Chaosium Digest Volume 14, Number 2 Date: Sunday, April 14, 1996 Number: 2 of 4 Contents: Nephilim Australis Incogito, Part 2 (Timothy Ferguson) NEPHILIM -------------------- From: Timothy Ferguson Subject: Nephilim Australis Incogito, Part 2 System: Nephilim INDIGENOUS METAMORPHOSES (CONT.) Moon Snake The Snakes of Australia are the same as snakes elsewhere, although they are not initially visually distinctive from the Serpents. Snakes and Serpents in this country have a long-standing hatred in some areas. Jugi (Black Dog) Jugi are calf-sized dog-like creatures, found in many countries of the world, but especially the British Isles. There they are called Barguests, or Cu Anwynn or Hellhounds. They have bulging eyes that seem to burn malevolently and their stare implants terror within the mind of viewers. Those who strike Jugi with weapons suffer the injury themselves, a phenomenum not seen in British Hellhounds. The Strength Arcanum discovered this early and has since left them alone. Cruel: As the creature increases its Cruelty, it grows savage fangs. Once this score reaches sixteen or more, it can project an aura of menace with its glance that terrifies humans so that they need to make an Idea roll to not flee in terror. Even if humans stay and face the monster, they fight with their skills halved due to the distraction of the terrible images that visit their minds and phantom pains that course through their bodies. Energetic: As the creature's energy increases it begins to drawn in energy from nearby, including heat and light. This makes the jugi dark and cold. Once the statisic becomes very high, this also begins to influence the area around the beast, to a range of two meters or so. Loyal: Althought they operate independantly, persistent rumours indicate that certain great spiritual beings have the alligence of the Black Dogs. Herne, creator of the first stases, is said to gather a huge group of them in Windsor on some Midwinter's Eves, to hunt out the enemies of the Nephilim. Annywn is said to be the lord of an enormous pack of such things. A Jugi's loyalty sets how closely it resembles a canine, with those who are remarkably Loyal adding d6 to each of their strength and size, if this is higher than their Ka bonus. This also affects their voice, so that it becomes gravelly and low. Pragmatic: This skill individualizes each Black Dog, so that it suits its environment better. Some Black Dogs have burning eyes or sulphorous breaths. One, from the north of Britain, is white. Another has only one large eye, but has a horn which it can impale foes upon. The most tricky of these creatures is Padfoot, whose feet are on backwards, so that those who flee its howl by running along its tracks run toward it, not away. In addition to this, Pragmatic Jugi mark their territories with a unique scent. It is not noticeable by humans, but may terrify animals. Characters with "Smell" skills will notice a sort of animal taint in the air. Vengeful: Black Dogs are territorial and do not forgive those who traspass their perogatives. Vengful dogs grow thick, dark hair all over their bodies, which gives them camoflague when hunting trespassers. When a Vengeful Jugi is struck with a weapon, the harmer takes 1d6+2 damge, ignoring armour. They may resist with their Ka if they are a Nephilim or an awakened Human. A Natural Phenomenon: Shadows. A Stone: Coal. An Animal: A wolf. A Colour: Black. A Mythological Being: Balor. A Famous Human Being: None. A Human Activity: Fleeing in terror. A Work of Art: "Petite Chaperon Rouge" ("Little Red Riding Hood"). A Weapon: Teeth. An Object: A Laser-sight. Earth Mimis (Upper Earth) "Exceptionally-skilled spirit hunters who were the original inhabitants of Northern Australia. A mimi is a spirit-creature who looks like a living stick-figure, is taller than a human, and is as light as straw... the Mimis taught men how to use spears and hunt kangaroos. The oldest surviving Mimi paintings are probably 20,000 years old. Mimis can split rocks with a finger and step inside to hide, sealing up the rock behind them in the same manner. These weird creatures do not veture out of their rocks if there is a wind, however slight, for fear of being blown away and breaking their scrawny necks." A later note makes the point that Mimi communicate by painting incredibly quickly. -Terror Australis, p.46. Mimis, in short, have more than the usual two magical powers. To compensate for this, they can be killed by anyone with a ceiling fan. Private: Mimis form a small tribe which shuns other contacts. As the Mimi becomes increasingly withdrawn, its body fades into a two dimesional "stick-man" shape. The skin also darkens to look like rock or shadow. Mimi who are private develop a scent like dirt, dust or rock. This is to prevent carnivores from following them. Humans who disturb and anger Mimi sometimes have their faces eaten off by way of reprisal, which lowers their appearance to 3 + Ka bonus. Conservative: Mimi are the guardians of the secrets under the Earth. During the wars with the whitefella spirits the Mimi played little part, save to shelter other indigenous Nephilim in deep caves. They are terrified of Slyphs in the same way we would be of a person continually carrying a running chainsaw or loaded shotgun. Self-preservation is enhanced mightily once this score reaches 16+, which allowa Mimi to split rocks and hide within them, then seal up the rocks. Some urban mimi have noticed that this talent works on most solids, including glass and cement. Altruistic: Mimi are one of the few Nephilim groups who consistently aid humans, teaching them magic and how to survive. As a Nephilim becomes more altruistic, they develop the ability to turn humans into Mimi. Those who eat Mimi food or have sex with a Mimi woman, which is possible because they are more curvaceous than Mimi men and have very attractive bosoms, change into Mimi within three hours. These new Mimi are not Nephilim, but are humans who have been possesed by a sort of lesser Mimi spirit and have the physical and emotional make-up of a Mimi, but have only Earth and Solar Ka. Awakened Humans and Nephilim may resist this effect with a Ka battle. Should a Nephilim fail, they are forced out of their simulacrum by the new Mimi spirit and must find a new body. Mimi will seek out a human with offers of food or sex if one of their kind has recently gone into Stasis. As many know where plexi have formed deep beneath the Earth, they get the transforming human and the Stasis and carry them there, giving their fellow a head-start on his Metamorphosis of about twenty points. PCs don't get this without roleplaying out the whole business. Mimi who are even vaugely altruistic have the ability to communicate by rapid drawing. This skill becomes increasingly remarkable as the score becomes higher, until eventually they are faster than a laserprinter. They are mute, although some have spells that can mimic voices. Curious: Mimi love watching people and things. They find the surface a really interesting place to be. They are curious about foriegn Nephilim too, but find Elves and Satyrs to be tragic figures. They aren't sure how you can be an Earth Spirit and not be able to enter rocks. They and the Nybols, described below, pity the Elves and Satyrs and sometimes lead them underground, to try to enrich the lives of their impaired bretheren. This annoys elves no end. Generally the Satyrs are too rowdy for the Mimi, so they are led underground by the Nybols, who have a talent with food, so the Satyr enjoys the experience. Satyrs now know to keep it in their trousers when around Mimi women. Pragmatic: Australia is a harsh country and the unadaptable do not survive. The more pragmatic a Mimi becomes, the more practiced its survival skills become. Eventually, on scores of 16+, the Mimi gains the ability to "skip through the air like minnows in a stream" [To quote a good metaphor from "Terror Australis" p. 46.] and to dodge attacks directed at it. [To again borrow from "Terror Australis" p.46...] Assume that the Mimi has a "Dodge" skill of 100% and can both dodge and attack at the same time. For each attack already dodged this round, the score is lowered by 1%. For example, if someone fires a machine gun at a Mimi and they wish to dodge the burst of twelve bullets, they roll twelve times, once at 100%, then at 99% and so on, down until the twelfth roll at 89%. Each successful roll means that one bullet missed. Area effects like explosives and windstorms cannot be dodged. A Natural Phenomenon: Cracks in rocks. A Metal: Gold in quartz. An Animal: a lizard who hides in fissures. A Colour: Ochre. A Mythological Being: A Mimi. A Famous Human Being: Harry Houdini. A Human Activity: Rock-climbing. A Work of Art: The image left by Mimis when they went into rock, of themselves. A Weapon: The Spear. An Object: Graffiti. Nybols (Lower Earth) Nybols are little people who hide in rocks. They challenge human beings to wrestling matches and never lose. Nybols were hunted by the Strength Arcanum, who believed they were a tribe suffering Dwarfism. Although this is not accurate, Nybols do seem immune to that particular form of Khaiba. Energetic: As the little Nybol becomes increasingly energetic, its body changes slightly, becoming less hairy and altering proportions to be similar to a muscular human baby. It does not lose height due to this emotion, its limbs simply alter to give it the internal proportions of a baby or dwarf. Honourable: As the Nybol's Honour increases, it becomes increasingly hospitible and, since it is a requirement of Nybol society, adept at wrestling. Nybols should mutliply their "Honourable" score by five and add that to their Grapple skill before any bout of wrestling. Indulgent: As Nybols become increasingly indulgent, their voices change, becoiming quiet and musical. They become conniseurs and are able to scavange delicacies from the land. To those not as sophisticated as the Nybol, their feasts, although delicious, look off-puttingly like a collection of berries, bettles, spiders and fungi. Joyous: The Nybol always seems to be enjoying itself immensely. It radiates earger, earnest Joy. When it says "Wrestle?" you can tell it really wants to have fun wrestling and when you agree and it says "Wrestle!" you are sure it is about to have a hoot of a time. Suspicious characters find this sort of behaviour offputting, wondering what suprise the creature has up its metaphorical sleeve. Private: As the Nybol becomes increasingly private, it begins to shrink. Eventually, it becomes only about a foot high, regardless of Ka modifiers. By way of compensation, once this skill reaches 16+ the Nybol can dwell inside rocks and walk into or through similar structures, such as brick walls. Most Nybols live in communities under a favourite rock, but many solitary Nybols don't mind human houses being built over their rocks, as this prevents humans distubing them and does not impinge upon the freedom of the Nybol's movement. Most early Australian houses were wooden, but with the coming of widespread use of brick many Nybols have gone urban. Nybols smell like the ground that surrounds their lair, so the urban Nybols smell of cement and road-tar. A Natural Phenomenon: Pebbles. A Metal: Dining silver. An Animal: The bilby A Colour: Sandy yellow. A Mythological Being: The toad who drank all the water. A Famous Human Being: Peter Russell-Clarke (An Australian chef). A Human Activity: Wrestling. A Work of Art: A banquet. A Weapon: A spider put in a boot. An Object: A rock. ALCHERINGA: THE DREAMTIME Long ago, there was either void or undifferentiated mass. The ancestor-spirits moved through it, giving it shape and rationale. After a time, the ancestors withdrew into a land coexistent with our own, the Subtle Plane of Alcheringa, the Time before our time. Wirruwen, the Aboriginal magicians, knew paths to and through Alcheringa. Nephilim who existed prior to the European conquest may still know the ways into Alcheringa and the methods of its use. As Aboriginal religion shows litle continuity, it is not possible to create a unified Alcheringa accepting all their traditions. Is the Sun spilt egg yolk or a woman with a firestick seeking her child? That being said, Alcheringa is still mechanically useful in the game as the source of unique Australian spirits. Additionally, to alter the focus of Aboriginal Nephilim a little, those Nephilim who die in Australia by being discorporated into the energy fields are reicorporated in Alcheringa, so long as the are on their homeland or their separated spirit can find its way back there. Gradually European Nephilim who are lost in Alcheringa will be transformed into local forms, in time possibly becoming a totem-spirit. It is not possible to re-enter the real world for a great deal of time. That is, once a Nephilim fades into Alcheringa, the player should roll up a new character unless the gamesmaster is willing to run an exceptional scenario to alllow the character to return. Waking From The Dream Re-entry into our world requires a wirruwen, a group of wirruwen, or an occultist familiar with their rituals, to travel into the part of Alcheringa where the character dwells and bring with them either an object prepared as a body for the Nephilim or an object prepared as a stasis. If the object is prepared as a body, the Nephilim inhabits it, pulling over it such flesh as will make it inhabitable, a skill all Nephilim in Alcheringa have instinctually, then follows the Wirruwen into the real world. Such creatures are usually monsters, like Karrupanga the Devil Dingo and Wulguru, the most horrific local representation of Death. They have no Stases and when they die they return to Alcheringa. After a time they either lose this assumed shape or return to our world. Sometimes they are stuck in this monstorous body forever, unable to permanetly die and unsure if they are in Alcheringa or Australia. Golem-makers are intrigued by this process, but since it is instinctual, no Nephilim can describe it to them in sufficient detail to make the process recreatable. Others are horrified by the process, claiming it to be a version of homoculus creation. If the wirruwen brings a ritually prepared object to Alcheringa, many spirits will try to steal it, as it is their key to re-entry to Australia. Nephilim in Alcheringa then possess the wirruwen and link themselves to the object as a Stasis. Stases of this type do not contain litharge, but are not truly in this world, so they are transparent to Ka vision. Nephilim who fall into Stasis within one of these objects awaken in Alcheringa, where they wait until their stasis is reactivated so that they can use it as a doorway out of Alcheringa into Australia, to take possession of a body near it. As humans are scarce in Australia, certain animals are sometimes possessed temporarily and used as temporary mounts until the animals can find a camp of Aboriginies. These animals tend to become totems. Spiritiually-Awakened Aborigines think they travel to Alcheriunga upon death. This may or may not be true. They also report that upon possession they slip through the Stasis into Alcheringa, taking the place of the Nephilim there. Finally, they report being able to travel backwards in time, traversing the Subtle Planes. This claim intrigues or irritates potent European Nephilim mightily. Their last odd power is to "see" Alcheringa through Ka vision, so that the Australian landscape seems strewn with remanants of ancestor spirits and the marks left by their activity. Agartha: Whitefella Dreaming? As might be deduced, the Aboriginal Nephilim are rather less worried about reaching Agartha than their brethern and soren from Europe. Their legends contain no promise of greater power, or history of ancient loss and they don't really accept that the energy fields are separate, as all come from Alcheringa and flow back there. They think Agartha may be a whitefella dreaming, and that the cloudy state of the Emporer of Heaven may be yellafella dreaming. They wouldn't mind visiting, but don't want to live there. Going to Alcheringa, for them, would be like going to Elysium for Christians or going to Nirvana for a Muslim. Sure, it's a wonderful place, but its not where they want to be. Australian Nephilim are in the world because they want to be.They want more power and our world is the place where they earn it. They want more, well, more _life_. In Alcheringa you are alive, sort of, but more as a sort of Archetype. You can't change or grow as quickly as you can while you are in Australia. Eventually you reach the point, at about 90 Ka, that Australia has no more to teach you, then you leave for Alcheringa to study greater mysteries there that your lifetimes have made you capable of understanding. This is perhaps the local equivalent for Agartha. Characters who travel Alcheringa trying to track down a transcendant being will find utterly ancient and alien elemental beings, thinking grand thoughts and working toward some sort of higher purpose, but utterly unconcered about their lack of Solar-Ka. Their powers are not quantified here, as each is an individual of varying degrees of power. -------------------- The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial electronic 'zine about Chaosium's Games. In no way should it be considered representative of the views or beliefs of Chaosium Inc. The old digests are archived on ftp.csua.berkeley.edu in the directory /pub/chaosium, and may be retrieved via FTP.