The Lost Advancement Thread

[The Lost]

Character Advancement Name: The First Step | Project: Perfect Soul [Phase I]

Character Advancement Description: During the events of Operation: Immortal Hellbeast, The Lost obtained various research materials from an extra-dimensional portal. Included among the samples recovered was an eye that somehow managed to remain alive despite being severed from the head that it came from. Furthermore, The Lost gained a valuable ally in the form of a demon witch girl. This was just the most prominent of many recent operations involving the supernatural world. Such other operations included dealing with werewolves in Ontario, being visited by masters of the arcane arts in one of his own labs, and even hunting down and capturing a ghoul. It had been a very successful year for The New Path in the field of the supernatural and occult. With The Lost's super intelligence, he had long since been studying all knowledge available to modern man, but it is only thanks to the success of these recent operations that he has finally been able to make a breakthrough in this field. With these breakthroughs, The Lost built several machines and synthesized new chemical supplements, all designed to work in conjunction with ancient meditation techniques that he had researched. Through all of this, The Lost was finally available to manifest a new phenomenon that is neither physical nor mental. Spiritual power, soul pressure, mysticism, magic, mana, arcana, qi, chi, ki, and many other names could all be applied to the phenomenon, but The Lost decided that all of these names were a bit outdated. He believed that any sufficiently advanced technology was indistinguishable from magic, and therefore any sufficiently advanced magic should be indistinguishable from science. He labeled this power as Personal Existence Manipulation.  

Character Advancement Power(s): Personal Existence Manipulation can simply be called Spiritual Power. In scientific terms, The Lost can manifest the very essence of his own existence and discharge it from his physical form as pure energy. In less scientific terms, he can use his excess spiritual power to shoot people with his soul energy. Generally speaking, for people with normal souls, the body acts as a vessel or container for their soul, and their soul is limited to that vessel and can usually only affect that vessel. A normal person's soul sustains their vessel's life and their very existence. The Lost used his fringe science to supercharge his soul, in a manner of speaking. The result is an excess of spiritual power. With great effort, he can extend the influence of his soul beyond the normal limits of his human body. He cannot manipulate another person's spirit, soul, essence, or existence directly. However, he can send out his excess spiritual power as a form of pure energy that can attack other people's souls. This ignores physical defenses and attacks a person's very essence or spirit.

This has varying affects on the target, depending on the individual. The effects of this power could be immediate. A vessel that is not being sustained by a soul will often rot and deteriorate. By damaging the soul that is sustaining the target's vessel, parts of the target's physical vessel can be damaged. On the other hand, a person who's soul has taken too much damage might just pass out until their soul can recover. In this case, the soul might instinctively focus on sustaining the vessel, even if it means passing out. A stubborn or willful person might simply have their soul completely obliterated before passing out from damage to their soul. Sometimes beyond repair. A creature or vessel that is not solely sustained by their soul might instead just feel their willpower or personality dull, or their mind become cloudy. Others might not feel any affects from this power at all. In theory a soulless target would be completely immune to this type of attack. However, in certain religions like Shintoism, there is the belief that there is divinity or spirits in all things. This includes inanimate objects like rocks or a river. In theory The Lost can use this power to punch the divinity of a river, with his soul energy. The result might be as simple as splitting a large gap in a waterfall for a brief moment. With this power, he can even strike ghosts, spirits, and other creatures that have no physical form. The only requirement is that they have a spiritual form to strike with his own. The Lost sends out his spiritual energy from his body in bursts or waves. The source must always be from his physical vessel, where his energy is stored. The more energy he expends, the further it can go. However, that energy spends itself in order to travel that distance. Thus his blasts will be weaker at longer ranges, and strongest in close range.

Character Advancement Weaknesses: [New Technology] | As with any new technology and field of science, the practical applications are limited and require fine tuning. The Lost is only just now beginning to see results from his supernatural research, though this recent breakthrough is indeed incredible. These powers are new and unfamiliar. He's a fast learner, but will still probably be easily outclassed by more experienced spiritualist.

[Still Not Perfect] | Although The Lost aspires towards a perfect soul, his soul is still not perfect, and will probably never be perfect. Though he has a super soul capable of doing things normal souls cannot, it is still limited. Just like any energy source, it can run out if he overspends it. His soul will recover spent energy with time and rest, but if he uses it all at once, there will be nothing left to sustain his life or his existence. Thus, his own physical vessel, his body, would begin to deteriorate and rot. Furthermore, completely overtaxing this power can result in a death beyond normal mortal death, the true destruction of his soul.

[Power attracts Power] | The Lost's experiment has given him an extraordinary soul. Ghosts, demons, and soul stealers of all kinds would be attracted to him. Creatures of this nature might even ignore one of his enemies or rivals, just to focus their efforts on taking his soul.

[Soulless Immunity] | Any creature that lacks a soul is immune to the damage from The Lost's spiritual energy.

Item/Character Advancement Price: First Advancement [5XP].