“Out, damn spot! Out, I say!”
–Lady Macbeth
It’s just a two-dimensional spot, not much bigger than this: .
It is also obliterates anything that comes into contact with it, leaving a breach in all material objects including magical items, de-enchanting them. The Speck devours everything in its path. When it moves in air, a faint whisper follows as aether rushes to fill the vacuum.
Only an Extreme Spot Hidden or Extreme Listen (if it is in air) notices it at first. Once someone is aware the Speck exists, what it does and the noise it makes, it can be located if someone is within 10 feet and achieves a Hard Spot Hidden or Hard Listen.
It can move at the speed of a bullet in any direction, changing vectors in an instant, but it always traverses the space between points. It can hover in place, remain in motion or stay attached to something that itself moves for centuries. Depending on its movement pattern, it could be more or less dangerous. For most items, a small fissure is an annoyance. But for some highly technical equipment or a vital organ, an annihilating aperture passing through renders it inert, e.g., dead.
The Void Speck is absolutely indestructible; any material passing it gains a gap. Neither can magical spells remove it (e.g., Shriveling).
The Void Speck is sentient. Perhaps it’s an oddment of Azathoth, a few particles that malingered after the Daemon Sultan manifested many strange aeons ago.
There may be dozens, hundreds, millions of Void Specks skulking about. If great numbers coagulated, the danger could be quite considerable.
The only recourse to deal with a Void Speck is to lure it away, and what draws it is determined by the Keeper, and it can change without warning. The attractant could be, for example, otherworldly beings, high APP humans, occult books, the color blue, elegant parfum, drop D guitar chords, a narrow electromagnetic band, a particular emotion, naughty thoughts or maybe it just really likes lurking at the end of a monster entry for a tabletop role-playing game.
Void Speck, destruction incarnate (on a tiny scale)
STR: n/a
CON: n/a
SIZ: 1
DEX: 10D6x5 / 350
INT: 10
EDU: n/a
POW: 500
HP: N/A
Damage Bonus: (depends on what is hit, GM determines)
Build: -2
Magic Points: n/a
Move: 50
ATTACKS
Attacks per round: 1-5, depending on its movement
Fighting: 100% (it always hits what it wants to at least once)
Dodge: Never dodges
Armor: n/a
Skills: n/a
Sanity Loss: 1/1D6
SPECIAL POWERS
Power: Ravages anything it touches. Losing a few milligrams of material might not make a difference to whatever meets a Void Speck—but sometimes you really, really need that bit. Spells: none
Aaron has published game material for Pelgrane Press, Miskatonic Repository, Arc Dream Publishing, and more. He teaches games design for middle school children.