Jade Colossus
The rumbling, booming noise could be the sound of some distant, subterranean machine powering on for inscrutable reasons. But if the noise continues to grow, shaking up through the floor and tingling your spine with ever-greater ferocity, it could be a vaytaren, a creature associated with the Jade Colossus and the relics found therein. Sometimes—though not always—a vaytaren is released from a deeper chamber in the installation, whereupon it seeks out the nearest relic chamber and sets itself up as a guardian.
Vaytarens are humanoid but stand at least 20 feet (6 m) tall when upright. However, they can reconfigure their posture to run on all fours, allowing them to move very fast while maneuvering prior-world ruins that would otherwise be too small for them. The creatures are covered in armored synth plates and possess strange armaments as well as tech capable of pitting nearby mechanisms against foes.
Vaytarens are sometimes found guarding other important chambers in installations not associated with the Jade Colossus.
Motive: Guard important locations rich in the numenera
Environment: Prior-world installations
Health: 27
Damage Inflicted: Major wound (8 points)
Armor: 4
Movement: Short; long when reconfigured to run on all fours
Combat: A vaytaren can attack all targets within immediate range or up to three targets next to each other within long range with projectiles of greenish-black void matter they fire from one limb. A target who takes damage must also succeed on a Might defense task or be injected with a bolus of void matter that visibly coils and writhes as a greenish black ribbon beneath their skin. A victim should keep track of the number of separate ribbons that swim beneath their skin. When the combat is over, the victim must succeed on a Might defense task whose difficulty is equal to the number of ribbons still infesting them. On a failure, the victim petrifies over the course of three rounds, mineralizing to become a figure made of black stone-like material infused with void matter.
A vaytaren can also use an action to take control of one item of the numenera within long range, perhaps a nearby machine or a relic of the Jade Colossus. The controlled object remains animate thereafter for up to one minute, fulfilling whatever programming the vaytaren encoded it with.
Interaction: Vaytarens are intelligent, but they do not speak directly. They can be negotiated with, but only if they can take control of a nearby device or machine that can speak for the vaytaren in a way characters can understand.
Use: When the characters find a chamber in a prior-world ruin that contains a powerful artifact, a vaytaren shows up to safeguard the device.
Loot: A vaytaren carries a few midnight stones, a few cyphers, and possibly an artifact.
GM Intrusion: The vaytaren attempts to take control of an artifact or item of the numenera in the character's possession. The character must succeed on an Intellect task to retain control.