LeviathanTempest:AppendThree

The Rift

A young woman steps into the the sea, the cold biting against her ankles. She takes a deep breath, closes her eyes and plunges her head beneath the surf. She opens her eyes to look upon an empty wasteland, the first thing she feels is a familiarity both comforting and threatening. She smiles as the churning waters force brackish polluted brine down her throat. He's old, so very old and so very tired. A fish of enormous proportions, his cilia graciously inhabited by swarms of bioluminous Crustaceans, swims ever deeper. He's returned to the land of his father's to die.

Getting there

All Leviathans can in theory access the Rift. Water, in its various forms, is a powerful conduit and a Leviathan needs to be submerged in one of its variations to attempt to dive into the Rift. Sea water is the most powerful of these, but in a pinch, clear water, fog or blood can serve. The Storyteller remains final judge of whether or not a Leviathan is "submerged" at the time, but ideally the character should be invisible from those outside the lake, fog bank or other obscuring feature.

Mechanically, the Leviathan rolls his Sheol + Resolve and spends a point of Ichor and slips into the alternate reality of the Rift. Attempting this in sea water gives a +1 bonus. Blood or natural clear water (lake, river) carries no penalty. Tap water is further removed from the Primordial Waters and therefore carries a -1 dice penalty as does fog or clouds. Water wracked by the fury of a storm is even better, turbulent waters offer a +1 bonus while a true storm or onrushing tidal wave gives +2. Other cases are left at the appreciation of the storyteller. The Leviathan can carry other people into the Rift if they are in physical contact with her; one additional success is necessary per extra person.

When diving into the Rift, the Leviathan entirely disappears from the Shore (the real world). He does not carry through any items unless he spends a Willpower point to do so; even then, some items may stubbornly refuse to go through. Crossing over creates turmoil: waves, wind, storm or fog may be left behind, possibly making the area (such as a tub of tap water) unsuitable for return.

In some areas, called Gatewaters, the Rift is much closer to our reality. Humans will get sucked in sometimes, and even those who don't are more likely to develop Derangements (these areas give a -1 penalty on all rolls to avoid getting Derangements). Most Gatewaters are in areas deeply associated with water: either on the ocean itself, around certain islands, or in marshes, bogs or river deltas. Crossing through at a Gatewater does not require a point of Ichor.

Travelling the Rift

The Rift appears as a vast expanse of a breathable, water-like substance. A roiling bright light shines through the Shallows (the upper parts of the Rift), but disappears as you dive deeper. A Leviathan who breaks through into the Rift always appears near the surface (Depth 0).

The Rift posesses Depths, exactly as transforming Leviathans experience them. This is not surprising; as the Rift is essentially an expression of Leviathan psyche, it mimics the experience of Tribe members coming closer to their monstrous heritage. Leviathans appear to transform as they go deeper into the Rift, so that they take the shape of the corresponding Depth to their environment. Voluntary shapeshifting is impossible in the Rift, instead a Leviathan automatically transitions between his forms as he surfaces or descends. Even Outbursts simply do not occur within the Rift, which for some is more proof that the Rift is a Leviathan’s true home.

The Rift is pretty much synonymous with the Tempest. Most of it is continually wracked by violent currents, arc lightning and fast, sharp ice or rocks. The existence of this realm ensure the continuation of the Tribe's curse of restlessness and madness, just as the Leviathans' chaotic behaviour encourage a more chaotic Rift. The Tempest usually worsens as one goes deeper. However, certain areas of perfect calm exist as well; called Doldrums, they are sometimes large enough to hold sunken cities of eerie quiet and stillness.

Someone who makes no effort appears stationary in the Rift unless acted upon by the Rift itself. Moving around requires Athletics rolls, with the characteristics depending on the type of movement required (Stamina for sustained travel, Strength for brute speed and power, Dexterity for fine manoeuvring).

Mortals can not go deeper than the first Depth, unless a Leviathan physically carries them. There is one exception to this rule: Atolls are unaffected by Depth in all cases, although they are still quite vulnerable to other dangers that lurk in the Rift.

Getting back

While going down is fairly straightforward for Leviathans, going back up is much more difficult. A Leviathan in the deepest part of the Rift forgets his own identity bit by bit, reverting to the primal monster their blood is urging them towards. To cross the border between Depths the Leviathan needs to roll (Tranquility - their current Depth level).

Once just beneath the Surface (Depth 0), breaking through to the Shore is fairly straightforward. A final Tranquility roll allows the Leviathan to come back, in the closest suitable space (that is, submerged by water in some form) to the one from which the character entered the Rift. To reach another point of re-entry, the Leviathan may have to navigate the surface of the Rift, with appropriate Intelligence+Navigation rolls.

Ecology

The Rift, like the mundane ocean, is a deceptively empty place, prowled by ungainly beasts. Memories take form down there, as well as neuroses, phobias and dark impulses which become predator beasts, parasitic worms or spiked monstrosities. There are islands made up of the bones of Progenitors, hard remaining nuggets of a sense of identity long left behind by a dead monster-god. From time to time, one can find fossilised information about older times, sometimes guarded by the psychological complex which gave it worth to the long-disappeared creature that knew them.

This is why Leviathans brave the dangers of the Rift: because despite all it forces them to face, they can find things forgotten by all under the surface of this dark, unsettling realm. The natural dangers of the Rift are many, but the Leviathan also brings some with him. Any person who goes into the Rift while possessing Derangements creates one monster for each of them. These are highly personalised, sometimes quite cunning beings, who want nothing more than the death of their originator as an overall solution to their own existence. Killing them does not destroy the Derangement, either: it is still just as present when the Afflicted person gets back to the Shore.

The Rift possesses a strange structure, like an inverted cone. At the surface, the Rift seems endless, as unfathomably wide as the myriad minds that it reflects are. But the deeper one goes, the more constrained you feel, until at the deepest, down in the dark, where you reach the oldest, most primordial beings and memories, you feel that all of the world is a single oppressive point and individuality is a lost concept. This is where the most dangerous creatures of the Rift survive, where the most incomprehensible lore can be found, inscribed in illegible alphabets on the surface of rock walls that seem to be the inside of your own skull.

Going deeper yet would, according to Tribe lore, allow a Leviathan to find the Primordial Sea again. Beyond the Tempest, coming out of the other end, so to speak, lie the tranquil, perfect and awesome world that Leviathans truly belong to. needless to say, no one who has reached it has come back to tell the tale.

The Depths

The Shallows

In the Shallows individual thoughts take life. The verity is staggering, every creature is unique and range from entirely natural looking sea life to alien forms never scene outside the tribe. Similar thoughts band together in enormous schools, shoals and colonies ranging from a few dozen members to swarms that stretch for miles.

At a first glance the Shallows are beautiful, with brightly coloured creatures, graceful kelp fields and multihued piles of rocks and sand arranged in dazzling patterns all lit by a roiling light which seems to come from the water itself. Even at this low depth this beauty is just a façade (a popular theory says that like the minds that form it, the Shallows try to put it's best face forward). In the Shallows, the real dangers lay hidden in crevasses or disguised amongst the seaweed.

Of all the Rift it is the shallows that closest resembles the web of life found in the ocean. Here thoughts of rest, of contentment or of safety form vast coral reefs floating free through the depths. Predatory swarms born from thoughts of hunger are a persistent danger while schools of fear and secrecy watch from hidden recesses.

A “rift biologist” could spend lifetimes charting the interplay of species, wondering if understanding the ecosystem would reveal the inner workings of the mind but to most Leviathans the Shallows, for all it's teeming forms of life, is an empty place lacking the ancient lore and secrets found deeper within the Rift.

The First Depth

As a Leviathan swims deeper the light begins to dim. Here impulses make their home, it's a hostile dangerous place for the Tribe's impulses are cruel. Here a Leviathan must beware creatures that embody the tribe's desire for conquest, domination or combat. And yet not everything at this Depth is wicked, the impulse to nurture children, to forge community or find a higher purpose in life than the daily struggle to eat or be eaten, these are all represented here.

The few surfaces that can be found here most often take the form of floating masses of bleached coral and polyps. While deadly to many of the smaller inhabitants of the First Depth, these tentacled creatures are mostly harmless to any Leviathan that brushes against them; even if it may sting a little. The creatures that inhabit this layer often look unfinished in some way. A long, lamprey-like creature with rows of eyes running along its back appears to lack any means of propelling itself despite the fact it is. A large, star shaped creature covered in flailing hooks might have a large hole that passes straight through the center of its body were a mouth or even organs might usually be. It is not uncommon to find creatures with complementary urges working together to become more complete. An entity created from an urge to protect a loved one might join up with a creature made of the urge to be comforted to become something larger and stronger.

Those Leviathans who seek this layer of the rift usually seek meditation on the impulses that drive them. They hope that by watching each impulse in isolation they will be able to recognise it in themselves and learn to master it; or they seek a positive impulse they can learn to copy and incorporate into their own being. For some it's a religious or spiritual endeavour, for others it's a desperate attempt to regain control over their lives. A successful voyage could justify buying a dot of Resolve, Composure or even Tranquillity.

The Second Depth

Going deeper into the Rift a Leviathan will encounter self images, if not his own than another's. It's a weird place where individual facets of a Leviathan's personality are distorted through perceptions and given form. The link between the mind and the rift creatures it creates is strong here, and the tendency towards maritime life isn't absolute. At this Depth one Leviathan's inflated self image becomes a living monument, a statue in the classical style that pulses and contracts as though it's marble skin was the flesh of a beating heart. Another imagines himself to be a just ruler of a noble heritage as so appears as a elegant sea serpent with a crown of golden scales, but he knows this image to be false and so the serpent is marked with weeping diseased sores and it's eyes have the glint of madness.

Usually a Leviathan's self manifests as many independent beings, one is how she sees herself as a ruler, another is how she sees herself as a fighter, or a lover, or a scholar. Sometimes though a Leviathan's entire self image becomes one creature, these creatures vary hugely but always seem to be the sum of many parts. One looks like a ancient and predatory turtle, not too unlike the Leviathan who created it: The shell shows how he sees himself socially, hiding away from others, the jaws represent his guilt for the times he killed and are chipped, rotten things. Another composite takes the form of organs wrapped around a granite skeleton with flayed strips of flesh reaching out like tentacles to seek and devour. These composites are stronger and smarter than the other creatures of this Depth.

The practical benefits for a Leviathan to find his own self image are limited though ripping apart a bad image might provide catharsis. Finding a rivals self image however can provide useful leverage, the roll to examine one is Wits + Empathy which may be contested by Resistance. This cannot reveal any information except how a Leviathan sees (this facet of) himself but in the hands of a crafty Leviathan that alone can be invaluable. Seeking out your friends can be just as useful, if they see themselves as alone or surrounded by hidden knives then maybe they might not be as friendly as you thought. Other Leviathan's look for family, with the family dynamics of the tribe discovering how your parents viewed their abilities as parents could be the closest thing to closure a Leviathan can get.

A rare possibility is for a Leviathan to seek out the self image of long since dead members of the Tribe. It is rumoured that the Progenitors themselves have left remains here, islands formed from fossilised pieces of an identity still guarded by the psychological complex that once gave it worth. But even the fossils or still living identity of a more recent ancestor can offer a glimpse of life in an earlier era. A successful discovery can provide a bounty of information or even the revelation about one's ancestry needed to increase Sheol. Few trips are successful for here every creature is unique and in this dangerous environment lifespans are not long. If a living Leviathan's self image is destroyed it will soon reform but a dead Leviathan's is lost to history.

The Third Depth

The Third Depth is the Rift's treasure trove. While some of the greatest discoveries have been found elsewhere, it is the third depth which consistently delivers it's treasures into the grasping fins of the tribe. Here memories take form, but they're not alone. The strongest memories, the ones with great emotional worth are found alongside the psychological complexes that give it value. The desire to keep a guilt ridden memory a secret snaps its jaws and spreads clouds of ink to protect it's charge. Treasuring a memory of happier times forms symbiotic creatures who polish and cherish their charge.

The memories themselves are slow sedentary creatures, markers of the turtle, the shellfish and the coral are common. A memory's size is directly linked to how much information it contains, while the memory of a single Ritual will not be very large a single creature can hold a bounty of closely related information. An old and experienced Leviathan's entire library of rituals could form a immense beast, teaming with symbiotic life, gracefully cutting through the depth.

The largest and most prized memories, long since fossilised after the death of the Leviathan who created them, are invaluable treasure troves of knowledge and even the smallest memory may contain a priceless nugget of information. It is for this reason that Leviathans brave the Tempest. If you can find what you seek and defeat the creatures which guard it everything from occult knowledge, a taste of day to day life in the Tribe to the location of hidden temples is just waiting to be found.

The Tempest (note really rough atm, needs fluffing)

The Tempest has Ferocity. The minimum Ferocity outside a Doldrum is equal to Depth + 1. The tempest gives a penalty to perception rolls equal to half its Ferocity and risks harm to a Leviathan. Every Sheol minuets Roll Ferocity - Armour - Stamina. At Ferocity 5 this becomes Lethal damage, at Ferocity 10 the Tempest deals Aggravated Damage. Perception is also penalised by Ferocity - Sheol.

Because the tempest is a physical threat, despite its psychological underpinnings, you can physically protect others. If you're at large enough than positioning yourself upstream of incoming rocks will do the trick. Some areas are noted to lack direction, in these nothing short of carrying people in your mouth will protect them.

The Waves

The default form of the Tempest is a churning mass of water.

The Glow

The tempest here is a red glow which seems to come from all directions. Though deceptively tranquil Leviathan's not strong enough to face the Glow risk having the flesh boiled off their bones. The glow lacks direction. Because it is well lit and tranquil the Glow has no perception penalty.

The Brine

The tempest here is a sickly mass of churning brine poisonous even to Leviathans. Leviathan's instead resist the Tempest with Stamina + Resolve with +2 bonus from Toxin Resistance. The tempest's usual rules for damage apply. The Brine lacks direction.

The Ice

Here the tempest takes the forms of sunken icebergs miles across, graceful and majestic yet utterly deadly. The gaps between are narrow and the slow movement of the Tempest can crush even the strongest Leviathan in an instant. The Ice Fields are one of the most dangerous parts of the Tempest and are only found where Ferocity is greater than five. A Leviathan rolls Dexterity + Athletics vs Ferocity + (Size - 5). If the Temptest wins the Leviathan suffers Ferocity bashing damage and must immediately roll Dexterity + Athletics to escape. Failure incurs another Ferocity bashing damage and another roll.

The Sandstorm

A fast moving current of water so thick with abrasive sand, silt and mud that you can't see past your own face. Double the Perception penalty.

The Volcanic Region

A thick cover of ash spreads through the water from an unreachable volcano. Small superheated rocks and cooling magma are the threat of the day. Volcanic regions of the tempest are never found below Ferocity 5. To survive a Leviathan must avoid rather than endure. Roll Ferocity + (Size - 5) - Defence.

The Lightning Fields

One of the most dreaded and rarest manifestations of the tempest, never seen with a Ferocity less than 10. The Lightning Fields are deceptively calm yet covered with an intense feeling of approaching danger. The lightning strikes are rare but deadly, when they strike there is no escape. To survive a Leviathan must be able to predict where they strike. Roll Ferocity vs Sheol + Wits + Composure with a +2 bonus for Danger Sense. Failure results in Ferocity dice of Aggravated Damage. Curiously while the Lightning Fields affect Leviathans as painfully as any Electricity, in the rare cases where it would make a difference they do not count as Electricity.