Who Came Back from the Dead

Description

There are holes — gaps — in you… Quite literally and figuratively. You’re a shambling corpse. Your body, be it organic or inorganic, is exposed to the elements of the world. Rotting, malfunctioning, blinking in and out of consciousness. In every sense of the word, you are: dead.

But… you aren’t, are you?

No, far from it. Maybe the work of the Iron Winds swept over your long-dead corpse on a forgotten battlefield, and you rose with a breath of life from the jumbled molecular structure. Maybe some unknown tech resonates in you, its purpose a mystery. Or perhaps a higher being granted you respite from death? Did they find your thirst for vengeance in the void so amusing they stalled your expiry?

Whatever the case may have been, you stalk the earth once more. You feel no pain, harbor no fear. You are risen anew. In some aspects… stronger, in others — a shell of your former self.

This foci can be used with any class: Glaives, Jacks, Nanos, Seekers and Glints. All die. All can rise again! This is a complex foci because it also blends into territory of being a new race.

Details

Connection:

1. Pick a PC. They were the reason you died due to an accident or they failed in saving you. However you don’t remember it. They now battle with guilt and shame.
2. Pick a PC. They know your secret and make very awkward and ill-suited jokes in the worst of times, often in front of others.
3. Pick a PC. When they hear you speak, they hear two voices. One of which is much deeper, guttural.

Additional Equipment:

You awake with 2 oddities, an extra cypher, and an extra weapon (perhaps embedded in you…)

*If you haven’t started an adventure with this foci, work out with your GM on the equipment you have from your corpse still left on you. Grave robbers are likely to have looted you.

Minor Effect Suggestions:

A part of your body sloughed off unexpectedly, causing your enemy to be distracted by the gross sight.

Major Effect Suggestions:

The weapon the enemy uses pierces into a spot in your body filled with bile. The result is a spray that causes them to let go and lose their weapon that is still embedded in you.

Tier 1:

Waking Nightmare:

• Perhaps the others have not caught on, regardless, there is something off about you they find chilling. Maybe it is the ‘dead’ look in your eyes. Maybe it’s the stiffness in your frame, or the awkward gait. You either use it to your advantage or try to cover it up. Either way, it’s noticeable. You are trained in intimidation tasks. Inability in pleasant social interactions.
• When the night hits, you are compelled to try to remember what sleeping felt like, or dreaming for that matter. You do not gain points back into your pool fully. Every pool slowly goes up using the ‘Lasting Damage’ rule in the Corebook. (One point per day through a ‘rest’)
• You are entirely immune to poisons and diseases.

What is Dead May Never Die: Due to your inability to sleep, you are instead efficient with your time during the night. You’ve experimented with your body to maximize the most out of its constantly eroding state. Drugs, injected fluids, ointments and salves, fresh ‘parts’ to replace the old ones. Every night you choose an attribute, whether it be: Speed, Might or Intellect. The attribute chosen corresponds to the experiments you have done to your body. Every challenge roll using this attribute can be attempted twice, up until the next night, where you have to choose a different one. You must choose the second result if you roll again.

Tier 2:

Bloated Disease: Once per battle, if physical damage is done to you, that is higher than your armor, a spray of black bile will coat anything in immediate range in the direction of where the impact/damage came from. Affected target will receive 2 ambient damage that reoccurs for an additional round on their turn. The bile is rancid, thick and glossy. Typically assumed to be toxins, dead cells, oils, etc. that harbor within your broken form. Or perhaps it is something more sinister…?

Tier 3:

Experienced Preservationist: You have grown adept at forestalling decay, not only in yourself but anything organic/synthetic. +1 Armour, +2 points regen in your pools every night.

Tier 4:

Forbidden Transformations: The experiments on your body, to sustain you, to keep you from decay, are growing bolder. There is hardly any part of you on the surface that resembles the old ‘you’, but that ‘you‘ was weak anyway. That one died because it was naive. But things have changed.

Once per battle, depending on the attribute chosen last night during your most recent ‘modifications’, you can go into the corresponding form using an action:

Eldritch (Intellect): One step harder for enemies to attack mental defenses. One step easier for breaching enemy minds. (PASSIVE)
Corrupted Touch (3 intellect points): Touching one dead creature your size or smaller can start a resurrection process using your black bile. It takes one action to complete the process and the husk will be made. It listens to basic commands from the owner of the bile. It is a level 2 creature. It explodes when killed dealing Bloated Disease damage to anything in immediate range of it.

Behemoth (Might): Doubling in resilience and size, you take half damage from physical strikes. The drawback is creatures have a step easier in all types of attacks against you. (PASSIVE)
Massive grip (3 Might): a physical melee attack that constrains your foe in your grasp. Any attempt to pin, hurl or knock an enemy prone is 3 steps easier. This move does no damage.

Stalker (Speed): Your reflexes and flexibility are enhanced, your movement makes no noise. Stealth, acrobatics and speed defence are a step easier. (PASSIVE)
Howl of the Damned (3 Speed): You let out a chilling scream, every person in immediate range is stunned. If they have heard this scream once before, they are not stunned, but their next action is a step harder.

Tier 5:

…But Rises Stronger and Harder: There, lying on a table once used for experiments done on yourself is a creature. Is it a dead NPC you knew? A dead party member? A pet?
They can now be revived at the cost of not keeping your specialty in an attribute. Whatever kept you alive, you shared with them. However, they are under your control. They do not act the same as they were. Grunts, growls and silence are their favourite choices for a response. They retain muscle memory and skills. Since they are now technically a creature again, half whatever their original pool of health was. Roll a control check (Intellect) at the end of every night while they are under your control. Failure results in them exploding with bile.

Tier 6:

Experimental Weapon: Despite not specializing in that attribute, you can choose a second form on top of your first once per battle from the Forbidden Transformations.