Thought-Worms
These items are unique to the
Yes, it’s one of those kinds of items.
Only primal spirits can produce thought-Worms, and
only for affinities that they have at the primal level; it requires a
successful Dream Shaping roll at -6 and 6 Essence to create one. Once a thought-Worm is created, it will
remain dormant until implanted into an ethereal that does not have an affinity in common with the primal spirit. The implantation process can either be overt
or covert; the act of implantation is mostly metaphorical, which in ethereal
terms means that it can be easily and effectively masked.
Once implanted, the thought-Worm will begin to
infiltrate the target’s psyche. Once per
day (at Essence gathering), the target must successfully roll against both
Intelligence and Will. A failure at either will reduce the affected
Characteristic by 1. Once both a point
if Intelligence and a point of Will has been lost in this fashion, the target
will acquire the appropriate affinity at the Slight level. After this point, any further loss of
Intelligence and Will go to the thought-Worm, which
will invariably use them to make it harder for the target to resist the daily
attacks on his or her psyche. The
process is complete once either Characteristic has been drained to 0; at that
point the thought-Worm has taken full control.
The end result is an ethereal with a new Slight affinity, a -1 to both
Will and Intelligence (which can be bought up later) - and a permanent -6 to
all attempts to resist the commands or orders of the primal spirit that
infected it.
Resisting the effects of all of this is moderately
simple, assuming that the ethereal has both some idea of what’s going on and
the ability to do something about it.
Anyone with both Dreaming and Medicine at level/3 or above can either
remove or kill the thought-Worm. Removal
of it after the affinity has manifested will both excise the affinity and cause
4d6 Mind Hits to the sufferer; killing the thought-Worm will only cause 2d6
Mind Hits and keep the affinity, but the sufferer will be permanently at -3 to
any roll to resist being infected with any thought-Worm. In any case, lost Characteristics are
permanently lost, although this will not result in the lost of a Force.
Thought-Worms are generally banned in civilized
Domains, and in more than a few barbaric ones.
Those that do permit them usually reserve them to a Domain's owners and
favored servants, and only then under restrictions (such as an alternate form
of capital punishment). Ethereals do not like thought-Worms. Even the ones that use them are often
disquieted by the practice, at least to the point of not willingly discussing
it. Ethereals living in the wilds
between the Domains are sometimes not as fussy, particularly when they wish to
create an army with which to correct their status...