Monday, January 30, 2012

Interstitial Insectoid

Interstitial Insectoid


No. App.: 1
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120' (Passwall/Planeshift ability)
Armor Class: 3
Hit Dice: 6
Attacks: 1d6+1 (tentacle-stings) or Special
Damage: 120' in any direction
Save: MU8
Morale: 8


Special: Touch can Dispel Magic up to 4/times per day at will. Gaze causes Confusion (treat as eye-beam 90' range, 30' wide). They can opt to radiate a Dissonance Effect within a 30' radius up to 3/times per day. They either have 1d4 minor and 1d4 major Psychic Powers or spell-casting capability commensurate with their Hit Dice.

Transplanar scavengers of dead worlds and ruined places throughout the Polyverse, the Interstitial Insectoids' name for themselves is unknown to any scholar, save perhaps for Gnosiomandus in Wermspittle. But his unconventional attitudes make his assertions more than a little suspect.

But this is not about a cranky old scholastically transgressive authority. It is about twelve-foot-tall coeleopteric cyclopes who migrate across incredibly vast, even mind-blasting distances in order to feed upon and integrate the relict knowledge, psychographical impressions, and other such debris of destroyed, defunct and otherwise dead cultures, societies and civilizations.

Dissonance Effect
In the space of 1d6 minutes a field of distorted Poly-plenal feedback forms around the Interstitial Insectoid, temporarily making its location within the Polyverse ambiguous and overlapping with 1d100 other planes simultaneously. This effect is modulated by the creature to cause all magic items and especially weapons within the area of effect to make a Save or go inert for 1d4 hours. At the end of this period of forced inactivity the item must make another Save or be cut-off from its previous power-source and connected into some other transplanar source of empowerment.

Especially ancient Interstitial Insectoids have been known to adapt this Dissonance Effect for a wide variety of other, more specialized applications, and it is surmised that this ability is directly connected to their innate  Passwall and Planeshift capabilities.

Hungry Minds
The Interstitial Insectoids subsist upon ectoplasm, psychoplasm, vital energies drawn from across nearly all the known spectra, and can absorb/digest nearly all forms of magic. They are voracious readers and their entire species seems to be gripped with a mass-obsession with regards to transplanar archaeology.

An Interstitial Insectoid can opt to devour any spell-book, scroll, incised tablet, or similar object containing stored magical, psychic or other energies. They recover hit points and regenerate damage from consuming these sources of informative nutrition at a base rate of 1d4 hit points gained for every level of spell consumed. The end result is similar to a high-powered Erase spell for the item affected. Yes, they can also consume prepared spells directly from the mind/brain of a living victim, if that becomes necessary. The victim gets a Save, and if they fail, they take as much damage as the Insectoid regains...or the victim could voluntarily allow the creature to eat the spell, which only inflicts half damage.

Scholarly Types
There are specialists among these beings who delve all that much more deeply into various forbidden, forgotten or nearly obliterated fields of research, study and knowledge. All Interstitial Insectoids have (1d4) areas of academic inquiry. We recommend using the excellent Random Academic Field Generator at Chaotic Shiny to come up with a few good ideas.

Polyglots & Pantomimes
Interstitial Insectoids can read thousands of obscure, esoteric and lost languages, but they cannot speak any of them. For a suitable price, there are those among these creatures who will produce a written record of their translation of some scroll, inscription, book, or whatever, but they are notoriously slow and very, very expensive, and that's only if you know how to locate one or can get an audience or appointment with them to even discuss the possibility of hiring them.

Since they are incapable of speech, something many other scholars are indeed quite grateful for, the Interstitial Insectoids tend to make use of a combination of body language and telepathy. Even after the minimum four years of intense study required of fledgling interpreters, only 30% of whatever these creatures attempt to convey makes it across to the recipient, unless the interpreter is particularly diligent or exceptionally skilled, at which point they can add-on their personal modifier to the process (granting a bonus of 10%/per level of Interpreter).

Strange Patrons
Interstitial Insectoids have long made a practice of hiring groups of adventurers drawn from other species to go and investigate various arcane rumors, esoteric allegations, ancient ruins and what-not. To the casual observer, it might appear a bit odd that there are no less than three Interpreters acting on behalf of these beings currently active in Wermspittle...

2 comments:

  1. These almost feel like ascended Thysanurians

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nope. Completely other species. The two groups do not get along very well, either. Neither group is willing to talk much about the situation as there is a very fragile sort of detente between the two groups. For now.

    Should a Thysanurian clutch and an Interstitial Insectoid coterie be seeking the same artifact, scroll or tome...it tends to get really ugly, really fast. They both prefer to work through hired agents one or two steps removed for this very reason.

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