And could they possess inanimate things, like corpses or statues?
...no one can re-read it for me?
Mmm, maybe that guy was right when he said penn you're a phag and nobody likes you except perhaps your bf Kamelion. (best quote EVAR btw!)
But I say no! Show that low life name caller what you're made of! /shameful guilt trip
The wraiths seem to be able to manipulate their own dead bodies because one looks at Rikus and scowls, but I don't think they can animate any other body because in the next chapter Rikus is attacked by Lirrs and tells Tamar to shut up or the only way she will be able to move is when the Lirrs eat her stone.
I seriously need to read that stuff again, way more complex than I ever thought. I'm designing 4e wraiths, you see...
And some book, dunno which, has a weapon passing through a shadow giant, getting super cold, hitting the ground and shattering.
At one point Neeva shatters her axe as though it were glass when she brought it down on Umbra's hand. Her non-magic weapon passes right through him. Touching Umbra is often described as super cold. EDIT: Gannon's club breaks after passing through Umbra, but the Scourge is unaffected in this early fight. Umbra loses a hand and suffers another wound to the Scourge.
Tamar the wraith does take control over Rikus's body a few times, it seems to be done through the Way. But she does [claim to] have the ability to animate his corpse and use that to finish her job. And with the wraiths animating statues and the bones of the dead we've no reason not to believe her.
"Inside Rikus's mind, Tamar reached out. In accord with her movements, the mul found his arm rising toward Caelum." -The Crimson Legion p283
A few paragraphs down, Rikus builds a mental construct to break free of the mental control.
How big does the gold scorpion becomes when the wraith takes it over? Is it a tough opponent? Does it have special properties?
"After Rajaat was released from his prison Rikus found himself in mortal combat with Borys, with his only weapon the Scourge of Rkard. In the battle that followed, Rikus drove the Scourge deep into the snout of the Dragon, and as a result of the creature’s subsequent thrashing Rikus snapped the blade in two."
As for the golden scorpion, I recall it, but I can't remember where. I'll try to keep looking. edit:I'm thinking it's in book 5 of the series.
The golden scorpion is during the wraith encounter...way earlier.
The wraiths lay a trap for Sadira and while Rikus is climbing the side of a cliff to repair a suspension bridge he is attacked by a silver scorpion that is larger then the hole he pulled it out from. After the scorpion is dealt with, the silver color peels off of it and it shrinks down revealing itself to be a tiny golden scorpion (apparently the most poisonous thing in the desert). No mention of how the wraiths do this (wraith ability or the Way) and its probably intentional at this point because the reader might not have figured out that the wraiths are involved yet. Then the trap is sprung, a merchant on the other side of the bridge and his inixes are revealed to be animated by the wraiths (they are covered in a grey pall that leaves when they are no longer animated). Sadira gets covered by most of the wraiths in wraith form and Neeva runs the Scourge across one. She hurts the wraith (I think) and it tries to animate the Scourge in retaliation. The Scourge resists and explodes the wraith out, but loses its silver sheen in the process. It's covered in a dull grey stain and Magnus declares "The wraiths touch has tainted the blade."
I'll look for the tip of the sword breaking tomorrow.
The Cerulean Storm, p 103-104
Back to the wraiths and their possesion abilities. It seems when they possess something or someone, their target takes on a grey pall, and may have crystal glowing eyes (respective in color to the soul gems used to house the wraiths). The Scourge briefly had a pair of eye apearing on its hilt before it exploded the wraith out as did about half of the other things that got possesed (writer's descriptive liscense at work?). Both of those visual cues are probably why Tamar uses the Way to take control of Rikus even though that method has the weakness of him being able to fight it.
I'm making various wraiths, or at least want to. One that controls statues, one Tiny insects, one corpses. You've told me they can possess objects as well, and really big corpses like inixes.
I may not end up being able to make all three wraiths. The possession of a corpse or an animal bit may be left for DMs to use as they wish.
Mmm, maybe that guy was right when he said penn you're a phag and nobody likes you except perhaps your bf Kamelion. (best quote EVAR btw!)
I remember that! I couldn't believe that guy actually said that!
The holidays have come early! Thanks for that, Tsuul! Just finished reading. I need to read the Pentad again...
So, making a statue-animating wraith was easy enough (yeah, right!), but I think that unless a smarter man than me comes along I'll leave the possession of animals big and small and the animation of corpses to effects that DMs won't find in a stat block.
...my last chance would be to create a kind of 'monster template', something you add to an inix, scorpion, dead guy, whatever, to make it wraith-controlled.
@Terminus_Vortexa: (^_^)