Sometimes a town goes missing. It never happens all at once. A merchant doesn't show at the city's market days. The circuit priest is missing for a festival after travelling to the town. Eventually someone goes to the town, just to check up. Maybe it's a tax collector, maybe it's a concerned friend, maybe it's the king's soldiers chasing a fugitive, and that's when they learn that that town has been host to an Anura. The people are no longer acting like people, they've been enslaved to a strange squamous creature who has claimed the town for themselves.
Anura are large frog-like creatures, measuring about a half meter tall, with surprisingly strong hands for such a small creature, with the body shape of a frog, though they tend to waddle rather than jump for most of their locomotion. Their small form and amphibious appearance makes them seem to be just a strange but not unlikely animal, but this is deceptive. Anura do not forget anything they have ever learned, and all but the very young are massive troves of knowledge going back centuries. Worse, the Anura's strongest drive is to increase this knowledge, and their tadpoles are the method by which they do so.
Once every full and new moon an Anura will shed a small tadpole (which is actually part of the Anura, not an infant), about the size of an adult human thumb. This tadpole can be placed within the head of any sapient being, and it will begin to consume their knowledge and memories, and send them back to the Anura. These tadpoles can live for up to six moons unless they are blessed beneath the new moon to keep themselves alive. The main frog-body of the creature will attempt to protect and spread the tadpoles in order to try to strip an area bare of secrets, and build a lair it can defend.
Stories abound of Anura slowly taking over a town, recruiting cultists to shepherd and implant their tadpoles into people, perform rituals under the new moon, and protect the Anura itself. The Anura rarely wants to confront people directly, and doesn't have the manual dexterity to implant tadpoles well, so building a cult and teaching them implantation skills is the easiest way to start their infiltration. Anura hunters typically will look for signs of rituals in the woods, priests who have undergone sudden changes, and strange scars on the neck or eyes, sure signs of Anura infecting a village.
Hideous Mein: The Anura is a horrible looking frog the size of a Labrador. It is of middling stature, and tends to horrify those who see it. If it is seen without being expected, the viewer must make a steel test as they realize the horror before them.
Stumpy Hands: The Anura gets +1Ob when attempting to do something that requires use of their hands, from writing, to surgery, to wielding a sword.
Tadpoles: The Anura releases a tadpole during the new and full moons. They live the duration of six moons on their own. If they are placed inside the head of a sapient being, they allow the Anura to control the mind of the target. Performing an action with a tadpole in their head is an Ob4 Will test for the tadpoled character. The Anura may freely move the body. The Anura can also read the thoughts of the tadpoled character, so it can still act as if nothing has changed.
The tadpoles of the Anura die after 6 moons, but the Anura always wishes to have as many people as possible under its control. The easiest way to lengthen the lifespan of the tadpole is to perform a ritual under the darkness of the new moon. This is an Ob 7 ritual test to keep the tadpoles alive. This Ob can be reduced by 1 for each of:
Inserting the tadpole requires a Surgery test, Ob 3. If the victim is not properly restrained or incapacitated, raise the Ob by the victims Power or Speed (so if the victim has B3 Power, B5 Speed, the test is Ob8, for base 3+ B5 Speed). Failure means the victim dies, success mains the victim gains the Disfigured trait. Additional successes can reduce Disfigured to Horrific Scarring, Scarred, and then no trait (one success for each step).
Wyrd Dreams Ob Will Actions: 75
The wizard stands over the sword of the knight, chanting and caressing the blade. Soon he would finally convince the honourable knight of his squire's betrayal.
The sorcerer sends strange and unsettling dreams to their victim. They are related to a subject chosen by the spellcaster, but they can never be happy and pleasant. They can be pastoral and macabre, or erotic and intense, but they cannot be joyous or calming. The dreams can reveal the face of the one who sent them if the sorcerer wishes it, but they can also leave that vague. When the victim wakes, they feel drained and suggestible. Attempts to persuade them to follow the ideas suggested by the dream gain +1D (+1D for every success over their Will).
The sorcerer must either be able to see their victim, or possess something special to them to cast this spell, and must stay within the range of the spell to allow it to function.
Element: Anima Range: Hundreds of paces Area of Effect: Single Target Duration: Sustained Impetus: Influence
A Burning Wheel Monster Every Week