Duermar Encounter Creation Contest

Will o' Wit

Appearance & Tactics

Sometimes during a storm, among the furious roars of thunder, one can hear a more sinister sound. A mad crackling and cackling that reminds of mad laughter. Small wisps of electricity zip through the air, aimlessly flying in erratic patterns while following the dark clouds. Until they detect the thoughts of a sentient being. These creatures are known as 'Will o' Wits' though this name is somewhat ironic. If a Will o' Wit senses the thoughts of a sentient creature, it will fly straight towards the source of those thoughts (usually the creature's brain) and collide with it, passing straight through the creature's skull. When a Will o' Wit hits, its victim becomes shaken and confused, as its toughts are brought into disarray, while the crackling sound of the Will o' Wit's laughter still rings inside its mind. Attacks like this always leave some sort of impression on the victim. It can be a sound, a picture, a smell or really any fragment of thought or memory the Will o' Wit has absorbed previously. These small glimpses are mostly harmless, but there are some poor souls whose mind simply caved in under the mental assault. However, there are also those who crave these sudden, painful bursts of thoughts as a source of creative inspiration. Eccentric artists, inventors and mad geniuses sometimes use Will o' Wits this way, sacrificing their sanity for ever greater ideas.

Although filled with thoughts, Will o' Wits are not intelligent. They are actually firefly-like insects, transformed into their current state by wild elemental magic. One specimen is more like a swarm of tiny semi-substantial beings, which stick together very closely. They seem to somehow procure nourishment from thoughts and absorb fragments of them into their magical bodies. Occasionally this will lead them to emit sounds or fly in shapes reminiscent of those memories, which can lead to eerie scenes, for example when one hears the distorted voice of a crying child in the middle of a raging thunderstorm.

Similar to moths, Will o' Wits are drawn to the brightest points of interest. In their case this means the brigtest minds. They will automatically target the most intelligent being they can sense (usually the one with the highest Learning or Logic attribute). They will fly straight through the target's head, jumbling their thoughts and leaving fragments of strange images and ideas behind. They will not employ complex tactics and simply rely on their base instincts.


Will o' Wit

Level 2, Small Size, 40' speed


HP Guard Toughness Resolve
15 16 13 11

Attributes

Agility 3 (1d8), Energy 3 (1d8), Influence 5 (2d6), Prescience 3 (1d8)


Feats

Bane Focus (Stunned), Boon Focus III (Detection), Energy Resistance IV (Lightning), Evasive Footwork, Flying, Lightning Reflexes II


Favoured Actions

Flash of Inspiration (damaging attack): Influence vs. Resolve. On 5+ damage, the target is inflicted with Stunned PL4. The Will o' Wit charges through the victim's mind, leaving behind a trail of garbled thoughts, which are not quite their own. The victim gets a random thought, which may be a sentence, a word, a smell, a sound or a picture, at the GM's discretion.

Overwhelming Ideas (inflict Stunned PL4) Influence vs. Resolve, advantage 2. The target is over-whelmed by an onslaught of thoughts being slammed directly into their mind.

Detect Sentience (invoke Detection PL1): Prescience. Will o' Wits have a special sense for detecting creatures with high brain activity. However, since this sense seems to be somehow linked to electricity, they may be tricked by strong electrical currents like a flash of lightning or electrical magic.