monster compendium for the tdm

[vestigemods]

monsters for the first test drive within the comments

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the wraith.

[vestigemods]

THE URN sits on top of a stack of framed photos, as if the entire contents of the upstairs mantelpiece have been moved to this forlorn basement shelf. It's tilted a bit precariously, at no risk of spilling with with how firmly the lid seems glued into place, but at definite risk of toppling and shattering on the floor. Once you notice it, it's hard to resist reaching out to try to straighten the pile or to set the urn somewhere safer.

But of course, no good deed goes unpunished.

At first, it sounds like a fierce sort of wind has picked up, whistling outside and even through the cracks in the cabin above. A chill settles over the basement, perhaps sending your thoughts to the fireplace upstairs. What better place to wait out some sort of storm, right? But it quickly becomes apparent that this is no storm, and that the whistling is no mere wind, as that very sound picks up into a low and lasting shriek with no apparent end in sight. If you follow the sound back upstairs, you'll find THE WRAITH, appearing only as a skeletal face swirling amidst a thick cloud of what looks like fog. It's even colder here than it was in the basement, your breath visible in the air in front of you, and it seems to originate from this spectral entity in front of you. On the plus side, the wraith seems to have stopped screaming. But that is, unfortunately, the only plus side.

The wraith's primary objective is to leech the life from a human and into itself in order to give itself corporeal form. It does so by swooping in close and inhaling the life from its target, then swooping away again the moment it feels it may be in danger. While it only really needs the equivalent of one full human life to corporealize and can reasonably take that from more than one person and leave each victim more-or-less alive, the wraith places no value on human life and will (if possible) continue to harass the same victim repeatedly by virtue of being the weaker target. Victims of the wraith will find that their body grows more and more fatigued while their mind and emotions grow more and more dulled.

Once the wraith gains corporeal form, it actually weakens significantly. The skeletal face disappears back into the fog, and the fog clears away to reveal... a normal human being, pale and overly thin. This human will rush to the kitchen to grab the nearest knife and attempt to make its way to the front door to escape, knife wielding in threat. If allowed, the wraith-turned-man will open the door (wasn't that locked?) and disappear off into the night... Taking you or your companion's life force along with it.

The wraith can't be killed through physical means, at least not in its spectral form, and supernatural combat from those who are skilled in fighting ghosts will find that their techniques do work, but not as well as they might hope. By far the simplest way to kill the wraith is to allow it to gain corporeal form and kill it in its brand new fragile body, though by then it has posed all the threat it seems ready to pose. Those who do kill the wraith-turned-human before it escapes find their life force rushing back into their bodies, invigorating them. Those who let the lanky knife man escape must begin the slow and grueling process of recovering on their own - and it might very well take days before they stop feeling at least a little bit weak and hollow inside.