Category: Monster of the Week Roadhouse: Monsters!

Teihiihan: The Little Cannibals

The Cannibal Dwarves are found in the myths of a number of northern Plains Tribes, such as the Cheyenne, the Soiux and the Arapaho.  While there are several ways the Teihiihan can come into existence, the most common source of these creatures are the spirits of  warriors resurrected and returned to the mortal world after dying in battle.  The Teihiihan often appear as dwarves or children, armed with stone weapons and bows.  Hunters have reported they using modern melee weapons if available but they do not seem to use fire-arms (either by choice or a lack of knowledge).  The Teihiihan are know for their superhuman strength and speed (although in some traditions powerful camouflage abilities are attributed instead of speed).  They hunt man and devour his flesh raw but they especially prize the flesh of children.  

Tags:  Devourer

1 Armor:  They are all skilled warriors and are tough and battled hardened.

8 HP: 

Powers:

Superhuman strength:  +1 harm, penalty to feats of strength against them

Inhuman Speed (optional)

Camouflage capabilities:  Either through magic or cleverness.  Penalties to trying to ambush, stalk, pursue them or foil an ambush set by them (optional)

Pack Tactics:  They never act along favoring to attack in numbers.  Fighting them alone incurs penalties.

Heartless: The Teihiihan do not keep their hearts in their chests but rather in their cave lairs.  If a Teihiihan is slain but their heart is not destroyed, the next night the Teihiihan will re-manifest in a new body.  

Weaknesses:

Chanunpa sacred pipe:  A traditional Soiux musical instrument integral to many of their rituals and dances, a traditional song played on it will send the Teihiihan fleeing (like the Divine’s Banish).  Singing the song in it’s native tongue can provide a 7-9 Banish effect out of the Divine on the creatures.

Sacred Beaded Tobacco Bag:  Often a symbol of spiritual and physical transformation.  Bags with a caterpillar and moth/butterfuly motif can be used to summon whirlwind bugs to create whirlwinds to temporarily bind Teihiihan to locations.  

Medicine Wheel:  The medicine wheel is a powerful symbol among the Plains Indians.  Those who practice one of the Plains’ faiths cannot be touched by the Teihiihan if they are wearing it.  Non-believes who wear it can gain a moment’s time to attempt to escape but suffer no long term benefits as they have no faith to bolster it’s power.

Destroy the Heart:  Teihiihan do not keep their hearts in their chests but in their lairs as a means to cheat Death.  If one can gain access to their lair, one can destroy the hearts and bring final death to the creatures.

The 1000 Fold Path

A school of sorcery based on origami.   Practitioners are often refereed to as ‘Cranes’.   While most laugh at though of someone folding paper as being any sort of threat, that laughter quickly falls silent when they see a Crane in action.  Firstly, the Crane is able to animate and control any origami in proximity to them, so it is not uncommon for a Crane to keep a dozen or two paper cranes up specially tailored sleeves that can be deployed and sent flying through the air to stab the eyes of enemies.

If a Crane stands in proximity something that can be bend or folded they can fold a ritually prepared paper and fold an object through sympathetic magic.  Case and point, folding ritual paper near a stop sign allows the Crane to turn the metal since into a metal origami cat and animate it to attack an enemy.

In melee Cranes can be quite deadly.  They typically can be seen with metal canes or walking sticks.  These sticks are made of folded steel, much like the more famous katana.  Attuned to the Crane, they can command the cane/stick to refold into different melee weapons, consequently Cranes are typically masters of multiple melee styles to maximize their advantage.

Advantages:

-Manipulate anything that can be bent or folded without special paper

-enchanted cane that can take on any melee weapon tag at will

-Can animiate origami creations and command them

Weakness:

Beyond their magic, they are normal humans.  However as some of tradition’s practices draw upon Buddhism and Shinto. they are subject to it as well to some degree.

-If one has a piece of paper with the kanji characters of 4 and 9 (which are considered unlucky as they look very similar to Death and Suffering) one gains protection against the Cranes’ animating power.

-If one captures the tolling of 108 bells and release them at once, the Crane’s magic will shatter and all their constructs and their cane will unfold be magically inert.    

Katakirauwa

The elusive Japanese pig oni is a creature hunters seldom face.   It typically appears in the form a pig, either as an adult or piglet with a missing ear and casts no shadow.  Its mean of attack is to run between the legs of its victim (or in some legends brush the leg) and instantly tear out the soul, causing instant death.    As the katakirauwa leaves no physical signs of violence, the cause of death is typically attributed to heart attack other mundane cause.  It is only under occult inquirer that true cause of death be revealed.

Weaknesses:

The primary weakness of katakirauwa is geography.   Like much the oni pantheon, geographic and symbolic boundaries matter.  Oni often lurk near rivers, beaches, great edifices and archways.  These are sympathetic representations of the divide between the mortal world and the spirit world.  If one slays an oni’s mortal form near such boundaries, it’s spiritual essence will escape across to the spiritual live and return to trouble Man another day.  If however it’s mortal form is slain away from boundaries, its spiritual essence will be confused and disoriented, giving the hunter time to bind it to an object and decide what to do with the creature at their leisure. 

Cross the Sanguine Majesty

Monsters hunters always seem to have artifacts and trinkets that are perfect for warding off monsters, long enough to slay them or to flee.  However sometimes monsters have trinkets of their own.  One such item is the much reviled Cross of the Sanguine Majesty.  There are several of these crosses floating about the underbelly of the supernatural world today. 

They are red gold crosses, sometimes with rubies, in the fashion of the crosses carried by the Spanish Conquistadors.  They are blessed in bowls of virgins blood by devotes of the faded but not gone Aztec gods.  They have a unique ability.  They repel monster hunters of clean spirit as the Cross repels the vampire.  Many a hunter has had an ambush turn horribly wrong when their preys pulls out one of these crosses.

Mechanically this crosses forces any hunter/pc that would be considered a ‘good person’ to role Act Under Pressure to remain it’s presence.  Hunters who use magic or weird for KSA rolls must roll Cool instead.