselja has entered the body of another creature, it may set about routine maintenance, making the whole system work with superhuman efficiency. The host body acquires the 'Exalted Healing' merit for as long as the Sesselja remains inside them and continues its commitment of motes. Furthermore, mortal bodies that have already reached adulthood age roughly 25% more slowly while this Charm is active upon them, as the Stomach Bottle Bug staves off time's gradual decay.

Putrescence-Noming Hunger (3m; Simple; Instant; Essence 1) While inside another creature's body, a Sesselja may activate this Charm to consume one ongoing poison within their body, which include things normally considered poison, but also intoxicants such as alcohol or other recreational drugs. The Sesselja immediately rolls to resist the poison, subtracting from any remaining duration their host is suffering from. If the Sesselja does not reduce its duration to nothing outright, then the remaining poison is still moved to its body, and its host is still spared. Poisons so minor as to not have mechanically enforced durations and penalties, like standard booze, are just consumed instantly, and the host feels nothing. This Charm may be activated reflexively when a new poison enters a body that the Sesselja is already inside, shielding the host from the poison before it ever touches them.

Innard-Sculpting Surgery (6m; Supplemental; Instant; Essence 1) From inside the body of another creature, a Sesselja may activate this Charm to supplement a roll to treat a disease within their host body. Because of their unique vantage point and biology, they need not diagnose the disease beforehand, suffer no penalties for lacking tools, and may treat even diseases that require extensive and complicated surgery, as the Sesselja is capable of swimming through its host, detecting abnormalities with the same base intuition that a human detects light or sound, and excise it with tiny, precise movements orders of magnitude beyond what any clumsy human fingers could. They also tend to sing and laugh unsettlingly as they do so. If the disease is already at the Major or Defining stage, the Sesselja gains a single automatic success on their roll, as the rampant infection is all the easier to find and stamp out.

Miscellaneous Charms

Hurry Home (10m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): The demon fades away and vanishes on its next turn, drawn instantly to its summoner's side. This Charm is unavailable when the demon is unbound.

Materialize (25m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): A tiny chitinous leg pokes out from seemingly nowhere, following by another, then another. They pull and struggle at some invisible bond before, finally, there's a soft 'pop' and the Sesselja's body tumbles into existence.

Xefas
2015-11-10, 11:42 PM
Reserved For More Demons

Xefas
2015-11-13, 07:46 PM
I've converted two more First Circle Demons: Amphelisia, the Teakettle Courtiers, and Gethin, the Harvesters of Rarities.

Both lizard demons, but quite different in ability and purpose.

Xefas
2015-11-16, 05:52 PM
I've converted two more First Circle Demons: Heranhals, The Fervid Smiths, and Sesseljae, The Stomach Bottle Bugs.

They're two of my favorites. Sesseljae in particular. They're like giant demonic suppositories that cure cancer.

Edit: Also, I'm experimenting with doing Eclipse-keyworded spirit charms. There are so few in the core book, and only one at Essence 1. After writing the Heranhal's Charms, they seemed sort of Eclipse-y to me, so I tweaked them to the point where they felt appropriate-ish. Power level wise and stuff. More appropriate...ish, anyway.

Sith_Happens
2015-11-16, 06:54 PM
I'm pretty sure if Heranhals are going to have a social Charm they need a social influence dice pool size given (with and without the Charm supplementing).

Xefas
2015-11-16, 07:15 PM
I'm pretty sure if Heranhals are going to have a social Charm they need a social influence dice pool size given (with and without the Charm supplementing).

Thank you for catching that. It should be fixed now.

McAllister
2015-11-25, 08:03 PM
This is delightful work, thank you. I'm curious, what's your take on the demjen and the chalcothetes? Is the demon still maintaining the quickened ore with committed motes? Is there anything else they do, or do they just let their summoner pretend to be Kamaji from Spirited Away, with his army of sootsprites?

Scarlet Dragon
2015-12-08, 03:05 PM
Great work, but it looks like you forgot to give them Measure the Wind like their counterparts.

Xefas
2015-12-08, 03:48 PM
This is delightful work, thank you. I'm curious, what's your take on the demjen and the chalcothetes? Is the demon still maintaining the quickened ore with committed motes? Is there anything else they do, or do they just let their summoner pretend to be Kamaji from Spirited Away, with his army of sootsprites?

They're definitely near the top of my list of demons to do next. I'm not 100% sure how I'll translate them yet.


Great work, but it looks like you forgot to give them Measure the Wind like their counterparts.

You're absolutely right. I'm finishing up a Behemoth right now, which I'll be posting later today. But I'll try to fix this afterward.

ChaosArchon
2016-07-12, 01:48 PM
This looks really awesome so far! I may start porting over the Tomescues and Pereonelles as well and would love if I could put them here for you to look at. Perhaps we could make a google doc and work to port over demons to 3e? Just an idea.