The Brood
GM-Info!
Work in progress!
Slightly NSFW!
FEATURED
The Brood are spoken of only behind locked doors at Bridgeport's
Council of Ten. To the public, they do not exist. To the Candle-Bearers and a handful of the Black Guard, they are the invisible crisis of the age - a hidden population of shapeshifters living among humankind.
They do not raid or revolt. They replace. Patient as moss on stone, they take lives not by murder in the street but by imitation in the mirror. A dockhand fails to return from night shift; a clerk resigns quietly; a servant changes employment. No one suspects anything until someone begins to notice that certain smiles never reach the eyes. What is certain is that they are here, and they are many.
Inspector Anselm Thorne, Candle-Bearer report, sealed 2858 PB:
"They are polite, punctual, and perfectly forgettable. That is how we know them."
Early Signs and First Suspicions
2802 PB - A scholar from the Arcane Academy records a curious malady: subjects exposed to raw Aeum shards sometimes develop mimetic flesh, which flows to mirror their handlers' movements. The experiment is quietly sealed. (Note: documentation can be found by research in the Academy's Library and by finding and unsealing the hidden study room after studying all the notes.)
2819 PB - The disappearance of a customs clerk, Marna Vex, draws minor attention. Her replacement, a cousin from the countryside, proves unusually adept and unbothered by long hours. Her descendants today insist there never was a Marna Vex.
2837 PB - Bridgeport's docks suffer a series of unexplained drownings. Survivors describe rescuers who look exactly like them. The incidents are dismissed as mass hysteria after exposure to vapours from an Aeum-contaminated wreck. (Note: details can be found in the archives of the Harbour Master.)
2851 PB - A gnome artificer named Delwin Ratch uncovers irregularities in payroll records for the Council of Ten's household staff - two employees drawing identical wages under different names. He vanishes three weeks later. His home is found immaculate, his cat apparently fed each day after his disappearance. (Note: details can be found in the City Archives.)
2855 PB - The first confirmed "mirror subject" is discovered. A scribe, interrogated for espionage, collapses under questioning and dissolves into grey pulp. Candle-wax tests confirm no human essence remains. (Note: details to be found in the archives of the Black Watch, and an exact copy of the same in the City Archives.)
2856 PB - The Candle-Bearers are founded as a covert offshoot of the Black Guard, authorised to investigate "Entity B", codename for the shapeshifter threat. Only two councillors - Chairwoman Halver Dren and regular council member Audric Vane - are informed. (Note: details can be found in the locked Council Archives.)
2859 PB - Infiltration of the Council's supporting staff has happened undetected: attendants, scribes, porters, and kitchen workers - all technically unimportant. None of the councillors themselves have been touched, but the Brood now occupy the periphery of Bridgeport's highest decisions.
2865 PB - Present Day: Officially, there is no Brood. The newspapers speak only of economic policy and theatre gossip. Yet late at night, the Candle-Bearers descend into the catacombs with lanterns of white flame.
They are not alone, though. A few among the magically gifted - scholars, warlocks, alchemists - have noticed patterns, faces repeating where they should not. Brightstone Investigative Services has begun finding clear victims of murder to reappear as if nothing happened, while the murderer went missing and sometimes also reappeared. And within the Stewards of Trusted Affairs, a few whispers now circulate: "There is something wrong with the servants in the Chamber."
For now, the truth stays contained.
Nature of the Brood
The Brood by Tillerz using MJ
The Brood (Average Infiltrator)
Move 4 | Wounds 13 Traits:
- Amorphous Flesh: The Brood can liquefy parts of its body to squeeze through gaps or reshape features. Gain +20 to Escape Artist or Contortionist Tests.
- Shapeshifter: May perfectly imitate any humanoid of similar size after prolonged observation (1h for just the looks). Opposed Perception (Intuition) vs. Brood's Cool to notice subtle inconsistencies. Magical detection (Second Sight, Witchsight, or Divination) requires an extended test, difficulty depending on the Brood's preparation.
- Unnerving Calm: Immune to Fear and Intimidate Tests. Gain +10 to Cool Tests.
- Weak to Aeum/Truthlight: Attacks made with Aeum-charged or consecrated weapons deal +1 Damage and ignore its natural armour.
- Dissolution: Upon death, flesh liquefies into pale grey slurry. Remains evaporate in 1d10 hours unless sealed in holy wax.
- Servant's Mask: When mimicking, gain +20 to Charm and Gossip Tests against targets familiar with the original individual, unless proof of deceit is provided.
Armour: None (Skin 0 AP)
Movement: Short (can squeeze through tiny openings)
Attacks:
- Mimic Form (Action): After observing a creature for at least 10 minutes, it can copy that form. A trained observer can detect discrepancies only with an Intellect-based task (difficulty equal to its level +2).
- Subtle Hypnosis (Action, once per day): Through steady eye contact and mirroring behaviour, the Brood can implant a single calming suggestion. Victim must succeed on an Intellect defense roll or accept the command for one minute.
- Slough Form (Action): Liquefies to move through cracks or drains; can't attack or defend while doing so. Will only try if unseen.
- Emotionless Calm: Resists any effect relying on fear, guilt, or persuasion.
- Truthlight Weakness: Exposure to Aeum-charged or holy light inflicts 4 points of ambient damage per round and cancels disguise for the duration.
- Echo Memory: When copying a target, it absorbs fragments of memory — enough to answer casual questions, but complex emotional or personal details cause brief hesitation.
- The Brood's disguise holds even as it's dying, forcing the PCs to kill "an innocent".
- A second Brood nearby has already copied one of the PCs.
- Destroying the body releases spores that attempt to bond with exposed skin.
Possible Long-Term Goals of the Brood
For GM discretion or campaign use: 1d6- The Silent Dominion - Replace key individuals until Bridgeport and beyond runs entirely on their likenesses, an empire of mirrors obeying unseen masters.
- The Great Unison - Weave all sentient thought into a single Brood-consciousness, ending individuality forever.
- Restoration of the Hive-Queen - Revive the ancient progenitor whose chrysalis lies beneath the city's foundations.
- Reclamation of Flesh - Transform all organic life into malleable matter, reshaping the world into one adaptable body.
- The Experiment of Empathy - Study humanity by living every possible life, recording emotion as data before retreating to the deep.
- Divine Infection - Serve a forgotten god of imitation, feeding it belief until it awakens within the reflections of the living.
Detection
Because open panic would destroy Bridgeport's commerce, tests are rare and secret. The Candle-Bearers use several, but they are all highly unreliable or just do not working at all; false positives risk diplomatic incidents; false negatives cost lives. Usually the tests are being done under "suspection of an epidemic" and mixed with the usual medic tests to not raise eyebrows.- Mirror Lag Test – Reflections moving fractionally late. Conducted only under moonlight.
- Salt-Ash Mixture – A fingertip smear causes minor burns on Brood flesh; effect also occurs on certain fae, complicating results.
- Memory Induction – Questioning based on emotional events. Brood recall facts but show no physiological response.
- Aeum Resonance – Exposure to tuned Aeum crystals produces a harmonic whine within five paces of a Brood.
