As Grognar sharpens his axe, a soft golden glow spreads across the blade, pulsing with a steady rhythm, like the beating of a heart. Ghostly figures of Viking warriors appear in the air around him, their spectral forms standing proud and unbowed. They chant in low, resonant voices, their words carried by a faint breeze. The ground beneath Grognar trembles subtly, and the scent of salt air and pine forests fills the air. To onlookers, Grognar appears larger than life, his presence commanding and otherworldly, as though the ancient spirit of a Hersir has returned to the world.
This transformation stems from Grognar’s unbreakable connection to his past. As he sharpens his axe, he recalls the camaraderie, loyalty, and sacrifices of his comrades. Each motion honors their memory and rekindles his purpose as a Hersir. This ritual channels their enduring spirits, reminding Grognar—and all who witness it—that his strength lies not just in battle but in the unity and honor of those who fought beside him.
Exert your Mind and spend one minute. You must actively and obviously use His Axe (Specifically his Axe) to activate this Effect.
You transform into Hersir for 3 hours. You have access to all of your Powers while you are Hersir, and you can use your equipment. Your Battle Scars, Injuries, and physical Liabilities are carried over between forms. Reverting from your Alternate Form cannot cause your existing Injuries to kill you. Instead, you remain Incapacitated.
While transformed, your Charisma is increased by 2 and your Intellect is increased by 2. Your Stress is reduced by 2.
Your body is adapted to Leadership (guide, befriend and lead a group or even a whole army) and Strategic (Planning or seeing trough others tactics). You receive +3 dice on non-attack rolls related to Leadership (guide, befriend and lead a group or even a whole army) and Strategic (Planning or seeing trough others tactics).
After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
If you become Incapacitated or suffer an Injury Severity 4 or greater, this Effect ends.
The scene shifts as the Driver suddenly seems to feel the rage boiling up beneath the surface, the pain, the anguish, all coming up as his body slowly changes, flakes of skin burn right off his face, revealing the flaming skull coated in blue fire from underneath, the skin from his bones gone completely, revealing the Hell Rider, ready to take his screaming foes to the Underworld.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You transform into The Hell Rider for 3 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are The Hell Rider, and you can use your equipment. The Injuries and Battle Scars of your Alternate Form and your true form are tracked separately.
While transformed, your Brawn is increased by 1 and your Dexterity is increased by 1. Your Stress is reduced by 2.
After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Vengeful.
Apex Cryptid: The Primordial Shift
The moment you activate this power, a deep, guttural resonance hums through the air—like a chorus of ancient, forgotten beasts calling from the dark corners of the earth. Your body twists and stretches, bones popping and muscles coiling into unfamiliar shapes. Your skin ripples with patterns that seem to mimic the natural camouflage of apex predators long thought extinct. Scales, fur, or chitinous plates may shimmer across your form, shifting with every step as though the essence of cryptids from across the globe surges through your veins.
Your human instincts dull as primal instincts take hold. Words become foreign; the structure of language replaced by a heightened awareness of your surroundings. The scent of fear hangs like a thick mist, every sound sharpened into a potential threat or prey. Your hands become crude tools—talons, claws, or massive, rugged fingers that can grasp but never delicately control.
Stress dissolves as the primal mindset overtakes you. The noise of human worries is replaced with the singular clarity of survival and dominance. In this form, you are an echo of the unknown, the whispered terror of campfire stories given flesh.
Apex Cryptid → Amalgamation of Cryptids: The Unveiling
If the battle turns against you—if pain strikes deep and the cryptid essence within senses true danger—a terrifying metamorphosis unfolds.
Your body convulses, and the injuries that should cripple you instead fuel a grotesque evolution. Limbs elongate and twist, growing jagged with predatory adaptations stolen from creatures lost to time. Gills flare along your neck. Serrated fangs emerge where human teeth once sat. The eyes of countless predators open across your body, each gazing with predatory instinct.
For one breathless minute, you become the embodiment of earth’s cryptid lore—a walking nightmare of mismatched power. Movement becomes instinctive, effortless. Every step feels like a hunt, and every breath crackles with the potential of the predator’s pounce. The air itself seems to recoil, bending to your unnerving presence
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You transform into Apex Cryptid for 30 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are Apex Cryptid, and you can use your equipment. The Injuries and Battle Scars of your Alternate Form and your true form are tracked separately.
While transformed, your Attributes are the same. Your Stress is reduced by 2.
If you take Injuries totaling 4 Severity or higher while transformed, you recover all Injuries and change into Amaglamation Of Crytids Across the earth. All dice rolls are at -1 Difficulty for the next minute or until this Effect ends. Cooldown 1 day.
Your alternate form renders you unable to speak any human language and incapable of fine object manipulation. You can only hold or grasp objects in a crude, clumsy way.
After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.
Mathias shifts and morphs, his muscles coming undone and rebinding, growing and reshaping into a creature of malice. His hair weaves and flows around his neck, forming a massive mane, antennae sprout from his forehead like devil horns, and gruesome claws curve from his fingertips. He grows in size, turning into a 10 foot tall moth-like creature, red as the blood that will soon drip from its grizzly talons.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You transform into a monstrous moth creature for 3 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are a monstrous moth creature, and you can use your equipment. Your Battle Scars, Injuries, and physical Liabilities are carried over between forms. Reverting from your Alternate Form cannot cause your existing Injuries to kill you. Instead, you remain Incapacitated.
While transformed, your Brawn is increased by 2. You do not suffer any Stress while transformed.
Your alternate form is its own deadly weapon. Unarmed attacks made in your alternate form deal +3 Weapon Damage (instead of the typical -1).
Your alternate form renders you unable to speak any human language and incapable of fine object manipulation. You can only hold or grasp objects in a crude, clumsy way.
Trav begins to panic and look around franticly, he then pulls out a small, crumpled piece of paper that he has written something on. If anyone looks closely the paper is an affirmation to himself that he is the one who decides his future. After reading the paper again he seems to calm down. At this point in time a soldier seems to appear behind him holding a rifle and levels it. Trav then starts to scream for help before he is silenced by 5 rounds piercing his skull fires. The paper slowly flutters to the floor and is stained with blood. If anyone looks closely the soldier is wearing a dog tag with only the name Trav Brown legible anymore. After a period of time the soldier appears to be riddled with bullets with blood gushing out of his body before falling face first on the ground the blood beginning to pool around the body as the body continues to bleed the sounds of a child crying can be heard and another look at the body reveals Trav curled up and crying.
When Trav sleeps he doesn't have normal dreams, He is instead put in the body of a future version of himself, that person being a soldier who was drafted when war a broke out, that soldier through much bloodshed grew to enjoy killing even taking pride in the number of people killed, taking their fear as a complement. After his first contract this nightmare has gained power over Trav and con now take physical form. Trav calls this person the Monster as an attempt to separate himself from this thing he could become
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend a Quick Action. You must use up A written note confirming that he is in control in order to activate this Effect.
You transform into a Soldier for 30 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are a Soldier, and you can use your equipment. Your Battle Scars, Injuries, and physical Liabilities are carried over between forms. Reverting from your Alternate Form cannot cause your existing Injuries to kill you. Instead, you remain Incapacitated.
While transformed, your Dexterity is increased by 2 and your Perception is increased by 2. You do not suffer any Stress while transformed.
While transformed, instead of your normal clothes and equipment, you are equipped with: Flak Jacket + Helmet, Rifle, 1 grenade, 1 flashbang, 1 knife, 10 magazines
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see A child is shot through the back of the head.
Whenever you enter Combat, roll Self-Control. If you fail, you cannot choose which targets to attack and cannot stop fighting until there are no targets remaining.
As your form is damaged and your "life" threatened, the flesh of those you consumed for sustenance pours from your wounds and orifices to protect you. Its writhing mass layering over your form in a disgusting and terrifying sight.
This Effect activates whenever Receiving a severity 2 Injury or higher. It does not require an Action or Exertion. “Your target should be intuitively based on the triggering event.
You transform into An enlarged, rotting hulk. for 3 Rounds. You have access to all of your Powers while you are An enlarged, rotting hulk., and you can use your equipment. Your Battle Scars, Injuries, and physical Liabilities are carried over between forms. Reverting from your Alternate Form cannot cause your existing Injuries to kill you. Instead, you remain Incapacitated.
While transformed, your Brawn is increased by 1. You do not suffer any Stress while transformed.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see Undulating mounds of flesh and tissue unevenly covering your enlarged frame.
The werewolf unleashes their inner beast, transforming into an imposing hybrid of human and wolf. Their head reforms into that of a wolf, robbing them of speech but bestowing a maw of deadly fangs. Grey fur sprouts from their body as it swells with muscle, ripping any tight-fitting clothes. While transformed, the werewolf is impulsive and driven more by instinct than logic.
If The Werewolf is struck my moonlight, they are compelled to transform.
Exert your Mind and spend a Quick Action.
You transform into a werewolf for 3 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are a werewolf, and you can use your equipment. Your Battle Scars, Injuries, and physical Liabilities are carried over between forms. Reverting from your Alternate Form cannot cause your existing Injuries to kill you. Instead, you remain Incapacitated.
While transformed, your Brawn is increased by 2 and your Dexterity is increased by 2. You do not suffer any Stress while transformed.
Your alternate form is its own deadly weapon. Unarmed attacks made in your alternate form deal +3 Weapon Damage (instead of the typical -1).
Your alternate form renders you unable to speak any human language and incapable of fine object manipulation. You can only hold or grasp objects in a crude, clumsy way.
After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.
While transformed, you automatically fail any Mind roll to resist an impulse and suffer -3 dice on all other Mind rolls.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Whenever you are struck by the light of a full or gibbous moon, you must roll Self-Control to resist transforming. Triggers a max of once per night.