The Strange Bestiary
Irradiated and hungry gamma spikers emerge from the ruins to hunt fresh meat in outlying communities. Because they're able to hide their large forms behind radioactive distortion fields, the only clue someone has that she's being stalked is a smell of cloves over the stale whiff of death. Unfortunately, if someone smells a gamma spiker's distinctive odor, it's probably already too late to run.
Just a few years ago, no one had ever seen a gamma spiker. The first report of one came from Adroth the Savage after he found an ancient vault and smashed it open with his mutant strength. Inside he found many strange devices of a design he'd never before encountered, and to his salvage-trained eye, they seemed far more advanced than anything developed before the singularity destroyed civilization. Before Adroth could learn more, he was driven off by a pair of odd creatures, which he called gamma spikers.
Motive: Hungers for flesh, unpredictable
Environment (Cataclyst | Weird Science or Magic): Almost anywhere
Health: 18
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (6 points)
Armor: 5
Movement: Short when walking or burrowing
Modifications: Stealth tasks as level 8; Speed defense as level 5 due to size; ability to see through tricks as level 4.
kind of conspiracy.
Use: The PCs encounter a gamma spiker while exploring the ruins. It tries to eat them.
Loot: Despite its apparently animal-like demeanor, any given gamma spiker carries a few salvaged valuables (usually including one or two cyphers) in a pouch hidden on its body.
GM Intrusion: The spiker’s radiation dose is particularly high, and after the character wakes, she continues to experience strong vertigo and disorientation. For the next minute, she must make a difficulty 2 Speed-based roll each round or fall down. The difficulty of this task is increased by two steps if she moves a short distance or more during the round.
Adroth the Savage: level 6; Armor 3; can make four melee weapon attacks as his action