Overgrown Secrets: Crypt Spirits

My most recently GURPS game, "Overgrown Secrets", revolved around a single monster type: the crypt spirit. Mysterious Glowing undead with a voracious appetite for souls. We had fun short game, and I'm sharing this monster now so you can use it. I'm hoping to share more "Overgrown Secrets" material so you run the game with minimal preparation. But the core of the game was the crypt spirits, and I'm sharing them first.

Crypt spirits are humans who have preserved their soul using a magical metal apparatus whose secrets have been lost to time. They can survive indefinitely in this apparatus, but can do very little while inside. In order to act they must take over someone else's body and burn their host's soul as fuel. While possessing that body, they have great power, but they will need to consume a new body and soul within 40 days. Thus they are driven by their constant need for hosts to be anything more than a powerless consciousness in a crypt.

A Crypt spirit possessing a human is exceptional obvious. Their skins lightly glows, and their nostrils, eyes, mouths, and other orifices glow with a strong white light. The body shrinks, shrivels, and blackens. They can use illusion to cover this up, but it has a steep price. Crypt spirits are typically ancient and experienced, and they can escape from their apparatus homes simply by having someone walk nearby them.

Crypt Spirit Traits

A crypt spirit's ST and DX are based off of the current host of the spirit, while the IQ and HT are based off of the original individual. HP is twice the host's original. 

Crypt spirits keep track of their available  "Energy", which equates to 120 points when they take a fresh host, representing the value of the freshly harvested soul. This energy is not FP or ER and cannot be used as such: Its more equivalent to meals or time since a character last took a breath. Each 8 hours they loose a point of energy.  Using their magical powers drain their energy more quickly: most at a rate of 1 per minute, but stationary illusions, if not modified, only drain at 1 per hour. Short range possession attempts do not expend energy, but long range possession attempts do. Crypt spirits cannot have more than 120 points of energy, and any excess points are wasted.

The Crypt spirit has the following basic traits: Immune to Metabolic Hazards, Immune to Pain, Numb, Homogeneous, Unkillable 1, Doesn't Eat or Drink, Doesn't Sleep, Doesn't Breathe,  Detect (souls), Noisy 2 (visual, glows), Appearance (Monstrous)

Crypt spirits have the possession advantage, with malediction 1, spiritual, and no memory access. If they spend 5 of their energy, they can increase this to malediction 2, and spending 10 energy can give them malediction 3. In addition to possessing things with souls, they can possess their original receptacle, which does not resist, and does not need to be in sight or detected with detect (souls). This is the normal use for the malediction 3 mode, and most crypt spirits keep 10 energy back to jump back to the original receptacle. A soul that a crypt spirit abandons is burnt out, its soul consumed, and its corpse left behind. Though with how resilient to damage they are, players may be unsure if the possession killed the host or their attacks.

A crypt spirit's ability to possess others can be stopped by a specially crafted loop of metal, braided together. A skilled jeweler (skill 13) can create 4 feet of this per day of work, once they have the metal, (courtesy of Gurps: Low Tech page 38; each section requires five copper wires), or half an hour if all the wire is assembled (which included hooking two loops together). A crypt spirit within one of these loops can't possess anyone outside of it, and one outside of the loop can't possess someone in it. They may cross the loop freely though, and sticking a hand outside of the loop is sufficient to circumvent its effect. Amulets giving the wearer a bonus against possession are also a decent defense. I priced +3 amulets at $350, but a different price may be more appropriate for your game.

Magic Abilities:

Besides possession, Crypt Spirits have access to a wide array of telekinetic and illusion based powers, plus a few body control powers and the ability to set themselves on fire. These aren't really racial abilities, more of a magic as powers system that tied into the racial template. They are all alternate abilities of each other: only two could be used at a time. I did not give all crypt spirits all of the abilities: as I said, they're a magic system, not really a template. Some powers were "Foundational" though, and all the crypt spirits had them: Illusion, Extra Strength, Healing and Basic TK.

• Healing: regenerate 2/HP per second. Costs 1 Energy per HP. 
  
• Fire Aura: 1d6 aura of fire. Does 1 damage to the crypt spirit per second. Useful for ending grapples and other close combat.
  
• Extra Strength: mostly used in combat to increase damage, or to win wrestling matches. +6 ST (no HP)
  
• Basic Telekenesis: Grab and manipulate objects with the force of a man. TK 10
• Illusion: The ability to create illusions near the crypt spirit. This was extremely common, usually used to move among humans without attracting attention, but also to appear to be armed when not armed. If the same illusion is kept, this ability only costs 1 energy per hour. Illusion (visual only -30%)
  
• Shove: Move nearby objects away with a violent shove. This was not an especially effective offensive weapon, but it wasn't a bad defensive one. Innate attack Crushing 3d+2 (double knockback +20%, no wounding -50%) 
  
• Repulsion: shove objects at high speed away from the Crypt Spirit. Does 2d+2 damage with a fist load (typically a rock). This ability got used a lot, usually to try and hit the PC's with rocks. TK 25 (repulsion only -60%)
• Deflection: A force that steers blows and missiles away, and weakens their impact. This was used surprisingly little in my game. DR 4 (force-feild +20, area effect +50%)
• Invisibility: This was perhaps the most effective ability the crypt spirits had, and gave a large increase in combat effectiveness. On a strategic scale is was less effective, but that might have been because every single PC had tracking. Invisibility (switchable +10%)
• Speed: Run faster, to catch or get away from your foe. This often isn't enough to beat the fastest runners a crypt spirit may encounter. +2 Move 

Running Crypt Spirits

Crypt Spirits are driven by their need for souls, and their desire to stay alive. Beyond that, each crypt spirit is an individual, and will have individual goals. They will also have individuals statistics and skills. A former warrior will have different capabilities than a former thief. They are very long lived, so they often pick up new skills, or become quite skilled at the ones they have.

Crypt spirits are most powerful when they are surrounded by potential victims. In an environment where they can seize new bodies freely they can use their powers freely and use it as a sort of teleportation. However, they usually don't have fantastic wills, so possession fails fairly often for all but the most talented of crypt spirits.

Crypt spirits can be dangerous warriors, but this generally requires them to be armed. While they are resistant to piercing and impaling attacks, they are not immune, and healing takes valuable energy. This can be difficult when body-hopping, as newly acquired bodies are often unarmed. Acquiring weapons is often a high priority.

Having a backup host is another common priority. This may be someone carried with the crypt spirit, or it may be someone kept captive nearby the soul preserving apparatus in the crypt.

Crypt Spirits in the Campaign

I designed crypt spirits to be an ancient secret menace that could be uncovered in an old ruins, preferably by an NPC. This puts the powerful crypt spirit at a disadvantage as they try to secure a steady source of souls. This also points to where the apparatus is, strips the crypt spirit of preparation, and makes it much more apparent what happened when someone goes missing. Its very difficult for a crypt spirit to take the identity of their first victim, as they have no memory access.

A crypt spirit could also be used as a more established monster, either ruling over its "livestock" or living as a serial killer, stealing identities one by one. With high enough stats, the monster could make a scary Monster Hunters foe.

I haven't provided a point value for crypt spirits, mostly because building some of their abilities are much harder with points. 

I hope you are inspired by these monsters. They gave us eight weeks of play, as the players figured out how they worked and what they wanted. Even if you don't use them, I hope they give you ideas for your games. Happy Monster Hunting!