Artifact/TelgarSphereGuardian

Alabaster Sphere Guardian (level ?? Artifact)

• by Telgar
• back to Artifacts/Telgar

Originally designed as peacekeepers and protectors in cities and important First Age establishments such as libraries and museums, Alabaster Sphere Guardians were common law enforcers during the First Age. Numerous cities and settlements contain the ruined hulks of their vast white bodies. They default to the shape of great spheres of purest white, six feet in diameter. The Guardians can roll themselves across any solid surface at tremendous speed and with very little sound unless they are in terrible disrepair. They are able to roll up walls or columns, even those not actually able to support their weight. They can pause, clinging to surfaces without moving or even hurl themselves off the surface they are rolling upon to throw themselves at a target.

Sphere Guardians are able to affect enough repairs on themselves via internal tools and self-repair enchantments that they do not actually require anyone to keep themselves active though if they suffer extensive damage they do have difficulty repairing themselves without access to spare parts and materials.

Generally Sphere Guardians are assigned to protect and police a city, settlement or even a specific building. Such Guardians are given instructions at the time of their creation or assignment and carry these out unfailingly, with blind obedience. In rare cases, however, they were created to be the personal guards or servants of specific Exalted who can command them verbally. Reprogramming a Sphere Guardian is a difficult task that involves first disabling the Guardian, opening a hidden access panel to its innards and reworking many of its internal processes.

Guardians are fully intelligent, able to understand and interprit complicated orders and memorize vast amounts of legal or cultural information to enforce proper behaviour or act as proper guardians. They do, however, lack much in the way of initiative and drive. They are totally unoriginal, completely direct and unable to think outside the box at all. They are devoted to their orders and will under no circumstances deviate from them in the slightest. Sphere Guardians speak Old Realm and are both unable and uninterested in learning new languages.

When faced with those who are in violation of the rules they have been instructed to uphold, Sphere Guardians will relentlessly persue them and attempt to subdue them non-fatally unless they encounter resistence too heavy to overcome by non-fatal means. If they are able to subdue their targets then the Spheres generally report to whatever authority rules over them that they have done so and stand by their targets, awaiting further instruction or removal of the troublemakers.

Sphere Guardian Stats

Attributes
Physical: Strength 5, Dexterity 10, Stamina 8
Social: Charisma 0, Manipulation 0, Appearance 3
Mental: Perception 5, Intelligence 3, Wits 5

Abilities
Brawl 4 (Trample 3), Endurance 3, Resistance 3, Crafts 2 (Repair 1), Melee 5 (Self-Defense 3), Dodge 5, Athletics 5, Bureaucracy 2 (Law 1), Larceny 2 (Theft Prevention 1), Survival 1 (Tracking +2)

Advantages
Virtues: *Artifact, never fails Valor rolls, never succeeds on anything else.
Essence 2
Willpower: 10

Health: -0, -0, -0, -0, -0, -0, -0, -0, -0, -0, Incap
Armor and Soak: Armored Metal-Ceramic Shell
Lethal: 25 (5 armor)
Bashing: 25 (5 armor)
Hardness: 20

Attacks
Trample: Speed 18, Accuracy 20, Damage 15B, Defense 0, Rate 2
Dodge Pool: 15

Sphere Guardian Powers

• Perfect Balance - Sphere Guardians are unable to lose their balance, no matter what. They call roll in any direction, even up walls and across ceilings. They never fall from whatever they choose to roll across and they can be supported by as little as a tree branch, despite their great size and weight.
• Defensive Plates - When attacked a Sphere Guardian can manifest midnight black plates of armor that rise from its surface to smash themselves against incoming blows, creating a reflexive parry. These parries do not require the Sphere to split its action, but they suffer a -1 penalty for each previous use of the power in a turn.
• Restraining Ooze - When in physical contact with a target Spheres can excrete a sticky, viscous ooze that hardens quickly in air or water. The ooze entraps and slows those covered in it, forcing the victim to roll his Strength + Athletics against a difficulty of 4 every turn. It requires 6 accumulated successes to fully remove the goo. Until it is removed, the ooze applies a -1 penalty, doubling every turn that it remains in place until it has fully immobilized its victim or is removed.
• Shriking - In order to fit through doors and down narrow streets, Sphere Guardians are able to shrink down to a diameter of two feet. They can shrink or expand to any size between 2 and 6 feet in radius as a reflexive action.

Comments

What if they try to expand in a restricted space? Does this exert their Strength score, or more than that, against the restraints? - IanPrice

I suppose they would roll their Strength+Athletics or Brawl or however normally escaping from restraint is resolved. It's the same thing, basically. - Telgar