by Eloy Lasanta (Kindred of the East | Resources)
So, is everyone ready to hear my take on the Howl of the Devil-Tiger? I hope you are, because it’s gonna be a mouth full for me. This is the fourth one of these I’ve done, but not the last. This is the one you guys wanted to hear about next, from the results of the poll, so here it is. I love doing these!
There is a reason that the Devil-Tiger Dharma is never without inductees, the pure surrealness of the entire situation that the Second Breath puts a being into. You’ve just returned from Hell, fresh from what ever grave you were buried in or from your cremation urn, and you’re told that you are not only a blood-sucking begin, devoid of chi, but also that you must pick a road to follow you’re way back into the graces of the celestial circle of life.
Now, what thoughts would you have. Anger for those that killed you and for those that are trying to force you into certain way of life? Anger for your classmates and teachers during your Fire and Water tests? Anger for your P’o, constantly in the back of your mind, taunting you and fueling the anger you possess? If this is so, what Dharma are you going to choose? You’d choose the one that actually encourages the rage building up inside you, allowing you free reign to express your most devious emotions. You would become a Devil-Tiger.
As a follower of the Howl, you are responsible for many things. The wicked must be punished and the innocent protected, but how to do this? Become a demon yourself. The Yama Kings have stepped down from their sacred duty of reprimanding the souls of the wicked, instead seeking only to control them for more power to become the Demon Emperor in the Sixth Age. The Devil-Tigers have taken that role in the Middle Kingdom, hunting down those fiendish mortals and making sure they are ‘taken care of’.
Many new Kuei-jin take on this Dharma because of the above reasons, but then after all their rage is gone and their killers destroyed, they must change. By many of the Hungry Dead, the Devil-Tigers are a phase that everyone goes through, but only a few actually stick around.
The Devil-Tigers are truly passionate beings. Everything in life is done to its fullest and usually only one at a time. While fighting, winning is all that matters. While screwing, they think of nothing but the joy of the sex. While killing, the pleasure of disemboweling their victim is all that matters. This is what fuels the Devil-Tigers and why they are feared. For if you are the pointy end of a Devil-Tiger’s vengeful sword, you won’t die then and there, they will make you suffer for a long time.
The giving and receiving of pain is another large portion of what it is to be a Devil-Tiger. They revel in combat, battle scars being cherished as keepsakes, but self mutilation is quite common among them as well. Physical pain, however, is just the beginning. Emotional pain and anguish is what this Dharma strives for when torturing their victims. Making sure they suffer in tangible and intangible ways is very important to the role of a judger of the wicked. Killing their families to make them suffer, arranging for them to go bankrupt or to be violated in less pleasant ways, it all equates into the same thing.
By no means is the Devil-Tiger Dharma just a bunch of rowdy youngsters, seeking an excuse to break windows and pick fights. They do not walk down the street popping the tires of the cars they pass or make hand puppets out of small animals. This is not EEVILLL! That is stupid and isn’t any fun for the other players who are trying to role-play well! Every action that the Devil-Tiger takes, must have meaning and a specific purpose, even if they themselves don’t know what the outcome of that action with be. STs, don’t let your players be bumbling fools, disgracing the name Devil-Tiger in all other players minds.
One of the creative aspects of this Dharma is their access to Demonic Spirits as servants and tools. They actually have created a way to use this in the most ingenious of ways: to create children. So, not only do they have the Dhampyr, the Half-Damned, at their disposal, but also the Ban Ren Guei, Half Demon Children. By summoning a demon to mate with a sleeping victim, the resulting infant will be part Demon. They are just like normal people in ageing and appearance, but have at least 1 or 2 special powers (you can check out Freak Legion for powers or just pick physical characteristics from the Demon Shintai list). They are also born with an undying devotion and loyalty to the Devil-Tiger who created it, which is always good.
The Devil-Tigers are the only Dharma who actually embrace the coming Sixth Age (except for the Scorpion Eaters, but we won’t go there). They claim that their hunting down of the wicked and all the killing and fighting are in preparation for the upcoming Sixth Age where the Demon Emperor will take over the August Personage of Jade’s throne. They do not even believe that the Devil-Tigers will survive the Sixth Age, but neither will the Demon Emperor. He he. Such dreams are noble, if not suicidal.
I know there are a lot of people who don’t like spawn. I know there are a lot of people who don’t like the Punisher. But these are examples of, in my opinion, pretty good Devil-Tigers. They should be played as Antiheroes. They punish the wicked and yet they themselves are exactly that. They do not bring evil doers before the courts to the police, they will eventually kill them. Doing good things in a bad way. And this is what I’m talking about.
But remember, at low levels of Dharma the character is still very much human. They won’t be too sure in themselves, especially when it comes to killing someone’s wife or arranging other evil assortments of things. I’ve had my Devil-Tigers, after brutally killing their victims, roll a Stamina check to keep their lunch down.
The Kuei-jin holds true to his duty to the universe and the Way, however the Glut has only one obsession: to eat. Devouring anything near to him: food, flesh, chi, whatever. It doesn’t matter. It have an insatiable hunger that cannot be staved for anything. It is not, however, a retard. It’s hunger reaches not only for simple consumption, but also for power. The devouring of a business venture is just as great. It has a special connection to the Demon Art, Intemperance, as it does not require a Shadow Soul roll to use this power if you possess the Glut P’o archetype. The power is a way to devour and the Glut enjoys it too much to try and impede it.
Conditions for Takeover: Whenever the Character has 4 or less Chi in his Chi reservoirs, the Glut will attempt a Shadow Soul roll and its first impulse is to do nothing but eat for the rest of the scene. If no actual food is in sight, animals or even the Hun’s wu-mates make a nice snack. But occasionally, the Glut will also choose to further his dark whims, making shrewd business decisions to use against the Hun when the time is right.
• Gorge
The Glutton teaches, first, the lesson of how to sustain oneself in as little time as possible. This is a convenient Demon Art, as it allows for advanced fangs (maw) without having to ask the P’o permission.
System: With the expenditure of 1 Demon Chi, the Kuei-jin grows a maw capable of Strength + 2 Aggravated damage and can drink Chi at a rate of 2 per turn. This does not change the amount of the Chi available from the victim however, so the victim will simply die twice as fast.
•• Chi Leak
The working of the Devil-Tiger’s mind is interesting indeed. Using this power, the Devil of Heaven is able to make his target slowly become free of chi. Kuei-jin who are affected by this power often seek revenge on the Devil who cursed them, if only for a short while.
System: After touching the victim’s skin, the Kuei-jin spends 2 Demon Chi and rolls P’o (difficulty Willpower + 1, to a maximum of 10). If successful, the victim’s hold over his Chi reservoirs (Gnosis, Chi, Quintessence, Glamour, etc… are all included) will lose 2 additional Chi with every expenditure for one day per success on the above roll.
••• Touch of Weakness
The next lesson learned is how to steal energy from others to use for yourself. With this, the Devil-Tiger can power his statistics up without the need for Shintai, but instead of using Chi, he uses the very essence of her victim. Fighting someone who wields this power can be deadly for even the greatest of fighters.
System: The Kuei-jin must touch the target’s skin, expend 2 Demon Chi and choose a physical stat he chooses to steal. A roll of P’o vs. Target’s Stamina (difficulty 7 for both) must be made, with every success resulting in the movement of 1 dot from the target’s stat to the character. The target’s stat, however, cannot be dropped beyond one.
Example: Feng has 2 Dexterity and wants to steal Wang’s, who has 4. Feng, after touching Wang, rolls his 6 P’o and receives 7, 7, 8, 0, 2, 5 (4 successes), while Wang, who has 3 Stamina, rolls a resisted check and gets 2, 3, 6 (No successes. Feng now has Dexterity 5 (2 + 3 gained from Wang) and Wang has been reduced to Dexterity 1 (4 - 3 transferred to Feng).
•••• Defiled Earth
After gaining the abilities to effect mortals, themselves and other shen, the Kuei-jin turns to his next target: his environment. This power has gained many Devil-Tigers their putrid reputation among the Beast Courts of the Emerald Mother, as it destroys plant-life without blinking.
System: By expending 3 Demon Chi into the earth beneath his feet, the Kuei-jin can defile all the land in a 1-yard radius per level of P’o (someone with 4 P’o will expand 4 yards). Grass, crops and bushes die instantaneously, while trees in a matter of (10 - P’o rating) minutes. Any small animals in the contact with the earth during the activation contract a strange spiritual disease that kills them within (8 - P’o rating) days. Shen are unaffected by this power, however mortals receive 3 automatic levels of Lethal damage (this includes those in human shells: Hsien, Demons, Changelings, Hunters, and Mages). This also taints the area and is a sure way to get spirits to notice you, but not in a good way.
••••• Famine Cloud
All the powers of Intemperance lead up to one great big finally of starvation and famine. The Kuei-jin exudes a rancid cloud of pure Demon Chi which drains the life force all beings around him in such a way to cause very bad things to happen.
System: The Kuei-jin expends 3 Demon Chi and creates a cloud of Demon smoke that expands 2-yards per point of P’o (someone with 4 P’o will expand 8-yards). Everyone caught in the cloud must make an immediate Willpower roll (Difficulty 8) and score at least 3 successes or suffer the following:
I love the Devil-Tigers as NPCs, but really don’t like them as PCs, as they are often not played correctly (didn’t I say that about Bone Flowers too?). Yoshida Ozaki is one of my favorite NPCs, as well as a few I have made up myself that will be appearing in WoD: Shanghai (Yet another cheap promotion! If you have any questions about what WoD: Shanghai is, email me and I’ll let you in on it). I think I enjoyed doing this How-To the best of them all. It let me re-explore a Dharma I had forgotten a lot about until recently. Kinda refreshing. Let me know what you think by emailing me of course. Thanks and see ya on the flip side!
