Lantern : The Everburning
Oct 31, 2018 21:37:18 GMT -6
Post by Xornik on Oct 31, 2018 21:37:18 GMT -6
Lantern - The Everburning
"Twisted souls cursed to burn forever in a purgatory between life and death"
The Great Wheel is filled with all kinds of undesirable characters - those who lie, cheat steal and trick their way through life, leaving a trail of social destruction in their wake. Every so often one of these charismatic individuals will attract the attention of a powerful being - some greater warp demon or devil and in some cases even a deity itself. Of course, these are the kind of mortals care not for such titles and will happily attempt to use their unscrupulous ways to better their lot in life. Be it duplicitous deals with demons or gambles against gods - they'll try anything and predictably almost always fail. However, with that in mind there are stories passed around campfires of those who succeeded. Berks who bartered with beings and thought they came out ahead, tales of devils trapped by holy symbols and reapers sparing souls in exchange for freedom. But this is the Great Wheel, not some fairy tale with happy ending.
The end result of playing god is never a good one, inevitably everyone dies and has to go somewhere. That would usually be the place filled with now spiteful beings who bar their treacherous souls entry. With no place to go, these tricksters, liars and cheats are twisted and warped over time as they wander the between the materium and what lies beyond. Their souls - unable to find any form of rest slowly begin to burn within their self made prison. Not living, yet not quite undead - their bodies wither and decay while their soul burns on, leaving them to take abhorred looking makeshift organic vessels to house it. A large pumpkin or gourd, a dead creatures skull or a twisted weave of wicker, anything organic that can give the soul something to burn through for a while longer will do. The everburning ember which was once their soul now emanates from within these new vessels, as their wicked visage eventually burns through and illuminates the area around them like some kind of Lantern. Many of these new Lanterns continue their journey across the Wheel looking for some end to their torment, some seek vengeance against the deities and their devoted followers, while others take pleasure in their new form and the abilities it brings - resuming their unscrupulous activities and terrorizing those who they encounter.
Abilities
Will of the Wisp
You have a presence and a magical force of will that allows your to engage in social combat with almost anyone, even those who shun, fear or despise you often feel obligated to hear you out - at least briefly. Upon your first direct interaction with an individual, you may temporarily raise that individual's disposition towards you by one level and gain half your Glow rounded up as bonus kept dice toward all social attacks and social skill checks against that person for the scene. You may spend a Cinder to replicate this effect on subsequent encounters with an individual who you have met before.
Illusionary Luminescence
The ember burning within your self always illuminates the area immediately around you allowing you to see everything within melee range clearly. You may choose emanate more light from within at no cost to illuminate a distance of up to (Current Cinders + 2x Glow) in meters.
Gain a level of the Illusion Spell School, and an additional level at Glow 3 and 5. You may use and manipulate your light to cast Illusion spells within your projected sphere of light, using your Glow rank in place of the the Spell School level.
If someone dies within the illuminated area, the Lantern gains a Cinder for each point of Devotion the deceased had higher than the Lanterns.
Divine Distrust
None of the Pantheons really like you, and none of them trust you. Your own patron is watching you especially closely. Start at Devotion 4. Roll two degeneration and note them down at Devotion 5 and 6. You always gain a Degeneration upon Devotion loss.
Permanent Purgatory
Thanks to your constant trickery and chicanery, you've managed to get yourself banned from any sort of permanent afterlife and are doomed to jump between the Umbra and the material plane for all eternity.
If you would die, instead your Ember leaves your body and becomes trapped somewhere between the Umbra and Reality. To those on the material plane, you are appear to be a small flickering light darting about, with your voice akin to a whisper heard on the wind. To those in the umbra however, you appear as a brightly burning flame in the rough silhouette of your normal form - which unfortunately for you stands out quite a bit in the surrounding darkness and has a habit of attracting attention.
You can move freely as if you have Phasing, and are able to be affected by objects with a Power Field and spells - though they cannot kill or permanently destroy you. In this state you cannot physically interact with the real world, but you can spend a Cinder to initiate verbal communication with a single individual.
If you wish to manifest yourself properly in the real world again, you must find a suitable organic vessel (usually a gourd-like vegetable) for your ember to dwell within. Once possessed, you can re-grow your original body in a disgusting process that takes a number of days equal to your size. For each day in this duration, you may spend a Cinder and your size increases by 1 until you reach your original size. If you do not have a Cinder to spend, or choose not to spend one then you stay at that size (potentially in a horrific malformed shrunken form) until you spend one.
Power Stat: Glow
Glow is an indicator of how brightly the ember that lies within the Lantern is burning. As the Lantern increase in power, it's soul burns with more intensity and glow, allowing for more luminescence and Cinders.
Resource Stat: Cinders
The ember within each Lantern glows brightly, emanating light that illuminates all around them. The source of this light is actually the remnants of the Lantern's original soul - trapped inside their vessel as an ember burning for all eternity. As the soul burns in self contained purgatory, it lets off small strands of burning fiery matter called Cinders. The Lantern can siphon these Cinders to power it's abilities. Lanterns also may absorb wayward strands of the souls of those who die nearby, siphoning them and incinerating them into more Cinders. A Lantern's soul generates it's Glow in Cinders per hour while in an environment that has no other light source. Lanterns have a maximum number of Cinders equal to (Fellowship+Composure+Glow-Devotion).
| Power Stat: Glow | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dots | Ability | Description | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ●◌◌◌◌ | Wicker Feat | Your head now looks more like someone carved a ghastly face into some abhorred gourd with glowing light emanating from within. Others parts of your body appears to be made of dead and decaying plant material. Your new appearance has some perks however, at the start of a session select one of the following, you gain access to that ability for the duration of the session.
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| ●●◌◌◌ | Flame Thrower | Spend X Cinders to empower a weapon for a scene with Magical Fire as a half action. Add +Xk0 to your attack roll and +Xk0 to the weapons damage. If hit by this weapon, the target must pass a TN15 Dexterity test or catch on fire. The Damage from being on fire is also treated as Magical. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ●●●◌◌ | Soul Brazier | In a process that takes a full action, you may spend a number of cinders (X) and siphon a portion of your burning soul into an external light-giving object such as an oil lamp, a flickering candle in a carved gourd or an iron dungeon torch. The Object emanates light with a radius of (X+2*Glow)m, while within this radius you gain +Xk0 to Scrutiny and Perception tests. The Lantern can reabsorb the cinders as a full action. If the container is destroyed with the cinders still inside, it will explode with the profile of a Plasma Grenade with a radius of (X+Glow). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ●●●●◌ | Squash Sophistry | You have a silver tongue and a wicked way with words that almost always ends conversations in your favor. Whenever you are making a Social Attack, your dice explode on both 9 and 10. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ●●●●● | Hallowed Wean | Any time you would successfully hit a target with a physical, social or magical attack, you may spend a Cinder to force this opponent to roll an alignment check. If they fail this alignment check, they lose a point of devotion and the Lantern's causes them automatically fail their second alignment check, ensuring that they gain a degeneration. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lantern Jack O' Assets | |||||||||
| Dots | Ability | ||||||||
| Jack in a Box | You're much better at hiding your nature than others. | ||||||||
| Jack in the Green | You've always been a bit more botanical than other Lanterns. | ||||||||
| Jack O'Kent | Demons, Devils, Angels. They're all just victims to your schemes. | ||||||||
| Jack Sprat | You don't eat much and have become skinny enough to avoid the occasional blow. | ||||||||
| Spring-heeled Jack | You're more agile - especially when it involves saving your own shell. | ||||||||
| Stingy Jack | It's your turn, I bought last time, remember? | ||||||||
Jack in a Box
These Lanterns often disguise themselves as mortals, offering their lantern's lights to aid lost travelers in the dead of night before leading them astray and often to their demise. Gain a free raise to all illusion spells cast via Illusionary Luminescence. Additionally, you do not need to spend a reaction each turn to maintain the Illusion spell Disguise when it is being used to conceal your true nature.
Jack in the Green
Gain a rank of the Botanopathy Spell School. You may purchase ranks in it as though it were in your class progression and may use your Glow in place of your Spell School for casting spells.
Jack O'Kent
You have a great deal of experience dealing with warp entities and are quite adept at dealing with them. Gain +2k2 to all social rolls against Daemons and Warp Entities.
Jack Sprat
Vegetables come in all shapes and sizes, some are long and thin and don't require as much sustenance as others. No longer need to eat or drink normal food, taking only sustenance from the sun. You only take 1x your size as a penalty to your static defense.
Spring-heeled Jack
Whether it be a side effect of your nature, from practicing performances to impress your targets or from fleeing from many a failed trick, you've become quite excellent at acrobatics - especially those that would get you out of trouble. Gain a bonus of +1k1 to athletics and acrobatics roles. Double this if using the skill would save you directly from harm.
Stingy Jack
You're very conservative with whatever wealth you have and rarely pay the full price - if at all. When rolling a Wealth Strain Test reduce the penalties by one level.
Taking Inspiration from:
- The Legend of Stingy Jack
- Jack-O-Lanterns and those with Jack-O-Lantern heads.
- Will-O-Wisps / Ask-wee-da-eed / Hinkypunks
- Pumpkinface / Pumpkinhead expies
- Marshlight (Warhammer Fantasy) / Corpselight (Shadowrun)
- Halloween Mythos in general
- Burning Wickermen
- The Lantern King
Currently looking into:
- Balancing
- Balancing
- Fluff
Frequently Asked Questions
Q : "Why Xornik???"
A : Jack O'Lanterns get the raw deal in representation across media, they're one of the most iconic symbols of Halloween and almost always show up as a monster or entity in every spooky adventure/episode/crossover. However they lack a cohesive mythos behind them, with each instance bringing it's own little elements. Sometimes there's reference to Stingy Jack or some kind of Deal with the Devil gone wrong, otherwise it's just 'generic pumpkin head guy'. This is my attempt at bringing a staple of the horror genre who was thus far missing into Dungeons the Dragoning.
Also because it's Halloweeeeeen.
