Editing Trussed (section)

== Abilities ==
Dependent on their 'source material they could have any number of abilities.<ref name=":1">'''Appearance:''' The Trussed are humans or human-like Others who are often of an unusual height, frequently with the appearance of those who have been kept prisoner for some time, with little body fat, skin in poor condition (notwithstanding other alterations).  They may be muscular or thin.  Through stonework, carpentry, roots, or other environmental details, they are frequently knit to the surrounding structure.  Skin may be of a texture blending material and organic.  Can be rooted into a sitting position or knit to a small part of the overstructure that they then carry with them (such as a large cross or bell).  Can bear scars or mutations reflecting old fights or leakage from whatever it is that is bound.  Often mournful and disconnected.  Expect similar effects on the immediate environment: draped cloth becoming fragile stone or wood, or roots and muck worked into common details, until the point where furniture ends and floor begins is often hard to distinguish.  If in the dark, may have lost their eyes. - [[PactDice]]: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wvukMJfW_Ci6_rsqrigpeDBhBsBqFajWmTEyL-b3XCU/edit Bestiary: Trussed]</ref>

Naturally powerful they create something of a pseudo realm around them that helps enforce the quarantine of their prisoner.<ref name=":4.3">Because they take on a particular weight, Trussed have a way of making accessing their location hard; they create a depression of sorts, which acts as an extension of themselves and their realms, and the way in may be dark, hazardous, labyrinthine, and exceedingly difficult for the Innocent.  Entire forests may gently deflect entry, getting less gentle as one bears deeper in.  Specific Others may be inclined to set up shop nearby.  A strong and alert Trussed may wear opponents down with a kind of attrition.  Those who reach the final chamber may be cold, wet, starved, or bewildered as they face this time-worn goliath. - [[PactDice]]: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wvukMJfW_Ci6_rsqrigpeDBhBsBqFajWmTEyL-b3XCU/edit Bestiary: Trussed]</ref>

Best to be used as a [[Familiar]] only when the threat they contain is dealt with. can empower their practitioners but also really slow them down.
=== Weaknesses ===
They tend to be focused on the long term and environment and as such can miss what is immediately present around them.<ref name=":3">'''Behavior''': Trussed are victims of time, their minds eroded much as their bodies are.  They may be delirious, single-minded, or left with whatever few key words or ideas they’ve managed to hold onto over the years.  This almost always includes some focus on the events that led to their (self-)incarceration.  They while away the days and years with routine or by talking to themselves, and rouse only if the space is intruded on.  Their reactions vary from violent retaliation and defense of the area to the elderly individual that rouses once they realize they have visitors.  In rare cases, they may try to capture visitors to take their place.<br><br>Trussed very rarely venture from their space and when they do they don’t venture far before finding new places to settle.  They are prone to repeating themselves and may not keep good track of a conversation.  They clarify more when and if conversation turns to specific subjects. - [[PactDice]]: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wvukMJfW_Ci6_rsqrigpeDBhBsBqFajWmTEyL-b3XCU/edit Bestiary: Trussed]</ref>

They are already [[Binding|Bound]] and to free them from it means there is more information about the threat they are supposed to contain.<ref name=":6">'''Binding''': Trussed are strong in part because they are already bound, by circumstance and by environment. Suppressing them with practice generally requires that one have more information than the Trussed does; about the past, current circumstance (such as the fact that the threat has already escaped by some back door or is no longer in confinement), or the nature of the threat.  Counters to the Trussed for the purposes of negative bindings tend to be replies to the existing environment.  Bright fire in an intentionally sunken vault that hasn’t seen light in some time, wood in a dead place, etc.  These measures typically suppress only, and don’t hold the Trussed back for too long. - [[PactDice]]: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wvukMJfW_Ci6_rsqrigpeDBhBsBqFajWmTEyL-b3XCU/edit Bestiary: Trussed]</ref>

As Trussed are not meant to be easily moved in the first place summoning is difficult.<ref name=":7">'''Summoning:''' The threat the Trussed is tied to must be dealt with before the Trussed can move, and because of their plodding, environment-related nature, and how tied they are to the past, the Trussed is not easily transported from distant places to a current one.  Instead, measures are taken to make them comfortable in a new place and they transition to existing there instead, often as new guardians.<br><br>For a Trussed to be taken as familiar, the person arranging the ritual should have a longstanding relationship or some meaningful tie to history.  This is often familial relationship or a responsibility handed down, but can also include cases where someone wears a full regalia of treasure relating to the Tress and the confinement.<br><br>Trussed who become familiars typically become very aged, large dogs (loyalty, devotion) with war wounds or calcified deformity, or reptiles (serpents, tortoises) with the same.  Slow to move, they lend a lot of power and longevity, and natural warding ability, at a heavy cost to access. - [[PactDice]]: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wvukMJfW_Ci6_rsqrigpeDBhBsBqFajWmTEyL-b3XCU/edit Bestiary: Trussed]</ref>

=== Formation ===
Beings, voluntary or otherwise, who have been emplaced to keep some threat at bay, they can be Martyrs who give up their existence to keep threats away from the rest of humanity, civilization, and the world,<ref name=":2">Background: Trussed are either volunteers or forced guardians for a warding of extreme importance.  In times of crisis, the individual self-sacrifices to hold the literal door while a warding is set in place, they lure or force a threat into a hard to access area and burn the metaphorical bridges they used to get there, or trap themselves with a threat.  Others are condemned to the task, left behind by once-allies, or chosen from among their order or family.  May be Wardens themselves, disconnected from the rest of the world, and left to do their rounds, doing upkeep on a difficult warding to keep something bound.  Minor flaws in the wardings may cause leakage of influence or corruption.  Over time, the spirits of the immediate evironment will occupy the diminishing humanity.  The individual becomes a part of the warding and overstructure.  They can exist like this for hundreds of years.  Described appearance, behavior, strengths, and weaknesses are gradual things that get more pronounced as the Trussed remains in place; new Trussed are often little different from prisoners or those in solitary confinement.<br><br>Typically, if there is a Trussed, there is an enemy bound nearby.  Behind a great locked door, inside an object, at the bottom of a deep hole in the center of the room they guard.  This is often an Other, and a vile or especially dangerous one, but can be a practice run amok, something uncontrolled or capable of spreading.  In the rare case, the power or food that keeps that target Other bound has been spent, and that space is no longer occupied… but neither the Trussed nor those who keep record of them are liable to check or investigate. - [[PactDice]]: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wvukMJfW_Ci6_rsqrigpeDBhBsBqFajWmTEyL-b3XCU/edit Bestiary: Trussed]</ref> or selected by some family to keep a threat contained whether they want to or not.<ref name="Sb13.3">Brie went on, “There was another scenario, sort of related, it’s not a binding in a person, but sometimes when there’s something really awful, you get someone who drags the scary Other or the practice that’s gone out of control into an area and they lock themselves in with it.  Shut out Death itself, make themselves custodians and long-term wardens of this seal they need to keep shut.  They’ll stay there so long, cut off from the rest of humanity, so tied into the upkeep of the wards and stuff, that you get people who become one with the area.  A guy turned partially to stone, melded into the chair he’s sitting in and the floor, watching over the hole in the ground with some demon or something in it.  They’ll do it on purpose, because it’s that important, or the practitioner family will pick someone to handle it and shove them in there before locking the door.  [...] Sometimes you gotta plan for the worst case.  Sometimes you have to account for the fact you’re going to get consumed.  You aim to do one thing, like keep someone or something safe, or keep the thing that’s inevitably going to destroy you from escaping.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/08/10 Excerpt] from [[Summer Break 13.3]]</ref>

Become part of the landscape itself, taking one changes related to whom they have in their charge.<ref name=":1"/>

To take their position mortals lock out death itself.<ref name="Sb13.3"/><ref name=":4.1">'''Strengths:''' Trussed are repositories of old knowledge, including older forms of practice or older powers of Others, that they may be able to pass on.  More often, however, they are keenly aware of the threats of yesterday, that may still linger today, or be bound in the next room, a cage, or on the other side of a covered painting or mirror, that they work to keep locked up.  When people venture into the realm of these unfortunate souls and Others, it is often to get a clear record of key events, people, treasures, or Others that may have re-emerged or that are necessary to solve a puzzle. - [[PactDice]]: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wvukMJfW_Ci6_rsqrigpeDBhBsBqFajWmTEyL-b3XCU/edit Bestiary: Trussed]</ref><ref name=":4.2">Trussed are resilient, and keenly aware of specific details of their environment.  Responsibility and time have lent them great power, even as time may have eroded the finer knowledge of practice or their Other abilities.  As such, there is a chance (perhaps one in three) that they retain some powers, with supreme puissance.  This is often warding practice- a push back, an ability to have the walls creep in and absorb those nearby, or the ability to submerge the environment, plunging everything underwater.  When these powers aren’t evidenced, expect them to still be able to trample and override practice and bear monstrous strength.  They do all of this while barely moving or moving very slowly, and make up for it by being incredibly tough- not that many would want to kill the guardian that is keeping that dark door across the room shut. - [[PactDice]]: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wvukMJfW_Ci6_rsqrigpeDBhBsBqFajWmTEyL-b3XCU/eit Bestiary: Trussed]</ref>

They would be set up to keep a [[demon]] contained or practice run rampant, such as [[horror]]s.