Mozck Automaton

Mozck Automatons are machines possessed and mutated by the entity known as Mozck.

Background

Any time an instantiation of Mozck infiltrates and successfully overwrites a machine, the resulting entity ends up with many similar traits, despite the initial differences in both the shape and conformation between hacked machines. Likewise, a Mozck automaton's shape alters over time so that it will resemble a nightmare machine version of a scorpion, a starfish, or something else that doesn't normally come into the light.

Abilities and Traits

Motive:

Inscrutable

Environment:

Almost anywhere within the grasp of Earth or among the sun's other children

Health:

20

Damage Inflicted:

5 points

Armor:

3

Movement:

Short

Modifications:

Tasks related to understanding and manipulating the numenera as level 10; detecting falsehoods as level 7.

Combat:

A Mozck automaton makes physical attacks with either a bladed wing, pincer, tentacle tip, or some other implement related to its form. However, a mature Mozck automaton (one that's fully transformed, which can take a few days) usually relies on psychic attacks that disrupt the thought processes of organic and machine intelligences. A target within long range must make an Intellect defense roll; on a failure, it takes 5 points of Intellect damage, and the difficulty of its actions is increased by one step while it remains within long range of the Mozck automaton.

A target that's defeated by a Mozck automaton might be killed, though some are known to survive. Those that do, however, are infected with a nanoscopic parasite that slowly begins to change their flesh in random and usually horrible ways.

Most Mozck automatons will regain their health at a rate of one point per hour, when when they're at zero health. The only way to eliminate this ability is to destroy the automaton entirely.

Interaction:

If a Mozck automaton communicates at all, it usually will do so through broken psychic images that tend to make humans nauseous and rarely offer any real chance of negotiation.

Use:

These compromised machines can be found in many ruined installations floating throughout the void.

Loot:

An inactive (but slowly regenerating) carcass of a defeated Mozck automaton can be salvaged for 2d6 shins and 1d6 cyphers.

Miscellaneous

More powerful instantiations of Mozck likely exist, running the gamut all the way up to a level 10 nanoswarm creature of ever-shifting shape and abilities

Some otolins theorize that Mozck automatons stem from a single self-evolved otolin.