Excellent. You will avoid the child entirely, or perhaps only drain him to unconsciousness so that you can slip stealthily away into the night, unseen and ready to begin your designs from a position of stealth. This is a wise and calculated move, the best choice you can possibly make, so that will be your course of action.
Or...
You grab the child by the throat and drain the life force from him in a thunderous torrent, leaving dark finger marks burned into the flesh of his neck. The rush of energy revitalises you, but you stop just short of killing the poor thing. As you do so, you begin singing your mocking song.
Mike, the wight...
is the right wight...
opposer of light...
suffer my blight!
The ploy works as expected and a pair of humans - presumably the child's parents - emerge from the house. They aren't particularly well armed; the husband has a cudgel, the wife a cooking knife. You waggle their child at them.
"Ah, ah, ah!" you say.
"There's no need to be so unfriendly. Young Timmy here - or whatever his name is - was just enjoying a cheerful sing-song with me. I must say, he got so into it he's all tuckered out.""What do you want, you monster?" demands the farmer.
"I just want to have a sing-song with some friends. Tell you what. How about you sing along with me and I promise you on my own grave that nothing bad will happen to your son. Sound fair?"[11+5 - No skill, but you have their child.] The farmer raises his hands, as does his wife.
"Okay, whatever you say. Just don't harm Michael."
"Michael, you say? What a surprise! That's my name! Now, put down those nasty weapons and we'll all kneel down and have a sing song, shall we?""What do you wa-"
"I want you to kneel.""But wh-"
"Kneel, mortal."
The farmer and his wife both kneel, tossing their weapons to the ground. You gently set Michael down, patting him on the head.
"Much better. Now, sing along with me. It goes Mike the wight...""Mike... the wight..."
"Is the right wight!""Is the right wight..."
"Oh come on. That's utterly tuneless. Try harder. Opposer of Light!"The farmer and his wife just stare at you.
"Well, you're no fun at all."You lunge forward with both hands [9+3] and grab the farmer by the arm, the farmer's wife by the neck. You drain life from the farmer, leaving a dark, rotten handprint on his arm. His wife struggles as you draw the essence from her throat, weakening her. [13] The farmer breaks free of your grip and punches you in the face, breaking your jaw. His wife grabs hold of your hand and snaps your wrist.
"No - fuh - ah - aww."[20!] You latch onto the farmer's face with your free hand and drain him until he collapses from exhaustion, then turn your attention to his wife. To her dismay, she watches as the bones of your broken wrist re-knit themselves and return to full functioning order. [10+3] You grab hold of her face with both hands and drain until her skin shrivels up and turns grey, and her eyes pop from the strain. As she dies, you feel a burst of extra energy suffuse you. You feel buzzed, excited. Your jaw has mended itself as well.
You turn around and pick up Michael, then hold him in front of his barely conscious father until you are sure the farmer has your attention.
"I would like you to know an interesting thing about me, sir. Are you listening?"You drain his son until he practically crumbles in your hand.
"I lie."
Well, you've murdered two thirds of a family and the remaining piece of it is broken and completely at your mercy. And most importantly, you had
fun. You feel pretty buzzed after the exchange, and you can feel the energy running through you, strengthening you. That's the power of draining humans.
You have acquired a new meter,
Buzz. Buzz represents drained power above and beyond that needed to feed or heal you, and is only gained by draining sentient creatures. You can use Buzz to activate special abilities (such as Frenzy), and it also allows you to build up your stats. The base cap of Buzz is 5, but it will rise to equal your current highest stat (Might/Guile/Will).
By spending 5 Buzz, you can permanently raise your Health by 1. By spending Buzz equal to one of your current stats, you can raise that stat by 1. By default, surplus Buzz will raise Health instead of stats, but you can choose what to raise with it.
If you are particularly low on health, Buzz will be spent on a 1:1 basis, and if you are starving 5 Buzz will equal one day's worth of sustenance. Otherwise, Buzz will be preserved in favour of developing your strength.
Mike the Wight
Health: 11/11
Buzz: 3/5
Might: 3
Stealth: 4
Will: 3
Sustenance: 1 Day
Drain Life: On a successful attack, drains life directly from the victim and adds to your health pool, or to sustenance. No cost.
Create Wight: A victim you have recently drained of all life can be brought back as a wight under your complete control. Cost: Health. The total health you spend creating the wight will be its new (and total) health. This is a permanent subtraction from your own health. The new wight's stats will be half of your own (no subtraction).
Frenzy: If you are sufficiently buzzed up, you can turn some of that into rage to keep you fighting. Effectively increases your Might by 50% during a single fight. Cost: 4 Buzz / [Might] Buzz (whichever is higher).
No mage training!
Author
Topic: Wight [ISG/TSG] (Read 18534 times)