This hovering automaton’s “head” is an angular funnel that roars and vibrates with endless fury. Its two “arms” are not matched—one arm splits into a mess of slicing and scissoring blades. The grey sampler uses this arm to subdue specimens, separate cranial matter from clinging flesh and bone, and deposit the freed brain into the sampler’s head-funnel. Somewhere in the grey sampler’s chest, the solid matter is processed into pinkish slush. In all, a grey sampler measures almost 10 feet (3 m) in diameter.
The grey sampler’s other arm is more like a metallic hollow tentacle that doesn’t grasp but instead deposits processed cranial matter. Most of the time, the cranial matter is sprayed behind the automaton in a wide, even arc, as if it’s broadcasting fertilizer or seeds instead of jellied souls.
Grey samplers have a disconcerting ability to build themselves out of much smaller parts too tiny to see without the aid of powerful numenera. This means that small fleets of them can arise anywhere, building themselves in secret, until an unknowable signal passes among them, and they emerge for the next harvest.
Motive: Hungers for brains
Environment: Almost anywhere, in fleets of up to five Health: 9
Damage Inflicted: 5 points Armor: 3
Movement: Short when flying; long when making a flying charge Modifications: Speed defense as level 2 due to size
Combat: A grey sampler inflicts damage with its bladed arm.
A grey sampler can also attack by making a flying charge if it’s farther than short range from the victim (but still within long range). If the victim fails the Speed defense roll to evade the charge, he takes 8 points of damage, is knocked 10
feet (3 m) back, and is knocked off his feet.
A grey sampler dissects out the brains of dead (or completely immobilized) victims and processes their brains into sludge. Interaction: A grey sampler can
communicate but usually is interested only in directing potential victims to hold still so it can do its job. If asked who gave it the job or what it is ultimately attempting to accomplish, a grey sampler either doesn’t answer or says, “The fruit of our harvest prepares the way.” Use: An abhuman tribe’s farmland
was recently devastated by drought or decades of poor stewardship. Overcoming their own taboos, they sent an emissary into a nearby ancient ruin to ask the “demon” chained within it for aid. Though they lost their emissary as a sacrifice, the abhumans received a fleet of grey samplers.
If someone who can talk to machines or who is otherwise skilled with numenera devices discovers a fleet of grey samplers building themselves from drit and other nearby components, he might be able to direct the fleet to self-destruct with a successful Intellect roll.
GM Intrusion: A PC is
unable to avoid a grey sampler’s flying charge and is knocked back into the “arms” of another grey sampler and held immobile. Every round on the character’s turn, he can attempt a Might defense roll to break free, but meanwhile, the grey sampler holding him begins dissecting (and the damage it inflicts ignores Armor). SIZE COMPARISON
CREATURES: GREY SAMPLER - GRIFFALO
GRIFFALO
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Griffalos are omnivorous animals of the plains. Sometimes communities of nomads herd them, valuing the shoulder-high quadruped for the many delectable ways the cured meat from the creature’s back or sides can be prepared. The animals are otherwise notable for their great tusks (no two individuals have the same size and style), their oddly empathic and humanlike eyes, and the varying number of orifices that puncture each griffalo’s neck.
Explorers who study a griffalo’s orifices might note that the openings seem oddly designed, with screws and insertion nodes that seem like they were manufactured rather than evolved biologically. Motive: Hungers for flesh or plant material
Environment: Any plains area large enough to host large grasslands. Griffalos can be encountered in groups of six to eight, or in massive herds numbering hundreds or thousands.
Health: 6
Damage Inflicted: 3 points Armor: 1
Movement: Short
Modifications: Stealth as level 3 in grassland environments
Combat: A griffalo attacks with its tusks, which also inject a lingering poison that increases the difficulty of Speed defense rolls made by the victim by one step. The poison lasts for one hour or until the victim spends her turn to make a successful
Might defense roll. The effects of multiple poison injections are not cumulative, and once a victim succeeds at one Might defense roll, she becomes immune to griffalo poison.
Griffalo herds are an amazing sight; however, hundreds of stampeding griffalos are extremely dangerous if they happen to be heading toward the PCs. Characters in the area of a stampede must make Speed defense rolls against level 5 or suffer 7 points of damage from being trampled. If there are more than 100 griffalos, the characters are potentially trampled for more than one round. For every 100 creatures, the stampede lasts one round passing through the character’s area.
Griffalo matrons sometimes accompany other griffalos, and they can be aggressive.
Griffalo matrons are burlier level 4 creatures with 12 points of health and 2 points of Armor. They make two tusk attacks per turn, each of which inflicts 4 points of damage. Interaction: Unless hungry, griffalos prefer to avoid conflict with
humanoids. However, they will fight if cornered or if they haven’t eaten well recently. Lone griffalo matrons are almost always aggressive and territorial.
Use: Any time the PCs travel in grassland environments, there’s a
GM Intrusion: A PC or
ally slays a griffalo, but the falling corpse pins her beneath it. She must succeed on a difficulty 3 Might defense roll to pull herself free.
GRUSH
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Of all the various types of abhumans, grush are probably the most likely to find a place among the humanity that their ancestors once abandoned. These brutes are often the soldier-slaves of influential nobles who consider them to be powerful but poorly disciplined and quite expendable. Their
intelligence is low, and they are lazy, slow, and clumsy, but they make for an intimidating force. Unlike many abhumans, grush do not have an innate love of violence, but they certainly don’t shirk from it. Grush are variform creatures, and no two are born alike. Tall and thin, squat and broad, one eye or two (or three)—the variations are limitless and prominent.
Motive: Fear and laziness
Environment: Anywhere, often in groups of five to ten Health: 16
Damage Inflicted: 5 points Armor: 1
Movement: Short
Modifications: Might defense as level 5; Intellect defense and resistance to trickery as level 3.
Combat: Skilled with big two-handed weapons, grush inflict an additional 2 points of damage (total of 7 points) when using them.
Grush cannot be stunned or dazed. They are immune to most poisons and disease. Even though their tough flesh provides only 1 point of Armor, it applies against things that normally ignore Armor (environmental damage, heat, cold, falling, and so on).
Grush are incredibly hard to kill. They regenerate 1 point of health each round. Severing an arm or even the head of a creature is not a guaranteed killing blow. Many grush that have suffered such a wound stand up, still alive, hours later. Complete dismemberment is the only way to ensure that a grush is truly dead. Interaction: Despite their hardiness, grush fear pain and can be intimidated by brute force or dramatic
shows of power. They can also be motivated by offers of food or a chance to rest, and they are notoriously easy to fool. They speak the local human language, but not very well.
Use: Grush fill the “stupid brute” role well. They can be found in areas where one wouldn’t normally expect to find an abhuman, such as guarding a noble’s manor or carrying her palanquin. Loot: Grush carry a big weapon, and that’s it.
GM Intrusion: The grush
calls out with a horrible bellow, bringing 1d6 more of its kind to join the fray.
CREATURES: GRUSH - HERDER
HERDER
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This mechanical creature looks like a very large insect built of metal pipes and bone-colored ceramic. It bears a semicircle of metal spikes down its back, four sharp claws on each foot, and a hard, bonelike spur on the left side of its head. Standing at nearly 3 feet (0.9 m) tall, plus another 1 to 2 feet (0.3 to 0.6 m) for its spikes, herders were clearly created by someone or something, possibly for the protection of catlike herbivores called enyi (or possibly the enyi’s ancestors).
They typically watch over a flock alone, but sometimes they protect in pairs. Motive: Protection of its flock
Environment: Anywhere herds of enyi are found—mostly grasslands and plains Health: 12
Damage Inflicted: 4 points (spur) or 3 points (claws) Armor: 5
Movement: Long
Modifications: Defends against acid, electricity, and detonations as level 2
Combat: A herder displays various forms of aggression toward anything that it perceives as threatening its flock. The displays are nearly ritualistic in their order. First, the herder begins to make a loud clacking sound, created by rubbing its hind legs together. PCs often hear this sound long before they are close enough to see the herder; those with knowledge of the creature know to avoid the sound if possible. If the danger doesn’t go away, the herder rises up on its hind legs, doubling its height. The final sign of aggression before a herder attacks is that it drops its head and thumps its ceramic spur against the ground. Large herders hit the ground hard enough for PCs to feel the collision beneath their feet. The first display of aggression is passive and ongoing; the last two each take one round.
When herders attack, they do so quickly and with a great deal of force already built up in their
movement. Their main attack is a driving head butt with their ceramic spur, which inflicts 4 points of damage and has a chance to stun a target for one round. If they are in close combat, they switch to attack with their claws, inflicting 3 points of damage.
Herders are difficult to harm with conventional weapons due to their metal and ceramic build, and they are immune to mental effects or Intellect damage. Their main objective is to defend the herd, but once they begin combat, they don’t stop, even if the enyi no longer seem to be in danger. To a herder, once a threat, always a threat. Interaction: Communication is not possible. Use: While the PCs
are out hunting, they come upon a small herd of catlike creatures that look like a great option for dinner—at least, until the herder shows up. Loot: The PCs can
GM Intrusion: Two herders
watch that particular flock; the second one appears only after the fight has begun.
While no one fully understands the Hex, it might be best thought of as a biomechanical virus. A few have wondered what will happen when the Hex encounters the Insidious Choir (page 44), another viral-like fugue entity interested in domination.
GM Intrusion: The hexon
grabs the character and holds her fast so that other hexons can strike her freely. The character must break free before she can act normally again.
THE HEX
The Hex is a clanlike organization. The Hex is a virus. The Hex is an army. The Hex is a group mind. The Hex is a curse. The Hex is all of these things, and more.
Rumor has it that the Hex was unleashed upon the Ninth World by explorers who opened a sealed chamber in an ancient
ruin. Those people, then—in theory—became the first members of the Hex as it is understood today. But in the past, the Hex might have been something very different.
No one knows if there are original members of the Hex, or if all Hex members, called hexons, were once modern humans that have been transformed. Perhaps some are older than that—or were never human at all. What is known is that people cursed with the Hex have a second, synthetic skin of dark,
hexagonal plates that grows quickly over the top of their normal flesh, enveloping and consuming them. The Hex completely and utterly takes over the person, mind and body, and compels him to work toward the goals of the Hex.
These goals seem to be conquest. But there may be more to it than that. When the Hex conquers an area and gains access to resources, the hexons turn from warriors to builders. Although what they are building is not fully understood, half-built hivelike
structures have been seen by those daring to enter a Hex-controlled region. The obvious suggestion is that they are building lairs or fortresses, but others speculate that they are constructing vehicles for long-distance travel (perhaps even between worlds) or machines with a far larger purpose.
The hexagonal false flesh has a number of different devices that attach directly to it and interface with it (but not with anyone without the flesh). These include:
• Claws that inflict 7 points of damage
• Extremely high-powered projectile weapons (similar to dart throwers) that inflict 7 points of damage with a short range
• Cocoonlike nodules that produce hex stingers, which are mechanical insectoid creatures that spread the Hex. Stingers are produced at a rate of one per month.
• Scanner devices that sense the general topography of the surrounding 10-mile (16 km) area, as well as all movement within long range and analysis of creatures, devices, and materials similar to the nano’s Scan esotery.
After 1d6 months of being part of the Hex, a hexon grows a backpacklike pod that produces one of the above attachments, if given raw materials (10 pounds [4.5 kg] of metal and synth) and about a month of creation time. In addition, sometimes hexons take these devices from other, fallen hexons.
HEXON
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An individual of the Hex, usually called a hexon, is a warrior that serves the needs of the whole group, but hexons are not mindless drones. Smart, perceptive, reactive, and proactive, hexons represent a real threat to anyone that would stand in their way. Hexons do not spread the Hex, however—that’s what hex stingers do. Thus, hexons do not incorporate their enemies but slay them. And ultimately, anyone who is not a part of the Hex is an enemy.
The process of becoming a hexon takes a few hours to complete, and not everyone survives it. Once fully incorporated into the Hex, hexons work only toward the goal of the Hex. Hexons can communicate with each other via silent broadcasts but sometimes still speak verbally.
All former connections are severed—hexons are no longer the people they once were in any way. The Hex wants nothing more than the warm body, so to speak. Knowledge, skills, abilities, and so on are not retained.
Hexons refer to each other as siblings: brother or sister. Through a quirk of fate, women survive the hex process somewhat more often than men do, so there are more female-appearing hexons than male, but once a human is a part of the Hex, gender is irrelevant. Procreation, physical attraction, love,
CREATURES: THE HEX
GM Intrusion: The
character is buffeted in the face by the hex stinger’s wings, and the difficulty of all of the PC’s tasks is increased by one step for one round.
Damage Inflicted: 5 points Armor: 2
Movement: Short
Modifications: Perception as level 7
Combat: Most members of the Hex use their bodies as deadly weapons in
combat. Some, however, are armed with unique weapons that interface with the hex flesh.
About one in three hexons has a special power not wielded by their siblings. Roll for an additional power:
d100 Power
01–30 Forceblast: Fires a blast of force for 5 points of damage at long range as an action.
31–60 Forceshield: Has 2 additional points of Armor.
61–75 Magnetic control: Can move a metal object up to 50 pounds (22 kg) within short
range as an action. Speed defense against attacks with metal weapons as level 6. 76–90 Machine control: Takes control of a machine within immediate range and, as an
action, activates, deactivates, or gives a command to it.
91–00 Teleportation: Instantly moves a long distance (disregarding barriers) as an action.
Interaction: Hexons are intelligent and speak a variety of languages. It is impossible to convince a hexon to go against the wishes of the Hex.
Use: Reports of strange-looking humanoids attacking remote settlements probably cause most people to blame abhumans, but investigation shows a far more precise, coordinated, and deadly series of strikes. The Hex has moved into the area, and stopping them from their dreams of conquest will require a great deal of effort and bloodshed.