Black Air
“It seems to be a sad fact of our world that those who die particularly traumatic deaths all too often become cursed to linger in some form or another after their passing to torment the living. Suffocation being a particularly torturous demise, it is unsurprising that it will sometimes, if fortunately infrequently, produce a breed of revenant not only shrouded in but also exhaling the same foul air that choked their last desperate breaths from their lungs…”
| PHY | SPD | STR | AGL | POI | PRW | INT | PER | ARC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | - |
| INITIATIVE | 13 | DEFENSE | 12 | WILLPOWER | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CMD RANGE | 1 | ARMOUR | 13* | VITALITY | 9 |
| Base Size: Small |
*Including a +4 natural armour bonus.
Choking Breath: RAT 4, RNG:SP6, POW: PHY, Special: This attack can only damage living characters, Breath-Taker, Critical Choke: On a critical hit against a living character, that character must forfeit their movement or action in their next activation.
Club: MAT 5, POW 3, P+S 9, Special: Breath-Taker
Skills:
Great Weapon (1): 5, Hand Weapon (1): 5
Detection (1): 4, Sneak (1): 4
Additional Traits and Abilities:
Breath-Taker – When this character’s attacks directly hit a living character and the damage roll fails to exceed the target character’s ARM, the target character suffers 1d3 points of vitality damage unless they carry some form of independent air supply.
Create Spawn – A sentient living character killed by this character will rise as a black air in d6+6 hours. The newly risen black air gains all the traits listed here, as well as +3 PHY and -2 INT, and a natural armour bonus of +4 (which is not cumulative with worn armour). The newly risen black air also gains vitality equal to their PHY and a choking breath ranged attack that uses their POI for their attack rolls.
Dark Cloud – This character always has concealment.
Stifling Presence – Non-magical attacks originating within 2” of this character cannot inflict fire damage or the Fire continuous effect. In this character’s Maintenance Phase, the Fire continuous effect on this character and all characters and objects within 2” of this character automatically expires.
Additionally, living characters within 2” of this character suffer -2 to their attack rolls, and if living characters or steamjacks begin and end their activation within 2” of this character, they must also forfeit their movement or action in their next activation.
Living characters and steamjacks carrying some form of independent air supply are immune to the effects of this character’s Stifling Presence. A simple gas mask is not sufficient to protect its wearer, however.
Morgan’s Notes: A black air’s Stifling Presence will extinguish torches, candles, and similar lightsources, but does not affect a warcaster’s arcane turbine, as the mechanikal suit of armour counts as being magical.
Tough – When this character is disabled, roll 1d6. On a 5 or 6, this character heals 1 vitality point, is no longer disabled, and is knocked down.
Undead – This character is not a living character and never flees.
Creature Templates:
Any applicable to the creature that has become a black air
A shambling mockery of their living selves, constantly exhaling a thick blackish haze both from its cyanotic lips as well as the very pores in its clammy skin, the restless dead known as black air are created when people die from asphyxiation. The most common origin of these creatures are the mines of the Iron Kingdoms, marking them as somehow related to the revenant dead known as shaft wights, though black airs are created when miners are merely sealed in and perish from lack of air, rather than from being crushed by a rockfall like those unfortunate souls who end up becoming shaft wights. However, with the continuing industrialisation and urbanisation of Western Immoren, black airs have been observed to rise under completely new circumstances, like enfeebled paupers perishing when palls of smog descend on a town in winter, or when large fires or mishaps in factories and alchemical workshops taint the air as to smother any that could not make their escape.
Once arisen, a black air does not seem to retain any sentience but will seek out the living, potentially doing so in a misguided attempt to steal the very breath from them that it had been denied in its former living existence. Indeed, when given the choice, a black air will often stand a short distance away and continually expel that stifling stale air from its dead lungs to choke its victims, rather than actually lay hands on them. Engaging the creature in melee to prevent this mode of attack, however, will only immerse the attacker in the same choking miasma, and most such unfortunate individuals will find themselves so short of breath that they cannot properly resist the black air’s strikes, which are infused with the same billowing haze that forms its lifeless exhalations.
The best way to engage a black air, then, is by shooting it, though this is made more difficult by it being constantly enveloped in the sinister haze that has given it its name. Alchemical means of producing breathable air, as well as mechanical air supplies like the pumps and bellows of a diving suit, are also effective in protecting the brave souls who wish to attempt to lay a black air to rest, though such devices are rare and not usually at hand when needed. Your next best bet, then, is to simply pick up a large axe, take a deep breath and hold it, and then charge in, hoping you can destroy the creature before you need to breathe again.
One of the most surefire means of dealing with the restless dead, however, is nearly completely useless against black airs, and that is the application of flame to undead flesh, as no fire that has not been generated by magical means can sustain itself in the presence of a creature born from the lack of the very air that both breath and blaze must draw upon.
Black Air Lore
A character can make an INT+Lore (undead) roll to determine what they know about this entity. They learn all the information up to the results of the roll. The higher the roll, the more they learn.
10: Traumatic deaths sometimes lead to the dead being restless, and few deaths are as torturous as asphyxiation.
12: Better take the biggest hammers and axes you can wield when taking on the restless dead known as black airs. They don’t take many swings to take down, but you may not get many before simply standing too close to them overcomes you, either.
14: A skilled alchemist or simply a friend standing behind you with a set of bellows while you hold the hose attached to them in your teeth will make taking on black airs much easier, as they are not particularly tough when you’ve got protection from the haze that surrounds them.
16: Get a priest to properly lay to rest those killed by the undead, as many of these foul creatures will cause their victims to become like them in short order. That, or dismember and burn them.
Adventure Seeds:
- Following a freak accident in its furnaces and funnels, a factory in town is set alight. The adventurers take part in the attempts to extinguish the flames and save any survivors, and may easily suffer some injuries along the way. The following night, however, does not grant the firefighters any rest, as black airs begin to wander the streets, attacking any they can find. Now the adventurers are called upon again to help take down the creatures, as well as search any dwellings for the bodies of those who have succumbed to the black airs’ attacks to prevent them from rising as well. However, despite all these precautions, the attacks continue the next day. Examining the bodies of the black airs, it soon becomes apparent from the stench of their soiled garments that the first of the undead who had emerged seem to have come from the sewers, so now the adventurers are asked to go into the tunnels underneath the ruined factory to find the place where all the black airs have come from and cleanse it.
- An alchemist is interested in examining the restless dead known as black airs, both in order to devise a more effective and cheaper way of purifying the air to protect warriors fighting against them, as well as to potentially weaponise the substances expelled by these undead as an improved form of choke gas. Of course, this means finding at least one black air to begin with, as well as capturing it intact. Fortunately, the alchemist knows of a forgotten mine that was closed after a cave-in, with most of the miners never recovered, and has rented a mining labourjack to effect entry. What the alchemist has not counted on, however, is the coalition of shaft wights and black airs awaiting the adventurers underground, nor the strangely determined way the creatures seem to work together to prevent any intruders from gaining access to the deeper parts of the ancient tunnels…
Comments welcome, as usual. I’m still working on finding a good image.