Adipose Ninja
Construct
Corporeal Forces: 3 Strength:
2 Agility: 10
Ethereal Forces: As per Ghost
Celestial Forces: As per Ghost
Vessel/6, Toughness 2
Skills: Climbing/6, Dodge/3, Move Silently/3,
plus whatever skills the Ghost retains
Songs: As per the Ghost
Attunements: As per the Ghost
Operating Principles:
1). Obey the Master.
2). Obey the Rider (i.e., the Ghost).
3). Where 1) and 2) differ, go with 1).
The above is only a beginning Adipose Ninja. More experienced versions will have Fighting
at a reasonable level and movement skills at high ones.
Well, this is what one might call a specialty item.
To begin with, the composition is especially
baroque: it's essentially made out of human fat. About 150 or so pounds of it, in fact; well,
there's a bit of essential salts, eye of newt and powdered ice tea mixed in,
but it's mostly fat. This tends to
bother people - which is an improvement over the
pre-liposuction days, when it used to bother, frighten and enrage people. For that matter, the receptacle in which the
fat is prepared and mixed is also bothersome, probably because it looks exactly
like a life-sized, human jello mold.
The other major complication is that Adipose Ninja
are incapable of independent action on their own; in fact, they are more or
less designed these days to use a Ghost as their controlling mechanism. To operate, the Ghost must have its focus
physically installed in the construct.
As a practical matter, a focus that weighs more than a pound will not be
suitable for installation, as anything heavier will tend to rip through the
construct's 'body'. Once installed, the
Ghost will need a day at -2 to all rolls in order to get used to having a body
again. This includes Intelligence rolls,
as the switch back to a corporal body can be confusing.
There are advantages and disadvantages to the new
body. First off, Adipose Ninja have all
the advantages and disadvantages of constructs made out of flesh, including
dietary needs and healing. In addition, Adipose
Ninja (having no vital organs or blood vessels) are remarkably resistant to
damage. In addition to the Toughness
noted above, damage from all non-flame attacks is cut in half (rounded
down). Also, an Adipose Ninja can
stretch an arm or leg out by about two feet; attacks by extended extremities
are at -2 to Strength, but the extra flexibility means that their Climbing
default is at -0. Finally, as Adipose
Ninja are designed to be non-sentient, the attachment process also allows the
Ghost access to the construct's Essence repository. In fact, an Adipose Ninja can also be made
into a reliquary, at -1 to skill.
On the other hand, Adipose Ninja are decidedly not
immune to flame-based attacks (x3 damage, Toughness does not protect). Their 'natural' state is fairly disturbing (-4
reaction); think 'pink-white shoggoth'. While they can maintain a roughly humanoid
form and even speak (via careful manipulation of air over improvised vocal
cords), this requires a successful Disguise roll, and only reduces the reaction
penalty to -2. There are also dietary
issues; Adipose Ninja must consume ten pounds of human fat (and about a gallon
of water) each week to stay stable.
Again, the existence of liposuction clinics makes this restriction
merely distasteful, not depraved - but it is still a problem. Finally, destroying the construct utterly
will also shatter the Ghost's focus.
Adipose Ninja have a rather bad reputation among the
Host, mostly because up to a few decades ago there were no really 'good' - in
both senses of the word - ways to make them in bulk. That no longer being the case, certain, ah,
'independent agencies cooperating with the Host' have, ah, 'reverse-engineered'
the techniques for Heavenly use. Hell
just snickers at the circumlocutions and takes advantage of the new sources;
after all, no sense in committing atrocities if you don't have to. Unless you want to - or you're just bored,
come to think of it. Still, playtime is
playtime and business is business.
Note: The goal for the next generation of Adipose
Ninja is to create constructs that can more effectively pass for human - or
even pass for a particular human. As it
stands, however, this is beyond the current state of the art.