[Index]
Numenera Destiny
"No matter how much wrights may assure us that the installations they build are completely safe, we know different. We've seen the results with our own eyes. Sometimes, for reasons lost to the prior worlds, a machine that normally purifies water, heals wounds, or provides a protective force screen to the city's exterior spits out an unexpected and unwanted entity that has the shape and appearance of a person—a person who, by all rights, should be long dead. Yet there they walk, confused and asking for aid. But don't be fooled. They're only flesh ghosts coughed up by unknown magic, without the capacity for love or empathy. They're made things and should be hunted down and destroyed the moment they're recognized for what they are. Sure, they'll try to deny that they're up to no good, saying that they're not imposters meant to replace us all and that they're not cursed made things. Don't believe them, if you want to live."
Rumors tell that flesh ghosts appear in areas that have recently suffered an instance of iron wind or that might soon experience such a disaster.
Motive: Defense
Environment: Anywhere machines or installations can be found
Health: 15
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (5 points)
Movement: Short
Modifications: May possess memories, knowledge, and skills associated with a unique, but provably deceased, individual
Combat: Flesh ghosts don't want to enter combat and prefer to get away if they can. But if they can't, they use whatever weapons are on hand to defend themselves. Only after a flesh ghost is harmed, and its wounds begin to leak a black, oily sludge that is definitely not blood, does one become especially dangerous. When a flesh ghost is at less than its maximum health, each melee attack it makes splatters some of its sludge on a foe, requiring a Might defense roll to withstand or else the victim takes 2 additional points of Speed damage (ignores Armor) from the acid-like substance.
If a flesh ghost is killed, it slumps into a pool of acidic black sludge that burns its way into whatever lies below it before evaporating after a few rounds.
Interaction: Flesh ghosts look like people that were once alive and share many of their memories (though not all; there are blank spots). A flesh ghost claims to have similar motivations and desires as the person it is obviously a copy of. The one thing a flesh ghost will fight to prevent is to be brought back to the machine that spawned it, because it believes that it will be reabsorbed and "lose its chance."
Use: A friend or ally who lived in the same community as the PCs died some time ago. However, they show up again one day, apparently wanting to pick up where they left off—running their old business, serving a PC as a follower, or whatever it was they once did.
GM Intrusion: The flesh ghost's face peels back, revealing a metallic skull slicked with oily black sludge. This has a chance to surprise and stun a character who doesn't expect such a revelation.