[Cryptworld] The Month Of Things: Bloody Bones

A Gruesome Ghoul  for Cryptworld

BLOODY BONES

STR: 4 (60) --- WPR: 3 (45)
DEX: 3 (45) --- PER: 3 (45)
AGL: 3 (45) --- PCN: 3 (45)
STA: 6 (90) --- PWR: NA
ATT: 1/53% --- WND: 15
MV:  L 75†

Experience: 700

A bloody bones appears as a skeletal creature covered in blood and gore that glistens wetly. Loose strips of muscle and tendon hang from its skeletal body, and a pair of lidless eyes glare from its eye sockets. Although it could be mistaken for a skeleton or zombie, a bloody bones is much worse.

A bloody bones is form of The Created (Cryptworld rule book, page 56). Although constructed from bones, flesh, and tissue as though it were a composite man, the bloody bones is brought to life through magical means, usually an arcane ritual or deal made with demonic forces. One animated, the bloody bones is locked into servitude of the one who created it. The bloody bones will obey the first order given to it by its creator. (This request is usually one of murderous revenge.) Once its task is completed, however, the hold its master had is broken, and the bloody bones regains its free will. Since it was brought to life to cause terror, it continues in this vein once freed.

A free-willed bloody bones sows mayhem, terror, and discord, delighting in the fear its visage causes. Its favorite victims are children, teasing and terrorizing them for weeks and months at a time. To enhance the fear caused, the bloody bones allows its prey to catch fleeting glimpses every few days, appearing at a distance or at a window. It may torment a cherished pet, threaten to harm the child's parents, or commit acts of deranged mayhem that only the "chosen" child witnesses. Sightings of a bloody bones is usually attributed by children to "the boogeyman," which is another of the bloody bones' many other identifiers. Since it keeps itself well-hidden during this tortuous time, players may have to set a trap of sorts to bring the roaming bloody bones out into the open.

A bloody bones attacks through the use of its bony claws and teeth, savagely biting and rending its victim (treat as armed combat). A bloody bones takes normal Stamina and Wound damage from physical attacks. Once it has been taken to zero Wounds, the bloody bones collapses in a bloody heap to the ground. The creature will reform in 1 hour unless its bones are sprinkled with holy water to purge the blasphemous magicks that initially formed the thing.