Otherverse Games: Black Tokyo Races: The Revised Ubume

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

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 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 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 10^th 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.

Envious Motherhood (SU)

Replaces: Motherhood and Rebirth

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

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.

Otherverse Games

Saturday, October 3, 2015

Black Tokyo Races: The Revised Ubume

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