Untitled - The Secrets of the Mind & Body Shaping

Sample Mythic Feats
Perception: See a sword being
drawn at a mile distance; hear grass
grow
Presence: Stop a riot with a glance,
make an animal slavishly obedient
Communication: Command a
creature to obey to the death, speak a
language never heard
Strength: Lift something 20 times
one’s own weight, infl ict a Heavy
Wound on a creature of Size +1 or less
on a successful attack
Stamina: Become immovable until
choosing to move (Grapple Strength of
21 required to move such a character),
ignore an Incapacitating Wound for
two minutes, recover a Light Wound
overnight
Dexterity: Run across treetops,
fi ght two opponents simultaneously
Quickness: Move at ten times
normal speed until fatigued, act twice
in a single round
•
•
The inner heartbeast may perform
a Mythic Feat related to its
increased Characteristic at a cost of
1 Confi dence Point. A Mythic Feat is
an automatically successful incredible
action that would normally be covered
by a single die roll, and cannot
be used on an activity which usually
takes days or seasons to perform.
The inner heartbeast is a perfect
specimen of its type. When in the
form of his virtuous inner heartbeast,
a Bjornaer magus does not
suffer from any Physical Flaws that
would normally affect his shape. A
Lame magus is not lame as a Beast
of Virtue, for example, although he
is still affected by that Flaw as his
outer heartbeast.
tHe Mystery of tHe cHiMera
(Major House Mystery)
The Beasts of Legend are our Ancestors, not
our Foes.
The Great Beast transforms the outer
heartbeast into a new inner heartbeast
that combines the features of more than
Mystery Cults
one mundane creature. Such a hybrid
creature is called a chimera. There are a
number of famous chimeras mentioned
in legend, such as the griffi n, hippogriff,
and unicorn, but the chimera need not
mimic one of these famous examples.
Instead, the inner heartbeast can take any
two creatures and borrow features from
each. The storyguide should ensure that
the combined form chosen as a character’s
inner heartbeast is still noble; for example,
a hybrid of tortoise and falcon looks ridiculous,
even though the individual animals
qualify as noble.
Naturally, one of the base creatures
must be the outer heartbeast of the magus,
and for the most part, this animal should
make up at least half of the chimera’s
body. It is impossible to include human as
one of the components of the chimerical
form (creating a centaur or mermaid, for
example).
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Once the shape of the basic chimera
has been decided, the storyguide
and player should decide which
Characteristics, Abilities, Virtues, and
Qualities (see the appendix to this chapter,
below) are retained by the chimera
from each of its parent animals. This
determines the base form of the inner
heartbeast.
As well as combining features from
each animal form, there are a number of
other benefi ts to this transformation:
•
A chimerical heartbeast is one size
category larger than the outer heartbeast,
or as big as the creature added
to the outer heartbeast, whichever
results in the greatest fi nal size.
Example: An eagle-Bjornaer (Size –2)
acquiring Characteristics of a Lion (Size
+2) becomes Size +2. A lion-Bjornaer adding
the features of an eagle becomes Size +3.