Scion: Dragon and Scion: Masks of the Mythos for Scion 2E
Created by Onyx Path / Scion Second Edition Team
Two new pathways for Scion Second Edition! Scion: Dragon and Scion: Masks of the Mythos
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Loss
about 3 years ago
– Mon, Feb 08, 2021 at 06:05:24 PM
Salutations Squamous Scions!
It's Mythos Monday, and we're going to sorta copy last week and have a quick fiction piece today to keep us in the Mythos mood!
As I mentioned in yesterday's update, one of the things that I'm most curious about is how Scion: Masks of the Mythos builds on - and adds a new flavor to - the standard Scion: Origin and Scion: Hero story. With today's tale, we get another glimpse into how these worlds might interact.
Loss
Arvid had hunted this villain for weeks, the most prolonged hunt so far. Whoever this was seemed different somehow. But her story was not one of failure, and this new challenge was merely a reason to hone her skills more.
“Praise be with you, Freya, for this new challenge. My skill, my blade, and my power shall not falter.”
This rival Scion was particularly bad, leaving behind a theater full of dead people who looked like they’d ripped each other apart. The scene flashed through her head, giving her a momentary pause as the unnerving memory seeped into her mind’s eye. Eric, the Scion of Thor, had screamed in terror before he passed out. She had been forced to carry him out of the theater. He’d still not recovered, but the mission couldn’t wait for him, and she carried on. Arvid, now at the end of the trail, could make out the woman’s pale face near the back of the group of a dozen or so bruisers between them.
Why do they always surround themselves with mooks? Arvid thought when she finally caught up with the latest villain; wondering for the thousandth time what was going on with the latest batch of bad guys. Her destiny always moved her, making her the eye of every storm. She saved countless thousands, and each failure weighed on her, but Freya’s faith in her was constant. On she would move to the next incident, the next moment, the next calling of fate. Arvid knew she would make short work of them and grinned. In an instant, her sword was in hand, and she was charging them. It might not be a Valkyrie blade, but it’s not like Freya would let even one of her favored daughters have one of those. Still, it would do fine against this crowd.
Arvid charged forward stabbing the first mook, and as the blade struck true, as it had some many times before, she realized something was incredibly wrong. Every one of the mooks was identical, and her eye caught a sheen on the ground connecting them. Her blow landed, and as she watched the blade slice into the man’s head, her suspicions were confirmed. Rather than the expected spray of blood and brain matter, the head split into a gelatinous mass. Before she could move, it enveloped her sword and her arm, and held her fast. Arvid pulled with her Demigod might, expecting to turn the tide; to her surprise, she watched as the mooks coalesced into a single roiling cloud and started to slam her over and over into the pavement. She breathed, reaching out to Freya to call forth her power and finding only the cold void of nothing responding.
“Enough,” she heard a woman’s voice call out. Arvid felt herself slam onto the pavement yet again, but this time, the thing released her. Barely able to lift her head, Arvid watched as the young woman in the tattered robes glided forward. The creature seemed to bow to her as she passed. The woman smiled and showed Arvid something in her outstretched hand. The Scion’s brain could not interpret what it was she saw, and her mind reeled as she slipped into madness.
In Valhalla, Freya knew she’d lost another of her children.
Artwork from Scion: Masks of the Mythos
I should note, after all my day-dreaming yesterday, that we have indeed passed 1700 backers and are closing in on our next Stretch Goal target! If you get a chance, please continue to spread the word and invite others to join our cause - and build our pantheon! I'm certain there are a ton of potential backers out there who haven't yet heard about our campaign, and we could even maybe hit 1800 over the next 10 days! Let's go for it!
#ScionMasksOfTheMythos
#ScionSecondEdition
Sunday's Squamous Summary
about 3 years ago
– Mon, Feb 08, 2021 at 05:25:32 AM
Hello Heirs and Salutations Scions,
Today is not a Dragon Day nor is it a Mythos Day. Instead, we're going to have a Sunday Summary, looking at how far we've come and scanning the horizon for upcoming goals and opportunities.
In my Sunday finest
Manuscript Previews
For me, I was excited about two different parts of these two different books, and we're starting to get to those sections of the manuscript previews.
For Scion: Dragon, which presents something of an alternate path to the Scion core game and core story - a next step after Scion: Origin that's a diversion from the traditional Scion: Hero path - I've been excited to see the way the Flights and mechanics set up a different outlook and reflect a different approach to the world of the Heirs. We've seen all of the Flights now, and are about to start digging into the more mechanical aspects of the game. The preview of the Signature characters we shared yesterday has got me even more curious about the way the pieces come together!
For Scion: Masks of the Mythos, since it builds upon the foundation of Scion: Origin and Scion: Hero, I was more interested in the setting details and how these new ingredients add a new flavor to the mix. Delving into Arkham gave me a taste of the new weird spices that have been added, and I'm eager to read the next chapters and see how that plays out.
You can catch up with our manuscripts so far in these update posts:
Our preview sections have also stirred some good conversations - including a lot of opinions on Starbucks vs. Dunkin Donuts - so please remember to share any key points with Onyx Path to help this book through the next phases of editing and development. Helping with those final tweaks will make these books even better!
We're currently in the middle weeks of this campaign, the so-called slow weeks, but this campaign is still trucking along! We've unlocked another Stretch Goal over the week, and released another flight of Stretch Goal targets to add supplemental support to these games. We've done so well that we've actually exceeded the word count limit for our kickstarter main page and I had to cobble together a work around for our Stretch Goal list!
Here's what we've unlocked so far:
Scion: Dragon Jumpstart - Ready-made Characters and an Introductory Scenario to launch a new story right out of the books (or serve as inspiration for your own first tale). This PDF will automatically be added to the rewards list of all backers receiving the Scion: Dragon PDF.
Scion: Dragon Companion - A supplement full of additional rules and guidelines, built scale by scale as we achieve additional Stretch Goal targets. This PDF will automatically be added to the rewards list of all backers receiving the Scion: Dragon PDF. Currently, this book is set to include sections covering:
Creating Your Dragon Flight
The Bearers (A new flight of giant turtle-inspired mythologies)
Greater Wyrms (playing at higher Inheritance)
Scion: Masks of the Mythos Companion - A tome of new knowledge, built page by page as we achieve additional Stretch Goals. This PDF will automatically be added to the rewards list of all backers receiving the Scion: Masksof the Mythos PDF. Currently, this book is set to include sections covering:
Additional Mythos Creatures
Great Old Ones (adding two to the Mythos Pantheon)
A Trio of Legacy Characters
New Fiction
Y'ha-nthlei (the Deep Ones' underwater home)
Elderian Home Planet (a new kind of Terra Incognita where the Elder Things reside)
In addition, we'll be seeing
A Scion: Dragon backer T-shirt added to Onyx Path's redbubble shop for a limited time
A Scion: Masks of the Mythos backer T-shirt added to Onyx Path's redbubble shop for a limited time
A Scion: Dragon digital wallpaper added to the rewards list of all backers
A Scion: Masks of the Mythos digital wallpaper added to the rewards list of all backers
And two Scion Second Edition reference screens with new outer artwork based on these new books. These can be added to any rewards list that contains either of the hardcover books (and thus already includes shipping):
Again, this stuff is all in addition to the rewards from this campaign - the Scion: Dragon and Scion: Masks of the Mythos books - which have funded thanks to your support!
But why stop there? We're getting close to our final week, where things will start to move quickly once more. Let's see if we can't add another Stretch Goal or two to this list.
[DRAGON] At $136,000 funding –Scion: Dragon Companion – The Returning – A new Flight of dead dragons who are trying to reincarnate will be added to the Scion: Dragon Companion PDF.
[MYTHOS] At $142,000 funding –Scion: Masks of the Mythos Companion – Relics– A trove of Mythos Relics and Artifacts will be included in the Scion: Masks of the Mythos Companion PDF.
[ALL BACKERS] At $146,000 funding – Scion: Dragon VTT Tokens – Digital assets for the signature characters and key antagonists from Scion: Dragon will be created and added to the rewards list for all backers.
Artwork from Scion: Masks of the Mythos
The Week Ahead
We'll have two Dragon Days this week. We'll be able to download Chapter 3 and 4 of the manuscript on Tuesday, covering character creation and Traits. And then on Saturday, we'll get a sneak peek at some Knacks from the final Scion: Dragon manuscript preview coming next week.
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are our Mythos Days. Tomorrow, we'll have a second fiction piece called Loss. On Wednesday, we'll look at a few of the odd alien creatures from this book. And on Friday we'll have our final preview from Scion: Masks of the Mythos, making the complete kickstarter draft manuscript available for all backers to download and review before the campaign ends.
A city without a Tim Hortons, certainly.
So, again, thanks to everyone for your continuing support! We are approaching 1700 backers, and with our final week rush coming next week, I'm so eager to see where we end up!
And let's keep up the enthusiasm and excitement and see if we can't add another flight of few more Stretch Goals to our rewards before we reach the end!
#ScionSecondEdition
#ScionDragon
#ScionMasksOfTheMythos
Let's meet Kiran and Leticia
about 3 years ago
– Sun, Feb 07, 2021 at 09:07:31 PM
Hello Heirs,
We've met our Scion: Dragon signature characters over the course of the three stories from Lauren Roy:
Now, let's dig into an upcoming chapter to see how two of these characters look in game terms!
Kiran Aamir
Background: The person who would become Kiran Aamir was born in Karachi, into a branch family of a prominent Pakistani water tanker mafia. However, their memories of home are vague at best — the year they would begin primary school, weapons flooded Karachi from across the ocean. It was no longer safe to profit from stolen water. Their parents fled the country with them after a rival family began to make dangerous overtures. The next ten years were a whirlwind of hurried flight from ally to ally, leading the fugitives farther West — first to England, then Newfoundland, then across the Great White North to British Columbia. The child was forced to uproot, repeatedly. They lived under stifling authority, harsh curfews, and a no-secrets-allowed policy. The child’s tales of strange dreams of flight through the dark and of the crushing weight of water were met with alarm and hatred. Until the child that would become Kiran Aamir learned to keep silent. They were forced to live in paranoia not just of the enemies they had never met, not just the dread of being uprooted, again, but of the two adults made so wary of betrayal they kept their only child under harsh magnification. This was all done in the name of fleeing the shadows of well-connected rivals willing to reach across national borders to seek vengeance.
So Kiran was told, anyway. But still they resented it. By the time they were 19, they began to suspect a better life was waiting elsewhere, and the waking dreams they experienced with growing regularity supported this suspicion. During an attempt to illicitly cross the border into Washington via a little-used strait in the San Juans, these visions took on a new sense of urgency. A freak storm howled down the straight, capsizing the ship ferrying the fugitives and their fixer to an American safe house. In the frigid deep, Kiran bore witness to something vast, something waiting to guide them to their place among true family. They emerged with their Bequeathal on American shores. Though their parents were lost, they never counted themselves alone: the dreams sent to them by the collective memory of the Draq were so potent it was as though Flight ancestors guided them every step of the way.
Their dream-guides together with their talent for tech helped to build their new identity as Kiran Aamir — first a natural-born American citizen, then an emancipated orphan in need of scholarship funds, then a top graduate of University of Washington’s computer science program with major information technology companies lined up to headhunt them. Now in their mid-thirties, Kiran has been Kiran longer than they were anyone else, and they have been a Draq longer than they were ever a child of washed-up water thieves on the outs.
But the heritage of both their families still speaks to them. Kiran currently finds themself as a top-level software engineer for smart home devices, maintaining the programs that constantly listen to their wealthy clients’ every wish — among other things. What began as a small reservoir of questionable data, collected “just in case,” has become a Draq-supported market of blackmail and secrets. Kiran funnels information to investigative journalists, whistleblowers, and ambitious corporate saboteurs — sometimes pro-bono, if Mušḫuššu demands it, and sometimes with a hefty price tag. Though they can appear to outward observers to have mercenary motives, Kiran offers their services at significant discount to any who wish to destabilize or unmake unjust organizations and tyrannical corporations ... especially those who horde or poison water sources.
Description: Kiran is a nonbinary person of Arab descent in their mid-30s, with deep brown skin and short black hair cut in a modern, feminine style. They are shorter than average with an efficient build (some would call it a swimmer’s body). Often seen in either traditional Western business attire or modern-style shalwar kameez, they tend toward deep blues and blacks, and keep jewelry limited to large earrings and one or two rings on their long fingers. Their nails are always short, pristine, and manicured. An expert in tech privacy — or at least, how to violate it — they eschew use of most smart devices and social media without significant precautions. Kiran somehow always manages to position themselves so their glasses cast a blinding glare.
Name: Kiran Aamir
Flight: Draq (Mušḫuššu)
Callings: Mystic 2, Primeval 1, Watcher 2
Paths:
Origin: Life on the Run (Close Combat, Culture, Subterfuge)
Calling: Corporate Spy for Hire (Athletics, Integrity, Technology)
Flight: Modernizer of the Draq (Subterfuge, Survival, Technology)
Skills: Academics 2, Athletics (Swimming) 3, Close Combat 1, Culture 1, Integrity (Hiding Intentions) 3, Occult 2, Subterfuge (Lies) 3, Survival 2, Technology (the Internet of Things) 5
Spells: Foresight, Fortune’s Favor, Minor Chaos, Organizational Chaos
Inheritance: 1 (Witness to Fathoms)
Remembrance: Chaos ⧬⧬⧭⧬⧬ Order
Defense: 3
Movement Dice: 8
Health: Bruised, Bruised, Injured, Maimed, Taken Out
Leticia Flores Gonzáles
Background: Leticia was born in Venezuela and lived there for only a few years before her mother expatriated to the United States with a job in the health industry. Her mother was an exceedingly intelligent and caring woman. She helped Leticia through her studies and advocated for her when her teachers couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t speak up in class. Leticia’s life was not easy, but her mother did all she could to foster a healthy household and give room to Leticia to learn and grow at her own pace.
Leticia spent a lot of her youth alone, struggling through systems that routinely failed her, and watching her family back in Venezuela struggle to survive. She would regularly ask her mother to help her prepare care package for her cousins, and it was the one thing she felt connected to through everything. She struggled in school, but successfully graduated and started classes studying psychology at the University of Washington with an eye on applying to their Master’s program on speech pathology.
Already deeply concerned about the economic concerns in Venezuela, and the ecological concerns around The World, Leticia’s Bequeathal came more as a relief than a surprise. She dreamed of flying through a clean World, a place that could be with the right amount of dedication and work. At first, these memories were overwhelming, and she thought she was hallucinating, but when she followed a trail to a P.O. Box in her name, she knew it was all too real. Inside was a key to a safety deposit box filled with papers including a deed to a house in her name and a sizable inheritance from a distant relative even her mother couldn’t remember.
She still doesn’t know who her draconic ancestor is, but she knows that they are looking out for her, so she follows their instructions as best she can. For the first time in her life, she feels like she’s part of an institution that isn’t setting her up for failure.
Since then, Leticia has become an active environmental activist, using her free time to push governments to start working for the people and against industrial interests. She knows she doesn’t know a lot about it, but her passion for the subject (and the direction of her Handler) has led her to consult subject matter experts. Leticia is unbelievable at social mimicry, oration, and diplomacy, but these things are draining if not done on her own terms. She often sets up others to speak, raising up their voices and ensuring the most knowledgeable about a subject is the one who has all the attention in a room.
On the side, she acts as an autism advocate for young Latinx communities hoping to provide tools she developed for herself to thrive. She believes passionately in alternate forms of communication and voices for the voiceless. Leticia doesn’t speak unless she absolutely must and prefers nonverbal communication. When she does focus on speech and oration, she is forthright and incisive.
Description: Leticia is taller than average with a soft, round build. Her sharp, green-eyed gaze misses little. She wears her long auburn hair in a French braid every day and doesn’t wear makeup. She often dresses in a feminine style — soft fabrics and simple dresses with leggings, usually in shades of blue or yellow. Her favorite animal is the blue-throated macaw and always finds ways to have one macaw accessory on her person.
Horde: 5 (stolen gear grants “Lay of the Land;” Dragon Magic: Decay, Frayed; Calling: Destroyer)
Spells: Adamant Bonds, Animate Earth, Master of Beasts, Purify Organization
Inheritance: 1 (Cleansing Advocate for the Serpents)
Remembrance: Direct Action ⧬⧬⧭⧬⧬ Negotiation
Defense: 4
Movement Dice: 4
Health: Bruised, Bruised, Injured, Maimed
We'll learn more about Scion: Dragon characters in our next backers-only manuscript preview coming on Tuesday, which covers Character Creation and Traits!
#ScionSecondEdition
#ScionDragon
Backers Only – Scion: Masks of the Mythos Manuscript Preview #3
about 3 years ago
– Sun, Feb 07, 2021 at 04:47:18 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Backers Only – Scion: Dragon Manuscript Preview #3
about 3 years ago
– Sat, Feb 06, 2021 at 09:52:22 AM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
