Stains & Stain Errata
The following are updated Stains from the book Shadow Games, along with a few custom made Stains from previous characters. Some Stains from Shadow Games have had their mechanics changed so as to make them useful to both dead and living characters. These updated stains are marked with an asterisk (*). ~Wesley
Stains
Adder’s Scales – This Stain turns the character’s skin into a body canvas of gold-green or black snake scales, making it more supple and better protected.
Advantage: All difficulties to escape bonds or effect particularly athletic maneuvers decrease by one. The Storyteller decides when a situation is appropriate. The scales also grant the character an extra die to soak physical damage.
Disadvantage: The character is particularly sensitive to extreme temperatures (freezing or below and 80 degrees and above). In either situation, the character suffers a penalty of one to all difficulties. An optional, alternative rule for Storytellers is that the character is more easily startled and likelier to react by lashing out first and fast. In this way, the player must succeed in a Willpower roll (difficulty 6) once per scene or inadvertently lash out physically or verbally when surprised by something in the scene. Storyteller prerogative when this occurs.
* Armless
Some people perceive (or portray) themselves as helpless and unable to accomplish things for themselves when, in reality, the tactic they adopt actually bolsters their position in some way. When this Stain manifests, the character's arms are reabsorbed into ther body, effectively rendering her seemingly helpless, but adding the mass of the arms into the main body mass. only her hands are visible, poking out the front of her shoulder blades.
Advantage:for the duration of this Stain's appearance, the character gains 2 additional soak dice.
Disadvantage:Obviously, the character has extreme difficulty accomplishing anything requiring the use of arms or hands while this Stain is active. Any action involving the use of hands or arms suffers a three-die penalty from all relevant die pools.
Armor of Corpulence
A character manifesting this Stain grows enormously and grotesquely fat. Although she can barely move and see over her enormous mass, she's impervious to many forms of harm.
Advantage:While using the armor of corpulence, the character is entirely immune to all bashing damage and takes only one quarter the normal damage from weapon attacks that inflict lethal damage. Fire, electricty, poison gas and other non-object-based sources of harm still inflict normal damage.
Disadvantage: A character manifesting this Stain is so heavy and round that her legs are trapped in a mire of heavy rolls of fat. while this Stain is active, all movement-based actions suffer a four-die penalty to all relevant dice pools. The Stain also restricts movement to a maximum of three yards a turn.
Atrophy Compensation
They say that when one personal capacity is weakened the body compensates for that weakness in other ways. This Stain illustrates that tendency dramatically. when this Stain is activated, the character experiences a sudden shift in his body, becoming weak in one way but inexplicably more powerful in another.
Advantage: The character gains two or more dots to a particular Physical Attribute.
Disadvantage: The character loses the same number of dots from another Physical Attribute. A character who gains three dots in Strength from this Stain, then, would lose three dots from either Dexterity or Stamina.
Bad Blood
A character with this Stain has a foul substance pumping through her gauze that acts like a toxin to her and to those who make contact with it. Even if the character doesn't beleed, it's clear when she is manifesting this Stain: Her veins become swollen, black and unmistakably visible through her gauze. If she bleeds, the Stain becomes even more obvious: Her ichor produces a terrible stench and burns anyone who touches the substance.
Advantage: A character with this active Stain can inflict eight dice of lethal damage on an enemy within 10 feet of her with a successful Firearms roll. To spray her ichor, the character must cut a main artery -- brachial, femoral or carotid -- thereby inflicting one level of lethal damage on herself in the process. The substance burns skin and gauze and stains black anything else it touches.
Disadvantage:Not only doe the character need to hurt herself to use this Stain to its best effect, but twice a day, she must bleed herself deliberately to drain the ichor buildup. this means she accumulates two levels of lethal damage each day. If she doesn't drain the ichor, she takes four levels of lethal damage for every day that she fails to purge herself. She can only use the ichor as an attack four times in a day before she endangers her well-being. The ichor regenerates at the rate of one use per day.
Bat’s Ears – This Stain twists the character’s ears into those of a large bat, rising black and bristled from the side of the ghost’s head like the neckpiece of a cape.
Advantage: The character gains the ability to perceive his surroundings through echo location (sonar, essentially) and can therefore “see” in the dark. This ability an even detect creatures that are concealed, hiding, or incorporeal.
Disadvantage: Whenever the character actively uses this Stain’s advantage, his other senses are dulled, giving him a penalty of two to all Perception roll difficulties not involving the use of echolocation.
Beast Nose
The character has a particularly powerful sense of smell and a nose that reflects that talent. He may simply have an extraordinarily large nose -- around the size of a coffee cup -- when manifesting this Stain, or he may have the full snout of a hound. In either case, the nose grants the character the ability to detect scents normally imperceptible to the human nose or even to track others by scent.
Advantage: The character can track a scent for up to two days after the target's passage. This ability is automatic unless the quarry doesn't have much of a scent (most spooks and some Spectres, for example), in which case the player rolls Perception + Survival, difficulty 6, to satay on the trail. Furthermore, if the character has Storm-Wending, this Stain allows him to track others who used that Horror to make a sudden escape.
Disadvantage: the character's Appearance drops by two. furthermore, any strong odor overwhelms the character, causing his eyes to water for three turns and rendering tracking impossible for five additional turns beyond that.
Bileous Spew
Most Stains have some outward expression. A spook who sees himself as caustic or cruelly witty is likely to evince this Stain, which allows the character to regurgitate a spray of acid at his opponent. The vomit attack is as effective as it is repulsive, but it's also hard on the spook who launches it.
Advantage:Such sprays count as ranged attacks -- affecting targets up to 20 feet away-- and inflict six dice of lethal damage on a target.
Disadvantage: Projective vomiting is remarkably difficult and drains the spook significantly. Each use of the Stain brings the character's Stamina down by one for the remainder of the scene. A character with a Stamina of one isn't strong enough to launch an attack with this ability.
Blackfire Speech
Words can burn, more literally in some instances than others. This Stain gives words a visible and dangerous component by causing black flames to spew from the character's mouth as he speaks. The louder and more hostile the words, the hotter the flames and the greater their range. A whispering character would have only the faintest flames licking around his lips as he spoke. If, on the other hand, he shouted in anger at someone, the flames would be much darker and hotter, shotting out the character's mouth for up to 10 feet.
Advantage: Blackfire does damage just like any other source of fire, burning skin and setting flammable objects alight. A whisper invokes no damage, but regular speech inflicts one health level of lethal damage to whoever is standing three feet in front of the character. Loud speaking or arguments inflict two health levels of lethal damage to anyone standing five feet from the character's face. Shouting or especially emotional arguments launch gouts of black flame that inflict three levels of lethal damage to anyone within 10 feet and in front of the character.
Disadvantage: There's no real way to hide this Stain when it's active because even when the character's mouth is shut, small flames peek out from between his lips and possibly even from his nostrils, if he's irritated. Furthermore, the hissing and crackling noises of the black flames make it difficult to understand the character's speech, requiring others' players to make Perception + Alertness roll for their characters' to understand him.
Bristling Hide – The character grows a rough, bristle-covered layer of barbed hide, giving him a savage appearance and damaging anyone who hits him.
Advantage: The hide not only imparts one point of armor, but it also injures brawling opponents who successfully strike the character. The hide inflicts one die of lethal damage against unarmed opponents, though the character can certainly grapple or punch opponents to inflict that +1 lethal die as well.
Disadvantage: The hide is also a menace to the character’s allies within the crucible. Every day the characters meet or interact as spooks, the other player must succeed at a Willpower roll (difficulty 7). If they fail, they wandered too close to their friend and accidentally brushed against him, earning a level of lethal damage (which they can soak).
* Brutish
The character becomes an enormous hulking version of himself, growing up to four feet taller and a couple of hundred pounds more massive. This transformation comes with some facial changes as well, causing the character to appear more brutish or feral.
Advantage: The character has gains one additional Soak die and three extra dots of Strength.
Disadvantage: The character cannot move as quickly as usual when this Stain is active, dropping his Initiative rating by five in any combat scene and halving his movement. The character also loses one dot from his Appearance.
Carapace – This Stain alters the entirety of the character’s back, from the base of his head down to his legs, in a hard beetlelike carapace with a division down the middle.
Advantage: The character gains an additional die to soak any attack coming at him from behind. Additionally, the carapace can part to reveal a pair of thin, membranous wings that allow the spook to “jump” in short spurts like a junebug (maximum distance per jump equals the Spook’s Strength x 2 in meters).
Disadvantage: The carapace is both bulky and cumbersome, incurring a difficulty penalty of one on all Dexterity-based rolls.
Chameleon Skin – Whenever this Stain manifests, the ghost’s plasm constantly shifts in color and texture to match its background.
Advantage: The character gains three bonus dice on all Stealth rolls.
Disadvantage: The spook has no control over this Stain. Whenever it manifests, the character’s “skin” shifts color and texture according to the background. In these situations, the character’s Social-related pools (Attribute and Ability combined) are halved around other spooks. The main reason is that the character cannot use his own body language to influence or impress others. In fact, other spooks have problems seeing the character clearly.
Claws – A character with this Stain no longer has human hands, but instead possesses a pair of wicked claws. Player determines whether they are birdlike, bone growths, slasher-flick finger blades, alienesque, etc.
Advantage: The claws inflict Strength +2 lethal damage during combat.
Disadvantage: The character has greater difficulty performing delicate manipulations like picking a lock or repairing a broken radio. All rolls requiring precision (Storyteller discretion) suffer a penalty of two to their difficulties.
Clingy
There are some people with whom you deal who just latch on and hang on for dear life. These people are more likely to develop this Stain, which grants them a powerful ability to cling to enemies -- whether this ability derives from a powerful glue-like secretion or from limbs that lock around an opponent.
Advantage: Once the player makes a successful roll to hit, the character effectively latches onto his target and does not need to roll to hit on subsequent turns. This is considered a clinch attack.
Disadvantage: The character's opponent also benefits from this Stain, reducing the difficulty to hit the character by two.
Compound Eye – One of the most visually stunning of Stains, this causes the character’s eyes to become like those of a fly – red domes composed of hundreds of ommatidia.
Advantage: Having compound eyes means a wider range of visual acuity, allowing the character to see things above his head and behind his normal periphery.
Disadvantage: Since compound eyes are incapable of changing focus, the character loses whatever distance vision he normally has while this Stain is active. This incurs a penalty of two to difficulty rolls involved in ranged combat.
Conjoined Animal Twin
The character has the head or forepaws of a sickly animal growing out of his chest or back. It could be any small animal or, potentially, a human baby.
Advantage: The conjoined twin can act independently of the character. A head sticking out of the back, for example, can bark warnings (although it's too small and weak to bite effectively), while spare arms or legs can help to ward off or block attacks, adding one to the difficulty of rolls to hit the character.
Disadvantage: The twin acts like a parasite, consuming one point of Vitality a day from the character.
Corrosive Pustules
When this Stain is activated, the character's skin breaks out with pustules that suppurate and weep a thick, caustic pus. These blemishes are incredibly painful to the character, and the repulsive substance dripping from them burns those who touch her -- or whom she touches.
Advantage: The pustules' discharge is corrosive and causes two dice of lethal damage to anyone or anything the character touches (in hand-to-hand combat, for example).
Disadvantage: For the duration of this Stain, the character is in considerable pain from the suppurating pustules covering her skin, and while she is not wounded, she suffers a one-die “wound” penalty from the pain.
Dagger Tongue – This Stain transforms the character’s tongue into a sharp dagger that can extend up to seven feet away and retract as though on a spring.
Advantage: The character acquires a ranged brawling attack that inflicts Strengh +1 lethal damage at range.
Disadvantage: The character cannot speak without inflicting some spiteful, verbal abuse against anyone within earshot. It is a form of spiritually aggressive Tourette’s Syndrome wherein the character has no internal editor to censor his speech. He must succeed at a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) to stop this from happening and thus speak properly. Any success lasts for the duration of the scene. Any failure does likewise.
Foaming
The character foams at the mouth like a rabid animal. The lather dripping down the character's chin is moderately acidic, but when it seeps into a wound, the pain it causes the target is intense.
Advantage: If the foam enters an opponent's wound (automatically imposed if the character inflicted the wound through a bite attack), the intense pain caused by the acidic foam reduces the target's dice pools by three for the next five turns. It lessens thereafter by one die for the next three turns.
Disadvantage: The character suffers a three-die penalty to all Social interactions for the duration of the active Stain and leaves a trail of foam that anyone can follow.
Foul Odor
When the character triggers this Stain, a repulsive stench wafts from his gauze, causing those around him to gag and to suffer from incessantly watering eyes.
Advantage: Due to the overpowering smell, the character's enemies (out to a range of 20 yards) all suffer a two-die penalty on all Perception rolls and rolls to hit, thanks to the distraction of the smell and the watering eyes.
Disadvantage: The character cannot chose whom this Stain influences. Everyone in the area of effect, except the character using this Stain, experiences the Perception and combat pool penalties.
Gaunt
The character is extremely lean, light and birdlike. His limbs are thin like a broomstick, his whole body loses mass, and his face takes on a gaunt, pointed appearance. While in this state, the character is very fast, but he is also “fragile” and less able to handle exertion or punishment.
Advantage: The character is lighter and much faster on his feet than normal. Not only does his Dexterity increase by three dots, but he adds five to his initiative for as long as this Stain is active.
Disadvantage: The character is far more fragile in this state than usual. The light bones, thin skin and frail frame bring his Stamina down by two dots (to a minimum one) for the Stain's duration.
Gauze Quills – Razorlike quills cover the spook’s arms and face, giving the character sensitivity to local air and ethereal flows and displacements.
Advantage: Perception difficulties are reduced by one, and all impairments to the character’s vision (from injury, fog, etc.) are nullified within a 30-foot radius.
Disadvantage: The quills add a sixth sensory organ for the character, the confusion from which causes all Wits-based rolls to suffer a one die penalty on difficulties.
Gossamer Webs – The character’s gauze becomes sticky, allowing him to slough off web-thin epidermal layers of “skin” to trap or encase opponents.
Advantage: Through a successful Brawl attack, the character may leave behind a sticky swath of gauze to trap, blind, or pin an opponent. Each Vitality point expended in this matter creates binding equal to two dots of Strength (thus allowing the opponent to rip free of it upon a successful Strength roll). If the Brawl attack succeeds by three or fewer successes, the Storyteller dictates the effect. If the player succeeds by four dice or more, he dictates what part of the body is hampered. The basic targets are: eyes (blinding the opponent fully); legs (hinders mobility, preventing the target from moving); one arms (increases difficulty of Brawl maneuvers by two; the character can never pin both arms in one attack).
Disadvantage: The character automatically loses gauze (and thus Vitality) when he passes through an object that’s over half his size and larger (chairs, doors, desks, etc.). The character can still spend Vitality to remain completely intangible for the scene (protecting him from constant bullet fire, for example), but he loses one Vitality for each large object he passes through.
Hammer Fists
The character's hands are strangely large -- nearly the size of his head -- and covered with small “bony” projections. When balled into fists, the character's hands grow even more devastating, allowing the character to throw incredibly powerful punches with his bare hands.
Advantage: The character delivers Strength + 7 dice of bashing damage with a punch.
Disadvantage: Difficulties for all tasks requiring manual dexterity increase by two.
Hawk’s Beak – This Stain pulls the character’s nose and face into the shape and hardness of a hawk’s beak, giving him an unearthly avian appearance.
Advantage: The character gains a bite attack that does Strength +1 lethal damage.
Disadvantage: The character has no lips and cannot form some words properly. Communication becomes stunted at best and unintelligible at worst. He must succeed at a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) to stop this from happening and thus speak properly. Any success is for the duration of the scene. Any failure is likewise.
Hooves
The character has the hooves (and possibly the lower legs as well) of an animal. These could be like those of a goat or a horse, but the character now walks awkwardly and with a telltale “clip-clp".
Advantage: The character can kick an opponent for Strength + 2 lethal damage.
Disadvantage: Because of the inelegance of walking with hooves, the character's Dexterity goes down by one dot. The noise caused by hooves also increases the difficulty of Stealth rolls by two.
Hungry Eyes
A character with this Stain has enormous, dark-black eyes that cover half of his face. The eyes have a cold, moist look to them and, possibly, a hollow or empty expression as well. A character with this Stain can devour the life force of a target just by staring at her.
Advantage: By staring steadily at a target within 20 feet, the character can consume the target's Vitality. Draining Vitality in this fashion requires concentration, and the character must stare for one full turn before he receives any benefits on the following turns (i.e., the character stares for one full turn before anything happens, but once he's focused on his target, he can consume one point of Vitality from his target per turn, automatically). Characters with this Stain can also see in the dark.
Disadvantage: The enormous black eyes granted by this Stain render the character very sensitive to light. Under all but the darkest conditions, the difficulty of Perception rolls made for the character increases by two. Furthermore, when he uses the Vitality-draining stare, he must remain absolutely still. Even minimal movement prevents the character from sapping the target's Vitality.
Hypnotic Markings
This Stain manifests as a hypnotic, swirling pattern of some sort on the character's face or in his eyes. It might look like a tattoo, a birthmark, a scar or a pattern or mark of some other origin. Regardless, it fulfils the same purpose: The slow undulating movement of the mark renders the target susceptible to suggestions by the character, sapping her will and making her pliable to the character's words.
Advantage: One turn of lead time is necessary for this Stain to work, but once a target watches the slowly moving pattern for one full turn, this Stain's effects kick in: The character's difficulties on all Subterfuge rolls decrease by two, and the opponent's effective Willpower rating for refusing the character's carefully worded requests drops by two points as well. This is not mind control, it's simply a powerful hypnotic effect. A target can escape the effects of the Stain completely by spending a Willpower point and looking away.
Disadvantage: This Stain possesses a certain notoriety among spooks, and anyone who's fallen prey to this Stain's effects will unlikely speak with a character manifesting a Hypnotic Marking. The living, however, have no such knowledge of its effects, though they may find it disturbing nonetheless and also refuse to speak with the character.
Infestation
The character has an infestation of small vermin on (or in) his body. The particular creature type can vary: Roaches, maggots, mice, spiders or the like are all probable, though other types of small creatures are also possible. When they're nesting on the character, they're visible on his skin, in his hair and rustling under his clothes.
Advantage: The vermin on the character's body obey his commands, even going as far as to attack the character's enemies. Such an attack won't do any actual damage, but they are incredibly distracting, dropping the target's initiative number by five the next turn and increasing the difficulty of Perception rolls by two (as they scuttle over the target's eyes and ears and try to crawl in his nose and mouth).
Disadvantage: The character is constantly distracted. While the vermin may be useful from time to time, it's very distracting to have bugs or other creatures crawling all over one's body. The character's Perception drops by two.
Leper – Some spooks are so tenuously connected to their own spirituality that parts of their body drop away in leprous chunks.
Advantage: The character can leave behind one portion of himself that lasts for 24 hours before disintegrating away completely. For that period, however, the character can see, hear, and speak through his one discarded portion, regardless the distance between the two, even if the spook is encased in flesh. The character cannot launch Horrors through the leprous gauze, but it is mobile, moving at a rate of one foot per turn. The blob of gauze cannot defend itself, unfortunately, and dissipates upon taking any damage.
Disadvantage: Although the parts grow back each day, so too does a new part of the character fall off, afflicting him with a variety of ailments. To simplify matters, however, each ailment deprives a character of two dice for dice pools pertaining to two relatively related Attributes. To determine which Attributes fall victim to this penalty because an eye or hand dropped off or because a spiritual muscle withered, roll one die and consult the following results:
-Die roll result: 1 Attribute: Strength and Dexterity Suggested Appendage: Hand or foot
-Die roll result: 2 Attribute: Strength and Stamina Suggested Appendage: Entire leg or arm
-Die roll result: 3 Attribute: Dexterity and Stamina Suggested Appendage: Hand or foot
-Die roll result: 4 Attribute: Charisma and Manipulation Suggested Appendage: Eyes or mouth
-Die roll result: 5 Attribute: Charisma and Appearance Suggested Appendage: Nose or face
-Die roll result: 6 Attribute: Manipulation and Appearance Suggested Appendage: Mouth or face
-Die roll result: 7 Attribute: Perception and Intelligence Suggested Appendage: Eyes or brain
-Die roll result: 8 Attribute: Perception and Wits Suggested Appendage: One of the five senses
-Die roll result: 9 Attribute: Intelligence and Wits Suggested Appendage: Brain or one of the five senses
-Die roll result: 0 Storyteller’s choice
Whether the character used the Stain only briefly or possesses it because of high Spite, the Stain’s negative effect remains active for 24 hours before the part regenerates.
Man-of-War – This vile Stain seems to “liquefy” the character’s gauze, giving him the appearance and texture of an enormous, humanoid jellyfish.
Advantage: The character takes half damage (round down) from bashing attacks.
Disadvantage: The character’s own body mass is semi-solid in consistency and moves in unexpected ways, resulting in a difficulty penalty of one to all Dexterity rolls.
Mandibles
When this Stain manifests, the character's jaw splits to become the mandibles of an enormous insect.
Advantage: When the character successfully hits his opponent with a biting attack, the mandibles inflict Strength + 3 lethal damage on the target.
Disadvantage: While the character is suffering the Stain's effects, he cannot speak or even vocalize.
Martyred – This Stain remembers every painful injury committed against the character, and manifests the wounded, bleeding gauze for all to see.
Advantage: Once per turn, the character can attempt to touch an opponent in hand-to-hand combat (treat as an attack using Brawl). If the character succeeds, he inflicts the last injury he received (in equal dice), whether in this combat or in last week’s, upon the target (though the opponent can attempt a soak). If the Storyteller does not remember the last attack, he can use the character’s Strength + number of successes to hit as the default dice pool.
Disadvantage: If ever the character rolls a botch while this Stain is active, he “relives” his last wound, and suffers the damage. Again, the character can attempt to soak the damage and the Storyteller can use the default system mentioned above.
Nauseating
Some spooks perceive themselves as so hideously ugly, so utterly repulsive that it literally sickens others to look at them. Perhaps they have maggots swarming under their skin or are covered with truly disgusting lesions. Regardless of the specifics, the effect is the same: Those perceiving the character are disgusted to the point of feeling utterly nauseous (even spooks feel like throwing up).
Advantage: Opponents within five feet of the afflicted character suffer a penalty of one die to all dice pools.
Disadvantage: Obviously, the character manifesting this Stain has absolutely no appeal to anyone for the duration of its effect. Her Appearance drops to 0.
Pseudopods – Like amoebic tentacles, the character’s gauze can grow amorphous limbs that curve and stretch like putty up to a range of ten feet.
Advantage: The character has multiple limbs, and can use them to engage in hand-to-hand combat at range. He can also grab items and manipulate them crudely. He cannot fire a gun, for example, but he can flip a light switch or turn a doorknob. This does not grant the character additional actions, which still requires the character to split his relevant die pools.
Disadvantage: For the duration of a scene, the character must succeed at a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) or accidentally use a pseudopod instead of his limb to perform an action. The action either incurs a penalty of two to the relevant difficulty or eliminates two dice from a pertinent die pool (Storyteller discretion according to the situation).
Roaming Eyes
When this Stain manifests, the character's eyes (indeed, with their sockets) are free to roam anywhere on the character's body. Thus, the character might have a single eye dead center in her face and one on the back of her head. Alternately, she might choose to have one on each palm, leaving her face with smooth skin where her eyes should be.
Advantage: This Stain potentially provides the character with several helpful abilities. For one thing, the character can use her hands to peer around corners. For another, it's possible to move one's eyes to a safer location if there's an enemy who tends to go for eye gouging. Lastly, it never hurts to see behind you.
Disadvantage: The costs of not having two eyes in the configuration others expect are notably high. The Stain screws with depth perception, incurring a penalty of two to all difficulties related to aiming punching, shooting, kicking, dodging, etc.). Other spooks might also avoid a character with this Stain altogether, though the standard penalty is two to the difficulty of all Social rolls.
Rooted
Some oddity in your gauze causes your feet to grow roots into the ground (or whatever else) beneath them. Roots of various size try to anchor themselves into the floor with every step you take.
Advantage: If you don't want to be moved, nobody can budge you, and so long as you're bodily intact, you can remain standing, literally rooted to the spot.
Disadvantage: Reduce your movement rate to a quarter of normal due to this Stain. Staying in one spot for more than five minutes requires a Strength roll (difficulty 7) to uproot yourself. The difficulty rises by one for every five minutes thereafter, so woe betide the spook who's knocked unconscious.
Shark’s Appetite – The character’s mouth grows into a maw with teeth that are thick and jagged, like those of a piranha or shark. He even develops additional rows behind the first, right to the back of the throat.
Advantage: The character gains the ability to eat anything and masticate it to a quick pulp by latching on to it with his mouth. By succeeding in a Clinch maneuver (see p. 231 core book), the character automatically inflicts Strength +2 lethal damage for each turn he continues grappling the opponent. He can also destroy artifacts by masticating them, using Strength + Spite (difficulty 7).
Disadvantage: The character has a voracious appetite in this form, and must eat constantly or devour portions of himself. Once a scene, the character loses a point of Vitality if he does not ingest something (and that includes successfully attacking a target for any potential damage). Storytellers can dictate that this incurs the loss of three Vitality per day for as long as the character is out of flesh (re-entering one’s body or possessing someone both offer relief from the hunger).
Shifting Identity – Some people have little credible self-image, whether it’s horrific self-esteem or unrealistic appraisals of themselves. The Stain slowly shifts a spook’s looks and even identity around like silly putty, a reflection of how little they knew themselves.
Advantage: Because spooks are essentially exposed avatars of their personalities, they can willingly “tweak” facets of themselves to alter their own Social Attributes. With this Stain, the character can exchange one dot in Charisma, Manipulation, and Appearance with another by manipulating elements of their very being, altering people’s perceptions of, or interactions with, themselves. So, the spook can heighten Charisma by one dot, for example, at the expense of lowering Manipulation or Appearance by one dot. It must be a one-for-one exchange. This modification lasts for the duration of a scene and cannot be altered further.
Disadvantage: The character’s features slowly change over the duration of a day, and only return to normal once the Stain is gone. After one day, the character might look like a relative of himself or even just slightly changed, but after two days, the character looks completely different from his former self. This makes establishing relationships with ghosts difficult, and may even force the character to reintroduce himself every couple of days. Worse, even if someone understands the nature of the changes, this increases the difficulty of any Social rolls with said spooks by two. Storytellers may also rule that for characters using the Stain only briefly, any botched rolls automatically incur an immediate and radical shift in the character’s appearance. He turns into “someone else” right on the spot.
Skeletal Form – Ever hear the expressions of someone who’s so transparent, you can see right through them? Well, now the character is nothing but a walking skeleton, his gauze coalesced into bone.
Advantage: The character can attempt to frighten the onlooker (including sensitives among the living) using Manipulation + Intimidation, the difficulty being the target’s Willpower.
Disadvantage: The character automatically fails his Social rolls or, at the very least, rolls against difficulty 10 in related situations.
Spider’s Bristles – When a character manifests this Stain, a carpet of hairy bristles emerges from the skin on his hands, arms and legs. Their curious design lends the character the appearance that he’s possessed of wirelike body (and palm) hair.
Advantage: The character can climb up walls and other sheer surfaces by using his bristles, in much the same way a spider does. If he tries carrying another spook, however, he no longer adheres.
Disadvantage: To effect fine manipulation, the character must succeed in a Willpower roll (difficulty 7); otherwise the bristles remain and the character is constantly and accidentally pulling things he didn’t disengage from properly. The drawback halves his dice pools on anything involving a light touch to a minimum of one.
Stinger
The character has a stinger of some sort on his body. It can be as large as a scorpion tail -- originating at the terminus of his spine and arcing over his head -- or something smaller and more anatomically elegant. Regardless, the character can wield it effectively and it delivers a venom that hurts the target.
Advantage: the character can sting a target with a simple roll to hit. On a successful hit, the sting delivers one level of lethal damage. For the next five turns, the venom delivered by the stinger inflicts three additional levels of bashing damage per turn. The victim can soak the poison.
Disadvantage: Using the stinger hurts because it pulls and twists at ones own body like an overextended muxcle or a strained joint. For three turns after using the stinger, the character suffers from one additional wound penalty as a result of the strain.
Withered – This Stain withers a character’s plasm so that regardless his Vitality, he always appears desiccated and several months past dead.
Advantage: The character registers as a zero-Vitality entity, meaning that he can expend as much Vitality as he possesses within a single turn and not register to Spectres or other spooks (at least those not within line-of-sight).
Disadvantage: The character’s gauze is flaky and crumbles easily. Bashing damage against the character inflicts an additional two dice per attack, though the character may still soak the damage.
Worm Hair
The character does not have hair, per se, but rather worms or perhaps small snakes where hair would normally be. They may be short (in the case of worms) or relatively long, with snakes looking rather like cornrow braids at a distance.
Advantage: Manifesting this Stain gives the character the ability to listen in on the thoughts of others (so long as he's within line of sight). the player rolls Perception + Awareness against a difficulty of 7, and each success achieved allows the character to pluch one fact from a target's surface thoughts.
Disadvantage: Beyond the character's obvious physical repulsiveness, this Stain does rely on Spite's connection to Spectre's and their... abilities. A character using the mind-reading powers of this Stain also unknowingly broadcasts his own thoughts to all Spectres within a 100-yard radius, allowing them to pluck at random thoughts or even to track down the character if they so wish.
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