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Ashenwights

Usually, fire is considered to be a clean way to give respect to the dead without risking their angry return. Usually, those who die and leave no corpse behind cannot hold on to the world, no matter how angry, and pass harmlessly into Lethe. But sometimes, the hatred and rage of a dying person overcomes this restriction. Sometimes, the hungry ghost of the deceased takes form as an ashenwight.

Typically, ashenwights are born from those who are slain by fire, especially when they are killed deliberately by others and their remains desecrated. Such creatures are rare enough that few know of them, leading many to not take the precautions that they should to prevent them from rising. These people fail to see the hateful face forming in the smoke above the burning corpse, as the hungry ghost of the deceased is born aloft on ashes and remains fused with the tatters of the fuel used to burn them to death. This smoke does not dissipate, but drifts away, sinking into the shadows to coil until night. Where normal hungry ghosts lie within their bodies, ashenwights can settle into anywhere that the sun does not touch, carpeting the ground like fog - they prefer deep, dark holes, and will wait for night to hunt.

Ashenwights hunt as a cloud of smoke, which drifts through the night in search of victims. Typically, an ashenwight seeks out people that bear similarities to those it blames for its death, but its mind is shattered by the process of its creation, and it will fixate on seemingly-irrelevant details in its hunt. Thinning out, an ashenwight drift into the lungs of their victims, choking them to death. Having done this, it animates the corpse of its victim and staggers out to kill and burn, reducing even more victims to ash and breathing them in to merge with its own power. Often, ashenwights are caught before they can set the fires they crave, and are forced to retreat and hide. Other times, they will feast on the death of an entire village, and then travel into the night, glutted with power. A few old and deadly ashenwights stalk the northern forests, having avoided death long enough to become truly dangerous.

Stats

The following statistics are for a newly-born ashenwight. Most of them have better statistics (see below).

Attributes: Strength 0, Dexterity 4, Stamina 4, Charisma 0, Manipulation 0, Appearance 0, Perception 3, Intelligence 1, Wits 3

Abilities: Athletics 4, Awareness 3, Dodge 3, Investigation 1, Martial Arts 4, Resistance 3, Survival 3

Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 4, Temperance 1, Valor 3

Willpower: 4, Essence:: 2, Essence Pool: 40
Dodge DV: 4, Soak: 4B/2L, Health: OK, -1, -1, -2, -2, -4, Inc

Powers:

• Immaterial Form: Ashenwights are clouds of smoke and ash, and as such cannot be harmed by any normal type of weapon. Only three types of attacks can harm an ashenwight - Holy attacks deal normal lethal damage to them, as do attacks that are air-elemental. Area attacks and energy attacks can affect an ashenwight, but deal half their usual damage. Fortunately, in their natural forms, they cannot deal damage, either.
• Choking Crush: Ashenwights may make a Choking Crush attack by spending 5 motes and rolling Dexterity + Martial Arts as a clinch attack. Once the ashenwight succeeds on a clinch attempt, it flows into its target, expelling their air. Each action the target takes one level of unsoakable Bashing damage. The target must roll Stamina + Resistance against the ashenwight's Dexterity + Martial Arts in order to expel it; otherwise, she will quickly suffocate as smoke replaces air throughout her body. A target killed by the choking crush becomes a corpse under the ashenwight's control (see below)
• Corpse Rider: Having killed a target, an ashenwight may spend 1 Willpower to inhabit it completely. The ashenwight reduces the target's Dexterity and Appearance by 1, and increases its Strength and Stamina by 2. It uses its own Abilities in place of the target's. An inhabited body is considered to have the following health levels: OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, -2, -2, -2, -4, -4, Destroyed. Any levels of damage dealt to the body by physical damage are applied to it, but any levels dealt through poison, disease, or suffocation (such as the Choking Crush) are left behind. A corpse inhabited by an ashenwight takes one level of unsoakable lethal damage each day, and cannot heal naturally or by magic that heals living beings. Damage dealt to the corpse does not affect the ashenwight.
• Swallow Corpsefire: Normal ashenwights are stupid, simple creatures. However, whenever an ashenwight burns the corpse of someone who has died within the last hour, they gain experience points that can be spent on improving themselves, as follows:
  • If the target has any Social or Mental Attribute at least two dots higher than the Ashenwight's, it increases that Attribute by 1. The Ashenwight increases only one Attribute; if there are multiple choices, it favors the Attribute that has the largest difference, and in the case of a tie favors the Attribute that the Ashenwight is lowest-rated in.
  • If the target has any Ability at least two dots higher than the Ashenwight's, it increases that Ability by 1. Ashenwights can increase two Abilities in this way, and favor Abilities that they have a rating of 0 in.
  • The ashenwight also gains experience equal to the target's Essence rating, which it may use to increase its Essence or Willpower rating. Ashenwights may not have Essence ratings above 5 or Willpower ratings above (Essence x2). The Ashenwight may also purchase spirit Charms associated with its nature and capabilities, at a cost of 15 experience each; it may not have more than two Charms per dot of Essence it possesses. If the target's Essence rating is one dot below the ashenwight's, it gains only one experience point. If the target's Essence rating is two or more dots below the ashenwight's, it gains no experience. Typically, ashenwights learn as many Charms and develop as much Willpower as they can for their Essence rating, then increase their Essence.
  • The ashenwight gains five motes of Essence for every dot of Essence that its target possessed, and recovers three health levels of damage.

• Fading Smoke: The natural smoke of the ashenwight dissipates as time passes, forcing them to feed to survive. Ashenwights take a health level of aggravated damage each day as the sun rises, and as it sets. They also take one level of aggravated damage per action that they are completely bathed in sunlight, or per minute when partially bathed in sunlight. Hiding within deep shadows or an inhabited corpse is sufficient to prevent this damage.
• Nighttime Creature: Ashenwights take a -2 die penalty on all actions taken between sunrise and sunset, even if hiding within a corpse.