The Strange
Allegiance to the Myriand faction is a great way to retain Harmonious citizenship, but watch yourself. If you pull something shady while off-duty, your first act as a metamorphosized Myriand volunteer might be to begin investigating what you were up to while you were still you.~from the Estate Guide for Quickened Operatives
Myriands patrol Harmonious, ensuring that citizens and guests remain safe, that faction holdings remain unmolested, and that negotiated rules for interfaction competition are not broken. The force is mostly composed of volunteers who give over their minds and bodies to the cause a few hours each week. Off-shift, a myriand could be anybody, even a PC. But when it's time to go on patrol (or when activated remotely for a specific mission), the volunteer's fused biological pod activates, metamorphosizing her into a battle chrysalid.
Myriand is a faction itself, but the same name is applied to the battle chrysalides that make up the force. When someone talks about a myriand— especially with awe or fear in his voice—he's usually referring to a specific lawkeeping battle chrysalid, not Myriand the faction.
Individuals who make up the force are not full-time myriands. They are shift workers who have a completely different personality and aspect when not patrolling. But when their shift comes up, an attached biological pod activates, transforming a regular person into a battle chrysalid. While transformed, themyriand loses all sense of its former identity, becoming hypervigilant, without pity or fear, and unable to do anything other than obey the letter of the law.
Motive: Enforcing the law
Environment (Ruk | Weird Science): Usually in Harmonious patrolling in groups of four, sometimes under the command of a myriand veteran, other times alone with a group of venom troopers as backup
Health 17
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (4 points)
Armor: 1
Movement: Short
Modifications: Tasks related to perception and truth detection as level 5.
Combat: A myriand's body is a weapon—it can make two melee attacks as a single action, using punches, knees, elbows, kicks, or headbutts. It can also fire a shoulder-mounted, wide-aperture slaughter accelerator as its action, attacking up to four creatures standing next to each other within short range. A myriand can choose to deal a moderate wound (4 points) to targets or "glue" them in place with a level 5 foam restraint.
Interaction: A patrolling myriand doesn't speak except to question suspects or witnesses. It sometimes answers questions, if the answer is to explain violations of the law. A myriand may also explain that wasting the time of a myriand patroller is against the law.
Use: PCs new to Ruk are accosted by a myriand who witnessed them breaking a minor (or major!) rule of Harmonious.
Loot: A defeated myriand returns to its pre-myriand state, which is a regular Ruk native who might possess a stick containing 1d6 x 20 bits on it.
GM Intrusion: The myriand activates a biological enhancement, releasing an arc of energy at the PC. The PC's weapon shorts out, jams, or breaks.
A myriand veteran has survived years of service, and in that time, has fully adapted to her chrysalid form. Even powerful interests in Ruk must think twice before planning to defy the laws of Harmonious or the Factol Council, lest they find a myriand veteran assigned to bring them to justice. If time or circumstances are pressing, Myriand veterans have the authority to judge and sentence those found in violation of Ruk laws, but otherwise they take criminals back to Myriand faction headquarters for processing.
Motive: Enforcing the law
Environment (Ruk | Weird Science): Usually in Harmonious patrolling alone, but sometimes commanding a troop of four myriand volunteers
Health 36
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (6 points)
Armor: 3
Movement: Short; long while flying
Modifications: Tasks related to perception and truth detection as level 7.
Combat: In addition to making two melee attacks as a single action with any part of its body, a veteran can also fire a shoulder-mounted, wide-aperture slaughter accelerator as its action, attacking up to ten creatures standing next to each other within long range. A myriand can choose to deal 6 points of damage to targets or "glue" them in place with a level 7 foam restraint.
A myriand veteran can access the special "security" layer of the All Song that all creatures of Ruk (and all PCs who translated to Ruk) are connected to. When themyriand does so, all selected creatures within short range who fail an Intellect defense roll are filled with regret for their actions: they fall to their knees and lower their defenses for up to one minute. A PC can attempt a new Intellect defense roll each round to break free of the effect. The effect is also broken if the myriand attacks the "surrendered" PC or one of her allies (both attacks of which hit automatically and inflict an additional minor wound (2 points)).
Interaction: Veterans have more leeway when interacting with others, and they may even appear to engage in light banter, but they only do so as a means to an end when interrogating a witness or potential suspect.
Use: A large alteration in or around Harmonious could draw a myriand veteran to investigate.
Loot: A defeated veteran does not metamorphosize back to a nonmyriand form. It may possess one or two noncombat cyphers.
GM Intrusion: A PC affected by a veteran's surrender wave doesn't surrender; instead, she is marked with an OFFENDER tag that anyone sensitive to the All Song can sense. The tag lasts for three days.