October 13th: The Masked Ones

Dispatch – “911, what is the nature of your emergency?”
Caller – “I just shot and killed an intruder. He was wearing a mask and had a knife.”
Dispatch – “Okay, stay on the line, we are sending someone right away. Caller ID doesn’t seems to be working, give me your address”
Voice in background – “He’s gone!”
Caller – “What? I shot him four times!”
Dispatch – “Sir, stay on the line. What’s your address?”
Voice in the background begins screaming. Sound of phone falling to the floor. Sound of screaming. Sound of Two gunshots before the line goes dead.

The Masked Ones have existed for as long as mankind and begin as normal human beings. At some point in their mortal lives they undergo a fundamental change. Cosmic forces beyond all understanding alter their bodies and task them with a deadly mandate. The chosen person dons a mask, finds a weapon, and seeks out victims as a newly created Masked One. They are no longer human but an unnatural creature, existing somewhere between life and death, an instrument of murder and fear.

The appearances of Masked Ones vary a great deal. Some are hulking brutes, others slender youths, while still others appear as mere children. Their chosen masks can be anything from sports equipment to Halloween costumes, a religious or cultural mask, or even something they created themselves from Paper Mache, wood, bone, or the skins of their victims. Masks of animal faces, clowns, and dolls seem to be the most common. While they are usually solitary there have been times when a group of Masked Ones have worked together. Masked Ones seldom ever speak but those who do have emotionless voices and utter cryptic messages.

Masked Ones are usually armed with a melee weapon of some sort, most often a knife, although machetes, bats, and even chainsaws have been used. They are not averse to using their bare hands to kill although they never use ranged weapons of any sort. Masked Ones are typically found in remote places where they can find isolated groups of victims. Stretches of lonely road, camp grounds, getaway cottages or cabins are the idea hunting grounds for these fiends. Such locations are chosen to allow the Masked Ones time with their victims as they are usually terrorized before they are killed.

The Powers of a Masked One – Masked Ones usually choose their targets at random, although the dark powers which motivate them may have a reason for selecting their victims. Once fixated on a target Masked Ones are relentless in their pursuit, hunting their victims across hundreds of miles and for decades if need be. From a Masked One there is seldom any escape.

Masked Ones are preternaturally stealthy, moving about silently, melting into shadows, and seeming to vanish once out of direct line of sight. While they never seem to actually run they can cover distances as if they were sprinting while appearing to walk. Anyone seeing this unnerving effect must make a Sanity Check for 0/1D2.

These creatures are unaffected by normal weapons, although spells and enchanted weapons work normally. Masked Ones take minimal possible damage from things like fire, acid and electricity. Biological effects such as poisons, disease, gas, asphyxiating, or drowning have no effect on these creatures. Removing a Masked Ones mask, which requires a STR vs STR 12 check on the resistance table, causes the creature to stop attacking and do everything it can to recover its mask. If a mask can be removed AND destroyed the Masked One run off, vanishing once out of sight, and doesn’t return for 1D10 years. At the end of this period of banishment it returns, with a new mask, to finish what it started.

When attacked these creatures typically feign injury, although they never react to pain or bleed. When a Masked One would normally have taken enough damage to be reduced to zero HP they collapse as if dead. In this case they vanish if possible, to resume their attack from another direction, or rise up apparently unharmed 1D4 rounds later. Those finding a Masked One they though the dispatched gone, or seeing it get up after appearing to be dead, causes victims to make a Sanity Check for 1/1D4.

Masked Ones, relentless supernatural killers, pure evil.
char – rolls – avg
STR   5d6 14
CON   4d6 12
SIZ     3d6+2 12-14
INT     3d6 9-12
POW  4d6 13
DEX   3d6 10-11
Mov   9 HP   16
Av. Damage Bonus: 0
Weapons: Melee Weapon (such as a knife, machete, bat, or chainsaw) 65%, damage varies.
Grapple 45%
Fist/Punch 60%, 1d3+db
Armor: None, but immune to normal weapons and biological effects.
Minimal damage from fire, acid, electricity and similar effects
Spell: None.
Skills: Hide 75%, Sneak 75%, Track 95%, Vanish 75%
Sanity Loss: 1/1d6 Sanity Points to see a Masked One
0/1 Sanity Points for see a Masked One walking faster than most people run
1/1D3 Sanity Points to see a Masked One vanish or seem to rise from the dead

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