Right now, I’m in the mood to revise and consolidate the
information for my three key settings:
Black
Tokyo,
Heavy Future and
Otherverse America.
Sitting on my computer right now are
revised race drafts for Black Tokyo and Heavy Future, and a player’s handbook
to the Choicer nation that does the same for Otherverse America.
By the way, if anybody wants a playtest copy of any or all these documents,
just email me, I’ll get them out to you next time I check my email.
You saw some of the revisions I’m making to Heavy Future a
couple of posts ago, and some preview art for Culture of Choice. Today, take a look at how I’m updating the Ubume
race from Black Tokyo. I’ve always liked the race, and ever since I published Gothic Christianity and The Black Bestiary, in which I’ve tied
this BTU race to Otherverse America,
albeit in a tenuous way, I’ve been wanting to do more with them. I’d always
liked the core concept, but wasn’t sure if the race was playable enough, though
it certainly had some flavor.
So take a look at the version of the Ubume race that appeared in Races of the Tatakama, and the upcoming
revised version. They’re fairly similar, though I made a few changes in the
description to make the race seem a little more action-friendly rather than
just being melancholy, mournful and somewhat passive undead. I also gave them a
ton of new body-horror alternate racial traits, some really nasty stuff, and
I’ll likely add a few more options before I finally publish the book.
The art, by the way, is not something I own. It’s just
something cool I found on Tumblr somewhere and stuck into my ‘campaign
inspiration’ folder. But damn, I want the eventual art to be that horrific and
creepy.
CHRIS
Ubume (as
presented in Races of the Tatakama)
Medium Undead
Ubume are
tragic undead bound by misfortune, guilt and longing, but sustained by a
selfless hope. The Ubume have chosen to become undead, and to exist in a body
of cool gray flesh, rather than to return to the Karmic wheel as the penance
for a crime only they themselves prosecute. Ubume are the restless,
transfigured sprits of women who died in childbirth, whose children died in the
womb and never tasted the air.
Their sin, as the Ubume themselves
see it, is that their mortal bodies were too weak or sickly to bring their
child into the world. Rejecting heaven and the comforting amnesia of
reincarnation, the Ubume wander the world, the sleeping soul of their dead
child wrapped tightly in their arms, in the hopes of giving their child a
chance at life, however meager.
Appearance
Ubume
resemble the human women they were in life, but their spiritual pain has warped
and twisted their bodies. Their skins are cool and gray, and their bodies are
slick with a cold, clammy ichors. Their jet black hair hangs in matted clumps,
slick with their death-ooze and stinking of dried blood. They carry the inert,
sleeping soul of their child with them; sometimes, the undead appears to carry
her child in her arms, a heavy burden wrapped in tattered, blood splattered
cloth and spider webs.
At other times, her child-soul
merges with her own undead flesh, entering her dead womb and making the undead
creature appear vastly pregnant. Her unbreathing child’s umbilical cord trails
between the Ubume’s legs, connecting dead mother to dead baby in a perversely
natural way.
Reproduction
Ubume are
female, but are effectively sexless creatures. Bound by the weight of tragedy,
these undead women have no interest in sex or romance, and little capability to
indulge in such acts even if they were interested. A Ubume’s vagina is tattered
and torn, her reproductive portal hanging between her legs in tattered, fleshy
ribbons.
Homes and Lands
Ubume walk
the shadowed roads between settlements. They are unwelcome in many communities,
seen as an obvious ill omen, and blamed for any miscarriages suffered by a
villages’ women. Like the Akaname, Ubume linger on the bottom of the social
order. As unwelcome and eerie nomads, Ubume have no lands or community of their
own, though many elder members of the species attempt to aid their younger
siblings whenever encountered.
Ubume Racial
Traits
Size and Type
Ubume are
Medium Undead. As a medium creature, the Ubume receives no special bonus or
penalties due to her size.
Her base land speed is 20 ft; she
moves with the uncomfortable walk of an eight month pregnant woman, even when
her dead child is carried in her arms. However, the Ubume’s base land speed is
never reduced by armor or encumbrance.
Undead Immunities (EX)
Ubume have
all the immunities common to Undead player characters.
Ability Score Modifiers
+2 STR,
-2 DEX, -2 CHA. As an undead, an Ubume has no CON score. The burden the undead
mother carries has strengthened her rotting form, but her endless pregnancy has
made her graceless, and her tragedy makes it difficult for her to interact
meaningfully with others.
Enhanced Senses
Ubume can see clearly even during
the blackest night, and have darkvision with
a 60 ft range.
Racial Skills
As an incarnation of thwarted
motherhood itself, Ubume are surprisingly kind and caring to mortal children,
and their presence doesn’t terrify or unnerve young children the way it does
adults. The Ubume receive a +4 racial bonus on Diplomacy checks made against
any creature in the Young Adult age category or younger, as well as Diplomacy
checks made against child-undead such as Jinzu or Ohaguro (described fully in
an upcoming sourcebook).
NPC Ohaguro
and Jinzu (as well as other child undead) have an initial attitude of
indifferent to the Ubume, and will not attack the ghostly-mother unless
commanded to or attacking in self-defense.
Burdened Womb (SU)
The Ubume always carries her unborn
child’s spirit with her, in the form of a baby’s corpse, half buried under a
layer of sticky, blood soaked leaves and detritus, and swaddled in rags and
spiderwebs.
She must
either carry it in her arms, leaving only one of her hands free, or absorb the
spirit child into her womb as a full round action. When carrying her child, the
Ubume cannot wield any two handed weapon, and is considered to be carrying a
Light load.
While her
child sleeps within her dead womb, the Ubume gains use of both hands, and is
not considered automatically encumbered. While her child is inside her, the
Ubume’s spirit is burdened, and she suffers a -2 racial penalty on all WILL
Saves.
Dust of Guilt (SU)
Once per day, as a
move-equivalent action, an Ubume can stroke and caress her dead child. A low
and freezing wind blows from the Great Universal Tree and sweeps across the
land. Dust and leaves from the spirit child’s corpse billows into the air like
a tornado.
All creatures within 30 ft of the
Ubume must succeed at a WILL Save (DC 12 + the Ubume’s WIS
modifier) or become overcome by a nameless grief. Those who fail their saves
become shaken for as long as the
Ubume remains within 30 ft and for 1d6 rounds after.
Women
suffer a -2 penalty on their WILL Save, as the Ubume’s grief is uniquely
feminine. Any creature who has ever lost a child, suffered a miscarriage,
undergone an abortion or experienced any similar tragedy is rendered cowering for the duration of the effect
on a failed save. If the creature saves successfully, they are merely shaken for the duration.
Motherhood and Rebirth (SU)
The Ubume’s greatest desire is to
lay down the burden of her ghost-child, and to give the child a chance at
mortal life. All Ubume instinctively know a ritual which will return their
child to life, but it may take decades of unlife before a Ubume is ready to
perform this strange ceremony.
The Ubume
must give willingly give her burden-child to a living sentient female, who must
willingly undertake the ritual, and know the consequences of failure. This
female must be of any good alignment The living woman must hold the dead child
in her arms and succeed at three STR checks
(DC 12, DC 15, DC 18) as the corpse child becomes progressively heavier. Only
other women can attempt aid another checks to aid the mortal woman.
If all
three checks are successful, the dead infant in the woman’s arms opens its eyes
and returns to life as a mortal new born. If the mortal woman fails any of the
three checks, she dies herself, and may not be raised or resurrected by
mortal means. The Ubume cannot attempt the ritual again for a year after a
failure. Each time this ritual fails, the Ubume herself suffers 1d3 points of
permanent CHA drain, as parts of her fading humanity die with the slain
volunteer.
Once the
ritual is complete, the Ubume returns to life, becoming the woman she once was.
The character is effectively rebuilt as a Human or Half-Elf female, losing all
Ubume racial traits and gaining the traits of her new race.
Ubume Alternate
Racial Traits
Compassionate Motherhood (SU)
Her curse of undeath is divinely
sanctioned, and the Ubume is a strange, melancholy agent of heaven. She serves
Inari, goddess of fertility, in her own way. The Ubume is a divine midwife.
Three times
per day, the Ubume can cast Stabilize as
a first level cleric. In addition, she receives a +2 racial bonus on Treat
Injury checks. By touching a pregnant
female and casting stabilize, the
Ubume can ensure that the pregnancy is pain-free, easy and healthy for both
mother and child. A single touch can avert a miscarriage or other tragedy.
Once per
level of experience, the Ubume can touch a pregnant woman or a child in the
Infant age category or younger and ensure that child grows up strong and
healthy. The child receives a +2 racial bonus to its CON score and a +1 racial
bonus to any other ability score of choice.
This
ability replaces the Ubume’s Dust of Guilt racial trait.
Envious Motherhood (SU)
The Ubume
has no chance to be reborn; her child will never live. Driven mad by grief,
rage and jelousy, the Ubume is an especially deadly predator. She feeds on
living mothers and their children, and is utterly without mercy or sanity.
The Ubume
inflicts one additional dice worth of damage with any successful attack
inflicted on a pregnant female creature, and automatically inflicts maximum
damage with any successful attack on any creature in the Child age category or
younger. A pregnant woman who his critically hit by the Ubume must succeed at a
FORT Save
(DC 12 + the Ubume’s WIS
modifier) or miscarry.
This
ability replaces the Motherhood and Rebirth racial trait.
Ubume-Chan (SU)
The Ubume
died so young she is not fully aware of the cosmic tragedy of her death; to
her, her dead child is a companion and playmate. Cute and disturbing in equal
measure, the Ubume-Chan is among the most cheerful of her kind.
The
Ubume-Chan treats her dead child as a familiar as a sorcerer of ½ her total
character level (which stacks with any wizard or sorcerer levels she may have).
Her dead child can walk outside her body, like a ghostly toddler still attached
to its smiling, dead mother by a spectral umbilical cord. The Ubume-Chan
receives the Alertness feat when this ghost-child is within arm’s length.
The Ubume-Chan can choose to allow
her fetus to walk on its own, freeing her from the effects of the Burdened Womb
racial trait. While walking free, the fetal ghost can range up to 20 ft from
its mother. However, while her child is out of her arms, the Ubume-Chan acts
last in a round (her Initiative score is effectively set to zero) as her attentions
are diverted to her ghostly child.
This racial trait adds a new option
to the Ubume’s Burdened Womb racial trait.
Ubume (from the upcoming revision)
Medium Undead
Ubume are tragic undead bound
by misfortune, guilt and longing, but sustained by a selfless hope. The Ubume
have chosen to become undead, and to exist in a body of cool gray flesh, rather
than to return to the Karmic wheel as the penance for a crime only they
themselves prosecute. Ubume are the restless, transfigured sprits of women who
died in childbirth, whose children died in the womb and never tasted the air.
Their sin, as the Ubume
themselves see it, is that their mortal bodies were too weak or sickly to bring
their child into the world. Rejecting heaven and the comforting amnesia of
reincarnation, the Ubume wander the world, the sleeping soul of their dead child
wrapped tightly in their arms, in the hopes of giving their child a chance at
life, however meager.
Our Appearance
Ubume resemble the human
women they were in life, but their spiritual pain has warped and twisted their
bodies. Their skins are cool and gray, and their bodies are slick with a cold,
clammy fluids. An Ubume’s hair hangs in matted clumps over her eyes, and she
stinks of clotted blood. Ubume carry the inert, sleeping soul of their child
with them; sometimes, the undead appears to carry her child in her arms, a
heavy burden wrapped in tattered, blood splattered cloth and spider webs.
At other times, her
child-soul merges with her own undead flesh, entering her dead womb and making
the undead creature appear vastly pregnant. Her unbreathing child’s looping
purple umbilical cord trails between the Ubume’s legs, connecting dead mother
to dead baby in a perversely natural way.
In the modern world, Ubume
can sometimes hide their undead nature and pass for human. It takes effort she
is not often emotionally able to expend, but in the modern world, this
deception is often necessary. Though sunlight does not harm them, Ubume stay
indoors until dusk and prefer to travel by night. With much effort, an Ubume
can even be beautiful, with the glow of false motherhood, but this deception is
a very fragile one.
Our Sexuality
Ubume are female, but are
effectively sexless creatures. Bound by the weight of tragedy, these undead
women have no interest in sex or romance, and little capability to indulge in
such acts even if they were interested. A Ubume’s vagina is tattered and torn,
her reproductive portal hanging between her legs in tattered, fleshy ribbons. It
is difficult for the undead woman to enjoy any form of sexuality, though some
crave the touch of a living woman.
Ubume are obsessed with
bringing their ghostly child to term. They know doing so will free them from
their undead state, but also know that failure will scar them and likely murder
the mortal woman who assists in a failed attempt. They make such attempts only
rarely, and often with the assistance of exorcists.
Our Faiths and Beliefs
Ubume consider themselves
damned souls and punish themselves more harshly than any deity ever would.
Jizo, the Buddhist protector of children, aids the Ubume as best he can, and
his devout follow his example. Ubume are welcomed at any temple or shrine
dedicated to Jizo, and his miko will
gladly risk their lives to aid Ubume in birthing their ghost-child.
As the ghosts of women who died during pregnancy or labor, Ubume fate is
inextricably linked to Izanagi’s karma, and to her minon, the Ubume Empress.
The race is tempted and tormented by Izanagi at every turn, and many worship
the dark goddess of Hell out of desperation.
The Places Important to Us
In the Takama, where they are
most common, Ubume lack any true home. Ubume walk the shadowed roads between
settlements. They are unwelcome in many communities, seen as an obvious ill
omen, and blamed for any miscarriages suffered by the villages’ women. Like the
Akaname, Ubume linger on the bottom of the social order. As unwelcome and eerie
nomads, Ubume have no lands or community of their own, though many elder
members of the species attempt to aid their younger siblings whenever
encountered.
Ubume are more rare in the
modern world, mostly due to the fact that the Earth Realm’s superior medicine
allows more women to survive their pregnancies. There are a few places where
Ubume rise in numbers greater than mere tragic chance would account for. During
the early 1960s, a chemical spill that polluted the Agano River Basin, in Niigata Prefecture caused an epidemic of birth defects, still births and
deaths during pregnancy that continued until well into the 1980s. A tragically
high number of Ubume trace their suffering back to the mercury-tainted river.
In Nagasaki, the presence of the Ubume Empress has made the
emergence of new Ubume more likely. By perverting the Gothic Christian faith,
the Ubume Empress has created a city of guilt and shame- women plagued by guilt
over an abortion might rise again as Ubume ghouls after their mortal lives end.
The Languages We Speak
Ubume begin play speaking the
languages the knew in life, typically Japanese. Ubume with high INT scores can choose any language as a bonus language, except for secret
languages, like Druidic.
Ubume Racial Traits
All Ubume
share the following racial traits.
Size and Type
Ubume
are Medium Undead. As Medium creatures, Ubume receive no bonuses or penalties
due to their size.
Ability Score Modifiers
+2 STR, -2 DEX, no
CON, -2 CHA.
As an undead, an Ubume has no
CON score.
The
burden the Ubume carries has strengthened her rotting form, but her endless
pregnancy has made her graceless, and her tragedy makes it difficult for her to
interact meaningfully with others.
Slow and Steady Speed (EX)
Ubume have a base land speed of 20 ft, however, her speed is never reduced by
armor or encumbrance. Ubume move with the uncomfortable walk of an eight month
pregnant woman, even when her ghost-child is carried in her arms.
Burdened Womb (SU)
The Ubume always carries her
unborn child’s spirit with her, in the form of a ghostly child, which may be
dead, or may be sleeping. The Ubume can carry her ghost child in one of two
ways.
·
She may carry the
ghost child in her arms. Doing so occupies her off hand and she is considered
to be carrying a Light load.
·
Alternatively,
the Ubume can absorb the ghost child into her womb, or release it, as a full
round action. While the ghost child is in her womb, the Ubume’s spirit is
burdened, and she suffers a -2 racial penalty on all WILL Saves.
Darkvision (EX)
Ubume have Darkvision with a 60 ft
range.
Dead Child’s Cry (SU)
The Ubume can allow her
ghostly child a semblance of life for brief seconds, and when she does, the
ghostly child cries mournfully for itself and its mother.
Once per day, while carrying
her ghost child in her arms, the Ubume and her child simultaneously unleash a
hellish scream as a standard action. All creatures within 30 ft + 5 ft/two
levels who can hear the Ubume must succeed at a WILL Save (DC 10 + the Ubume’s
CHA modifier) or become frightened as
long as the Ubume continues to wail and for 1d4 rounds afterward. The Ubume’s
cry is especially terrifying to women, and female characters suffer a -2 penalty
on this saving throw. On a failed save, they become panicked instead.
Ghost Mother (EX)
As an incarnation of thwarted
motherhood itself, Ubume are surprisingly kind and caring to mortal children,
and their presence doesn’t terrify or unnerve young children the way it does
adults.
The Ubume receive a +4 racial
bonus on Diplomacy checks made against any creature in the Young Adult age
category or younger, as well as Diplomacy checks made against child-undead such
as Jinzu. NPC children and child-like undead have an initial attitude of
indifferent to the Ubume, and will not attack her unless commanded or attacking
in self defense.
Motherhood and Rebirth (SU)
The Ubume’s greatest desire
is to lay down the burden of her ghost-child, and to give the child a chance at
mortal life. All Ubume instinctively know a ritual which will return their
child to life, but it may take decades of unlife before a Ubume is ready to
perform this strange ceremony.
The Ubume must give willingly
give her burden-child to a living sentient female, who must willingly undertake
the ritual, and know the consequences of failure. This female must be of any
good alignment. The living woman must hold the dead child in her arms and
succeed at three STR checks (DC 12, DC 15, DC 18) as the corpse child
becomes progressively heavier. Only other women can attempt aid another checks
to aid the mortal woman.
If all three checks are
successful, the dead infant in the woman’s arms opens its eyes and returns to
life as a mortal newborn. If the mortal woman fails any of the three checks,
she dies herself, and may not be raised
or resurrected without the direct
intervention of a deity. The Ubume
cannot attempt the ritual again for a year after a failure. Each time this
ritual fails, the Ubume herself suffers 1d3 points of permanent CHA drain, as
parts of her fading humanity die with the slain volunteer.
Once the ritual is complete,
the Ubume returns to life, becoming the woman she once was. The character is
effectively rebuilt as a human female, losing all Ubume racial traits and
gaining the traits of her new race.
Undead Immunities (EX)
Ubume have all the immunities
common to Undead player characters.
Ubume Alternate Racial Traits
The mournful and melancholy
Ubume race is reluctant to discuss their undead curse, and each woman’s curse
is different. Thus, some Ubume might bear different abilities than her
unfortunate sisters.
Absorb the Tissue (SU)
Modifies: Burdened
Womb
The Ubume can draw the
soul-stuff of her ghostly child back into her body, becoming hideous and
inhumanly feral in the process.
She gains a third option for
her Burdened Womb racial trait.
The Ubume can absorb the
child completely into her undead body, or release it, as a full round action.
She becomes huge and hideous, her body hunched over under the weight of her now
ponderous limbs. The Ubume gains the Powerful Build racial trait, but while her
child is completely absorbed, she cannot use any INT or CHA keyed skill, except for Intimidate.
Black Obstetrics (EX)
Replaces: Ghost Mother
The Ubume died on an
operating table, and her soul is imbued with an uncanny medical knowledge as a
result. Perhaps she can save lives even after she has died?
The Ubume receives Skill
Focus (Heal) as a bonus racial feat. Once per day, when the Ubume makes a Heal
check to assist a female creature or a child of either gender, she may add her
total character level as an insight bonus on the check. She must declare the
use of this ability prior to making the check.
Black Womb (SU)
Replaces: Dead Child’s Wail
The Ubume’s womb is a portal
to a place of eternal and lonely cold, to the darkest corner of the Black Else.
The Ubume receives Vaginal
Prison as a racial bonus feat. However, the Ubume can only use this ability
while carrying her ghost-child in her arms (or letting it walk free, if the
Ubume-Chan alternate trait is also chosen), and her Vaginal Prison inflicts
cold damage rather than acid damage.
Bloodseeking Cord (SU)
Replaces: Dead Child’s Wail
The Ubume can lash out with
the knotted and congealed umbilical cord that dangles from her ruined vulva.
While the Ubume has the
ghost-child in her womb, she can summon the umbilical cord for use as a whip as
part of an attack action with it. She treats her umbilical cord as a +1 whip; at 10th level, her
umbilical whip is treated as a +1
wounding whip instead. The Ubume’s umbilical whip cannot be disarmed or
sundered.
Compassionate Motherhood (SU)
Replaces: Dead
Child’s Wail
Her curse of undeath is
divinely sanctioned, and the Ubume is a strange, melancholy agent of heaven.
She serves Inari, goddess of fertility, in her own way. The Ubume is a divine
midwife.
Three times per day, the
Ubume can cast Stabilize as a first
level cleric. In addition, she receives a +2 racial bonus on Heal checks. By
touching a pregnant female and casting stabilize,
the Ubume can ensure that the pregnancy is pain-free, easy and healthy for both
mother and child. A single touch can avert a miscarriage or other tragedy.
Once per level of experience,
the Ubume can touch a pregnant woman or a child in the Infant age category or
younger and ensure that child grows up strong and healthy. The child receives a
+2 racial bonus to its CON score and a +1 racial bonus to any other ability
score of choice.
Envious Motherhood (SU)
Replaces:
Motherhood and Rebirth
The Ubume has no chance to be
reborn; her child will never live. Driven mad by grief, rage and jelousy, the
Ubume is an especially deadly predator. She feeds on living mothers and their
children, and is utterly without mercy or sanity.
The Ubume inflicts one
additional dice worth of damage with any successful melee attack inflicted on a
pregnant female creature, and automatically inflicts maximum damage with any
successful melee attack on any creature in the Child age category or younger.
A pregnant woman who his
critically hit by the Ubume must succeed at a FORT Save (DC 12 + the Ubume’s WIS modifier) or miscarry.
Ubume-Chan (EX)
Modifies: Burdened
Womb
The Ubume died so young she
is not fully aware of the cosmic tragedy of her death; to her, her dead child
is a companion and playmate. Cute and disturbing in equal measure, the
Ubume-Chan is among the most cheerful of her kind.
She gains a third option for
her Burdened Womb racial trait.
The Ubume-Chan can free the
ghost child to play on its own. The ghost child drifts at a distance of up to
20 ft from the Ubume-Chan, and is treated as a Sankai familiar as a witch of
half the Ubume’s total character level. The Ubume’s dead child can walk outside
her body, like a ghostly toddler still attached to its smiling, dead mother by
a spectral umbilical cord.
The Ubume-Chan receives the
Alertness feat when this ghost-child is within arm’s length. However, while her child is out of her arms,
the Ubume-Chan acts last in a round (her Initiative score is effectively set to
zero) as her attentions are diverted to her ghostly child.
If the Ubume-Chan’s Sankai
familiar is slain, the Ubume is considered nauseated
for 24 hours. At sunset of the following day, the Ubume-Chan’s ghostly
child/Sankai familiar reforms.
Swollen Breasts of Eternal Pregnancy (EX)
Replaces: Ghost Mother
The Ubume’s unending
pregnancy has swollen her breasts to gigantic size. You receive the Busty
Extreme starting trait as well as the Mega-Busty feat as a racial bonus feat.
White Ubume (SU)
Replaces: Dead
Child’s Wail
The Ubume’s skin is the color
of cold milk, and her hair hangs down over her eyes in long ivory strands. She
is a harbinger of inevitable death.
When the Ubume inflicts a
critical hit with an unarmed strike or natural weapon attack, rather than
inflicting standard damage, she can reduce the target’s maximum age by 1d4
years. The target undergoes the immediate physical effects of aging, and a
target moved past its maximum age dies instantly. The Ubume recovers 2 HP per
year of aging inflicted. She cannot raise her HP above its normal maximum total
in this manner.
Well, Culture of Choice is finally uploaded and ready for sale today! It's been a great book to work on and it's a nice satisfying book to get out after the Tournament of Rapists fiasco.Right now, I'm working on an Apex sourcebook in a similar vein, and after that, I'll have a Lifer specific sourcebook. I want to do Apex first, because as a faction they haven't received enough love, and I like the idea of giving mixed Choicer/Apex parties some mechanical support. Next time, I'll show off the revamped Courier race.
