Background: Use these stats to repre-
sent zombies created by the Plague of the Dead Numen. These zombies seek to kill any living human in their presence; failing that, they wander about destroying any other life they can recognize. Some even attack mannequins in desperation. Tragi- cally, zombies can often remember scraps of their life — enough to allow them to act with some intelligence, but also enough to torment them as their bodies and minds rot away utterly.
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Description: They see with eyes clouded
with pus, they eat with tongues bloated with rot; these walking dead not only inspire horror from their frightful undead appearance, but they also decay at a stag- gering rate — within hours they begin swelling with necrotic gasses, oozing pus and attracting hordes of cadaverous insects.
Storytelling Hints: These shambling
dead, while amazingly strong, are not ex- tremely dangerous as individuals for a group of humans. Yet in groups, they become an overwhelming tide of unlife. Even though they have little means to resist damage, they can absorb terrific amounts of damage and remain dangerous. These zombies do no suffer wound penalties and do not differ- entiate between bashing, lethal and aggra- vated damage. After exhausting their Health attribute, begin removing points of Physical Integrity. As this trait degrades, the zombie begins losing digits, feet and even limbs — which may make some actions impos- sible, or drop their Speed. At five points, the zombie has half of its limbs, and when the trait reaches 0, there’s nothing left. Zombies cannot heal their wounds.
Attributes: Power 5, Finesse 1, Resistance 3 Willpower: 0 Initiative: 1 Defense: 0 Speed: 6 Size: 5 Weapons/Attacks:
Type Damage Dice Pool
Baseball Bat 2 (B) 8 Bite 1 (L) 7 Fist 0 (B) 2
Health: 5
Physical Integrity: 10
• Spirit Plague Weakness: The death-
aspected Essence that animates them also speeds the decomposition of their corpses. These zombies take a point of damage every three hours due to the necrotic effects of
their animating energies. All zombies created via Plague of the Dead bear this weakness. • Residual Memories Weakness:
These poor creatures are driven to murder, yet still posses a few memories of their life. When presented with a loved one or other appropriate stimulus, they will stop attack- ing — or perhaps move away whimpering for three (Resistance) minutes. After this time, the same stimulus will not work again. No one is safe for long.
• Limited Intelligence: The zombie
possesses enough intelligence to solve basic problems, such as how operate doorknobs, unlatch gates and use simple hand-to-hand weapons.
• Quick Movement: The zombie’s
Speed equals Power + Finesse (rather than just its Finesse)
• Vicious Bite: The zombie inflicts lethal
damage with its bite.
• Possession (R): The spirit can attempt to possess a living human being and control his or her body for a short time. Spend one Essence point and roll Power + Finesse in a contested roll versus the victim’s Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance. If the spirit wins, it gains control of the victim’s body for the duration of a single scene. Use the victim’s available traits (except Willpower points, which are equal to the spirit’s current Willpower points) and dice pools for any action the spirit wishes to take. If the mortal wins or ties the roll, the spirit fails its possession attempt. As long as the spirit has Essence points remaining, it can continue to make possession attempts against a target. If a possessed body is killed or knocked unconscious, the spirit is forced out and must possess another victim if the spirit still wishes to act. This is the Numen used by the Spirit-Thieves (p. 174). The most reliable way to break the bond between a spirit using the Possession Numina and its host is to force the host into contact with the spirit’s ban.
• Rapture (R): Many spirits favor subtle controls
over their fleshy pawns, but some use this vile short- term method for greater control. With this Numen, the spirit can tap into the pleasure centers of a will- ing creature’s mind and soul, granting the creature’s ecstatic visions, immense pleasure and a sense of communion with the otherworld. In fact, this Nu-
Spirit Creation
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Chapter Four-Denizens of Shadow men is a low-level possession, a melding of ephemera and soul carefully steered by the spirit to elicit primal responses from the target. For one turn, the victim is completely incapacitated — perhaps babbling in the Spirit Tongue, dancing or even growling. For a number of hours after this effect (8 – Stamina), the victim feels charged and sure of her devotion to the spirit’s cause, receiving +2 on any roll when acting in accord with her ravisher’s desires. All other dice pools are at –2. Unfortunately, such intimate contact with an alien mind can cause damage to the target’s psyche. If the target fails a Resolve + Supernatural Tolerance roll, she gains a temporary derangement for a number of days equal to the spirit’s Power, or until she is no longer under the effect of this Numen, whichever is longer. The derangements that result are almost always ones that further bind the victim to spirit’s desires (fixations, compulsions, and so on.) Alternately, and depending upon circumstance, the Storyteller may rule that this act is effectively a Level 4 Sin. Furthermore, victims begin to build up a toler- ance to the Numen, dropping the duration of the effect (halving the time for each rapture experienced in the same month). Each exposure to this Numen lowers the resistance to any of the spirit’s other powers, a cumulative –1, maximum –5; these penalties fade at a rate of one per day. This Numen costs two points of Essence and may only be used if the spirit is on this side of the Gauntlet and touching the target or with the Reaching Numen.
• Reaching: This Numen allows a spirit to use its other Numina through the Gauntlet. Roll Power + Finesse, modified by the strength of the Gauntlet (p. 46) to successfully create a resonant conduit through the Gauntlet for the spirit to use its next Numen. Reaching lasts for the duration of the next scene and moves with the spirit. This conduit exists in Twilight in our reality, and though it cannot be directly tar- geted, creatures with the ability to perceive objects in Twilight may be able to spot it, though it is difficult (–4). Reaching costs one Essence.
• Rebirth: This Numen is possessed only by con-
ceptual spirits of choirs associated with reincarnation, or karma. Rebirth represents a process that, once be- gun, must be completed within one week (seven days), or else the benefits are lost. The spirit must first Claim a human body, either mortal or Awakened (a mage). The spirit must then kill and devour two more people within the next seven days. (If the Claimed victim was a mage, the other victims must also be a mage.) During this time, the spirit stores the souls of those it kills. Once it kills its third victim, it then restores
one of those victims to life with renewed youth in a transformed version of the Claimed body: the body is biologically 18 years old, although it ages normally from then on. The other souls are then released, to go to their proper fates. If the spirit cannot complete its task of killing two more mages within a week after the first death, none of its victims are reborn. This Numen can only be used once upon a particular soul to rebirth its material body. Once this Numen has played out, the spirit is involuntarily subject to the effects of the Discorporation Numen. Roll Power + Resistance; if successful, the spirit discorporates and reforms elsewhere in the Shadow Realm (probably at a locus it is familiar with).
• Regenerate: The spirit can use Essence to regen- erate Corpus. There is no dice pool for this Numen. Once activated, the spirit automatically regenerates one level of damage per turn. It regenerates bashing damage first, then lethal. This Numen costs one Es- sence per turn. Aggravated damage must be healed normally.
• Savant: This spirit is particularly skilled in the
use of another Numen. Savant may be purchased for any other Numen that requires a roll, adding three dice to that pool. This Numen may be purchased more than once, but only for another Numen.
• Seek: The spirit can sense an event or thing directly related to its sphere(s) of influence. For ex- ample, a spirit of death can sense a dying person and even gauge how long before the end, while a tree-spirit of the dogwood descant can home in on the nearest grove. Said spirits would not sense a skeleton or an apple orchard, however, because those things are not technically in their purview. The spirit rolls Finesse. Success gives the spirit a general impression of direc- tion and distance to the target. Functional distance is approximately a radius of two miles; by spending an Essence point, the spirit may extend the radius by a factor of 10. If there is more than one influence in the radius, the spirit will understand that there is a plurality (though not the exact number) but will be drawn toward the closest.
• Sleep Eater: This insidious Numen allows a
spirit to rob hours of sleep of its victims. Spend one point of Essence and roll Power + Finesse – the target’s Stamina + Supernatural Tolerance. Each success rep- resents an hour’s worth of sleep lost. These can only be recovered through normal sleep. After the spirit eats six hours of the target’s sleep, the target begins suffer- ing the effects of fatigue (see the World of Darkness
Rulebook, p. 179) as if he had not slept in 24 hours.
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another day’s sleep, and he suffers a cumulative –1 die penalty to all dice pools and must make Stamina + Resolve rolls or fall asleep. A person may only lose a number of days worth of sleep equal to the lowest of his Stamina or Resolve before passing out.
• Soul Harvest: This Numen is a more powerful
version of Soul Snatch that also functions against supernaturals who possess a soul. As with that Nu- men, Soul Harvest functions just as the Claim Numen except that success on the spirit’s part means it grasps the victim’s soul instead of Riding its body. The victim must succeed upon a Stamina roll or fall unconscious. Even if conscious, the victim may not spend points of Willpower, expend points of a supernatural power trait or use any supernatural ability without the con- sent of the Harvester spirit. The victim cannot regain Willpower if its soul has been harvested. The spirit has full knowledge of its victim’s thoughts and actions, no matter its location. If the supernatural has an Essence trait, the being may use these points of Essence as its own. It may also choose to feed upon the victim’s soul at its leisure. Each hour the spirit does so, it gains two points of Essence per dot consumed — feeding first on its prey’s Willpower then its dots of Supernatural Advantage. Each hour that the spirit is feeding, the victim must again succeed upon a Stamina roll or fall unconscious due to the pain. When the spirit is finished feeding, the creature’s soul is destroyed.
• Soul Snatch: This is a rare but terrifying Nu-
men, allowing the spirit to steal the soul of a mortal. This acts just as the Claim Numen except that success on the spirit’s part means it grasps the victim’s soul instead of Riding its body. The spirit can then do with the soul what it will. Most spirits that have this Numen slowly devour the soul, gaining Essence equal to twice the victim’s Willpower dots. Certain high- ranking spirits have been known to have a version of this Numen that allows them to snatch the soul of a supernatural (if it possesses one).
• Speed: This Numen confers uncanny swiftness upon the spirit, allowing it to move at a much more rapid pace than usual. The spirit may spend two points of Essence to move at twice its normal Speed for the duration of the scene. If the spirit spends an additional two points of Essence (for a total of four), the spirit’s Speed triples for the duration of the scene. This Nu- men may affect the physical form of a Materialized spirit, but not a physical fetter.
• Spirit Minions: The spirit has made compacts
with minor spirits for aid in times of need — bonds much stronger than court or brood. These underling spirits will unfailingly come to help defend their mas-
ter, though they will normally flee when their Corpus or Essence reaches one quarter of their maximum. Spirits with this Numen can only command the ser- vice of spirits substantially weaker than themselves. The number of spirits in service is directly related to their number of ranks below their leader. A spirit may have the fealty of one spirit that is one rank below them, but two spirits that are two ranks below them, and so on. These servitors cost time, and Essence to maintain; this is reflected by effectively lowering the maximums for the master spirit. Each spirit kept in fealty lowers the Willpower by one and lowers the maximum Essence of the commanding spirit by the to- tal ranks of the spirits in its service. If a major war-spirit (Rank 4) spirit kept two lesser war-spirits (Rank 2) in fealty, the commanding spirit’s maximum Willpower would be reduced by 2 and maximum Essence by 4. Activating this Numen costs one point of Essence for each spirit summoned. The spirit makes a Finesse roll and subtracts the result from 5. This is the number of rounds until their servitors arrive, minimum of one. Servants always appear in the Shadow, though their master may call them from the material realm.
• Spirit Venom: This Numen allows the spirit to inject its opponent with a form of spiritual venom after a successful blow or bite, causing damage and befouling its enemy’s own reserve of spiritual energy. After a successful strike in hand-to-hand combat, the spirit may spend one to three points of Essence to inject a supernatural venom into its foe. The venom inflicts an additional point of damage for every point of Essence spent. In addition, the victim must succeed at a Stamina roll, or lose one point of Essence for each point of Essence the spirit spent. This corrupt- ing effect also works on other forms of supernatural energy, though to lesser extent. A target that doesn’t use Essence will lose only one point of his reservoir to the spirit-venom, no matter how much Essence the spirit spent.
• Spiritual Vision: This Gift allows a spirit in the physical world, whether fettered or in Twilight, to peer into the spirit world for a short period of time. Roll the spirit’s Power + Finesse – Gauntlet modifier. The number of successes indicates the number of minutes the spirit can activate this ability. This Numen is particular to spirits that have spent a great deal of time in the physical world.
• Stalwart: The spirit’s concept is bound up with
defense and determination, making it difficult to dam- age. Perhaps the spirit’s very nature encompasses the concepts of protection, resistance or guardianship. Nonetheless, its Defense trait is not based upon raw
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Chapter Four-Denizens of Shadow muscle or nimbleness; the spirit’s Defense is equal to its Resistance. This may be reflected by a thick hide or even armor.
• Swarm Form: This Numen allows a spirit to
break up its body into thousands of tiny parts — it might appear as a mass of whirling razor blades, a flock of starlings, school of piranha or a swarm of beetles. Treat the spirit’s Power as 1 for feats of Strength. The spirit’s Defense also drops to 0. The spirit’s speed is halved, but it may gain flight or be able to squeeze through small openings in this form. The spirit be- comes immune to most melee and missile attacks, such as baseball bats and Uzis. Only weapons such as torches, flamethrowers or area effect attacks cause the creature damage in this form. The spirit dam- ages other creatures by enveloping them. A creature caught within the swarm at the beginning of its turn takes damage automatically. Damage is determined by the intensity of the swarm. The swarm begins with a radius in yards equal to the Size of the spirit and does one bashing damage. Each time the radius halves (a standard action), the damage increases by one. Full- body armor provides half protection, less than full body affords no protection as the small creatures find their mark. This Numen costs two points of Essence and lasts for a scene. Swarm creatures can choose to do lethal damage, by sacrificing their constituent parts. All creatures caught within a swarm suffer –2 to Mental checks.
• Telekinesis (R): This Numen allows the spirit to manipulate objects without Materializing. Spirits can cause swings to begin moving by themselves or hurl dishes, toys or blackboard erasers across a room. This Numen generally does not allow for extended fine motor skills such as manipulating a writing implement to pen a message; however, simple scrawlings in blood or fogged bathroom mirrors are possible. Spend one Essence point and roll Power + Finesse; the number of successes rolled determines the object’s relative Strength when attempting to lift, move or throw an object. For more information, see the “Telekinesis Nu- men,” the World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 212.
• Telepathy: All spirits speak the Spirit Tongue,
and with effort, can often manage to communicate with others, however imperfectly. Spirits with this Nu- men can reach out and link their minds with others, allowing instantaneous and reliable communication. The spirit rolls Power + Finesse. If resisted, subtract the target’s Resolve + Supernatural Advantage. This experience is never pleasant for a mortal — being that intimate with an alien mind is profoundly disturbing. For the next 24 hours, any rolls to avoid a derange-
ment are made at –1 for each scene spent in contact with a spirit’s mind.
• Thieve: Similar to the Abduct Numen (above), but in this case the spirit may take physical, non-living objects across the Gauntlet. The spirit must first either dwell on the material side of the Gauntlet (using Ma- terialize or Gauntlet Breach) or at least have a conduit beyond the Shadow (using the reaching Numen). If this is established, the spirit can pull a small object through the Gauntlet and into the Shadow. The object may not have Size greater than the spirit’s own Power. Spend a single Essence and roll the spirit’s Power + Finesse – Gauntlet modifier. If the roll is successful, the object crosses over and becomes part of the Shadow temporarily. The object can last in the Shadow for a number of minutes equal to the spirit’s Finesse. After that, the item crosses back over the Gauntlet at the