Erik Amundsen's Blog, page 27
December 19, 2012
The Beast Fears Fire - Goolies
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Goolies [Disaster 3]
Impulse - take your stuff. Goolies are smaller than their more common bretheren, about 2/3 the size of the average human adult, which makes them easy to mistake for grimgoblins (though the reverse is more likely, since goolies are more common than grims). Despite the resemblance, their temperament is classically ghoulish: move in secret, interact as little as possible, all business, all the time. Goolies come out to take things. Whatever motivating purpose drives them, they appear to get the things it wants, or remove the things it wants gone. Goolies always gang up, if isolated from the rest of the pack, a single goolie will always attempt to escape or, if prevented for long enough, eventually die and decay into a pool of blackish, swampy muck. Goolies are less communicative than most ghouls, to the point that very few of the very few people who have encountered them have heard them speak. Goolie packs coordinate perfectly without verbal communication, and they return to point of origin when not on a mission.
Harm - Moderator Hard Move/1, Peril (Numb). Goolies are no more violent than they absolutely must be, and for the most part, prefer to use stealth or misdirection to secure their marks. All ghouls have paralytic saliva and strong claws, but in both cases, goolies have weaker natural armament than standard issue. When pressed, goolies will fight without fear or regard for their safety, swarming over their adversaries, disarming them and numbing them with bites. Goolies have access to the same short-range power of teleportation that shadow witches possess, and once they secure whatever or whoever it is they have been dispatched to take, they use this to make for the nearest Underworld portal. As ghouls, passing to or from the Underworld gives them the ability to emerge on the far side from any other portal (unless they use the portal to go someplace that is neither Underworld nor living world). There are no reports of anything taken by goolies being recovered once they cross the portal to or from the Underworld.
Grabbed by the Goolies
When the goolies take something with which you would rather them not abscond, face Disaster.
On a Hit, you can choose to take hold of the thing and take Harm as stated.
On a Hard Hit, you can take hold of the thing and avoid harm or drive them off.
On a Miss, Moderator chooses if the thing is lost forever or to make a Hard Move.
It doesn't matter how you hide, we'll find you if we're wanting to.
It's almost unheard of for goolies to make multiple tries for the same mark or target. One fairly common hypothesis on that account is that, whatever the goolies purpose, their thefts are extremely time-sensitive, and if they fail, the window of opportunity closes on their purpose. If this is true, they do not ever return the things they have taken, even if their purpose led them to take the object or person in question out of the world for only a certain time.
The mucky liquid remains of dead ghouls is called guhal, and shadow witches have found a number of interesting uses for it. They are willing to pay a modest price for it.
Goolies [Disaster 3]
Impulse - take your stuff. Goolies are smaller than their more common bretheren, about 2/3 the size of the average human adult, which makes them easy to mistake for grimgoblins (though the reverse is more likely, since goolies are more common than grims). Despite the resemblance, their temperament is classically ghoulish: move in secret, interact as little as possible, all business, all the time. Goolies come out to take things. Whatever motivating purpose drives them, they appear to get the things it wants, or remove the things it wants gone. Goolies always gang up, if isolated from the rest of the pack, a single goolie will always attempt to escape or, if prevented for long enough, eventually die and decay into a pool of blackish, swampy muck. Goolies are less communicative than most ghouls, to the point that very few of the very few people who have encountered them have heard them speak. Goolie packs coordinate perfectly without verbal communication, and they return to point of origin when not on a mission.
Harm - Moderator Hard Move/1, Peril (Numb). Goolies are no more violent than they absolutely must be, and for the most part, prefer to use stealth or misdirection to secure their marks. All ghouls have paralytic saliva and strong claws, but in both cases, goolies have weaker natural armament than standard issue. When pressed, goolies will fight without fear or regard for their safety, swarming over their adversaries, disarming them and numbing them with bites. Goolies have access to the same short-range power of teleportation that shadow witches possess, and once they secure whatever or whoever it is they have been dispatched to take, they use this to make for the nearest Underworld portal. As ghouls, passing to or from the Underworld gives them the ability to emerge on the far side from any other portal (unless they use the portal to go someplace that is neither Underworld nor living world). There are no reports of anything taken by goolies being recovered once they cross the portal to or from the Underworld.
Grabbed by the Goolies
When the goolies take something with which you would rather them not abscond, face Disaster.
On a Hit, you can choose to take hold of the thing and take Harm as stated.
On a Hard Hit, you can take hold of the thing and avoid harm or drive them off.
On a Miss, Moderator chooses if the thing is lost forever or to make a Hard Move.
It doesn't matter how you hide, we'll find you if we're wanting to.
It's almost unheard of for goolies to make multiple tries for the same mark or target. One fairly common hypothesis on that account is that, whatever the goolies purpose, their thefts are extremely time-sensitive, and if they fail, the window of opportunity closes on their purpose. If this is true, they do not ever return the things they have taken, even if their purpose led them to take the object or person in question out of the world for only a certain time.
The mucky liquid remains of dead ghouls is called guhal, and shadow witches have found a number of interesting uses for it. They are willing to pay a modest price for it.
December 18, 2012
The Beast Fears Fire - Ghouls, Introduction
If you're interested in asking, there are tow main opinions about what ghouls are about and where they come from. The majority opinion is that ghouls are manifestations of the Underworld, like goblins, but less squirrelly and more squicky. That's one notion, and the evidence for it is present, if not always fully persuasive. There are a lot of them in the Underworld, including lasting ghoul-inhabited structures, they enter and exit our world through the various Underworldly portals, grimgoblins look a lot like them and have slightly more ghoulish personalities than goblins usually have and other goblins usually defer to ghouls. That's one possibility.
A lot of the evidence doesn't hold up well to closer examination, not that anyone has been up to examining for a while, but there's still records that other people wrote down before war and vampire epidemics took them. You see, ghouls do spend a lot of time in the Underworld, but unlike denizens of this world and the Underworld, they aren't bound to enter and leave the same way. With the exception of certain Underworldly portals that spit travelers out whereever, most portals have two stable sides. You go in through the front door, you are in the front room. You go out through the front door, you are on the front porch. Ghouls can go in the front door and end up in the kitchen and then out the basement door and be on the front porch. Goblins who know enough to answer questions are pretty consistent that ghouls are not natives of the Underworld, but goblin information is ... well, yeah.
The competing hypothesis is more fanciful and has less observed evidence, and it goes like this: Ghouls are what happens to humans when they die. They live in the Shadow, sort of anti-lives for the souls of the living. Each time a human dies, a ghoul comes into being as the amount of soul energy on the border of life and death reaches critical mass. Each time a human is born, a ghoul dies and that energy is mixed through the border again. Life and death are a sort of fluid reaction, and the boundary between the two keeps things homeostatic for reasons.
Ghouls questioned on this matter don't usually have much to say, only that they have no recollection of being human. Do you remember when you were a ghoul?
Ghouls are gangly creatures, with gray skin accented by colors that do not look at all healthy. They are hairless, their ears are pointed and their eyes have gray irises and black corneas (their vague resemblance to ruhks has led some people to think they are somehow related to that species specifically, but there's even less evidence to back that up). Ghouls are intersex and lack any apparent secondary sex characteristics. When not involved in a purpose that forces them to be sociable, they tend to wear only loincloths; when interacting with people, they put on long coats, heavy boots, masks or hats and scarves. Ghouls have long arms and can run on all fours. They have excellent night vision, hearing and sense of smell (they are colorblind, though). Ghouls eat decaying animal and fungal matter. They don't require much, but if deprived, they get very cranky. They are also not opposed to eating something that hasn't been dead for very long, if they have to. Despite stories to the contrary, they do not find human flesh more tasty than any other, but they will never, ever turn down a meal, no matter who it was.
Ghouls have purposes. These purposes are matters of great secrecy among the ghouls, and it is extremely difficult to get a ghoul to divulge their particular mission unless telling you about it was part of that mission. In fact, it's usually impossible, and most ghouls will claim that they do no know what they are supposed to do until they finish with the thing they are currently doing. Ghouls will sometimes set up odd little stalls in goblin markets, though the goblins don't like hosting them. These shops aren't really any weirder than any of the others, but they do tend to be very eclectic or very specific.
A lot of the evidence doesn't hold up well to closer examination, not that anyone has been up to examining for a while, but there's still records that other people wrote down before war and vampire epidemics took them. You see, ghouls do spend a lot of time in the Underworld, but unlike denizens of this world and the Underworld, they aren't bound to enter and leave the same way. With the exception of certain Underworldly portals that spit travelers out whereever, most portals have two stable sides. You go in through the front door, you are in the front room. You go out through the front door, you are on the front porch. Ghouls can go in the front door and end up in the kitchen and then out the basement door and be on the front porch. Goblins who know enough to answer questions are pretty consistent that ghouls are not natives of the Underworld, but goblin information is ... well, yeah.
The competing hypothesis is more fanciful and has less observed evidence, and it goes like this: Ghouls are what happens to humans when they die. They live in the Shadow, sort of anti-lives for the souls of the living. Each time a human dies, a ghoul comes into being as the amount of soul energy on the border of life and death reaches critical mass. Each time a human is born, a ghoul dies and that energy is mixed through the border again. Life and death are a sort of fluid reaction, and the boundary between the two keeps things homeostatic for reasons.
Ghouls questioned on this matter don't usually have much to say, only that they have no recollection of being human. Do you remember when you were a ghoul?
Ghouls are gangly creatures, with gray skin accented by colors that do not look at all healthy. They are hairless, their ears are pointed and their eyes have gray irises and black corneas (their vague resemblance to ruhks has led some people to think they are somehow related to that species specifically, but there's even less evidence to back that up). Ghouls are intersex and lack any apparent secondary sex characteristics. When not involved in a purpose that forces them to be sociable, they tend to wear only loincloths; when interacting with people, they put on long coats, heavy boots, masks or hats and scarves. Ghouls have long arms and can run on all fours. They have excellent night vision, hearing and sense of smell (they are colorblind, though). Ghouls eat decaying animal and fungal matter. They don't require much, but if deprived, they get very cranky. They are also not opposed to eating something that hasn't been dead for very long, if they have to. Despite stories to the contrary, they do not find human flesh more tasty than any other, but they will never, ever turn down a meal, no matter who it was.
Ghouls have purposes. These purposes are matters of great secrecy among the ghouls, and it is extremely difficult to get a ghoul to divulge their particular mission unless telling you about it was part of that mission. In fact, it's usually impossible, and most ghouls will claim that they do no know what they are supposed to do until they finish with the thing they are currently doing. Ghouls will sometimes set up odd little stalls in goblin markets, though the goblins don't like hosting them. These shops aren't really any weirder than any of the others, but they do tend to be very eclectic or very specific.
Class 2 Infohazard
My Flist has been alive in the last two days with people sounding more and more as though they are coming to the point where they will be done with LJ, and soon; primarily because so many others are not here anymore. As for me, hell, I don't know. It seems like Google + is where all the gamers hang out, and this project I am working on would probably find a lot more eyes to look at it over there. I haven't felt the inspiration to be evil about politics, because I have a Tumblr full of social justice where I learn many things, and I am at the point in learning where I don't feel very confident in my ability to add to those conversations. I don't have much to say about writing, though, when I put together some early drafts of something, I will put it up here under heavy lock for people who want to read. A lot of the reason why I am posting The Beast Fears Fire project up here is to let people know that I am still on and still reading, even though I don't have a lot of things to say.
Perhaps it might be a valuable thing to start commenting with a *nod* or "I read this" in peoples' posts when I read them, so they know. Does that seem like it might be a good idea, or just silly?
We have a pot of narcissus in the house, of which I just got a whiff. It smells a lot like Raid.
Perhaps it might be a valuable thing to start commenting with a *nod* or "I read this" in peoples' posts when I read them, so they know. Does that seem like it might be a good idea, or just silly?
We have a pot of narcissus in the house, of which I just got a whiff. It smells a lot like Raid.
December 17, 2012
The Beast Fears Fire - Liches
Lich [Want 5]
Impulse - To run things, dominate. Of all the evil spirits, liches are probably the strongest and the most stable. Becomming a lich is only moderately difficult but it does require a little more forethought and better planning than most of the other methods or spirit preservation. The process also takes years of preparation to do properly, and, in a lot of cases, an assistant.
First, you need to plant a tree. It doesn't matter what kind of tree, though ones with magical significance are better than those without. Something strong but flexible, grown in a place that's somewhat protected from the local extermities of the elements. And not ghostwood; that just does not work. That stuff is magically and spiritually insulated, and you need to use both.
Once the tree is in the ground, there are some rituals to follow, a few sacrifices to make, and things to brew and drink yourself or pour out on the soil, depending. You have to spill some blood, a lot of your own, over time, and a lot of the blood of others, but if you're planning on becoming a lich, you're not really the kind of person who shies from that. Then, at the end, as close to your natural death as you can manage, you have to go down to the tree, let your blood out on the roots and die at its base. A smart would-be lich has an assistant bury the body next to the tree, because the roots will take your remains and incorporate them, but the roots move slowly, and if a hungry wolfpack drags you off, there you go. All your work ruined. From there, it takes a little while for the process to finish. The tree grows, grows quickly, and takes your flesh and bones up into the trunk. The animals in the area take on unusual coloration (melanism and albinism are the most common and the most normal changes).
Once that's all done, you can manifest anywhere you want within a certain area around your tree, do what you want, exercise scary spirit powers, and you need never fear anything that does not threaten your tree. The tree is pretty distinctive, pretty much screams EVIL TREE to anyone who lays eyes on it, so you will need to keep it hidden.
Harm - 3 Injury or Peril. Transformation into a lich gives command over one of the elements, depending on the rituals used and some other external factors. Wood witchcraft is the most common, surprising no one, but the other elements are also available to someone becomming a lich. A lich can focus their powers on where they manifest and their tree simultaneously, command the animals whose coloration their lichdom altered, and while their manifested spirit can be beaten back with magic, only damage to the tree harms the lich. Destruction of the tree (fire, chopping down, etc) destroys the lich, also surprising no one. Liches are quite good at influencing the territory around their trees, becoming the defacto ruler of any organized locals.
The Hillside Thickets
When you are trying to get or learn something in a lich's territory, face Want. You know something is very wrong in this place and...
On a Hit, you find what you want and stay or avoid hostile notice.
On a Hard Hit you get both.
On a Miss, you get neither. If the Lich is aware of you, it can manifest where you are.
A Fine, Fine Tree was He.
The really fun part about liches is that, unlike other evil dead, they don't need to be where the people are. Some are, but there are others, just out in the middle of nowhere, being evil, hatching plots, figuring out how to do more and more, and no one knows where they are. This is even more the case in a land like Crickton, which lost a lot of its population and has left a lot of its roads and settlements to go feral.
Wood witches really like to get their hands on lichwood, especially since there are so many variations, depending on the species of tree used in the original becomming. Like ghostwood, you can hit spirits, manifested or not, with lichwood.
Impulse - To run things, dominate. Of all the evil spirits, liches are probably the strongest and the most stable. Becomming a lich is only moderately difficult but it does require a little more forethought and better planning than most of the other methods or spirit preservation. The process also takes years of preparation to do properly, and, in a lot of cases, an assistant.
First, you need to plant a tree. It doesn't matter what kind of tree, though ones with magical significance are better than those without. Something strong but flexible, grown in a place that's somewhat protected from the local extermities of the elements. And not ghostwood; that just does not work. That stuff is magically and spiritually insulated, and you need to use both.
Once the tree is in the ground, there are some rituals to follow, a few sacrifices to make, and things to brew and drink yourself or pour out on the soil, depending. You have to spill some blood, a lot of your own, over time, and a lot of the blood of others, but if you're planning on becoming a lich, you're not really the kind of person who shies from that. Then, at the end, as close to your natural death as you can manage, you have to go down to the tree, let your blood out on the roots and die at its base. A smart would-be lich has an assistant bury the body next to the tree, because the roots will take your remains and incorporate them, but the roots move slowly, and if a hungry wolfpack drags you off, there you go. All your work ruined. From there, it takes a little while for the process to finish. The tree grows, grows quickly, and takes your flesh and bones up into the trunk. The animals in the area take on unusual coloration (melanism and albinism are the most common and the most normal changes).
Once that's all done, you can manifest anywhere you want within a certain area around your tree, do what you want, exercise scary spirit powers, and you need never fear anything that does not threaten your tree. The tree is pretty distinctive, pretty much screams EVIL TREE to anyone who lays eyes on it, so you will need to keep it hidden.
Harm - 3 Injury or Peril. Transformation into a lich gives command over one of the elements, depending on the rituals used and some other external factors. Wood witchcraft is the most common, surprising no one, but the other elements are also available to someone becomming a lich. A lich can focus their powers on where they manifest and their tree simultaneously, command the animals whose coloration their lichdom altered, and while their manifested spirit can be beaten back with magic, only damage to the tree harms the lich. Destruction of the tree (fire, chopping down, etc) destroys the lich, also surprising no one. Liches are quite good at influencing the territory around their trees, becoming the defacto ruler of any organized locals.
The Hillside Thickets
When you are trying to get or learn something in a lich's territory, face Want. You know something is very wrong in this place and...
On a Hit, you find what you want and stay or avoid hostile notice.
On a Hard Hit you get both.
On a Miss, you get neither. If the Lich is aware of you, it can manifest where you are.
A Fine, Fine Tree was He.
The really fun part about liches is that, unlike other evil dead, they don't need to be where the people are. Some are, but there are others, just out in the middle of nowhere, being evil, hatching plots, figuring out how to do more and more, and no one knows where they are. This is even more the case in a land like Crickton, which lost a lot of its population and has left a lot of its roads and settlements to go feral.
Wood witches really like to get their hands on lichwood, especially since there are so many variations, depending on the species of tree used in the original becomming. Like ghostwood, you can hit spirits, manifested or not, with lichwood.
How You Can Help the Newtown Community
Originally posted by
shadesong
at How You Can Help the Newtown CommunityOriginally posted by
kebechet
at How You Can Help the Newtown Community
shadesong
at How You Can Help the Newtown CommunityOriginally posted by
kebechet
at How You Can Help the Newtown CommunityIf you need help, or would like to help --
Newtown Youth and Family Services
The Red Cross Sandy Hook School Support Fund
The United Way Sandy Hook School Support Fund
Lutheran Church Charities is providing comfort dogs to the community.
If you are a local and would like to volunteer, call 211 or (800) 203-1234 (Per the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection)
The Beast Fears Fire - Phantoms
I'm caught up, but fuck it. I want to crank through this and get done with spirits.
Phantoms [Violence 3]
Impulse - To open the way. Phantoms don't persist under their own steam, and that's a big problem. In order to retain their consciousness, they are stuck getting patrons, and by patrons, we mean big bad unique entities from the Underworld, the Other, the Atrocity Realm, or some other less well known but similarly ominous title-bearing otherworld. There are some folks who think that this is the natural consquence for people who poke at the borders of the world when the inevitable happens to their hubris. In any case, phantoms don't seem terribly happy about their arrangement. Or anything.
Phantoms are stuck with the job of playing doorman for their patron entity, an anchor point for when the creature feels like popping over to this side from... whereever, to do... whatever it is it's going to do. In order to open that door, the Phantom needs to drum up some psychic energy, and that's where you come in.
See a phantom starts out like a run-of-the-mill ghostly haunting. You may notice I haven't written anything about ghosts, because there's nothing to write about: ghosts are psychic echoes left behind by the dead that manifest and repeat certain actions until they fade out. They're mostly harmless, and nothing worth getting upset over. Let's see how many sentences in a row I can use prepositions to end with. Anyway, you can kind of think of this as a phantom's attract mode. They will make things happen for a little while to get someone to drop in and take a look to see what's happening.
Harm - 2 Injury.
Once they have a couple of people, the phenomena start getting more lively. Phantoms stake out an area, usually not much larger than a single room or small structure, to serve as the gateway. Once they get someone in their operative area, they start really haunting things, making walls bleed, calling out in voices from beyond, and, most importantly, sealing off all the entrances. If there isn't enough energy stored up in the space, the phantom will manifest and start beating on any witnesses in the area, using furniture, manifested objects, flames, poison gasses, snakes, whatever. They are still mostly incorporeal at this stage and only magic and breakers can hit back. If there isn't enough power in the room, the phantom will try to kill as few of the onlookers as it can to reach the requisite amount of energy. Once there is, the phantom will start opening the door. The door will be visible, the door will be terrifying, and the phantom will be visible in the door, struggling to open it.
Throw Wide the Gate
When a phantom is trying to open a gate to another dimension, and you don't want them to, face Violence.
On a Hit, you keep the door from opening, barely, and some energy has been lost. You still have an angry phantom with a job to do.
On a Hard Hit, you shut the phantom in the door, destroying it and making sure whatever it is on the other side never gets in that way.
On a Miss, the phantom's patron comes through and obviates any threat the phantom posed to you. So that's kind of like a win, except for the evil alien entity in the room with you. Good luck!
Born in Sin, Come on in!
That whole notion that people who poke at the boundaries of our world are somehow tainted and doomed to become phantoms when they die is somewhat validated by the fact that disparate entities from different points of origin and no obvious link with one another (other than being a damn nuisance in our world) all use them Of course, that could just be the way our world interprets disparate powers breaking in. It could be that the phantoms aren't spirits at all, but a manifestation of cracks in our reality. There's some evidence that goes either way, and whose to say, house of some unethical philosophical scientist, whether the awful orange light is because of her spirit or the blowback of her experiments, and does it really matter when the thing is pummelling you and calling forth a nightmare from beyond? It doesn't.
You can tell to what kind of force a phantom has hitched its wagon from the kind of crystal it makes when it get destroyed. Underworld brings forth Choronzonite, the Other makes Maelcryst and the Atrocity Realm gives Miasmite. Shutting a phantom successfully in its own door makes a small fortune in crystals, which almost makes up for what you saw on the other side when you closed it. Other realms give other crystals, and every once in a while, somone who has prevailed against a phantom has looked down and what came of it and gotten that much more frightened.
Phantoms [Violence 3]
Impulse - To open the way. Phantoms don't persist under their own steam, and that's a big problem. In order to retain their consciousness, they are stuck getting patrons, and by patrons, we mean big bad unique entities from the Underworld, the Other, the Atrocity Realm, or some other less well known but similarly ominous title-bearing otherworld. There are some folks who think that this is the natural consquence for people who poke at the borders of the world when the inevitable happens to their hubris. In any case, phantoms don't seem terribly happy about their arrangement. Or anything.
Phantoms are stuck with the job of playing doorman for their patron entity, an anchor point for when the creature feels like popping over to this side from... whereever, to do... whatever it is it's going to do. In order to open that door, the Phantom needs to drum up some psychic energy, and that's where you come in.
See a phantom starts out like a run-of-the-mill ghostly haunting. You may notice I haven't written anything about ghosts, because there's nothing to write about: ghosts are psychic echoes left behind by the dead that manifest and repeat certain actions until they fade out. They're mostly harmless, and nothing worth getting upset over. Let's see how many sentences in a row I can use prepositions to end with. Anyway, you can kind of think of this as a phantom's attract mode. They will make things happen for a little while to get someone to drop in and take a look to see what's happening.
Harm - 2 Injury.
Once they have a couple of people, the phenomena start getting more lively. Phantoms stake out an area, usually not much larger than a single room or small structure, to serve as the gateway. Once they get someone in their operative area, they start really haunting things, making walls bleed, calling out in voices from beyond, and, most importantly, sealing off all the entrances. If there isn't enough energy stored up in the space, the phantom will manifest and start beating on any witnesses in the area, using furniture, manifested objects, flames, poison gasses, snakes, whatever. They are still mostly incorporeal at this stage and only magic and breakers can hit back. If there isn't enough power in the room, the phantom will try to kill as few of the onlookers as it can to reach the requisite amount of energy. Once there is, the phantom will start opening the door. The door will be visible, the door will be terrifying, and the phantom will be visible in the door, struggling to open it.
Throw Wide the Gate
When a phantom is trying to open a gate to another dimension, and you don't want them to, face Violence.
On a Hit, you keep the door from opening, barely, and some energy has been lost. You still have an angry phantom with a job to do.
On a Hard Hit, you shut the phantom in the door, destroying it and making sure whatever it is on the other side never gets in that way.
On a Miss, the phantom's patron comes through and obviates any threat the phantom posed to you. So that's kind of like a win, except for the evil alien entity in the room with you. Good luck!
Born in Sin, Come on in!
That whole notion that people who poke at the boundaries of our world are somehow tainted and doomed to become phantoms when they die is somewhat validated by the fact that disparate entities from different points of origin and no obvious link with one another (other than being a damn nuisance in our world) all use them Of course, that could just be the way our world interprets disparate powers breaking in. It could be that the phantoms aren't spirits at all, but a manifestation of cracks in our reality. There's some evidence that goes either way, and whose to say, house of some unethical philosophical scientist, whether the awful orange light is because of her spirit or the blowback of her experiments, and does it really matter when the thing is pummelling you and calling forth a nightmare from beyond? It doesn't.
You can tell to what kind of force a phantom has hitched its wagon from the kind of crystal it makes when it get destroyed. Underworld brings forth Choronzonite, the Other makes Maelcryst and the Atrocity Realm gives Miasmite. Shutting a phantom successfully in its own door makes a small fortune in crystals, which almost makes up for what you saw on the other side when you closed it. Other realms give other crystals, and every once in a while, somone who has prevailed against a phantom has looked down and what came of it and gotten that much more frightened.
The Beast Fears Fire - Specters
Specters [Malevolence 2+]
Impulse - To draw in. In some ways, it doesn't make a lot of sense to group specters together at all. They are the most ideosyncratic of the evil dead. Their capabilities and manifestations are unique from entity to entity, and the only thing that they can truly be said to share is a pattern. The pattern itself is consistent enough to justify the grouping, but even (especially) in this, there is wide variation.
A specter endures by rules. It is a spirit that persists through very strict and legalistic adherence to a set of behaviors by which it must abide, if it wishes to continue. However, within the context and confines of those rules, it is quite powerful. The following are the rules that make up a specter's pattern.
Territory - A specter claims a certain territory, whether it is a geographical location, an object, a specific activity, or a group of people (however they are grouped). A specter can only act on those who come into contact with its territory.
Prohibition - Simply interacting with the territory is not always necessary to warrant the specter's attention. There is usually something a prospective victim must do in order to rouse the specter. That's not to say, for instance, entering a specter's geographic territory isn't enough. Usually, though, there is a little more to it than that. There may be multiple levels of prohibition, and a person who violates multiple prohibitions strengthen's the hold that the specter can have on that person. In mechanical terms, each prohibition that a person violates raises the Threshold for any Moves made against the Specter by 1 for each. (Entering the house - Specter is Threshold 2, Reading the Diary - Specter gets Threshold 3, Being Male - Specter gets another +1, Being Male and the Age of the Guy who Jilted the Specter - Specter gets another +1). This applies differently for each person, depending on the prohibitions they violated.
Manifestation - The specter has to kill everyone who interacts with their territory. Failing to do so violates its pattern and causes it to truly die. In order to kill someone, they have to convince their intended victim that a) they have the power to do so, and b) their claim is, to some extent, based on legitmate causes. In order to do this, the specter manifests certain conditions, and these can vary pretty widely, in order to get to the person. Stigmata, supernaturally transmitted threats and classic haunting phenomena are pretty common.
Escape Clause - There is usually a thing that the victim can do in order to "escape" the scenario that the specter creates, which can sometimes include apparently "killing" the specter, though this does not actually happen, it is simply a way to satisfy the manifestation and survive. This allows the specter to not kill the victim in question, but also allows it to retain power over that victim, essentially, to make that person territory. Clues as to what to do in order to trigger the escape clause will be part of the manifestations (if they exist. They usually do, but some specters need to kill everyone, no exceptions). Folk wisdom indicates that it helps to be an attractive but shy and sexually inexperienced young woman.
Harm 2+, Injury. The injuries that specters inflict upon those who fall within their territory can be physical or psychic, depending on the nature of the specter, and are equal in mechanical severity to the Threshold of the Specter for a given victim. Specters will try and manifest for people when they are alone, or in pairs, and when they do, they will try to separate their victims (this will be most of the Soft Moves they get on misses for their manifestation move below).
See the Ring
When a Specter manifests for you, face Malevolence.
On a Hit, you suffer only 1 Harm and are set up to find a clue to the escape clause.
On a Hard Hit, you see through the game the Specter has set up and can engage the thing normally any time it shows up.
On a Miss, suffer Harm as stated and the Moderator gets a Soft move.
Some specters have the ability to show the true horror of their existence and use the Behold my True Form and Despair move as written in the Barghest entry.
She never sleeps.
A specter "defeated" with its escape clause can use their previous victims to expand their territory, but most, thankfully, aren't that clever. They tend to rise up after a period of dormancy and kill their escapees. Some, however...
The escape clause for a specter, whether active, "defeated" or truly gone, is a secret that some witches and magicians can work into some powerful things, though the danger for one that is active or dormant is pretty much what you would expect.
Two prohibitions tend to be just short of universal with specters: anyone who witnesses a specter manifestation is fair game (though if too many people do, it means the specter often can't kill them all in time to maintain its existence, so they shy away from crowds). Likewise, anyone who specifically sets out to find the specter is also in violation.
If a specter gets distroyed, it often manifests a fair amount of eldracite, but no one has ever proposed a method of farming these entities for the crystal.
Impulse - To draw in. In some ways, it doesn't make a lot of sense to group specters together at all. They are the most ideosyncratic of the evil dead. Their capabilities and manifestations are unique from entity to entity, and the only thing that they can truly be said to share is a pattern. The pattern itself is consistent enough to justify the grouping, but even (especially) in this, there is wide variation.
A specter endures by rules. It is a spirit that persists through very strict and legalistic adherence to a set of behaviors by which it must abide, if it wishes to continue. However, within the context and confines of those rules, it is quite powerful. The following are the rules that make up a specter's pattern.
Territory - A specter claims a certain territory, whether it is a geographical location, an object, a specific activity, or a group of people (however they are grouped). A specter can only act on those who come into contact with its territory.
Prohibition - Simply interacting with the territory is not always necessary to warrant the specter's attention. There is usually something a prospective victim must do in order to rouse the specter. That's not to say, for instance, entering a specter's geographic territory isn't enough. Usually, though, there is a little more to it than that. There may be multiple levels of prohibition, and a person who violates multiple prohibitions strengthen's the hold that the specter can have on that person. In mechanical terms, each prohibition that a person violates raises the Threshold for any Moves made against the Specter by 1 for each. (Entering the house - Specter is Threshold 2, Reading the Diary - Specter gets Threshold 3, Being Male - Specter gets another +1, Being Male and the Age of the Guy who Jilted the Specter - Specter gets another +1). This applies differently for each person, depending on the prohibitions they violated.
Manifestation - The specter has to kill everyone who interacts with their territory. Failing to do so violates its pattern and causes it to truly die. In order to kill someone, they have to convince their intended victim that a) they have the power to do so, and b) their claim is, to some extent, based on legitmate causes. In order to do this, the specter manifests certain conditions, and these can vary pretty widely, in order to get to the person. Stigmata, supernaturally transmitted threats and classic haunting phenomena are pretty common.
Escape Clause - There is usually a thing that the victim can do in order to "escape" the scenario that the specter creates, which can sometimes include apparently "killing" the specter, though this does not actually happen, it is simply a way to satisfy the manifestation and survive. This allows the specter to not kill the victim in question, but also allows it to retain power over that victim, essentially, to make that person territory. Clues as to what to do in order to trigger the escape clause will be part of the manifestations (if they exist. They usually do, but some specters need to kill everyone, no exceptions). Folk wisdom indicates that it helps to be an attractive but shy and sexually inexperienced young woman.
Harm 2+, Injury. The injuries that specters inflict upon those who fall within their territory can be physical or psychic, depending on the nature of the specter, and are equal in mechanical severity to the Threshold of the Specter for a given victim. Specters will try and manifest for people when they are alone, or in pairs, and when they do, they will try to separate their victims (this will be most of the Soft Moves they get on misses for their manifestation move below).
See the Ring
When a Specter manifests for you, face Malevolence.
On a Hit, you suffer only 1 Harm and are set up to find a clue to the escape clause.
On a Hard Hit, you see through the game the Specter has set up and can engage the thing normally any time it shows up.
On a Miss, suffer Harm as stated and the Moderator gets a Soft move.
Some specters have the ability to show the true horror of their existence and use the Behold my True Form and Despair move as written in the Barghest entry.
She never sleeps.
A specter "defeated" with its escape clause can use their previous victims to expand their territory, but most, thankfully, aren't that clever. They tend to rise up after a period of dormancy and kill their escapees. Some, however...
The escape clause for a specter, whether active, "defeated" or truly gone, is a secret that some witches and magicians can work into some powerful things, though the danger for one that is active or dormant is pretty much what you would expect.
Two prohibitions tend to be just short of universal with specters: anyone who witnesses a specter manifestation is fair game (though if too many people do, it means the specter often can't kill them all in time to maintain its existence, so they shy away from crowds). Likewise, anyone who specifically sets out to find the specter is also in violation.
If a specter gets distroyed, it often manifests a fair amount of eldracite, but no one has ever proposed a method of farming these entities for the crystal.
The Beast Fears Fire - Vampires
Vampire [Ignorance 4]
Impusle - To spread the infection.
Vampires are unusual in that they are not the result of a person intending to preserve their consciousness (though perhaps the original vampire was, we have no way of knowing), but as the result of a curse. Anyone who has been victimized by a vampire at any time in their life runs the risk of becomming a vampire upon their death. It's a very small chance, but it is enough of one that most funerary rites for most cultures take this into account. The cultures local to Crickton take the most common and practical route of cremation (though, on very rare occasions, this has not prevented a vampire from reforming once it has already been created).
A vampire exists to bring more spirits into its power. It does this by victimizing as many people as it can within its range, weakening them, sickening them and letting them die. Any vampires that rise from the process do so in the thrall of their creator. Vampires tend to "last" for 50 to 100 years before degrading, but very successful vampires have managed longer.
Vampires can manifest, and when they do, they are vulnerable to physical attack. That said, the most you can do to a vampire with weapons and magic is force it to discorporate and flee to its body. When manifesting, a vampire will usually take a form similar to a darkly attractive and magnetic version of its former appearance in life (this can be a not insignificant disguise, mind you) or a flying animal appropriate to vampire legends local to its "birthplace" - in Crickton, this is eather the form of a human-sized, feindish looking bat or a flock of sooty, red-eyed pigeons.
Vampires are reliant upon their bodies, though they have no control over and cannot interact physically with them. The body of a vampire looks like the person did within an hour or two of their death; as long as it is not exposed to direct sunlight, it never decays (even if the vampire spirit is degraded, interestingly). When exposed to direct sunlight, thing rots very quickly, and in some cases, spontaneously combusts (though usually just to the smoldering state; it's very rare to see one burst into cheery flame). Destroying a vampire's body, either through exposure to direct sunlight or through dismemberment and cremation, destroys the vampiric spirit.
Harm - Peril
Vampires are extremely strong in person and very hard to fight, but that's not the real measure of the danger they represent. Their true danger lies in their ability to victimize and enthrall. Victimization takes on a lot of different forms depending on the vampire and their relationship to their victim (however they define that), but grabbing and biting, appearing to drink blood from their victim is by no means out of the question. It's by no means the only way a vampire victimizes a person, but that one is a classic. People the vampire victimizes develop a low grade fever, listlessness and fatigue, the last of which becomes more pronouced, and involves feelings of weakness, dizziness and anxiety. Death usually comes in a week or two from onset, depending on the predelicitons of the vampire.
Once a vampire victimizes a person (and whether they know it or not), the vampire can then enthrall that person. This takes on three different forms, depending on the personality of the vampire.
Fascination - The victim believes the vampire to be a trusted friend or loved one (and they usually were such at one point) and is willing to do things for their loved one and justify them, using their full capacity and creativity. The downside for the vampire is that they are essentially the same person and while they are storngly motivated to help the vampire, they won't do things they wouldn't do for that vampire.
Domination - The victim is under total mental thrall of the vampire, their will is suspended. They will do anything the vampire asks of them to the letter of the specification, but dominated folks tend to be kind of dull and single-focus, so require a lot more management. Victims do not remember what they did when they were under domination.
Possession - The vampire takes total control over the victim's every action, with full access to both the victim's and the vampire's knowledge, memories and capabilities. The downside to this is that they can possess only one person at a time, and the rest of the time, their victims are free willed.
Regardless of the vampire's power, victims are under a strong compulsion not to speak of (or remember) their victimization.
A Horrible Night for a Curse
When you are looking for clues in a place that a vampire has claimed as territory, face Ignorance.
On a Hit, you are aware of the vampire's activities and can identify one of its victims.
On a Hard Hit, you can identify a victim and the victim who was most recently acting on the vampire's will, what the vampire's last command to its enthralled victims was, or the identity of the vampire.
On a Miss... was that the vampire? Gain the Peril Sick. Maybe it was...
A Miserable Pile of Secrets
When you have been victimized by a vampire, face Ignorance.
On a Hit, you are aware of the vampire's influence, what the vampire looked like, how it victimized you, and what it wants you to do right now. You do not need to do that, though.
On a Hard Hit, you are also aware of the current location of the vampire's body.
On a Miss, you gain the temporary Strength Trait Enthralled - you gain Strength when you do what the vampire wants you to do. You do not gain Strength from any other means (including Soft Moves) until and unless the vampire is destroyed. You also become Sick or suffer 4 Harm if you are Sick.
She said "I'm so cold, I'm so cold in the night"
Astute students of the supernatural are likely wondering, what with their ability to reproduce and their incredible strength, why have vampires not killed everything.
The fact of the matter is, that, thanks to a parting shot from the Western Kingdoms, they almost did. Rierdan had at least one prison camp where Crick and Murrenic POWs got exposed to a vampire before being sent back home at the end of the war. The epidemic that wiped out so much of the population on both sides of the war was an epidemic of vampirism. It turns out that vampires are incredibly territorial and unable or unwilling to travel on their own. New vampires come about in a place where a victim who did not know they had been a victim (or did and didn't care), and a vampire who manages to depopulate their territory tends to remain there until they degrade or new people move in. The vampires that ravaged Crickton are now almost all degraded.
The bodies of vampires are home to deposits of a dark red crystal called pigeon's blood which is both magical and quite valuable. Their hearts, in particular, can often be completely crystalized, and highly prized. The downside is that, if the body is exposed to direct sunlight, the reaction destroys the pigeon's blood (once harvested, the crystal's reaction to direct sunlight is to be really sparkly).
The downside to not exposing the body, pigeon's blood and all, to direct sunlight is that, if you don't, there is a chance that the vampire will reform in a month, even if the spirit previously degraded, and pick back up where it left off for a lunar year. Without a body, there is no way to destroy the vampire, but driving it off does force it to become dormant for a month. Once the lunar year (give or take a few days - a vampire that returned on the second day of a waning gibbous is probably going to vanish on the full moon, for instance) is through, the vampire degrades totally. Destroying the pigeon's blood that came from the vampire in question's body does not help matters.
The ashes from a vampire destroyed by sunlight, if consumed by a victim of a vampire (does not need to be their vampire, it can be any one), drastically lowers the chances of that person rising as a vampire. Many settlements in Crick have administered vampiric ashes to all their citizens as a matter of public health.
Impusle - To spread the infection.
Vampires are unusual in that they are not the result of a person intending to preserve their consciousness (though perhaps the original vampire was, we have no way of knowing), but as the result of a curse. Anyone who has been victimized by a vampire at any time in their life runs the risk of becomming a vampire upon their death. It's a very small chance, but it is enough of one that most funerary rites for most cultures take this into account. The cultures local to Crickton take the most common and practical route of cremation (though, on very rare occasions, this has not prevented a vampire from reforming once it has already been created).
A vampire exists to bring more spirits into its power. It does this by victimizing as many people as it can within its range, weakening them, sickening them and letting them die. Any vampires that rise from the process do so in the thrall of their creator. Vampires tend to "last" for 50 to 100 years before degrading, but very successful vampires have managed longer.
Vampires can manifest, and when they do, they are vulnerable to physical attack. That said, the most you can do to a vampire with weapons and magic is force it to discorporate and flee to its body. When manifesting, a vampire will usually take a form similar to a darkly attractive and magnetic version of its former appearance in life (this can be a not insignificant disguise, mind you) or a flying animal appropriate to vampire legends local to its "birthplace" - in Crickton, this is eather the form of a human-sized, feindish looking bat or a flock of sooty, red-eyed pigeons.
Vampires are reliant upon their bodies, though they have no control over and cannot interact physically with them. The body of a vampire looks like the person did within an hour or two of their death; as long as it is not exposed to direct sunlight, it never decays (even if the vampire spirit is degraded, interestingly). When exposed to direct sunlight, thing rots very quickly, and in some cases, spontaneously combusts (though usually just to the smoldering state; it's very rare to see one burst into cheery flame). Destroying a vampire's body, either through exposure to direct sunlight or through dismemberment and cremation, destroys the vampiric spirit.
Harm - Peril
Vampires are extremely strong in person and very hard to fight, but that's not the real measure of the danger they represent. Their true danger lies in their ability to victimize and enthrall. Victimization takes on a lot of different forms depending on the vampire and their relationship to their victim (however they define that), but grabbing and biting, appearing to drink blood from their victim is by no means out of the question. It's by no means the only way a vampire victimizes a person, but that one is a classic. People the vampire victimizes develop a low grade fever, listlessness and fatigue, the last of which becomes more pronouced, and involves feelings of weakness, dizziness and anxiety. Death usually comes in a week or two from onset, depending on the predelicitons of the vampire.
Once a vampire victimizes a person (and whether they know it or not), the vampire can then enthrall that person. This takes on three different forms, depending on the personality of the vampire.
Fascination - The victim believes the vampire to be a trusted friend or loved one (and they usually were such at one point) and is willing to do things for their loved one and justify them, using their full capacity and creativity. The downside for the vampire is that they are essentially the same person and while they are storngly motivated to help the vampire, they won't do things they wouldn't do for that vampire.
Domination - The victim is under total mental thrall of the vampire, their will is suspended. They will do anything the vampire asks of them to the letter of the specification, but dominated folks tend to be kind of dull and single-focus, so require a lot more management. Victims do not remember what they did when they were under domination.
Possession - The vampire takes total control over the victim's every action, with full access to both the victim's and the vampire's knowledge, memories and capabilities. The downside to this is that they can possess only one person at a time, and the rest of the time, their victims are free willed.
Regardless of the vampire's power, victims are under a strong compulsion not to speak of (or remember) their victimization.
A Horrible Night for a Curse
When you are looking for clues in a place that a vampire has claimed as territory, face Ignorance.
On a Hit, you are aware of the vampire's activities and can identify one of its victims.
On a Hard Hit, you can identify a victim and the victim who was most recently acting on the vampire's will, what the vampire's last command to its enthralled victims was, or the identity of the vampire.
On a Miss... was that the vampire? Gain the Peril Sick. Maybe it was...
A Miserable Pile of Secrets
When you have been victimized by a vampire, face Ignorance.
On a Hit, you are aware of the vampire's influence, what the vampire looked like, how it victimized you, and what it wants you to do right now. You do not need to do that, though.
On a Hard Hit, you are also aware of the current location of the vampire's body.
On a Miss, you gain the temporary Strength Trait Enthralled - you gain Strength when you do what the vampire wants you to do. You do not gain Strength from any other means (including Soft Moves) until and unless the vampire is destroyed. You also become Sick or suffer 4 Harm if you are Sick.
She said "I'm so cold, I'm so cold in the night"
Astute students of the supernatural are likely wondering, what with their ability to reproduce and their incredible strength, why have vampires not killed everything.
The fact of the matter is, that, thanks to a parting shot from the Western Kingdoms, they almost did. Rierdan had at least one prison camp where Crick and Murrenic POWs got exposed to a vampire before being sent back home at the end of the war. The epidemic that wiped out so much of the population on both sides of the war was an epidemic of vampirism. It turns out that vampires are incredibly territorial and unable or unwilling to travel on their own. New vampires come about in a place where a victim who did not know they had been a victim (or did and didn't care), and a vampire who manages to depopulate their territory tends to remain there until they degrade or new people move in. The vampires that ravaged Crickton are now almost all degraded.
The bodies of vampires are home to deposits of a dark red crystal called pigeon's blood which is both magical and quite valuable. Their hearts, in particular, can often be completely crystalized, and highly prized. The downside is that, if the body is exposed to direct sunlight, the reaction destroys the pigeon's blood (once harvested, the crystal's reaction to direct sunlight is to be really sparkly).
The downside to not exposing the body, pigeon's blood and all, to direct sunlight is that, if you don't, there is a chance that the vampire will reform in a month, even if the spirit previously degraded, and pick back up where it left off for a lunar year. Without a body, there is no way to destroy the vampire, but driving it off does force it to become dormant for a month. Once the lunar year (give or take a few days - a vampire that returned on the second day of a waning gibbous is probably going to vanish on the full moon, for instance) is through, the vampire degrades totally. Destroying the pigeon's blood that came from the vampire in question's body does not help matters.
The ashes from a vampire destroyed by sunlight, if consumed by a victim of a vampire (does not need to be their vampire, it can be any one), drastically lowers the chances of that person rising as a vampire. Many settlements in Crick have administered vampiric ashes to all their citizens as a matter of public health.
The Best Fears Fire - Wraiths
Wraiths [Hardship 3]
Impulse - To maintain hosts and parasitize. Wraiths might be an intermediate stage between a stronger spirit and your average cloud of wisps. They share traits in common with both, though they have even less direct effect on the physical world than wisps have. Like wisps, wraiths exist in many places at once, but in the case of wraiths, their habitat is entirely in the minds of dreamers. Wraiths spread themselves out in the dreams of sleeping sentient creatures (usually humans, but not always; anything that is alive and capable of communicating complex and abstract thoughts is fair game), and is very difficult to confront. Wraiths are limited in the number and geographical spread of its hosts; most wraith seem to prefer as few hosts as safety permits, but they expand their territory a great deal when someone investigates them. Wraiths need at least one sleeping host at all times in order to maintain their existence.
Harm - Peril, Moderator Hard Move. A wraith enters a sleeping mind pretty much at will. Wards against evil spirits will keep them off, but, otherwise, there aren't any local traditions for defensive dreaming, and individuals who do develop the skill have to do so by trial and error. Unless a wraith is attempting to attach to one of these people, it's a Soft Move to attach to a PC and no move at all to attach to anyone else.
9-10, never sleep again.
When you have a wraith and you lay down to sleep, face Hardship.
On a Hit, you have some weird dreams, but your sleep is normal (if slightly less refreshing than it would have otherwise been).
On a Hard Hit, you know there is an invading entity in your dreams and you can confront the thing in dreams the next time you sleep.
On a Miss, you go walking in your sleep and do... well, you don't really remember. Moderator Hard Move.
Wraiths will move their hosts around and can keep them asleep indefinitely (in practice, more than 48 hours risks the life of the host). While the host is asleep, the wraith has complete control of the host's actions, but the host is clearly sleeping to any onlookers. Wraiths are reasonably sneaky with their hosts, and simply moving them around is the least evil thing wraiths like to do with their hosts. While sleepwalking, only serious physical or psychic injury is apt to wake the host. Wraiths can force wakeful hosts to fall asleep, but that is a standard Hold Steady against Hardship.
In a tangle of thunder, falling, helplessly below.
Wraiths are pretty rare in Crickton, and records of their attacks are hard to find. It is possible to force a wraith to abandon a host by engaging it in a psychic contest (once abandoned, the host wakes up, if they are sleeping), but causing lasting harm to the wraith is impossible unless you can keep all of its hosts awake for at least 8 hours (during the time they are awake, the wraith is powerless) or by confronting it in dreams. Wraiths are completely corporeal in dreams, well, corporeal as far as dreams go, and confrontation is about the same as a waking confrontation with a fully corporeal adversary. During a direct confrontation, a wraith can injure its confronter as well and as easily as the confronter can injure it. All these injuries are psychic, and potentially lethal for wraith and/or host. So, yeah, if a wraith kills you in your dreams, it's probably for real. That said, someone who has been "killed" in a dream but does not die wakes up immune to becomming a host for that wraith. Unfortunately, this means the former host cannot confront the wraith directly, either.
Dreamers who act under Wraith control often wake up with tiny deposits of a magical mineral around their eyes. This is usually eldracite, and the hosts usually rub it away without noticing. These deposits are so small that attempting to farm eldracite from the eyes of wraith hosts would be ridiculously impractical.
Impulse - To maintain hosts and parasitize. Wraiths might be an intermediate stage between a stronger spirit and your average cloud of wisps. They share traits in common with both, though they have even less direct effect on the physical world than wisps have. Like wisps, wraiths exist in many places at once, but in the case of wraiths, their habitat is entirely in the minds of dreamers. Wraiths spread themselves out in the dreams of sleeping sentient creatures (usually humans, but not always; anything that is alive and capable of communicating complex and abstract thoughts is fair game), and is very difficult to confront. Wraiths are limited in the number and geographical spread of its hosts; most wraith seem to prefer as few hosts as safety permits, but they expand their territory a great deal when someone investigates them. Wraiths need at least one sleeping host at all times in order to maintain their existence.
Harm - Peril, Moderator Hard Move. A wraith enters a sleeping mind pretty much at will. Wards against evil spirits will keep them off, but, otherwise, there aren't any local traditions for defensive dreaming, and individuals who do develop the skill have to do so by trial and error. Unless a wraith is attempting to attach to one of these people, it's a Soft Move to attach to a PC and no move at all to attach to anyone else.
9-10, never sleep again.
When you have a wraith and you lay down to sleep, face Hardship.
On a Hit, you have some weird dreams, but your sleep is normal (if slightly less refreshing than it would have otherwise been).
On a Hard Hit, you know there is an invading entity in your dreams and you can confront the thing in dreams the next time you sleep.
On a Miss, you go walking in your sleep and do... well, you don't really remember. Moderator Hard Move.
Wraiths will move their hosts around and can keep them asleep indefinitely (in practice, more than 48 hours risks the life of the host). While the host is asleep, the wraith has complete control of the host's actions, but the host is clearly sleeping to any onlookers. Wraiths are reasonably sneaky with their hosts, and simply moving them around is the least evil thing wraiths like to do with their hosts. While sleepwalking, only serious physical or psychic injury is apt to wake the host. Wraiths can force wakeful hosts to fall asleep, but that is a standard Hold Steady against Hardship.
In a tangle of thunder, falling, helplessly below.
Wraiths are pretty rare in Crickton, and records of their attacks are hard to find. It is possible to force a wraith to abandon a host by engaging it in a psychic contest (once abandoned, the host wakes up, if they are sleeping), but causing lasting harm to the wraith is impossible unless you can keep all of its hosts awake for at least 8 hours (during the time they are awake, the wraith is powerless) or by confronting it in dreams. Wraiths are completely corporeal in dreams, well, corporeal as far as dreams go, and confrontation is about the same as a waking confrontation with a fully corporeal adversary. During a direct confrontation, a wraith can injure its confronter as well and as easily as the confronter can injure it. All these injuries are psychic, and potentially lethal for wraith and/or host. So, yeah, if a wraith kills you in your dreams, it's probably for real. That said, someone who has been "killed" in a dream but does not die wakes up immune to becomming a host for that wraith. Unfortunately, this means the former host cannot confront the wraith directly, either.
Dreamers who act under Wraith control often wake up with tiny deposits of a magical mineral around their eyes. This is usually eldracite, and the hosts usually rub it away without noticing. These deposits are so small that attempting to farm eldracite from the eyes of wraith hosts would be ridiculously impractical.
December 16, 2012
cucumberseed @ 2012-12-16T16:18:00
Yesterday, I helped the the family rip up carpet, and then, when we discovered what had been beneath the carpet, I helped them cut and pry up that. Today, we discovered that the floor beneath the underlayment was also kind of a wreck, but it was still a day and a half of honest labor, which is a day and a half more than I have done all damned year, so last night, I sort of sat and tried not to fall asleep on the couch, and tonight, well, tonight might not be much more energetic.
I still have nothing to say about the shooting in Watertown, other than, maybe "fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu" in the language of the interwubbles. Maybe it was 27 dead too many for my ability to be outraged, maybe I am out of things to say, and maybe that's for the best. Anything I could say would be inadequate at best, smarmy at average, and utterly douchebaggy at slightly worse than average. I am sorry, but I cannot help but feel that even sorrow is more or better than most of us motherfuckers deserve.
We went looking for a car for d|p today - we've given up finding a new transmission for the accent, and spoke to a fairly nice salesman who tried to talk us into a lease, which no.
So, yeah. Tomorrow, there will be more evil spirits. If I am feeling motivated and my workload is light, I might just crank through them all on the way to ghouls.
I still have nothing to say about the shooting in Watertown, other than, maybe "fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu" in the language of the interwubbles. Maybe it was 27 dead too many for my ability to be outraged, maybe I am out of things to say, and maybe that's for the best. Anything I could say would be inadequate at best, smarmy at average, and utterly douchebaggy at slightly worse than average. I am sorry, but I cannot help but feel that even sorrow is more or better than most of us motherfuckers deserve.
We went looking for a car for d|p today - we've given up finding a new transmission for the accent, and spoke to a fairly nice salesman who tried to talk us into a lease, which no.
So, yeah. Tomorrow, there will be more evil spirits. If I am feeling motivated and my workload is light, I might just crank through them all on the way to ghouls.
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