Abyssal Demand
Injuries: Half
Type: Complication (Any Attack)
The antagonist feeds on death to sustain its monstrous form. This Antithesis takes shapes both biological and mystical, ranging from ravenous roots to howling maws devouring unfortunate souls. The antagonist destroys all dead creatures in the area, regaining as many injuries as dead creatures destroyed in this way.
The Storyguide can decide certain creatures don’t qualify for Abyssal Demand’s conditions, either because of their nature or the antagonist’s. A mycelium brain will have a hard time draining a crystalline construct, while husks have no life to consume.
Alter Environment
Prerequisite: Blight+
Type: Complication (Any Attack)
The antagonist suddenly warps the Area’s environmental conditions. Apply one of the following area effects to the entire area: Darkness, Demolished, Extreme Temperature, Extreme Weather, Flooding, On Fire, Overgrowth, Quaking, Sinking, or Underwater.
Further activations of this Antithesis can create cumulative conditions, but opposing circumstances may counter each other. A tunnel that suddenly becomes riddled with roots and thorns, choking out all light along with it, poses a deadly threat, but two clashing geoprucugalla of opposing elements that raise and lower the temperature end up resetting it to normal.
Barrier
Type: Reflexive Action
The antagonist creates a defense of some sort, like a stone wall or a shield of roots. The antagonist summons heavy cover within Short range.
Beastmaster
Type: Simple Action
The antagonist can control beasts and vermin. As a simple action, it can focus on an animal inside Medium range and roll its primary pool opposed by the target’s Integrity. On a success, the animal follows all the antagonist’s orders until the end of the scene to the best of its abilities, although it might still flee should characters scare it away.
Bend Minds
Prerequisite: Blight+
Type: Complication (Influence)
The antagonist invades their victim’s thoughts, forcing them to do its bidding. The creature implants a single suggestion in the target’s mind. If the latter accepts the influence, they must act upon the order during their next turn or at their earliest convenience when outside of combat.
Orders such as “attack your friend” or “open the settlement’s gates” are valid options, just as “jump in the lava,” but player characters gain a +3 Enhancement on their Integrity action against directly suicidal orders. A player can choose to ignore the influence completely, which grants the influencing antagonist +2 Enhancement on their next action against her.
For scourges and higher, this Antithesis forces a villainous Aspiration on a target which, if accepted, grants experience as usual when accomplished.
Cannibalize
Prerequisite: Blight+
Type: Simple Action
The antagonist can absorb and project a Thesis or Synthesis power back at a character. If it successfully inflicts 1 damage in close combat, the antagonist gains access to any one (Storyguide’s choice) of the character’s powers and denies the character access to their power until it’s used, the adversary is dead, or the scene ends. If this power has a dice pool requirement for use, the antagonist uses their Primary Pool to activate it. The absorbed power can be used once within the scene and must be absorbed again for a subsequent use. For each new use of this Antithesis, the antagonist can steal a different power.
Consume
Type: Reflexive Action
The antagonist consumes the Kaos inside its victims to sustain its own life. If it successfully hits in close combat, it can recover 1 injury by eating a generous handful of humanoid flesh. Antagonists express this Antithesis in different ways, such as devouring blood, brains, and souls.
If using this Antithesis would bring the antagonist’s injuries above its maximum, the creature gains a +1 Enhancement on all rolls for the remainder of the scene, with successive instances raising it up to +3.
For Scourges and higher, Consume applies to all the antagonist’s ranged combat attacks as well. For Horrors, when the antagonist uses Consume on a target for the first time in a scene, it gains 1 Power Advantage.
Defensive Rebuke
Type: Complication (Any Attack)
Whether peaceful, awe-inspiring, or intimidating, the antagonist’s mere looks discourage people from hurting them. The attacking character refuses to attack the antagonist again this scene unless it attacks them first. If a character successfully buys off the Complication from this Antithesis, it cannot be used against them again this scene.
Devastating Blow
Prerequisite: Scourge+
Injuries: Half
Type: Complication (Melee)
The antagonist hits a character so hard that they immediately gain the Taken Out status effect. For example, a giant arachniida may swoop down and kidnap a character, while a Kaosist might pull down a cave roof on top of another.
Devour
Prerequisite: Blight+
Type: Complication (Melee)
The antagonist swallows their prey whole. While inside the antagonist’s belly, the target can only make an Athletics action against difficulty 1 for Blights, 2 for Scourges, and 3 for Horrors to escape. Failure to escape inflicts 1 injury on the swallowed character. Each injury the antagonist suffers in the same turn lowers the difficulty to escape by 1, to a minimum of 1.
Most antagonists can devour only creatures of smaller size, but exceptions exist.
Discorporate
Injuries: 1
Type: Complication (Any Attack)
The antagonist breaks down into a myriad of components and tries to escape. Spirits might turn into motes of ephemeral energy, while other creatures could turn into a vermin swarm and scatter away. If any component flees, the antagonist returns to life at any point after the current scene, at the Storyguide’s discretion.
Dreadful Gaze
Prerequisite: Blight+
Type: Complication (Influence)
The antagonist’s stare freezes their victim in place. The actual effect may vary, applying either the Dazed or Stunned status effect: a void entity may terrify its victims, while those captivated by a charming Obscura spirit are overwhelmed with love. In any case, the target can’t break from the creature’s stare. However, if the antagonist takes a mixed action, moves further than Short range, takes any damage, or otherwise loses eye contact, its target is freed. The target must be able to see the antagonist, otherwise the power has no effect. For Scourges and higher, the antagonist can inflict either the Dazed, Stunned, Exhausted, or Petrified status effects on its target when activating this power.
Dream Manipulation
Type: Complication (Influence)
The antagonist reshapes thoughts to its liking. The antagonist chooses to inflict either the Exhausted or Insensate status effect on the character now, reoccurring the next time they wake from rest. This manipulation also changes one of the target’s short-term Aspirations, if players accept the influence. If they refuse the influence, the antagonist gains +2 Enhancement on their next action against the character.
Elemental Teleportation
Type: Move Action
When picking this power, select a natural element the antagonist relates to, like fire or ice. The antagonist may teleport from an instance of this element in Close range to one within Long range of it. If that element is covering the area, such as a frosty cave or a lightning storm, the antagonist can move instantly to whatever range band they wish.
Elusive Shape
Prerequisite: Blight+
Type: Complication (Any Attack)
The antagonist transforms into liquid or gas, allowing it to escape dangers. The creature gains the Liquified or Gaseous status effect. It can return to its original shape with a simple action. When picking this power, select a source of damage, such as an element or tag. Each time the transformed antagonist takes damage exceeding its Defense from this source, it becomes fully tangible again.
Emerge
Type: Complication (Stealth)
The antagonist erupts from the ground, violently striking at those above. All characters in Close range to where the antagonist emerges are knocked prone.
Entangle
Type: Simple Action
Through silky webs, lashing roots, shadowy tendrils, or other means, the antagonist can immobilize their opponents. The antagonist applies the Overgrowth area effect centered on itself out to Medium range.
Explosive Demise
Injuries: 1
Type: Complication (Any Attack) or Simple Action
Even when defeated, the antagonist has one last surprise for their enemies. The antagonist immediately explodes, dealing 1 damage to all characters within Close range and benefiting from the Piercing tag.
An antagonist may use this Antithesis as a simple action before reaching 1 injury to immediately explode, dropping to 0 in the process.
Haunt
Type: Complication (Any Action)
The antagonist focuses on a target, flooding their mind with thoughts of terror and doom. The Storyguide removes 1 Momentum from the pool. If no Momentum is present, the antagonist gains 1 Advantage in any single field over their target.
Hypnotize
Type: Complication (Any Action)
The antagonist’s presence charms and beguiles those who interact with it. Lower the Integrity of the character by 1 to a minimum of 1. If the character’s Integrity is already at 1 when the effects of Hypnotize would be applied, apply the Exhausted status effect instead.
Hypogean Incarnation
Type: Complication (Any Attack)
The antagonist becomes a channel through which a Hypogean manifests for a scene. The chthonic gods range from uncaring to malevolent, be they divine tyrants, amoral forces of nature, or intrusive nightmares, but their influence almost never aligns with the well-being of the World Below’s humanoid inhabitants.
The consequences of a Hypogean gaining a bridgehead into reality vary, though they always involve terrible portents and otherworldly feats of power whose echoes can reach across multiple strata in the generations to come. In combat, this can translate into a combination of area effects, sudden arrival of new antagonists through Kaos portals, and attacks made with the antagonist’s primary dice pool that affect all characters up to Medium range.
At the end of the scene, with its body and soul obliterated by its patron’s otherworldly essence, the antagonist crumbles to dust.
Illusions
Type: Reflexive (Any Attack)
The antagonist creates vivid, almost tangible illusions that grant the antagonist 1 Durability Advantage against attacks. Piercing an illusion requires an Empathy or Esoterica action against the antagonist’s Integrity. In Obscura, each illusion summoned has the traits of their summoner with half their injuries rounded up. They can physically attack player characters, and their attacks come with the Dreamcrafted tag.
Infective Eruption
Injuries: 1
Type: Complication (Any Attack)
The antagonist tears itself apart and exposes those nearby to a virulent strain of its infection. Some creatures’ bodies rupture into a mass of grubs, while others unleash a nauseating rain of blood and corrupted flesh. The antagonist dies, but every character up to Short range suffers +2 difficulty resisting infection (see the Spread Infection Quality, p. 324) and, if they fail, immediately begin their infection at level 2.
This power can be activated with the Discorporate Antithesis, in which case the antagonist avoids death should any of its components survive.
Kaos Wielder
Prerequisite: Blight+
Type: Reflexive Action
The antagonist prompts a Kaotic Retaliation as a reflexive action. Blights roll on the Minor Kaotic Retaliation chart, Scourges for a Moderate Kaotic Retaliation, and Horrors for a Major Kaotic Retaliation.
Leap
Type: Complication (Any Action)
The antagonist moves two range bands in a single bound, be it an impressive jump, an eldritch blink, or any other means of sudden movement. If this happens following a ranged attack, the antagonist may use Leap to close the distance with their attacker.
Materialize
Prerequisite: *Incorporeal* Quality
Type: Simple Action
For the remainder of the scene, the antagonist phases into material form, becoming able to physically affect other beings without the use of Antitheses, but likewise losing its immunity to mundane damage.
Merge
Type: Simple Action
The antagonist longs to become part of a bigger self. It can fuse with another consenting creature. This action cannot be mixed with any other. While the exact nature of the resultant entity varies, the monster thus created is a whole new creature a template higher than its strongest component (up to Horror), with full injuries and all the Qualities and Antitheses of its parts.
Miasma
Type: Complication (Any Attack)
The antagonist releases a burst of dangerous substance. Common examples include toxic fumes, acidic blood, soporific gases, and caustic spores, but stranger options such as radiation or flesh-eating mites are also valid. The Antithesis affects all characters within Short range, inflicting one of the following status effects (chosen when this Antithesis is purchased): Agony, Bleeding, Exhausted, Fast-Acting Toxin, Infected, Kaos Warped, Petrified, Senses Occluded, and Slow-Acting Toxin. Where a status effect requires a duration, it’s equal to the antagonist’s desperation pool.
Characters whose Syntheses or equipment protect their respiratory system gain Enhancements to resist or prove immune to this Antithesis’s effects, as appropriate.
Necromancy
Prerequisite: Blight+
Type: Simple Action
The antagonist returns dead creatures to an unholy semblance of life. By focusing on a corpse or similar bodily remains within Short range, the antagonist animates it as undead with a simple action. The reanimated maintains its Qualities and Antitheses, but Blights, Scourges, and Horrors have their template shift downward by one step. A single antagonist can’t reanimate creatures with an original template higher than theirs, though a coordinated effort made by several can bypass this limitation.
Once defeated, the reanimated wither into dust, or their bodies fall apart. If the antagonist flees from the scene or dies, all the reanimated creatures collapse to the ground.
Overwhelm Host
Type: Complication (Any Attack)
Parasites multiply, and eldritch truths take root. If the character already has the Infected status effect, its strength rises by
- If the victim’s infection level is 5, they die or fall completely under the control of the parasite, curse, or incomprehensible intellect behind the contagion.
Possession
Type: Complication (Melee)
The antagonist takes over the attacker’s mind and wears their body. The antagonist chooses the attacker’s next action and uses the higher dice pool between the host’s and its own for actions. The character can refuse this possession as with any other influence action, granting the antagonist +2 Enhancement on their next action against the character.
Scourge antagonists choose the character’s next two actions. Horrors choose the character’s next three actions.
Pull
Type: Complication (Any Action)
With a fiery whip, web leash, gravitational clutch, or any other method, the antagonist drags its victim right into their grasp. The attacker is moved two range bands closer to the antagonist.
Puppeteer
Type: Simple Action
The antagonist crawls inside an inanimate item or corpse, commanding it from within like a puppet. For all purposes, the antagonist appears to be truly whatever skin it has chosen. Attempts to discern its true nature are at +1 difficulty.
The antagonist must have the Incorporeal Quality to use this Antithesis on targets smaller than it.
Push
Type: Complication (Any Action)
The antagonist launches their opponent away, either through sheer force or mystical means. The attacker is moved two range bands away from the antagonist.
Read Minds
Type: Complication (Influence)
The character reveals too much of their inner mind when interacting with the antagonist. The antagonist learns an important piece of information about the character, such as a short-term aspiration, her worst fear, the name of her patron, or the name of a loved one.
Restoration
Injuries: Half
Type: Simple Action (Pests, Blights, Scourges) or Reflexive Action (Horrors)
The antagonist replenishes the energies of their allies or minions. All the antagonist’s allies within Medium range regain half their injuries.
For Horror antagonists, this Antithesis becomes a reflexive action.
Shapeshift
Type: Simple Action
The antagonist changes their body to resemble another creature or individual. The transformation results are perfect and undetectable, although characters who have reason to doubt can expose the truth with an Empathy action against the antagonist’s Integrity, and the Branded status effect allows the individual who inflicted it to see the antagonist for who or what they truly are. While the antagonist maintains their dice pools, Qualities, and Antitheses when transformed, the Storyguide can grant it additional Qualities to reflect its shape, if only partially. Imitating the wings of a flying bug is easy enough, but a sapphire dragon’s robust hide is more challenging.
Antagonists with this Antithesis can only transform into creatures of equal or smaller size. Returning to the antagonist’s original shape is a reflexive action and does not take up an Antithesis use. While Shapeshift allows one to turn both into animals and people, some antagonists are limited to a category.
Spawn
Type: Complication (Any Action)
The antagonist summons a number of Pests equal to the player characters involved in the scene. The Pests’ Qualities are left to Storyguide’s discretion. Pests may be summoned magically or physically to the scene, depending on the nature of the antagonist and their Spawn, i.e., a host of parasites likely physically spews grubs within Close range of itself, while a creature of the Dark may produce its offspring in shadows up to Long range away.
Spirit Away
Prerequisite: Scourge+
Injuries: Half
Type: Complication (Grapple)
The antagonist locks its unfortunate victims into its grasp and drags them across the World Below. This power opens a portal to any location, regardless of distance. The portal remains open for the rest of the scene. Creatures often have a specific place or single general location assigned to this power, like their lair or a certain region.
Summon Swarm
Prerequisite: Scourge+
Type: Simple Action
The antagonist calls forth a multitude of small creatures against its foes. This Antithesis adds a swarm to the scene. The swarm follows the antagonist’s orders, although its capabilities rarely go beyond biting and scratching. The swarm uses the Blight from the Minion Template and has the Swarm Quality along with any others determined by the Storyguide.
Sundering Impulse
Prerequisite: Blight+
Type: Complication (Any Attack)
The antagonist releases a disruptive manifestation of power that breaks their opponents’ equipment, like a destructive burst of freezing cold or a vicious curse. This power takes the shape of a ranged attack action that hits up to Short range and applies the effects of the Sunder Trick to the attacker.
Telekinesis
Type: Simple Action
The antagonist can lift and move objects with the power of their mind. When picking this Antithesis, select a maximum range between Close and Medium. The creature can physically manipulate targets within that range, with the possibility to use mental dice pools instead of physical ones to exert their will.
At the Storyguide’s discretion, the antagonist can use Telekinesis to roll a ranged attack action. If the attack connects, the antagonist inflicts no injuries and can only purchase the Establish Grapple Trick with their hits, but the grapple continues until the creature has control.
Trample
Type: Simple Action
The antagonist charges at its opponents violently. As part of a rush movement, the creature may purchase the Shockwave Trick for 1 hit. Unlike a normal rush, Trample can be used even if the antagonist starts at Close or Short range.
Unsettle
Type: Complication (Any Action)
The antagonist unnerves all those who can perceive its presence. Specters might emit a tormented wail, while Hypogean minions could burn eldritch glyphs into the air. Characters within Short range suffer a Complication (Pest and Blight Minor; Scourge Moderate; Horror Major) on all physical and social actions in the scene. Failure to buy off the Complication results in the character gaining the Stunned status effect.
Usurp Flesh
Type: Simple Action
The antagonist’s strikes devastate their victims’ bodies. On an attack, the antagonist may purchase the following Trick:
Usurp Flesh (2 hits): Apply one of the following status effects to the target: Bleeding, Kaos Warped, Petrified, or Senses Occluded (Major).
Wave of Destruction
Prerequisite: Scourge+
Type: Complication (Any Attack)
The antagonist unleashes a lethal attack across a wide area. Examples include a gold dragon’s fiery breath, an earth geoprucugalla’s seismic tremors, a Hypogean herald’s eldritch detonation, and a quaesitor’s disintegration ray. The antagonist deals 1 damage to all characters within Medium range. Choose a single element when purchasing this Antithesis. Apply an appropriate area effect based on that element, such as On Fire for fire, Darkness for shadows, Flooding for water, Suffocating for air, Extreme Temperature (Cold) for ice, or Quaking for earth.