Backer Draft Manuscript Part 2D

– Lineages: The Primal –

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The Primal
That body arm or is cute. I ’ll have to use m y claw s. I don’t w ant it
getting stuck in m y teeth.
— Izzy Plummer, Get of Lyka Family
I’m not your friend, I’m not your sister, I’m just Accursed like you. Just like you, there’s a Creature
inside me that loves to hunt, snap, and bite. So, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll quit with the
whining and listen to what I’m telling you. Pass me one of those if you’re going to smoke. Ah shit, let me
do it. Your hands are shaking.
Look, I know what you’re going through. It’s not cool and it’s not fun, but it is what it is, and you gotta
make the best of a shitty situation. Thanks for the smoke. This thing we’ve got. It makes me… excitable.
Distractable. Chatty, I guess. And energetic. Sometimes I get punchy and it takes a minute for me to
realize I just called someone a cunt.
Did that shock you? Yeah, so, normally I wouldn’t talk to a little prep like you and I’m sure you wouldn’t
piss on me if I was on fire. I’m Izzy, but you probably knew that. So, what are you? Wolf, snake, spider,
something in between? Not ready for that yet?
The basics, then. Primal 101. Let’s get that covered before we head back to class. Lunch break’s only so
long and I don’t wanna get reamed out by Smith for turning up to French lessons un peu tard.
The way the older Primal like to tell it there’s a lot of origin stories, you know, like Spider-Man, except
we’re wild and varied enough that most of them are partly true. The best one I heard was how a mother,
years and years ago was struggling to feed her children. She tried foraging. She tried hunting. But life was
shit, she had no fire, and she had no tools. Her children were dying. But this story doesn’t get all Grave of
the Fireflies. I love all that Ghibli stuff. Anyway, a man comes to her door and tells her she’s on his land
and needs to leave if she can’t pay. He demands the payment there and then.
This woman, she has nothing. This man, he’s what’s called a “Family head for the Hungry.” More on
them later. He’s a special kind of asshole. She begs. Pleads. Offers up what she has, which isn’t much. He
offers her a deal, but nobody knows what that deal was, because it’s the one thing she won’t do, Meatloaf
style. He says her kids’ll starve if she won’t accept. He gives her until the morning and walks off.
That night, the woman prays to everything. The trees, the river, the rocks, the wind, the beasts in the
forest. She says “anything but him.” Only the wolf answers her. Was it an actual wolf named Lyka or the
wolf raging inside her? Whatever, it doesn’t give her money or food, but it does give her the elemental
strength to fight back. This thing… It also offers her a deal, let it into her heart and she’s golden. When
the man turns up the following morning with his muscle, she becomes a monster! He begs and pleads and
offers up what he has, and while she knows deep down, she could stop, the Creature urges her on. Fueled
by years of being shit on by men like him, she eats his heart clean out of his chest. It doesn’t end there.
She still doesn’t have food and the kids are hungry, so she tells them to eat the man and his friends.
You’re wondering “what’s this got to do with me?” Well, that depends on who you ask. Maybe you’re
that woman’s descendant, or descend from someone like her. Or you, yourself, made a deal with raw
nature without knowing it. Maybe it was when those pricks from the football team wouldn’t leave you
alone after the big game. Right? Right. You had to fight back to survive, so you did. Point is, just as that
woman turned into a screaming, fierce, death machine, you can too.
I’m sure you know that part already.
I said earlier that we’re not friends or sisters, but I guess that’s not exactly accurate. Primal like us are in
all kinds of Families of beasts and weirdos, and like the mother in the story, we look after our young.
Yeah, I know you’re older than me, but in Primal years you’re just a baby.

Picking up the Trail

The Primal are known for their energy and impatience, and perhaps you’re the
same. Maybe you’d like to get straight into the guts of playing one. This chapter
starts with Izzy talking about life as a Primal and what the Lineage is about, before
moving onto the rules for playing one. If you’re looking for a specific section of
this material, use this reference to quickly find it.
Shapeshifting, p. XX.
Lineage Path Mechanics, p. XX.
Damnation, p. XX.
Torments, p. XX.
The Eight Hands Path, p. XX.
Get of Lyka Path, p. XX.
The Hydes Path, p. XX.
The Raptor Path, p. XX.
The Spawn of Vodník Path, p. XX.
The Sphinx Path, p. XX.
Practices, p. XX.

Shifting Skins
I got this way a couple of years ago. I was sixteen or seventeen… Sixteen. Right around the time you and
your friends started making my school life hell. Well, home life wasn’t much better, so don’t take it all on
yourself. You’re not the only bitch in the world, Barbie.
Yeah, I know that’s not your name.
You start by seeing people differently. I was looking at people and thinking “how easily could I take them
down?” or “that one looks like a born victim.” It was like my vision narrowed and everything was in a
new spectrum. I felt like the Predator. You watched that movie? Schwarzenegger? Chill fucking movie.
They say it’s all testosterone but give me that over the Bold and the fucking Beautiful any day.
Anyway, it prefaces the physical changes. Yeah, they were… unpleasant for me too. One night I was in
the bath, Spiritbox on loud when bam. The shift. Different Families call it different things. The shift, the
change, the proteus blah blah blah.
Anyway, I could feel my skin splitting right zip up the middle. My bones were twisting into new
configurations, and it fucking hurt! Jesus, did it hurt. Everything was churning and squeezing its way into
new shapes, to fit a new body. I remember looking down, over the mouth and nose extending into my
vision, and watching my legs burst into forests of fur, my fingers and toes turn to claws… You get the
picture. Above Courtney LaPlante’s screaming I could hear my screams. The bath filled with blood. I
flopped out to the floor, more beast than girl.
I’ve had better evenings.
Wanna know something funny? My mom was hammering on the door, but not because I was screaming.
She wanted me to turn down the music.
Anyway, I’m guessing you went through the same kinda thing.
Ohhh. There were others around when you shifted, weren’t there? Yeah, not so lucky as me. I wondered
why I’d not seen your pals in school the last couple of days. Well, I’m not going to ask, but I’m gonna
hope for your sake that you scared them away instead of ripping them to pieces.

Feral from the Beginning

Is this where you live? Nice. Look, I hope you have an easier time of it than some of the Primals I know.
But this is where we part ways, so —
You’re welling up… Cute trick, Puss in Boots. Do you do the big eyes thing, too?
Okay, I’ll come in with you if your parents aren’t home for a while. I don’t want them seeing me though.
I don’t need their judgment for drinking their booze. Oh yeah, I’m having a drink, and you’re gonna join
me.
Primals have been around for a long, long time. I mean thousands of years. It isn’t about being in a world
of smart watches and CrossFit. We belong, if you ask your elders, in the wild places. Running free,
howling in unison, or taking down predators as dangerous as us. Not all of us howl though, and not all of
us are into that whole survivalist lifestyle. I like a tree as much as the next girl, but I’m not about to run
out to live in the woods, ya know?
At our core — nice vodka, by the way — we’re possessed. Not like ghosts in a body, those fuckers aren’t
us. We’re possessed by “an uncontrollable drive that erupts and dominates us.” That’s how Elvis — an
Ocho I know — says it. He says “some Families are the embodiment of joy, holding maddening ecstatic
dances deep in the woods. Some are the essence of wrath so blazing it has reduced entire civilization to
ash. And some still are possessed by a pride so great their deeds have transcended into myth and legend.”
A little rich, isn’t it? I’d be a bitch about it, but those words seared into my brain.
Elvis says our predecessors bought a power that saved their lives and gave them dominance over others,
not to rule, but to survive. Now, I don’t know about that. Since then, I’ve met some Primals who are a
little too keen on lording it over non-Primals. Elvis named our Provenance as “the Creature,” but if you
ask me, it’s just a fun name for someone none of us have ever met. The Creature makes us faster,
stronger, and longer-lived than those without a curse. Lucky us!
Remember you are Accursed, Barbie. None of this comes without a cost.
The Creature in all of is unpredictable. It’s like something from a lost world left behind before humans
learned to write. It’s feral, it’s cruel, it’s easily provoked. My guess? The Creature is who we really are
once you remove all the human stuff. Or, we’re a vehicle for it, letting it reach out into the modern world.
Or, we’re its children, varied and wild. I dunno. You won’t either. But you’ll do your best, or you’ll die.
Simple as that.
TO BE LAID OUT LIKE A HANDWRITTEN LETTER IN PRETTY SLOPPY HANDWRITING.
GRAMMATICAL ERRORS ARE DELIBERATE.
Barbie,
I thought to myself: Elvis did this for me so I’ll do it for Barbie. Maybe it’ll help. And if she doesn’t want
it, she can ram it up her ass.
So have a letter.
You’ve surrounded yourself with friends and hangers on your whole life.
Good news. While some primal like to be all loner and antisocial as shit, most of us are actually pretty
fucking social. So, you can keep your friends and hangers on but give your fellow primals some respect.
You run the risk of your bio family getting all weird on you, but it’s still important to stay connected. My
rec is to move out soon as and meet up for birthdays, weddings, funerals you know? Family’s here and
there though. You’ve got a family with the primals too. We’re split into maybe a dozen families. There
could be more. I only know the big ones.
Good news again. They’re not gonna hunt you down.
Bad news. Traditions, rituals, knowing when to wipe and when to wind your watch, as my dad says.
It’s not gonna be easy but you can depend on other primals being there for you when things get rough.
Here’s something fun. Something we do together is carve up territory and claim it. Whatever’s in the
territory you have is yours according to the older primals. That includes mysteries Barbie. You want
something that’ll ease your curse? You want to make a deal with a vampire? Yeah, they’re real, and only
a little like Twilight! You want to drive off drug dealers like you’re a superhero? Or maybe you’ve seen a
cop pushing his way around and want to bring him down to size? It’s all there for you. The place is yours.
We are nature and nature presses her will on the world.
If your territory’s contested by other primals, you team up or have a big fight. Some of the older primals
think they’re owed territory and what they call fealty (had to look up the spelling) but they can go suck a
fat one. If there are other cursed people on your turf you work out are these guys friends or dickheads?
Friends you make good with. Dickheads? Show them what you are!
Anyway, the old ones like studying paper maps like they’re in a war movie and mark it up with pins and
shit. Me? Google Maps. My territory’s not in a place with no reception, so why the fuck not?
Don’t be a stranger dipshit than you are, dipshit.
Izzy
LETTER ENDS

Many Animals Run Together

Hey, I know it’s late, but you were asking about Accursed, so yes, I called. I know, how old fashioned of
me, but you picked up, so fuck off.
I mentioned vampires before. That’s not exactly what they are. And then there’s devils and ghosts... Shit,
there’s a lot to go through.
We’ll start with the Outcasts. Outcasts are like prisoners here. They were in heaven or hell or something
in between and they got cursed into living with people like us. They’re on the outside of where they
wanna be, always looking in. Outcasts are like born rebels. They hate the system, they fucking hate the
Family heads (remember those m-fers who cursed us in the first place?), and they fucking hate sheep.
Unthinking followers. They want to break society into pieces. Some of them want to lord over the
remains, others wanna rebuild, others wanna dance in the ashes. I know a couple of Outcasts and they’re
pretty chill. I think it’s because they’re always working out whether they can wind me up and point me at
some asshole before letting me go like a missile. I’d be pissed off except usually I agree with their targets.
Good thing about being Primal is after battering that asshole, our wounds fix up like we weren’t even
grazed. We’re tough.
So, vampires then. They call themselves Hungry. I guess it sounds a little better. We don’t have much in
common, but that works out cos it means we don’t butt heads. The ones I know like hiring Primals like
me to go hunting for them to bring them back a victim they can then drink from. They don’t all kill their
victims. I wouldn’t just drag some poor bastard somewhere to get killed. The Hungry I hang with is
always fucking thirsty. It’s sad. Just another curse I guess, but the most like an addiction, you know?
She’s a real good thinker and planner but can’t bring herself to swoop down like Batman and drink from a
scared victim. So, I do her shopping for her. There’s also this historical feud thing. Supposedly, if you
believe the story about the first Primal, the Family head she ate alive was one of the vamp daddies of long
ago. Oops. Oh, and I think they live forever. So that’s cool.
Sorcerers. Our relationship is complex. An Outcast or vampire asks us to do something, and you think
“no sweat, I see your point, and we’ll settle down the road.” A Sorcerer asks you to do something? You
look for every fucking fucked up way they can fuck you in the ass. But that’s not why it’s complex.
Sorcerers are the best hope of finding a fix for our curses. Sometimes it’s only brief and sometimes it’s
longer, but I’ve seen these guys work miracles. Remember Naomi? She was locked in the form of a spider
totally outta control. It was Sorcerers who brought her back. I see them a bit like a drug company. They
got the cure for your illness but they’re going to profit from the deal and get you hooked on their supply.
The Dead have seen some shit, so I truck with them. The kinda stuff they want is just a little company or
to feed off your anger or your prey’s fear. Some of the vamps do that too. You might feel drained around
them but it’s a good thing. They’ll bring you back from the edge. You wanna go to a party where you can
let your hair down, see people hit the peak of rage or love? Hang out with the Dead. You can actually
help some cursed bastards who can’t help themselves. It feels good to help someone do something they
never got the chance to do when they were alive. The gratitude is real even if the experience isn’t
everything they hoped for.
You’re going to want to watch it for other Primals. Not me, of course, unless you fuck me over, then
yeah me too. There’re all kinds of different Families. We have territorial disputes. Spidershifters called
the Eight Hands say they’re the masters of the underground, the hidden spaces, all the dark cracks and
alleys. Well, the Hydes, who are a bunch of freaks, disagree. There are the Get of Lyka, werewolves like
me, who say the forests, mountains, and fields are our kingdom! I’d much rather have the city, but you do
you hun. The Raptors dispute that sometimes. Then you have the Sphinx and they’re more interested in
social geography. And the Spawn of Vodník? They’re “interested” in people. Following them, hitting
them, taking what they have, and hiding it back in their damp homes. Look, you can get into arguments
about who owns what and paying your dues to the old bastards who like the old ways, but I’ve got a lot
more in common with a young Vodník than I do an elder Lykan.
But you’re not just going to be hanging out with accursed things.
You’re gonna need friends. Friends keep you earthed. Keep you in one mental piece. Sometimes I just
want to chill, get high, go see a horror movie, whatever. That’s easier with mundane friends who aren’t
going to get all weird urges and terrifying on the guy eating loudly two rows in front, you know?
And then there are the orgs. The ones who want to help or study Primals in a way that doesn’t involve
cutting us open most of the time. You’ve got the faculty. They’re a network of teachers and scientists who
met over Reddit when one of them posted something about a student behaving like a wolf (it wasn’t me
before you ask). Turned out a few concerned teachers had similar experiences and shared stories. Turned
out that a lot of teachers actually care for their students and started a support and study group for us.
Then there’s the proteus cult. I don’t know much about these new agers other than they look like
something out of Midsommar and they get murder happy when someone’s threatening us. That would be
fine, but I think they only answer to old shifters. In other words, if you find a proteus freak on your
doorstep, they could be there to help you, or could be there to teach you a lesson on behalf of pop-pop.
There’s an org calling themselves Earth’s Rangers, or some other comic book shit. They’re apparently
here to maintain balance, but eh. Jack, a super boring one, works day and night to get a part of the city
declared a green zone for us, which is fine if you like that kinda thing. It’s somewhere to chill anyway.
Lyla is more interesting and she does what we say. Like track down some junior congress fuck and put
the squeeze so a law’s proposed so wolves are protected in the city limits.

Primal Damnation
What do you mean, I look happy to see you? I’m just glad you didn’t eat your family last night, that’s all.
Still, if you’ve got a little time before we go inside, there’s something I forgot to tell you about.
Damnation. The nature of our curse.
The uncontrollable shifts. We all go through them. You probably woke up one morning with more eyes
than the night before or teeth as long as your arm… I don’t know your deal. That’s just part one. You get
emotionally stirred up and something changes about you.
For me? If I get too angry, too sad, hell, even too turned on — yeah, that’s a thing — I’ve got to fight to
not feel my fingers burst into claws, or my jaw snap and my teeth sharpen into fangs… Then there’s the
ears, the fur, the fucking tail… Some of them you can conceal with a bit of effort. Other parts are less
easy. Emotional peaks trigger the shift, but they’re only pieces of the overall whole unless something big
has just awoken the Creature. If that happens, all bets are off. Your whole body’ll shift, just like the first
time.
There’s another part. We’re Primal. We’re more than just shapeshifters. We’re ancient predators as well,
and predators need to hunt. The Dead whine about their urges, the Hungry moan about theirs, but we just
fucking get on with it. We have to. Repress it too long and the Creature bursts out when you least want it
to.
There’s one rule the Creature expects you to abide by: the prey has to be able to fight back.
Look at it like this: If I hunt down some poor bastard with a walker, the Creature’s not gonna be satisfied.
But if I know that poor bastard is a tooled-up veteran with a history of shooting at people who walk on his
yard, we might be good.
It’s better to go for targets who you know can fuck with you. For one thing, it’s more likely to satisfy the
Creature. For another, it’s more fun. It’s why I hang outside bars for drunk — but not too drunk —
assholes pushing their partners around. There’s always at least one a night.
You don’t have to kill them. Just remember that. The Creature likes trophies, Barb. No, I’m not going to
tell you about my collection. We Primals sometimes show them off at our retreats. It’s fucking gross, but
the stories that go with them are great fun.
You fuck with the rules and the Creature’ll take it out on you. You’ll be locked in your shifted form until
you do what needs to be done, only it’ll be the Creature calling the shots on the target. As the Talking
Heads said, you may find yourself up against prey who really doesn’t deserve your claws in their belly.
You may find yourself compelled to take out your own brother, boyfriend, girlfriend, or whatever.
What about you, Barbie? You got a boyfriend, girlfriend, or whatever?
 [NOTE TO LAYOUT. THE FOLLOWING IS USING THE CHAPTER HEADER TO DIFFERENTIATE THAT
THIS SHOULD HAVE SOME KIND OF ½ PAGE ART DELINEATING IT AND IT SHOULD START AT THE
TOP OF ITS OWN PAGE.]

Primal Systems
The Primal are a Lineage cursed to prey on others and never possess full control of their bodily form.
They are an ancient line of hunters, each tied to a different form of beast or mutation. This section
contains all the rules you need to create a Primal character, and the special mechanics that define how
they function.

Wild Form
A Primal character can transform into their wild form as a reflexive action by bleeding one curse die. The
body rapidly shifts, their skin splits, their bones twist, and muscles bulge. Few can transform in silence
due to the pain of the body alterations, requiring a Stamina or Resolve action to do so without shouting or
howling in agony.
The shift always turns the Primal into a vessel for the Creature, which differs from Family to Family. The
wild form is always larger than the human who shifted. More subtle changes — such as into their
domestic or beast forms (a dog or wolf for the Get of Lyka, a domestic cat or panther for the Sphinx, a
swarm of house spiders or a large redback spider for the Eight Hands, etc.) — require specific spells to
achieve.
While transformed, the Accursed can communicate as a human might (though with abnormal vocal
qualities) and solve problems, but their physical shape may restrict them from doing so with subtlety and
can limit the areas they can access. People who see a Primal in their wild form react as any human might
to a primitive beast stalking toward them. Friends and trusted associates try to remain calm, soldiers and
cops enter kill mode, scientists want to study, and the average human adopts a fight or flight response.
While in wild form, the character gains the following benefits and drawbacks:
• Gain +1 Enhancement that stacks on all physical actions.
• Gain +1 difficulty on all influence actions other than intimidation.
• Gain +1 Enhancement that stacks to defensive actions.

Wild Form Complication

The Creature fights to control the Primal while she takes on her wild form. Apply the following
Complications to actions in the following conditions.
Minor Complication: Any non-attack actions when challenged. If not bought off, the character cannot
leave her wild form until she suffers at least one damage, and the Creature dictates the character’s next
action.
Moderate Complication: Any non-attack actions when a bondmate has been hurt or humiliated. If not
bought off, the character cannot leave her wild form until the end of the scene, and the Creature dictates
the character’s next action.
If the player does not wish to give up control, they can reject the Creature’s influence. Doing so grants a
+1 Enhancement to the next action taken against them.

Primal Sense
The Primal are constantly switched on to two things: danger and prey. The part of them that in ancient
times said “here be monsters” is the other side of the same instinct reassuring them “I am the monster and
this is my territory.”
At the start of any scene, you may bleed a curse die to ask the Storyguide one of the following questions:
What here is the greatest threat?
What here is more powerful than me?
What here is weakest to me?
Is anyone here hurt or suffering a disease?
Does anyone here have a strong (3+) bond to another person present?

Lineage Path
There’s something elemental, even monstrous about you. You can sense your prey. You want to snap
their bones and take your trophies. You want to carve up this city and declare a part of it yours. What will
you do with your abilities?
Path Skills: Athletics, Close Combat, Survival
Major Path Attributes: Mental 3, Physical 4, Social 3
Minor Path Attributes: Mental 1, Physical 2, Social 1
Assets: Loyal pets, your territory, the trail of prey, the trail of predators
Major Path Inheritance: The Creature heightens a Primal’s senses, driving them to curiosity and
exploration. These exceptional hunters and trackers can’t miss the smallest clues. When taking an action
to hunt or track a target, add the Primal’s Entanglement as hits that apply before the roll. Additionally, the
first time in a session a Primal gains a piece of evidence, they may gain a second without spending
anything.

Damnation
The Primal are elemental predators. As ceaseless predators, they feel the urge to snarl, snap, lash out, and
exert their primacy, no matter their surroundings. This may take the form of mental belittlement, social
intimidation, or physical assault. Any time the character’s curse dice pool reaches 0, the need to exert
themselves as a force of nature takes over. The character shifts into their wild form heavily influenced by
the Creature. She suffers a Minor Complication on all actions, and if not bought off, the Creature dictates
the target of the action instead of her. She cannot gain curse dice until this is resolved.
Resolution: The Primal must express her elemental nature and satisfy the Creature. She must complete an
action that imposes the Aggravated Wound, Bleeding, Destroyed Reputation, Taken Out, or Terrified
status effect on a victim who can fight back. If the action she takes inconveniences her or one of her crew,
she gains a curse die or Momentum (player’s choice) after taking the action.

Torments
Curses drive all Accursed to act in ways that make them monstrous. Choose one of the following
torments that affects your character. Any time your character succumbs to a torment, gain 1 Momentum.
• Elemental Fury: Primal are thunder, earthquakes, and hurricanes given form. They are rage at an
elemental level. Nature does not respect self-control and human codes of loyalty. It destroys. When your
character is in her wild form and in combat, you can trigger this torment. Your Primal hyper-focuses on
the biggest, most deadly target in the area, preventing her from assisting or interacting with allies unless
they’re in the way, in which case she gruffly orders or throws them aside.
• Predator’s Colors: Primal struggle to conceal their bestial natures at the best of times. Losing,
making an error, or being mocked or made to look a fool forces a Primal to reveal their predator’s colors.
When your character appears weak (this can be through a failed action, taking damage, an unresolved
Complication, or simply through roleplay) you can trigger this torment. Your Primal immediately lashes
out wildly, verbally or physically, especially against people who are close to the character.

Families
Primal Families are chosen at an instinctive level, bonding the would-be Primal to an animal before
they’re even aware of their curse. Supposedly, there are Primal Families for every natural predator, with
several rising to prominence in the present day.

The Eight Hands

M y bloody w eb’s designed to catch juicy flies like you.
You’ll have to excuse my working while I’m talking mate, I’ve got a lot of things on right now,
understand? All right, I know you’re unhappy, you’re caught in my trap. But it’s high time you listened to
the little guy, all right? You were being dodgy. Yeah, I caught you sneaking around my yard, and you see,
no Ocho appreciates intruders. We tend to… uh… Well, we tend to eat ‘em. So, stop screaming and start
listening if you wanna get outta this one.
Spiders ain’t evil. It fucks me right off that we’re always portrayed that way! We just look out for our
territory and everything in it and make no exceptions for burglarizing bastards like you. We’re protective.
Maybe a little paranoid. But fuck, who wouldn’t be in this economy? Right?
The web is real. Just cos I live in the back of beyond doesn’t mean I’m not connected. We Ocho talk to
each other. We feel when we’re threatened. And yeah, we know when we’re being fucked with. You
asked down at Bayside whether anyone lived in my house. Now, I know you’re not interested in buying.
But how did I hear ya? Bugs! Some of ‘em are friends of mine. Some of ‘em are little electronic widgets
that trigger whenever my name gets spoken or someone mentions my address. It’s how I know to be out
when the bank comes calling. But you’re more wanker than banker, pardon my French.
Cursed for keeping secrets. The wolves get cursed for their anger, the cats for their selfishness, but us?
Somehow we become spiders because we’re just too bloody secretive! How about that? We keep things to
ourselves that could help or hinder some other fucker, and all of a sudden, the web we weave is all around
us and the only way we can navigate it is to become a spider.
There’s a mystery out there. Maybe more than one. People like me? When we’re not wrapping
fuckheads like you in finest silk, we’re trying to get to the bottom of what we are, why we are this way,
and if there’s a way to stop it. It all started in Japan for us, with our Family head, but it didn’t stay there
for long.
Gang pact. We Ochos are more of a gang than a Family, though if you hold with all the blood oaths,
we’re more a Family than a gang. You ain’t never leaving the Eight Hands once you’re with us. You’ll
get your palms greasy and fingers sticky just like the rest of us, stealing, sneaking, murdering… But we
look out for each other. Someone’s got to!
Mum and Dad suck. The oldest Ocho become bloody Parasites, don’t they? Yeah, they won’t think
twice about eating their own young if it makes their web a little stronger. What blows my mind is they
think it’s fair and right — they worked for what they’ve got, so we should be thanking them with our
blood! Arseholes. They don’t call ‘emselves Parasites, obviously. But we do. To their faces.
You won’t see us coming. People think that just because they can’t see us, we’re more static and
controlled than the Get of Lyka, Hydes, and the rest. Outta sight, outta mind, right? No, we just know the
best places to hide when we hunt. You’d best not cross us when do, because we never go home on an
empty belly. It’s bad for your health! Well, worse for your health than mine, if you catch my meaning.
It’s better to create than to destroy. I don’t hold it against ‘em or nothing, but I feel bad for those other
families who can’t help but go off on a Primal bender, ya know? Sure, we lose our shit too, but while
they’re working out the best way to take someone apart, we’re thinking about what to build with the
remains. I don’t mean just from people, fuckwit; I mean from the businesses we take down, the property
we steal, the tech we play with. We’re engineers and mechanics. The rest of ‘em need to make sure they
leave enough for us to play construction set.

Relations
The only reason I don’t like the Hydes is because they think as apex humans
they’re owed all the indoor spaces. Didn’t check with us, did ya, ya fucking freak?
The Spawn of Vodník are some kind of cult, aren’t they? Always congregating
together, singing songs to the sea? Yeah, I’m happier skulking in a cellar than
dancing with the deep, so I leave ‘em to it.
The Lykans aren’t so bad, and don’t brood as much as the snakes or shout as much
as the Hydes, so they’ve got that going for ‘em. Look past their instinctive desire
to rip and rend and you’ll probably find a mate under all that fur.
Bloody hell, Raptor, crack a smile once in a blue moon. Sure, we’re all fucking
cursed, but things ain’t gonna get any better with you treating every day like a
fresh funeral.
Yeah, I get what it’s like to be Hungry. I reckon we could teach them a coupla three
things about hunting though. Me? I pay less attention to my appetite if I’ve got a
project going.
Sorcerers see the strings of fate and Fae everywhere, so sign me up to drink
whatever they’re drinking. That said, sometimes a web is just a web. The best way
to unravel it is to find the beginning and start tugging, instead of sticking your
head right in the middle like a twat.
Others call us werespiders and the formal Eight Hands. Truth is, some of us are were-other bugs, but
arachnids rule the web. These days, the Eight Hands is a good identifier.
Within our Family we call each other mates, the cluster, or Ocho. If you know someone well you might
call them by their actual name. Just remember: a Parasite’s a Parasite. Don’t dignify your elders with
respect they don’t deserve, unless they do something to earn it.
We use our magic to — you guessed it — weave webs, physical and relating to information. You want to
hide something? We have a spell for that. You want to trap someone? Come to us. You want a mystery
unraveled? Well, if your Sorcerer friends aren’t free, come strum my string.

Path
Path Skills: Enigmas, Larceny, Technology
Major Path Attributes: Mental 4, Physical 4, Social 2
Minor Path Attributes: Mental 2, Physical 2
Access: The dark web, remote cabin, microtechnology, pest control, hidden passages
Secret Spells: Camouflage, p. XX; Tenebrous Sight, p. XX
Major Path Inheritance: The web you weave is your lifeblood to information. Once per scene, you can
use any contact that belongs to anyone you have a bond with as though they were your own contact. This
ignores any Complications that would apply for tapping a contact more than once in a scene.
Motifs
• After casting a spell with the Physical Attunement, you may reflexively move up to two range
bands as long as you end in cover.
• The hold or bleed cost to cast spells with the Liminal Attunement is reduced by 1 to a minimum
of 0 curse dice.
• When casting attack spells, gain +1 Enhancement that stacks if your target has not yet acted in the
round.
[LAYOUT: THE FOLLOWING SHOULD BE IN ITS OWN SPECIAL BOX]
Play an Ocho if you want to:
• Set snares and traps for unwary intruders.
• Delve into the deepest mysteries of Primal existence.
• Play an alien-minded bug person who won’t hesitate to kill if it means advancing their cause.

Get of Lyka
Fam ily is m ore than a w ord.
I’m gonna stop you before you use the words “rabid” or “chaotic” to describe my Family. We’re
hurricanes of fur and fangs, and not to be fucked with.
Okay, you’re cool. Let’s talk.
Yeah, sometimes Family is fucked up, but we’re a family of choice. You stick with us and we’ll show you
how to direct the storm in your blood. Sometimes you’ll wanna howl and sometimes you’ll wanna bite a
face off, but you just need to learn who to howl at and who to maul.
It was your fury that cursed you. Something pushed you too far or maybe nobody ever told you when
to stop. You laid down a beating, screamed at your bully, or broke through the door. Whatever. The wolf
started howling, and we howled back.
You’re as strong as your weakest packmate. That’s not an excuse to cut the runt from the litter. There
are too few of us to be benching the ones who struggle. This is why the other families send their
stragglers to us, for wisdom, guidance… And let’s be honest, so someone can teach them how to fight.
Unleash the lightning. Thunder comes before the lightning. Let the thunder fill you with strength and
unbridle that storm on some deserving cause. Oh yeah, it doesn’t always need to be violence, Barbie. The
roll of thunder can push you to all kinds of victories.
We understand their fear. Red in tooth and claw, that’s us. It takes a special kind of sick fuck to really
enjoy chewing a guy to death, but it’s difficult to stop once you get a taste of blood. Just plan ahead so
you’re not murdering some poor prick who doesn’t deserve it.
Get the exceptionalism outta your head. Some Lykans call themselves the Bisclavret. Yeah, real roll-
off-the-tongue assholes. They’re old. And they think death in battle — for us, younger Lykans,
specifically — is the greatest thing, that humans are beneath us and need shepherding, that because you’re
a werewolf you’re better than a Raptor, or whatever. Fuck all that. You are Accursed. You have gifts, but
that doesn’t make you a god or the next step in evolution.
Claim and protect. We don’t carve up the map out of greed. We do it because there are people and
places that need protecting. We may be cursed, but we have the energy in us to act as guards one day,
hunters the next.
Their pain is our pain. They say canines can sniff out cancer. I dunno. I do know that when a cousin’s
hurt, you lick their wounds — figuratively, Barb — and get them back in the race. You gotta know when
to bite, when to hold back, and when to help your packmates back to their feet, okay?
Howl like nobody’s listening. All that said? We can be violent. We can be killers. And yeah, we’re
fucking good at it. If it comes to a scrap, put your money on wolfie and give your Family a celebratory
howl when the other bastard drops.

Relations
The Sphinx want us to think they’re so fucking lazy, but it’s obvious they’re
planning the next big heist, moving only when they need to. I admire them but
detest them, you know?
The Spawn of Vodník are fucking weird, but you won’t find a better spotter. Don’t
underestimate them. Just because they’re shifty and quiet doesn’t mean they’re
not listening.
The Hyde Family give me the creeps. Elvis told me they were on the wrong side
of all Primal up until ten years ago, or something like that. I don’t see why we
should trust them.
The Raptors are supposed to be the wisest and oldest of us, leading us in unity,
but… It’s all frayed, Barbie. The gap between young and old is only deepening
and while I know plenty of young Primal who want to learn from their elders, the
ancient shifters just want to use us and dump our bodies. Look, I respect them, but
maybe they need to rethink things? Don’t tell them that.
Hungry like the wolf, right? No? Ahh, never mind. They could teach us a bit about
gluttony though. Get who lose their way and stay in their wild form for too long
should spend time with the Hungry to learn about restraint. Just avoid the Heirs.
They don’t like us much and the feeling’s pretty fucking mutual.
The Outcasts know some weird shit about the world. We’ll mark a map and say,
“this place is mine,” and they’ll say, “think twice, a cult runs that building and
uses it to summon demons that compel local deli owners to put MSG into their
sandwiches,” or something. How are we supposed to know that?
Other people call us the Get, spirit dogs, or sometimes werewolves because everyone knows that word.
If a dick calls you rabid, show his dick how rabid you really are.
Among the Family, we call ourselves Lykans or just werewolves. Like I said earlier, some of the older
Family members call themselves Bisclavret, but I really recommend doing your best to avoid them. Stay
off their radar and out of their territory. Elitist fucks.
We use our magic to detect people and creatures interfering with our territory and make ourselves better
hunters. The pack is Family, so if we can work a spell that increases the strength of our bonds and heals
our sick and dying, we’ll do it. No forcing people though; this family is always a choice.

Path
Path Skills: Culture, Empathy, Medicine
Major Path Attributes: Mental 2, Physical 5, Social 3
Minor Path Attributes: Mental 1, Physical 2, Social 1
Access: Park rangers, civic organizations, pet rescue center, ex-convicts, local music scene
Secret Spell: Bombardment, p. XX
Major Path Inheritance: The intensity of your bestial nature gives your punches and clawing attacks
additional ferocity. All your unarmed attacks carry the Brutal and Wounding tags.
Motifs
• When casting attack spells with the Physical Attunement, you may purchase the Shockwave Trick
for 1 less hit.
• You may cast spells with the Physical Attunement as a reflexive action as long as they are not
attacks.
• When casting a spell with the Elemental Attunement, bleed one additional curse die to apply the
Elemental Attunement for lightning on all your mundane attacks for the rest of the scene.
[LAYOUT: THE FOLLOWING SHOULD BE IN ITS OWN SPECIAL BOX]
Play a Lykan if you want to:
• Hunt down the deserving to protect your territory.
• Form a family to defend the weakest among you.
• Make significant changes to the world around you, albeit with unpredictable consequences.

The Hydes
W e are w hat’s com ing.
Freak. Monster. Psy-cho-path. I’ve heard it all before. What you’re looking at isn’t some bizarre
experiment gone wrong, heavens no. It’s a carefully planned experiment gone right. The ignorant think
we Hydes are the next step forward for humanity, but the truth is a lot simpler: the Family head we’ll call
Dr. Jekyll went backward, picking out all the strongest, smartest, most capable traits, and applied them to
us. We welcome this curse. The side effects… Well, they’re unfortunate. But no experiment is without
teething pains. Now, speaking of teething pains…
Hubris brought us here. If you can believe it. That’s what the others say, anyway, but what they call
hubris, arrogance, over-confidence, dah dah dee dah daaah… Fine. We are what we are because we
reached for it. Others are too afraid to even try wearing their hair in a different style, let alone
experimenting with their nature.
We are young. A century and change of existence puts us in rare company, compared to the antiquated
beasts we call cousins. We’re the youngest Family, but that also means we’re the most capable of
adapting to the modern world. We have a history of strong intellects and academic brilliance, too, putting
us above the rank and file.
Experimentation is key. You need to test your limits. Push them. Exceed them. It’s the only way you’ll
find the key to your true self. What the others call their Creature is someone we would interview and
analyze, if we could. The truth is elusive, but we must find it. We will do the research.
The void inside. Why is it that when we shift to our wild form, we feel agony? This should be euphoria,
but it feels like we’re passing fire through the pores in our skin. Like we’re revealing our inner self and
finding it… ugly? No, put it from your mind. This is power. We should embrace it and discover what we
can.
Superiority is an illusion. We are the best suited to lead, do not be mistaken, but where our cousins
experience harmony when tapping into their primeval vein, we… well, we struggle. It would be a lie,
therefore, to say we are superior in every way. Is the human superior to the cat? One can create fire and
paint on a cave wall, but the other is the true predator and master of its domain. No. Accept that there is
much to learn from your peers. We learn. We are masters of learning.
A bloody, sadistic streak. The desire to torture is inimitably human. Maybe this is the wrong forum to
discuss it, but don’t you feel it as well? That joy in humiliation, despair, and pain…? Is this what we are
on the inside?
Dr. Jekyll is with a patient. Hydes like you and I can stop the transformative process. Oh yes, we can
revert to a state of dull mundanity, if we want. Of course, you’d have to capture a young Hyde,
experiment on them, drain their life, take their dignity, and steal their accomplishments, creating a false
face for yourself. That false face is a Jekyll, and many of our elders do that very thing.
We come in peace. Not so long ago, we were anathema to other Primal. Through great effort and
sacrifice, we extended the olive branch of peace. We had to supplicate, beg for forgiveness, and accept
certain uncomfortable truths. It is a new day for all of us. We should feel glad, shouldn’t we? If only
they’d listen when we come to teach them.

Relations
The Eight Hands have experienced the greatest step forward, though you
wouldn’t know it without study. They understand mysteries, hoard secrets, and
push themselves from base insects and arachnids to something far beyond their
place in the hierarchy. Still, others underestimate them.
The Raptors had their time in the sun. The Primals are seen as fools and beasts
because the Raptors have allowed them to be seen that way. We would elevate this
Lineage to new prominence, and do you know something? There are Families who
agree with us.
I own a cat, though the Sphinx make me wonder if she owns me. Such cunning
creatures. The only side they care for is their own, so you must appeal to their
selfish interests.
 The Spawn of Vodník are an interesting bunch! If you treat them well, they’ll
perform all sorts of favors, and boy do they show the benefit of pure animal
cunning.
Once upon a time, we feared wolves. Now we tame them, restrict them to certain,
controllable areas. We keep the flock safe by directing the Get of Lyka — our
attack dogs — at intruding foxes. They don’t realize they’re slaughtering they’re
own kin.
We have much in common with the Sorcerers. Like them, we tend to view our
condition less like a curse and more as an avenue to greater things. I would kill to
find out how they achieve such power without the bloody side effects we unleash.
But maybe that’s the problem.
Don’t write the Dead off. The older you go with these spectral entities, the more
you learn about the human condition.
Other Primal call us freaks, cavemen, and other, less complimentary terms.
Within our Family, we refer to each other by title and name. It may seem formal, I know, but so many
of us pursue doctorates, become professors, and so on, that we appreciate the human desire for title
recognition. You can call me Doctor.
We use our magic to alter our bodily states to hideous, destructive ends; improve our intellects to unravel
the world’s mysteries; experiment with what we can change through spellcraft as well as science. This is a
brave new world, and we use magic to leave our mark upon it.

Path
Path Skills: Enigmas, Leadership, Science
Major Path Attributes: Mental 5, Physical 3, Social 2
Minor Path Attributes: Mental 3, Physical 1
Access: University campus, secret laboratory, military testing site, research assistants, animal test subjects
Secret Spell: Foul Humors, p. XX
Major Path Inheritance: When not in your wild form, you may bottle one of your spells by activating it
and bleeding one additional curse die. You may then activate the power in the future for free, as a
reflexive action on your turn, but only if you aren’t in wild form. You may only have one bottled spell at
a time. When you shift into your wild form, you automatically gain access to the Wrecking tag on all
attacks, and cannot use your bottled ability.
Motifs
• Gain +1 Enhancement when casting a spell with the Liminal Attunement, either to cast the spell,
or as a result of the spell’s effect.
• After benefitting from a spell from the Mutable Form Maelstrom, you may bleed one curse die to
bottle the spell, allowing you to hold a second bottled spell.
• When casting spells with the Physical Attunement, bleed one additional curse die to apply the
Dread area effect to the scene.
[LAYOUT: THE FOLLOWING SHOULD BE IN ITS OWN SPECIAL BOX]
Play a Hyde if you want to:
• Exalt in your primordial power, inspiring terror in others.
• Unravel the scientific secrets surrounding the Primal state.
• Assert dominance over a group of like-minded or coerced individuals.

The Raptors
Cold-blooded? Oh, you don’t know the half of it.
You come near my clutch and I’ll fucking end you. Yeah, I bet you heard the Feathered Serpents were
cool, patient, aloof. All of that might be true, but that don’t mean we’re not vindictive fuckers. You come
for my people, that’s when you cross the line, my friend, and people who cross my line end up with their
entire body strangled nice and tight. I’ll make it real slow, so you feel every damn rib pop.
We are the primeval. The other Primals, yeah, they got means and they got power. We got legacy.
We’re the oldest Family — talon and fang. We got oral tradition, my friend, and a good, strong one. Goes
back long before snakes were associated with Eden and birds were associated with cowardice. We got the
weight of ages on us. We know things.
Duplicity was our undoing. The story goes that the first of our Family was the prince of lies and fooled
even the canniest of marks. But eventually, those lies came back to bite him, and into a Feather Serpent he
transformed. His subterfuge — his rainbow wings — beautiful, but beneath all that, a cold heart. I’m
guessing you told a lie or two as well, to get here?
Wearing your face. We don’t go bounding after our prey over hill and down dale. We sit among you. We
watch you move, drink, smile, and spend. We move too. Side to side. We match drink for drink, smile for
smile. You’ll never see us coming. When it’s time to bite, you better hope it’s a quick one. We’re not
sadists, not all of us, but why would a Raptor care for your suffering? Funny thing though. When not
blending in with the prey, there’s not much left but seething pain. Masks are necessary.
Ancient mysteries call us. We been around too long to see anything as coincidence. There’s a pattern to
curses, and we speak its language. We know about the things, the people, the faeries that lie beyond. The
Eight Hands only care for dirty secrets. We want the truth.
This curse is unjust. The others… They pretend they don’t care. We care. This curse fills us with a deep
well of bile and loathing. For millennia we’ve struggled. We’ve been through countless names and
countless forms. We always return to our squalid forms, with scales and fangs and feathers. You think it’s
noble? We done our time.
Respect is everything. Don’t think you can rest on your laurels. Legacy only goes so far. We can’t let
others forget us. You, I, and others like us will wrap ourselves around the Family heads and choke them
until they beg for forgiveness. There will be none. But there will be respect once the others see our
results. And you need to respect your elders, for they have the power to eat you. Wyrms disgrace our
name, but they will just as soon consume you than accept your failures.

Relations
The Sphinx are acid, alkaline, and every element that consumes. The basest form
of earth. They ooze around everyone else like they’re not there, but they are, and
they corrode everything they touch. Nobody destroys a hierarchy like a Sphinx.
You’ve just got to give them time. Have you noticed some of them develop eagle’s
 wings? We have more in common than you’d think.
The Hydes are fire. They’re the youngest of us and seek to supplant our ancient
leadership. We’ve seen Families like the Hydes before. They grew, they exploded,
they burned out. Some still linger as a lesson to the rest of us: let the Creature loose
but don’t give it control.
Lykans are the storm. Everything about them is destruction. They say we’re a
pack. That they’ll direct their energy at the enemy. I know electricity. I know it can
only be directed for so long before someone has to earth it. Watch their fury. Tame
it or move into their spaces as they lose control.
The spiders are night. Yeah, the Eight Hands keep everything down low. If you
earn their trust, you’ll never have a better friend. That’s easier said than done.
They’ll retreat into the gloom if you get too close.
The Dead know bitterness, but theirs is a temporary resentment. They each lived
one life that ended in tragedy. We have generations of that shit. Still, good to share
an evening and show off scars.
Outcasts make me smile. All that anger and hatred because daddy told you to go
out and make a name for yourself? Pathetic. But enjoyable.
Others call us snake- or birdshifters, or just Feathered Serpents. They’re simple enough titles and we
don’t object. We been through so many names now, how can we expect them to get it right?
Within the Family, we call each other after the type of animal our wild form resembles. We don’t attach
a monomyth to it. There’s no stigma. Why would there be? The only cursed word is Wyrm, used with
arrogance by the elders who would rob us of life. Damn them.
We use our magic to mentally castrate and cripple our prey, whether through fear or other, more subtle
methods. Our magic enables us to lash out fast, without warning. Our spells call on the elements in ways
too primordial for other Primal to approach understanding. We understand the occult weave at a spiritual
level.

Path
Path Skills: Empathy, Esoterica, Leadership
Major Path Attributes: Mental 4, Physical 3, Social 3
Minor Path Attributes: Mental 2, Physical 1, Social 1
Access: Museums, organized crime, university libraries, AA meetings, occultists
Secret Spell: Personal Predator, p. XX
Major Path Inheritance: Your knowledge of curses allows you to see how it weaves in and out of
everyone’s lives. Once per session, you may pull on a curse as a simple action to steal a curse from
someone else in the scene. Gain a number of curse dice up to your Entanglement. If the victim is a
supernatural, this provokes a clash using your Esoterica + Manipulation vs. their Esoterica + Stamina.
Motifs
• When casting a spell with the Support Attunement, bleed one additional curse die to apply the
effect to a second target.
• You may cast spells with the Elemental Attunement as a reflexive action.
• When casting any attack spell, gain +1 Enhancement that stacks.
[LAYOUT: THE FOLLOWING SHOULD BE IN ITS OWN SPECIAL BOX]
Play a Raptor if you want to:
• Play a being determined to uphold a legacy of spite and vengeance.
• Research the best ways to remove curses.
• Mentally manipulate and break the most corrupt people in high society.

Spawn of Vodník
The w ater seem s still, but ‘tis only the surface. Plunge your head and
look deep.
Water’s for hatching an’ ancestors’ rest. Shoreline, village, town, and city. They’re ours. We watch the
normals go about their business. We observe. We follow. They never notice us. Oh no, they never notice
a Vodník. Vodníci be quiet. Vodníci be invisible. So when Vodníci strike, why, it’s most merciful. They
don’t even know they been hit. Wet as fish and jumpy as frogs. That’s me. That’s you ‘n all.
Where we live. Do you really think we spend all our time swimming in the water? Don’t be dense! Boats,
docks, piers, seaside resorts. Now, they’re fun. From those places we ply our trade. We sell our wares,
forbidden curios of Accursed the world over. We know a prize when we see one.
As recent as all that. Forefather founded the line. Made a deal with a primordial aquatic beast, so they
say… He said he was blessed by the Creature to better scour the seas for lost treasure. Revisionists these
days would say different. That he was cursed for his curiosity and greed. He delved too deep, see? And
now every one of his descendants, our watery nature’s inescapable. An’ we can’t help but be curious too.
We are many. Any talk of “family” among the others is cheap. We know each other by name. We attend
the same festivals and reunions. We hunt and eat together, so we do. We’re the biggest Family there is
among Primals. Nobody thinks we’re scary. Not until they anger us. Not until we take wild form and
show you how flippin’ terrifying a horde of giant frogs with needle teeth can be.
Skilled hunters. We track our prey and our desires better ‘n anyone. Nobody’s a better hunter than a
Vodník. We’re masters of reconnaissance and blending in with the populace. That’s us. It’s as if when
people see us, they want to look away. Something about us makes them want to ignore. Want to forget.
Use that.
Listen to us tell you tales. We sing our songs and tell our stories. We know our history, and the history
of all Accursed. We reach into history an’ pull it into the present with the things we find. You could learn
a lot if you sat at my feet.
Greed is an unfortunate end. As much as I hate to admit it, greed is the end of us all. I think it’s the
Creature’s doin’, but as we get older, we get greedy. Not just lookin’ for treasures, but holdin’ ‘em tight
and never lettin’ ‘em go. They’re still Family though, so you gotta respect ‘em and give ‘em what they
want. Even if what they want is your entire stock an’ trade. Fuck.

Relations
It’s true that cats hunt fish and they won’t say no to a frog, neither. So that’s why
around the Sphinx, you need to be the crab. Wait for the werecat to sniff at you
 before pinching his nose! We’re not kippers on a plate for snacking.
The way the Eight Hands craft is hypnotic. Don’t stare too long while they work.
Sometimes they’ll use the distraction to bind you in a web of lies. Admire the
finished article instead an’ enjoy a pleasant, transactional relationship! They buy
from us, they sell to us.
The Raptors feared us once. Something happened in our past where our Families
clashed, and never really recovered. Now? We feel the way the wind is blowing,
and I’d prefer a Feathered Serpent to a Hyde in my nest.
Our firmest friends on and off the hunt are the Get of Lyka. I take great pleasure
in entertaining werewolves, for I know they repay us with the choicest morsels.
They rarely succumb to greed, preferring to share the spoils.
The Dead have a surprising nature I appreciate. Their ability to master hosts is
stunning! If only I could move my mind to another body like they do. I make do
with changing my face or not being seen.
I know why the Outcasts are so frustrated. I would be too if my progenitor treated
me like guano. Extend to them the hand of friendship, sing for them, and bring
some solace to their tormented lives.
The others call us gill-folk if they’re feeling ignorant. Anyone who knows us proper will call us Vodníci
an’ our territories swamplands.
The Family calls itself Vodník, as is right and proper. We don’t have to like what Forefather Vodyanik
did to recognize it as true. It’s our Family name. Though there are regional variants… Vodyanoy,
Hastrman, Vodyanyk are all cousin Families and we can’t fault them their name changes.
We use our magic to seek out and obtain the ancient artifacts we covet. Our magic helps amplify our
natural abilities in hunting and the appraising of relics and mysteries, of course, an’ we do love paralyzing
our targets with fear before jumping them. Or hopping. More than anything, however, we use our magic
for the purposes of remaining unseen.

Path
Path Skills: Esoterica, Larceny, Ranged Combat
Major Path Attributes: Mental 3, Physical 3, Social 4
Minor Path Attributes: Mental 2, Social 2
Access: Private detectives, surveillance companies, docklands, arcades, antique stores
Secret Spell: Flowing Movement, p. XX
Major Path Inheritance: Your affinity for finding what people need allows you to trade them their
fondest wish. When seeking to acquire an item, you can bleed a curse dice to give yourself extra dots of
Wealth equal to your Entanglement. This Wealth represents not just money, but whatever it is the person
desires, including information, dreams, and other esoteric wants. You may apply your Wealth bonus to all
influence actions against the person, even if they wouldn’t be readily appropriate. In your wild form, you
can breathe underwater.
Motifs
• The bleed and hold cost of spells with the Physical Attunement is reduced by 1 to a minimum of
0.
• When casting an attack spell with the Psychic Attunement, bleed 1 additional curse die to inflict
the Deprived status effect on the target.
• When casting spells with the Support Attunement, you may purchase the Shockwave Trick for 1
hit against enemies.
[LAYOUT: THE FOLLOWING SHOULD BE IN ITS OWN SPECIAL BOX]
Play a Vodník if you want to:
• Take on the role of a private eye, watching targets from afar.
• Appraise and hoard rare and forbidden relics.
• Strike quickly, quietly, and remove yourself from the scene before anyone notices.

The Sphinx
P ride in w hat you are is not a sin.
Embrace the wild elements raging in your soul and look good while you do it darling, that’s what I do.
Prepare to be underestimated, shunned, seen as weak, vapid, selfish… I’ve heard it all and it makes me
yaaaawn. And then I scratch my critic’s eyes out with a big smile on my face. They say we were cursed to
be at one with the cat.
Oh, honey. If they only knew what they were missing, they’d want to be one of the Sphinx too.
Relax. The world isn’t ending any time soon and our curses aren’t going anywhere. Impetuous pussycats
jump for mice. We hunker down like lions, stalk like tigers, snatch like panthers. We move fast when we
want to. There’s no need about it. No-one compels me to do anything.
It’s in the blood. Daddy Sphinx, the great pharaoh Khafre, was a naughty boy. It was his naughtiness…
His lust, shall we say, that had him cursed by the cats with which he surrounded himself. And now that
curse passes on, and on, and on.
Look for beauty. There’s plenty of it in the world, and most of it goes unclaimed or unrecognized by
boorish wolves and venomous serpents. When it comes to carving up territory, we prize the places where
prey comes to us. The rich, the famous, the aspiring dilettante. Why would I let some tourist own the
city’s best gallery? I could have so much fun hunting him through Central Park, scaring him back to
Buttfuck, Iowa. That gallery is mine, princess.
Safeguard their souls. They say cats once stole souls from the dead. That’s the dead, lower case. I don’t
know much about that, but I know we’re at home guarding cemeteries, protecting morgues, and sniffing
out fresh corpses. Rather grotesque, really, even if it does give us some inner peace.
It’s tricky fitting in. Fine, I’ll admit it’s lonely being so damn fantastic. Sometimes you must lower
yourself to rub coats with the others. It can even be fun, slumming it for a while. Just give yourself a good
wash after. Conceal your feelings toward them. Honesty just makes interactions uncomfortable, and not in
an enjoyable way.
Wearing a crown doesn’t make you pharaoh. Yes, I can feel the aged werecat elders sneaking around
outside, looking for a way to truncate my fabulousness so they can brandish some cheap imitation. We
call the Tybalts, and they want to be worshipped like gods in their supposed ascendancy. My parents tell
me I should be serving a Prince of Cats if I want to be one some day. It’s sad and pathetic, truly. I do feel
sorry for them, being so old and… ratty… but age gracefully, for heaven’s sake.
Endless creativity. The others so enjoy knocking down walls and cutting up enemies. Are we truly the
only ones who recognize the wonder of creation? Of course, my attention span being what it is, I get 75%
of the way through a project before wanting to tear it down and start all over again.

Relations
The Get of Lyka are to us as dogs are to cats. Frequent enemies, if you believe the
media. But don’t believe that nonsense. Yes, we’re commonly occupying the same
rug, squabbling over the toys and trinkets, but we’re not pet dogs or house cats.
They’re wolves, we’re tigers. They’re jackals, we’re lions. We might fight over
territory, but in the end, we respect who earned what.
The Hydes are abominations. You’ll hear that a lot. Yes, I’ll party with one. Yes,
I’ll hunt with one. But at their core, unlike ours, there’s a gaping pit. We were
cursed by the Primal cat. They were cursed to have the human ripped out of them.
Nothing was put in its place.
Raptors amuse me. It truly irritates them when we drift off on a cloud of
daydreams as they talk. They have all kinds of delusions of us wanting to wrestle
them to the ground and claw out their feathers. Well, I say delusions. I’ve only
succumbed once or twice.
I had a wonderful conversation with an Ocho. She spoke about building a web to
snare curses before they could reach her and her friends. What a trick. I consider
myself a queen of the weave, but I’d love to see some of these spiders at work.
Perhaps not in their territory.
Look, I get hungry too, but I don’t go around calling it a curse. The Hungry should
do what I do: find someone who likes them and wait for food. And if the food
doesn’t come, steal it. Ah, I see the problem. Nobody likes them! Well, stop
moaning and get thieving.
I don’t know any Primals who chose to be this way, but the Sorcerers? I understand
they took their curses willingly. What arrogance. I almost admire it. I want to know
why they’re so damn confident. What do they know that we do not?
Others call us sphinxes, but they’re ignorant and wrong. Crude bastards call us mogs, but not for long.
As for werecats? I can live with that.
We call ourselves the proud, or simply the Sphinx. We’re a pride with pride, and I love Pride. It’s not
complicated. Our elders call themselves Tybalts. Call them Tiberts to highlight their pretension.
We use our magic to make our lives better, to hoard treasures we deserve (and nobody else would treat
properly), and to have fun with our prey. We’re born hunters, darling. Our spells help us bob, duck,
weave, and yes, scratch. Have you ever seen a Sphinx pounce? No, because we’re three things: Too.
Damn. Fast.

Path
Path Skills: Artistry, Larceny, Persuasion
Major Path Attributes: Mental 2, Physical 3, Social 5
Minor Path Attributes: Mental 1, Physical 1, Social 2
Access: Art galleries, actors, the upper crust, parties, jewelry stores
Secret Spell: Overload, p. XX
Major Path Inheritance: You know exactly how to rub people the right way. Or exactly the wrong way.
Once per scene, you may choose a single individual in the scene to temporarily increase your bond rating
by 1 step. You may use the bond Enhancement from that bond to apply to any action you take, even if
they aren’t helping you.
Motifs
• When casting a spell with the Attunement, bleed one additional curse die to apply the effect to a
second target.
• When casting a spell with the Emotional Attunement, bleed one additional curse die to apply the
Crestfallen status effect to the target.
• When casting a spell with the Attunement, bleed one fewer curse die to a minimum of zero.
[LAYOUT: THE FOLLOWING SHOULD BE IN ITS OWN SPECIAL BOX]
Play a Sphinx if you want to:
• Seek and seize the luxuries life has to offer.
• Play the silent hunter who strikes and retreats.
• Be the benevolent patron of other, less extravagant Accursed.

Maelstrom Practices
The Creature inside each Primal grants her access to a literal force of nature. Primals draw their magic
from their attunement to nature, elemental forces, and their barely contained fury. They refer to this magic
as a Maelstrom, alluding both to the elemental forces and the feeling of attempting to quell the Creature.
Primals have access to three Maelstroms. Below each, we have listed the spells available at character
creation with a short description of the spell and the page number where you can find the full write-up.

Mutable Form
Mutable Form allows Primal to shapeshift with more nuance and control than simply adopting their wild
form. These spells give the Primal the ability to adopt terrifying features, body size, and structure.
• Aspect of the Beast: Adopt animalistic traits and features. p. XX
• Bestial Voice: Intimidate and stir others with your Primal voice. p. XX.
• Force of Nature: Confer a Power Advantage elemental tag to one of your attacks. p. XX
• Impenetrable Skin: Develop a thick hide or shell of armor. p. XX.
• Precise Transformation: Dramatically alter one or more parts of your body. p. XX.

Depthless Fury
Depthless Fury enables Primal to channel mastery over their eternal, primeval rage, with which they can
channel destructive attacks to break the will of their prey. These spells are horrifying to behold.
• Berserker’s Focus: Ignore injuries and distractions in battle. p. XX.
• Master of Beasts: Summon a range of beasts to your side. p. XX
• Pack Leader: Encourage your allies to ignore hazardous area effects. p. XX.
• Predator’s Roar: With a rousing command you compel your allies to make devastating attacks.
p. XX
• Scent of Danger: Create an aura that tells people you’re too dangerous to mess with. p. XX.

The Stranger
The Primal are as much an elemental force as they are a bestial one. With the power of unseen nature,
they control emotions and mysteries, nature and conflict.
• Disturbance: Disrupt social situations to create chaos. p. XX
• Hidden Things: Spot that which is concealed. p. XX.
• Nightmares: Lock a target into a state of tortured unconsciousness. p. XX.
• Silver Tongue: Influence others with lies and verbal manipulation. p. XX.
• Unreality: Trick onlookers into believing something that isn’t real. p. XX.