Unlike many of the other creatures a Shinobi might form a contract with, Salamanders care little for the summoners. They come when called, but that’s about it; they can’t (or at least don’t) speak, and while they’re never reluctant to help in battle, nor are they eager. They go about it as a matter of course, suggesting perhaps a still very bestial nature.
While this means that a summoner doesn’t have to worry about offend their summon or incurring its animosity, it also means that salamanders don’t particularly care about looking out for their summoner. In combat they can be frightening indiscriminate in the devastation they unleash. An unprepared summoner can easily get themselves or their allies wiped out by collateral damage.
To counteract that, and perhaps as an indication that the salamanders do have something resembling good will towards those who call on them, before being able to summon any of the creatures themselves a summoner will first gain the ability to summon the blood of the beasts, which has various effects which, when properly applied, can give them some degree of protection from the creatures they call.
You summon a small clay jug filled with thick, viscous red blood. The blood from this particular salamander species is known for its incredible flame-retardant properties.
Effects: If you take a Speed 8 action to smear the blood over yourself, you become highly resistant to heat and fire. For the next 200 IC, you are immune to the Ignite status effect and any ongoing Ignites will end. You become immune to Burns, but existing Burns won’t be removed. You cannot be wounded by Katon, and the severity of wounds from para elements based on Katon (Shakuton and Futton) are reduced by one category. Finally, you take 25% less damage from Katon or its advanced elemental forms.
Giving the blood to someone who does not hold a contract with the Salamanders constitutes an automatic Breach of Contract.
You summon a small earthenware decanter filled with a pitch-black liquid the consistency of water. The blood of this species of salamander is poisonous–but, a single whiff of the stuff would be enough to convince most people not to even consider drinking it.
Effects: If you take a Speed 4 action to drink the blood, you… are poisoned!
This has a Poison 1 effect, with a Duration of 1000 IC. However, the black blood blocks the action of any other poisons: while you can be poisoned, so long as the black blood is coursins through your veins you will ignore their effects, and their own durations will expire normally. You may purge the black blood from your system as a Speed 10 action, by “unsummoning” it.
Giving the blood to someone who does not hold a contract with the Salamanders constitutes an automatic Breach of Contract.
You summon a small wooden bowl with a tepid, syrupy substance inside it. If you hadn’t figured it out yet, it’s salamander blood, said to have mystical properties!
Effects: You may close your eyes and take a Speed 5 action to coat your eyelids in the blue blood.
For the next 100 IC, or until you open your eyes or wipe the blood away, you can ‘see’ despite your eyes being closed, viewing the world as black and all objects as chalky white outlines. While disorienting, it’s quite effective.
You completely ignore the standard -10 Visibility Penalty that ordinarily comes from having your eyes closed, and halve all other visibility penalties for the duration, and are immune to any effects requiring eye contact. Additionally, you have a +5 bonus to all your Awareness rolls, as this unnatural sight eliminates most visual distractions.
Giving the blood to someone who does not hold a contract with the Salamanders constitutes an automatic Breach of Contract.
Even normal chameleons were, in the past, thought of as being supernatural monsters, so finding one among the ranks of summoned animals shouldn’t be surprising. Why the salamander contract covers something which is technically a lizard, and not an amphibian, however, remains mysterious.
Aloof and uncaring like the other animals it shares a contract with, the chameleon serves as ask and then leaves promptly. The chamaleon is fairly small by the standards of summoned animals, “only” big enough for two people to crouch fairly inside its mouth with moderate discomfort.
With long limbs, a tail that ends in a curling spiral, and some of the strangest eyes of any creature, the chameleon is certainly a unique sight.
While regular chameleons can blend in with their surroundings, this one can alter the color and reflectiveness of its skin so well as to be virtually invisible. It can walk across virtually any surface, and while it prefers to avoid combat its long, sticky, extendable tongue can be wielded with stunning speed and deftness.
Like most creatures summoned by the salamander contract, the chameleon really doesn’t care about its summoner. Unlike the others, it’s typically not willing to risk injury in battle, either. It has no problem being near or even in a battlefield, so long as it’s not taking any sort of damage or having to defend itself.
When it’s summoned, the summoner may choose to “bribe” the chameleon by increasing the Chakra cost by 15. If this is done, it will stay and fight in combat, albeit reluctantly. If not, the chameleon will flee as soon as it’s injured. It will gives its summoner up to 10 IC to climb into its mouth before doing so; if carrying a shinobi, it will turn invisible and try to run away. If it’s not carrying anyone by the end of those 10 IC, it will simply un-summon itself.
If ever left to wait around (say, outside a building while the summoner infiltrates it), the chameleon will wander up to 5d10 yards in any direction looking for insects and small animals to eat.
Vitality: 1000
STR: 80
RES: 60
CHA: 40
DEX: 90
AGI: 100
Accuracy: 35
Dodge: +28
Damage Bonus: 6
Genjutsu Defense: +33 Movement: 6 yards per IC.
Athletics: +25
Awareness: +25
Resistance: +30
Stealth: +35
Survival: +15
Agile
The chameleon does not suffer AoE penalties for dodging area-of-effect techniques, and indeed has a +5 bonus to dodge them.
Bestial
The Chameleon isn’t driven by higher desires, and as a result it cannot be negotiated or reasoned with. It has a +10 bonus to its rolls against genjutsu, which is already factored into its listed bonus.
Expert Climber
Due to a combination of chakra control, grasping claws, and small sticky pads on its feet, the chameleon can climb along any wall or surface, even upside-down, without any effort. Any immobilization penalties it suffers from the condition of the terrain are halved.
Flee
When the chameleon is fleeing (see “Terms of Contract”), it has a +5 bonus to dodge, cannot be stunned, reduces all immobilization penalties by 3, and moves at full speed when in Camouflage.
Large
Given the chameleon’s size, it can make melee attacks at a range of up to 5 yards. Against anyone who is not Large or larger in size, its physical damage bonus is doubled (meaning all ninja except those with the Large Unique, Akimichi in Baika X = 6+, or Summons with the Large, Huge, or Titanic attributes). They halve any knockback effects.
Might of the Meek
Chameleons, while cautious creatures (despite their size), are crafty enough to keep pace with their summoners through careful observation. Whenever you summon a Chameleon, subtract the minimum XP required to summon it (2500 XP) from your Earned XP: that is the X value to determine what bonuses, if any, it gets from the following modifiers. X has a maximum of 2500.
In all cases, you round down. The bonus to skill rolls only applies to skills the summon has listed.
Tireless
Chameleons do not need to make Stamina or Chakra Exhaustion rolls when they act. If forced to by an outside force (such as Suffocation), they have +10 to their rolls.
Standard Actions
This Summon may use the Block, Dodge, Hide, Move, and Search actions as described in the Combat chapter of the PHB without spending any of the summoner’s AP.
Camouflage (Speed 20, 10 AP)
The chameleon blends into its surroundings, turning almost completely invisible. While camouflaged it can move at only half its normal speed, and is in Stealth 2. A camouflaged chameleon can Hide as a Speed 10 (5 AP) action, even if the normal requirements for hiding are not met. When rolling for stealth, and dodging in camouflage, the chameleon rolls 2d20.takeHighest(1) rather than 1d20.
Swat (Speed 8, 5 AP)
Using one is its legs or tail, the Chameleon swings at an enemy as a last resort to get them away. This inflicts 8d10 Blunt damage and counts as a basic unarmed attack, which knocks whoever was hit 3d6 yards away.
Tongue Lash (Speed 10, 8 AP)
Spitting out its tongue in a frog-like fashion, the chameleon lashes out and smacks a target with blinding speed. This inflicts 12d6 Blunt damage, a Stun 5, and trips anyone who doesn’t pass an Athletics roll against the chameleon’s. Used against any form of bug or insects (including Aburame swarms and Spider summons) this attack inflicts double damage. This attack has a 20 yard range.
Wrap-Up (Speed 15, 10 AP)
The chameleon attempts to capture and enemy with its tongue. This attack has a 20 yard range. If this hits, the opponent has an Immobilize penalty of 1 for every point their defense failed by (if their dodge was a 31 against the chameleon’s 35 accuracy, they’d be at Immobilize -4).
Someone hit this way cannot move more than 20 yards away from the chameleon; the chameleon can move only at half speed while someone is wrapped this way. This lasts until the chameleon takes an action other than moving or dodging. The other way to escape is to hit the tongue with a slashing or piercing attack that does more than 100 damage in a single hit, which will slice off its tongue (and cause it to flee; see “Terms of Contract”).
Carry (Speed 20 / See Text, Variable AP)
The chameleon is large enough to fit two people inside its mouth and carry them around; in combat, climbing into its mouth is a Speed 10 action that requires the person to be standing directly next to the chameleon, while it’s a Speed 20 action for the chameleon to safely close its mouth around them. There’s enough air to last one person ten minutes, or two people five minutes. After this time is up, the people inside suffer a Suffocation 1 every 5 IC until the chameleon opens its mouth.
With its mouth open, the benefits of camouflage are suspended (reduced to stealth one, doesn’t roll 2d20, cannot hide in plain sight, but it does not break stealth if already hidden) and the chameleon can only move at half speed to avoid spilling its passengers out. Out of combat this takes less than a minute; in combat, it takes 30 IC for the air supply to be replenished.
Ordering the chameleon to move while in its mouth is 1 AP for every 5 IC the chameleon spends moving, and it cannot make tongue attacks (Tongue Lash and Wrap-Up) while carrying someone in its mouth.
Being inside the chameleon’s mouth makes it generally impossible to affect the outside world, and imposes a complete loss of visibility, with one exception: Someone using the blue blood can see through the chameleon’s mouth, and view the outside world.
The chameleon will flee under the following circumstances:
When it decides to flee, the summoner has 10 IC to get into its mouth before it does so. If it has no passengers at that point, it un-summons itself. If it does, it enters camouflage as a Speed 0 action and will no longer take orders from the summoner, and does not use the summoner’s AP.
If the chameleon has its tongue cut off while using its Wrap-Up ability, that summoner cannot summon a chameleon again for the next 2 OOC weeks, although this is not considered to be a Breach of Contract for salamanders as a whole.
Basilisks bear a very strong resemblance to the very much mundane komodo dragon, four legs bowed out nearly parallel to the ground, leaving it to drag its belly across the ground for most of its movements while also able to rise up for a shockingly fast run.
The first difference is that the basically is about as tall as a shed, and proportionately longer. The second is its coloration. The basilisk’s hide, while leathery to the touch, is iridescent in coloration, ranging from midnight blue to nearly shining cyan depending on the angle one views it from. It is, most people agree, and incredibly beautiful sight to behold… for the few moments one can view it.
Legends say that the basilisk’s gaze can turn a person to stone, and in reality it at the very least causes a disturbingly similar effect. Nobody’s sure exactly what causes this (it being rather difficult to test without… turning to stone), but what is known is that not looking at the creature, and specifically avoiding seeing its eyes, is able to prevent this effect.
Like most salamanders, the basilisk is uncaring in combat. The deadly gaze of the beast is as harmful as the summoner to all others, and the basilisk won’t take any special care to avoid petrifying the one who called it into battle. In combat its preferred tactic is simply to petrify everyone in sight, but if anyone gets too close or attacks it, it’s capable of lashing out with tooth, claw, and tail. Additionally, people failing to meet its gaze can make it irritable and aggressive
Vitality: 1800
STR: 100
RES: 120
CHA: 60
DEX: 80
AGI: 80
Accuracy: 38
Dodge: +25
Damage Bonus: 8.3
Genjutsu Defense: +36
Stamina: +15
Chakra Exhaustion: +10
Movement: 3 yards per IC.
Athletics: +20
Awareness: +20
Resistance: +25
Bestial
The Basilisk isn’t driven by higher desires like many other summons (and ninja), as a result it cannot be bribed or reasoned with. It has a +10 bonus to its defenses aginst any form of genjutsu, which is already factored into its listed bonus above.
Thick Hide
Basilisks have a Damage Reduction of 60.
Large
Given the Basilisk’s building-smashing size, it can make melee attacks at a range of up to 10 yards. Humans, and summons without the Large or Huge attributes, cannot grapple the basilisk, and its damage bonus is doubled against them. Basilisks halve all knockback effects due to their size.
Obvious
Basilisks are giant amphibians with iridescent skin. They cannot hide.
Petrifying Gaze
Anyone within 50 yards of the basilisk is vulnerable to being petrified by its gaze, including the summoner. Whenever someone sees it, they begin to turn to stone. Every 10 IC they have their Petrify status increased by 1; there is no direct defense, resistance roll, or immunity allowed to this, except as described below.
There are three ways to avoid this. The first is to keep one’s eyes closed, applying a -10 visibility penalty. The second is to keep one’s eyes focused on the basilisk’s feet, applying only a -4 visibility penalty, though comes with a risk. If a ninja is damaged by an attack while doing this, they have a (damage taken /10)% chance to have their Petrify status increased by 1. The final method is for the basilisk or the summoner to be at a -6 visibility penalty.
If one stops using one of those methods, their Petrify immediately increases by 1, and the “every 10 IC” for that individual begins taking place based on that time.
Petrify
This is a special status effect. Petrify also applies an Immobilization penalty equal to its rank, which cannot be reduced by effects which explicitly reduce immobilization. Once a person’s Petrification status reaches 10 they turn to solid stone over the next several seconds, killing them irrevocably. At lower ranks its manifests as an increasingly severe stiffness and numbness across one’s entire body.
In addition, once Petrify reaches 3, the victim’s Elemental Affinity is shifted to Doton. If this was already their elemental affinity, it has no effect. If it was not, they also receive a penalty equal to their Elemental Affinity rank to all non-Doton Chakra Exhaustion and Chakra Control rolls.
For example, if you had rank 4 Elemental Affinity: Fire, once your Petrify reached 3 you would have a +4 bonus to Chakra Exhaustion and Chakra Control rolls with Doton, and a -4 to all others–including those related to non-elemental jutsu. After 50 IC of not having one’s Petrify status increase, it begins to fade at a rate of 1 per 20 IC. Once applied, the change to elemental affinity will take 24 hours to be reversed.
Standard Actions (Speed as normal)
A Basilisk may use the Block, Dodge, Move, and Search actions described in the Combat chapter of the PHB without spending any of the summoner’s AP.
Fang and Claw (Speed 6, 5 AP)
The Basilisk charges, moving up to 10 yards and making a melee range attack with its fangs or claws inflicting 10d10 Piercing or Slashing damage. This counts as a basic unarmed attack, and may target up to three people in its range. If directed against a single target, the basilisk’s damage bonus is increased by 50%.
Stone Glare (Speed 10, 25 AP, Chakra 25)
The basilisk’s eyes widen, its scales shimmer, and… something, happens. Everyone within 50 yards of the basilisk has their Petrify status raised by 1, even if they’re not looking at it. This will also turn small animals and plants to stone; after three uses, an entire area is petrified: the ground has become solid rocks, trees are stone through and through, and any low-flying birds will fall from the sky. Water is safe from the effects, but aquatic life is not.
Tail Sweep (Speed 10, 8 AP)
Swinging its large and powerful tail like a scythe, the Basilisk clears the area behind and around it. This counts as an Area 10 attack that deals 15d8 Blunt damage and inflicts Stun 6, as well as a 12 yard knockback. The basilisk will often lunge forwards (moving as part of the attack, in this case, not being limited to “directly towards” the target) before using this, allowing it to catch people who were directly to its sides.
The basilisk is a fairly simple creature, showing up and causing havoc; it’s intelligent, but without complex desires. It requires little of its summoner, but its gaze is as liable to destroy its summoner as it is their enemies.
There is one condition that can be troublesome. If the basilisk is present when a fight ends (it cannot be dismissed after one side has surrendered or stood down, or the last blow has been dealt), it will not be possible to de-summon the creatures until it’s had the opportunity to consume the flesh of its foes, preferring the living-but-injured over the dead (and it will eat corpses of allies as well). The basilisk will only leave after eating 2d10 people, or running out of appropriate food.
It won’t eat anyone who is alive and also never injured it during battle. Anyone who tries to stop it, including the summoner, will become next on the menu.
Removing the bodies also counts as trying to stop it. Doing this, in addition to causing the basilisk to try to eat the offending party, constitutes breach of contract if the summoner is involved in it or fails to help the basilisk drive off whoever’s interfering.
Ibuse is an enormous purple-grey beast, large enough to swallow a small house between its jaws. He has a pair of small, dark, beady eyes that often go unnoticed, and his skin is always slightly moist. His thick, damp hide has an almost flabby texture.
What’s particularly unusual about Ibuse is that he is, so to say, ‘unique’–in the same sense that there is only one avatar for any given contract, there is only one Ibuse; it’s a name, not a title or a description. Additionally, of all the salamander summons he is the least bestial in outlook, demonstrating genuine good will towards his summoner, and even growing attached to those who call on him frequently (without abusing that good will).
Ibuse is far more agreeable than other salamanders, doing his best to follow the summoner’s orders to the letter. Unlike other salamanders he will actually form a bond with its summoners, though he still can’t communicate… and given the standoffish nature of salamanders as a whole, this means that Ibuse is agreeable and willingly helpful, not actually ‘friendly’ by most standards.
Unfortunately, he’s still a large, clumsy beast, and still incapable of speech. Furthermore, his main method of attack is fairly uncontrollable, meaning that there’s actually very little Ibuse can do to avoid inadvertently harming a summoner who isn’t sufficiently prepared.
Vitality: 2400
STR: 100
RES: 100
CHA: 100
DEX: 100
AGI: 100
Accuracy: 45
Dodge: +30
Genjutsu Defense: +40 Damage Bonus: 11.5
Athletics: +20
Awareness: +25
Resistance: +30
Stealth: +30
Toxicology: +40
Stamina: +15
Chakra Exhaustion: +15
Amphibian
Ibuse takes only 25% damage from Suiton techniques; any techniques or advanced elemental natures incorporating Suiton deal only 50% damage.
Spongey
Ibuse has very slippery skin, as well as pourous, spongy flesh. Blunt attacks deal only 25% damage, Piercing attacks do only 50% damage, and Katon does 75% damage (though advanced natures using it still deal full damage). He is immune to Burns and Ignite. He cannot be grappled, even by summons prodigiously large enough to accomplish that feat.
Huge
Ibuse cannot dodge area-of-effect attacks; instead, he automatically blocks them as a Speed 0 defense. Ibuse cannot hide (via stealth) due to being enormous. He cannot be knocked airborne, knocked back, or knocked prone, and ignore any jutsu or effects that work by binding or physically restraining him. Damage from all Small weapons (including Multi-throws) deals half its normal damage, calculated before any potential Partial Success (and before Spongey, above).
His physical damage bonus is doubled against anyone who is not Huge or Titanic in size, and he does not take penalties for being in a grapple with anyone who is not Huge or Titanic in size; anyone who is not at least Large (meaning all humans except those with the Large unique, or Akimichi in Baika X = 6+) cannot grapple Ibuse due to his size, and gaining control of a grapple he initiated merely has the grapple end, rather than allowing them to take control of it.
Attempting to parry an attack from Ibuse requires a Strength of 125 or more, or an unarmed physical damage bonus of 12.5 or greater.
Thick Skin
Ibuse has a Damage Reduction of 100.
Tireless
Ibuse does not need to make Stamina or Chakra Exhaustion rolls when it act. If forced to by an outside force (such as Suffocation), they have +15 to their rolls.
Standard Actions
Ibuse may use the Block, Dodge, Move, and Search actions as described in the Combat chapter of the PHB without spending any of the summoner’s AP.
Block (Speed 4, 2 AP)
Ibuse may use Block as a Speed 4 Interrupt, even when he hasn’t declared that he’s blocking for a period of time.
Burrow (Speed 10, 5 AP)
Ibuse dives underground, making a Stealth roll with a +10 bonus. From there, Ibuse can move underground, covering 3 yards every IC spent moving; area-of-effect techniques can’t damage him at this point. Once he’s been located, an attack dealing at least 500 base damage will break through to the depth he’s at, ending this technique; he’ll automatically block the technique used against him this way.
Smash (Speed 12, 5 AP)
Using his mass, Ibuse aims to stomp a target, slap his tail down on them, or attack in a similar fashion. This is treated as a basic unarmed melee attack with a range of 15 yards, dealing 10d12 Blunt damage and inflicting a Stun 6 if its victim is wounded by the attack.
Swallow Whole (Speed 8, 10 AP)
If underground and within 5 yards of an enemy, Ibuse can be commanded to try to swallow them. This counts as a Area 10 attack, and if it hits, the enemy is swallowed up and trapped inside Ibuse’s stomach. While inside, the enemy is subject to stomach acid that inflicts a Poison 10 status as long as they are trapped inside. An enemy traped inside Ibuse can try to force their way out, damaging the stomach as a target that can’t defend itself but with all actions they take having their normal Speed doubled (which does not increase their damage). Once at least 1000 damage has been dealt to the inside of Ibuse’s stomach, anyone alive inside has broken out and can escape. After someone has escaped from Ibuse’s stomach this way, Swallow Whole cannot be used for the remainder of the battle. This damage is not actually dealt to Ibuse’s Vitality.
Poison Mist (Speed 20, 10 AP, Chakra 25)
Ibuse opens his mouth and exhales a cloud of powerful, paralytic poison, in the form of a frothing purple mist. Everyone in a 100 yard radius of Ibuse has to make a Resistance roll against Ibuse’s toxicology, or be poisoned. Ibuse is immune to his own Poison Mist.
Whenever someone enters the cloud, and every 10 IC they spend in it, they also need to make a Resistance roll. The cloud itself lingers for 30 IC, after which time it disperses. Ibuse can only store so much poison at once, and it takes a while for the chemical reactions that prime it inside his body to take place; once this ability is used, Ibuse can’t utilize it again for another 100 IC.
Paralytic Poison
Poison: 8
Paralyze: 5
Duration: 50
Ibuse is a very kind and caring summon, for a Salamander. So kind in fact, that Ibuse doesn’t even get mad if the summoner includes Ibuse in area of effect attacks. Ibuse just takes the hits and keeps on following the summoner’s orders. In other words, catching Ibuse in the crossfire of the summoner’s attacks will not constitute a breach of contract.
The beast known as Ka Riu is literally legendary–and according to the legends, is a dragon made entirely of living flames, a literal force of nature. While very few shinobi have seen the Salamander Avatar, the general opinion is that they simply share a name. It’s probably not actually an immortal, primal incarnation of fire.
It does, however, very definitely breathe fire, and there are certainly people who claim that it can, and does, fly. Considering how little information salamanders generally share about themselves, the avatar probably just ‘inherited’ the mythical dragon’s name due to similarities (flying, breathing fire, being phenomenally powerful, those things).
In Ka Riu’s eyes, all are equal. It torches anything and everything in the vicinity where it’s summoned. About the best a summoner can hope for is that the resulting devastaion will be more damaging to their enemies than themselves or their allies.
It will accept its summoner’s requests for where it should direct its flames, but will plainly ignore any requests about trying to avoid certain individuals or minimize collateral damage. Anyone foolish enough to personally attract the “dragon’s” attention by injuring it will similarly have themselves, and their surroundings, bathed in flames.