Thursday, January 1, 2015

1. Whistling Spider

This morph was recovered from an abandoned exhuman brinker hab and dubbed "the whistling spider". Grip pads, ball-jointed limbs and vacuum sealing indicate that it was designed to live in space, yet its echolocation requires an atmosphere. In a vacuum, the spider would be forced to feel its way with its longest arms.

The form is broadly similar to arachnids, specifically of the order Amblypygi. It has ten limbs in total: two pairs of arms and three pairs of legs. Compared to a typical spider the front most pair of legs have been turned to long, strong grasping arms, and the pedipalps to shorter and weaker but more dexterous arms. Ball joints maximize flexibility despite the rigid exoskeleton. Additionally, it is symmetrical along two axes. Left and right are mirrored like most animals, but top and bottom are also symmetrical: all of its limbs are centered along the equator and capable of 360 degree rotation.

The face reveals one of the most intriguing design choices. The morph has no eyes, but four flared, furry-bottomed craters in its exoskeleton act as excellent ears. The mouth, in the center of the face, is capable of echolocation pulses and complex whistling, but not speech. It is assumed the original designer had, or intended to make, a whistling based language.

The arachnoid appearance is only exoskeleton deep, however. The morph is built entirely on human genes and tissues. The exoskeleton is keratin, reinforced with a lattice of cartilage, and internally, the basic layout of human physiology is maintained, with major organs in approximately the same relative positions as a human body.

Plot Hook: An exhuman in a whistling spider morph has been taken in by the exoglots of Locus. Firewall would like the players to investigate, requiring them to negotiate with the exoglots (in itself a difficult task) and gain an interview with the spider and assess whether it or whatever forced the abandoning of its hab are threats.

Mechanics

Whistling Spiders are biomorphs.

Enhancements: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Echolocation, Enhanced Hearing, Carapace Armor, Grip Pads, Vacuum Sealing
Aptitude Maximum: 30
Durability: 40
Wound Threshold: 8
Advantages: 4 arms, 6 legs, Carapace Armor (11/11), +5 COO, +5 REF, +10 Freefall, +10 Freerunning
Disadvantages: Blind
CP Cost: 25
Credit Cost: Expensive (25,000+)

2 comments:

  1. Well, now I have to get my PCs to fight some exhumans solely because of this.

    Very creative, and just the right amount of spooky.

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  2. Very creative and also very gross. Nice job.

    ReplyDelete