Slugs are a rarely-seen contract for several reasons. The first, their temperament doesn’t lend itself well to the shinobi lifestyle; while they aren’t pacifists, they’re kind-hearted creatures that feel violence should be used only after all other reasonable options have been exhausted. The second, they don’t tend towards spectacular displays of violence and power, which are things virtually all shinobi love. And finally, they’re slugs. Seriously, who wants to brag that they can summon giant slugs into battle?
All that aside, the slugs themselves tend to be wary of most summoners’ intentions at first. Once they’re convinced that the person summoning them is similarly kind-hearted (which is not, by any means, the same thing as “unwilling to fight” or “unassertive”–though it may in some cases go hand-in-hand with those two) they become some of the friendliest summons, not concerned with relative status or power like animals of some others species.
The summoner secretes a thin layer of clear, slightly glossy liquid from their pores, covering their body with it. Despite being criticized as a ‘gross’ technique, most users agree that it’s really not that bad, and just feels like being slightly wet, like having recently come out of a shower. Then again, they summon slugs, so it’s questionable how reliable they are to begin with.
Effects: X has a maximum of half your NDB, rounded down. All offensive grapple rolls involving you, including ones to remain in control of a grapple, have a -X penalty; it does not matter whether you are making them, or the other person in the grapple. Similarly, any non-Internal Immobilization penalties you suffer from are reduced by 2.
While not particularly dangerous to living tissue (which is good, since the user is covered in it), this slime is highly corrosive to certain other materials. Any time a weapon strikes you, its damage dice are reduced by X/2, minimum 1; when they reach 0, the weapon is useless and breaks the next time it’s used to attack anything.
Weapons whose damage dice have been lowered can be repaired back at one’s village (so, not in the middle of a mission), but broken weapons must be replaced.
You summon a number of large leeches, which adhere to either your skin or that of someone willing to have half a dozen giant leeches sucking their blood (a rather small portion of the poulation). These leeches perform two functions: the first, they return some of the extracted blood to the host, but do so after filtering it, cleansing the recipient’s system of toxins. Additionally, they convert some of the drained blood into chakra, which the person covered in leeches is able to draw on in order to rejuvenate themselves.
Effects: A number of leeches appear on you and begin draining your blood. You acquire a Bleed X status, which does not decrease so long as this techniques is maintained.
However, you receive a +X/2 bonus to Chakra Exhaustion and Stamina rolls. The Bleed status from this effect of Medicinal Leeches does not impose a Stamina penalty. X has a maximum of double your ninjutsu damage bonus.
So long as this technique is in place, more leeches will automatically be summoned if you are poisoned. If you are suffering from a poison, you suffer a Bleed Y, with Y being equal to the severity of the Poison status itself; they persist until the poison is cured (either by reaching its normal duration, or through other means, such as an antidote), and then unsummon themselves. While this is in place, you suffer no detrimental effects from the poison, though this Bleed status does impose its normal Stamina penalty.
You may apply this to another person only if they are willing or helpless. You, or the recipient, may end the technique at will. The two possible Bleed effects from Medicinal Leeches (one to improve your Stamina and Chakra Exhaustion, and one to negate poisons) are considered different sources of Bleed.
Much as it would suggest, you spit out a high-velocity ball of acid at a victim. Contrary to popular beliefs, and all overused jokes aside, this actually leaves the ninja using it with incredibly clean teeth and minty fresh breath.
Effects: Unlike other summon techniques, you may use this any number of times within a single battle. X is the number of times it has already been used in that battle; thus, the third time you used it, it would have a Chakra cost of (15+2*2) = 19. In addition to its listed damage, each hit also applies Acid 5 (described below) to its target. The damage, and severity of this status effect, are reduced by partial defense normally.
Acid Shot deals Energy damage.
Acid (Status Effect)
You have acid on you, eating away at your body! There’s not much to be done about it, and it’s more painful than dangerous. Not to say that it isn’t dangerous– chemical burns suck like that. Whenever you take damage from something capable of inflicting wounds, its damage is considered (X*5) points higher for the purposes of determining whether or not you’re wounded, and what severity the wound is, where X is the severity of your Acid status. Acid stacks with itself; two Acid 5 hits become Acid 10. This increase is applied after all other alterations to damage, including blocking, DR, and percent-based increases (or decreases) in effective damage for dealing wounds.
You summon the entrance to an enormous snail’s shell (the entrance well over ten feet around), which generates a vortex that sucks anyone nearby into it! Because it’s actually possible for even an untrained human to resist the pull for the few seconds its takes for the shell’s entrance to disappear again, this technique is mostly used when keeping someone safe from collateral damage is of paramount importance.
Effects: This can target any number of people within its area, but they all must be willing or helpless. They’re transported to the inside of the inside of the snail’s shell. There’s enough air to breathe indefinitely, and fit a few dozen people comfortably (far more than could realistically be fit into the technique’s target area).
The technique persists until the user ends it, or someone breaks a hole in the shell from the inside (requiring a total of 2000 non-Piercing damage to be done to it). In the former case, everyone appears within 10 yards of them, or the nearest safe terrain. In the latter, the snail shell itself appears there, complete with gaping hole in the side; it vanishes several seconds later, leaving the passengers behind.
Not really a summoning in the proper sense, the user causes their body to take on the spongey quality of a slug’s. In addition to their skin feeling rubbery, their muscle fibers and bones become slightly elastic. The effect isn’t extreme enough to allow things like squeezing through doorways, or prevent normal combat, but does soften blows relying on the application of brute force, and the user’s rubbery body becomes more prone to being pushed aside by dangerous injuries rather than giving way.
Effects: You reduce all Blunt damage by 25%, and stuns caused by attacks inflicting Blunt damage are halved. Additionally, attacks which deal damage types other than Energy do not benefit from effects which increase their damage for the purposes of wounding when used against you.
Leeches are nasty little bloodsucking things, their rare and dubious medicinal purposes aside. Nobody likes leeches; then again, nobody likes slugs, either. While these summoned leeches are oversized, they aren’t absurdly so; a single leech could probably fit on an average shinobi’s palm with some difficulty.
Of course, this doesn’t summon a single leech. It summons dozens, if not hundreds, of them.
When it comes to following orders, the leeches have something approaching human-level intelligence. They can’t communicate, sadly (or perhaps thankfully), but can be directed to prioritize specific opponents or lie in wait in a trap.
In combat, they tend to swarm a single target and adhere to them, at which point they begin consuming the victim’s blood.
Vitality: 200
Movement: 1.0 yards per IC
Anesthetize
As is the case with many leeches, these ones suck blood! And, when they do so, they secrete a mild anesthetic that prevents the bite from hurting. Except these are ninja leeches, so everything’s more extreme! Someone affected by the leech swarm’s Hemophagy ability reduces the distance they can move in 1 IC by 0.1 per point of Bleed status caused by that ability.
Horde
The leech swarm takes only 1/4 damage from single-target attacks, and is immune to genjutsu. Area-of-effect techniques do full damage. They’re also immune to status effects other than area-of-effect Immobilization, all single-target non damaging effects (such as Trip), and grapples. Finally, they treat the severity of AoE Immobilization effects afflicting them as being 6 lower.
Might of the Meek
Leech Swarms, while not what anyone would call intelligent, are able to seemingly meet the potential of their summoner, and are able to be called upon in greater numbers, even without additional Chakra expenditure, given the Shinobi calling on them is sufficiently skilled. Whenever you summon a Leech Swarm, subtract the minimum XP required to summon it (1500 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 3500.
In both cases, you round down.
Revitalization
Keep track of all the damage done by the Bleed status caused by the leech swarm’s Hemophagy ability. When the swarm is unsummoned for any reason other than a breach of contract, the summoner is healed for that much. This healing will first fill their HP, then begin restoring lost Vitality. It will not, however, take them above their maximum Vitality.
Swarm
For combat purposes the swarm is treated as a single entity, its Vitality total representing the amount of damage that needs to be done before the leeches all unsummon at once, however due to the number of slugs involved with the swarm, it has an Area of (Current Vitality)/150, centered on you when they’re first summoned, though it can move away from you thereafter. Additionally, by using more chakra in the summoning, more leeches can be summoned. A maximum of (XP)/250 can be added to the Chakra cost, to a maximum of +20. Every +1 Chakra cost gives the swarm +30 Vitality and +0.1 yards per IC movement speed.
Standard Actions
The leech swarm may use the Move action as described in the Combat chapter of the PHB without spending any of the summoner’s AP.
Hemophagy (Speed 8, 10 AP)
This attack only be used when the leeches are at 0 yards range from the target, and have been there for at least 5 IC.
Leeches crawl up onto the victim’s body and begin draining their blood! The target acquires a Bleed status that starts at Severity 1 and increases by 1 every IC until they’ve moved at least 5 yards away. This Bleed has a maximum severity of (the swarm’s maximum Vitality)/50. If the swarm catches up to an unfortunate victim again, another activation of Hemophagy will cause it to resume increasing the Bleed’s severity.
This Bleed status does not decrease normally, and ignores effects that prevent, remove, or reduce the severity of the Bleed status effect. There are two ways to get rid of it! The first, every 50 damage the victim takes from area-of-effect attacks, before reductions are applied, will reduce the Bleed by 1. Secondly, the swarm leaving the battlefield will cause the Bleed to end immediately.
Knowingly ordering the leeches to attack civilians constitutes a breach of contract, as does attempting to use them to torture captives.
Slugs are the center of the contract and they work well as a team. They have a powerful acid and when they swarm together they are a force to be reckoned with.
Of course, this doesn’t summon a single slug. It summons dozens, if not hundreds, of them.
When it comes to following orders, the slugs have something approaching human-level intelligence. They can communicate simple motions by a team effort of motioning around themselves. In combat, they tend to swarm a single target and adhere to them, at which point they begin melting them down.
Vitality: 400
Accuracy: 20
Movement: 1.0 yards per IC
Burning Bodies
The slugs are coated with the same kind of acid they spit out and it burns! Anyone who attacks the slugs with a melee unarmed attack gets a little bit of the acid on their skin! This inflicts an Acid 2 effect as described in the Technique Acid Shot.
Burrow
Using their acid the swarm of slugs can burrow slowly through objects. This counts as using the C-rank Moving Underground As If Swimming but leaving it open long enough that one person can travel through it besides them.
Horde
The slug swarm takes only 1/4 damage from single-target attacks, and is immune to genjutsu. Area-of-effect techniques do full damage. They’re also immune to status effects other than area-of-effect Immobilization, all single-target non damaging effects (such as Trip), and grapples. Finally, they treat the severity of AoE Immobilization effects afflicting them as being 6 lower.
Might of the Meek
Slug Swarms, while easily misunderstood and often disliked for their slimy, caustic natures, are able to summoned in greater numbers by more experienced shinobi, even without additional Chakra expenditure. Whenever you summon a Slug Swarm, 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 both cases, you round down.
Swarm
For combat purposes the swarm is treated as a single entity, its Vitality total representing the amount of damage that needs to be done before the leeches all unsummon at once, however due to the number of slugs involved with the swarm, it has an Area of (Current Vitality)/150, centered on you when they’re first summoned, though it can move away from you thereafter. Additionally, by using more chakra in the summoning, more slugs can be summoned. A maximum of (XP)/250 can be added to the Chakra cost, to a maximum of +20. Every +1 Chakra cost gives the swarm +30 Vitality, +1 Accuracy, and +0.1 yards per IC movement speed.
Standard Actions
The slug swarm may use the Move action as described in the Combat chapter of the PHB without spending any of the summoner’s AP.
Acid Shot (Speed 8, Range 15, 10 AP)
The slugs may all together fire their acid at a target. This uses the Technique Acid Shot from the slugs, which they do not have to roll Chakra Exhaustion for.
Knowingly ordering the slugs to attack civilians constitutes a breach of contract, as does attempting to use them to torture captives.
Only found in the deepest and widest caves, this snail seems to be the thing that carves the passages itself. It pushes it’s way through whole mountains and creates a labyrinth of caverns. Deep in the center is it’s home. A sentient creature, it can’t exactly speak but can feel it’s summoner’s mind and communicate with them through a telepathic link. Naturally it is a gentle creature but when summoned it can be a force to be reckoned with, mostly because of it’s size.
It towers over two story buildings and can basically move through them, it’s mighty shell being a dark, nearly metallic brown color and etched like the rocks in the mountains it breaks through. Gemstones and geodes poke out from the different parts of it as they’ve been ground into its corners, a shimmering shell showing such splendor.
The Rock Snail has a bit of a personality to it, it will help the user but will not go into salt water, nor will it go through fire. Despite it’s immense size it has simple fears.
In combat its preferred tactic is to mentally stun its enemies, charge any the ones it can and crush them. If it becomes the focus of attacks that actually begin to hurt it, it will withdraw into its shell. If someone ignites it, it will stay withdrawn until the ignite goes away.
Vitality: 3200
STR: 120
RES: 200
CHA: 100
DEX: 100
AGI: 50
Accuracy: 42
Damage Bonus: 8.0
Chakra Exhaustion: +25
Genjutsu Offense: +32
Genjutsu Defense: +36
Movement: 5 yards per IC.
Athletics: +10
Awareness: +35
Chakra Control: +40
Resistance: +50
Titanic
The Rock Snail cannot dodge any attack; against Area of Effect attacks, they block them automatically as a Speed 0 defense. They can not enter Stealth, nor Hide. They are too large to be knocked airborne, knocked back, or knocked prone, and ignore any jutsu or effects that work by binding or physically restraining them. Damage from all Small weapons (including Multi-throws) deals one-fourth its normal damage; damage from non-Large weapons deals half its normal damage, both of which are calculated before any potential Partial Success. Damage from any technique of D-rank or lower is halved in the same manner.
Their physical damage bonus is doubled against anyone that is not Titanic in size; against anyone that is not Large or larger, it is instead tripled. They can not be grappled by anyone who is not Huge or Titanic in size, and take no penalties for grappling anyone not of those sizes; gaining control of a grapple the creature initiated merely has the grapple end, rather than allowing them to take control of it, for anyone that is not Huge or Titanic in size.
Anyone not of Huge size or larger attempting to parry an attack from this creature requires a Strength of 150 or more, or an unarmed physical damage bonus of 15 or greater.
Tireless
The Rock Snail does not need to make Stamina rolls for its actions. If forced to for other reasons (such as Suffocation), it uses +25 for its effective bonus to Fatigue rolls.
Bestial
The Rock Snail 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 factored into its above statistics.
Rocky Exterior
Rock Snails have a Damage Reduction of 50.
Gooey Center
Whenever someone attempts to avoid a Rock Snail’s Lurching Crush, anyone who opts for a defense in which they roll has to roll 2d20 and take the lowest result. Willpower (and similar effects) are not modified by this ability, however it does cancel out any ability that grants someone the option to roll 2d20 and take the highest roll.
Telepathic Bond
The Rock Snail cannot talk but can feel the mind of the summoner. This way it can still communicate and will stay in contact with you at any distance after being summoned until dismissed. This allows you to give commands without breaking Stealth.
Standard Actions (Speed as normal)
The Rock Snail may use the Block and Move actions as described in the Combat chapter of the PHB without spending any of the summoner’s AP.
Mental Blast (Range 40, Speed 8, 10 AP)
The Rock Snail has an incredibly powerful mind for a creature that seems huge and lumbering, it can reach into the minds of ninja and disorient them. This isn’t an exceptionally powerful technique but using the Snail’s genjutsu offfense you make an attack that if successful inflicts the target with a Stun 10. This has a -2 to its roll every time it’s used it on the same target in a combat, cumulatively, but each time it’s successful on the same target the Stun becomes 5 higher (Stun 15, Stun 20, etc.)
Withdraw (Speed 4, 5 AP)
This action can be used to bring the Rock Snail’s head into its shell. Its Awareness rolls gain -10 and it triples its damage reduction. It can still attack but cannot move and if it uses Lurching Crush, Withdraw ends and Lurching Crush’s line attack is doubled in length. Otherwise you can end Withdraw by using this action again. While in this state, it becomes immune to Ignite effects, however any existing Ignites are not ended.
Lurching Crush (Delay 5, Speed 15, 12 AP)
The Rock Snail dives forward as fast as it’s slimy underside can carry it. Making a rampaging charge, the Snail crushes anything that gets in it’s path. It runs in a 20 yard straight line, that is 7 yards wide, dealing 12d20 damage to anything it goes over. If the terrain it moves through is rocky then it gains 5 DR every time it uses this.
Like a Rock (Variable)
Being almost a part of the mountains, the snail can use all E-rank, D-rank, and C-rank Doton Techniques. It cannot wield a weapon. It costs 1 AP per 2 speed of the technique it is commanded to use at its regular Chakra cost, though the Rock Snail ignores any Seal Speeds the techniques may have.
The Rock Snail is slightly a coward and will keep itself away from some situations, but it will never abandon you until you dismiss it. It is a loyal creature and feels that if you summon it you really need its aid. It still cannot be convinced to go into saltwater or to go through fire.
Katsuyu, the lady of the slugs.