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I've come up with an encounter for my players, as their first "boss fight." They're chasing a really powerful abyssal, and I've had him create a hekatonkhire as a weapons test. I want to know if (in your opinion) it's a fair fight for a group of celestials. I've tried to make it so that if they can keep it from eating the villagers in the town they're in the fight will go their way, but if they grow too callous about bystanders things can turn sour fast. I've also left a vulnerability in it to holy charms. Finally, I've made it so that if they are driven enough they can permanently destroy it despite none of them having spirit killing charms, but if they're flippant with it it may be a recurring foe. I'm a bit worried that Withering Breath is too powerful. And I'm worried that dice pools may be wrong (I tried to put them on the threshhold where they will hit my entirely combat-focused characters (yes, they're all combat junkies) about half the time barring defensive charms/stunting: enough to keep them on their toes but not so much as to completely overwhelm them. Similarly, I keyed the damage to the average soak (about 7-10B, meaning 5-8 dice of damage, meaning 2-4 levels on average).
Anyway, enough ranting. Have a Hekatonkhire.
Thousand Soul Stranglevine
A mass of writhing vines rise from the ground, dozens of them moving in concert like a strange octopus with too many limbs. From the center rises a thick stalk 40 feet tall, topped with a many petaled white flower in which a hungry maw works. Dozens of smaller mawflowers line the vines, gnashing their teeth. The whole plant glows with a sickly green radiance which seems to fade to transparency and resolidify in odd, almost random ways. The Thousand Soul Stranglevine was created by a spell which conglomerated it from the dead spirits of hundreds of animals and dozens of ghosts succored on the wood aspected demesne within a forest, and designed by the necromancy of the Master of Shattered Bones. It is possibly the first hekatonkhire deliberately created by one of the abyssal exalted, intended as a weapons test for the potential destruction of Sijan. The nightmare flower is neither material nor immaterial, but some strange ectoplasmic hybrid which affects both.
Motivation: Devour the souls of the living and the dead.
Attributes: Strength 15, Dexterity 4, Stamina 15, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Appearance 6, Perception 3, Intelligence 1, Wits 2
Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 4, Temperance 2, Valor 4
Abilities: Athletics 7, Awareness 2 (movement sense +4), Craft (wood) 7, Dodge 3 (partial dematerializing +7) Integrity 8, Martial Arts 7 (Vines +2), Presence 2 (terrifying +8), Resistance 8, Thrown 6
Special Abilities:
Ectoplasmic rending: The ectoplasmic vines of the stranglevine touch the immaterial more easily than the material, allowing it to always assault immaterial creatures. A living creature slain by the creature's vines does not die to physical wounds, but rather has its soul torn bodily from it before being devoured screaming by the hekatonkhire's mawflowers, the body falling limply to the ground and the spirit permanently destroyed. This feeding process is terrifying to behold, requiring a valor check (difficulty 2) to avoid fleeing from the creature. Spending 2 wp overcomes this unnatural emotion effect, and a character who passes the valor check or spends the willpower is immune to the fear engendered for the remainder of the scene. In addition, the digestion of the spirit's corpus reinvigorates the Stranglevine, giving it 5m for every dot of essence possessed by the victim. This is the only means by which the stranglevine may regain motes. This is a shaping effect.
Necromantic Spores: For a cost of 1m, the Stranglevine may spit forth a spore from any maw. On striking a living creature, it extends barbed tendrils and burrows into the creature's flesh and soul as a ranged clinch which takes no effort to maintain. If the target should win the clinch, they may pry the spore away and cast it aside, where it lies twitching for a few seconds before subsuming On slaying a victim or striking a corpse, the tendrils sink deep into the flesh and begin it moving in twisted puppetry, causing the body to arise as a zombie 6 ticks later.
Twisted Semblance of Life: With sufficient volumes of dead wood and flesh the Stranglevine may spend 10m and make a successful Craft (wood) roll difficulty 4 as simple action taking one long tick to create a necromantic war machine. These shambling wooden monstrosities survive for only a week before decaying away to nothing, consumed by unnatural and hideously toxic mushrooms and disturbing plant life.
Cursed Resilience: By spending 5m per bashing health level or 10m per level, the Stranglevine may instantly heal from any damage it has the motes to recover. This cannot heal aggravated damage.
Withering Breath: When all else fails, the Stranglevine may forego its desire to feed in order to slay its enemy. By spending 20m, the Stranglevine opens all its maws and vomits forth a toxic cloud of death essence as a simple action. This cloud spreads in all directions out to a distance of 200 yards, advancing at a rate of 20 yards/tick until it has reached its full range. All living things within it are exposed to a poison with the statistics of Yozi Venom for each action they remain within the cloud. The cloud lingers for up to an hour before congealing into a shadowland. Living things slain by the cloud waste away and crumble to dust before the eyes of spectators. This mode of death leaves no ghosts behind for the Stranglevine to feed upon
Deathless Seed: When reduced to dying health levels by an attack which does not permanently destroy spirits, the Stranglevine convulses for several minutes before decaying into nothing, collapsing into the underworld as it dies and losing all motes. All that is left behind is a single seed, the size of a coconut, at the center of the decaying ectoplasmic vines outside creation. This seed is bone white and freezing to the touch. It sends out a lure, drawing all ghosts and plasmic entities within 13 miles to it as a social attack affecting non-heroic ghosts with MDV less than 7, costing 1 wp to resist for a scene. Any ghost foolish enough to touch it is consumed instantly as per Ectoplasmic Rending. When the seed has consumed enough ghosts to completely refill its mote pool, it puts out tendrils and rebirths itself as a full stranglevine over the course of a month. This seed may be destroyed by any living thing courageous enough to brave the underworld and destroy it, without fear of being consumed. It has soak and hardness 5, and 7 health levels.
Join Battle: 4 (8 if foe is moving)
Attacks: Vines: Speed 5, Accuracy 13, Damage 15B, Rate 5, Parry 7 (cannot parry lethal)
Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 13, Damage 15B, Rate 5, Parry -
Necromantic Spore: Speed 5, Accuracy 10, Damage Special, Rate 3, Parry -
Withering Breath: Special
Soak: 15B/7L/7A
Corpus Levels: -0x5/-1x10/-2x10/-4x3/Incap
Dodge DV: 7 (4 vs. Strike Immaterial)
Willpower: 10
Essence: 5
Essence Pool: 100/100
Apologies for poor writing.