Chaplain Traitor Item: Death Shroud

[Grayshift]

Chaplains have been missing a fun toy since the artbox got canned.

The item: A black cloth, not dissimilar to the MD's bedsheet.
The cost: At least 6 TCs
What it does: When placed on a fresh corpse, that player's ghost is upgraded to a wraith subservient to the chaplain.

The restrictions: The corpse must remain fresh, either by cold or embalming fluid injections. If it rots too far, is taken off station z-level, exposed to starlight or the shroud is removed, the wraith will revert to normal ghost. The shroud is reusable, but all Wraiths are subservient to the chaplain alone, regardless of who puts it on the corpse. The chaplain is immune to the effects of his own shroud - it's not a free upgrade to Wraith.

Why it's fun: More wraiths! Everybody wants to give wraiths a try. It comes with an additional game of hide-the-body, so if you suspect a wraith is not natural or seems to be in league with the chaplain, the easiest way is to go corpse hunting and take off the shroud. However, the chaplain will need to infrequently return to his stash to refill the corpse with formaldehyde.

[TheTrixRabitt]

Bring back the artbox.
This is p. cool idea.

[Berrik]

There are actually some coolers in the crematorium and in the morgue itself, though I don't know if they prevent bodies from decaying.

[cgrn10]

There are actually some coolers in the crematorium and in the morgue itself, though I don't know if they prevent bodies from decaying.

That is there only purpose. Also I like the idea.

[Mageziya]

This is actually a pretty cool idea. The 6+ telecrystal cost, combined with there being only one chaplain on the station, actually balances this quite well, as this means there is only one extra wraith. The Shroud not affecting the chaplain prevents the habit of every traitor chaplain becoming wraith, ease of destroying the wraith (Constant connection to a tangible object.) and the difficulty it takes for a wraith to become dangerous prevents this from being hideously over-powered. The only problem I could see is that this might lead to art-box-esq (Or even Alien-Mode-esq.) scenarios of people committing suicide to become an antagonist, (Situations that allow a normal player to become antagonist through choice and easy action are generally extremely frowned upon.) though the requirement to be dead and there being only one shroud reduces this problem.

Would removing the shroud and then placing it back on the body cause the wraith to lose all its wraith points (Or whatever they're called.) , or would it be conserved on the ghost?

Also, would giving these wraiths a different sprite be a good or bad idea? If this ends up being too powerful this could be a good nerf, since seeing a fancy-lookinh wraith means that the chaplain is always a traitor (Barring Admin fudgery.) and that the crew needs to go body hunting.

[shadowdimentio]

The chappy wraith should be absolutely indistinguishable from regular wraiths, because otherwise the first sighting of it would result in people hunting down the chaplain and caving his skull in with a fire extinguisher.

That would suck.

But I'd like to take the opportunity to say that the corpse should be able to be moved by the chaplain wherever he wants, including having it be spaced.

Think of it like this: Sure, the crew would never be able to find the corpse, but neither would the chaplain. And if the chaplain couldn't find the corpse, he couldn't find the shroud, and if he couldn't find the shroud, then he couldn't remove the shroud, and if he couldn't remove the shroud, then he couldn't put the shroud on a new corpse if/when the wraith dies, meaning the chappy would only get one use out of a multi-use item.

The shroud balances itself out perfectly, it's genius.

[atomic1fire]

say yes to wraith blanket

[DyssalC]

The chappy wraith should be absolutely indistinguishable from regular wraiths, because otherwise the first sighting of it would result in people hunting down the chaplain and caving his skull in with a fire extinguisher.

I think after six wraiths start fucking up all the areas on the station that have giant piles of useless tools in a small area the crew is gonna get to the bottom of that mystery pretty fast.

[Grayshift]

The issue with making the corpse space-able is that it's not hard to pick a random spot out in space and just dump the corpse there. The cold will keep it fresh, it will never be found, and the chaplain can just pod back out to his chosen random spot if he wants to. It trivializes the hide-the-body game.

It's a 6 TC item or so, you shouldn't get a permanent full strength Wraithbuddy out of the deal - there have to be some downsides. Having to maintain the body on station is one of them. Maybe give the Wraith a single life rather than three, and when it dies the corpse automatically rots past usefulness.

[RAWK_LAWBSTAR]

Or just make it so the death shroud only works once so the chaplain can't just keep using it.

[Grayshift]

The problem with it being single use is there's no way to see if your Wraith is braindead or AFK before applying the shroud. Wasting it on an unappreciative dead guy would suck!

[Amuys]

Use a medscanner?

[icarus]

letting morgue freezers work but spacing destroys the body seems fair. people can just check the 6 morgue trays if there's a wraith, or the chaplain can be more secret and hide it & use chemicals instead

[Grayshift]

Medscanners only detect brain damage, they don't show if a corpse has logged out.

[VictorMAngoStein]

Traitor chaplain should get a special clown mask and a hatchet man medallion that lets him use cola as stimpacks so he can bring the dark carnival to the station (WOOP WOOP!)