Yes yes, Mac is slotting good old Beast/Fierce Forward/that red Crystal what makes you beasty. In the time skip since Chapter 6, he got to test it out and understand its powers.
Here’s Beast as it appears in the Crystal Heart RPG book:
We were cheeky here, because these are not the “real” canonical rules for Beast. But they are correct, if you are unaware of the ancient Beasts, and only see this Crystal slotted in a Bogovian.
Beast’s theme really is about “forcing your inner beast to manifest”, but by that we don’t mean some abstract savagery, but the actual, primal creature the people of your Land used to be 800 years ago; Beasts. The specifics of the Benefit and Disposition, and of the Inner Beast power, are different for each Land – because each Land’s primal beast is different.
Anyone who read Chapter 1 and saw the “werewolves” would look at these rules and say “yeah, that makes sense, I can see why a red liquid created from this Crystal would turn someone into a giant monster”. But it’s not just any monster, it was specifically a wolf because the people who were exposed to it were Bogovians (and a more refined distillation allows for more controllable results).
In the book, we made sure to have a Bogovian slot it, the Heroic Agent Marc. We then gave him this, in his GM-only statblock:
Because in the world we present in the book, Syn have this Crystal and are aware it could reveal the existence of old Beasts if used wildly, so they gave it to a Heroic Agent they trust and made sure no one else tries it.
We tried to make sure you had no reason to suspect this Crystal is anything unusual. It was the first Crystal we introduced, so when you first saw the werewolves, you had no other Crystal powers to compare to. There was no reason not to accept this as “sure, this is a magic werewolf rock or something”.
But, in time, things got messier. Anyone who read through Chapter 3 could have guessed something’s off, because the Benefit listed above isn’t what Muna got when she got dealt a heart. Although, again, we were cheeky, because the rules listed above were printed in the RPG book, which came after Chapter 3, so someone would need to care deeply about this, and go back to read those pages and compare.
Of course, by Chapter 4 things started to get super suspicious, because Muna somehow kept being red and alive even after the Crystal was taken out. We hint to it in the rules, by saying the Inner Beasts power remains active for 2 rounds after its dropped. In essence, when you activate Inner Beast, you become infused by the primal energies of your Beast – which are integral to you, the Crystal just brings them out, so they remain even if the Crystal is removed.
By now, it should have been clear something’s off about this specific Crystal, and when the baddies took it, we sealed its connection to the greater ancient conspiracy plot. The Syn Council weren’t yet aware of what exactly is going on with this Crystal, but they realized it’s connected to the Beasts, so they wanted to take it off the records and research it in a hidden, remote facility.
We next discover the existence of Beasts, and all of the wolves and flying we’ve seen so far starts to make sense.
And finally we get Beast back, by taking it from the cold, dead, exploded hands of a turtle.
So. What does Mac actually get from this Crystal?
We’ll give the full details in Original Syn, the supplement we’ll release after the comics is over, but here’s some of it. Note this is still work in progress.
Benefit: When you get dealt a Heart card as initiative, you gain the following ability for that round:
- Bogovia: Your unarmed attacks deal Str+d6 damage, and your Pace is increased by 2.
- Fjordstad: You gain +2 on your Tests.
- Island: You gain +2 Toughness, but your Pace is reduced by 1.
- Maseia: You can fly your Pace, by leaping or spreading your arms.
- Zingama: You can spit poison as a free Athletics or Shooting attack once during your turn. It deals Vigor+d4 damage at range 3. A target Shaken or Wounded by the attack must make a Vigor roll or become Fatigued (Exhausted on a Critical Failure).
Disposition:
- Bogovia: You growl and sneer, being all snarky.
- Fjordstad: You’re silent and observant, in an unnerving way.
- Island: You’re slow to act, and take pleasure in food, drinks, and the like.
- Maseia: You try to climb high and get a wider perspective, going on your own.
- Zingama: No one deserves being in your presence, you are so beyond them.
When activating the Inner Beast power, things get more extreme, and your Disposition is exaggerated. A reminder from when we talked about “full beast mode”:
“…becoming absolute bastards with the Hindrance Arrogant and another one, depending on the Land: Turtles get Ruthless (Major), Birds get Impulsive, Wolves get Bloodthirsty, Foxes get Overconfident, and Snakes get Vengeful (Major).”
Which means Ivan is actually being quite reasonable here.
