azoicennead
Overly-Affectionate Zombie Squad
- Pronouns
- He/They
Have some mildly-spooky homebrew. Made for 2.5e, but not very hard to adapt to 3e.
Not as pleased with the demesne or the ghoststone's name as the ghoststone's mechanics, but
The Bleakstone Mine
Demesne 3: Necrotic 2, Earth 1
In the southeast, there is a lake. In the hills nearby, an old mining town. The hills are rocky, unsuited to farming. Nobody lives in the mining town anymore. The mine failed a long time ago, when a tunnel under the lake collapsed, killing most of the miners and leaving their bodies beyond the reach of the townsfolk. Years passed, the few veins of iron left worth following ran out, and the population of the town shrank, generation after generation. Life left the hills, as the rot from the mass grave under the lake crept into the earth and water around it.
That's not to say the town is empty. The living left, but as the essence of death crept into the soil a necromancer, who clawed its way out of the Underworld decades ago, noticed and investigated. It was delighted to find a mine rich in what it dubbed "ghoststone", a crystal that wormed its way into the flesh of the living and slowly sapped their strength to empower itself.
It called up the miners lost in the collapse, and used them to drag the townsfolk from a different mining town back, shackling them in the mine, pressing carefully-cut ghoststone into their flesh, and working them to death for a harvest. The corpses of the dead serve to delve further in tunnels where the fragility of the living, such as the need for air, is an obstacle.
Ghoststone
Artifact 1-3
Ghoststone is a dark crystal that seems to be half-full of light-eating smoke. In truth, this is the remains of the victim who was harvested to produce the ghoststone. There is no consciousness left in these maddened souls, as the process by which ghoststone consumes their life seems to destroy all thought and memory.
Each ghoststone has an Essence rating which increases by 1 for every season it spends consuming the lifeforce of its host (maximum 5); once it's removed, it can't grow any further. For this reason, it's usually removed as close to death as possible.
The artifact rating of a ghoststone is its Essence rating/2; upon attunement, it grants a number of Excellencies equal to its Artifact rating, allows its owner to learn a set of spirit charms equal to its Essence rating, and gives them a mote pool of its Essence rating x 10. Attuning a ghoststone requires a socket forged of soulsteel, equivalent to a hearthstone socket, and committing a number of temporary Willpower equal to its Essence. It can be attuned through a hearthstone socket, but this increases the attunement cost by 1 temporary Willpower; if it is attuned without a socket of any kind, it increases the attunement cost by 2 temporary Willpower. While attuned, a character uses the larger of the ghoststone or their personal mote pool; the other is inaccessible. While attuned, for the purpose of charms a character uses the higher of their own or the ghoststone's Essence rating for calculations; they cannot use this to learn charms they can't qualify for normally.
The excellencies granted by a ghoststone can grant up to (Essence) dice or (Essence)/2 successes. The charms typically granted are (in order) Sheathing the Material Form, Meat of Broken Flesh, Paralyze, and Spirit-Cutting.
Raw ghoststone is a dark, quartz-like crystal. When pressed against living flesh, it attempts to embed itself; resisting this is a Difficulty 2 check which is automatically succeeded by creatures with the ability to become immaterial. Removing an embedded piece of raw ghoststone from a living subject required a Difficulty 6 surgery. Once a piece of raw ghoststone has been removed from a living subject it was embedded in, it loses its bloodthirst and can be safely handled by the living and the dead alike.
While raw ghoststone is embedded in a victim, the slow drag on their hun soul prevents them from regaining temporary Willpower through sleep. In addition, they lose one point of temporary Willpower each week; if they have no temporary Willpower, they lose one dot of permanent Willpower. If a victim has enlightened essence, they may choose to regenerate either willpower or motes each day, but not both. When the victim dies, their hun soul is fully dragged into the crystal.
The po souls of ghoststone victims are especially likely to rise as hungry ghosts, and if the victim reaches 0 permanent Willpower while the crystal is still embedded they die as their hun soul is consumed, and the po soul immediately takes control of their rapidly-mutating body (treat as an erymanthoi without Hurry Home or Materialize which is always material and cannot dematerialize). This state can be induced early through specific rites. Particularly strong-willed or powerful victims will sometimes be transformed in unique ways by their raging hungry ghost.
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