LEATHER SHADOW PLAY PUPPETS

For my Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate campaign I needed an insidious monster, so I took inspiration from shadow plays and made an organization called The Society of Leather Shadows. They are an association of Shadow Play Performers who can summon and command shadow play puppet apparitions on walls. While these creatures cannot directly harm people, they can take way their ability to move and act. 

There isn't room to include them in the core rulebook (if I find we have room when we go to layout, I will add them). Presently they are part of the Songs of the Southern Lands book, a guidebook to Hai'an (a region south of the Empire). 

I tried them out for the first time in today's session and was surprised by how effective they were at frightening the players. 

These should work in any Network campaign. 

LEATHER SHADOW PLAY PUPPETS

Photo by Dr. Meierhofer

These appear on illuminated flat surfaces where they look like colorful two-dimensional shadow figures, that move stiffly but elegantly and attack the shadows of living humans. While they cannot physically hurt a human, they can cause limb paralysis. They do so by cutting off the limbs of the target’s shadow, which paralysis the stricken appendage. They can also attempt to take control of the person’s shadow, thus controlling the target’s movement. They can only attack a person’s shadow, not their body.

Defenses: Hardiness 3, Evade 10, Parry 8, Stealth 10, Wits 7, Resolve 7

Key Skills: Arm Strike: 2d10, Leg Strike: 1d10, Grapple: 2d10, Throw: 1d10, Light Melee: 2d10, Medium Melee 2d10, Heavy Melee 1d10, Muscle: 0d10, Speed: 3d10, Detect: 1d10

Max Wounds: 2

Powers

Attack Shadow: Leather Shadows can attack a persons shadow to either paralyze their limbs or take control of their body. When doing so use the person’s normal Defense ratings.

Paralyze: When a shadow succeeds on an attack and damage roll, each wound it inflicts cuts off a single limb from a person’s shadow, causing them to lose the ability to use that limb for 1 minute. Instead of a normal damage roll, they should roll 2d10 against Resolve to see if the paralysis takes effect on a successful hit.

Control: By making an Arm Strike roll and targeting the head, Leather Shadow Puppets can gain control of a person’s body for two rounds and manipulate them like a puppet. To do so, they suffer a -1d10 to their Arm strike roll. They must also succeed on a 0d10 damage roll (2d10 take the lowest). If they do this, they gain control of the person for 2 rounds.