Spirit of Symeon Bryant
Background
Symeon Bryant, a practitioner of the black arts, died in the 17th century.
After being accused of witchcraft and devil worship he was chased into the woods of New Hampshire by local villagers. He was eventually cornered by the locals who were determined to have him hanged. Seeing himself doomed Symeon, who was indeed a witch, used his evil magic to meld himself inside one of the pine trees in the woods in order to remain safe. His pursuers could not find him anywhere, his tracks led up to a large tree and then suddenly vanished. The villagers suspected witchcraft and placed holy symbols around the tree, thus trapping Symeon inside forever - which saw him dead after a few days without food and water.
The area of woodland in which Symeon Bryant had been imprisoned was eventually cut down for timber and made into furniture or housing material. The actual tree that the witch had been trapped in was turned used to make furniture for a large manorhouse in Salem, Oregon - owned by a wealthy family who had made their money through steam engine development.
With the advent of the Reckoning, Symeons' trapped spirit has been awoken somewhat rudely. He is not a happy ghost and has taken to terrorising the staff of Salem Manor, Oregon, where his "tree" (and spirit) eventually found itself - this has led to a a series of bizzare "accidents" involving people falling down stairs or being crushed under bookcases. Symeon Bryant the witch didn't used to be such a bad fellow (apart from his dabblings in the occult) but today his spirit is a twisted and evil reflection of the man he used to be, unable to wreak revenge on his long dead tormentors he has decided to take his vengeance out on anybody living in or visiting Salem Manor...
Appearance
Symeon does not exist in physical form, but is present everywhere inside Salem Manor, Oregon, but he may not leave the Manor grounds. His Spirit is invisible and has no effect on the physical world.
He can, however, manipulate or remould any wooden objects in the manor or around it's grounds that are made from Redwood, the type of tree he died inside, even being able to recreate himself out of the furniture, looking like a wooden version of his former self. In this form stands nearly 6 foot tall and has long hair to his shoulders which exaggerates his stern features and hollow eyes. His clothes appear to be of an old fashioned style (17th Century) and he cannot utter a sound due to his lack of vocal chords. He is in fact very much like a wooden golem when he decides to transform into physical form.
Quote - Ermmm...he's got no vocal chords actually...
Statistics:When in Wooden Golem form:
DEFTNESS 1d4,
NIMBLENESS 1d10, STRENGTH 4d12+4, QUICKNESS 3d8, VIGOR 5d12 (although he doesn't tire or feel pain)
Fightin':Brawlin 3, Throwin':Bolts O Doom 4
Edges:The Voice (Persuassive)
Hindrances:Slowpoke
WIND 30, GRIT 1, SIZE 6, PACE 8/16, TERROR 9, ARMOUR 3, DAMAGE (fist) STR+1d4
Black Magic - Bolts O Doom 3, Puppet 5
Special Rules
GOLEM - When in wooden form Symeon cannot speak, and does not take wind damage from normal attacks. Bullets tend to be innefective against a walking piece of wood due to its high armour value but he does actually suffer damage as normal. If he is somehow destroyed whilst in this form his spirit is also destroyed. Burning the Wooden Golem does cause wind damage as well as normal damage (Don't forget the Armour value!) so long as the flames actually ignite him - judgement should be used. Magical attacks, such as Soulblast, also cause wind damage (and real damage if the spell can penetrate his armour) at a rate of d6 wind per hit and an extra d6 wind per wound caused, i.e SoulBlast causing 4d8 damage would not penetrate the armour but would still cause d6 wind. If the Symeon's wind is reduced to zero then it is destroyed but he may opt to return to his Spirit form whenever he wishes, this way he can regain wind at a rate of 1 per minute
POLTERGEIST - When not in physical form, and he usually isn't, Symeon is an invisible spirit who causes mischief by inhabiting the wooden stairs of the house and tripping people up, or he may posses the wooden handled cutlery and start throwing it around at people, or the wooden handled tools in the barn, or maybe the carving of Taurus the Bull at the centre of the Garden Maze springs to life as his spirit inhabits and animates these items!
WHISPER - Symeon's Spirit can whisper into the minds of anyone touching a wooden object he is currently inhabiting, and can plant suggestions into the minds of certain people. If he attempts this he and the target make an opposed Spirit check, if a raise is acheived by the victim nothing happens and Symeon may not use his mind tricks on them ever again, if Symeon gets a raise then the victim listens to the Symeons insane whisperings and becomes distracted for d6 rounds as if stunned, a further opposed Spirit roll is made and if Symeon gets another raise then the victim must carry out one task of Symeon's bidding - like poisoning the coffee, or setting fire to a friends bedroom!
If he does not net a raise, or if the first opposed Spirit roll is inconclusive then the target will hear quiet whispering suggestions but nothing will happen, Symeon may try again an hour later if he wishes.
KILLING SYMEON - An excorsism must be performed on the peice of furniture made from the tree that trapped Symeon all those years ago (whatever you decide it to be - the dining room table, the grandfather clock, pool table - anything!) or the furniture must be burnt to ash. Symeon, however, won't like this and will change into a Wooden Golem and attacks his harrasers.
Alternatively, the room the furniture is in may be sancitised using the miracle Sancity. Bear in mind that more than one peice of furniture may have been made out of the cursed tree that Symeon was trapped inside.
PROTECTION - The Wood Golem is affected by the Protection miracle and all other Miracles that affect evil spirits
BLACK MAGIC - Don't forget that whilst in Wood Golem form Symeon may use his Bolts O Doom and Puppet Spells as normal, in Spirit form he may not...
Notes...
Well, well, well...Symeon can be a bit of a tough cookie, unless the posse consists of nothing but Preachers and Nuns so go easy on them to start with. I invented Symeon Bryant with an adventure in mind, all about the house in Salem that one of my Posse members inherited. Lucky him!.
The Manor comes complete with serving staff and waiters who know nothing of the Spirit which haunts the grounds, apart from the Fat Cook who Symeon "talks" to via her wooden chopping board. She is going quite mad and shouldn't really be trusted with all those sharp cleavers and knives around the kitchens...
To start with Symeon likes to toy with the Manors new owners (or guests) and begins playing tricks on them...until the Posse start to uncover what's going on (probably by talking to the townsfolk of Salem a few miles down the road...some of them know about the Witch hunt all those years ago and have their suspicions....) at which point his "games" take on a more dangerous edge. At one point in the adventure I ran a Pinkerton was called in to help the posse, Symeon didn't like him so ordered the cook to cut him up into small peices and wheel him up to the Posse's bedroom in the Dumb Waiter....uurgghh!
As far as involving the posse in any such adventure it shouldn't be too hard, have them inherit the house from a recently deceased uncle who died in "mysterious circumstances"...they'll soon want to get to the bottom of it, and will probably end up burning the house to the ground to rid themselves of Symeons infernal whisperings!
If you want more info on the adventure I ran then don't hesitate to EMail me and I'll tell you more. The idea of Symeon actually came from a Call of Cthulu scenarion so I can't claim all the credit for the idea for this character...