Thanksgiving, Sales, and Æthursday!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American fans! From all of us here to all of you out there, we hope your holiday is safe and that you enjoy this time observing the traditions that you have!

On that note, one of the most American of traditions is Black Thursday and Cyber Monday. No doubt you have been inundated with sale announcements and all kinds of special deals and offers. At our Store you can enjoy 25% off everything, now through Monday the 26th! These deals come by only once a year, and only our April sale gives you more bang for your buck! Stop by the store and see our new Christmas video as well!

On that note, don’t forget to check us out on Facebook! All of our fans who have “Liked” us receive a 10% off coupon, and yes, it stacks with the 25% off coupon for the holidays, and the 10% coupon if you have won one of our Silver Gryphon poker chips at a con! If you’ve had that opportunity, you can take 45% off our regular prices!

Finally, it’s Æthursday, so we’re capping this week’s Thursday post off with something to get you into the holiday spirit, the Wereturkey!

Wereturkeys
A lesser known lycanthrope, Wereturkeys are prevalent in early American history, and the settlers of Europe had vicious battles with them. It took help from the Native American tribes in the area to teach the settlers the weaknesses of the terrifying bird/human hybrids: the naturally growing herb of sage. This war against the Wereturkeys has gone largely unrecorded in history, but remnants of it can be found in folk art, particularly in the anthropomorphization of the common turkey around Thanksgiving time. These are not attempts to be cute, but rather, they are attempts to remove the horror from the ingrained memories passed down by our ancestors.

Wereturkeys in Æther are cursed and they pass their curse on genetically as well as transmitting it like an infection through their bite. Their abilities do not manifest until the next full moon, and after that they are stronger, faster, and tougher in their human form and even more so in their wereturkey form. Wereturkeys have two forms: Human and a Human/Turkey Hybrid. The Hybrid form can curl their wings into rough hands and manipulate large objects; bows and arrows are beyond their abilities, but using weapons such as muskets and blunderbusses are terrifyingly possible.

Apply the following templates to a previously created character.

Wereturkeys have the following bonuses in Human form:

Attribute Bonuses:
Muscle +1
Reflexes +1
Toughness +1
Wits +1

Skill Bonuses:
Perception +25
Survival +25

Abilities:
Colossal Armor: 0/Sage
Regeneration: 1 SD / round
Weakness: Sage

Wereturkeys have the following bonuses in Hybrid form. The bonuses to their skills and attributes stack with those they receive in their Human form.

Attribute Changes:
Aim -2 (to a minimum of 1)
Muscle +3
Reflexes +3
Toughness +3
Wits +3

Skill Bonuses:
Perception +50
Survival +50
Stealth +25

Abilities:
Colossal Armor: 0 / Sage
Regeneration
Weakness: Sage
Claws and Bite attack
Terror Gobble

Colossal Armor
Wereturkeys have colossal armor against all damage sources except sage. If a sage-coated item does damage to them, it does damage as normal.

Regeneration
Wereturkeys will regenerate 1 SD per round until they are completely healed. They will not regenerate wounds from sage-based weapons if the sage is still in them (i.e. a snapped off stick or stuffing). They will regenerate limbs in a week, but they cannot regenerate their head; decapitation kills them. They are instantly healed whenever they change form unless they have taken damage from a silver weapon. Changing form does not regenerate lost limbs or speed up the process, but the wound from the loss of limb will heal over and stop bleeding.

Weakness
Sage is the wereturkey’s only weakness. It by-passes their Colossal armor ability and causes lasting damage. The only ways to kill a wereturkey are to destroy its heart with a sage-based weapon or to decapitate it. This is why sage is such a common ingredient in stuffing on Thanksgiving: it’s the only way to be sure.

Claw and Bite Attack
In were form, the wereturkey has claw and bite attacks. Its claws and bite each do 1D10 / 3 + their Damage Modifier in Hard Damage. Their bite can cause an infection that will turn the victim into a wereturkey on the next full moon. Bitten victims make a Resist Poison check immediately with a target of 150. If they fail, they will become a wereturkey. If they pass, they are not infected.

Terror Gobble
In Hybrid form, wereturkeys can unleash a Terror Gobble once every 10 seconds. This gobble requires all non wereturkeys within 100 feet to make a Mental Control check at a 100 difficulty. Those who fail will flee for the next 10 seconds, or until they are at least 100 yards away, whatever comes first. Those who critically fail the roll die instantly of a heart attack. Those who pass can act normally. Using the Terror Gobble is a Full Action for the Turkey.

Changing
It is possible to resist the change into a wereturkey, which happens automatically on all three nights of the full moon. The wereturkey can also enact a change at any time during the month, day or night, after they have already gone through their first full moon. The difficulty to change from turkey to man and back again is a 150 Mental Control check. There is no check required to change from man to turkey-human-hybrid during the nights of the full moon; that is free, but to change back into a man requires a Mental Control check of 150. At dawn, the change back to human is automatic and cannot be resisted.