Horrific Ends


The following are special weapons that the armies of the Labyrinth might bring to bear against its enemies.

Most of these will only be handed out in cases where the usual Spectral tactics of Overwhelm, Overkill and Overcome are failing, due to the strength of a Citadel or the valiant nature of its defenders. It might also take anywhere from a few Scenes to an entire day {or a week} for word to get from the Shadowlands to the Labyrinth and the response to be given, either with new materials or stark silence.

 

Angst Weapons: +2 to Shadow Artifact Cost {Max 5}

Angst Weapons are bladed weapons that have had crystals of raw Angst worked into the blade. The process of implanting them is lengthy and dangerous, and is also considered to be heretical to the Labyrinth's "proper" soulforgers. However, when the process is done, the weapon acts as a battery and conductor for Angst, granting the user the ability to suck the power of foes and use it.

SYSTEM: Angst Weapons do whatever damage a weapon of its type normally does - bashing, lethal or aggravated - and does not add anything to the damage roll.

What it does, however, is take an amount of Temporary Angst from the target with a successful hit. The drain is equal to the damage the weapon does after the soak roll, if any, minus one. {ie. If Zyras does five damage to a Doppleganger who gets in Her way, and he only soaks one, her sword drains three Angst from him}.

If the weapon strikes a spectre, the Angst is drained straightaway. If it doesn't have enough Angst to cover the drain, it loses a level of Corpus in its place, instead. The Corpus is turned into Angst by the hungry sword.

If the weapon strikes a wraith, the Angst is drained from the Shadow, instead. If the Shadow doesn't have enough Temporary Angst to cover the drain, it "breaks" a point of Permanent Angst to get what it needs.

An Angst Weapon can store up to ten points of Angst, and any Spectre can drain as many points as it would like in a single turn from it. If the sword's crystals are full, then Angst is still drained, but turns into sparks of black, evil lightning that course and arc behind the sword.

{And lest any wraith think that this weapon would be an effective tool in Castigation - think again. If a wraith is foolish enough to even touch one, all Angst in the weapon goes right into the wraith, there to feed its Shadow. And using it in battle garners the same result: all Angst gathered by the sword travels straight from the crystals into the wraith.}

 

Shard Weapons: +2 to Shadow Artifact Cost {Max 5}

A Shard Weapon is any bladed weapon that has been made from a jagged, sharp piece of pure Oblivion. Sometimes these shards of The Void seem like immense, rasping crystal blades with a pulsing dark green, blood-red or lunar blue hue. And sometimes they seem like sharp-edged pieces of starless, eternal night - possessing a darkness from which no light can escape. Both kinds are equally dangerous in combat, and outright suicidal for wraiths to carry.

SYSTEM: Shard Weapons act much like Stygian Steel when it comes to dealing damage to wraiths. The damage for a weapon is equal to the amount of a normal weapon of its type {Dagger, Sword, etc.} but the damage taken is always Aggravated. Spectres, on the other hand, lose a point of Permanent Corpus for each level of damage they take, which is another reason why these weapons are rightly feared by the Labyrinth.

In addition, whenever a wraith takes damage from a Shard Weapon, her Shadow may be strengthened. On a wound, roll the Shadow's highest Dark Passion at a Difficulty of 8. Each success grants a dot of Temporary Angst. And should a wraith get her hands on one, she gains a point of Temporary Angst every turn she uses it in combat.

Shard Weapons can cleave through Stygian Steel armor, as though it were ordinary Soulsteel, but can be broken by weapons made from Stygian Steel - especially Glisten, which was made by the Legion of Fate prior to the fall of the Hierarchy.

 

Oblivion Gas: Specially-Requested Ordinance

Tales have been told of large plumes of black, choking smoke that come from strange, semi-organic "bombs" left on the field of battle. Wraiths who enter these plumes either run out screaming, or come out as Dopplegangers, instead. And this is because these clouds of smoke are clouds of pure Oblivion, rendered down into gaseous form and let loose.

SYSTEM: Any wraiths who are fully inside the cloud can have their Temporary Angst increased by a certain amount each turn, depending on how strong the gas is. One small blessing is that the gas doesn't hold together for long: the stuff that just came out of a dispenser has a strength of 10, while gas that's a half a mile away will be down to one, no matter how thick it looks.

Wraiths can resist, but it's not easy. They must roll Stamina + Eidolon to soak, at Difficulty 7. Relic gas-masks alone will not protect a wraith from the gunk, as it's possible to be absorbed through the "skin," just like nerve gas.

The gas is thick, no matter how "strong" it actually is. It reduces visibility to the point where six dice are subtracted from all relevant Perception-based rolls inside of it, and none can see from one side to the other while outside of it.

 

Oblivion Guns: +2 to the Level of the Relic gun

So-called Oblivion Guns are more or less what they sound like: weapons specially made to shoot shards of pure Oblivion into targets. They might look like especially-rusted and taped-together guns, but they are rather deadly for their seeming uselessness. These are usually used by snipers in hiding, or "officers" of the Labyrinth as a demoralization weapon.

SYSTEM: Oblivion Guns work the same as any other Relic gun, only they require Angst, rather than Pathos, to fire. They can also have Bloodfire crystals worked onto them for this purpose.

The difference is in the damage. Instead of doing normal, bashing damage to the wraith's Corpus, the Shards of Oblivion act like a virulent poison. Anyone who is shot and damaged must face 6 dice of Lethal damage, which can only be soaked using Eidolon. And the wraith must continue to soak, turn after turn, until all the shards of Oblivion are found and excised from the body - something that requires either a successful Dexterity + Medicine roll {Diff 8} or Moliation to do.

And if the shards can't be found, worse yet is in store. Should the wraith lose all Temporary Corpus, she won't go into a Harrowing. Instead, a dot of Permanent Corpus is permanently lost, and the damage continues through the ten Temporary Corpus its loss provides. Tales have been told of unfortunate wraiths literally flaking away to nothing because they just couldn't locate that one, last sliver of darkness...

But these weapons are also dangerous to their users as well. Should a spectre botch a firing roll, the gun literally explodes. And this does ten dice of Aggravated damage to its holder, as the shards of Oblivion take their rightful due.

 

Maggot Bombs: 1 pt Grenade, 2 pt bomb, or Specially-Requested Ordinance

Maggot Revolvers are infamous, and for good reason, but these things are worse. They follow the same general principle as the gun, but have a scattered effect, showering a burst of burrowing Shadow Maggots in all directions. The maggots don't "live" long after the blast, but anyone caught in it might not "live" that long, either.

SYSTEM: The weapon is either a grenade {4 dice of damage}, a bomb {8 dice}, or artilery shells of one size or another{12 or 16}. Anyone within the blast range suffers damage, if they can't soak it, as per the rules for Shadow Maggots on pg. 21 of Buried Secrets. The damage should be considered Lethal, and the cure is the same as what's provided there, too.


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