GLoGtober Day 3: Portals Aren't Real(ly Viable)

 In my game, magic is certainly bountiful and alive, in a bunch of different ways. Some folks will supernatural things into conformity. Others stitch and purl the omnipresent Veil into a shape more fitting. Rarely, one finds themselves to be subject to more eldritch forces. But no-one, as of yet, as figured out a way to maintain a stable portal. "It's too dangerous" some scholars scoff. "I prefer my soul stay in my body, thank you." others posit. There have certainly been attempts at creating portals. Most end in catastrophe, spawning horrible Denizens as they tear across the fabric of reality into the material world. Best as anyone can tell, the closest one can come is teleportation. It is fast, and difficult, and admittedly limited, but it has the benefit of not allowing souls and other entities from Beyond to enter the realm of the living. Certain sects of the Cult of the Weaver claim to have opened them long enough to allow a horse-drawn cart through, and it is true. What they neglect to say, is cart is the only thing to make out the other side the same way it entered. It seems that in these limited experiments, some entity took the souls of those that crossed in the cart as a sort of toll, if the horse can be believed. The Natural-Industrialist faction of Port City claims that such research is ultimately pointless, and they may have a point if the rumors of a lantern-based messaging system can be believed. Allegedly, in the next three years, ships will be able to communicate remotely at distances greater than two nautical miles.

GLoGtober Day 2: Monsters!

I have decided to hop on the GLoGtober train, and jump feet first into the Monster category for day 2. I rolled my d6 and now I have to figure out something "strange and utterly unique" which fortunately fits really well with Denizens from my homebrew game Beyond the Veil. Now the challenge is coming up with something suitably monstrous. I don't have stats for it currently, but I will probably edit them in later.

Skeleton Knights

While resurrection from the dead is impossible, fragments of souls can be forcibly ripped back across the Veil and bound to bodies. More rarely, souls that feel a particularly strong sense of duty in death don't fully cross over and partially occupy their former body. They have no sense of their former selves, only the overpowering urge to defend a location against any and all intruders. This includes the people they formerly defended. Painless, unstoppable, animated by an intangible force, and utterly ruthless, the only hope to defeat a Skeleton Knight is to utterly destroy what it is protecting. Should a single stone remain in place, a single member of a family line still surviving, the Knight will rise at the next sunset to resume its duties. 

Skeleton Knight, Determination +3

Condition: If part of the original object, place, or lineage of protection still exists when the Skeleton Knight is killed, it will rise again at the next sunset, completely unharmed. 

Cause: Protectors dying with an overwhelming sense of duty to protect and serve preventing the spirit from fully traversing beyond the Veil.

Attacks: Longsword (2yd), Shortbow (2H, 40yds)

Armor: Broken Plate-mail (TAL, AV 2)

Active Turn(s): K, J

Abilities:

• Lack of Vitals - This creature is completely immune to all poisons, diseases and mind-altering abilities and effects.
• Lifeless Devotion - The Skeleton Knight always knows the absolute direction of the location of the person, place, or thing it was connected to in life.
• March, Unceasing - If the Skeleton Knight becomes Critical, instead a limb falls off. It may take an action to reattach that limb and become Healthy. It may do this Aspect number of times.
• Cleave the Veil - Once a day, a Skeleton Knight can make an Aspect check while focusing on a corpse. If it succeeds, a spirit is forced to manifest under its command, puppetting the corpse. The power of this ability melts the flesh, leaving only burnt bones.
• Denizen - This creature knows nothing of remorse or fear and is obviously supernatural. It will not flee nor surrender and is immune to Scared.

Skeleton Knight Footman, Determination +0

Condition: Destroy the skull, it houses the spirit. Cannot be created from a headless corpse. The corpse must be human.

Cause: Forced into existence through the sheer willpower of a Skeleton Knight, they exist only to serve their master.

Attack: Thrash (1yd, Rapid*)

Armor: As the body used.

Active Turn: 5

Abilities:

• Lack of Vitals - This creature is completely immune to all poisons, diseases and mind-altering abilities and effects.
  
• Denizen - This creature knows nothing of remorse or fear and is obviously supernatural. It will not flee nor surrender and is immune to Scared.

*Rapid: Two attacks per turn with this attack. Gotta remember to add this to the master list!

Credit to ikametreveli on Deviant Art