Civic Infrastructure (Nolzur's Fountain and Guillotine) plus Antediluvian's Professor Cushing
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Rigel,
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By Rigel
A barren, frozen planet. A pristine icefield, burnished and cleared by constant katabatic gales. Graven in elegant Old High Martian glyphs a meter deep in the never-thawing ice, a mathematical proof of such beauty and elegance as to make a genius weep...and a series of universal planetary coordinates. No advanced species could forbear to investigate further!
These are the work of the Neh-Thalggu, more commonly known as the Braincrabs. Know them. Fear them. Do not trust them.
Rugose and four-limbed, the first instar is little more than a brain-shaped crustacean beast. (Little Nolzur's Intellect Devourers, came with the Alhoon or Illithilich.) They are shed when the parent has a surfeit of brains and wishes to jettison lesser ones to make room for greater.
Most perish, being less clever than their prey. But if one can bring down a sentient creature through luck and stealth and devour its central ganglion or brain...it begins to grow, absorbing the knowledge and cunning of its prey, much as some sea slugs repurpose the stinging cells of their prey and make them their own.
After absorbing a few brains, the instar grows into a juvenile. This involves generating more frontal eyes and a pair of brutal skull-cracking pincers. Recently-added brains are sequestered into thin-shelled bubbles, an adaptation to make sure other, stronger Braincrabs do not kill them when marauding.
The juveniles are very dangerous, acting as psionic predators with the strength of a tiger and the intelligence of three or four sentient creatures, all brought to bear on the problem of obtaining more brains. Depending on its previous history, it is very likely to outwit the average sentient being.
A Braincrab that has assimilated more than eight brains again metamorphoses, this time into a mountainous, many-limbed hulk, a spiny rugose colossus with a first-class think tank worth of neural tissue working for it. Psionic power abounds, and the elder Braincrab can create immersive illusions at-will or psychically dominate lesser wills.
The really unpleasant bit is the way it will out-argue you and succeed. It can make an excellent claim to being a Utility Monster, better at experiencing both reality and pleasure in the cosmos than us single-brained chumps. And what gives it the most pleasure, on the level you and I could never experience? (for so it claims, and has data to back it up--is the data faked? if so, it's too good for us to be able to tell!)? Why, devouring and assimilating more sentient brains! Do you have inconvenient brains in your society? Antisocial or sociopathic ones? It can redirect those energies! Oh, it's a persuasive monstrosity!
The Martians fear and detest them, of course, having as they do great juicy brains practically dripping psionic energy.
But hunting something that is hunting you, while your strongest weapon is their favorite prey--it's not easy!
A Martian High Intelligencer can outwit all but the eldest Braincrabs, but the gamble is a perilous one indeed. You do NOT want a braincrab with the powers of a High Intelligencer. That's how you get a planet converted to a brain farm, which in turn leads to Great Old Ones. Not even once!
Oddly, the best defense against the Braincrab is a hive of the insectoid Mandibulate Commonweal. One has the intelligence of a beast, two of a slightly smarter beast, five of an average human...and a whole hive can rival a supercomputer. Their individual brains are not worth a Braincrab's attention, and yet the hivemind can outmaneuver it intellectually as easily as the workers can swarm and savage it physically.
The Commonweal will not gain knowledge from the reclaimed brains, though. Only nourishment.
Below, how to make a juvenile Braincrab.
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By Rigel
Been doing some butchery, some Frankensteining lately. Particularly for my sci-fi setting. And has it produced results!
First, the ingredients.
A while ago, I ordered a Reaper Burrowing Behemoth (44058) and it was a fantastic sculpt. But I got two left feet, to match my own. Customer service quickly replaced it, because Reaper is THE BEST--but now I had some leftover insectile CLAWS!
Then, Nolzur's came out with an Ankheg. Segmented, metameric abdomen, mantid-like foreclaws, two pairs of limbs, shield-like, many-eyed spiky head.
And also with a set of hideous ...Quori? Never heard of, maybe a Pathfinder thing apparently an Eberron aberration. One of them is a grotesque tailed many-limbed squirmer with big ol' pincers.
And with an Alhoon with many spell-effect tentacles.
Now, I have a few factions of spacemonsters. One is insectile, and I gave a Burrowing Horror a third set of ankheg limbs to bring us to six total...
...while giving the burly Horror claws to an Umber Hulk:
Now everyone has six limbs and I can rest easy!
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE
Another faction is the horrid Crawlers. These I have posted before, and are mostly Bathalians. Shield-like heads, mouth tentacles, squirmy bodies, appendages made to mutilate and maul.
The Tsucora Quori are warty and rugose and squirmy and pincered, but lack the characteristic head and tentacles.
But a Chronoscope Hound of Tindalos (50289) has just the right kind of head on a lean and easily repurposed body! A little green stuff to fill in the Quori's unmistakable eyes and nostrils, and a little work with some wire cutters, and behold!
Oh yeah, that's a Bathalian!
I also snipped some tentacles from the Nolzur's Alhoon to give our Craboid Black Cat Alien (see link to Crawlers, above) the mouth-tendrils it deserves.
Wait, but what of the mutilated Ankheg?
Oh, it fits in with the Crawlers just fine now.
Happy crafting, folks!
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By Rigel
Matthew Beauchamp recently sculpted an excellent line of Dragon Men for his Retroverse. I had to get them--and they are massive and burly, about 45mm or so! Great scaly brutes,
But the heads were a little less reptilian and more orcish than I would like, having committed to the Antediluvian aesthetic of Buckland Rogers. Don't worry, I'll find a use for that head somewhere.
So I took a couple of hours with Green Stuff and a dental tool and made a new hunchbacked crocodilian/mosasaur head, scarred and with a toothy muzzle. This is a prominent NPC in my spacefuture games, Atrox the weapons merchant.
He is about nine foot tall, cheerfully violent and moderately amoral. Won't sell biological weapons or anything with long-half-life decay products, but otherwise it's fair game if you have the credits.
Pretty scarred about the face and neck, because he's a professional and insists on testing each type of weapon before selling. Also from ritual Laser-Glaive duels.
I have decided his species mostly practices gigantocracy: whoever is biggest gets to rule. Not a perfect system, but very good at supply logistics and famine avoidance.
"Perhapf sir would care to infpect our line of Deathshead blafters? Only the finest quality!"
"Flamerf, zapperf, plafma-bolterf, we got it. Throw in a laser free with every third purchase."
"We think thif one is from the future. I call it an Ontological Disruptor. Dunno HOW it works, but push thif button and the target vanishes from the physical univerfe for 6.3 secondf. The savvy tacticianf can immediately fee the poffibilitief."
"Or perhapf sir would like a more ELEGANT weapon, from a leff civilized age?"
"Clubf, maces, nooses, axes single or double, goads, prods, glaivef, fpears, throwable mambelef--oh, the Vault?"
"I see that sir is a discerning customer! Only the moft DEVAFTATING beam weaponf and mortarf to be found thif side of New Xibalba!"
"But don't juft take MY word for it! Liften to the teftimonialf of our satisfied customerf!"
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By Rigel
Sometimes happy accidents of design work out great! Wizkids/Nolzur's put out a two-pack of constructs recently, including this little Stone Defender. The box art has a lot of wooden components, but the overall shape is pure pulp robot, from the cycloptic lens to the bulbous lower legs to the weird backpack doohickeys. Looked a lot like a flashing strobe or siren light above some wind-up keys, and the tubes on its 'ankles' might be the same.
So here it is, a sentry-bot, on lone vigil at the spaceport.
and with some colleagues from Hydra's Robot Legion!
C&C welcome: I know there are a heck of a lot of mold lines and I feel the OSL could be better, especially on the red flasher.
Also featured: 72611, the Power Generator from CAV, and 72612, Small Storage Tank. Great sci-fi set dressing.
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By Rigel
The ritual has done its work. From a distance, an eerie light shines through the trees.
The ground quakes under the tread of colossal hooves.
There is a rushing wind, the sound of snapping branches.
An indescribable tune, notes in a strange scale and meter, music from beyond the stars, builds to a skirling crescendo.
HE is come. The PIPER IN THE WOODS is here.
Burning with potassium flame, attended by HIS servants.
Behold! The Horned Lord approaches!
Deception and concealment among HIS sacraments! The Masked Messenger, the False-Faced!
IA! IA!
The power of a God, called to earth! HIS votaries rejoice, even as they cower!
WHAT. HAVE. WE. BROUGHT. FORTH
(This is a Nolzur's Nightwalker, given a little bit mote pizazz than the all-black example. I knew immediately that with the bone-mask face and the horns, it was the perfect avatar for the cultists. GW contrasts and good setting sunlight on the translucent flames; a GW demon skull from their Skullz set manifested in the upraised hand.)
Featuring Dulkathar, Gromtar, Dark Creeper, a couple of Crooked Dice cultists, and Dark Young from RAFM and Reaper. (Reaper's 77516 is the big one in green).
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