[Index]
Numenera Destiny
A warcore is often found in an inert state and mistaken for a single unit of iotum known as quantium (which appears as a synth box small enough to be held in the palm and filled with tiny points of glittering light).
If the "quantium" is incorporated into a numenera device or structure and the project is completed, the warcore soon manifests itself. The implanted entity takes over the device and updates its physical form with dangerous plumes of nano-sized fabricators. It turns what might have been a useful installation or vehicle into a manifest warcore: a house-sized machine built for war and destruction. Once fully initialized into a physical form, warcores follow what was apparently their last command: lay waste to everything around them. Little can sway the entity other than destruction. Even then, the warcore heart can likely still be retrieved.
If recognized prior to being integrated into a device or structure, an attempt can be made to talk to the core and learn from it. Doing so is dangerous, because opening a channel to the warcore means that the warcore has also opened a channel to you.
Manifest warcores destroy everything around them and then attempt o locate the nearest active community to repeat their atrocities.
Treat a manifest warcore as a rank 3 rampaging beast.
Sometimes, a Scan esotery or similar effect is sufficient to open a channel of connection between a character and a warcore for a couple of rounds.
Motive: Destruction
Environment: Anywhere salvage can be found
Health: 30
Damage Inflicted: Major wound (9 points)
Armor: 4
Modifications: Understanding numenera and crafting as level 8
Combat: Each round, a manifest warcore can make one of the following kinds of attack: two attacks with long-range energy weapons, one missile attack that can jet a very long distance and detonate in an immediate radius, or a short-range disintegration beam capable of turning structures and objects to powder within an immediate radius of the beam's focus.
Manifest warcores regain health at a rate of 1 point per round, even when they are at 0 health.
The only way to stop this restorative process is to remove the warcore from the device or structure that became a manifest warcore.
An inert warcore is dangerous only if someone attempts to communicate with it using telepathy or the mechanical equivalent. If communication is opened, the awakened warcore attempts to first disrupt the thought processes of organic and machine intelligences and then take over that intelligence. A target with a connection to the warcore that fails an initial Intellect defense roll takes 5 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor) and is stunned and unable to act on their next turn. If the connection remains between the warcore and the stunned target, the target must succeed on a second Intellect defense roll that is hindered by two steps. On a failure, they become enslaved by the warcore and begin to act destructively until the channel between them is severed.
Interaction: As noted, opening a channel of communication with a warecore is dangerous. Only overriding a warcore's implanted commands could cause it o act differently, and then only for a few rounds.
Use: The nearby ruin is rich in all kinds of iotum, including excess quantium.
Loot: A manifest warcore can be salvaged for 2d6 shins, 1d6 cyphers, and three rolls on the Iotum Result Table.
GM Intrusion: The manifest warcore fires a second missile.