Lost Heroes

They’ve always been here, always existing in the paths of history, but it’s only now that they seem to make a large resurgence. Those that “died” and somehow came back. Some say it’s a blessing, others say it’s a curse. Either way, you’re here now, alive again with a strange power in your system.

This power doesn’t come for free, it comes at a cost. You have an arch enemy, an opponent you feel compelled to hunt, and clash with. You need to see them brought down and ended. Thankfully, your quarry makes hating them awfully easy.

The draugr are those that were changed by the same effects that changed you, but denied it, refusing the blessings. They became twisted, filled with a hatred for the living and a hunger for the flesh of the innocent. The stalk in the shadows, hiding and waiting to attack and consume innocent bystanders. This is your Quarry, Heroes, kill them, destroy them, and earn your place in the Hall of the Champions.

These Champions have different approaches to how to fight and how to work, and no branch of power is wrong or the right one. All have their own strengths and weaknesses. Those three branches are known as the Adamant (Resistance), the Bruisers (Power), and the Stalkers (Finesse).

The Path • to •••••

Note, this merit is for Mortals wishing to become a Quartersplat.

All of the Lost Heroes gain the first dot of this merit for free, it grants them access to later merits in the template, as well as halving all healing times. The blessing naturally makes the Heroes more resilient to most diseases and gives them the base regenerative qualities of the Draugr. At Path • to ••• they may only purchase Blessings within their branch, but at •••• they may purchase a single Merit outside their own branch, but not a Rampage Branch Merit. Finally at ••••• they may choose another Merit outside their branch, including within the Rampage Branch.

As a drawback to the Path, they must actively pursue their prey in some manner every week, or they suffer the Ennui condition. This can be done in a Thread action, or via scenes that will be run by the ST.

Ennui Condition

When you suffer the Ennui condition your powers are reduced to the Ennui state listed with the powers. You must spend a Thread action or participate in an ST run scene dedicated to hunting the draugr in some fashion. And the hunt has to be successful.

You resolve this condition when you successfully complete a hunt, no matter what type of hunt, you must hunt your Quarry to resolve the condition.

General Lost Hero Merits

Hunter’s Pursuit ( • to ••••• )

Prerequisites: Path at Matching Level

Ennui Benefit: Each dot adds one to Speed and one to Initiative

Base Benefit:  Adds two to Speed instead of one.

Larger than Life ( ••• )

Ennui:  The Lost Hero grows in size as his blessing carries him to a larger size, (See benefits for Giant, without limitation of taken at Creation. It does not stack with Giant, if you already have the Giant merit, you are allowed to sanctity of merit’s it.)

Base: Take a lethal for a scene the blessing forces you beyond your limits and you tower over even the tallest of men, add one size. Gain a bonus equal to the difference in size when you grapple.

Hero’s Leap ( • to ••• )

Prerequisites: Path at Matching Level

Ennui: See Jumper p 99 Hurt Locker

Benefits: See Jumper: Overclocked p 99 Hurt Locker

Heimdall’s Gaze ( • to ••• )

Prerequisites: Path at Matching Level

Ennui: See Uncanny Perception p 100 Hurt Locker

Benefits: See Uncanny Perception: Overclocked p 100 Hurt Locker

Tyr’s Might ( • to ••• )

Prerequisites: Path at Matching Level

Ennui: Add one dot per dot of merit to Strength, Dexterity, or Stamina dependent on your branch of Path Blessings.  Bruisers get Strength, Stalkers get Dexterity, and Adamant get Stamina.  This can surpass mortal limitations. This merit can only be purchased once.

Benefits:

• Bruisers may take a Lethal in order to force their bodies to overclock their adrenal gland and gain a dot of Strength for the scene.
• Stalkers retain half their Defense against Firearms and other fast moving attacks
• Adamant feel their muscles thicken with scar tissue due to repeated strikes, gaining armor 2/1 (it stacks with any other Path based Armor and one worn armor)

Loki’s Wit ( • to ••• )

Prerequisite: You have the idea by now

Ennui:  Add one dot per dot of merit to Intelligence, Wits, or Resolve dependent on your branch of Path Blessings.  Bruisers get Intelligence, Stalkers get Wits, and Adamant get Resolve,  This can surpass mortal limitations. This merit can only be purchased once.

Benefits:

• Bruisers, reduce the penalty on knowledge skills they have no doubts in, by this half this merit rounded up
• Stalkers trust their instincts and may use the better of their Dexterity or Wits for their Defensive Value
• The Adamant are simply unable to be coerced or broken, when Ennui if they fail a roll to resist a supernatural coercement they may roll again one round later

Bragi’s Boon ( • to ••• )

Prerequisite: You have the idea by now

Ennui:  Add one dot per dot of merit to Presence, Manipulation or Composure dependent on your branch of Path Blessing.  Bruisers get Presence, Stalkers get Manipulation, and Adamant get Composure.  This can surpass mortal limitations. This merit can only be purchased once.

Benefits:

• Bruisers are terrifying, they may use their Path rating as their intimidation, if they have intimidation already they gain a bonus based on the merit.  These bonus dice do stack with Intimidation dots for Aura of Menace
• Stalkers are as smooth as they are dangerous; their honeyed words give them access to Fast Talking at the rating of this Merit, for the purposes of convincing an otherwise unwilling target to let them feed.
• Adamant are beyond recourse, they have seen the worst this world has to offer and still they trudge on in their never ending quest for survival.  They gain Iron Stamina equal to the dots in this merit, if they already have Iron Stamina, they gain dots in Iron Skin meeting the difference.

Rampage ( ••••• )

To see a Lost Hero go into their Bloody Frenzy is a horrifying sight, but it’s only complicated by the fact that no two of them seem to do it the same way or with the same sort of capabilities.  The only thing that is assured is that you need to stay as far the fuck away, as you can.

A Lost Hero can’t enter their blood frenzy when suffering from Ennui.

After using Rampage, a Lost Hero enters Ennui and suffers a penalty of -5 to all actions aside from actively hunting draugr.

Benefit:

• General: All Rampaging Lost Hero gain the ability to ignore the loss of Defense once per turn when a Merit would require it to use an ability.  The Path does not give up on it’s chosen so easily.  They ignore any tilts that might slow them down in combat or a hunt.  They also heal 1B a round

• Adamant: Adamant gain an additional 2/2 Armor their thick hides relentlessly absorbing all damage, they ignore half of AP benefits from those attacking them, which will stack with their Thick Skin Benefit,  If injured, an Adamant heals 2B per round

• Bruisers:  Gain the ability to deal Lethal Barehanded with their unarmed strikes counting as 2L weapons.  These may automatically cause the Knockdown Tilt.  Their other weapons gain a bonus damage of 1, And an AP bonus of 1 that stacks with any other AP

• Stalkers:  Add two to their Initiative and five to their speed, their Defense gains a bonus of 1 and they do not suffer a penalty for fighting multiple foes.  Stalkers gain a bonus of two to all attacks that are precision based.

If a Lost Hero has taken their stamina in Lethal or Aggravated damage in the scene, then they gain the following benefit as well; Rampage is chaotic and unpredictable, choose a benefit from one of the branches not your own, you may add that to your Rampage powerset when in the blood fury.

Branch Specific Merits

Adamant

Thick Skin ( •• or •••• )

Ennui:  The •• grants 1/1 Armor, the •••• Adds a second 1/1 to Armor, it stacks with all Path Armor and one worn armor.

Benefits: Gains a reduction to AP of half Path (rounded up) before damage is applied

Unyielding ( ••• )

Ennui:  The Adamant have seen and done terrible things in the name of their survival.  This doesn’t make them bad people, it just makes sure they continue the cycle, they’re not monsters, they have to be strong enough to fight them.  An Adamant with this ability ignores Half Path Rounded up in Penalties to Breaking Point Rolls

Benefits: The Adamant takes a lethal, if it does, it can provide the benefit to any other Mortal within Path yards

Bruisers

Pierce like Gungir ( •• or •••• )

Ennui: Bruisers don’t care about your armor, chump.  When a Bruiser hits you, he hits you with every ounce of force he can muster.  Gain Armor Piercing equal to half rating, this stacks with other methods of Armor Piercing.

Benefits: At the expenditure of a point of willpower or a lethal, a Bruiser can double his Armor Penetration.

Sick to your Stomach ( ••• )

Ennui: You ever been hit so hard you immediately felt like you were going to toss you cookies?  That’s this, Bruisers don’t know the meaning of restraint, and Bruisers with this blessing? Cannot pull their strikes.  But on the upside, when they hit you, they mean business.  Causes a Moderate Sick tilt when a Bruiser’s strike does Stamina or greater damage.

Benefits:  No really, you’re fucking sick as a dog, increase the Condition to Grave, following impacts increase the penalties suffered up to thrice.

Stalkers

Wild Defenses ( •• or •••• )

Ennui:  Stalkers don’t play hard and heavy like the Bruisers, nor are they typically designed to take the beat downs that an Adamant can, but where the Stalkers really shine is by murdering their enemies without ever getting a hand laid on them.  At •• a Stalker gains a Defense (+1), once they gain further blessings to a •••• they gain a second bonus to Defense (a total of +2)

Benefits:  Nothing stops a Stalker from getting to it’s quarry, Not bullets or beasts or corporate meatheads.  Ennui Stalkers enjoy half their defense against Firearms and other such attacks, or if they have Tyr’s Might, Full Defense.

Hyper Awareness ( ••• )

Ennui:  Stalkers aren’t caught off guard, some people might say that’s because they’re paranoid, but the fact of the matter is, if you’re never letting your guard down, then no one’s going to sneak up on you, not really.   Stalkers with this merit add two to their rolls to detect ambushes, this stacks with Danger Sense

Benefits: Spend a willpower and for a scene, if you detect an ambush before it happens, your initiative becomes your ambusher’s +1.  You start combat with full defense.

Adaptive Camouflage ( ••• )

Ennui: Bruisers are terrifying by grace of their power which is on display for the world to See.  Stalkers are a bit more restrained in overt displays, but their adaptive camouflage blessing is definitely stretching that point.  With this blessing the Stalker’s flesh is highly mutable, able to mimic colors and textures to the point of making them invisible, more curiously they seem to be able to subconsciously alter their own pheromones to better mimic the natural environment.  Roll Stamina+Stealth, beings attempting to notice the Stalker suffer a negative equal to their Path Rating before rolling Perception, for a number of rounds equal to successes, minimum 1

Benefits: The Apex Ambush predator, when ennui  a Stalker who is in stealth finds that her strikes are honed to a razors edge.  A number of times equal to their half Path rating rounded up; the Stalker may apply Rote to an attack from stealth.  This is a per scene effect.