"Hey man, we should play After Sundown during October."
"You got any special idea for it?"
"Sure dude, it all starts with the Skeleton Lord..."
This minor work is a companion to the After Sundown RPG. If you don't know how to play that game then you should really go read about that now, because this assumes familiarity with the game and it won't teach you the rules or anything. What you'll find here is primarily focused on the rules for two new creature types to be added to the game. It's inspired by a particular scenario, but there's nothing limiting their use to that scenario.
Prelude to Skeletons
"Now, listen carefully, for what I'm about to tell you really happened..."
Long ago, even before the era of Marduk, when wielders of dark magic could walk the earth as they pleased and prey upon all they found, there was a particular warlock in the far north of the world who ravaged the lands to carve out a space of his own. The warlock's true name has been lost to time, but his signature magic was a magical blast that melted the flesh, leaving only the bones behind. Those killed by the skeleton lord's magic would reanimate as skeletons, falling under his control, and adding to his skeleton army. Because of this, the warlock came to be known simply as the Skeleton Lord.
All that rises eventually falls, and the Skeleton Lord eventually ravaged too far. His undead army moved from Scandinavia across the north of Asia, and eventually into North America. After claiming nearly all of the northern ice territory for his own with little supernatural resistance, the Skeleton Lord pushed his way into the Sasquatch territories. They fought back, and eventually defeated the Skeleton Lord. However, as is the case with things, they were unable to kill him entirely. Instead, they opted to seal his remains deep within the ice for all time.
Of course, it is the nature of these things that they never last. Just as the camera begins to roll on our protagonists, the Skeleton Lord breaks free from the ice! Perhaps the stars were right, perhaps it was global warming, no one can say for sure. What we can be sure of is that the Skeleton Lord will begin skeletonizing people to rebuild his army as soon as possible, and his journey begins near a remote town in northern Canada.
Kashitoj: The Hidden Ones
"Oh, they're out there alright."
The kashitoj (with a nordic j, like "cash-it-oy", singular kashito) are distinguished from the other playable types in After Sundown primarily by the fact that they not only aren't human, but that they never were human and never even thought that they were human. They are each their own species of monstrous thing that breeds true, and they each grow up knowing full well their monstrous nature. However, it is exactly because of their monstrous nature that they were never able to really make it within the mortal world as the Vow of Silence became the new order of the night. Instead, they adapted to the age of mankind by retreating from lands that held mortals, moving far into the wilderness. To those with long memories, this is the "Way of Kash", named after the Sasquatch who was the strongest advocate for an "alternative" to the Vow of Silence.
Detailed here are three types of creature that are drawn primarily from North American myth, but there's honestly no reason that you can't have more creatures within this category.
Kashitoj are primal creatures, vulnerable to Silver and weakened by Alcohol. The most common Master Passion of a kashito is Rage.
Sasquatch
"I speak five languages, I can sing opera in two of them, and I'm a world class chess player. But, sure, just tell people about the size of my damn feet."
Sasquatch are a type of largish ape-man creature. They're covered all over in shaggy hair that is generally dark brown, gray, or black. Adult sasquatch are 2.1 meters (7ft) tall on average, and their feet actually are large compared to the size of foot that a human of similar height would have. They live in groups that range through various northern lands in North America, Asia, and Europe. Bands of sasquatch regularly come into contact with one another and there is trade and strife as one would expect with any society. Sasquatch are fairly sociable towards outsider supernaturals, and relatively easy to get along with, as long as they are shown proper respect when within what the sasquatch consider their territory. It's a lot like visiting another country, except the country is populated by huge ape-men that are made of shadow manifested. Which really isn't much weirder than a lot of the other countries you could go to within After Sundown.
Sasquatch have an Orphic power source, and a Lunar power schedule. Sasquatch automatically have the Direction Sense physical advantage.
Core Discipline: Clout
- Clinging
- Vigor
- Revive The Flesh (Basic Fortitude)
- Repel (Basic Magnetism)
- Touch of Darkness (Basic Lure of Destruction)
- Eyes of the Night (Basic Play of Shadows)
- Shadow Casting (Basic Play of Shadows)
- Hide From Notice (Basic Veil)
- Devastation (Advanced Clout)
- Indomitability (Advanced Fortitude)
Wendigo
"Yes... now pick up the axe..."
Wendigos are bestial creatures of murder, torment, and insanity. They're about 1.8m tall (6ft) with an extremely emaciated humanoid body and a head and face like a reindeer's. If reindeer had razor sharp teeth. Wendigos of both sexes have antlers that shed each year near the end of winter and that fully regrow by the beginning of summer. A wendigo's short fur is often gray or brown, and sometimes not there at all. As a wendigo ages their skin becomes more gaunt and eventually they lose patches of skin from around their torso, exposing their ribs and inner organs in a grisly fashion. This doesn't seem to harm or hamper the wendigo at all, and most wendigo consider it to be a positive sign of age that's worthy of respect.
Wendigos derive intense joy from tormenting humans, driving them mad and causing the humans to kill their own family and such. The pain of supernaturals will feed them, but it doesn't "taste" as good as a mundane creature's pain. As a result, most wendigo get along just fine with supernatural society. Supernaturals that aren't visibly inhuman often trigger a wendigo's predatory instincts though, giving them an aggressive attitude that can become grating. It's not too much worse than some things you might meet though, so to some people it's all part of the wendigo charm.
Wendigo have an Infernal power source, and a Feeding power schedule. Similar to a Baali, they don't actually consume any part of their victims when they feed, they simply need to be near others as they are injured. A wendigo's favored source is the pain of humans, but they can also subsist on animals if they must (and since most live in regions far from humans, they usually have to). A wendigo's extremely sharp claws count as Damage 1 weapons (Lethal damage).
Core Discipline: Names of the Blasphemies
- Learn the Heart's Pain
- Poison Heart
- Command (Basic Authority)
- Mesmerism (Basic Authority)
- Vigor (Basic Clout)
- Distant Reflection (Basic Progress of Glass)
- Revive the Flesh (Basic Fortitude)
- Hide from Notice (Basic Veil)
- Banishment (Advanced Name of the Blasphemies)
- Conditioning (Advanced Authority)
Agropelter
"And stay out!"
An agropelter is a sinewy creature with two arms and two legs, but their arms and legs are disproportionately long, and each have three joints in the middle rather than the normal one. Also, the joints seem to flex whichever direction the agropelter needs them to bend, not just in one direction like a normal joint, which can be very disturbing to watch. When standing at full height they are two meters tall (~6.5ft), but they usually slouch forward heavily as they skulk about. Their body is covered all over in a short and stiff fur. The exact coloration of their fur changes given a few days so that it always matches the general colors of the agropelter's home despite the season. The agropelter psychology is very wary of outsiders, and they do not form friends easily. They don't like strangers within what they view to be their territory, and tend to throw branches and other heavy objects at them from high within a tree. If you can get past that though they're usually quite pleasant, since they won't even try to eat you or anything.
Some say that agropelters are only born on Feburary 29th, and always in odd numbered groups, but the agropelters themselves insist that this is obviously nonsense. It's at least true that they don't talk about their birthdays much. But you also might avoid talking about your birthday if some vampire with crazy magic showed up asking.
Agropelters have an Astral power source, and a Ritual power schedule. By climbing into a tree or other high and distanced place an Agropelter can gain 1 power point per 10 minutes spent lurking. Agropelters automatically have the Double Jointed physical advantage.
Core Discipline: Celerity
- Quickness
- Nimble Feet
- Patience of the Mountains (Basic Fortitude)
- Clinging (Basic Clout)
- Vigor (Basic Clout)
- Grass Rope (Basic Coil of Thorns)
- Curse of Failure (Basic Trail of Tears)
- Hide from Notice (Basic Veil)
- Alacrity (Advanced Celerity)
- Devastation (Advanced Clout)
Skeletons: Bad To The Bone
Foot bone's connected to the... ankle bone. Ankle bone's connected to the...
As with ghosts and zombies, skeletons are basically formed from applying a template to a human. While the Skeletal Form power could theoretically be learned by anyone, you only count as a Skeleton if you've been killed and animated with Melt The Flesh, or your dead body has been animated with Walk of Bones. Otherwise you're just some skeletal version of your natural creature type.
As one might expect, Skeletons are weak to Wood and weakened by Sunlight. All skeletons have an Orphic power source and a Feeding power schedule. Clackers have no Master Passion, but Hollowsouls and Bonelords most commonly have Despair.
Clacker
Spooky, scary, skeletons.
Clackers are the most basic form of animate skeleton, like a skeleton spawn. When an extra is turned into a skeleton, they always become a clacker. They retain a vague form of their former personality, but their memories are foggy and hazy at best. Clackers are generally resentful of the still living and of anything that reminds them of their skeletal nature (such as mirrors or old photos), and they will attack such things with little to no provocation. Clackers are usually under the control of a necromancer though, and often don't get to make their own decisions. For simplicity, Clackers don't retain their own stats and they just use the stats below.
Stats: Str 3, Agi 4, Int 1, Log 1, Wil 1, Cha 1; No Potency, no Passions.
Skills: Athletics 4, Combat 2
Basic Powers
- Patience of the Mountains (Basic Fortitude)
- Skeletal Form (Basic Fortitude)
- Indomitability (Advanced Fortitude)
"That's the power of the bone blade!"
When a luminary gets skeletonized they become a Hollowsoul. A hollowsoul retains their old memories completely, and nearly their entire old personality as well. The biggest difference is that hollowsouls often want to be left in their new state, rather than trying to get themselves turned back into a human (if such a thing is even possible).
A hollowsoul can rip off their own limbs and shape them into weapons using dark magic (Damage rating equal to the hollowsoul's Edge). This deals 1 lethal damage to the hollowsoul, but it can be restored (including the regrowth of the limb) by Revive The Flesh like any other damage. These "bone blades" last until the next moonrise, and then turn into dust.
Hollowsouls advance like other creatures do, and once a hollowsoul's edge reaches 4 or more they are often referred to instead as a "Bone Lord".
Stats: Agility +1 (max of 7), with all other stats the same as before. Potency and Edge both set to 1 regardless of their previous values.
Skills: Athletics +1 (max of 6), other skills the same as before.
Core Discipline: Fortitude
- Patience of the Mountains
- Skeletal Form
- Revive the Flesh (Basic Fortitude)
- Vigor (Basic Clout)
- Repel (Basic Magnetism)
- Indomitability (Advanced Fortitude)
New Magic
Now, I know what you're thinking. "Lokathor, isn't there an entire section in the After Sundown book about not adding new magic to the game?", and you're right to say this. However, we're only going to add a few new abilities to the game, and they'll be part of the existing disciplines, so it should be totally fine.
Skeletal Form (Basic Fortitude)
Creatures with the Skeletal Form power are just skeletons, without any flesh on their bones. The bones stay together with evil magic and it's all suitably spooky. This is a passive effect, but extremely obvious and a total Vow of Silence break if you care about that sort of thing (the skeletons sure don't). Skeletons are immune to cold effects. They also reduce the base damage value of guns and other weapons that attack a small area (spears, bows, etc) to 0, because such attacks tend to fly right between their bones. Any net hits on the attack still apply and must be soaked as normal though. Even without lungs or a throat, somehow you can still talk.
Walk of Bones (Advanced Necromancy)
As a complex action you can spend a power point and make a Logic + Medicine or Logic + Operations (3) test to reanimate a complete skeleton within Near range (or Close range if you know any Elder Necromancy power). The skeletons of extras become Clackers under your complete control (max of 2 clackers per Willpower, extra Clackers wander off), and the skeletons of luminaries become Hollowsouls that are initially very pre-disposed to you (-2 Threshold on Social tests). Previously animated skeleton killed by weaponry of any kind thereafter count as "incomplete" enough that this power won't work on them again, but the completeness of any other skeleton is up to the MC's judgement.
Melt The Flesh (Elder Necromancy)
As a complex action you can fire a hazy purple and green beam of evil Orphic energies at any target within line of sight. This works like a ranged attack, with a base damage equal to your Logic, and the target soaks with Strength. The damage itself is Orphic in nature, so Orphic powered creatures get their normal +3 bonus on the soak test. Any target killed by this attack is instantly reanimated as per Walk of Bones (even if you don't know that power), with no power point or test required. This power has no effect on a creature with the Skeletal Form power.
Skeleton Mastery (Elder Necromancy)
You can control any number of Clackers at once, and as a simple action you can bring any number of uncontrolled clackers within line of sight under your command. If they are currently under another's control then this only works if your Potency exceeds the current controller's. Also, add your Potency on all Social tests against Hollowsouls that don't have this power.
