NOTE: The rules involving supernaturals are only being preserved for the sake of reference. We are not accepting supernatural characters as player characters in the game.

Yuki-Onna

PC Restrictions: None Yet

Quote: (Coming Soon)

In General

Yuki-onna are some of the most feared and widely whispered-about of all supernaturals in the Bushido universe. They take the form of a young woman dressed in white, with severely pale skin, and usually appear whenever there is snow or extremely cold weather. They prey on mortals (usually young men) by sucking out their life force and leaving them for dead.

That said, the yuki-onna are also capable of being very different creatures. Some of them even take human mates, but at the cost of never revealing their secret.

Appearance

As mentioned before, a yuki-onna appears to be a human woman with very pale skin and blue-white hair. They may also appear in a flowing white kimono, but this outfit is actually an illusion which they can produce automatically as a way of seducing or bewitching people.

Yuki-onna often appear in secluded or desolate areas where there is cold, heavy snowfall, or ice. They try to reveal themselves to as few people as possible at any given time.

It is not uncommon for a yuki-onna to appear in areas where the weather is more normal, and they are not injured or affected by summer heat. They are simply at a disadvantage. To that end, they may disguise themselves as a more normal-looking human woman (this is also an illusion which is part and parcel of who they are) and move freely among human populations.

Most yuki-onna are appearance 3 or better.

The People Themselves

Yuki-onna are generally very long-lived -- about 100 years or more is the average lifespan. They appear to be young and do not show any signs of aging until the last 5-10 years of life, at which point they age explosively.

When wounded, yuki-onna bleed a bluish, thick ichor which melts any snow or ice it comes into contact with. At death, the yuki-onna's body disintegrates into this ichor, which mixes freely with the soil or water and vanishes.

Almost no yuki-onna will carry or use a weapon, as they prefer to do as much of their killing as possible directly. That said, it is entirely possible for them to use a weapon if the need should arise; they simply shun them for the most part.

Nature

Yuki-onna are survivalists. They take what they need at any given moment and move on, never staying in one place for very long. The one genuine contrast to this is when they form attachments with humans (see below for more on that).

Yuki-onna are also solitary creatures and do not move in packs. If they learn of another yuki-onna, possibly competing for territory or the same victims, they will fight each other viciously. That said, they are also capable of forming lasting and profound emotional attachments to certain human beings, although why this is happen is unclear.

It is rumored, although there is no concrete evidence of this, that the yuki-onna have, far to the north, a kingdom all of their own (much as the kind Ryuunosuke Akutagawa speculated for the Kappa in his story).

Demeanor

Most yuki-onna are creatures of great cruelty and cunning, taking great pleasure in draining the life from their victims. But some of them appear to be completely the opposite, ashamed of their hunger and trying to find some way to disguise it or ameliorate it. Outwardly they will cultivate politeness and deference where it is needed.

If a yuki-onna finds several victims, sometimes a yuki-onna will kill one that has a significant emotional presence among the others and leave the rest -- such as the youngest daughter of a family or the only woman in a group.

Yuki-onna have mostly contempt for other supernaturals; they see them as either obstacles or out-and-out enemies. Any supernatural creature they find with a human being is likely to be killed as well, just for the sake of being there.

Drives

Yuki-onna have two basic drives: to feed and to survive. The two are often one and the same, although they can be supplanted by other things.

The urge to feed on the life of another is metaphorically called "the hunger," and there is probably no better term for it. If you want to use a strict mathematical way to determine how often a yuki-onna must feed, the answer is Ki x 4 days between feedings. They must consume a victim with the same amount of Ki as them or more in that time, or they will lose the equivalent of their Ki in health every day until they do.

There is only one other way to offset this other than by feeding. If a yuki-onna forms a lasting and permanent attachment to a human being or another creature -- in other words, if they transcend their solitary nature -- they will no longer have to feed to survive.

Note that even if they do the above, they can still relapse. If they are forced to use their powers, they must roll Ki + Face to keep from relapsing. Any relapse can be countered by either feeding or by making a Ki + Face roll once daily (at increasing target difficulty for each day). Once either of these are met, the relapse subsides. If you botch an attempt to avoid a relapse, the bond with the person is broken and the yuki-onna reverts to her original nature permanently.

Another way they can relapse is under extreme emotional stress -- if betrayed, for instance, or if their mate dies (or if they outlive their mate, which isn't uncommon).

Throughout History

Perhaps the most famous of all yuki-onna is the one that Lafcadio Hearn immortalized in his retelling of a Japanese legend called, simply, Yuki-onna.

A woodcutter and his son were making their way through a forest during a terrible blizzard, and took refuge in a small shack they found there. Exhausted, they laid themselves out on the floor and slept. In the middle of the night, the son awoke to see a woman all in white, with pale skin and bluish hair, standing over his father. As he watched, his father grew pale and his own hair frosted with ice, and soon breathed no more.

The woman turned to him then, and told him, "Since you are young, I shall spare you. But you must never speak of this to anyone, or I will have revenge upon you." With that she turned into a gust of snow and vanished. The son never forgot this incident.

Years later, while on the road to Edo, he encountered a lovely young woman who by chance was headed the same way as he. They soon fell to talking, and eventually were married. She bore him three children and over the course of fifteen years never seemed to age a day. All of the other woman in their village were slightly jealous of her, but she was of a sweet demeanor and more than earned her keep.

One night, after the children were asleep, the woodcutter finished weaving a new pair of straw sandals for his wife and offered them to her to try on. She was delighted with them, but as she looked down at the new shoes on her feet, there was something in her face that reminded him of something -- the face of the same woman as she bent over his father. When she asked what was wrong, since he had suddenly become so pensive, he shrugged it off at first -- and then told her the whole story of what had happened that night. "But perhaps it was only a dream," he finished.

Instantly the air in the house blew cold, and she stood over him, her skin pale and her hair an icy blue. "It was no dream," she thundered, "it was very real. That woman was me -- and you were sworn to tell no one of this, ever. You have broken your promise to me; who is to say you would not have done so to anyone else? For this I would have had your life -- if it were not for the children asleep in the next room. Farewell!"

And with that she turned into a gust of snow, disappearing up the chimney, leaving behind his three serenely sleeping children... and the two new sandals he had woven for her, sitting side-by-side at the door.

Powers and Skills

Create Ice/Snow

A yuki-onna can create a certain amount of ice and/or snow. Ice glazes whatever surfaces are in the immediate area; snow blows freely through the area. The area affected is a 6' sphere around the caster.

Roll: Ki + Create Ice/Snow power. Uses ki; counts as a spell.
Requirements: None.
Effects: The area of effect can be broadened by another 6' by adding 1 to the target number. For 12', add 2, and so on. If you have 4 Ki and 4 in the skill, then the most you could ever hope to get would be a 48' sphere (but the odds are you'd not get more than 24').
Duration: Number of successes = number of rounds the ice/snow persists without melting normally.

Control Ice/Snow

This can be used either to control ice/snow in the area or ice/snow created by the caster. This affects a 6' sphere around the caster.

Alternatively, it can also be used to affect objects being touched directly (subtract 1 from the target).

For fine control (i.e., sculpting): add 2 to the target.

Roll: Ki + Control Ice/Snow power. Uses ki; counts as a spell.
Requirements: Existing ice or snow in the area.
Effects: The area of effect can be broadened by another 6' by adding 1 to the target number. For 12', add 2, and so on. If you have 4 Ki and 4 in the skill, then the most you could ever hope to get would be a 48' sphere (but the odds are you'd not get more than 24').
Duration: Number of success = number of rounds. For fine control, the number of successes indicates the level of precision. (1=crude, 2=passable, 3=moderately detailed, 4=very detailed, 5=highly lifelike, etc.)

Ride the Frost

A yuki-onna can exploit an existing snowfall and use it as a way to move from one place to another without being detected -- a sort of teleportation.

Roll: Ki + Ride the Frost. Uses ki; counts as a spell.
Requirements: An existing snowfall.
Effects: The number of successes dictates the maximum number of miles one can "ride" the snowfall. To outside observers, the yuki-onna appears to turn into the snow and merge with it. The rider cannot ride further than the actual span of the snowfall. Bringing each additional passenger of the same or smaller size requires an additional success.
Duration: Instant.

Weather Manipulation

This is a much more generalized effect than Control Ice/Snow; it can be used to lower the ambient temperature of an area 60' in diameter by 30 degrees Fahrenheit. It can also be used to cause winds to blow (an additional 10MPH per target up from 6), but wind and temperature have to be done on separate turns, and each successive attempt to cast the spell in one day would add 1 to the target.

Roll: Ki + Weather Manipulation. Uses ki; counts as a spell.
Requirements: None
Effects: The area of effect can be broadened by another 60' by adding 1 to the target number. For 120', add 2, and so on. If you have 4 Ki and 4 in the skill, then the most you could ever hope to get would be a 480' sphere (but the odds are you'd not get more than 240').
Duration: Number of success = number of rounds the effect persists.

Life Drain

The yuki-onna's most feared weapon. When a yuki-onna makes physical contact with a victim (skin to skin), she can drain their life. The effect can also be reversed, allowing the yuki-onna to give life as well as take it, but this is more difficult.

Roll: Ki + Life Drain. Uses ki; counts as a spell.
Requirements: Physical contact (skin to skin).
Effects: Number of successes = number of dice to roll for how much life drained. This is treated as regular damage. To give rather than drain life, at least 3 successes are needed. (Botching a give action blows your Ki and drains that much life instead of giving it.)
Duration: Instant.