Ebony Horse

The Ebony Horses or Arabia are kindred spirits of the White Tigers. In prerifts times many attributed the above legend to the arabian breed of horses, but many scholars from Rifts Earth are now wondering what if the above was a memory from the first or second age of magic of Earth, when mystic horses may have roamed the land in those long forgotten ages of magic, and legends were attributed to other similar beasts. For this legend and many other prerifts myths from Arabia match the ebony horses seen running across the skies of the Holy lands since the return of the rich mystical energies to Earth.

The Ebony horses are steeds of the desert nomads. when a warrior reaches maturity he/she must go out in the wilderness and capture (well actually befriend) an ebony horse. The warrior and the horse must be either similar in outlook in life, similar alignment/disposition or total opposites, for them to create an extremely loyal bond, which lasts a lifetime ( usually of the warrior, as the ebony horses do not appear to die of old age, certainly appear to outlive the nomads). It appears to be mystical in nature, for the Ebony horses only bond with the desert nomads of any species, BUT they must be Desert nomads, NOONE ELSE, not even someone from a city in the Middle East.

It is these horses which give the desert nomads an immense edge on raiding the Silk Road Caravans or sacking the villages/citeis of the Middle East. For these mystical horses bestow great power to their warriors.

They are able to cast Temporal spells of the level of their rider. so a level ONE desert nomad's ebony horse will have all level one temporal spells. Some of these are not even known by temporal raiders. The horses are also able to cast Earth and Air Elemental spells equal to the level of their rider. So if the desert nomad riding them was level three, the ebony horse will be able to cast all air/earth elemental spels upto level three. They can also cast some air/earth elemental spells only available to the elementals and NOT available to their respective warlocks.

The Ebony horse also triggers psionic powers to develop in their rider. This gives (3) THREE psionic powers from each category, including super psionics and mind bleeder psionics, BUT one of these must be a Kinesis power, at level one this is usually Pyrokinesis, then at subsequent levels the rider can pick 1 (ONE) psionic power from each of the category, including Super Psionics and Mind Bleeder powers, and again one must be a Kinesis power. Eventually when all the Kinesis powers are selected, they then start get powers boosts, equally that of Zappers or Bursters and even surpassing them at higher levels.

It must be noted that the spells that the Ebony horse casts, USE the Desert Nomads PPE!, and the psionics cast by the Desert Nomad USE the Ebony Horses ISP!

The ebony horse and its rider take normal damage from critical strikes, AND also can roll/save against a NATURAL 20 as if it was a normal dice roll. It can remove curses, hex, or other enchantments from its rider, evil creatures and undead can not come near it, acts like a circle of protection and more importantly it and its riders attack hurt these creatures. it also can sense danger and presence of evil, enchantments, psionics and the supernatural.

The Ebony horse do take on the fearless and ferocity of the desert nomads, and feels the harshness of their lives in its veins. A slight flaw in the Ebony horse is that it thinks it is a warhorse and tends to fight to the death to protect the honour of its rider or challenges or attacks opponents of the rider, even though it is intelligent enough to know it is time to withdraw or bide its time.

However the greatest powers the Ebony Horses bestow their riders are that of "See into other Worlds" and "Walk into Other Worlds". It is these powers that the Desert Nomads use to raid with such precision the caravans of the Silk Road or hit the towns and cities of the Midle East. "See into Other Worlds" allows them to "LOOK" at their enemies or targets, even in other dimensions, their past, present and future", and "Walk into Other Worlds" allows them to teleport exactly where they want to go even to other dimensions, with their equipment and treasure taken from raids and these abilities work through the dimensional barriers. So one moment they are hitting the caravans on the Plains of Mists, and the next minute their back on Rifts Earth with all their gains. This is why they are known as the Stormriders, for they appear, hit with enormous ferocity and disappear as if they hadn't existed, exactly like the desert storms which flare up without a moments notice and are gone before you know, leaving a trail of utter destruction in their wake.

In lands where rains rarely come, and the rains are seen as a gift from God Almighty, the ebony horses of Rifts Earth are sometimes called "The Heralds of the Divine Wind". Whether it is imagined or for real, many see these horses racing across the skies ahead or in tandem with stormclouds as they move across the great deserts of the Middle East bringing with them the nourishing rains, which for brief moments change the inhospitable desert valleys where the rain fell into oasis of Eden. A riot of life springs forth all round, and there is bountiful food for all. Many desert nomads are saved by these events, which they see as occurring by the leave of the grace of God Almighty.

At level 1 (One) the desert nomad must be within 400ft + 100ft per level, but from level 8 (EIGHT) onwards add 1000ft per lvl for this. of it horse, for him to use the ebony horse ISP, and for the ebony horse to use its PPE.

The Desert Nomad has normal PPE for his species, add 1D4 X10 , and then gets 1D4 X 10 per level.

The ebony horse gets 3D4 X 10 ISP + ME, and then gets 1D4 X10 per level.

Ebony Horses gives its MDC to its Desert Nomad, ebony horse start with 1D4 X 100 MDC and get 1D6 X 10 MDC per level, and they regenerate 10 MDC per hour, trebled if they sleep/rest.

The Ebony horse gets its rider damage, in sdc/hit points x 2, irrespective whether its desert nomad is sdc or mdc species

NB: The Ebony Horse only takes damage from magical physical attks directed at it, and even then, an ebony horse is never killed, like the White Tigers they are spirits, an essence walking on the mortal plane. once they go below where even a coma save is not enough, the ebony horse dissipates, vanishes, because the body it created has been destroyed. However as long as it's desert nomad survives, the ebony horse can come back to this material plane, once it recovers. There is one problem, time and how it sees life is different from this plane of existence, all it knows is, it needs to be with someone, but can't quite place it. The ebony horse will be searching for its rider, if she is still alive, but due to its nature it may go back in time, forward in time, it may try a few minutes later, but in the real world months or years may have passed. However the desert nomad can try to guide the Ebony horse to it, by meditating or performing rituals, a common thing is to take an oath of some kind or perform a heroic quest. These appear to send emanations to the Ebony horse, who suddenly remembers what and where he should go. The Desert Nomad finds his ebony horse and must then fulfil his oath, or he may jut have done a heroic quest and on completion finds the ebony horse waiting for him. Leave it up to Individual Players and GM's to how they want to role play this out.

The Ebony horse rolls 6D6 + 10 for all attributes, and its attributes are seen as Supernatural/Magical in nature. An ebony horse can run at 100mph + 25mph per level on land or air, it can keep an average speed going without tiring with its rider an carrying three times the weight its PS allows it to lift. It can run at full speed or carry extra weight for 1d6 hours + PE attributes in minutes before needing rest. minimum of its PE attribute in minutes before it can hit full speed again. NB: the Ebony can usually timeslip and teleport across distances if it or its rider so choose.

This webpage was created by the OneTen rp'ing group. All work that appears on this page is (C) Copyright the OneTen rp'ing group 2011.