The Strange
Radiation and leaking magic combine in terrible ways, creating myriad mutant horrors that roam Cataclyst. The Cataclyst roach is a particularly nasty and ubiquitous example of the phenomena.
Human-sized roaches with human faces, the creatures come out in the dark, but otherwise dwell in subways and basements of the ruined city. Sometimes groups of roaches emerge at night under the cover of cloud, looking to establish new infestations.
Cataclyst roaches are intelligent, territorial, and essentially without morals—at least, the type of morals that normal humans respect. Within any given nest, a roach abides by what is best for the group as a whole, and an individual thinks little of sacrificing itself to protect its fellows or a hidden nest.
Motive: Territory, defense, and colonization
Environment (Cataclyst | Weird Science and/or Magic): Anywhere dark
Health 9
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (4 points)
Armor: 3
Movement: Short
Combat: A Cataclyst roach attacks with claws that inflict both damage and a harmful mutation on a failed Might defense roll. A victim could receive multiple mutations. The harmful mutation persists for as long as the target remains in Cataclyst. Each mutation could come with a visible deformity, at the GM's option.
01–10 Mentally vulnerable: The difficulty of all Intellect defense tasks is increased by one step.
11–20 Slow and lumbering: The difficulty of all Speed defense tasks is increased by one step.
21–30 Sickly: The difficulty of all Might defense tasks is increased by one step.
31–40 Horrible growth: A large goiter, immobile tendril, or useless extra eye hangs from your face, increasing the difficulty of all pleasant interactions (with most creatures, particularly humans) by one step.
41–50 Useless limb: One of your limbs is unusable or missing.
51–60 Degraded eye: One of your eyes is unusable or missing. The difficulty of tasks specifically involving eyesight (spotting, searching, and so on) is increased by one step.
61–70 Degraded ear: One of your ears is unusable or missing. The difficulty of tasks specifically involving hearing is increased by one step.
71–80 Weakness in Might: Any time you spend points from your Might Pool, the cost is increased by 1 point.
81–90 Weakness in Speed: Any time you spend points from your Speed Pool, the cost is increased by 1 point.
91–00 Weakness in Intellect: Any time you spend points from your Intellect Pool, the cost is increased by 1 point.
In sunlight or other especially bright light, the difficulty of Speed defense rolls against Cataclyst roach attacks is decreased by one step.
Interaction: Cataclyst roaches are almost always hostile when encountered, but they are intelligent and can speak. They usually taunt and threaten only creatures that are not roaches.
Use: Any visit into the ruins of Cataclyst usually scares up a few Cataclyst roaches when light is introduced to a dark place.
Loot: A roach nest usually contains 1d6 cyphers.
GM Intrusion:A PC is afflicted with the background radiation around a Cataclyst roach, and one of his arms becomes like a Cataclyst roach's over the course of a round. At first, the character can't use the limb at all, but over a few hours he can learn how.