Leviathan Forms

rather than the seven discreet forms, Leviathans have a more fluid relationship with their shape and Leviathan Vestiges.

Transformation
Tranformation is an instant action that costs one ichor and rolls Stamina + Sheol. Successes are multiplied by Ripples. This is a form of Tempest Channeling.


 * Dramatic Failure: the leviathan immediately takes one level of lethal damage and makes an Outburst check.
 * Failure: the leviathan's form does not change.  The ichor is spent, and the leviathan can try again next turn.
 * Success: the leviathan may choose a new form OR keep the same base form and specify up to one deepened channel per success.
 * Exceptional success: the leviathan may do both, but the greatest number of deepened channels is 5 or Sheol, whichever is greater.

A leviathan need not deepen as many channels as successes, and may choose not to deepen any at all. Outburst checks are penalized by the number of deepened channels, and Revelation checks gain a bonus of up to five dice, one per deepened channel.

The Four Forms
Leviathan's shape centers around variations on the four basic forms: Devolved, Cryptid, Blasphemous, and Apotheosis.

Devolved
The Devolved form is closest to human -- "closest" because once altered, a Leviathan's form will always betray him in some small way. Perhaps there is a fain smell of brackish water, a gill ridge behind an ear, or a nictating membrane behind the regular eyelid. Whether "devolved" refers to the slightly atavistic flourishes that plague even those leviathans most pretending to be human or refers to the forms diminished powers and potential is a common joke. Like many common jokes, there are those who do not find it at all amusing.

Features of the Devolved Form
Shape of a Human: the ability to pass as a normal human is not to be underestimated.

Far from the Storm: in this form, a +1 bonus is gained to all tranquility checks and distruptions, and may opt to transform into Cryptid form on a failed Outburst check.

Greatly Diminished: Sheol (but not its derived traits) is reduced to the Ripples value unless the leviathan is Tempest Channeling this turn. This includes limiting dicepools, referenced to Sheol in descriptions in Leviathan Vestiges, and limiting ichor available per turn. This does not include resisting supernatural manipulation, or derived values such as Ripples, maximum ichor pool, or the area of the Wake.

Cryptid
In this form the leviathan is a creature of both water and land, with prominent changes in form, although the basic body plan is still humanoid. Each leviathans form is distinct, but the influence of the channels is clear. Those who fail a Revelation check will tend to assume whatever they saw of the Leviathan was a trick of the light, or an unusual but perfectly natural creature, or possibly someone in a particularly offputting costume.

Features of the Cryptid Form
Home in the Water: the leviathan can breathe water as easily as air, and swim as easily as they run or walk, using their full movement while swimming.

Bestial Visage: Any social interaction (other than intimidation) with those untouched by the supernatural suffers a -2 penalty. Familiarity and trust can remove this penalty. This includes with normal animals.

Scars of Divinity: size and all Divine (as the channel) traits increase by 2 in this form. Those with the “small stature” merit can still squeeze through small spaces — perhaps they are long and thing, like a sea serpent, or compressible like an octopus. Others are about the size of a grizzly bear. The Leviathan needs to stoop to fit through human-sized doors and under light fixtures.

Blasphemous
The leviathan is now a monster, and unholy manifestation from some dim, half-remembered nightmare. Whether terrifying or simply alien, whatever vestiges of human appearance remain only serve to push the leviathan squarely into the uncanny valley. To those that witness a leviathan in Blasphemous form, its wrongness is readily apparent. Even the spoor of such a beast, the marks of its actions and the very sound of its voice can cause secondhand witnesses to suspect its supernatural nature. If they fail the revelation check, particularly egregious evidence is likely to be dismissed as a hoax or a special effect of some sort.

Features of the Blasphemous Form
Still a Cryptid: has all the features of the Cryptid form.

Primeval Sense: one of the Leviathan's hearing or smell/taste becomes sharp and sensitive, like that of an animal. It can be used normally to sense targets and navigate the environment without a roll, and grants a +2 bonus to awareness checks. Primeval channels that have effects based on senses also gain that sense.

Blasphemous Visage: Half-burried fear instincts in the human psyche and alien and unknowable expressions give the leviathan a -2 penalty to all social rolls other than intimidation until trust is earned and familiarity comes with all people, supernatural or not.

Deeper and Deeper: all channels are deepened. Those deepened further grant the Beyond effect.

Apotheosis
Apotheosis means "a revelation of godhood," and the term is not only apt, but accurate. This is it: the full expression of the Leviathan's divine nature. Beyond the mere physical, wracked by the expression of Channels. Fully aquatic, this is the form that has inspired tales of sea monsters, submerged gods, and other horrors of the deep.

Features of the Apotheosis Form
Beyond Blasphemous: has all the features of the Blasphemous form. Can only transform from or to the Blasphemous form. All channels grant the Beyond effect — deepening is irrelevant.

Exceptional Size: The leviathan gains one dot of Exceptional Size, making them roughly size 10, about as big as a car. Human-sized entryways may require...widening before use. If exceptional size rules are not used, simply treat the leviathan as being size 10.

Visage of Madness: all those with mild derangements in the leviathan's presence immediately upgrade them to severe derangements for the remainder of the scene. Any social interaction (other than intimidation) suffer an ’’additional’’ -2 penalty. Mortals cannot remember the exact details of the leviathan’s appearance.

No Home Ashore: if the Leviathan is not at least half submerged in a large pool of water (assume the pool must have a diameter in feet equal to the leviathan's Size stat in dots) one ichor is lost per turn. Once all ichor is lost, roll a degeneration check for the Leviathan's current tranquility -- thus a stranded leviathan goes mad. The leviathan does not suffer this penalty for the first Sheol rounds out of water.

Rule Change: Why?
Four forms simplifies bookkeeping, and makes the character sheet look less like a spreadsheet. There are still seven forms (if you consider each interstitial step a form) but it also makes each form distinct: DCBA is Mostly Human, Not Human, Not Vaguely Natural, Oh My God.

But mostly? It makes unified rules for channels SO MUCH SIMPLER.

-- zebediah.