Animal

This Purview expresses the totemic power to which a Scion’s ichor grants him access. Its Boons work on only one type of animal, chosen by the player when he purchases the character’s first Boon. That animal needn’t be the same one associated with his divine parent.

Associated With: Aengus (Birds), Agwe (Fish), Anubis (Jackal), Athena (Owl), Atum-Re (Falcon), Bastet (Cat), Brigid (Swan), The Dagda (Pigs), Damballa (Snake), Geb (Goose), Hachiman (Dove), Hera (Peacock), Horus (Falcon), Huitzilopochtli (Hummingbird, Eagle), Kebauet (Ostrich, Serpent), Lugh (Dog), Manannán mac Lir (Horses), Miclántecuhtli (Dog), The Morrigan (Cattle, Corvids), Osiris (Centipede, Ram), Poseidon (Horse), Quetzalcoátl (Resplendent Quetzal), Set (Salawa), Sobek (Crocodile), Sun Wukong (monkeys), Tezcatlipoca (Jaguar), Thoth (Baboon, Ibis), Xiwangmu (panther, tiger)

Animal Communication
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Animal Ken Cost: None The Scion can understand and make himself understood by an animal as he speaks his native language and the animal responds with its own postures, scents and/or vocalizations. This Boon doesn’t make animals smart, calm or loyal, but most are curious enough about having a person address them that they’ll hear a Scion out before defaulting to aggression, panic or indifference.

Animal Command
Dice Pool: Charisma + Animal Ken Cost: 1 Willpower The Scion spends one Willpower and names one task that the animal must perform. The task cannot seem suicidal or impossible to the animal, but the animal cannot balk at an order that doesn’t immediately seem so. “Hey rabbit, go rip that lion’s throat open,” would seem impossible to the rabbit so commanded. “Run to that grass across this street,” would be a fine order for that same rabbit, though, even if cars were zipping by. The order can describe a single immediate action (“Bite that guy!”) or one with a single condition (“Come find me when a blue car stops here.”). If he lacks the previous Boon, the Scion can deliver his command only through simplistic nonverbal signals.

Animal Aspect
Dice Pool: Stamina + Animal Ken Cost: 1 Legend per action By meditating for one action (Speed 3) on a token representing his animal, the Scion takes on a metaphorical characteristic associated with it, creating a dice bonus for rolls involving the Attribute most closely associated with that characteristic. A Scion might take on a snake’s sinuous grace (Dexterity), a peacock’s beauty (Appearance), an elephant’s proverbial memory (via Intelligence) or any other justifiable characteristic. The bonus dice are equal to the number of successes on the activation roll, and the benefit lasts for one action per Legend point spent up front to fuel the Boon.

Faunaphagia
Dice Pool: Stamina + Animal Ken Cost: 1 Willpower + 1 Legend Some shamans believe that consuming a creature grants a measure of its strength. Scions who engage in this practice learn to absorb the capabilities of an animal by devouring such a creature and drawing forth its essence from the digested flesh. The Scion must eat a piece of meat from the appropriate animal (a potentially risky act, considering that the animal is probably considered sacred to his patron God). Then, the player expends the Willpower and Legend and rolls (Stamina + Animal Ken). The successes scored indicate the number of points of Abilities that the Scion may borrow from the animal. A Scion can only borrow Abilities up to the level possessed by the animal, although these dots can add on to his existing skill dots to a maximum total of five. Skills gained with Faunaphagia remain for the rest of the scene.

Ride Animal
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Animal Ken Cost: 1 Legend The Scion stares into the eyes of a specimen of his chosen animal, the one to which his Boon pertains, and overwhelms its mind with his own. For the rest of the scene, the Scion controls the animal’s body just as a character with Horse (Cheval •••) can control a human’s body. This Boon functions exactly as that one does, with the same limitations and effects on the Scion’s body. The only difference is that Horse applies to possession of a human’s body, while Ride Animal applies to specimens of the Scion’s chosen animal or to his Birthright creature.

A Birthright creature can allow the Scion to take over its body at will, but all other animals impose a difficulty on the activation roll equal to their Intelligence. If the animal is a nemean, the difficulty is multiplied by (nemean’s Legend + 1).

Animal Feature
Dice Pool: Stamina + Animal Ken Cost: 1 Willpower + (1 Legend per feature) The Scion can change a portion of his anatomy to a shape matching the analogous portion of his chosen animal’s anatomy for one scene. If his chosen animal is an armadillo, he can cover himself in a flexible armor. If his animal is a monkey, he can grow a long prehensile tail that is as dexterous as a hand with no thumb. If his animal is a spider or gecko, he can change the surfaces of his hands and feet to enable himself to climb on walls. If his animal is a bird or bat or airborne insect, he can transform his arms into wings that allow him to fly at a rate equal to his Move rate. The exact effect of the change is up to the player, dependent upon Storyteller approval. As a general guideline, though, if the change boosts some trait or grants bonus dice on a special attack, the total bonus value granted cannot be greater than the character’s Legend.

The character can take on one feature from his chosen animal per five successes on the activation roll. He can take on as many separate animal features from the same animal as his successes on a single activation roll allow. If the player has purchased this Boon multiple times to represent several different animals, the character can take on features from all those different types of animals simultaneously, but he must make the activation roll separately for each type of animal. The total trait bonuses he can receive from all those features still cannot exceed his Legend. Reverting to normal, either at will or at the end of the scene, is instantaneous.

Animal Form
Dice Pool: Stamina + Animal Ken Cost: 1 Willpower + 1 Legend In one action (Speed 5, DV -1), the character transforms into a specimen of his chosen animal. The character’s Physical Attributes are normal for a mundane specimen of the animal he’s become, but his Mental Attributes remain his own. He also retains access to his Epic Mental Attributes and Knacks, though his other Epic Attributes are off limits until he regains his human form. He can communicate with other animals of his type. Other Scions who use Animal Communication can understand him perfectly clearly. He is immune to other Scions’ uses of Animal Command or Ride Animal.

If the player has purchased this Boon several times to represent different animals, the character can change from one animal form directly to another, but the player must make the roll and spend the points anew for each change. While a character is using this Boon, he cannot use Animal Feature or Animal Aspect.

Create Animal
Dice Pool: None Cost: (1 Willpower + 1 lethal health level) per act of creation; 1 Legend per set of units By spending one Willpower point and inflicting one lethal health level of damage on himself, the Scion can create mundane animals of his chosen type from his very blood. Such animals are as loyal to him as those granted by the Creatures Birthright, and he can automatically command them mentally. They follow any command the Scion gives them to the best of their ability, and they last for one scene before dissolving into nothingness once again. To grant the creatures solidity, the Scion must pay a number of Legend points relative to the creature’s size. Doing so allows him to create a number of units of the creature per Legend point spent, as follows: (Where exactly a creature not listed falls on this table is up to the Storyteller’s judgment.)

A character need not create the maximum number of units per Legend point spent, but he cannot create an incomplete portion of an animal. If he intends to produce a creature whose unit value is listed as a fraction, he must spend more Legend points to produce a single animal. (For instance, it takes five Legend points to create one elephant. If the character doesn’t have five Legend points to spend, he can’t create an elephant.)

If the character has taken this Boon multiple times to represent several types of animals, each act of creation is separate and requires a separate expenditure of Willpower and sacrifice of one lethal health level.

Paper Tiger
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Art Cost: 1 Willpower + 5 Legend per act of creation; 1 Legend per unit While some demigods use the primal power of their ichor to grant life with the Create Animal Boon (Animal 7), others use the artistic work of creation to infuse their conjurations. Indeed, this act may explain the Neolithic cave paintings of various animals scattered about in caves inhabited by early humanity.

The Scion invoking Paper Tiger draws or creates a picture or icon — even a scratching in sand — indicative of the animal that she wishes to conjure. She could keep a handy painting available for later use if desired, so that she’s not stuck scribbling on paper in the middle of a fight. The player then rolls (Intelligence + Art) and spends the requisite Legend and Willpower points. Consult the table for Create Animal for the cost per unit when conjuring a creature. Instead of using her own ichor, the Scion infuses the picture with her Legend and her creative energy to give it power. The number of units that the character can summon is limited by the threshold successes on the roll: The more compelling the Scion’s art, the more creatures she can summon forth.

Once the player determines how many creatures are called, they spring forth from the surface, transforming in a second from scrawled lines or painted icons into full-sized flesh-and-blood animals of the chosen type. As with Create Animal, the Scion may choose not to create as many animals as she is capable of generating from her player’s successes or Legend expenditures, but she cannot conjure incomplete animals. The animals that spring out of the art in this fashion last for the rest of the scene or until killed, at which point they dissolve into nothingness. An animal that fades away at the end of the scene returns to the picture; an animal that is killed leaves no picture behind (and the piece of art is no longer useful unless a new picture is drawn).

Epic Enhancement
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Animal Ken Cost: (1 Willpower + 3 Legend) per Attribute; (1 Willpower + 5 Legend) per Epic Attribute By force of will, the character can make an animal simply better than it could ever become on its own. Not only can he make an animal bigger, stronger and tougher, he can also make it faster, more beautiful, more charming or wiser. For one Willpower and three Legend points, he can increase any of the beast’s Mental or Social Attributes by one dot. He can also increase its Dexterity by one dot for the same cost. This Boon can no more than double the beast’s original Dexterity. Increases to its Mental and Social Attributes are limited to the human maximum of five dots.

If the God spends one Willpower and five Legend to enhance the creature instead, he can grant the animal an Epic Physical Attribute. This enhancement cannot exceed three dots in any Epic Physical Attribute, and the creature must have an at least equal number of dots in its mundane Attribute. Spending one unit of (1 Willpower + 5 Legend) can also increase the animal’s size by a factor of 50 percent of the original value per unit. For example, if the creature is 10 feet tall and weighs 100 pounds—just to keep the math simple—each unit of (1 Willpower + 5 Legend) spent increases the creature’s height by five feet and its weight by 50 pounds. Spending three Willpower and 15 Legend into size yields a creature that stands 25 feet tall and weighs 250 pounds. Each unit increase of the creature’s size (i.e., each expenditure of one Willpower and five Legend points) automatically increases its Strength and Stamina by one dot each.

Using this Boon on an animal to enhance its capabilities automatically increases its Legend by one. A given creature can have this Boon used on it only once, but the God who does so may spend as many units of Willpower and Legend points as he likes to incorporate all the changes he wants to make at that time.

Hybrid Chimera
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Animal Ken Cost: 10 Legend, 15 Legend or 20 Legend With this Boon, the God is able to blend living animals that should not be able to procreate with one another. He need only take a minimum of one cell from each species and mix them in a solution of his own ichor. The player then spends his Legend and makes a roll of (Intelligence + Animal Ken). The difficulty of this roll is equal to the combined Stamina ratings of the mismatched breeding pair. (If the animal in question is not written up in the back of Scion: Hero, the variety of other animals listed there should give ample guidelines from which to extrapolate.)

If the roll succeeds, the God instantaneously creates a number of adult hybrid animals equal to the roll’s threshold. (An even number results in an equal male/ female split, while an odd number yields one more female.) These hybrids are generally the same size as the female of the original breeding pair, with special characteristics donated by the male but sized to fit the hybrid’s body. Each hybrid animal has all the natural abilities of the female parent, with special abilities granted by the male-donated special characteristics. If, for instance, one cell in the mix comes from a female horse and the other comes from a male spider, the resultant creature could be an eight-legged, eight-eyed horse that can gallop up walls. The player and Storyteller should work out the specifics of what the resultant hybrid can do.

If the hybrid’s parents come from different environments—one lives under water, for instance, while the other comes from the desert—the hybrids can survive equally well in both environments. All hybrids are fertile with each other and equally fertile with members of any of their parent species—though the logistics of insemination in the latter case can boggle the mind outside a laboratory environment. Breeding pairs of hybrids breed true as hybrids. Mixed breeding pairs in which the mother is the hybrid breed true as hybrids. Pairs in which the father is a hybrid breed especially hardy (Stamina +1) members of the unblended species.

When a player chooses this Boon, it automatically applies to two types of mundane animals that the God can blend together. The first generation of hybrids is still susceptible to the Animal Boons of the God who created it. Second-generation hybrids are considered their own type of animal thereafter, which means that new versions of old Animal Boons must be purchased to apply to it. Blending a successive-generation hybrid with a mundane creature requires purchasing this Boon separately with the hybrid and the extra animal listed as the two to whom the Boon applies. Blending two mundane animals into a hybrid costs 10 Legend points. Blending a hybrid with a mundane animal costs 15 Legend points. Blending two different types of hybrids into a new and different hybrid costs 20 Legend points. Animals that have been enhanced with the previous Animal Boon or with any Jotunblut Boons cannot be blended through this Boon, but hybrids can be enhanced by such Boons.

Protean Understanding
Dice Pool: None Cost: None When a God takes this Boon, he becomes a master of all beasts. Now that he has it, any Animal Boon he has can now apply equally well to any type of animal, not just the ones for which he originally bought the Boons. He can speak to any sort of animal, become any sort of animal, create any sort of animal. A character does not actively use this Boon. Having it merely upgrades and broadens his capabilities.

Avatar of Animal (The Beast)
Cost: 1 Willpower + 30 Legend For one scene, the character becomes The Beast—a monstrous primordial predator with a quicksilver shape and an insatiable hunter. The Beast hears and understands the thoughts of every animal within range of its senses, and they follow its mental commands without hesitation. The Beast devours mortals (and other extras) by the dozen. It crushes homes underfoot. It tears at the Titans’ flanks, making them take notice and change course. No eye can detect The Beast when it lies in ambush. No prey escapes The Beast’s pursuit. No hunter can trap The Beast in a cunning snare. No mortal weapon can pierce The Beast’s hide. When sleepers dream of being pursued by an implacable enemy, it is The Beast’s hot breath they feel upon their necks.