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« Last post by LordSkys on February 12, 2019, 09:04:08 PM »
Scorpiate
It was winter. I think I was in Montana, maybe Wyoming. Cigs, myself, and the rest of the crew were collecting some sort of data for a Papineu cell. We were on the fourth, maybe fifth floor of an office building, when something crashes through the window.
It was a DHQS soldier in full basilisk armor, but he had no hands. Instead were ribcages attached to his wrists, with other snapping heads. It looked like some sort of terrifying blight-Voltron hybrid. Then it raised it's tail.
The tail was a blight covered entanglement of spines and heads, flexing and moving with each swish of the tail.
At first I think "fuck, it's a ganglia" but it's movement wasn't right. It didn't have any limbs.
This thing began jumping from desk to desk. It would lunge at us with it's tail, curling around someone with it's tail. It would tear into them with a dozen heads, then throw them aside getting ready to strike someone else.
It grabbed onto Lexer, and began consuming him. It knew he was immune, and it began attacking him more furiously because of it.
I don't think we actually killed it. I think we mortared the building while it was inside, but I doubt that thing is dead yet.
The scorpiate has taken out one crew that has gone against it, and nearly taken out another when I have used it, so leave it in the big cities for the most part. The scorpiate is a vector with a murder modifier of at least 3, usually up to 6. They like to sneak around, so make sure to add that murder modifier to that stealth check. They don't scream apologies, but self-control checks may be called for due to the shear gruesomeness of them. Always start at Level 2 just for seeing them, and build it up as needed.
Treat scorpiate as if they have the gifted advantage.
Due to the large number of heads, they can resist bullet fire and dodge with ease, no matter how many rounds you spray. You either notice them or you don't. They either kill you, or they don't.
Due to it's extra heads, it has a number of body parts equal to it's murder modifier, and each must be damaged in addition to filling the torso and head to kill it. Remember precision shots and high bonuses are your friends.
A scorpiate knows the result of any infection check made against it, and will attack accordingly. Latency confuses it though, so it will pause it's attack against you and find a different target if you become latent. It kills immunes, leaves the infected, and attacks the uninfected; until all are infected and/or dead if they can't be. If it notices a latent that isn't just changed, it will attack them (again if necessary).
When a scorpiate grapples you, it strikes a dozen times with it's tail. This means that they deal damage to each body part, but they only get to add murder modifier damage to the one body part they roll on red.
For example, you are pinned at the beginning of the round by a scorpiate and roll a B5/R6 to wrestle away and not be hit. Usually you would add your +2 to the Black, but you do not. The scorpiate has a MM of 3, so it turns into B5/R6+3. It attacks for B2/R5+3. It deals B2+3 to your torso and 2 to each other body part.
My suggestion is to introduce it killing another NPC brutally, one that is very well prepared to kick your player's ass.
Will and straight bonuses must be used to take this thing out. Remind players with foresight or awareness checks that spending charges won't help in itself, but special abilities that cost charges will.
Also, no, the one LordSky the taker buried is not dead, just immobile for now.