Arcana: Creatures

Manslayer

A Creature for Everway

by Erikku Amundsen

Submitted to the Chamber Platinum by Gyve as a request for further research:

The lure of easily gotten power is a strong one, and one that people will pay hideous prices for, without fully understanding the nature of the bargain. Some merely attach themselves to tyrants, riding in these mortal monsters' wakes to smaller goals. Some sign over their spirits to demons for favor, and some sacrifice their lives to walk undying among the dead. Whatever the reason, there are always people willing to trade what they have to be stronger, faster, or tougher, and to get just a little more respect from their mortal sisters and brothers. There is no shortage, as well, of beings willing and able to give them that power and speak of the price later.

The records of what one scholar in the Chamber Platinum termed "manslayers" are spotty, but they do suggest that the lore used to turn normal folks into these creatures has been repressed and retrieved numerous times over the centuries. The four rituals the Chamber has gathered regarding their creation are vastly different in word and content, but all of the four, should they be accurate, are quite easily performed, with a minimum of materials. From the evidence gathered on their habits and natures, "manslayers" do not fit well into any classification of person, spirit, or creature.

They seem to bear most resemblance to certain types of undead created from still living people, such as a number of types of ghoul. However, they breathe, eat, and can carry on any and all functions of life that they did before. They do not, at first, hold any bizarre dietary cravings (unlike all types of ghouls), and usually do not develop any of the physical resemblance to the deathless until about five years after their transformation.

For these first five years, manslayers resemble, exactly, the people they were before their change, and hold many of the same personality traits. Their hair and nails, whatever color they were before, slowly become shock white, with their nails becoming fully opaque, and much stronger. Their skin takes on a very unhealthy, jaundiced look, and their eyes tend to roll uncontrollably. After those first few years, their minds begin to deteriorate and they take on a much more typically ghoulish appearance, though few ever survive that long. Manslayers are extremely violent, and usually have no patience or ability to plan. Whether this is a side effect of the change or the fact that most manslayers were most often petty bullies, bandits, and terrorists before their change isn't known.

	Manslayers
	A manslayer's Elements vary depending upon the elemental Spirit bonded to the subject during the creation process. A manslayer's Element score for the corresponding type of elemental Spirit is increased by 2. Earth 4 (6 for Earth Bound) Air 4 (6 for Air Bound) Fire 4 (6 for Fire Bound) Water 4 (6 for Water Bound) Powers: Unnaturally Tough Friend to Element Manslayers have the Friend to Element spirit for the Element corresponding to the elemental Spirit bonded to the subject (e.g. Earth Bound Spirits have the Friend to Earth power).

To become a manslayer, a person must be willing; I found no ritual recorded to be effective on an unwilling subject, and this requirement is the one thing that all four of the Chamber Platinum's copies of the rite agreed upon. This person must also be undistinguished in any way, though one of the texts hints that there is a ritual to create manslayers out of extraordinary people. Then, by means of a fairly short ritual, a spirit of some kind is bonded to the body. Here is where the texts truly diverge. Two texts claim that Elemental spirits are bonded to the subject, one of those claiming that the type of Elemental spirit is roughly the Elemental equivalent to human thieves and brigands. One text claims that an Elementally tuned demon is bound to the host; and the last claims that the spirit used is a type of hungry ghost, similar to those who create ghouls. Whatever the case, nearly anyone with a good command of spirits can influence, drive back, or even destroy manslayers. Consequently, this ritual is most often found in the hands of unscrupulous shamans and spiritualists.

Beyond spirit magic, they have virtually no weaknesses. The ritual turns a blankly average person into literally twice the person they once were and then some. Depending upon the Elemental affinity of the spirit used, manslayers become excellent in one aspect of their existence--Earth bound manslayers gain strength and toughness, Fire bound find themselves full of wicked energy, and Water bound become frightening assassins and scouts. There are no records of any Air bound manslayers being created (though such a thing is possible in all four texts), and Water bound are rare in the extreme--at least according to the records I could find in the Library of All Worlds. Beyond that, manslayers prove impossible to harm with poisons, asphyxiation, and disease, much like the deathless. Finally, they are resistant to harm by way of the Element to which they are bound.

While they find employment as shock troops and assassins for magicians and petty warlords, very few are created at a time. Due to the nature of these creatures, they are not terribly loyal, and require either simple, violent objectives and lots of pay, or constant supervision by someone with enough power over spirits to keep them in line. A shaman of average gifts can bring her or his powers to bear on one at a time. Also, manslayers are fairly unstable by nature and do deteriorate after about five years of service, becoming much more ghoul-like in physiology and behavior. After ten years or so, these creatures deteriorate further, into foul versions of the Element of their spirit. When killed, they perform this deterioration almost immediately, which in the case of the fire-bound manslayer can be dangerous to the victor.

There is no known way to reverse the process.

Finally, one account included a note with some additional information: Manslayers can survive indefinitely (within the limits already outlined) without food, breath, or water. They can also reproduce, but only with other manslayers, and the child of such a union is also a manslayer. The mother never survives the birth.

Having compiled this information, I feel that further research should be done to verify the facts presented as well as extend our knowledge of these beings.

Manslayer copyright © 1999 Erikku Amundsen, used with permission.
The Envoy by Ed Lee copyright © 1995-1999 Gaslight Press. All rights reserved.