Life in the Bones- Bad Bones

Just as Necromancy stains the body of its practitioners so too does necromancy stain the materials used in its rituals. The remains of a failed nocturnal experiment, the corpse of an undead put to rest, surgical tools long used to join dead and living tissues all potentially host the taint of dark magic.

If this foulness settles in a bone used in a ritual and left long enough without disturbance or interruption, the necromantic stain infects other bones around it forming a “Bad Bones”. These dark energies manifest as inky ectoplasmic tendons connecting and articulating the bones into a shambling, whirling mess. The tendons also act as sense organs giving bad bones a remarkable ability to perceive and react to stimuli in any direction. No intelligence directs its reconstruction, making each bad bone a random conglomeration of ribs, phalanges, and skulls. Bad bones incorporate new skeletal members with surprising speed and range. More than one monster hunter has been surprised to find himself attacked on two fronts: the bad bones before him, and the remains of his lunch in his pocket!

Bad bones only want one thing: to harvest more bones from dead bodies so it can grow. Most of the bad bones in London are small accumulations of rat and poultry skeletons skulking in dark sewers, basements, and alleys waiting to harvest a dead vertebrate or to kill a living one. Larger bad bones incorporate the skeletons of draft animals, livestock and humans.

Bad bones serve only their desire to survive and grow, but a necromancer can subjugate their magical stain with a Necromancy roll against 9 black dice. If successful the bad bones follows commands until the necromancer’s or its death. Respectable bone mills carefully check incoming material with sigils to avoid bad bones sprouting in a dark corner surrounded by an endless supply of new limbs. Most workers prefer to take care of any problems themselves. The guild offers a 5 pound bounty for proof of a bad bone’s destruction and charge 6 pounds to exterminate one. An adequate amount of fire or acid disrupts the necromantic magics animating a bad bones and dissolves the abomination into a foul-smelling pool. The animating force can also be disrupted by removing the original “Bad Bone” from the skeleton, although discovering the right bone won’t be easy, and there could be multiple members fueled by necromantic magic. If these tools are not to hand, slashing or bashing apart enough of its skeleton puts a bad bones to rest long enough to deal with its remains. If left alone and forgotten, the process of corruption begins again.

Bad Bones

Physical: 8           Initiative: 8

Mental: 4             Health: 18

Armor Value: 2

Special Traits:

Regenerate- 4 (as long as there are bones nearby),-see page 294 of the Victoriana 3rd Edition rulebook

Chaotic Mass- Any opponents attempting to grapple, avoid a grapple, or escape a grapple suffer 6 black dice to their rolls. Bad Bones may also maintain one grapple each combat round without suffering the penalty for taking multiple actions.

Dark Incorporation- instead of regenerating, bad bones may create a lesser bad bones as long as there are bones nearby. This does not require an action.

Complications:

Fire Vulnerability- whenever a bad bones is damaged by fire or acid , it suffers +3 damage

Damage: Skeletal Claws and Jaws (6),

Lesser Bad Bones

Physical: 6           Initiative: 5

Mental: 4             Health: 4

Armor Value: 0

Special Traits:
Regenerate- 2 (as long as there are bones nearby),-see page 294 of the Victoriana 3rd Edition rulebook

Chaotic Mass- Any opponents attempting to grapple, avoid a grapple, or escape a grapple suffer 3 black dice to their rolls.

Complications:

Fire Vulnerability- whenever a bad bones is damaged by fire or acid, it suffers +5 damage

Damage: Skeletal Claws and Jaws (4),