The Northern Star
Role Play of the Seas
Tribal Gifts:
Octun:
Basic:
Drop like a Rock
Required: A successful Grapple challenge under water.
Cost: One Gnosis
Effect: Within you successful grappel challenge, an Octun may start to sink down to the sea bed supernaturally fast. Even if your target is trying to keep you afloat or swim. You may hold on to the target and bring them down regardless. You will drop at a rate of 50 feet per round. Your target may use a physical challenge to try and get free of your grapple, however you are a +2 trait advantage in ties against your target's efforts to do so.
Duration: Until the Target breaks free or can be shut off at will.
Ink:
Challenge: Physical Vs Target Physical
Retest: Athletics
Effect: With this Gift, an Octun may shoot an amount of Ink from their body at their target, blinding them for a short time. This of course gives an advantage to the Octun in combat. The target will suffer the same effects as the Flaw: Blind. However in combat they are automatically -2 in physical ties. This effect will last for 2 rounds of combat.
Duration: Two Rounds or up to 5 minutes without combat rounds.
Camouflage
Cost: One Gnosis
Effect: You blend in with your surroundings, becoming difficult to detect. You gain a three-Trait bonus against those who try to detect you. While this always works in the ocean, Storytellers may choose to mitigate the effect if you are in an area less befitting of the Octun tribe. However if you are in an underwater setting that may aid your hiding, such as a coral reef, the storyteller may award you with a seven-trait bonus to your hiding. Think about where you are before you activate this gift.
Duration: Until you end the effect or you move.
Trapdoor:
Required: Piscine Form.
Activation: At Will
Effect: The Octurn buries itself. Used either for hunting prey or avoiding predators the Octurn can bury itself in any form of soil or sand, even gravel, obscuring itself from view completely. If used to assist an ambush attack enjoy two additional physical traits for use in your surprise action. If hiding, you will be undetectable unless other supernatural means is being employed to discern your location, or you were witnessed burying yourself. This gift is activated at will, without test but takes an equivalent of four rounds (one minute) to accomplish. this gift provides no mobility subsurface. and leaves the surface you are buried in unblemished.
Suckers:.
Required: You can perform this gift in any form but must climb using bareskin
Activation Time: At will
Challenge: at Storyteller Descretion
Retest: Athletics (if challenge is requested)
Effect: You cling to walls and ceilings like your octopus brethren. You can climb across these surfaces at half your normal movement rate. If you succeed at an optional challenge, you can climb at your full movement rate instead.
Duration: Scene or Hour
Buoy:
Cost: One Gnosis
Effect: You can make near anything float, by touching a target underwater you are able to send it up to the surface with the sheer power of your Gnosis. This may be a living being or an item. Of course this can be used to save a life or even an item from being lost under the waves.
Cold Voice of Reason.
Required: Speak to your target in a language they can understand.
Activation Time: At will when attacked
Cost: One Gnosis
Challenge: Social vs. target
Retest: Subterfuge
Effect: You stall a target who intends to attack you, by uttering a choice few threatening words -- "I wouldn't do that if I were you," for example. They cannot take hostile actions against you for the duration.
Duration: Three turns, or until the target is attacked by anyone
Razors of the Deep:
Required: Nereid Form
Activation Time: One turn
Cost: One Rage
Effect: You sharpen your claws, honing them into even deadlier weapons. You do an additional level of Aggravated damage with all claw attacks.
Duration: One Scene or Hour
Weathering Tie:
Cost: One Gnosis
Challenge: Mental Vs Storyteller
Retest: Primal Urge
Effect: This Gift enables an Octun to summon upon his tie with the weathering forces. He can call the elements, drawing upon gusts of wind or even making it rain for short times. This gift is really down to the player in what they wish the effect to be, but must be discussed with a storyteller before the chops are made. For example a breeze can shift light objects around or even extinguish small fires, even bring some speed to the sails of a ship or rains may be drawn down to wash away threats. You may not attack a target with this gift.
Duration: Storyteller descretion.
Grapple:
Frequency: Once per scene
Challenge: Physical vs. target
Retest: Brawl
Effect: These tentacles entangle your target and grapple them. To break free, your target may try to defeat the tentacles on the same Physical Challenge with subsequent actions. The tentacles does not gain benefits for form or gifts, and it does not require an action to attempt grapple. You have a trait bonus of +5 thanks to the number of tentacles you have.
Duration: Until dismissed
Intermediate:
Terror Form:
Cost: One Rage
Challenge: Social Vs Target Willpower
Effect: This gift allows the Octun to use their skin as a form of intimidation, changing their colouring and skin's texture in the sight of their targets, they may appear spiked and spiney at will and may change their tone of skin to angry colourings in order to gain the fear of their target. Your form should be discussed prior to use with your Storyteller and when in use needs an indepth description of what your character is trying to achieve in this terror form. If your test is successful your target is at a -2 trait disadvantage to you in combat or in social challenges if combat is not active.
Duration: One Scene or Hour.
Tentacled Wrath:
Required: any form apart from Homid.
Challenge: Physical Vs Target Physical
Follow up Test: roll 1d5
Cost: One Rage
Retest: Brawl
Effect: Octuns may call upon the fury of their tribal totem and having some inspiration from it's form they may bring down a wave of fury against their enemies. Using their tentacles they may bring down a series of ferocious hits against their target and severely wound them. Once the initial test is made, if successful you may roll a d5 with the storyteller, whatever number this lands on is the amount of damage you will do to your target at bashing level.
Call the Storm
Cost: One Gnosis
Challenge: Willpower vs. variable difficulty -- four Traits to worsen the weather a bit, nine Traits to completely transform it
Retest: Science or Occult
Effect: You can summon up bad weather as you please, from merely chilling the winds to causing a blizzard on a summer's day. The storm covers a ten-mile radius. If it's a thunderstorm, you may spend a Gnosis and make a Physical Challenge (with the above retest Ability) against a target to tag them with a lightning bolt, dealing three Aggravated damage.
Duration: One Scene
Troubled Waters
Cost: One Gnosis
Challenge: Mental Vs Storyteller
Retest: Primal Urge
Effect: You cna bring about rough waters in the surrounding seas, making the waves lash and writhe around you. You do not need to be in the sea yourself for this gift to be used but it will effect about 300 meters radius from your location. The waves are able to damage ships and drag other beings under the waves. Of course it may throw ships off course or stall them for a time.
Duration: Can be ended at will or active up to 10 minutes.
Advanced:
Kraken's Fury:
Cost: One Rage
Challenge: Mental Vs Storyteller
Effect: With this Gift an Octun learns to control her frenzy, using it for more than simply speed in combat. Octuns that know this Gift may channel their Rage into both endurance and sheer might. This Gift enables the Octun to spend as many Rage Traits as she wants (provided she has them) during combat to gain extra actions regardless of normal limitations. In
addition, the Octun may ignore wound penalties in any combat turn in which she spends Rage Traits. She receives the additional Physical Traits: Tireless and Ferocious in a turn in which she spends a Rage Trait.
Duration: Until Rage has been spent.
Maelstrom:
Cost: One Gnosis & One Rage
Effect: You may not only create the storm but the Ocean is heeding you call, you may create a large Maelstrom at will, big enough to drag down a small ship within it's grasp. Where you will not be able to sink the ship, nor kill the entire crew you will be able to bring the ship down into the magical storm, making the ship reappear from the oceans like the Flying Dutchmen at a random location on the world's seas.. a good way of getting rid of an enemy ship or an aggrivating presence.