The Strange Bestiary
Chaos Templars are a breed apart, literally. Each is a survivor of a separate prime world destroyed by planetovores. Templars spend much of their time searching the Strange for other survivors, exterminating entities that might one day become planetovores, and attempting to find ways to destroy active planetovores. This includes hunting for the perhaps-mythical artifact called the Chaos Sword, a device of normal matter so powerful that it can supposedly cleave through matter, recursions, and the Strange itself in vast, solar-system-sized slices.
Forged by their founder, Uentaru, into a cohesive group with distinctive golden armoring technology, Chaos Templars are a powerful alien force operating in the Strange. Each Templar possesses a unique quality, ability, or device that allowed her to survive on her own in the Strange before joining the group.
Sometimes Chaos Templars help others, and other times they ignore needy pleas. They may seem understandable, but they are just as often inscrutable.
Motive: Defend against planetovores, unpredictable
Environment (the Strange): Anywhere
Health: 21
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (6 points)
Armor: 2
Movement: Short
Modifications: Speed defense as level 7 due to golden armor; knowledge of the Strange and navigation of the Strange as level 7.
Combat: Each Templar's swiftness and strength is magnified by her golden armor, which allows up to two unarmed melee attacks as a single action. However, every Templar has an artifact that gives her one or two useful abilities in combat. One is a long-range energy attack against a foe and (if the Templar desires) every creature in immediate range of that foe. The energy varies depending on the Templar but is usually x-ray, gamma ray, or collimated microwave energy.
During any round in which a Chaos Templar spends an action tending to her wounds, she recovers 6 points of health (thanks to her golden armor). In addition, a Chaos Templar who spends an action reconfiguring her armor can make it impervious to heat, cold, or another extreme environment (only one type at a time) for up to an hour. Doing so reduces the Armor value to 1 during that time. Most Chaos Templars also have two or three cyphers that can be used in combat.
Interaction: The golden armor serves as a universal translator, allowing a Chaos Templar to converse Templar could introduce a useful and unexpected ally for characters who are experiencing a series of misfortunes and require a helping hand.
Loot: A Chaos Templar carries two or three cyphers. A Templar's golden armor and unique artifact are keyed to the individual Templar—anyone else would find the items difficult to use.
The founder of the Chaos Templars is an individual known as Uentaru. Something of a military scientist among her own kind, she used advanced technology to escape into the Strange when her world was destroyed.
GM Intrusion: When the character attacks the Chaos Templar with a melee weapon, he misses, and the weapon sticks to the Templar's golden armor. Pulling it free requires a The arachnoid cog mites infest the Machine God's bowels like vermin. They boil up from the depths with each tremor, agitated by the disturbance, and flow like water through the passages and chambers.