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Monday, January 4, 2010

Reflection Spectre

These extra-planar creatures inhabit the same twisted realm as the Door Haunts. Like their doorway lurking kin they are drawn to the mundane realm by strong emotion, feeding on uncertainty and fear caused by the sudden perception of things that aren't really there. Reflection Spectres are granted passage to the mundane world by broken reflections. Their favored means of access is a broken mirror, and many a magical theorist believes they are the source of the seven years bad luck from a broken mirror superstition.

Reflection Spectres take on the shadowy, broken form of whatever image was being reflected when the reflecting surface was shattered. Most Spectres are passive, short-lived things, incapable of action in the mundane plane of existence. Rarely a Spectre will be lucky enough to capture the reflection of a living creature, imbuing it with a more enduring, active nature. These Spectres have the ability to follow the creature they reflect, moving from surface to surface as their victim moves from place to place. Most people see them as simple reflections, but the victim will notice subtle changes in their appearance, especially when seen out of the corner of the eye or at a distance. Faces blur and melt, colors shimmer and darken, and skin and flesh erodes and decays away.

Spectres will continue to follow their victim, feeding on the momentary surge of disorientation and uncertainty that accompanies each twisted reflection. They have no physical form, manifesting only as an extra-planar reflection of their chosen target. Should their host be slain the Spectres will return to their home plane, and a Superb test of extra-planar magic can break the tie that binds them to their host.

Long term exposure to a Spectre's haunting has a draining effect on the psyche of the victim. Each day of exposure the victim must make test of Will to avoid being snared by the Spectre's dweomer. Those snared find themselves lost in contemplation, staring in eerie fascination at their own reflection in a bit of broken glass or the surface of a pool of water for 1 to 20 minutes. Each time the victim succumbs to this effect they lose one rank of Will for one week. Will loss is permanent until the Spectre is driven off. Victims reduced to zero Will spend their hours helplessly staring at any reflection that catches their eye, powerless to avoid the disturbing changes reflected there.

2 comments:

Timeshadows said...

Nice.

Reminds me a bit of the Iron Maiden song Still Life off the Piece of Mind album.

Mark Thomas said...

Neat! I wasn't familiar with that track. You're right!