The Beast

=== Description ===

In the initial lifetimes of Creation, the Primordials wrought many great and terrible creatures to populate their new domain. In this early age the world was at it's harshest, land moved, rock melted to magma, and the air was choked with freezing ash. In this crucible, only the strongest, strangest creatures survived.

The Beast was one such survivor.

Limited to only the most basic intelligence a mere animal would have, The Beast concerned itself with only eating and sleeping, and defending itself if attacked. Driven by instinct, it eats everything it can find, always hungry, never sated.

By oversight or intent, the Primordials never saw fit to grant The Beast any true sense of mortality. While it possessed no real magical resistance to the elements, death was but an inconvienence. Drowning in Lava, baths in The Sea that Marched Against the Flame, even the great power of Malfeas-That-Was could not truly destroy the creature. It would die and be reborn from a seed, buried deep in the bowels of Creation.

The beast iself is massive, in context of the creatures that currently exist in the Second Age. 35 feet tall at the shoulder, and 20 feet wide, the creature is both burly and deceptively graceful, alien muscles move beneath deceptively unmarked flesh. Scales, small spikes and steadily growing horns and tusks show it's age since it's last incarnation, similar to that of the rings in trees. It has four, well-muscled arms, though the foremost pair are slightly larger, and the primariy grasping appendages. It's second set of arms are used mostly for balance, though the creature can rear up on its hind legs, rising to nearly 50 feet at full height and bringing all 4 arms to bear.

A lashing, barb-ended tail  extends out, bringing the creature's total length to somewhere around 120 feet long, from the tip of it's round, bulldog like face. Teeth as long as a man's arm and as sharp as any Daiklave fill it's gaping maw, while it's throat holds grinding plates that click and crush against eachother, capable of rending stone down to edible powder.

=== Attributes ===

Strength 16
Dexterity 17
Stamina 14

Charisma 7
Manipulation 1
Appearance 2

Perception 7
Intelligence 2
Wits 7

=== Abilities ===

Martial Arts 7 ( Rip and Tear +3) (Natural Weapons +3)
Thrown 5 (People trying to hurt it +3) (Improvised Weapons +3)

Integrity 7 (It's an animal thing +3)
Presence 7 (TERROR +3)
Performance 7 (TERROR +3)
Resistance 7 (Too Wierd to Live +3)
Survival 7 (Too Strange to Die +3) (Underground Movement +3)

Athletics 7
Awareness 7 (Instinctual Cunning +3)
Dodge 5

Stealth 5 (it's UNDERGROUND! +3)

=== General Panoply ===

Credulity-Straining Bulk: Though not as ultra-massive as the Yozi, or even their 3rd circle souls, The Beast is frighteningly huge. So massive that it cannot be targeted as a single entity save by sorcery or certain Charms that have an area-of-effect. Instead, sections of the beast may be targeted, and have their own DVs and related statlines. Because of its large size, The Beast suffers a -3 external penalty to attacking human sized targets, much like a Warstrider.

Further, each 'target' may act independently. In short, treat the creature as a group of entities with the following abbreviated statblocks. They all share the above abilities/attributes. The Storyteller rolls join-battle for each limb.

Clinching any part of the creature only immobilizes that one part. (Though 'immobilize' in the sense that it cannot use that limb to attack, it can lift/carry most characters easily.)

Atavistic [something] Talent:

The Beast does not live as mere men understand it, nor does it die by the simple tools of mortals or the powers of gods. Even the Exalted can only temporarily subdue it.

The Beast can regenerate severed limbs as a Miscellaneous action, costing 10m+1wp. Though minor cosmetic damage heals reflexively at no cost (such as torn scales, lost fingers, tusks/horns, etc.). A limb, if severed, is considered innactive, so the beast must spend one of it's other actions to regenerate.

The Beast may take a special Guard Action, immediately setting all of it's other limbs to Innactive (though their DVs remain unmodified.) If The Beast maintains the guard action for 9 ticks without being interupted (defined as any limb taking a non-reflexive action), the Beast regenerates 15 HLs to all limbs.

If, for any reason, the Head is brought to 0 HLs, (Or enough damage is leveled against the entire creature, such as with the spell Total Annihilation), the beast will instead begin to rot immediately, it's body decaying at an incredible pace. Oddly enough, the place of its demise will become miraculously fecund, providing bumpercrop harvests and hearty livestock for a year and a day, before reverting to normal.

From within it's ribcage will be a seed-creature that immediately demateralizes and teleports itself to the deepest, darkest parts beneath Creation, where lightless, ocean-sized aquifiers of black blood are watched by diamond and adamant spires thousands of miles long.

13 years, 13 days and 13 hours after the last drop of blood falls, the seed will have grown back to full size, and it will emerge somewhere within Creation, to feed and destroy once more.

=== 'Charms' ===

(This creature has charm-like powers and can have any other spirit Charm the Storyteller deems appropriate. However, under no circumstances should this creature be granted Extra Action charms, due to the use of Independent Actions.)

Essence Plethora (Times Enough)
Reserve of Will x10

=== Head ===

Join Battle: 17
Dodge DV 10
Parry DV 12

Attacks:
Headbutt: Speed 5, Accuracy 24, Damage +17B, Rate 1, N, M, P
Teeth: Speed 5, Accuracy 24, Damage +20L, Rate 1, Tags:  N, M, P
Teeth (Clinched): Speed 6, Accuracy 24, Damage +26L, Rate 1, Tags: N, C, M, P
Tusks: Speed 6, Accuracy 24, Damage +18B/16L, Rate 2, Tags: N, M

Natural Soak: 14B/7L/3A
Armor Soak: 12B/15L/12A
Total Soak: 26B/22L/15A

HLs: (45 at least, specific division soon.)

As mentioned previously, the Head of the Beast is the only truly vulnerable target, if it is brought to 0HLs, the creature dies, and spawns a seed that will escape to regrow into a new Beast.

=== Head Powers ===

Crown of Bone and Ash:

The Beast's head is protected by a bony growth, which provides Armor Soak. This crown can be broken multiple ways.

Feat of Strength: Assuming a foolhardy warrior takes hold of the creatures' crown and pulls, they may tear the bone plates from the skull. Doing so requires an extended roll with base difficulty 5, and cumulative difficulty of 15. The attacker rolls their Strength+Athletics as a miscellaneous action. If the

Note that The Beast will not let anyone tear at its armor without response; The head may, as a reflexive action and only once per acting tick, jerk and buck, attempting to force their attacker off. Whoever stands on the creature's head must make a contested roll of Dexterity + Athletics, versus the creature's Strength + Resistance. Failure sends the victim flying away a number of yards equal to the Beast's Strength x 3. Botching results in the unfortunate soul falling into the creature's mouth, where they immediately check to avoid being clinched.

Direct Damage: The bone-crown can be targeted with a Called Shot at -2 external penalty. It has 12B/15L/12A Armor soak and 25 HLs. It takes damage like an Object (as automatic levels). Due to it's supernatural hardiness, however, it both ignores Minimum Damage, and automatically ignores any attack that inflicts two or less HLs.

Nightmare Will Abscess:

Created in the Prehistoric Age, before the rise of Man, The Beast was infused with the powers of The Primordials. When the first of their number died, a tiny fragment of the eldritch energies, inverted in Death, attached to and corrupted a small portion of The Beast. That portion was one of the monster's teeth, which turned glossy, obsidian black, reflecting the inevitable horrid demise of whoever looks upon it's surface. In the tooth's root is a corpulent swelling, filled with the poisoned nightmares of the Neverborn. Spirits who touch this tooth are immediately destroyed, as if consumed by Ghost-Eating Technique, as a Shaping Effect. This power, while formidable, cannot affect the Yozi or their Third Circle Souls, though First and Second Circle demons are immediately dissolved on contact.

Mortals who see this black tooth automatically fail all Valor Rolls, Exalted ignore this effect. Additionally,  when the creature attempts to Crush an opponenting using it's teeth as a part of a clinch action, the black tooth piercies their soul, from which they hemoragge the very heroic spirit they would wield to destroy the creature.

The Beast regains a number of temporary willpower equal to the HLs inflicted, and drains an equal number of Permanent Willpower as a shaping effect. If the defender maintains a shaping defense such as Integrity Protecting Prana, they do not loose WP this way. The beast however, still regains WP.

The Maiden of Endings believes this tooth could serve as a means to destroy a Deathlord, permanently, or possibly even serve instrumental in the dissolution of a Neverborn. No one is certain however.


=== Arms x 4 ===

Join Battle: 17
Dodge DV 10
Parry DV 12

Attacks:
Claw Swipe
Claw Clinch

Specific Powers:
* Boneshield - An arm can manifest a massive plate of bone and sinew over it's wrist and elbow, providing a +3 cover bonus to the creature's parry DV. Unfortunately, all instances of the creature's dodge DV is reduced by 1, while the shielded arm's DDV is reduced by -3.

* The arms may shield other limbs with a miscellaneous Defend Other Action.

=== Tail ===

Join Battle: 17
Dodge DV 10
Parry DV 12

Attacks:

=== Feet ===

Join Battle: 17
Dodge DV 7
Parry DV 8

Kick: Speed 6, Accuracy +2, Damage +36B, Rate 1, Tags: N


=== Spiritual ===

Essence 7
230/230m

Willpower: 20/20