Pulp Romanians

[xeoran]

I did these for the Secrets of the Third Reich forum, just a few occult Romanian chaps. Hope you fells enjoy.

Romanian Special Units

Căpcăun
The "Dog-heads" are the Romanian shock regiment. In early 1937 the ruling Iron Guard fascist party authorised a project to investigate rumours of creatures living deep within the forests. Amongst the many species captured were several Căpcăun, tall ogre like men. Thick with muscle, feral and barely capable of anything but a few grunted words of speech they have proven great assault troops. Provided they are well rewarded with fresh meat (in these economical days this is often taken from Soviet corpses) they will obey the orders of the Romanian NCO's who lead them. However not content with them as they were Romanian scientists collaborated with their German counterparts to create 'improved' versions. Currently this has taken the form of the removal of parts of limbs to replace them with heavy industial machinery such as wood saws. Another field researched was increased intelligence and slowlyt new Căpcăun have appeared, more intelligent than their fellows and all with large stitch marks around the top of their head, almost as if their brains had been replaced...Their name "Dog-heads" was reflected in the Romainan Governments descision to issue a special version of the Armed Forces helmet with a pull down visor in the shape of a hounds face with an elaborate set of webbing that connects large steel jaws to the Căpcăun's own mouth, allowing them to rend and tear in battle.

Moroi
The Moroi look very much the same as a human being. Those who have felt their power might disagree. For the Moroi harness the power of their opponents minds to destroy them. Using mental abilities that have proven inexplainable to the best Romanian sicentists they can conjure an enemies nightmares before him. Enemy soldiers see not the Moroi but a demon or their love left behind, their dearest parents, a beast from hell or a deadly apparition. So convincing is the spectacle that a Moroi can kill without touching an enemy, merely by persuading the enemy that the apparition before him has actually killed him. Hearts stop and brains fail before the Morois conjurings.

Sânziană
These small spirits can be bound to a soldier by picking a Galium Verum flower on June 24th.  In return for an offering made every year on that same date they will protect the soldier, trying to guard him from harm.

Spiriduş
Spiriduş soldiers posess the ability to force their bodies to become immaterial on command. In such a state bullets fly through them and they can pass through walls, buildings and even through the armour plate of a tank (unless of course it has occult protection). However their actions too are immaterial meaning that many Spiriduş soldiers jump in and out of immateriality to land a blow before letting their enemies own blows strike through their bodies as if they weren't there. Pity the Spiriduş who fails to will his body to immaterialism though as his enemies surround him...

Vâlva Ciumei
These remarkable young women have an unearthly control over the powers of disease. Where they walk they dispense death and heal plague. Amongst the Romanians they serve in two ways. On the one hand they are used as medics, to heal soldiers of infections and diease. On the other they are used to infect the enemy, bringing soliders to a halt as boils burst up on their body, their m,uscle wastes, fever wrings their brow and their lungs close up.

Vâlva Băilor
The women known  as Vâlva Băilor have the remarkable ability to command rock and stone. They can leap into the earth and swim through it or create pits under enemy soldiers to drop them to their doom or pelt them with rocks. Most useful though is their role as Sappers where they can build trenches in seconds and enormous earthwors in minutes.

Pricolici
These beasts are the servents of occultists. At sight they appear only to be unusually large wolves but those who have met them speak of eyes that are not feral and unthinking but coldly brutal, of Pricolici obeying the instructions of humans and of the half human cries that echo from their throats. In a complex ritual an occultist will bind the spirit of a dead man, usually a criminal or one who has wronged the occultist, to a wolf to create a powerful bodyguard.

Vârcolac
These are the shapeshifting occultists of Romania. These mysterious individuals all uniformally wear a wolf skin as their badge of trade. They perform their magic by 'eating' pieces of power, usually life force by drinking blood, and then performing their rituals. The most common and remarked upon is their prediliction to shapeshift with their cloaks into wolf-men, with the cunning of a man and the power of a wolf. In such an instance their cloak will pull close and the steel clad claws of the wolf will slip onto the fingers of the occultist.

Iele
These female spirits appear dressed in the tunics and trousers of the Romanian army but bare footed. In battle they will dance in a frenzy, bells on their ankles ringing planitively. Those that observe them have to fight the feelings of anger and rage that come over them. The faces of those affected become red and twist in violent contorsions as their rage builds until finally their defenses collapse and they revert to an unthinking violence on all they meet, whether former friend or enemy. Running wild they bite, jab, gnaw at those closest to them, hunting them down like an animal and disregarding wounds, sometimes even beating enemies to death with the limbs torn from their own body. Left alone these possessed will attack themselves in an orgy of brutality.

Strigoi
Vampiric beasts who take their powers from cannibalism, devouring the bodies of their foes. The Strigoi are notable for their shrieking as they hunt their prey. Posessed of basic human functions they are also practicing, though not very powerful, occultists, capable of cursing their enemies. Debate rages as to whether they are actually human due to the bizarre fact that they have a second heart. Regardless the second heart has been a great boon with many Allied and Soviet vampire hunters taking their cue from Bram Stokers Dracula onyl to discover that whilst they may have staked one heart they haven't staked the other and that said vampire is not happy about the woodwork projecting from his body...

Vântoase
The Vântoase serve with the Romanian Army. Their power is an ability to control the winds. In battle they use this to blast the enemy, throwing them off balance and knocking them down as they attempt to advance in front of storm strength winds.

Solomonarii
This caste of occultist directly serve the Iron Guard where they learn a form of magic they call Shomolance. On the field this allows them to control the dead with ease whilst protecting themselves with petty magics. The most powerful of them have the power to summon the Balaur's: large reptilian creatures that maim and tear.