Sword Wraiths

[KevinJ]

This is the first draft of a critter that haunted my dreams the other night (26Apr). Fortunately I'm a lucid dreamer and I remember most of what I dreampt the night before. I jotted it down the next morning, then added a few bits to flesh the idea out.

LORE:
In the distant past, a group of fanatical warriors swore solemn and terrible oaths to their dread gods to wage war on their enemies in life and in death; in doing so they bound themselves to this world in a way that they had not intended. Thus were the sword wraiths created of old.
Sword Wraiths are spirits of dead warriors that now inhabit the weapons they wielded at their deaths. Sword Wraiths are not all trapped in swords, any weapon could be a sword wraith, even a arquebus. The point is that the weapon is possessed with a spirit intent on destroying it’s perceived enemies. This could be the actual living enemies, the descendents of those original enemies, or just the Government against which they originally fought.
When a living person grasps a weapon inhabited by a Sword Wraith the spirit will try to possess the individual; treat this as the Possession spell.
The ST requirement for the weapon possessed by the Sword Wraith is waived, but if the possessed has a ST less than the minimum they do reduced damage equal to their ST within that weapon class. A Broadsword wielded by a ST10 character will only inflict 2d-2 plus any bonuses from the weapon itself, thus a very fine broadsword might instill +1 DX and +1 Dmg to the reduced damage of the weaker character.
Stats:
The stats of a Sword Wraith are variable, depending on what they are possessing at the time. If a Sword Wraith is possessing a living being, use the ST and DX of the living being. If it possesses a recently dead (treat as a Zombie) then use the DX of the being in life or 10, whichever is higher. The weapon grants the appropriate weapon talent (Sword, Guns, Pole Weapons, etc) needed to wield it as well as Expertise and Mastery, since it is the spirit in the weapon, not the character, that is in control.
If no living beings are around to possess, the Sword Wrait will animate the closes dead body in the form of a Zombie. The Zombie will not be as good as a living being, but it will have the appropriate Talents for the Sword Wraith.
If no fresh bodies are available, the Sword Wraith can animate a skeleton, also with all the bonuses from Talents and weapon bonuses.
Game Use:
Introducing Sword Wraiths to your existing game might be challenging.
If they have ‘always been there’ then you can introduce the lore and put them in a new dungeon or unexplored area of the world.
You could have the event that creates the Sword Wraiths take place during the game and blame it on your PCs. Nothing says the GM cares like adding eternal and unceasing enemies based on their in game actions.
Another option would be a ‘magic ritual’ for creating Sword Wraiths from willing subjects of the appropriate worshippers of not-so-good Deities.
A 4th option is to leave it a complete mystery and when they find a spiffy new weapon, SURPRIZE!, the Sword Wraith will try to possess the first person to touch it. If they survive they can try to find lore about this, maybe from a friendly bard or scholar.