Attentive

The antagonist is extraordinarily difficult to take by surprise. All actions to avoid its attention face a Major Complication. Failure to buy it off alerts the antagonist that something’s amiss despite not noticing the character, and it will investigate the general area. Additionally, attempts to evade its pursuit or lead it on a false trail are made at a +1 difficulty.

Baleful Touch

One of the antagonist’s attacks, like a bug’s caustic spit or an inferni’s scorching touch, lingers beyond the initial contact and harms its victims further. Characters take 1 additional damage from this attack.

When Blight and higher antagonists use this Quality, the target suffers 1 automatic damage in their following turn. For Scourges and Horrors, the effect persists even further (the victim catches fire; the acid keeps chewing through armor…), causing 1 damage each round until the character or their allies spend a simple action to counter its effects.

Clingy

Whether through multiple limbs, an engulfing anatomy, or stranger features such as gravitational powers or time magic, the antagonist locks their enemies into place with ease. The Break-up Grapple, Overwhelm, and Disengage Tricks cost 1 additional hit to be purchased against antagonists with this Quality. This Quality has two versions: aggressive and defensive.

With the aggressive version, the Establish Grapple Trick is reduced to 0 hits.

With the defensive version, all Close Combat actions against the antagonist suffer a Minor Complication. Failure to buy it off results in the antagonist grappling the character.

The Quality can be picked multiple times to grant the antagonist both versions.

Deadly Aura

The antagonist radiates with a hazardous aura, such as fire or extreme cold. Inanimate objects suffer the aura’s effects as appropriate, but characters within Close range incur a Minor Complication on all their actions. Failure to buy off the Complication results in 1 damage or a fitting status effect.

For Scourges, the Complication becomes Moderate. For Horrors, the Complication becomes Major, and the aura affects everything within Short range.

Destructive Force

Prerequisite: 1+ Power Advantage

Due to its mass or sheer power, the antagonist devastates the environment with their blows. Their attacks gain access to the following combat Trick:

Demolition (2 successes): Rubble and debris fill the environment, applying the Demolished area effect to the scene as a Moderate Complication. This Trick can be purchased twice per action, in which case the Complication increases to Major. Any artificial structure or object in the Area is destroyed at Storyguide’s discretion.

Extraordinary Speed

The antagonist gains 1 Speed Advantage when engaged in a chase. Additionally, the difficulty to rush action against the antagonist is 2.

Feral

Whether ferocious or docile, the antagonist’s mind is alien to the characters’ thought processes. Influence actions against it incur a Major Complication, where failure to buy it off indicates the creature reacts badly, misinterprets orders, or flees without paying attention to what it might step on.

Frightening Presence

Both people and animals see the antagonist as a threat not to be provoked, providing it 1 Social Advantage when intimidating others, and imposing the Terrified status effect when it successfully frightens a target. Minor characters and Pests flee from the antagonists at the mere sight of them.

Fury

When reduced to half its injuries or lower, the antagonist gains 1 Power Advantage for the remainder of the scene.

Gear Breaker

The antagonist’s attacks are remarkably disruptive. It can purchase the Sunder Trick on ranged attacks, and the cost to buy it on close combat attacks lowers to 1.

Ground Affliction

Wherever the antagonist goes, the terrain becomes hard to tread. This could happen because of anything from slime trails to magical, sentient corruption. Apply the Sinking area effect to the range band the antagonist just left after it moves.

Hive Coordination

Prerequisite: *Hive Mind* Quality

Within the network of its hive, the antagonist plays a central role in the control and organization of the colony. Other creatures with the Hive Mind Quality in the Area gain a +1 Enhancement on all rolls when the antagonist is present. Multiple instances of this Quality within a scene don’t stack.

If all antagonists with Hive Coordination involved in a scene die, other members of the colony must roll their desperation pool. On a failure, they either flee or fail to recognize their peers as allies and attack them.

Hive Mind

The antagonist shares an instinctive connection with other creatures in its hive. Provided it’s not separated from its peers at Extreme range, everything the creature sees or experiences gets shared across other members of the hive.

While this complicates all attempts to avoid detection, the shared information begins and ends with a given creature’s perspective. If characters flee or kill the creature who spotted them, the alerted reinforcements won’t demonstrate any prescient knowledge of their current position.

Immunity

Choose a single source of damage, such as toxins, fire, electricity, and so on. The antagonist doesn’t suffer damage from this source. This Quality can be applied up to three times.

Incorporeal

The antagonist has a ghostly body and cannot be damaged by ordinary means. It can also pass through solid objects, walls, and other obstructions. When you choose this Quality, select at least one source of damage that the antagonist is vulnerable to while incorporeal. Kaos Sorceries always ignore this Quality.

Invulnerability

Prerequisite: *Vulnerability* Quality

The antagonist takes injuries only when hurt by the source picked for its Vulnerability Quality, which should be specific but open enough for all players’ characters to exploit. Fire or poisons are common, valid options.

Malleable

The antagonist possesses a pliable body or lacks any skeletal structure to speak of. It can slip through cracks and crevices effortlessly, though depending on the difference between its size and the width of the passage, the movement could count as a simple action rather than a reflexive one.

Natural Weapons

The antagonist is a natural predator and has some form of natural weapon that it can always use, even when unarmed. These weapons can never be disarmed. Each additional time this Quality is chosen, pick a tag to apply to the weapons from the following: Abyssal, Brutal, Deadly, Dreamcrafted, Electrified, Flaming, Freezing, Kaos Touched, Long Range, Painful, Piercing, Poison, Reach, Returning, Shadow, Stunning, or Wrecking. If a natural weapon can be used at range, it’ll specify the range in brackets.

Noxious Blood

Acid, lava, or another hazardous substance runs through the antagonist’s veins. When picking this Quality, select a Complication rating. Whenever characters strike the antagonist in close combat, they must buy off the Complication to not take 1 injury.

Reanimation

Unless slain with a specific method or tool, the antagonist returns to life after the session ends. Common options to counter this Quality include fire, beheading, or complete body destruction. Some antagonists follow other criteria, such as a limited number of resurrections or specific conditions.

Regeneration

The antagonist regains 1 injury each turn, up to its maximum. The antagonist still dies if reduced to 0 unless otherwise specified. When picking this Quality, select one or more sources of damage. Any time the antagonist suffers damage from that source, they don’t recover any injuries in their next turn.

Horrors regain 2 injuries each turn. At Storyguide’s discretion, Scourge and Horror antagonists regain injuries even when reduced to 0, unless hurt by their weakness since their last turn.

Segmented

The antagonist exists in a segmented form. When you choose this Quality, select a number of segments that make sense for the antagonist. Giant insects likely have three (head, thorax, and abdomen), while worms and longer arthropods work better when divided into their component sections. Features such as pincers or a vicious stinger also make for valid segment options. Stranger creatures like a powerful chimerical or an ancient Hypogean herald can manifest this Quality through multiple heads or tentacle clusters, for example.

Each segment has the same number of injuries, which adds up to no more than twice the template’s maximum.

The antagonist isn’t fully defeated until all segments are defeated. Segments count as allies to the antagonist for the purposes of Antitheses that heal or buff allies.

Certain Qualities may come from the segmentation, such as an extra arm or an extremely long tail. Take note that the Antagonist may not have access to those Qualities if that segment is defeated.

Slippery

The antagonist proves difficult to hold. The Establish Grapple and Overwhelm Tricks cost 1 additional hit against it.

Split

Prerequisite: *Vulnerability* Quality

Upon death, the antagonist divides into two smaller versions of itself. The creatures share the same Qualities and Antitheses as their progenitor, but their template lowers by one step. Once reduced to Pest, the antagonist loses this Quality and all Antitheses.

If slain through its weakness, the antagonist doesn’t split.

Spread Infection

Choose a vector for the infection when picking this Quality. Whenever the antagonist attacks with that vector, it gains access to the following Combat Trick:

Infect (2 hits): The target must succeed on a Survival action or become infected (gaining the Infected status effect). The action’s difficulty amounts to 1, but circumstances such as Antitheses or environmental conditions can increase it.

Stable

This antagonist is immune to the use of the Knockdown Trick and gains +1 Power Advantage against attempts to move them.

Swarm

The antagonist is not a single being, but a swarm of smaller creatures. Damage to this antagonist’s Injuries represents individual creatures dying or the swarm being dispersed. Normal attacks against the antagonist suffer a Moderate Complication unless the attack strikes an area or is suitably broad in scope, like an explosion or a gout of flames. Failure to buy it off makes it impossible to purchase Tricks, raises the swarm’s Defense against the next attack, or inflicts 1 injury upon the attacker.

Unusual Anatomy

The antagonist’s biology demonstrates extraordinary resistance to all sorts of stress, to the point it’s questionable to define it as “living.” Increase the cost to purchase the Critical Trick by 1 hit for all non-spell altered attacks.

The Storyguide can also use this Quality to represent undead, artificial, or otherworldly creatures, choosing whether the antagonist ages and if it needs to breathe, sleep, or eat.

Vulnerability

Choose a sensation, behavior, substance, or source of damage. Each turn the creature is exposed to its vulnerability, it must roll its secondary pool as a reflexive action. On a failure, they either flee or are unable to act while their Defense lowers to 0. The antagonist suffers 1 additional damage from all attacks or hazards related to this vulnerability.