The Strange Bestiary
A planetovore is an unstoppable force that can't be bargained or reasoned with. It's pursued me across the cosmos without pity, fear, or lethargy. And it absolutely will not ever stop until it catches me, or until I fulfill my quest after these long aeons, and finally destroy it.—translated from a statement by Uentaru, First of the Chaos Templars
Many planetovores begin as alien AIs of the baryonic universe who discover the Strange, then use the processing power available within the dark energy network to self-evolve and spread. Others begin as alien individuals who willingly sacrifice their mortality for power and potential in the Chaosphere. Vaxt, however, started as an opportunistic, hard-to-kill weed.
A single weed patch was the only surviving life form in the aftermath of another planetovore invading the world where proto-Vaxt grew. The weed possessed unique advantages that allowed it to adapt and proliferate in the severely disturbed environment, especially given that the conquering planetovore didn't consider a weed to be a threat. After centuries of slow colonization, Vaxt finally subsumed the conqueror and claimed the planetovore's power and abilities as its own.
Since then, Vaxt has successfully consumed and colonized the remnants of countless alien civilizations, and it continues to spread—like a weed.
This creature appears as a growth of weeds emerging from the surface of a structure, the ground, a vehicle, or even from another living creature. These particular weeds look like a mass of writhing green tentacles, each reaching at least a foot in length, and sometimes stretching farther. Most of the time, sclerid patches go unnoticed, thanks to their ability to blend into their surroundings due to the chromatophores that cover their surface.
A sclerid patch is a genetic duplicate of the original Vaxt. If a high-enough density of sclerid patches exist within any given area, chemical signals induce the patch to produce sclerid executioners and, later, even more dangerous forms.
Motive: Spread Vaxt seeds
Environment (the Strange): Anywhere
Health 12
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (4 points)
Armor: 1
Movement: None (except through seed dispersal)
Modifications: Disguise and hiding tasks as level 6; Speed defense as level 2 due to fixed position.
Combat: A sclerid patch can stretch its tendrils to lash prey within immediate range.
After an encounter with a sclerid patch, each PC attacked by a sclerid or who was within immediate range of a sclerid that was damaged or destroyed must succeed on a Might defense roll. On a failed roll, the puffs of microscopic seeds that the plant released during the combat secretly root just beneath an infected PC's skin or in his lungs. Treat the colonization as a disease.
A colonized creature doesn't notice any symptoms that hinder his abilities, but he might have a sore throat one day, a sniffly nose the next, and so on. On the third day of colonization, tendrils of the sclerid break to the surface and may become noticeable (though where they break through is not felt by the victim because of locally produced anesthetizing fluid and disguising chromatophores). At this point, killing the colonizing plant patch requires a procedure equivalent to a serious operation to avoid killing the host (rootlets have invaded most of the victim's organs). In addition, the visible tendrils fight back as a level 2 creature that uses the victim's health as its own, and it can attack other creatures within immediate range of the colonized victim for a minor wound (3 points).
If left untreated, most sclerid victims hosting a colony die after about thirty days, when the rootlets finally cause a stroke or heart attack. Sometimes, though, a sclerid and its host attain a sort of symbiotic relationship that lasts indefinitely.
Interaction: It's nearly impossible to communicate with a sclerid patch, given the plantlike nature of the creature. If a psychic link is established, a PC gains only a sense of endless green strength and the sure knowledge of continual, unstoppable growth.
Use: A sclerid patch is growing like a barnacle on a larger creature of the Strange or within a recursion where natives travel into the Strange.
GM Intrusion: The PC notices the puff of microscopic seeds she's just inhaled (which looks like a cloud of quickly dispersing white vapor), and she loses her next turn coughing.
This plantlike creature looks different depending on the recursion or prime world where it manifests. It usually takes the base form of a colonized host creature that, instead of being killed by a sclerid patch, is further modified so that it becomes stronger, tougher, and more fully invested with longer tendrils (many of which end in acid-tipped stingers).
Motive: Genocide
Environment (any recursion): Anywhere
Health 28
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (5 points)
Armor: 2
Movement: Short, long when jumping
Combat: The sclerid executioner makes two attacks as a single action with its acid-oozing, stingertipped tentacles. Characters take damage normally from the sting, and they must succeed on a second Might defense roll against the acid or take another 5 points of acid damage, which can ignore Armor. Characters can choose to allow their physical armor to absorb the acid damage from a particular attack, but doing so permanently degrades the armor (and Armor value) by the number of points subtracted.
Interaction: Executioners seek to kill all living creatures and destroy all artificial structures. They do not negotiate.
Use: If one or more sclerid executioners is encountered, that probably means a serious sclerid patch infestation is somewhere close at hand.
GM Intrusion: Another sclerid executioner is born from a nearby NPC or creature that had apparently been hosting an unknown infestation, and it attacks the PC.