Lurkers In The Shadows

The civilisation that was the Ancient Terrans collapsed almost two thousand years ago following some cataclysmic event, but details on what actually happened are scarce. Likewise information on the Ancient Terrans have been collected piece by piece over the centuries since the 'Fall', but even this is fragmented and woefully incomplete. What is known is that the Ancient Terrans had access to technology far in advance of anything that currently exists in Darmonica, but nothing that could've prevented their doom.

...Right?

Lurkers

What isn't known is that some of the elite of Ancient Terran society (think the Enclave from the Fallout series) saw the cataclysm coming and took steps to prepare for it, there was a number of different plans but for now we'll focus on just one of them.

A number of secret vaults or catacombs (take your pick) were constructed, these were designed as refuges for a handful of elites and some of their underlings. All were placed in a sort of stasis to enable them to survive the forthcoming cataclysm and then rebuild their empire, alot of Ancient Terran tech was also put in these vaults to aid on this objective. It was expected that the survivors would be revived from stasis after about a century when the world was judged to have recovered enough from the cataclysm, as you can expect this didn't quite plan out the way that it was suppose to have done.

The stasis technology used was highly experimental and a lack of time and the survivor's own selfishness meant that the clinks in the system were never ironed out. A number of vaults became little more than tombs for their inhabitants, but in others the inhabitants were somehow changed during their time in stasis. Those that eventually emerged were altered to be neither fully alive or dead, just sort of stuck somewhere in between. Undead isn't quite the right word, but these Ancient Terran survivors now need the lifeforce of others to survive.

Over the centuries that have now passed the underlings have abducted isolated groups of people from the Alyeskan wilderness to feed the rest of the so-called 'hive', usually one or two would be fed upon by the underlings whilst the rest are placed in converted stasis machines to feed those still slumbering. The biggest 'hive' is located beneath the Monolith and is mainly responsible for the disappearance of whole expeditions in the Chillwynd Marches as well people from nearby townships such as Prospector's Reach. Though only a fraction of a hive is presently awake, mostly underlings tasked with feeding the hive led by a single elite who acts as the hive's de factor ruler.

Game Terms

Though whilst I have yet to work out any stats I do have a few ideas how I envision the Lurkers work under the Savage Worlds rule.

*Life Drain: When a Lurker makes and maintains physical contact with a victim (usually though a Grapple) the victim must make a Spirit roll each round or lose one die from their Vigor. When the victim's Vigor drops below d4 they die. One die of Vigor is recovered each week with a natural healing roll.

*Weapons: To represent the Lurker's inherited advance technology I'm toying with the idea of having them use laser weapons as well as some sort of hi-tech stun weapon.