Space Vampires

We finished Colin Wilson's 1976 classic "The Space Vampires" this weekend, just a tad after Vintage Science Fiction Month (in January). It is arguably a Mythos story since the titular monsters have a connection to Clark Ashton Smith's Ubbo-Sathla. The book is written using the Van Voghtian method: a narrative with terse sentences, and often vague or partial description of things in the environment. The latter is supposed to produce some anxiety and a sense of estrangement, as the brain "fills in" the missing pieces of the description.

So who or what are these space vampires? They are the spirit forms of formerly star spanning aliens who lost their physical bodies as a result of ancient accelerations of evolution. Or the immortal, malevolent, and degenerate forms of an ancient and benevolent star spanning race - take your pick.

The space vampires are very similar to how Nephilim were conceived of in the old Multisim/Chaosium RPG: they are disembodied astral parasites who can only act when they occupy a host organism. No less importantly, they are also energy vampires who feed off of life energy/sexual energy of embodied intelligent creatures.

They require a voluntary host - probably. But we know how that goes: such parasites always target those with very strong drives - often drives about which they would be embarrassed to tell others.

OGL MECHANICS

Space Vampires 
Parasitic energy vampire 

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Parasitic energy vampire from another world
• Trouble: No body aside from yours
• Aspect: "I know what you want."
• Aspect: "I can help you get it."
• Aspect: Skilled infiltrator

APPROACHES

• Careful: +2
• Clever: +3
• Flashy: 0
• Forceful: 0
• Quick: 0
• Sneaky: +2

STUNTS:

• Embody - A Space Vampire first spends 1 FP to attempt to embody in an intelligent biological host to which their spirit form is adjacent, or to transfer from one intelligent host to another with whom their host is physical contact. The Space Vampire attacks with Clever; a potential host defends with Clever or Forceful, whichever is lower. Stress lands immediately as a Consequence. A Severe Consequence indicates possession.
• Feed - Take +2 to Forceful Approach when Attacking a potential victim with a seductive touch or kiss; the target resists with their Forceful Approach. Any stress lands as an immediate Consequence for the target. When the target takes a Consequence, the Space Vampire immediately gains 1 FP.
• Insight - Take +2 to Clever to ascertain the appetites of an embodied intelligent being.  

REFRESH: 2 

STRESS: 3 Boxes

***

SPECIAL: 

• Hunger - Must feed daily. Each day without feeding means the Space Vampire either takes a Consequence or loses 1 FP.
• Physical invulnerability - Cannot be harmed by physical (i.e., melee/ranged weapons) attacks, although mental and energy attacks might harm a Space Vampire, and a Faraday Cage Room might contain one. 

Strange Stars A-to-Z: A is for Attendant

The Attendants, sometimes also called the Hothouse Heads, are enigmatic moravecs that have only recently made their appearance among the Strange Stars.  They serve as the expert personal attendants for some of the wealthiest of the Strange Stars' elites, and do so with ebuillant flair.

First seen serving members of the dwarf aristocracy of Orichalcos, the Attendants have since branched out. A number have found work serving the owners of orbitals around the gas giant Fortuna IV, the gamblers' paradise. Others have found work among the elite of the ringworld Circus. Most recently, a few have even been found a home in the banking and investment clans of Neshekk.

The Attendants have had no luck within the Vokun Empire, whose lords distrust and fear intelligent machines.

Eschewing conventional forms of acoustic communication, the Attendants only converse with individuals who have access to the Metascape. Their communicative modalities transcend mere language; the Attendants also express themselves through elaborate floral displays which stimulate olfactory neural networks as well as auditory and lingiustic centers. It's rumored that their olfactory displays are so potent that Attendants can use them for both self-defence and the protection of their employers.

Some Attendants have become so successful in managing their clients' personal and business affairs that their employers have become entirely reclusive. These masters no longer attend their own board meetings, travel between systems for high-level business negotiations, or deign to give interviews with media,

OGL MECHANICS

Attendants make good Supporting NPC Adversaries, although in some cases they may have advanced to become the Main NPC Adversary in a story, with their employer reduced to being the Adversary's pawn. 

Attendant (Supporting NPC Adversary)

Sophont Type: Moravec

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Cybernetic servant with a floral flair
• Trouble: Haughty by design
• Strangeness: What's inside that head
• Aspect: Metascape manipulator
• Aspect: Only the wealthiest deserve my services
• Aspect: I can take care of that for you

SKILLS: Academics, Decieve, Empathy, Provoke, Rapport, Social Systems

STUNTS:

• First Impressions: Attendants can take +2 to their Rapport skill to create a positive impression with strangers who have access to the Metascape. The Attendant projects a brillant floral display that conveys its status and elegance. 
• Taste of the Strange: Attendants can take +2 to their Provoke skill to toxify the Metascape. Their floral display releases a toxic scent that has the ability to disrupt the neural functioning of anyone within the same or an adjacent Zone. This is an Attack action doing Mental stress. 
• Armor: An Attendant's hard shell takes the first two points of stress on any Physical Attack.

  

Strange Stars: Gelmorphs

Metal Aerogel

During the days of the Radiant Polity, it was commonplace for infosophonts to download copies of themselves into service substrates known as gelmorphs. These substrates were manufactured and extruded from raw material fabricators in the form of simple polyhedrons. They were then typically laser sculpted into a useful form desired by the infosophont, after which the infoporous substrate was imprinted with a copy of the infosophont.

Gelmorphs provided a convenient way for infosophonts to get around, particularly in war zones and other hostile environments. They are immune to vacuum, and difficult to damage using conventional weapons. Gelmorphs were one of the ideal-typical soldier types during the memetic wars which fractured and destroyed the Radiant Polity.

Mindless, ever-appetitive wild-type gelmorphs still prowl abandoned Radiant Polity complexes on isolated and long-forgotten worlds. The substrate is virtually immortal, and can even replicate if sufficient organic material is present. Wild-type gelmorphs are often still imprintable by informorphs, although an infomorph copy imprinted onto a wild-type substrate typically degrades quite quickly.

***

Wild-Type Gelmorph (Threat)

• Aspects: Mindless hunger; Hard to see until it's right on you; Slimy and resilient; That scraping, shuffling sound; Susceptible to infosophont implantation

• Skills: Superb (+5) Engulf; Great (+4) Digest; Good (+3) Physique; Fair (+2) Athletics; Average (+1): Notice.

• Stunts: 
• Tough Substrate: The gelmorph substrate is completely resistant to stress dealt by piercing weapons and projectiles, and ignores the first two stress inflicted by any hit using energy weapons.
• Vacuole: Once a gelmorph has inflicted physical stress on someone using its Engulf skill, it may spend 1 FP to encapsulate its target within a digestive vacuole. The target is then assigned a temporary aspect such as Captured, Stuck, or Being Digested.

• Stress: 4 Physical stress boxes, 2 Mental stress boxes 

• Consequences: One Mild, one Moderate.

Special: An infosphont may attempt to imprint a copy of itself on a Wild-Type Gelmorph; they are are highly susceptible to this kind of attack. The infosophont makes an Engineering skill roll using the Metascape Sculpting stunt in an Overcome action whose difficulty is the gelmorph's Physique. If the action is successful, the infosophont has imprinted a copy of itself upon the gelmorph's substrate. Roll 1 Fate Die: on a (-) face, the imprinting lasts for one Scene; on a blank face, the imprinting lasts for one Session; on a (+) face, the imprinting lasts for one Scenario. The gelmorph reverts to its mindless wild-type nature once the imprinting is gone. 

Strange Stars, Alien Humans

Saturn 3

The alien humans are not from our time; they are visitors from the far future. The last survivors of humanity on a rogue planet in The Degenerate Era, the alien humans have a vastly more diverse genome than the varied clades of modern starfaring humans. Their cells swarm with genetic prostheses. Their blood and other tissues teem with strange parasites, antique nanites, and cyber-amulets. Even a cursory scan reveals oddly-shaped alien organs with no discernible functions. Their tissues also evidence significant radiation damage.

Their kind fall within three basic phenotypes:

• Pallids are hairless and display the traits of near albinism. With make-up they can easily pass for modern humans. Pallids are the alien humans most frequently encountered in modern times. They are diplomats, deal makers, and tech and gene traders. They have an abrasive, distant mien, which is interrupted every 25 hours by a period of intense, unpleasant, and demanding affect. During this period, Pallids are often driven to barter their unusual tech and exotic information in exchange for various forms of gratification. They strike hard, often unpleasant bargains. 
• Grendellines have a leathery grey integument which protects against vacuum and hard radiation. The Grendellines' integument and implants convey a species of machine telepathy which permits them to pilot vessels by force of will, as well as remotely operate many individual machines and devices.
• Insulae have jet black porcelain-hard skin optimized for absorbing and metabolizing the remaining ambient energies of the Degenerate Era. When the integument of an Insulae is damaged, it chips or cracks. Their wounds hiss, releasing a mildly radioactive organic spray into the environment. Their exterior is not readily penetrated by scanning technology. The Insulae communicate by means of Pallids known as Interlocutors. The role of the Insulae phenotype is unknown.

OGL MECHANICS

Alien Human
Pallid clade (neutral)

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Alien humans from the future
• Trouble: The 25th hour
• Aspect: Abrasive and distant
• Aspect: Hard, unpleasant bargains
• Aspect: Strange genetics, alien implants

APPROACHES

• Careful: +2
• Clever: +3 
• Flashy: +2
• Forceful: +1
• Quick: 0
• Sneaky: +2

STUNTS:

• Cyber-Amulets [Two Spells] - Each time this Stunt is taken, a Pallid may select two spells from the Galactic Grimoire.  The Pallid uses these spells without any particular insight into the workings of magic. 
• Drive a Hard Bargain - A Pallid takes +2 to their Careful Approach to gain insight into the kinds of information or tech for which an individual might trade dearly.
• Interlocutor - A Pallid has the ability to communicate telepathically with members of the Insulae phenotype.

REFRESH: 3

Who Can Use Magic?

This is a rough guide to the creatures in the FATE Bestiary that are able to use magic spells. Some will have a preference to use other means, and will rarely use magic, but this is a representative running list of creatures that can use the kind of spells featured in the Galactic Grimoire at FATE SF:

The Anapa

Autodidacta

Creepers

Crocodilian-Humanoid Hybrid Demons

Crocodilian Guardian Mummy

Dromedary

Elementals

False Beholders

Ghost Wolves

Imperial Sibyls

Mi-Go

Morlock

Mother Mass

Old Martians

Planarian Nine

Plasmate

Peyotl

Red Martian Scientist

Saguaro

Serpent Folk

Tzitzimine Star Demons

The 'Zotl

Glastegs

Glastegs glitter, Glastegs shine, Glastegs come from another place and time. Glastegs are rare as hen's teeth but they have been spotted on several different worlds with saurian megafauna, including Sector I-5 of Kepler-22B. Glastegs are modified stegasauri resulting from genetic engineering by the Translucent One Who Chimes, a mysterious visitor to the pocket universe known as the Land Between the Pylons.

Glastegs can modify their chromatic properties of their integument. They can become translucent to the point of near invisibility, thereby evading detection by predators. They can also become blindingly reflective, startling and confusing their attackers. There is at least one instance of glastegs working together to concentrate beams of light between them, and then channel this energy in a beam attack upon an opponent.

But that's not all. Glastegs can also affect local gravitational fields when they become enraged. When attacked, they may bombard adjacent zones with gravity waves of 2-3 standard gravities, overturning the earth, tearing flesh, and breaking bones. Working together, they can even disrupt planar boundaries, creating temporary interdimensional Nexus Points.

Glastegs can survive on a diet of plant matter, but only have access to their special abilities when they consume energy sources such as matrix gems, batteries, and power packs. In the Land Between the Pylons, they lurk near these enigmatic structures, hoping to startle a passerby and consume any matrix gems they may be carrying.

Glastegs have a nose for such energy sources, and will track and pursue persons who have these items. They are drawn to the ruins of technological societies for the same reason, as there are often long-abandoned power sources upon which they can feed.  No doubt that is why the Glastegs seem to thrive on Kepler-22B.

OGL MECHANICS

Glasteg
Modified Stegasaurus (neutral)

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Mirrorskin Stegasaurus
• Trouble: An appetite for batteries and power packs
• Aspect: What's that chiming sound?
• Aspect: Look at me long enough and you'll go blind
• Aspect: Glastegs come in threes

APPROACHES

• Careful: 0
• Clever: +1
• Flashy: +3
• Forceful: +3
• Quick: 0
• Sneaky: 0

STUNTS:

• Blinded by the Glitter: Glastegs take +2 to their Flashy Approach to Create an Advantage against an opponent using their blinding mirror skin. This only works in daylight. The more suns the better.
• Ray Blast: When three or more Glastegs work together, they can add +2 to their Flashy Approach to blast someone or something with a laser beam. This can be used as an Attack or an Overcome an Obstacle action.
• Tailcrack: By slapping its spiked tail against the ground, Glastegs can propagate gravity waves into adjacent Zones. They take a +2 to their Forceful Approach to Create an Advantage such as Crushing Gravity. This effect propagates in a particular direction for two Zones on a result of +1, or three Zones on a result of +2 or better. On a Succeed with Style, the total effort of the roll can be directed as an Attack on each creature in the direction of the gravity wave.
• Turn Translucent: Glastegs take +2 to their Sneaky Approach when becoming translucent as way to Creating an Advantage against a pursuer or enemy.  

REFRESH: 2

Planarian Nine

http://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/menu_eines/noticies/2011/02/07.html

Planarian Nine is a species of other-planar flatworms that range in from 1 cm in length x 3 mm in width on the small side, to the dimensions of humpback whales when full grown. The average specimen is 3-4 M long x 1 M wide x .3 M from dorsal to ventral surface. These planar vagabonds squiggle and squirm their way between dimensions. They extend their ventral feeding tube into nexus points to prey on unwitting travelers. They also scour a world's tidal pools and planar adjacencies - at least in those adjacencies with two or more dimensions - seeking fleshy morsels. For that reason, Planarian Nine are one of the main interdimensional wanderers feeding on the flesh that is displaced when the formula Skeletizer is cast.

A Planarian Nine secretes a sheet of mucus whose special properties lubricate the interstices between dimensions, facilitating smooth transitions across the planes. Their skin is much sought after for these properties. The eyes of the Planarian Nine are on their dorsal surface, so the creatures seldom view what they are consuming. Instead, the eyes help them to discern the energies coursing within and between dimensions, facilitating the identification of planar adjacencies that are nutrient rich. The creature's eyes are much sought after by those seeking a permanent version of the spell Eye of the Nexus, as its ocular tissues can be sectioned in exquisitely thin sheets for use as contact lenses.

OGL MECHANICS

Planarian Nine
Planar Flatworm (inimical)

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Huge interdimensional flatworm
• Trouble: Can't see what it's eating
• Aspect: Moves on mucus and leaves a trail
• Aspect: Drawn to Nexus Points
• Aspect: Quiet as a mouse

APPROACHES

• Careful: +2
• Clever: +1
• Flashy: 0
• Forceful: +3
• Quick: 0
• Sneaky: +3

STUNTS:

• Dimensional Editing: A Planarian Nine takes a +2 to its Sneaky Approach to a Create an Advantage by collapsing three or more dimensions down to two in an adjacent Zone. This forces any three dimensional creature to move one Zone further away. On a Succeed with Style, this action inflicts one Moderate Consequence on any targets in the Zone being edited; such individuals are also displaced to an adjacent Zone.
• Planar Squeeze: Once per Scene, the Planarian Nine may shift itself to another plane of existence. They cannot return to their original location during the remainder of that Scene.
• Regeneration: At the end of any Scene, the Planarian Nine may remove one Moderate Consequence.
• Twinning: After taking a Severe Consequence, the Planarian Nine may split itself into two smaller organisms and begin to regenerate. The Severe Consequence is downgraded to a Moderate Consequence for each twin. If the parent also had a Moderate Consequence at the time of twinning, each twin gains two Moderate Consequences. Each twin also inherits any Stress that its parent had at the time of twinning. Both have the memories of their parent.

REFRESH: 3

The Fate Library: Interstellar Patrol

A little over a week ago, Paul Stefko published an eight page campaign frame for Fate Accelerated Edition called Interstellar Patrol. The first review to appear on DriveThru is rather harsh. The product is Pay What You Want, so if you like space opera, I'd encourage you to give it a look.

Interstellar Patrol bills itself as offering players the opportunity to play a campaign of relatively optimistic SF, such as the original Star Trek. This isn't a fully realized retro SF RPG setting though, such as Cosmic Patrol and Rocket Age.  Instead, Interstellar Patrol offers the barebones tools for creating a space opera game. If you needed to run a pick-up game in an hour, you could download this (provided you have downloaded and read Fate Accelerated Edition already), read this eight page guide, and offer your players a game.

The PDF offers quick suggestions for making PCs, primarily focusing on selection of two strong Approaches for each character type. The examples are perfect for the bridge crew/core cast for a show like Star Trek. I don't agree with all the recommendations but the examples are fine.

This is followed by some great examples of Stunts that are perfect for a space opera game. Here's an example:

Because I know every inch of the engine room like the back of my hand, once per session I can "give all she's got" and automatically succeed with style on one action using the ship's systems.

Next come quick 4DF tables for creating worlds and adventures. Again, these are perfect for a pick-up game.

Finally we get quick rules for creating spacecraft. Ships have four systems that are represented as Aspects with three possible damage conditions. Those systems are: Propulsion, Tactical (which includes both Attack and Defense), Sensors (which includes communications), and Amenities (which includes life support).

It would be easy enough to embellish these Aspects to make them specific to the vessel. For example, the shuttlecraft Galileo might have Impulse Engines (Propulsion), Harmless (Tactical), Planetary Range Sensors, and Barely Any Amenities. Note that the last Aspect will work equally well for any D7 Battlecruiser your players run into during a game.

Players take action with the ship using their own Approaches but only one player may operate a particular ship system at any given time. So you can't have three PCs each running Tactical and taking shots at the enemy.

Each system has three damage states (Disrupted, Damaged, and Disabled) which must be taken in order, and which absorb 1,2, and 4 shifts of shit-to-ship combat stress, respectively. Alternatively, a PC can take a number of shifts directly as a personal Consequence on their own character sheet, rather than the ship's. This simulates all the being tossed around we see during space combat in shows like Star Trek.

Again, this looks pretty sufficient for a pick-up game, but maybe less so if you enjoy the tactical complexity of Diaspora or the broader range of design selections possible in a game like Starblazer Adventures.

There's no aliens offered in the game, although it's straightforward to make an alien character. Just take an appropriate Aspect.

I should mention that the FATE Bestiary at here FATE SF is mostly written for Fate Accelerated Edition - so most entries there are 100% compatible with Interstellar Patrol.

Flybrid

Return of the Fly (1959)

The existence of the human-fly hybrid, or Flybrid, is far from an accident of nature. They are invariably the cruel result of casting Dr. Langelaan's Mass-Discrepant Hybridization, the Nexialist formula that recapitulates one of the most horrific and memorable recurrent accidents in the Pre-Diasporic Era's early experiments with matter transmission. The Nexialists use this casting to wreak terrible vengeance on those who spy on or persecute them, or who spread skeptical propaganda against the Order's doctrines. For this reason, many Nexialists also refer to these creatures as ghe Reformed Skeptics.

A mosaic creature whose characteristics aren't terribly heritable, the best way to get more Flybrids is to make them using Langelaan's formula. That requires a good source of disposable humanoids, as well as access to flies or close analogues.

Nexialists typically use the Flybrids as guardians within the labyrinths found in the secure areas of Nexialist Institutes. Flybrids are very suitable for this role because they are able to subsist for relatively long periods of time on other-planar energy, and do not tire or sleep. Their exoskeletons provide  a superior defense against piercing (but not against bashing/blunt) weapons, while their compound eyes and antennae make them almost impossible to surprise.  They don't need weapons either, as Flybrids invariably have fearsome mouthparts and at least one pincer arm. That being said, some of the Reformed Skeptics certainly are armed (often with items reclaimed from their victims), and many have access to Eyes, charms, and other technomagical devices.

Sometimes they escape from their masters. It is common to find small numbers of Flybrids congregating or wandering as singletons in the ungovernable subterranean quarters of any city with a Nexialist presence. These wanderers are frequently insane and are invariably hostile to humans.

A final speculation about the Reformed Skeptics is in order. The creatures are most frequently encountered near Nexus Points (either within Nexialist Institutes in other locations). Given that they periodically escape their Nexialist masters, it is reasonable to assume that the Flybrids' compound eyes and antennae give them insights into hidden escape routes. They have spell-like abilities similar to Eye of the Nexus, and often enough Summon Planar Ally.

OGL MECHANICS

Flybrid
Human-Fly Hybrid (inimical)

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Bug eyed hybrid monster
• Trouble: Prone to madness
• Aspect: Hard to surprise
• Aspect: Drawn to Nexus Points
• Aspect: A wicked maw and pincers

APPROACHES

• Careful: +2
• Clever: +1
• Flashy: 0
• Forceful: +3
• Quick: +1
• Sneaky: +2

STUNTS:

• Maddening Buzz: A Flybrid makes deafening sonic attacks using its Forceful Approach; this attack deals mental harm to any allies or foes within two Zones, and anyone in range must defend using their Clever Approach.
• Eye of the Nexus: As with the Planar spell Eye of the Nexus but used at no Cost.
• Exoskeleton: Reduces by two stress points the harm dealt by any piercing/slashing physical attack. 

REFRESH: 3

Notes:

• Flybrids often have other spell-like abilities such as Summon Planar Ally. 
• They may learn Nexialist formulae.
• Many have weapons or technomagical devices.

The Dura-Lux

Suikoden III

They're known as Dura-Lux, Ducks, and Halflinks (avoid this latter term as they consider it derogatory).  Xenogeneticists say that this bipedal duck-like species was uplifted from egg-laying mammals, whose genome was further modified with DNA sequences from aquatic avians. Common folk on many worlds avoid this species like the plague. The Dura-Lux are considered vectors for deadly viruses, and agents and products of Chaos. 

However, politicians and generals often welcome the Dura-Lux, especially in times of conflict. They are brave and determined soldiers, and make reliable mercenaries. Even better, an army of Dura-Lux doesn't move on its stomach. Their kind have the ability to feed on other-planar energies, allowing them to scout and skirmish with enemy forces considerably in advance supply lines. The Dura-Lux are also perfect for the defense of remote outposts, as their ability to feed on other-planar energies helps them withstand long sieges.

The most common forms of payment that Dura-Lux demand in exchange for their services are land and the right to nest and produce young in that territory. They prefer wet environments such as lands with meandering streams, lakes and ponds, and wetlands, where they can skim the waters and feed on small insects, amphibians, and fish. 

With adequate training and preparation, Dura-Lux can use almost any available technology. They have an intuitive facility with devices like Eyes that are powered by other-planar energies. They take well to armor and bronze and iron age weapons. However, when left to their own devices, the Dura-Lux establish settlements that rely on lower level technologies such as those derived from wood, other fibers, and stone.

OGL MECHANICS

Dura-Lux
Avian Demi-monotreme (neutral)

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Intelligent, bipedal ducks
• Trouble: Shunned as creatures of Chaos
• Aspect: Apt and loyal mercenaries
• Aspect: We'll work for land
• Aspect: Never go hungry

APPROACHES

• Careful: +1
• Clever: +2
• Flashy: 0
• Forceful: +3
• Quick: +2
• Sneaky: +1

STUNTS:

• An Extra Eye: Dura-Lux are often equipped with the devices of the Ancients, such as Eyes, which channel other-planar energy produce a reliable, specific effect on a person, place, or thing.
• Fast Swimmers: Because they are derived from an aquatic species, Dura-Lux take a +2 to their Quick Approach whenever they are in the water.
• Neverdrain: Because Dura-Lux are able to channel other-planar energies, energy weapons and the devices of the Ancients never become Drained of charges when in their use.
• Wet Ambush: Any time a Dura-Lux is in a wet/aquatic environment, they may take +2 to their Clever Approach to Create an Advantage against an approaching adversary.  

REFRESH: 2

The Overkilled

The Overkilled. No one likes that term, but it has stuck as a general descriptor for those unfortunates cursed with unlife after being struck by an Annihilator beam. They are a constant danger for those exploring space hulks, abandoned bases, and ruined cities recently devastated by war. Wherever there is one of the Overkilled, there are undoubtedly many, many more.

Fury and relentlessness personified, the Overkilled thirst for the flesh of the living.  Some have speculated that the Annihilator animates the Overkilled by activating latent infections by nanites or prions. Their bodies undergo a number of changes including a general weakening of the integrity of their integument, and a diamond-sharp hardening of teeth and nails.

The Overkilled bite, gobble, claw, and tear at the flesh of their victims, as if consumed with hunger. But very little flesh and blood makes it down their gullets. Indeed, it often seems like more matter is leaving their bodies than getting in: foul black and green ichors pour from their mouth and nostrils, and from suppurating pustules on their chest, face, and extremities. This ichor contaminates their garments and the spaces around them - it is the surest sign that the Overkilled may be nearby.

The Overkilled are almost impossible to detect using sensors. Indeed, without the presence of living flesh to prey upon they are almost entirely quiescent. Are they conscious? Do they have memories or will? Who knows. The Nexialists claim that the Overkilled are a product of "supercivilization" - which says everything and explains nothing.

The R.U.R. contend that the Overkilled are an infinitesimal of the great Anti-Consciousness lurking in the galactic core. They say they have seen this contagion before, many times. It's a sign of things to come.

***

In Cosmic Patrol, treat the Overkilled as mooks: Cbt D8, Special: Ichor Splash D10, EvElse D6; Armor 1, Health 1; Bite/Claw 2; Equipment: Tattered garments, green or black ichor.

OGL MECHANICS

The Overkilled
Undead humans (inimical)

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Furious and relentless undead
• Trouble: Attack without strategy
• Aspect: Unreasoning hatred of life
• Aspect: Undetectable except in the presence of life
• Aspect: Disgusting ichor and suppurating pustules

APPROACHES

• Careful: +1
• Clever: 0 
• Flashy: 0
• Forceful: +2
• Quick: +3
• Sneaky: +2

STUNTS:

• Green/Black Ichor - See future posts for the affects of these contaminants.
• Sharp Teeth and Claws - Because the Overkilled have diamond sharp teeth and claws, they take +2 to their Attack when an opponent is not wearing armor. 

REFRESH: 3

Deck Of Fridays 23: Left In The Dark

Morlocks in George Pal's The Time Machine (1960)

Welcome back to DECK OF FRIDAYS, our weekly feature here at FATE SF! Each week (more or less) since the release of the Deck of Fate, we have made a draw from the Deck of Fate, RPG Inspiration Cards, or another Aspect-generative randomizer. Then we do something interesting with it, using the Aspect as inspiration for a campaign or scenario seed, a situation, scene, location, NPC, thingie, etc.

This week's draw from the Deck of Fate is a card with the Aspect: Left in the Dark. In English, that's a commonly used colloquial expression that denotes not knowing what's going on, often due to the conscious agency of someone who is in the know. But we're interpreting it more literally today.

At first I thought of poor Gollum.

Then I remembered the Morlocks.

***

For the Morlocks, being left in the dark is a rite of passage. Sooner or later, every Morlock youth is drugged, rendered unconscious, and then abandoned in the underworld. In the cold and the dark. They're alone, with no food or water. 

Those who survive, make their way back to their band.  They gain a true name, a mate, and the beginnings of social status: a key to a machine, locker, or room in the underworld. Morlocks who don't survive, well, sooner or later their bones get discovered when someone trips on them in the Dark Galleries. Those bones get kicked swiftly into a dark corner to be forgotten. Or they are quickly claimed, pocketed, and later carved into fetishes and weapons.

But there's another way that Morlocks get Left in the Dark. All Morlocks love the things below, but their kind are also driven by a deterritorializing impulse. Bands move on, seeking new living spaces and places to labor freely by crossing the narrow dark spaces between the worlds. New machines. New galleries and rooms to conquer and explore. 

Now-useless keys soon become charms and wards.

At first, the Morlocks moved about in time and space using the Visitor's time machine. Later, they found similar machines created by others. The Morlocks spread to still more worlds. The machine tenders thrived wherever they found galleries to explore and machinery to tend underground.

In time, the Morlocks found other ways to squeeze between the worlds. There are passages in the dark, gates that open onto branching tunnels walled by absolute darkness. Shamans take the lead; the rest of the clan follows. Morlocks traverse these tunnels by forming chains of hands. Some even use real chains to bind one to the next. No one wants to be lost forever, blind in the dark. 

But on every such journey, someone stumbles and loses hold of their fellows. Or a link in the chain breaks, as if of its own accord. Those whose chains break lose their way; they cannot see in this dark between worlds. They find themselves alone, in a pocket of darkness. 

They quail, brood, and curse that darkness.

And the darkness curses them back. 

Those left in these dark interstices grow strange. They grow strange: their bodies change in gross and subtle ways. Their minds change. They hunger and thirst, alone in the dark. 

They become perverse desiring engines, seeking to transform others.

Those left in the dark When others pass, they extend a foot to trip other feet. They bite and break the chain tying one traveler to the destiny of another. 

Misery loves company. Mutation abhors a vacuum. 

The Green Worlds

Welcome to the Green Worlds! The Saguaro live on a considerable number of worlds within and beyond the Empire - as mercenaries, as members of the Legions of the Imperial Sovereign, and as contemplatives. A few have even established new religions, or collectivist commonwealths with human and alien partners. In contrast, few worlds welcome or tolerate the manipulative and expansionist Peyotl. These graspers and schemers are restricted to those worlds they have taken by subversion and force, or where they have established a well-defended enclave as a base for future conquest.

The planets conquered by the Peyotl are called the Green Worlds. They have made small but significant and destructive inroads into the Empire, roughing the edges of the Imperial Extents. Theirs is a slow invasion; most Peyotl are in no hurry to do anything. The Peyotl never travel via hyperspace. Something about that medium disturbs them. Instead, some lineages of Peyotl travel at a leisurely 1% of the speed of light, while others use slipknot networks to pass through sutures in the fabric of space-time that allow for immediate transitions from system to another.

All Peyotl have in common their means of transportation: massive bioships that are composite structures grown from an ever-varying mix of substrates (animal, fungal, and plant). Each bioship is an ark, carrying an entire biosphere within it including several Peyotl clans, Saguaro footsoldiers, massive carnivorous ferns, fierce and beautiful orchids, a variety of allied insect species, and often also human slaves.

Every planetary invasion begins with a mass driver attack. Peyotl bioships cast huge seeder modules at target worlds. The heat of atmospheric re-entry triggers germination in the seeder modules. The modules release numerous species' seeds and spores in a massive air burst in the lower atmosphere, ensuring maximum distribution over target areas. At the core of every seeder module is a terraforming engine, which upon impact turns on and begins transforming the planetary environment.

Here are a few of the Green Worlds:

• Bloom, a world of shallow seas and numerous island chains, once home to a species of nomadic fisherfolk. The fisherfolk are gone now, and Bloom is entirely given over to the Peyotl and their plant and insect allies.
• Cinder, a Superearth where the Peyotl seeder module bombardment somehow went very wrong, putting enough particulate matter into the atmosphere to produce a runaway greenhouse effect. Rumor has it that some Peyotl survive in domed cities on the planet's surface. 
• Garganta, a world taken by the Peyotl after a series of furious clashes with the Empire's Legion of the Broken Branch. The loss of this system was a bitter blow to the Empire, because Garganta's slipknots open into the Tangle Supercluster - a megastructure linking more than 1,000 suns.
• Neweye, an important trade world connecting the Comet Barbarians living within the Empire with their kinfolk living beyond the Imperial Extents. Neweye is an important world for negotiating marriage alliances among the Comet Barbarian clans. The Peyotl established an enclave on a human settled equatorial island just a few dozen kilometers away from the planet's primary spaceport. (The humans have survived on the Green Isle, although they are reportedly very strange. Many have odd tumorous growths in the center of their foreheads.) Peyotl trade various drugs and pharmaceuticals for the Comet Barbarian's ample supply of ancient starcharts and other trade goods. Interestingly, a few of the Peyotl elders have made a name for themselves as matchmakers among the Comet Barbarian clans.
• Suphis II, home to the Axis Mundi trees. This world was bombarded by a Peyotl ark fleet, but was saved by the foresight of the 30th Imperial Sovereign, who after destroying the invasion fleet used Excommunication to protect the world from further incursions. It's fate is unknown at this time.

Psi-Meat

Saguaro flesh. Photo by L Bolyard.

The flesh of the Saguaro plant people can be harvested and used as a potent psi-enhancing substance. A chunk of the Saguaro's flesh must be cut off a limb or from the main trunk of the creature. This fresh meat is quickly dethorned, and then the leathery green rind is removed so that the softer internal flesh can be pulped and consumed.

Harvesting and consumption must occur in close physical proximity to the living Saguaro donor, or the psi-meat spoils - with deleterious side effects for the imbiber. Each mouthful of pulp confers plant-telepathy upon its subject for one Session. The user's skin takes on a greenish-yellow tint while the drug is in effect. Frequent or continuous consumption can lead to addiction, as well as to permanent somatic changes in the user.

An animal that consumes psi-meat will be able to communicate flawlessly with any nearby plant. Users are also able to communicate with nearby animal species as a Clever Action with a difficulty of 2. The user has little filter, hearing the thoughts of any and all plants, insects, and other animals in close proximity. To determine a specific range in Zones for this sensory input, roll 1DF +2 Zones.

It is important to note that sentient plants are able to effortlessly read the mind of someone who has ingested psi-meat; psi-meat users may roll their own Clever vs. the plant's Clever to defend against such an intrusion.

The Saguaro

Maricopa Indians gather Saguaro
Photo by Curtis Scott (1907)

Intelligent, bi-limbed or multi-limbed plant people, the Saguaro evolved from sedentary cacti to the mobile, intelligent species we know today. Their point of emergence into sapience is in the far future, in an age when Humanity has declined and diminished after a great Cataclysm, hemmed in by insect races and increasingly under the hegemony of the Plants and their Green Gods.

The Saguaro spread out through time and space. They somehow backtimed, and can now be found on many worlds within and beyond the Empire. Humans and many other species are never entirely comfortable around this spiny green species. While the Saguaro apparently lack eyes to see, ears to hear, and mouths to speak, they are always aware of and responsive to what is going on around them, thanks to a sophisticated psi-sensorium granting them clairvoyance, clairaudience, and plant-telepathy. More than a few humans have experienced the intrusive, resonant, fibrous voice of a Saguaro in their minds, finishing their thoughts for them.

Although Saguaro are from time-to-time hired our as mercenaries - and some even serve in the Legions of the Imperial Sovereign - typically the Saguaro keep to themselves, living with their own kind and other plants in open roofed hexagonal adobe sanctuaries. Humans who visit Saguaro enclaves are usually indentured servants, priests and shamans, or food scientists. Indeed, there is often a ring of huts and small workshops around the Saguaro's Hex Enclaves for these human visitors and servants.

Food scientists play a particularly important role in supporting Saguaro communities. The Saguaro are unable to meet their nutritional needs exclusively through photosynthesis. Certain additional nutrients are required, although neither the Saguaro nor their human food scientist hirelings are forthcoming about their specific requirements.

These cactus people are inspired by Nathalie Henneberg's The Green Gods (1961). Henneberg's work is a rather obvious inspiration for the cactus people of China Mieville's Bas-Lag.

OGL MECHANICS

The Saguaro
Intelligent cacti (neutral)

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Intelligent, ambulatory cactus
• Trouble: Special food requirements
• Aspect: Like sun but hate fire
• Aspect: Covered in thorns
• Aspect: Two or more limbs

APPROACHES

• Careful: +3
• Clever: +2 
• Flashy: +1
• Forceful: +2
• Quick: 0
• Sneaky: +1

STUNTS:

• Limb Regeneration - Once per session, a Saguaro may regenerate a lost limb, or grow a new one.
• Plant Telepathy - Saguaro can communicate flawlessly with any nearby plant; communicating with animal species is a Clever Action with a difficulty of 2.  
• Psi-Sensorium - Saguaro have 360 degree perception (sight, sound/vibration, heat) for up to 3 zones; declines by 1 step for every successive zone after 3

REFRESH: 3

Note: Saguaro may know two Planar spells for every additional point of Refresh spent.

The Peyotl

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peyote_Cactus.jpg

Which came first, the Peyotl or the Saguaro? Soft, spineless, limbless, and sessile, the Peyotl are a subtle, deceptive, manipulative, and highly intelligent plant race. They have to be; after all, they have no limbs and always need others to do things for them.

The litter-borne Peyotl are another post-Cataclysmic cactus species. They are a close relative of the Saguaro. Like their more mobile kinfolk, the Peyotl have backtimed, and scattered across many worlds and times. However, their diaspora has not been as successful as that of the Saguaro. They occupy a number of worlds beyond the Imperial Extents, but are rarely seen within the Empire itself, as their species is considered highly inimical to Humanity.

They Peyotl are subtle slavers. Their cells produce numerous addictive and psychoactive substances, and they have the capacity to modify their flesh to produce special organs that facilitate the dissemination of these substances in the air and water, and through fleshy dispensations of drug buttons. Even more uncanny is their ability to affect other species through direct psychic manipulation. The Peyotl have psi-organs with the ability to simulate human brain functions. They use these structures to model the effects of the psychoactive substances that their body produces, psi-projecting those effects directly into nearby human minds as hallucinations and various other affects.

Humans who live in proximity to the Peyotl loose all capacity for true self-governance, although human polities will continue to be led by ever more refined aristocratic castes. The Peyotl are happy to rule behind the scenes, as scientific and political advisers, prime ministers, government officials, and oracles. They gradually replace human policy-making and political debate with ritual and vegetal procedure. Humans diversify into myriad social and racial castes under the Peyotl's subtle rule: both minds and genomes are manipulated and transformed through the Peyotl's constant experiments. Some humans even have strange tumorous growths on their foreheads: perhaps attempts at neural repression, perhaps experiments with the desuppression of the pineal gland.

The Saguaro who accompany Peyotl are likewise anything but their equals. They are as inferior as the ever-drugged human slaves who bear the litters of the Peyotl-folk and who worship them as Green Gods. In the presence of Peyotl, the Saguaro are reduced; they are capable of little more than being loyal foot soldiers of the Peyotl. For example, Saguaro in the presence of Peyotl can never use spells.


These cactus people are inspired by Nathalie Henneberg's The Green Gods (1961). Henneberg's work is a possible inspiration for the manipulative fungal overlords of  Jeff VanderMeer's Finch.

OGL MECHANICS

Peyotl
Intelligent cacti (inimical)

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Manipulative cactus overlord
• Trouble: No physical defenses
• Aspect: Like sun but hate fire
• Aspect: Others carry them
• Aspect: A drug haze surrounds them

APPROACHES

• Careful: +3
• Clever: +4 
• Flashy: +2
• Forceful: 0
• Quick: 0
• Sneaky: +2

STUNTS:

• Command Plants - Take +2 to Flashy Approach to Create an Advantage with other plants (this is a psi-charismatic leadership ability)
• Plant Telepathy - Peyotl can communicate flawlessly with any nearby plant or animal.
• Purple Haze -   Take +2 to Sneaky Approach to Attack humans or animals with a haze of psychoactive drugs
• Psi-Sensorium - Peyotl have 360 degree perception (sight, sound/vibration, heat) for up to 3 zones; declines by 1 step for every successive zone after 3
• The Flesh is Willing - Once per session, Peyotl may create a new organ to produce or secrete drugs or psychoactive substances.

REFRESH: 3

Note: Peyotl may know two Enchantment, Illusion, or Planar spells for every additional point of Refresh spent.

The Happy Warriors

House Centipede Closeup by Kevincollins123

The Happy Warriors is a Glissendo-speaking species found throughout the Empire and far beyond the Imperial Extents. Members of this species are 2-3 meters in length, with dozens to hundreds of legs. The head of a Happy Warrior has two compound eyes, and several specialized mouthparts for biting prey, speaking Glissendo, and manipulating control systems. Happy Warriors have a second and very recent communication structure on their abdomens, which allows them to converse using human and near-human languages.

Happy Warriors can move with blinding speed. Their legs are also terrible piercing weapons. Many of their species can expectorate poisonous or hallucinogenic venom, creating a toxic haze in their immediate environment. The Happy Warriors are well-adapted for combat in a variety of environments - although they freely admit to feeling most in their element when fighting in jungles and other rough terrain, as well as underground.

The species fight in units of 100-1,000 members called Armed Multitudes. But make no mistake; the Happy Warriors are not a hive mind. Every member of the species is an individual, and every one strives for personal excellence in all of their affairs. Each individual is also mild projective empath. Legionaries who have fought at their side report that the affect is exhilarating and joyful, like being carried forward on a bouyant wave of death.

Many of the Legions of the Imperial Sovereign have incorporated one or more Armed Multitudes of the Happy Warriors into their organization. Each Armed Multitude bonds with a particular human commander. This bond is unbreakable; each commander has been repeatedly showered by a cloud of the Happy Warriors' loyalty pheromones. (This can become an issue in the case of a defection or demotion of a commander, but is never an issue in the case of a commander's death: in that case an Armed Multitude will bond to a new commander.)

One other important feature of the Happy Warriors is that they never leave their fallen human comrades behind.  The Happy Warriors always go to extreme lengths to recover the bodies of human comrades-in-arms. They use these bodies to lay the eggs of their young.

OGL MECHANICS

The Happy Warriors
Intelligent Myriapods (friendly)

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Joyful member of an Armed Multitude
• Trouble: Loyal to one person
• Aspect: Strive for excellence in all things
• Aspect: Jungle and underground fighter
• Aspect: Never leave fallen humans behind

APPROACHES

• Careful: +1
• Clever: +1
• Flashy: 0
• Forceful: +2
• Quick: +3
• Sneaky: +2

STUNTS:

• Every Leg A Weapon: Take +2 to Forcefully Attack an opponent in the same or an adjacent Zone, using multiple legs as piercing weapons.
• Exoskeleton: Take +2 to Forcefully Defend against physical attacks from piercing weapons.
• Joyous Empaths: Take +2 to Flashy Approach to Create an Advantage in battle, psychically boosting the morale of comrades and allies.
• Spit Poisons: Take +2 to Flashy Approach to Create an Advantage in immediate or an adjacent Zone by creating a Poison Cloud or Hallucinogenic Cloud.

REFRESH: 2

Machine Weeds

Dandelion seed head - taken in Southwest Ohio. Photo by Greg Hume

Machine weeds crop up everywhere: lowtech worlds, industrial worlds, dead worlds, orbitals, and starships. Machines weeds may be big or small, and they are often biomimetic. Look for extraneous structures of all sorts cluttering the built environment. Many resemble beanstalks, power or data cords, or vines. Others resemble antennae, collector dishes, or keypads, displays, and control consoles.

A disseminative technology, machine weeds broadcast their seedlings from a variety of metallic and plastic articulations that resemble flowers, seed pods, shower heads, or strainers. These broadcast structures are often well-hidden well from prying eyes, lurking behind a photocopier or other control console, seeding inside an air handling system, or deep within the plumbing.

As long as there are machines nearby - even broken or primitive ones - machine weeds' living kipple will grow and spread. Machine weeds ablate existing structures in the built environment to add to their biomass. They can grow anywhere that there is metal or plastic, choking out functional machinery, draining power systems, often causing functional structures and mechanisms to weaken and collapse.

However, an array of machine weeds can sometimes express highly useful and novel functionalities. Such benefits are usually shortlived. Unless pruned and contained, a patch of machine weeds manifesting such emergent properties will progress toward a new, and destructive round of dissemination. Since this is a constant risk in proximity to machines, people working near them are advised to check their suits and equipment for extraneous buttons and tags - frequently.

OGL MECHANICS

Machine Weeds
Biomimetic replicators (inimical)

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Biomimetic weed machines
• Trouble: What breaks machines hurts us
• Aspect: Our feeding breaks down machines
• Aspect: Sharp edges and brittle stems
• Aspect: Flower in dark places

APPROACHES

• Careful: +1
• Clever: +2 
• Flashy: +2
• Forceful: +1
• Quick: 0
• Sneaky: +3

STUNTS:

• Bloody Patch - Take +2 to Forceful Approach to Attack a living target with plastic and metal flails
• Disseminate - Take +2 to Sneaky Approach to Create an Advantage by contaminating an adjacent Zone
• Emergent Properties - Take +2 to Flashy Approach to Create an Advantage by revealing a novel functionality
• Failure Mode - Take +2 to Forceful Approach to Attack an adjacent machine, including robots, androids, and cyborgs

REFRESH: 2

Note: A patch of machine weeds takes up one or more Zones. The patch has one Consequence for every Zone it has colonized.

Creepers

Creepers. Acrocordons. Chaferlings. Papules. Different names for the same disgusting diminutive creatures: the homunculi created by Nexialists. The formula for creating Creepers is gestural, and involves a microsacrifice. Nexialists create their homunculi from skin tags on their own bodies. (Indeed, many Nexialists wear rasping garments which chafe their tender areas, ensuring a ready supply of new skin tags.)

The Nexialist uses a razor, or simply pinches a skin tag between two sharp nails - and pulls. From this bloody bud a Creeper will grow to its full size (approximately 12" tall) within a matter of seconds. This is accompanied by the temporary loss of approximately 10 pounds from the caster's body.

A Creeper carries a sufficient quantum of the Nexialist's consciousness to function as a rudimentary simulacrum. The Creeper will possess the same gross personality traits and memories as the caster, although few Nexialists go so far as to share compartmentalized memories, spell formulae, and planar passwords and the like are not usually invested. They will generally obey their creator's demands, but often rebel when given assignments that guarantee their immediate extinction. The use of Creepers as suicide bombers is discouraged for this reason.

Creepers may be formatted with a psychic tether through which their Nexialist may perceive what the homunculus perceives, and/or be invested with other capabilities such as the being able to walk on vertical surfaces, spit acid or glue, or pick mechanical locks using a prehensile tongue.  

A Creeper cannot survive for long if it is more than a few zones away from its creator. The one exception to this the extended lifespan that Creepers experience while living inside Nexialist Institutes and similar strongholds. Creepers are able to persist indefinitely in these spaces, even in the absence of their masters, due to these locations' altered planar geometries. Indeed, in such environments lone Creepers often begin to develop personalities, lives, and agendas of their own. They may even eventually become completely individuated subjects, able to live independently of their creators outside the precincts of an Institute.

But born from a skin tag, a Creeper always possesses an Achilles' heel. An acrocordon of its own lucks somewhere on its body.  If this small fleshy tag can be cut, the homunculus bleeds out quickly.

OGL MECHANICS

Creeper
Nexialist homunculus (neutral)

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Foot-high creepy homunculus
• Trouble: Its skin tag is an Achilles' Heel 
• Aspect: If you see one, there's a Nexialist nearby
• Aspect: Readily formatted with special abilities
• Aspect: Balk at suicidal assignments

APPROACHES

• Careful: +1
• Clever: +2
• Flashy: +1
• Forceful: 0
• Quick: +2
• Sneaky: +3

STUNTS:

• Go Vertical: Creepers formatted with sticky feet may walk up sheer vertical surfaces or walk upside down on ceilings.
• Hard to Hit: Because they are so small and fast, Creepers take +2 to their Quick Approach when Defending against a physical attack.
• Lockpick Tongue: A Creeper formatted with a prehensile tongue may take +2 to their Flashy Approach to pick a mechanical lock.
• Psychic Tether: Creepers formatted with a psychic tether may share sensory information with their creator over a distance of 1-3 zones.

REFRESH: 2

Note: While Creepers are universally Hard to Hit, Nexialists format them with a variety of other stunts.

Dollar Store Dungeons: Lamprey Centipede

The centipede pictured above was one of a number of bugs in a $1 package of Creatures purchased at the dollar store. Full details on the contents of the package are available on our sister blog, The Everwayan. 

The Lamprey Centipede 

One of the post-apocalyptic horrors found in The Alwyn Campaign, the Lamprey Centipede is a subterranean threat on the post-apocalyptic future Earth of Babylon 5. It is one of a number of horrific monsters that can be found while exploring ruins from the age before the Great Burn. Whether it is one of the atomic children of the Great Burn, or is simply something that escaped from a laboratory or zoo during that disaster is one of the many mysteries lost in time. Perhaps one of the learned souls in the great monasteries of the South knows the truth...

Lamprey Centipedes range in length from 2-3 meters. They live in underground caves and tunnels, emerging at night to hunt game. Favorite prey include deer and wild pigs, but humans are all too often on their menu. The centipedes often stalk along tunnels, sewers, and wells, infiltrating the cellars of human dwellings in search of an easy meal.

The most horrifying feature of the Lamprey Centipede is how it eats. It has a circular maw flanked by two huge pincers. When the centipede senses its prey, the pincers become coated with a white frothy a paralytic poison. The Lamprey Centipede will first try to paralyze its prey with the pincers. Then its circular mouth will project outward for up to two decimeters, and begin chewing its way into the body of its victim. Our PCs killed a Lamprey Centipede in the second episode of The Alwyn Campaign. They found an interesting signet ring in its guts, along with some human finger bones.

When attacking humans, the Lamprey Centipede goes in the hard way.  It prefers to bite through the sternum and then consume the victim's heart and lungs first. Once it has cleaned out the victim's chest cavity, it begins eating downward and consumes the soft and calorie-rich organs in the abdomen. Miraculously, the victim often remains in a semi-conscious state during part or all of this two course meal. It's a horrible last meal.

Chirurgeons and torturers will pay delvers top dollar when they return with samples of the Lamprey Centipede's venom. Its armored segments are also valuable; they can also be used to fashion lamellar armor. Its teeth are exceptionally strong and sharp, and can be mounted for use as the blades on a macuahuitl.

http://www.michtoy.com/item-MRN-AZT042-
Aztec_Eagle_Warrior_Defending_with_Macuahuitl.html

OGL MECHANICS

Lamprey Centipede
Giant centipedes (neutral)

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Mutant centipedes with a taste for human flesh
• Trouble:  Fears light and fire  
• Aspect: "Did you just see something?"
• Aspect: Frothy poison fangs
• Aspect: There's never just one

APPROACHES

• Careful: +1
• Clever: +1
• Flashy: 0
• Forceful: +2
• Quick: +3
• Sneaky: +2

STUNTS:

• Bone Saw: The creature takes a +2 to its Forceful Attack when biting through leather/cloth armor or a victim's ribcage to get to the tasty soft meat.
• Paralytic Fangs: When the creature Succeeds with Style on a Forceful Attack, it injects its victim with a paralytic venom. The victim gains the Aspect Paralyzed for the remainder of the Scene. The venom also does +2 stress per turn until an anti-venom or some other healing measure occurs. 

REFRESH: 3