Here's my first entry for Monstrous Monday using the Wanton Role-Playing System for a monster inspired by some horror movies. I have some stats for the tomb harvesters in Space Princess, but I can't find them right now. But anyway enjoy...
Tomb Harvesters
You think that when you die, you go to Heaven? You come to us! The Tall Man, Phantasm II
Tomb harvesters appear as 7 foot tall male or female humanoids dressed in the funerary attire of whatever place they are currently inhabiting. Their skin tone range from a sickly white to ashen gray or washed out colors. The tomb harvesters slowly infiltrate the less advanced planets for the purpose of harvesting the dead of any humanoid species. First the dead are harvested from the cemeteries of small communities, and the bodies are sent to unknown dimensions via strange and unpredictable gates. As the harvester and their servitors become more entrenched the body theft become more brazen and the living are soon targeted. Living victims are transformed to various minion forms or drained of life force to fuel a variety of strange machinery. Unopposed by anyone a tomb harvester can wipe out a small planet in a few years, the entire world becoming an empty husk. Even if prevented from their task, the harvesters can cut a swath of death and destruction throughout an area.
Although they appear to by humanoid, tomb harvesters are theorized to be some kind of engineered being or revivified undead. They are superhumanly strong and very hard to kill, often shrugging off small arms and laser fire. Many harvesters have revealed the equivalent of psychic abilities such as telepathy, telekinesis, and illusion projection that are used to injure, kill, and confuse their victims . While all foes are seen as a danger, tomb harvesters will especially target opponents who demonstrate psychic abilities activated or latent. Psychics and espers have been known to sense tomb harvesters long before others, and untrained psychics seem to be either desired or feared by them.
The presence of a tomb harvester slowly starts to corrupt the reality around the areas were they lair. In some ways the harvesters are an extension of the gates that they use to transport their harvest. As their influence grows, the harvester can move in the shadows to confuse and capture their opponents. Time and space seem to bend around them, and many people who thought they have escaped for the tomb harvester have found that road winds back into the clutches of the fiend they were trying to escape.
Most Tomb Harvesters have abilities beyond the stats below. Each is in response to their environment and their personal interests.
Attack Dice: 4 dice (unnatural strength)
Defense Dice: 4 dice (Technomantic Body)
Hit Points: 35 (unnatural)
Engineered Technomantic Construct/ 5 dice
The tomb harvester appears as a creepy human but is actually a technomantic construct designed to withstand pressures and environment that would kill most humanoids. Their build makes them superhumanly strong and resilient, and able to regenerate most forms of damage. Hand to hand combat with a tomb harvester is not recommended. (Blood doesn't 'look right')
Funerary Rites/ 3 dice
Wherever the tomb harvester is, it immerses itself in the funerary rites of the culture they have chosen to infiltrate. In most cultures the harvester becomes a priest, a mortician, or an executioner. In more barbaric cultures the harvester acts more like a ghoul on the outskirts of society feeding on the refuse of the dead. Whichever the result, the reverence, respect, and sometime fear that those who work with the dead are given allows the harvester to work in the shadows. (Wears funerary attire)
Warper of Reality/ 3 dice
The very nature of the tomb harvester warps the reality where their gates lie. The harvester is not omnipotent, but it can sense beings that invade it's complex easily. The harvester can cloak its nature from most people, appearing as a tall, albeit creepy humanoid As their influence grows the harvester can torment its victims with a variety of psychic abilities. A tomb harvester can follow a victim through the shadows silently, always appearing when they least expect them. (Appears where you know there wasn't a door)
Servitor/ Flaw
While very powerful, the tomb harvester is ultimately a servitor to the alien powers that created it. They have a tendency to follow their instinct to harvest the dead, and little else can get in the way of that goal. This can be used to overwhelm the harvester with unusual tactics it does not expect. (Listens to something that isn't there)
Warper of Reality/ Flaw
The tomb harvester's warping of reality can be noticed, especially by those with psychic or mystic ability. Things begin to change as the harvester works, and those who have dealt with tomb harvesters can trace the signs, and possibly stop them before it happens again to another town. In addition, latent mystics and psychic abilities seem to affect the warped reality of the tomb harvesters. The latents begin to dream of the harvester and the gates, and they are noticed back in kind. These people are either destroyed or used as templates for new tomb harvesters. (Flashes of the harvester's true form)
Inspired by the Phantasm movies and City of the Living Dead by Lucio Fulci.
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| BOYYYYYY! |
