Rantai

Rantai
From a distance, a rantai resembles a tangle of red ribbon or scarlet thread drifting on the breeze. Then it comes closer, moaning as it moves against the wind, and its true shape is revealed—an airborne mass of blood-drenched chains, each link a barbed loop of bone. Dozens of ghosts writhe on these hooks, their shrieks blending into a cacophony of woe. The rantai collect ghosts for no discernible reason and put them to no visible use. Hundreds or even thousands dangle from the barbs of the most ancient of their breed. The agony of these fettered spirits only ends if some lesser Underworld predator snatches them, shrike-like, off the hooks and devours them—or if they should somehow be freed, either through violence or parlay.

Centuries of carrying screaming ghosts have taught the rantai most of Creation’s tongues. Though they cannot speak, they compel the ghosts bound to them to give word to their wishes. But their desires are as alien as their natures, and they may demand peculiar terms to release a prisoner—a test of skill that pits the petitioner against the ghost to be freed, the planting of a living tree in Underworld soil, the right to name a first-born child.

Though rantai most often trouble the dead, they can also imperil the living. A wounded rantai seeks out a shadowland inhabited by mortals and strips out their skeletons, which it reshapes into new rings of bloody bone to replace those it has lost.

Essence: 3; Willpower: 6; Join Battle: 10 dice
Personal Motes: 80
Health Levels: -0x3/-1x6/-2x6/-4/Incap.
Actions: Feats of Strength: 7 dice (may attempt Strength 3 feats); Fly: 8 dice; Senses: 7 dice; Social Influence: 8 dice; Underworld Lore: 8 dice
Appearance 5 (Hideous), Resolve 5, Guile 6

Combat
Attack (Chain lash): 11 dice (Damage 12)
Attack (Grapple): 9 dice (8 dice to control)
Combat Movement: 8 dice

Evasion 2, Parry 5
Soak/Hardness: 11/3

Offensive Charms
Cascade of Chains (10m, 1wp; Simple; Withering-only; Instant; Essence 2): The rantai makes a single withering attack against any number of enemies in close range. It gains Initiative as normal from the damage roll that inflicted the highest amount of damage, but the total Initiative it receives from all other damage rolls cannot raise the total award above 10 (not counting Initiative breaks). Against a battle group, this doubles 7s on the damage roll of an attack. Once per fight, unless reset by incapacitating an enemy.
Ghost-Gaoler’s Leash (3m per ghost; Simple; Instant; Essence 2): The rantai unspools the lengths of chain that bind ghosts to it, sending them forth to fight on its behalf. Each ghost rolled into battle with this Charm has the traits of a war-ghost (p. XX) unless the rantai uses a specific ghost it has bound. It cannot send out more chained ghosts than it has points of temporary Willpower, although if its Willpower falls below the current number of ghosts it does not have to retract any. A character capable of striking dematerialized enemies may attempt a difficulty 4 gambit against a ghost that has been sent out with this Charm to sever the chain. Success frees the ghost, which may either flee or fight alongside its liberator, and deals one level of damage to the rantai.
Impaling Barbs (4m, 1wp; Supplemental; Until released; Essence 2): On a successful grapple, the rantai doubles its extra successes to determine how many rounds of control it establishes, and takes no Defense penalties for clinching. Attacks that fail to damage it do not cause it lose any rounds of control. If it savages a clinched character, it adds +2 damage to a decisive attack or +5 damage to a withering attack. A ghost that is Incapacitated or crashed while grappled is imprisoned on the rantai’s hooks, becoming a slave to the rantai.
Skeletonize (3m; Reflexive; Instant; Essence 3): As the rantai kills a living creature with a decisive attack, it strips out the victims’ skeleton in a shower of gore. The bones crack and writhe as they reshape themselves into new barbed links to repair the rantai’s blood-drenched chains, healing a single health level. Any decisive attack against a battle group made up of living characters offers the opportunity to use this Charm, healing one level of damage per point of Magnitude lost.
Symphony of Woe: (5m, 1wp; Supplemental; Instant; Essence 3): The rantai may treat its Join Battle roll as an inspire roll against all enemies to fill them with sadness, terror, or dread. Characters who pay Willpower to resist this influence lose three Initiative. Those who don’t pay lose two Initiative at the start of each round as they succumb to their dark emotions.