Typhon

The Serpent of Memory
A character from Lest Ye Become.

Arcs and Resources

  • Arc: Allegory 2, Primordial 1
  • Current Arc: Primordial
  • Emotion XP: Shiver of Terror
  • Normal Health: 2
  • Tough Health:2
  • Divine Health: 2
  • Will: 8
  • MP: 5

Skills

  • Superior Giant Snake 3 - Seriously. Giant. Deadly. It's kind of your thing.
  • Fighting 2 - You are surprisingly well-trained.
  • Sneaking 2 - People do not see you when you don't want to be seen.
  • Weather-Sense 1 - You prefer to move around during storms.

Perks

  • Affliction: Hunter of Destinies. You have a knack for running into important people, and then getting into scraps with them. It's a truly miraculous ability, usually based on your Calling Issue - when you hunt, it grows stronger.
  • Bond: The Rat-Lore of Typhon (2). You are bound to the rat-lore of Typhon, which empowers your actions, but can be used by the wise to avoid or placate you. This Bond is tied to your Allegory Arc.
  • Connection: The Prince of Thorns [1]. His lair hides such delicious memories.

Miraculous Abilities: A Mystery

You are a transcendent being, driven by Hunger. This is your Vice, and you indulge it probably more often that you should.

Perfected Hunter

You have a knack for hiding in the shadows, slipping away from the notice of your prey. You can whisper from the shadows, and no one really questions it; probably, it's just a person back there, right? In particular, there's a Level 2 Obstacle to any attempt to:

  • Spot you when you're trying to hide, be subtle, or disappear
  • Pinpoint your location or nature when you speak from a hidden place
  • Effectively describe the presence that they've spotted if you remain in shadows.

Sharp As A Serpent's Tooth [Major]

Your fangs are sharp, so sharp that they can cut even what is not real. Once per book, you can bite through anything - a solid object, a ghostly phantasm, even the bonds that tie two people together. Doing this more than once a book costs you 4 MP.

Godslayer [Major]

You are meant to hunt the living and the dead, the Mysteries and the gods themselves. Once per book, you may imbue your Fighting skill with supernatural power, allowing you to directly attack miracles or destroy miraculous actions by tearing at them with your mystic fangs and dripping venom onto them. The attack's mundane Intention level competes directly against the miraculous action you're destroying. Attacking miracles more than once per book costs 1 MP, and attacking them more than once per chapter costs 2 MP.

A Thousand Memories [Imperial]

You have eaten memories forgotten and drifting on the air, from the minds of your victims, and from the Nightmare Realms; as a result, you know far more than you should, through a thousand lifetimes. Once per book, you may declare that you've eaten a memory about anything that you encounter, and thus know about it. This functions as a wish, "I wish I had detailed experience with that." As with godslaying, you have to spend 1 MP to do this more than once a book, and 2 MP to do it more than once per chapter.

The Serpent's Shadow [Superior]

No portal can bar your passage, no prey can escape to where you cannot follow. Once per book, you may fill an empty Perk slot with a Level 2 Superior skill that lets you travel somewhere you normally couldn't - perhaps "Dream-Walking" to step into people's dreams, or "Shadow-Slither" to step into one shadow and emerge through another. You will generally keep whatever method you choose for the whole book, although if you really need to change it, you can spend 4 MP to do so.

Feather The Nest [Imperial]

Technically, you don't have to consume a memory completely. Instead, you can layer into an inanimate object, or a particularly dull animal, bringing it to life and sentience and giving it that memory as its guiding principle. As a rule, you use this power with the kindest and gentlest memories that you find, creating a nest of loving objects within your lair that cuddle up to you, whisper their love of you, and generally tell you that everything is all right. This is free once per book, and takes a few minutes of dripping venom onto the object. Once again, using it a second time in a book costs 1 MP, and a second time in a chapter costs 2 MP.

These creatures don't automatically love and obey you, but they do have a Level 1 Connection to you, and you to them. That's why you tend to stick with only the most loving memories; these things will never leave you. Theoretically, you could also place a hate-filled memory into an object, causing it to come to life and act out its rage, but you'd probably just have to eat them again when they turned on you.

Curse-Venom [Imperial]

Your deadly venom is extremely dangerous, and when it drips into someone's blood, it can infect them with your endless, horrifying hunger. Once per book, when you bite someone, you can begin a process of transformation that is really unpleasant for them. This turns them into some kind of horrifying, raging, hungry monster, usually based around their self-image and the metaphors that most apply to them, but also often kind of snake-themed. The transformation lasts until they are killed, or they resolve an appropriate issue (Usually Sickness), or they take a Deadly Wound and then heal it.

Transforming them in this way does require an Intention on your part, and can be opposed with mundane actions, so someone with a strong will or body might be able to resist. Cursing people more than once a book costs 1 MP, and more than once a chapter costs 2 MP.

Miraculous Abilities: The Serpent of Memory

You aren't just a serpent, you are the Serpent of Memory. Memories and dreams are your strength, and your food. Your Principle is Memory, the fact that "Our past controls our present", and your element is the raging storm.

Serpent of Storms

You control the weather, to a small degree. Rain and fog follow you when you hunt, and thunder crashes when you're injured. You can generally use your 'weather-sense' to actually control the weather, and can easily make small changes to it.

Scry

When storms rise, you see all within them. The stronger whatever weather is happening, the more easily you can search through it to pick out targets or people to avoid. This is free, but requires effort; you aren't just perfectly aware of everyone out in the rain, you have to go looking for them, and it takes a few minutes. You can spend MP to hurry this process.

A Hunger For Love [Imperial]

You eat memories.

Technically, you can eat anything. Anything that can fit in your mouth, you are able to digest. But the things that you eat, above all else, are memories, and if you become sick from eating the wrong thing, you will vomit up the memory of that thing, rather than its physical existence.

Dream-Venom [Imperial]

When you eat a memory, you can take it into yourself, purify it, and forge it into a deadly toxin. Generally, most memories aren't strong enough for this; you need to eat a particularly valuable, beloved, or traumatic memory to get the effect. Minor memories manifest as a Level 2 Bond or Level 1 Superior Skill, stored within one of your unwounded Normal health levels, which can only be seen by a glint in your eyes or on your scales. More powerful poisons, however, puff around you in a cloud, staining the air and ground, and manifest as miraculous abilities that you can use 1-2 times a scene, and are stored in unwounded Tough Health levels.

Memories of the Prey [Imperial]

When you physically eat someone's memories, you gain access to them. This gives you an insight into their life which can help you learn things they might want you to know ("don't eat me" is a particularly common emotion), or even to track them down. It costs you only 1 MP to track down someone whose memories you have tasted in the past.

Your Starting Quests

Basic Quest: The Hunt

You are always hungry, and you eat memories to survive. Whenever you steal another character's memory of something, you can say, ''"I need it more,"'' and gain one XP. Normally you'll do this with your Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth, but you could also just use A Hunger For Love when dealing with minor memories that people won't miss.

Arc Quest: Is There More To Life Than This?

You've become uncertain about your destiny, and uncertainty is a terrible thing in a predator. It might get you hurt. This quest uses the framework of "Crisis of Confidence", from the "Casting Off Your Skin" quest set.

Side Quest: Connecting With Someone

You've made a connection with another PC - someone who makes you want to, maybe, be more than a murderous snake. You're reaching out, very cautiously, very uncertainly. Go for it! This is the corebook "Connecting With Someone" quest.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License