These creatures are shape changing humanoid predators. Their natural form is a large, powerfully built creature with long claws on both hands and feet. Their powerful jaws can open quite wide and are filled with sharp teeth and bone crushing shearing plates. Their eyes are red and they possess night vision equal to that of a tiger. However, they are usually found in their camouflage form, appearing as a normal average human being. Shifting into their natural form can be done in about 2 minute, but assuming their human form takes half an hour. Their camouflaged form is typically 35-45 SIZ points smaller than their natural once in appearance, but their weight remains constant.
A Famished feeds exclusively on human flesh, preferably freshly killed or still living. They can devour four hundred pounds of meat at a time, and can go a month between meals without any ill effects. They can quickly dispose of a corpse, devouring 10 SIZ points every 5 minutes. Famished eat every part of their victims, including bones, so typically little evidence remains. While savage killers Famish are also cunning hunters, as intelligent as any human being. This is because that is exactly what they are; human beings.
Famished are a new species of mankind, first identified as Homo-Anthropophagos, in a distant period of the future. They evolved in a time when civilization was collapsing, and one of the last abundant food items were humans themselves. However, these creatures cannot control their savage impulses and overhunted humans to extinction. Faced with slow starvation and extinction themselves, some of the Famished blended advanced technology with mythos magic, creating artificial portals to travel back in time.
At first they’d planned to warn their ancestors against hunting humans into extinction. But time after time these efforts failed, resulting in slightly different timelines which ended the same way, with homo-sapiens hunted into extinction and homo-anthropophagos slowly starving out of
existence. There seemed no way to change their fate.
The Famished then made a new plan. If they could not change their present they would escape into the past. Groups of these creatures traveled back in time, to different locations on earth and different time periods, to places and eras where humans were plentiful. Here they could blend in, killing just what they needed to survive, and avoid extinction. Unfortunately these plans seldom work for long, as restraint comes quite difficult for these creatures. Eventually they begin hunting more often than they need to, becoming careless and sloppy as they give in to their savage nature.
Famish hunt by blending into groups of humans, isolating them, and then transforming to quickly kill and eat them. When not hunting they try to blend into society, taking jobs, paying taxes, buying homes, and doing whatever normal people do in the era and country they have escaped to. They tend to be solitary hunters, but are sometimes found in pairs, and even small family groups of up to six individuals (usually a mated pair and their immature offspring). There are no old or sick Famish, for as soon as they are unable to hunt for themselves they are killed and eaten by others of their kind. This is sometimes done in a solemn, respectful ceremony, and most Famish find this an acceptable end.
Dogs tend to dislike the smell of famished, as do most other animals. Most seem socially awkward, and tend to lack knowledge of common cultural norms. They often explain this away, blaming a sheltered upbringing or being new to a certain country. Famish avoid medical doctors, especially blood tests, x-rays, MRI’s, and genetic testing, as these results would unmask their nature as a new form of humanity. Likewise, won’t allow their dead to be autopsied. They also avoid scales, as on average they weigh between 350 – 600 pounds.
Famished can be found in every era of human civilization, easily appearing in Gaslight, Down Darker Trails, Classic 1920’s, Modern, Cthulhu Dark Ages, and Cthulhu Invictus…). In their own timeline the Famish have no natural predators. However, Famished who’ve traveled into the past are often hunted by Hounds of Tindalos.
The Famished, homo-anthropophagos
Char. Averages rolls
STR 100 (4D6+6 x 5)
CON 90 (4D6+4 x 5)
SIZ 90 (4D6+4 x 5)
DEX 65 (2D6+6 x 5)
INT 50 (3D6+6 x 5)
POW 80 (3D6+6 x 5)
HP 19
Av. Damage Bonus: +1D6
Average Build: +2
Average Magic Points: 16
Move 12
ATTACKS
Attacks per round: 2
Fighting attacks: Famished can attack with their large claws or bite with their powerful jaws.
Fighting 75% (37/15), damage 1D6+DB
Dodge: 50% (25/10)
Armor: 2-point dense bones and musculature
Skills: Appear Human 100%, Climb 75%, Jump 75%, Listen 50%, Spot Hidden 50%, Stealth 70%, Track 65%.
Sanity Loss: none if seemingly human, 1/1D6 for Sanity points to see a Famished
