Silver orphans appear nothing like the waifs they are named after; they’re humanoids sheathed in reflective skins of supple silvery alloy. Confident, strong, and noble, silver orphans wander, seeking something, seemingly forever denied its location.
Motive: Searching, defense
Environment: One or two silver orphans can be found almost anywhere. Health: 21
Damage Inflicted: 5 points Armor: 3
Movement: Short
Modifications: Perception as level 6; any
knowledge pertaining specifically to the Ninth World as level 2.
Combat: When attacking, a silver orphan can extrude what seems to be a portion of itself to create a sword. If it redistributes its carapace and lowers its Armor to 1, it can create a massive sword that deals 8 points of damage. Instead of a weapon, an orphan can produce
any shape that fills a 5-foot (1.5 m) cube. The shape usually remains connected to the orphan, but it doesn’t have to. Such a shape includes a grasping hand that, with a successful immediate-range attack, holds an enemy fast each round that it fails a Might defense roll.
As an action, a silver orphan can also rapidly expel two silvery bolts from its palms at the same or separate targets. Each bolt inflicts 4 points of damage. The bolts, or any other portion of the silver orphan that becomes detached, liquefy and flow back to rejoin their host a few rounds after they lose contact. If this rejoining is
somehow prevented, the silver orphan loses its ability to create constructs of any sort for one hour (after which time it has regenerated enough skin to regain this ability).
Interaction: A silver orphan isn’t normally aggressive, but it reacts decisively if danger threatens. It communicates with characters through gestures and drawings. If asked what it’s searching for, it draws a vastly complicated spherical object that seems to be floating in a void, and then it adds a second picture showing the object lying in the center of a rocky crater.
In return for news of machine intelligences it doesn’t know about, a silver orphan will create a silvery cypher from its own form as a gift.
Use: A silver orphan makes a great patron, sending PCs into new areas to explore and search. The creature doesn’t reveal exactly what it’s looking for, but perceptive characters note that their patron seems especially eager to hear news of machine intelligences.
Loot: 1d6 silvery cyphers can be salvaged from the belongings and remains of a silver orphan.
Silver orphans can speak to each other at ranges of up to 10 miles (16 km) using a method normally undetectable by most humans. This “silver speech” allows them to convey many shades of meaning and nuance simultaneously. All that most creatures see is the orphans exchanging blank, mirror-faced stares.
GM Intrusion: Peerless
drones (page 97) attack, attempting to slay anyone working with, or in proximity to, a silver orphan. Peerless brooks no other machine intelligences and believes that whatever the silver orphans are looking for might be one.
SKYSMASHER
7 (21)
A skysmasher arrives as a red blaze across the sky, leaving a trail of light and smoke. The streak is followed by a terrific boom, itself only a precursor to an even more dramatic event: impact. A fountain of earth erupts from where the skysmasher touches down, destroying everything in short range but the creature itself. The shockwave ripples outward, creating a fierce air blast reaching a half mile (0.8 km) in every direction, knocking down trees, structures, and any creatures in the area. The deafening roar of impact is audible twenty times as far, slowly fading like distant thunder. That’s when the skysmasher burrows out of its crater, a rocky creature over 20 feet (6 m) tall.
Skysmashers seemingly live out most of their span in some useable realm above the sky, crashing down to solid ground only to spawn and lay eggs.
Motive: Reproduction
Environment: High places of the world as well as places beyond the sky Health: 21
Damage Inflicted: 8 points Armor: 5 (but see Combat)
Movement: Immediate when burrowing; short when on the ground; long when flying (see Combat) Modifications: Speed defense as level 6 due to size
Combat: A skysmasher inflicts amazing bludgeoning damage with its huge fist and can make two attacks as a single action.
A skysmasher can fly with extreme velocity, shooting skyward on a plume of flame and smoke. To do this, it spends a preparatory turn curling into a tight ball. In the following round, it ignites and rockets straight up. Any character or object within short range of the skysmasher lift-off is washed in a wave of burning plasma that deals 10 points of damage. The wave also knocks creatures one step down the damage track and sets flammable items afire.
Once aloft, a skysmasher can crash down again anywhere in the world, though its aim is imperfect. It usually lands within 1 to 100 miles (1.6 to 161 km) of the intended location.
A skysmasher doesn’t breathe. It has an additional 20 points of Armor against damage from impacts and fire.
Interaction: Skysmashers view most other life forms as ephemeral. If a skysmasher’s landing mows a line of destruction through a human community, it’s not out of malice—the creature simply doesn’t notice. Skysmashers seem clever, but if they’re thinking beings, they don’t communicate it.
Use: A skysmasher crashes down in a location known for yielding occasional bounties of the numenera. It methodically begins clearing out every other living creature, preparing to use the area as an egg nursery.
Loot: A skysmasher egg is rich in the numenera. A character who cracks one open delicately enough can usually salvage 1d6 cyphers.
Skysmasher young hatch from rocky cysts on the sides of cliffs and mountains. No more than a few feet across when curled up, they defy gravity as they float off into the void overhead. They are not seen again for hundreds of years until they smash back down as adults, looking for others of their kind to mate with.
GM Intrusion: When
a skysmasher lifts off in the midst of combat, the character’s clothing catches on fire. The PC takes 5 points of damage each round until someone spends an action making a successful difficulty 5 Speed roll to put out the flames.
CREATURES: SKYSMASHER - SLICER BEETLE