Glass Elementals for Unisystem

Flashback! Glass Elementals was originally posted to Eden Studios’ discussion boards in 2008 as an article for C.J Carella’s WitchCraft. I don’t think they’re anything new in the canon of urban fantasy, but it was my first stab at writing up a monster, as it were. Plus, at the time, I had an idea of building a larger project from this, mixing facets of modern life with supernatural or fantasy themes, like plastic elementals or city-dwelling spirits. Nothing new, but it had my attention at the time.

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Glass Elementals (Shards)

Shards are relative newcomers to the supernatural scholar’s bestiary. Some theorize Shards only came into being as glass became a more common construction material, it also became part of people’s everyday lives and thus entered the spiritual landscape. Another, less popular, hypothesis suggests glass elementals are the result of Pyros and Gnomes fusing together in a curious instance of spiritual reproduction.

The basic Shard’s personality is brittle. It’s rather inflexible and doesn’t care for change. When their patience is tested, Shards may lash out in anger at the cause of their displeasure, or whomever happens to be in their way.

Typical Shards tend to manifest in the physical world as a mass of countless iridescent fragments of glass. While this allows them to take a shape they may care to, most Shards default to a roughly humanoid form. Some rare Shards may materialize as molten glass. They typically inhabit urban locales, particularly areas populated by a plethora of skyscrapers. Modern Shards are a great deal more resilient than their early predecessors, but they tend to shatter rather spectacularly all the same.

Strength: 1-6+
Dexterity: 2-6+
Constitution: 2-6+
Intelligence: 2-7+
Perception: 1-5+
Willpower: 3-6+

Vital Essence: 10-50+

Energy Essence: 10-100+

Life Points (when manifested): 20-150+

Speed: 15-25+

Spiritus: 3-6+

Powers Common to Shards

Cutting Touch: The countless sharp edges that make up a Shard do 1 point cutting damage for every level of Strength, in addition to normal damage done by a physical strike.

Reflective Shell: In brightly lit situations, such as a sunny afternoon or a theater stage, a Shard’s glass fragments reflect brilliantly, incurring -2 penalty to visually target it.

Resistant to Damage: Flame, cold and other energy-based attacks do minimal damage to Shards – the equivalent to rolling a 1 when determining damage.
Vulnerabilities: Shards are particularly susceptible to kinetic damage – thrown objects, bullets, etc. Increase such an attack’s multiplier by 2, or give it a multiplier of x2 if it doesn’t have one.

Powers Special to Shards

Razor Shriek: Some Shards learn to spew a scintillating hail of glass slivers at their foes, accompanied by an ear-piercing cacophony of scraping glass. This does D6 x 3 injury in Life Points.

Malleable Form: With practice, a Shard may become more adept at manipulating its physical form on the fly, stretching limbs or compressing itself into a small space, for example. For every level of Willpower, the Shard’s effective reach extends by five feet. The Shard gains an extra +1 for every Dexterity level when attempting to dodge as it contracts limbs and deforms its material shell to avoid attacks.