valdattaMadun says:
One squid that wants to be bioluminescence and a pangdolin that can't stand neon lights....SYNERGY nothing could go wrong :)
...oops. To be fair, biolumenescence is usually softer on the eyes than neon? XD
But yeah, I figured I'll just leave it as flavor text, it's unlikely that it will ever come into play. I just wanna be glowing.
Anyway, I strayed a bit from initial concept, but here's what I have! A friendly squid that wants to hug things to figure out as they work. Squishy, will probably get chewed in melee, but can paralyze things and spit ink.
(I left telepathy as Language for now until our GM can say if that's fine. If not, I'll switch it for Healing, probably?)
[ +- ] Straj
Basics
Name: Straj; [straʂ], Russian for "Guardian".
Origin
No one exactly knows where Straj originally came from, but most of the scientific community believes him to be a deep sea creature that was around for millenniums, living deep in the ocean unperturbed and undiscovered. There are theories as to why he finally showed himself, ranging from change of ecological situation to conspiracy theories, but none of them can be confirmed or denied.
Straj was discovered by Russian military, mostly by pure luck - a small fleet was running drills in the Barents sea, and coincidentally they managed to do it exactly where Straj was exploring at the time. The creature swam to the surface, curious about the proximity of ships and their activity. As the kaiju didn't attack the fleet, instead simply staring at the ships with its many eyes, and the fleet commander was level-headed enough to not immediately order to open fire, this encounter didn't result in any blood spilling, instead becoming one of the few completely peaceful kaiju encounters.
The following research quickly discovered that Straj was sentient, peaceful and surprisingly willing to cooperate with the local scientists and KTF alike. He seemed intrigued by the tests they were running, and as long as no one in the vicinity acted aggressively, was pretty much harmless. During the time it was researched in its natural habitat, rumors of a peaceful sea monster brought quite a few daring people to try to catch a glimpse or even take a photo - much to military's chagrin and Straj's curiosity.
Eventually Straj was relocated to Azorean International Kaiju Sanctuary, where it stays nowadays, swimming through the local waters and mostly avoiding other kaiju. Some researchers, sanctioned by KTF, still run various tests on this kaiju - greatly assisted by the fact that Straj is willing to follow research ships when asked, making possible to isolate him without risking approaching other kaiju.
Description
Straj is a giant squid-like creature with slick pale skin, multiple yellow eyes and a lot of thin flexible tentacles, each of which has small, bioluminescent suckers on their underside. The form of his body is reminiscent of a squid shell, but the tentacles are more akin to those of an octopus. His blood and spit are both ink blue.
Straj is relatively small for a kaiju, and not very mobile out of the water, preferring to stay half-hidden beneath the ocean surface, watching the surroundings until anything intriguing shows up in his view. When out of water, Straj tends to wrap itself around objects or - on rare occasions - other kaiju.
Straj is intelligent, and seems mostly peaceful towards other creatures as long as they don't attack him or things he cares about. He can't talk, lacking organs to mimic human speech, but he understands visual communication and can use it to relay his thoughts to humans - for example, via drawing. The sounds he does make are reminiscent of chirping (with no good explanation as to why).
Motivation
Straj is one of the least aggressive kaiju. Unlike many of them, he doesn't display a lot of territorial tendencies or eagerness to show force, and instead acts more curious than anything. For the most part, he avoids hostile kaiju, hiding at the ocean floor, but he shows up whenever there is something or someone new around. His main motivation seems to be just that - curiosity, interest in exploration. (It's no wonder many a scientist compared him to an octopus.)
Hindrances
*Water Dependency (Minor): this kaiju is aquatic, and can only leave water for an hour or few at most, plus it's movement is slower outside of water.
*Quirk (Minor): if there is something near Straj, there is a good chance that he will try to wrap his tentacle around it absent-mindely. Be it a friendly kaiju, a building, a coral reef or an alien object, the squid will attempt to touch it, with various consequences.
*Curious (Major): this kaiju is fascinated by learning new things, causing it to disregard caution and get way too close to danger if he finds it fascinating. If there is an alien ship - Straj will try to get inside. If there is an unfamiliar kaiju - Straj will try to get its attention. If there is a Protostomion in the vicinity... well, Straj probably won't try to poke it. Probably.
Edges
*Human Approved (Marine-related professions)
Thanks to his general non-hostility, Straj garnered good reputation among many marine ecologists, scientists, island populations and even some military fleets. He's been known to assist KTF research ships, play with other friendly kaiju and be surprisingly peaceful towards rare tourists daring to approach Monster Island. He is especially loved by scientists, who are intrigued both by his intelligence and curiosity.
*Calculating
Ignore up to 2 points of penalties on one action with an Action Card of Five or less.
Straj's many eyes help the squid to quickly observe the situation, calculating distances and taking stock of landscape and all the possible ways to use it to his advantage.
Abilities:
Armor +30 (default)
Increased Damage (default)
Size 13 (default is 16, -3 added)
Fully Sapient (2)
Ranged Attack - Ink Bolt (3)
Tentacles (4+2 for increased reach)
Aquatic (2)
Paralyzing Touch (3)
Enviromental Resistance - Electricity (1)
Frail (-1)
Poor Parry (-1)
Attributes
Strength: d12+16 (default)
Vigor: d10 (default)
Agility: d6 (+1)
Smarts: d10 (+3)
Spirit: d6 (+1)
Skills
Athletics (Agility): d4 (default)
Intimidation (Spirit): d4 (default)
Notice (Smarts): d10 (+3)
Stealth (Agility): d6 (+1)
Taunt (Smarts): d4 (default)
Research* (Smarts): d8 (+3)
Shooting (Agility): d6 (+2)
Fighting (Agility): d4 (+1)
Healing (Smarts): d4 (+1)
*As in researching enemy biology? I wasn't sure if it would be an appropriate skill, but wanted to do something with all these Smarts. My idea is to use it to learn enemy attack abilities and patterns, figure out their weaknesses, this sort of thing?
Derived Stats
Kaiju Scale
Pace: 120 yards
Parry: 3 (-1 for abilities)
Toughness: 19 base, 30 armor (-1 for abilities)
Last edited August 19, 2020 9:08 pm