REAWAKENED HORROR

Ghastly revenants

There had, it seems, been some truth in chimerical old Borellus when he wrote of preparing from even the most antique remains certain “Essential Saltes” from which the shade of a long-dead living thing might be raised up. There was a formula for evoking such a shade, and another for putting it down; […] One must be careful about evocations, for the markers of old graves are not always accurate.

—The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, 1927

Raising a dead person is a complicated process with many things that can go wrong. Be it that when using the Essential Salts ritual, the body was not fully present. Be it that the corpse wasn’t fresh enough or the composition of the vital elixir wasn’t correct. And other methods of revival may have their pitfalls as well. Ideally, the being is resurrected in its original form in an intact body. It is more likely, however, that the resurrection will not be so ideal. Sometimes all that comes back is a screaming, drooling, misshapen lump of flesh with just too many limbs and mouths, driven by sheer madness and primitive instincts.

But even such a horror may still have memories that can be revived, for after all, the gathering of information is often the reason for a revival. In addition to controlling the being and maintaining its condition, communication is then often difficult, since both the madness afflicts the formerly dead body and the right languages ​​and communication methods must be used.

SPECIAL POWERS 

Frenzy: This horribly disfigured creature lashes and bites frantically, performing two melee attacks at once. The frenzy penalty is already applied to the attack value.

Unnatural Organism: A misshapen lump of flesh revealing no weaknesses or particularly significant body areas. Targeting to increase damage is therefore not possible, nor are critical hits. However, the creature still takes regular damage.

Unnatural Tenacity: The creature has an additional 15 HP that does not result from its CON or ST.

Confused Group (optional): Accidentally using the Essential Salts by multiple people can also return a greater horror. In this case, several Resurrected Horrors are simply grouped together into a fused group. The parts of the merged group attack simultaneously and can only move together. Each part has two attacks with 30% hit chance as usual and deals 1d6+2 HP on hit. However, the parts together form a single target of the large size category and add their HP to a common value. Every time the merged group has suffered 30 HP, a part dies and can no longer attack. An overgrown group causes a san loss of 1d6/1d12 instead of 1d4/1d10.

Resistance to piercing and firearms: All spot damage is halved. This also means that a weapon’s lethality value is halved on lethality rolls against a resilient target. A successful lethality roll kills the creature. A critical hit doesn’t halve the damage, but it doesn’t double it either.

Yog-Sothothery: Gaining the knowledge of long-dead spirits can be both a powerful driving force for non-player characters and a final straw for characters in the course of investigations. The moral abysses that result from this should be the reason for far-reaching consequences, which ideally can be addressed in cutscenes or even in their own episodes.

REAWAKENED HORROR, Ghastly revenants

STR: 18

CON: 12

DEX: 4

INT: 4

POW:10 

HP: 30

Damage Bonus/Lethality: +#D#

Build: Medium

Willpower Points: 10

ATTACKS

Attacks per round: 2

Fighting attacks: .

slash/bite 2x 30%, damage 1d6+2 (see frenzy ).

Dodge: ##%

Armor: see Stabbing and Firearm Resistance and Unnatural Organism.

Skills: Athletics 30%, Stealth 20%, Vigilance 50%.

Rituals: None

Sanity Loss: 1d4/1d10