Gorgon

[Rudra]

Name: Stheno

Age: virtually immortal, appear to be in the late 20s early 30s

Height: 6'1''(normal posture) 5'9''(full length)

Weight: Around 900lbs

Like: boiled eggs, cakes, warm temperature, poetry, sculpture, drama

Dislike: cold temperature, adventurers (the dungeon delving, monster slaying kind) being confused with her sisters, Perseus, talking about Perseus, overly religious people, Hermes & Athena, lawyers, the color purple, Germany, jesters/comic actors

Concept: A Gorgon from an alternate version of Wonder Woman(2017) universe

 

full image

(Mythical)Background : As the daughter of primordial gods, grandchildren of Gaia, the first deity, Stheno is older than humans, she was a "kid" back when Prometheus was building them with clay.

Stheno is one of the three gorgons, of which two remain, Medusa, the most famous, died by the hands of Perseus, most people know about that story even if there are many versions of it, fewer people know that medusa had two sisters: Stheno and Euryale who chased the murderer or "hero" as history like to call Perseus.

Stheno has always been the stronger and fiercer of the trio and swore revenge on Perseus, his family, his friends, the families his families, their dogs too, she was out for blood and racked up an impressive body count.

When her bloodthirst was finally placated, Stheno retreated to a quiet life on one of the many islands of Greece, under the protection(or, to be precise, under the watchful gaze) of the Amazons, out of sight from humanity who, over time , forgot about the gods, the heroes and monsters, calling them myths.

Stuff happened, stuff being Ares playing with earth and causing world war, here Diana initially failed to stop Ares and the war continued until the early 50s, when wonder woman rallied the remaining amazons and all the mythical creatures to stop the end of the world.

After that the world was irremediably changed, humans discovered that the myths were real, the gods, heroes, monsters etc. all real, this drastically altered the history of that universe.

 

In the 80s mythical creatures have a special status, those with human intelligence are generally seen as celebrities, while those of animal intelligence are protected (and people are protected form them) Stheno live in Japan, fame didnt match with her reserved nature, here she is living a second youth, learning to live among humans, facing the many difficulties of her size and powers, thankfully she did learn to control he petrifying gaze back during the fourth crusade.

 

Stats: Health 17 Speed 2 Stamina 11(3 bonus modes)

Techniques:

Snake attacks

> Constriction: using her snake body Stheno coil around a target/object and tighten her powerful muscles to kill/subdue/break it

> Snake bite: her snake hairs can bite, low physical damage but highly venomous

Petrifying power

> Stare: a vision based magical attack that petrify a single target within her line of sight(think a dnd save or die spell)

> Gaze: a cone version of the above, target friends and foes alike, has shorter range

Archery

> aimed shot, a standard ranged attack focused on damage

> hobbling strike, a ranged attack that trade damage for the ability to immobilize/slow the enemy

 

Inventory

A jacket from the 1980s, wallet with some money and documents, a wristwatch.

 

[howmanybones]

Translated techniques

Snake attack: Cost 4. No universal effect.

• Constriction: Immobilizes a target (Immobilized entities can only use techniques that do not require movement or techniques that can break through immobilization.). Each turn that target is immobilized, it takes 1d4 damage and the user must pay 1 energy or the target recovers from being immobilized. If the user uses a basic action, the target ceases to be immobilized. The user is considered to be in the same position as the target until the target recovers. If the user attempts to use a short-ranged technique on an entity that is not sufficiently close, the target ceases to be immobilized.
• Snake bite: Deals 1d2 damage and applies 2d2 stacks of Poison to a nearby target.

Petrifying power: Cost 7. Roll 1d20, if the result is higher than the target's speed, the target is given 2d4 stacks of Petrified.

• Stare: Has 1 target. No range limit, but target must be visible. Applies 1 extra stack of Petrified if the 1d20 rolls a 20.
• Gaze: All entities described as being both visible and within 5 meters of the user are considered targets. Stacks of Petrified applied will be reduced by one for every 2 targets affected.

Archery: Cost 2, Deals 1d4 damage to a target.

• Aimed shot: Deals an extra 1d2 damage.
• Hobbling strike: Applies 1d2 stacks of Slow to the target.

Relevant status effects

Poison: Every turn, the afflicted takes damage equal to their stacks of poison, then loses 1 stack of poison.

Petrified: The afflicted cannot do anything. Every turn, the afflicted loses 1 stack of petrified.

Slow: The afflicted's speed is considered 0 for all intents and purposes. Every turn, the afflicted loses 1 stack of slow.

Edited March 23 by howmanybones
Added clarification. (see edit history)

[Rudra]

Cool, I like how the snake attacks are done but I have a doubt with the petrifying gaze, a 1 meter cone attack is very short, it will be very hard to use. I was hoping for something like 10-15 meters cone, if this is too much can I change this mode to something else?

[howmanybones]

I raised the range to 5 meters, hopefully that's an improvement. I made some other changes balance-wise to compensate. You may not change the mode to something else, as that would run the risk of setting a dangerous precedent.

Edited March 23 by howmanybones
Permission revoked. (see edit history)

[Rudra]

5 meters is indeed a significant improvement, i understand the need to balance it given how strong the effect is.

A question, the rule say you start combat with 3 energy and generate 3 at the end of each turn but what about out of combat situations? like an ambush/surprise attack? situations where a character has the equivalent of a few rounds of time to build up energy without pressure, can one use moves that require energy?

es. theres a guard outside a gate, within line of sight, not hostile, can i (try to) petrify it? or i must need to first start combat, charge up to 7 energy then try to petrify?

es2 i want to try to use a technique for hunting a deer/damaging an object, situations where it's obviously not a fight, is energy tracked or it's ignored ?

[howmanybones]

Out of combat you have infinite energy.

Edited March 31 by howmanybones
What was i thinking with non-combat action scenes? (see edit history)