Clawed Crown 3 (9)

Gunslinger Knights

About the size of a hat, clawed crowns resemble spiderish crabs covered in coarse black and red hair. They prefer shadowed ravines, narrow caves, and (if they reach a community) sheds, narrow back hollows, and unlit rafters. But that’s only so they can avoid detection just long enough to reach the perch they prefer—human heads.

Their psychic influence is faint before they transfer, but once they land on someone’s head, it’s nearly impossible to ignore the psychic domination they exert via a tiny, boring tendril reaching directly into their victim’s brain.

Depending on the situation, a lone clawed crown may just keep its victim quiet and sedated as it gradually devours their brain. However, a clawed crown sometimes demonstrates true cleverness while feeding on intelligent creatures and may “walk” their prey to some other location, but only after making sure the prey conceals the clawed crown rider in a voluminous head covering.

Motive: Hungers for brain matter

Environment: Almost anywhere secluded; alone or in clusters of three to five; sometimes attached to Veen like animate jewelry

Health: 9

Damage Inflicted: Minor wound (3 points)

Armor: 2

Movement: Short; short when climbing

Modifications: Stealth and direct (via contact) mental control as level 6; Speed defense as level 4 due to size

Combat: Clawed crowns attack with pincers.

They also have the following abilities.

• Dominate: If the clawed crown deals physical damage to the target (usually on or about the head or spine), it immediately extends a control tendril into the wound, forcing the target to succeed on a difficulty 6 Intellect defense roll. On a failed roll, the target comes under the clawed crown's control for several minutes.
  Each time the creature feeds, the target automatically takes 3 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor) but also gains another Intellect defense roll to regain control.
  If a clawed crown is forcibly removed from a target (with a successful Might roll), the severed control tendril deals 3 points of damage to the clawed crown, ignoring its Armor.
• Whispering Call: The clawed crown sends a psychic call to the nearest intelligent creature within short range, whether or not the clawed crown is initially aware of prey. A target of the call who fails an Intellect defense roll tries to slip away from their friends (if any) to investigate alone.
  A target who succeeds on the roll still gets the sense that something interesting might be found "this way…"

Interaction: Clawed crowns are hungry predators, but they can borrow a host's intelligence while feeding on them, possibly allowing one to evade hunters or create an ambush where multiple clawed crowns cluster.

Use: Something can be heard skittering around in the barn's rafters after the last storm. A Knight's fallen body is found with something crab-like attached to their head.

GM Intrusion: An ally's hat or head covering slips, and the character sees a horrible crab-spider is physically attached and feeding on them.