The witches of Krakow live in their beasts. A direct successor to the witch hut, their hollowed out chests and stretched pelts serve as a sturdy, mobile ritual space. Occasionally, they are reinforced from within with cast iron: an artifact of the witch-wars.
The relationship is not symbiotic. The beast is dead. You pilot it with magic.
* * *
Control is sympathetic. The beast is innervated with path runes, and the pilots get matching tattoos. Arm to arm, leg to leg, arm to leg: motion is more important than anatomy.
- All paths lead both ways. In exchange for control, the pilot suffers damage to that limb as if it were their own.
- Multiple pilots can control a single limb, if they share a notable bond (romance, rivalry, secret family tie).
The beast's mobility reflects that of the pilot. Pro wrestling moves are on the table. Anime bullshit is on the table with modifications to the main body (see below).
A beast with x MHD (mecha hit dice) has x^2 slots of internals. Each slot can hold:
- 1 witch w/ minimal living quarters + piloting space
- however much cargo 10 witches could carry on foot
- 1 injury
- 1 ritual space
- 1 body mod (spring-loaded tendons, spinnerets, giant sword-arm)
1HD beasts are low-magic single-pilot operations. 3HD is the sweet spot for a proper squad.
The greatest witchbeast of the modern age is Shelob (5HD+5, deployed to the Eastern front, good at biting planes out of the sky), who took the title from Methuselah Indigo (8HD, decommissioned somewhere in the Alps, legendarily stealthy).
Attacks at mech-scale always hit and always cause at least one (1) injury: A random internal slot is damaged. Rituals prepared in that space trigger, cargo is destroyed. If a witch is hit, a limb is disabled instead.
Every 6th point of damage causes another injury.
(Mech damage deals 6x damage to non-mechs. Non-mechs deal 6x less damage to mechs, rounded down. 1MHD = 6HD)
A ritual space holds a near-complete magic ritual. They take hours to set up, and minutes to complete, such that a witch under fire can hurriedly trigger the ritual in combat.
A ritual can be powered up by devoting multiple slots to it. (see below)
You are a witch a team of witches piloting a biopunk mecha.
First, pick a frame and name it. They're 3HD w/ two arms and legs unless otherwise specified.
- Bear - Hungry abdominal maw churns other mechs in a grapple. (+1 injury/turn) Worshiped as a dead god by a string of villages in the Carpathians.
- Crow - Natural sprinter on long scaly legs. Hussar wings mark you as loyal monarchists from a distance.
- Hound - Speaks internally in the voice of mission control, who can identify other frames from description. Fireproof.
- Frog & Toad - 2HD each. Airtight internals. Soviet mass production model.
- Ram - +1 injury to ramming maneuvers. Obliterates non-reinforced walls. Former insignias painted over with bright spirals.
- Stag - Four arms, four legs. Immovable. Pursued relentlessly by the iron coven.
- Hare - Left arm damaged irreparably. Second pair of eyes glimpses the future. Terrifies Germans.
- Fox - May act on its own when threatened. Particularly active under the full moon.
- Owl - Huge wings (gliding only). Disconcertingly silent. Two such frames guard the current chief of state.
- Trout - Mech-scale cast-iron sword. Ancestral protector of a minor royal lineage.
- Centipede - Innumerable arms. Frightening to behold, nightmarish to pilot.
- Chomik - 2HD, four short legs. A cramped, scurrying frame never meant for the front lines. Always underestimated.
Then, each witch picks a perk.
- Hypermobile - You're hard to grapple. If your limb would break, it's disabled for a day instead.
- Delicious Blood - Adding your blood to a ritual makes it cast twice. Doing this twice in one day makes you dizzy; thrice kills you.
- Familiar - An exceedingly clever cat, or a 1HD personal mech. (Your pick.)
- Surgical License - You can install parts from one mech onto another as body mods.
- Crow's Feet - You fall slowly and climb easily. You can board hostile mechs with minimal effort.
- Magic Hat - It's bigger than you are. Other witches respect the drip.
- Witchy Trigger Finger - You can prepare rituals to trigger within seconds instead of minutes, such that a witch under fire can trigger many rituals in a single round of combat. Misfire on a 1-in-6 whenever your mech gets hit.
- Rag Doll Mask - Never to be removed. You have a mission, a child's wish you must fulfill. Nothing can make you act against this wish: charms fail, force falters.
- AT Mines - Six of them.
- Cackle - Terrifies non-witches.
- That Warm Wet Feeling - While piloting, your first hit against any mech deals +1 injury.
- A ritual.
- Rite of the Poppet - Take control of up to [slots x 6]HD of corpses. This is the same ritual that binds pilots to their beastly bodies, and functions accordingly.
- Blood From Stone - The earth splits. On your next turn, lava spills forth, dealing [slots]d6 mech damage.
- Circle Ward - Create a spherical barrier that bars everything of a particular category from entry (or exit) until it takes [slots]d6 mech damage.
- Forecast - Foresee the next week of weather, or the next [slots] turns of combat. (Play them out. If you don't like the result, return to the moment of casting.)
- Ail - Blow a mist which causes [slots] of the following: vertigo, babbling, trembling, bleeding, selective blindness, blasphemy.
- True Love - Fill a cauldron with liquid. The first few drops are a potent love potion; the rest is a mild entheogen.
- Blackthorn - Make a lethal weapon from a twig, branch, or tree. It deals +1 injury for each additional [slot].
- Flight - [slots x 6]HD of things grow functional wings. These last until sunrise.
- Quest - Call a [slots x 6]HD spectral host to point the way to glory.
- Bog - An acre of land becomes evil, leech-ridden, boot-sucking swamp. For each additional [slot], add an adjective: poisonous, bottomless, flammable, haunted, barbed wire, creeping.
- Curse - [slots x 6]HD of things assume bestial forms. True love's kiss breaks the curse.
- Walk Thru Dreams - The world derealizes with a sigh. Everything half-submerges into the underlying mythohistoric realm. For each additional [slot], a random character enters the scene. Also, the mechs all start talking.
Appendix N: Treelancer, Witch Hat Atelier, Evangelion
