...I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses: gasses can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected...
Winston Churchill: departmental minutes
(Churchill papers: 16/16)
12 May 1919 War Office
(Churchill papers: 16/16)
12 May 1919 War Office
Purple Wisps (Vile Vapors)
No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 10' (gaseous form)
Armor Class: 7 (Cannot be harmed by non-magical weapons)
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d4 per round due to poison
Save: F2
Morale: 11
Silent but deadly little miasmas, Purple Wisps reek of rancid peaches, leaving behind a powerful stench of burnt peaches that lingers wherever they've poisoned the air in a roughly 10' radius with their toxic exudations. They tend to lurk at the terminus of dead end streets or cul de sacs, drifting along disused by-ways and alleys, looming over forgotten stairs and the like, where they fester in their own hate and malice.
Purple Wisps are deplorable, despicable things, seemingly bent on the destruction of all life, however they have been known to enter into unholy alliances with those members of the Purple Horde who have entered into a pact with them by way of certain proscribed rituals known only among the Desert Fathers and the peculiar sect known as 'The Breathless' of the Ledaan. One such ritual is known as the Pending Exhalation and it allows the person submitting to it to breathe in a Purple Wisp and carry the vile thing deep within their lungs, gaining a number of special abilities in exchange for acting as a host to the foul being, including the ability to spew forth the Purple Wisp as a final act of contrition.
Minor Miasmas | Purple Wisps | Purple Haze | Deep Purple Smog | Purple Rain
Lesser Purple Clouds | Greater Purple Clouds
Srumachis
Lesser Purple Clouds | Greater Purple Clouds
Srumachis
Source of Inspiration: Purple Wisps are inspired by M.P. Shiel's The Purple Cloud. You can find a copy of The Purple Cloud via Project Gutenberg, if you're interested, or you might like to try to listen to the audiobook version via LibriVox. There was a Purple Wisp encountered in Episode 86 of Bujilli...when Ahven made use of the Pending Exhalation to poison Leeja...
That's ghastly quote from Mr. Churchill.
ReplyDeleteYes. It is. There's a good bit more where that came from. People's views on the use of poison gas as a weapon have gone through a lot of revision and re-evaluation since 1919. Thankfully. Of course in Wermspittle, poison gas is a far too common hazard thanks to the unexploded bombs and what-not...
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