Powers: Dark Speech

Powers: Dark Speech

Another peculiar thing in the Book of Vile Darkness for D&D 3.0 is the Dark Speech. Here's my attempt at recreating it in GURPS, changing some aspects in transition.

Dark Speech [33]

                The Dark Speech is a language full of spite, malice, corruption, and hatred. This is the secret language of evil deities, so foul and potent that even demons are afraid to use it. Very few mortals even know a few words of the Dark Speech. Speaking Dark Speech at Broken or Accented is dangerous. Every time you try conveying something via the Dark Speech, make an IQ roll (if Accented) or IQ-4 roll (if Broken) or suffer 1 point of injury.

                The Dark Speech has no written form and cannot be transliterated into another language’s written form without losing all of its meaning and power, and its spoken form is very difficult to master. To communicate by means of the Dark Speech the speaker must take great care, or speaker will be harmed. There are no words in the Dark Speech for good concepts such as kindness and mercy, but there are many accurate forms for such words as betrayal and misery.

                Aside from talking, there are other ways of using the Dark Speech, if you know it at Native. Note that all the following abilities are Alternative Abilities – if one of them is disabled, all of them are.

                Charisma: Whenever you use at least a few words of the Dark Speech in a conversation with an evil being (evil outsider or a priest of an evil deity), you impress them regardless of their knowledge of the Dark Speech. This gives you +3 on all reaction rolls made by evil sapient beings with whom you actively interact (converse, lecture, etc.); +3 to Influence rolls (see Influence Rolls, p. B359); and +3 to Fortune-Telling, Leadership, and Public Speaking skills.

Corruption: You can whisper softly a few words in the Dark Speech to weaken a physical object. You must touch the object and whisper a couple of corrupting words. Roll a Quick Contest of Will against the object’s HT. If you win, the object’s HT is reduced by 5 and DR is reduced by 10 for 3 minutes. This costs 1 FP.

                Dread: The words you utter fill the hearts of others with dread. When you activate this ability, anyone hears you  must roll an immediate Fright Check (see Fright Checks, p. B360). Your victims get +1 per Fright Check after the first within 24 hours. If a victim succeeds at his Fright Check, he will be unaffected by your Dark Speech for one hour. Using this ability is painful for the speaker – he loses 2 FP and suffers from severe pain (p. B428) for 1 minute, then he can roll against HT once per minute after that to recover.

                Statistics: Language (Dark Speech; Native; Spoken Only) [3] + Charisma 3 (Accessibility, Only on unholy beings, -50%; Requires saying something in the Dark Speech, -5%) [7/5 = 2] + Terror (Hearing; Backlash, Severe Pain, -40%; Costs Fatigue, 2 FP, -10%; Magical, -10%) [12/5 = 3] + Affliction 1 (HT; Accessibility, Inanimate objects only, -10%; Attribute Penalty, HT-5, +50%; Costs Fatigue, 1 FP, -5%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Magical, -10%; Malediction 1, +100%; Melee Attack, Reach C, Cannot Parry, -35%; Negated Advantage, Reduced DR 10, +50%; No Signature, +20%; Requires Dark Speech, -10%) [25].