Wrath
But what grabbed me was this special power from the valuable gemstones contained in a Wrath:
1 in 6 such gemstones are permanently imbued with stolen life essence. These stones heal the bearer 1 hit point per day on top of other factors, such as rest and magical healing.
Okay, so you kill this life-sucking semi-undead being that wounds people badly enough to force them to recover by rest or just simple piles of healing spells. You take a gemstone out of it which is "permanently imbued with stolen life essence." And this heals you 1 HP per day.
From someone else's life essence.
Whose?
Does this add up over time, day in, day out, as injuries are healed by it, slowly letting that personality accrete into yours.
Perhaps, in GURPS, this would mean you eventually add on disadvantages from the new personality. Or eventually add Split Personality.
If the stolen spirit is evil, this could be warping. If it was good - say, of a saintly or genuinely good person - it could be reinforcing your positive nature. Maybe these eventually come with positive traits, too, tied to the bad ones. Or at least, traits useful to the bad ones.
Maybe it doesn't come with a downside . . . but you can use that gem to Resurrect the slain victim, or perhaps just to speak with him, her, or it by Summon Spirit. Or perhaps even without. Maybe it's a conduit to the afterlife in both directions - you heal more easily, but your hold on life is just a little more tenuous because you've got a two-way street to the afterlife. A penalty on recovery rolls when Mortally Wounded, perhaps?
Or maybe it's just me? Have I been given too many poison cookies and frogurts with sodium benzoate in them to just take a gem like that as a reward for killing a monsters?
Neat.
ReplyDeleteIf I stolinated it /and/ made it Evil, I'd go the 'monkey's paw' or 'bottle imp' route. It'd have a total number of HP stored in it, and it would dole them out in some fashion (1). Then as it doled them out either it would warp the user (2), or when it was fully drained it would in turn kill and consume the lifeforce of the user (bottle imp).
Of course, just making it an uneasy (moralistically) reward works too, if you have Players that find dubious magic items of dark moral luster to be something to worry over.
1 - Say it heals a certain amount every time used, or at a specific rate, so either a small Healing Spell or a slow rate of regen.
2 - In conjunction with 1, it would also dole out Disad points with every use, or when it was active if regening.
3 - This is one of those, "and the PCs try to figure out exactly how many HP is contians so they can ditch it right before it goes off and eats a soul" scenarios.