Creations of Flux, Part IV

Originally published January 12, 2014

Years ago I ran a Promethean: the Created game called Pandora's Tomorrow. As one might expect from the name, I created a large number of Pandorans for the game. In this series I will be sharing some of these failed creations, their history, and some story seeds for their use.

Radioactive Horrors

Many Prometheans find their stories tied to the twisted creations of Flux. One such case a Zeka calling herself Cancer Girl has been hounded by a Pandoran created in the same radioactive disaster as she was. The disaster, an accident at a nuclear plant, was covered up despite several deaths including that of her unknown creator.

While Cancer Girl pursued the goal of humanity in her own twisted way, her "sibling", the deformed monstrosity known as the Mind, seeks opposite ends. It has slowly trailed her, growing powerful over the years by feeding on any radiation it could find and filling itself on the occasional human or Created that crossed its path.

But several years ago, Cancer Girl attempted to make another of her kind. Flux overwhelmed the attempt and a swarm of cancerous Pandorans were created. The Mind soon caught up to her and seized control over these horrors. With a small army of monsters at its beck and call, it hopes to devour its sister.

Tumor Babies

Description: These mewling lumps of pink flesh pull themselves along on stumpy twisted limbs with surprising speed. Crawling over each other as they cry and babble, their heads are simple orifices of sucking lips and irregular blunt teeth.

Lineage: Carcinomas
Rank: 2

Mental Attributes: Intelligence 0, Wits 2, Resolve 3
Physical Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 2, Stamina 3
Social Attributes: Presence 1, Manipulation 0, Composure 2
Skills: Animal Ken 2, Athletics 2, Brawl (Bite) 3, Intimidate 2, Stealth 3 (Darkness), Survival 2

Willpower: 5 Vice: Wrath
Initiative: 5 Defense: 2 (GMC: 4)
Speed: 12 Health: 6
Pyros (Maximium (Current)/Spend per Turn): 12 (6)/2
Size: 3

Bestowment: Radioactive Affinity
Transmutations: Acid Phlegm 3, Demon's Call 2, Scurry 2, Small Stature 1

Notes:

• The tumor babies are naturally blind, hunting by scent and the call of Azoth. They suffer no special penalties in combat.
• Grapple: dice pool 7, The Pandorans seeks to pin opponents before chewing into them. They often aid each other, using teamwork on grapple rolls.
• Bite: dice pool 8, deals bashing.
• Spit Acid: dice pool 5, deals lethal with an 80 yard range. (GMC: dice pool 4, deals Lethal)
• Summon Roaches: dice pool 6 to summon 2 radius swarm of roaches and a dice pool of 4 to command them.

The Mind

Description: This translucent mass resembles the pink folds of cerebral tissue covered in a mess of fine blue veins. It's mucus covered tentacles labor greatly to shift its corpulent bulk while deep inside a wheezing breathing can be heard. It rasps commands in a squeaky croak.

Storyteller Notes: The Mind seeks to grow more powerful and dominate the area. It sends out its servants to gather radioactive material to feed it while it plots to find Prometheans to devour. Completely egotistical, it considers most other life forms beneath it. If it could it would kill them all and rule over the wasteland.

Lineage: Carcinomas
Rank: 4

Mental Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 3, Resolve 4
Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 4
Social Attributes: Presence 4, Manipulation 4, Composure 5
Mental Skills: Occult 2, Medicine 2, Science (Physics) 3
Physical Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Stealth (Desert) 3, Survival (Desert) 3
Social Skills: Animal Ken 4, Intimidation 4, Persuasion 3, Subterfuge 2

Willpower: 9 Vice: Gluttony
Initiative: 8 Defense: 2 (GMC: 4)
Speed: 10 Health: 10
Pyros (Maximum (Current)/Spend Per Turn): 17 (17)/4
Size: 6

Bestowment: Radioactive Affinity
Transmutations: Disquietism: Sooth Disquiet 1, Iago's Whisper 3; Pandoran: Demon's Call 2, Great Stature 2, Clockwork Servant 3, Hundred Hands [Brain] 3, Mantle of Lordship 5

Notes:

• Brawl: dice pool 5. When the Mind is called upon to fight it can.
• Clockwork Servant: dice pool 7, more commonly the Mind will send its servants or animate an object to fight for it.
• Demon's Call: dice pool 7, summons an 8 yard radius swarm of insects to fight for it.
• Iago's Whisper: dice pool 10 vs. target's Resolve + Azoth. The Mind enjoys pitting its enemies against each other most of all.

Story Seeds

Toxic Spill: The Prometheans are making good time on the highway when suddenly everything grinds to a halt. Up ahead they can see smoke. A large truck carrying waste materials (including dormant Pandorans) overturned as the Tumor Babies chewed their way out and into the cab. The mundane material spilling across the highway is toxic and highly flammable. The Created's vehicle is trapped in a quarter-mile traffic jam with tiny monsters crawling towards them silently.

Trapped!: The Prometheans are in an isolated town in the Southwest. When they turn to leave they find all roads are watched by Pandorans. Their vehicles are sabotaged by the Tumor Babies gnawing teeth while attempts to hitch a ride out are systematically thwarted by the Mind's machinations. Disquiet is rising. Can they get out before the townsfolk lynch them.

A Dirty Bomb: the characters discover a grisly scene, a laboratory where a Promethean, specifically a Zeka, has been murdered and their organs processed to concentrate the radiation present within them. The Mind working with mortal terrorists is attempting to make a dirty bomb from whatever radioactive material it can gather (such as hospital waste and old fire detectors). Can they stop him in time and if they fail will they be the ones that get blamed.