Blightborn Concept Test

BLIGHTBORN Ssome regions desecrated by the Void contain a muta- genic radiance that can warp unborn children. Each week of prenatal exposure prompts a (difficulty 1) Essence roll for the mother, with failure resulting in corruption of her unborn offspring. Adults are not naturally vulnerable to this trans- formation, though powerful Apostates have demonstrated Voidtech Charms capable of inflicting the state to promote minions and torture prisoners. Blightborn appear mostly human, enough to fool the ig- norant masses. Their slightly enlarged skulls, angular faces and oversized eyes faintly resemble the tortured fossils of Nameless Ones found in soulsteel, prompting unnerved double-takes from savants who catch a glimpse out of their peripheral vi- sion. Blightborn eyes burn red in the dark—the secondary ocular-tumors responsible also extend needle-thin spikes into the skull, branching out into a forest of barbed circuits that augment thought even as they shred all sanity. The known danger of conceiving blightborn children has prompted policies forbidding pregnant women from entering Blight Zones as combatants or scouts. In the in- terest of deterring Voidbringers mad enough to try, only Tripartite leaders know the rationale behind these laws. For the Populat, it’s enough to say that Void energies can complicate pregnancies. Blightborn draw their first breath with full awareness of their world, already more intelligent than most adults. The shrieking song of the Engine of Extinction hums within their minds, urging them to birth its abomination as it birthed them. This shared music draws them together, gathering them in vicious think-tanks of sociopathic tinkers that attend Apostates as acolytes. Some fallen Champions flee to the Far Reaches and take refuge in Blight Zones, only to find their prophetic slaves waiting for them with jury-rigged Vats and armories of horrific Charms ready to install. Mutations (0 points): Night Vision (Pox), Gremlin Syn- drome (Deformity) Eerie Glow (Deficiency): Blightborn suffer a -1 external penalty to Stealth while in the dark due to glowing red eyes. The penalty also applies to social attacks against non-creatures of the Void who can see the unnatural light. Void Attunement (Debility): Blightborn mentally intuit instructions from the Engine of Extinction. The Storyteller controls when these horrid visions occur and what information they reveal. Some glimpses rewrite the mutants’ Motivation as an irresistible Servitude effect, directing them to whatever Storyteller-defined task best serves the Void. Common duties involve journeying to specific locations (thereby gathering these mutants), building Vats and serving Apostates. While blightborn effectively lack self-determination, they receive one perk. Gremlins recognize them on sight and do not attack them unless externally compelled or in self-defense. Women pregnant with blightborn also receive this protection. Only mortals can possess this mutation. Broken Demiurge (Abomination): The blightborn’s con- nection to Autochthon’s diseased brilliance enables them to function as crude demiurges whenever five or more of them labor together. This damaged knowledge does not let them create new Alchemicals and prevents them from installing non-Voidtech Charms/submodules in an Alchemical without Gremlin Syndrome. They are considered to have a rating of 5 in all Craft Abilities for performing their demiurge duties and can design new Charms in their makeshift Vats without aid of an Alchemical city, but can’t apply this Craft intuition to other endeavors. Only mortals with Gremlin Syndrome can possess this mutation.