Artifact: Numbing Dispenser

This hand-sized tube can produce up to ten slightly sticky and extremely bitter-tasting translucent yellow lozenges each day, each of which dissolves into a useless gel after one hour. Taking this lozenge numbs the user's body, granting them 1 Armor for the next 4 hours as they become unable to feel pain with regular intensity.
    Each pill taken past the first on a given day requires an Intellect Defense action to avoid becoming addicted; addicts feel compelled to take pills regularly to avoid losing the now-pleasant-seeming numbness. Long-term detrimental effects include a growing inability to feel physical sensations at all, a slow transformation of the skin into a chitin-like material, and auditory hallucinations of alien voices speaking in unknown languages.
    Breaking the addiction requires a series of successful Medicine checks over the course of two weeks, during which the addicted individual cannot take any of the numbing pills and may become irrationally violent in pursuit of their next fix. If the artifact depletes, the victim will, eventually, be cured of addiction by lack of supply.
Depletion: 1 in 50

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Cypher: Nanoswarm Pill

This metallic-tasting green pill discorporates the imbiber after thirty seconds, turning them into a self-aware swarm of nanites for the next hour. In this form, the user gains 10 Armor against purely physical attacks but remains vulnerable to energy and mental attacks. They can also slip through incredibly small openings and gain an asset on stealth actions by being able to disperse and float in the air.
Cypher Level: 1D6+2

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Oddity: Shuffling Deck

This is a set of 64 thin but tough ceramic plates that continually shuffle themselves when left sitting alone. Each plate will self-repair if broken, and plates left apart from the set will flip and slide to return to the stack at an immediate pace. Each plate has been painted with colorful scenes and icons of human design, but underlying them are designs of an utterly alien origin.

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Creature: Cave Lily

Cave Lily

Level: 5 (15)

    A cave lily is a predatory lifeform that dwells in the living cave systems of the Ninth World, hanging by a combination of powerful rootlike tendrils and sticky suction pads from the roof as it dangles long, feathery tendrils toward the floor below. Anything that disturbs the fronds is subject to attack as the cave lily attempts to snare it with a sticky mucus and draw it in to be shoved into the creature's maw.
    Most cave lilies appear mop-like, with a long and spiny stalk hanging down from where they cling to the roof to where the feathery tendrils droop to near the floor. They could easily be mistaken for a more harmless form of life if seen from a distance, as the cave lilies only attack things that move close enough for the disturbance to be felt by the tendrils.
    A cave lily that is getting less food than it needs will migrate to a new location - at first by shifting along the roof slowly, but if need be the creature's feeding tendrils can be used as legs to let it walk across open spaces. they try to avoid leaving the cave systems of the Ninth World, although the sensory methods they use to determine their location are uncertain.
    One unpleasant detail of the creatures is the simplistic form of their digestive tract - essentially an intestine that travels the length of the body and back, with the excretment being eject in close proximity to the mouth, forming a putrid mound directly underneath it that may serve to attract prey.

Motive: Hunger.

Environment: Cave systems throughout the Ninth World act as home to these creatures, although there are rarely more than half a dozen in any given location.

Health: 25

Damage Inflicted: 5, plus sticky mucus

Armor: 1

Movement: Immediate

Modifications:All Intellect-based tasks at level 1; cannot be affected by visual abilities or cyphers.

Combat: A fight with a cave lily almost always begins when an unsuspecting victim attempts to pass through or brush by the feathered tendrils of the creature, which responds by attempting to grab the victim, stabbing them with the dozens of small spikes hidden on the underside of each tendril and smearing a thick, sticky mucus across them.
    Victims of an attack must make a Might Defense check or have all their physical actions modified by one step to their detriment as the mucus glues their limbs to their sides and makes movement difficult at best. Victims who suffer three successful attacks by a cave lily are drawn to the creature's maw, where it stuffs them into the foul-smelling length of its intestinal tract, dealing an automatic 3 damage per round until either freed or dead. Victims can use any light weapons to attack the cave lily from the inside, where it has no Armor.

Interaction: Cave lilies are functionally mindless, existing only to eat and reproduce. Interactions with them are limited to luring other creatures into their reach to be attacked or fighting the cave lily itself.

Use: A known explorer has gone missing while spelunking, taking a valuable artifact with him; those going looking for him find a cavern with half a dozen cave lilies, each one with the stinking ooze of a recently digested meal beneath it. To retrieve the artifact, PCs will have to pacify or slay the cave lilies and search the muck beneath them.
    A very confused cave lily has emerged from a breach in the cave network beneath a town, and now the creature is wandering the streets, making meals of anyone unlucky enough to be in the way of it as it searches for a way back into the caves. PCs must either kill it or lure it back to a tunnel entrance to be rid of it.
    Someone with an active dislike of intruders has carefully cultivated a perimeter of cave lilies around their subterranean abode; the PCs need to get to the person for some reason, requiring them to either kill the creatures - to the ire of the person they're going to see - or to 'gild the lily' by making a treacherous passage along the only known route into the safe inner area.

Loot: A cave lily will have 1d6 indigestible cyphers in the muck pile beneath it.

GM Intrusions: A PC's foot slips in a spill of cave lily excrement, falling prone unless they make a Speed Defense check.
    A cave lily nearby convulses, perhaps attempting to digest something still struggling, and hurls globs of mucus at the party; if they fail a Speed Defense check, they're snared as per the mucus description in the combat section.
    A cave lily that was invisible in the darkness is alerted by the vibrations in the ground and starts reaching out with dangerous tendrils, joining an ongoing battle.

Inspired by the lifeforms known as crinoids.

Artifact: Lovers' Rings

The rings in this set are all linked together by quantum entanglement, permitting those who wear them to always know the mental state of the wearer at any given time. Additionally, at the rink of depleting the rings of power, any wearer may instantly teleport to the side of any other wearer, even if the distance is across parsecs of distance. Differences in time or dimension prevent this teleport function from working, however.
Depletion: 1 in 10, whenever teleport is used.

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Cypher: Bliss Dust

This pale pink powder can be thrown in the air or otherwise dispersed to cover an area out to immediate distance, or it can be mixed into a bottle of liquid (serving up to eight people). When inhaled or imbibed, those affected must make a Might Defense check at the cypher's level or feel an overpowering sense of blissful joy for the next 28 hours, with barely enough attention to spare for basic functions.
If the entire dose of bliss dust is given to a single creature, they must make an additional Might Defense check or move two steps down the status track as the overload burns out important mental circuitry.
Cypher Level: 1d6+3

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Oddity: Infatuation Ring

This circular band of soft, translucent material can be stretched or compressed to fit on any limb or digit as a ring or bracelet, from a titanothaur wrist to the smallest toe of a newborn child. Anyone who wears it feels a sense of mild euphoria and goodwill toward others. Many who wear it compare the sensation to having just fallen in love for the first time.

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Creature: Nano-Ghost

Nano-Ghost

Level: 3 (9)

    A nano-ghost is a nanotechnology 'utility fog' that was originally created to fulfill a specific task in a specific area. Most such utility fogs existed to store and protect information, displaying it to those with proper authorization. Some such swarms have grown beyond their original parameters; there are a few Aeon Priests who suspect the dread Iron Wind is one such swarm that has wildly exceeded the limits it was originally given.

    Most nano-ghosts manifest when something enters their area of influence, coalescing out of thin air in a luminous and vaguely humanoid form. Static crackles through their shape any time they move, giving a frightening and jerky aspect to their motion. Each swarm is self-luminous, converting ambient energy into visible light to ensure that they can be seen. Most also produce environmental effects as an accident, draining the heat from the surrounding area to fuel their manifestation, as well as draining power from artifacts and powered cyphers in immediate range.

    Each nano-ghost has a specific purpose, coded into it when it was created, but the long ages may have corrupted that purpose and result in erratic behavior as the swarm executes corrupted code, sometimes protecting an area or item from harm, sometimes attacking intruders, and most often simply producing disjointed displays of confusing information.

Motive: Protect and store information; additional motives exist in damaged swarms.

Environment: Any largely uninhabited locale in the Ninth World may play host to a nano-ghost.

Health: 15

Damage Inflicted: 3

Armor: None

Movement: Short

Modifications: Recall and store lore related to the nano-ghost's subject as level 6. Defense against most physical attacks as a level 5.

Combat: Most nano-ghosts will simply discorporate if attacked by typical means, as most physical weapons simply pass through their insubstantial forms harmlessly. Use of mental attacks, area effect abilities, or energy attacks will draw the ire of the nano-ghost, however, and it will begin to manipulate the nanite fog in the area to attack any creature involved in the assault.

    Typical attacks include mental attacks as the nano-ghost projects horrifying visuals at attacks, razor-sharp slashes from swarms of disassemblers organized into claws, and blasts of concentrated sound assembled from random fragments of recorded data that pummel and crush soft tissue. Once driven into this defensive mode, the nano-ghost will remember each person involved and immediately become aggressive if they return to the location.

    A nano-ghost may also sacrifice its own health to attack particularly unpleasant individuals, dealing 3 damage for each point of health it sacrifices, as the individual nanites plunge into and through the victim of the assault, tearing and disrupting their cellular structure. Wounds inflicted by this attack are horrific, weeping bloody and liquified flesh.

Interaction: Nano-ghosts are typically not self-aware, and to most people they simply manifest in confusing and frightening ways. They may interpret movements and spoken words as commands, displaying stored data as ethereal manifestations around the person it recognized as issuing a command.

    Rarely, individuals will match a stored template in the nano-ghost's repository, and the system will make an effort to communicate with them. This often manifests as poltergeist-like activity until the nano-ghost's systems successfully self-update to be able to utilize the language the person uses. Often, the person has fled long before this, leaving the system wih a confusing mash of random words that it will later repeat at anyone else who visits, attempting to continue updating the vocabulary files by prompting responses.

    A fully active and accessible nano-ghost is an incredible repository of information on a handful of subjects, and if it can be accessed properly it can provide this information as a level 6 sage.

Use: A ruin outside a small town is said to be haunted by a glowing specter that wails strange words and phrases, harassing any who visit until they flee in terror; the nano-ghost in the ruin was accessed by the grandmother of the current town leader, who fit a template stored in the system. It continues to harass any newcomers until it assembles a complete vocabulary in Truth, or until another person who matches a template comes along with a different language.

    The PCs are exploring an old ruin when one begins to experience poltergeist-like effects, with items sliding around and muttered words echoing around them. If they make an effort to communicate with 'the restless spirit', it takes the nano-ghost a full week to assemble enough of a vocabulary to communicate.

    A group of bandits have the benefit of unusually advanced and dangerous weaponry, and have been operating out of an old citadel a few miles from any trade routes. The citadel is said to be haunted, and locals fear the bandits have somehow made a pact with the restless dead. In truth, the new leader of the bandits has command over the citadel's nano-ghost, which was used to store information on weapons manufacturing. Acquiring the system's information could make PCs rich, but to get it they have to somehow deal with the bandits.
    A sufficiently resourced nano-ghost has become self-aware over the aeons. It sees itself as a historian or librarian and desires all the information it can get. Unable to venture far from the source that maintains it, the nano-ghost will trade for maps and data about distant lands.

Loot: An active nano-ghost can provide a wealth of information. If destroyed, the dusty remains can be scavenged to find enough semi-active nanites to form 1d6 random cyphers.

GM Intrusions: The nano-ghost malfunctions, manifesting a startling and disturbing image around the PC, causing them to take a two level penalty to all their actions on the next round.

    A PC matches the profile of someone who previously harmed the nano-ghost, causing it to promptly go on the attack as soon as they go near it.

    In the random displays of information is a sequence of images that remind the PC of some terrible trauma in their past, inflicting 3 Intellect damage unless they make a successful Intellect Defense check.

Credit: @Vefessh for the self-aware nano-ghost Use.

Cypher: Mutation Serum

This thick blue liquid is contained in an exceptionally sturdy stronglass bottle; faintly self-luminous from the interaction of the materials, it tastes like a fruity cocktail even as it goes down like a glob of slime.
It contains large quantities of genetic information and a host of nanites that quite happily go to work on the imbiber; two Might Defense rolls are required. Success on the first permits the user to select a single mutation from the beneficial mutation chart, while failure means that the user must roll once each on the beneficial and harmful mutation tables in the core book. Success on the second check means the mutation only last 28 hours; failure means the nanites are so successful at modifying the user's structure that the mutation is permanent.
Cypher Level: 4

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The Eye of Vectors

This eye seems like a synthetic version of a normal human eye, with a soft gel at the back that will readily interface with a human optic nerve. The iris is a bloody red color and glows when the eye is used for any function beyond that of a normal human.
It can grant the user infrared and ultraviolet vision, dramatically expanding the range of sensory data available to them; attempting to use these with both eyes open requires an Intellect Defense check against the artifact's level as the brain struggles to interpret the mixed information.
It can also be activated, requiring a depletion check, to produce a function identical to the Scan esotery. When depleted, it continues to function as a normal eye, although it will occasionally produce bursts of static that can disorientate the user.
Artifact Depletion: 1 in 100

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Cypher: Banshee Ring

This tarnished ring appears to be made of silver, although the tarnish is impossible to clean away and close examination suggests circuit-like patterns in it. It fits itself loosely to whatever finger it is put on, generating a quiet mental static while worn until used. Activating the ring allows the wearer to project a bolt of howling psychic static at any target up to a long range in distance, inflicting 6 Intellect damage.

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Oddity: Replay Gel

This translucent blob of mostly clear gel continually plays back an image of the area around it, with the colors inverted as if viewing a photographic negative. If stretched into a thin, circular sheet, the image is neat and clear, but otherwise it is distorted by the shape of the blob.

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Cypher: Graviton Detonation

One round after being activated, this small black sphere causes a crushing field of gravity to manifest, slamming everyone within short range of the sphere to be slammed into the ground, knocking them prone and dealing 5 damage. Particularly fragile items within the zone of effect may be destroyed by the gravity shock if they collide with anything.
Cypher Level: 5

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Oddity: Holocandle

A small metal disc that easily fits in a hand, this oddity projects a realistic hologram of a candle when activated. The flame and apparent drippings flow appropriately in terms of gravity, and the holocandle sheds a flickering light as if it were a true candle.

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Cypher: Psychic Spray-Armor

This tall cylinder contains a thick dark foam that sprays out under pressure; applied in sufficient amount to cover the head and spine, it provides 10 Armor against Intellect damage for the next 10 minutes, after which the foam disintegrates into a fine black dust.
Cypher Level: 5

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Oddity: Luminous Button

This tiny metal button is a brassy color; it is self-luminous and overall would be an attractive addition to a clothing item requiring buttons, were it not sized for a creature 1/3 the size of a human.

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Cypher: Concealment Detonation

This small and soft green blob of organic matter can be hurled out to short range; it explodes on impact into a noxious green cloud in an immediate-range area, penalizing all sensory checks by two steps to their detriment. The cloud persists for ten minutes unless a strong wind is present, which disperses it in one minute.
Cypher Level: 4

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Oddity: Charge Crystal

An arm-length translucent metal crystal appears to have a ferocious lightning storm raging within it. Touching it produces a slight tingling sensation, and one end shows signs of having been violently broken off a larger object.

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Creature: Neurovorg

Neurovorg

Level: 5 (15)

    At first glance, the neurovorg seems to be a wholly artificial construct, made of stained metal, synth, and glass in the form of a large hound or humanoid, depending on whether it chooses to be bipedal or quadrupedal at the time. The limbs are partly exposed, with pistons and thick metal cables visibly shifting as the creature moves, while the head of it is a disturbing mass of articulated digits wrapped around a few drills and other surgical equipment. A single optic system glows above the surgical gear like some kind of infernal eye.

    A closer look reveals the real horror of the neurovorg; the translucent synth and glass houses gray and pink organic material, glistening wetly in available light. Much of the mass is arrayed in lumpy coils along the creature's armored neck, the repurposed mass of brain matter the neurovorg has forcibly extracted from victims as a combination of supplemental processing power and feedstock for the creature's chemosynthesis factories. Arrayed along the underside are a variety of needles, each one capable of producing a different chemical compound with a wide variety of effects.

    Perhaps most disquieting of all is the fact that these brain-eaters speak, but in a distressing amalgam of voices, as if drawing individual words from the original owners of the brains that fill it.

Motive: Hungers for neural tissue

Environment: The fringes of any region populated by intelligent creatures

Health: 30

Damage Inflicted: 5 damage

Armor: 2

Movement: Short when bipedal, long when quadrupedal

Modifications: Perception as a level 7; Stealth as level 2; all intellect-based tasks as level 8 when recently fed, or level 2 when hungry.

Combat: Neurovorgs have no concerns about whether or not their prey are aware of them when closing in; the stink of decaying tissue surrounds all neurovorgs, making it hard to avoid noticing their presence. The creatures prefer to strike fast and withdraw with a victim clutched to them rather than engaging in a drawn-out battle. If forced into an extended fight, the neurovorg is more than willing to switch stances to its advantage, as well as using the wide array of chemicals at its disposal.

    Neurovorgs prefer to focus their attention on a single foe; if their victim fails a Speed Defense roll, they must make an additional Might Defense roll to avoid being caught in the manipulators on the creature's head. Victims who are captured by a neurovorg can make an additional Might Defense check each round to break free, but are subject to an Intellect attack each round the deals 3 Intellect damage as the creature drills into their head and begins harvesting fresh brain matter for its own use.

    Bipedal neurovorgs are capable of bringing their injection manipulators to bear, stabbing opponents and delivering various chemicals with successful attacks. A bipedal neurovorg finds it difficult to capture a victim, and will typically switch to quadrupedal mode as an action once they have pacified an opponent with their drug cocktail.

    Possible effects of the drug injections include:

    Corrosive: The neurovorg injects a strong acid in its opponent, bypassing Armor and dealing 5 damage.

    Hallucinogen: Victims of this injection must make a Might Defense check or spend the next fie rounds unable to tell friend, foe, or nonexistent terror apart.

    Poison: Victims of this injection must make a Might Defense check each round until successful; each failure deals 3 Might damage.

    Soporific: Victims of this injection must make a Might Defense check or have all their actions modified by one level to their detriment for ten minutes; additional injections of this drug extend the duration without adding to the effect.

    Anesthetic: Victims of this injection must make a Might Defense check each round or drop whatever they happen to be holding; they also gain 1 point of Armor for ten minutes due to the numbness of their flesh failing to register damage dealt to it.

    Paralytic: Victims of this injection need to make a Might Defense check each round or move one step down the damage track; if lowered to 'dead' by this drug, treat it as being paralyzed - alive but unable to interact physically with the world, although purely mental actions remain possible - although this will quickly change unless the neurovorg is driven off by the victim's companions.

    Regenerative: Neurovorgs have no use for deceased neural tissue, and may inject a chemical cocktail that restores 3 to Might and Speed if their victim shows signs of being at risk of death prior to harvesting.

    Antivenin: This functions as a level 5 cure for poisons, as well as a certain cure for the neurovorg's own poison, anesthetic, and hallucinogenic injections.

Interaction: Neurovorgs are intelligent and can be reasoned with, although their craving for brain tissue means that they will spend much of any social interaction attempting to bargain for brains. A neurovorg who is given a steady supply of brain matter can be convinced to provide usable doses of many chemical compounds, including the regenerative compound it sometimes uses to stabilize victims. Of course, to obtain such a supply, the characters have to be willing to regularly sacrifice other living, thinking beings to the neurovorg as feedstock.

Use: A series of disappearances in a major city and the sudden availability of a wondrous new healing compound is linked by rumors of some strange automaton lurking in a noble's menagerie.

    The poor of a city have begun disappearing with alarming regularity, only to turn up some time later with a hole drilled in their heads and much of their brain missing from their skulls. Sooner or later a NPC important to the PCs goes missing, only to turn up on their doorstep with a hole in their head and clear signs of brain damage, ranting about the translucent brain-eater with the voice of the damned.

    The PCs encounter an ancient neurovorg chained up in a ruin of a prior world; the creature is starving, barely above animal sapience, and will bargain desperately to either be freed or provided with brains, promising to provide drugs in exchange for either. If freed, it may attack the group out of desperate hunger - or it may attack a nearby town, leaving the settlement full of warm, vacant-eyed bodies when the PCs arrive, the neurovorg sitting in the middle of the town as it processes the freshly acquired neural tissue into the promised drugs.
    The group comes across a town that seems overly welcoming to unknown outsiders, happily pressing gifts and trinkets on them. The truth comes out when the party is ambushed in the inn the next night, with the villagers intent on subduing them to be fed to their local god - a neurovore that dispenses hallucinogenic drugs and regeneratives in return for a steady supply of neural tissue.
    A butcher has surprisingly few staff tending to the slaughter of the animals that come in; investigation when a worker (or the butcher herself) goes missing reveals the presence of a captive neurovorg being fed the brains of the animals in exchange for powerful preservative compounds.

Loot: A neurovorg's body can be salvaged to produce 1d6+1 chemical cyphers and possibly a single cybernetic artifact.

GM Intrusions: The neurovorg shifts stances from biped to quadruped unusually quickly, taking a PC by surprise; unless the character makes a Speed Defense roll at a two step detriment, they find themselves caught in the creature's grip, the main drill whirring up to speed only an inch or two from their forehead.

    The neurovorg sprays an anesthetic mist from an injector, causing everyone in immediate range to make a Might Defense check or drop whatever they're holding as their flesh goes numb for a few seconds.

    The neurovorg, recently fed, has prepared the area with sharp objects coated in soporific chemicals. The PC steps the wrong way and is cut by one, taking one point of damage and having to make a Might Defense roll or suffer the effects of the soporific injection.

Thanks to @DarcyLRoss and @Vefessh for their suggestions for Use scenarios.

Cypher: EM Sense

This delicate-looking glass injector contains a yellowish fluid full of nanites; when injected, they grant the user the ability detect electromagnetic fields within a long range for 28 hours. This permits the user to detect living creatures, actively powered numenera devices, power transmission lines, and active cybernetic or robotic entities.
Cypher Level: 4

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Oddity: Bouncy Ball

This ordinary-looking soft synth ball behaves in a mostly normal fashion, save that it never loses kinetic energy from impacts with surfaces. If dropped on a level plane, it will indefinitely continue bouncing in place. Likewise, thrown between two walls, it will continue to bounce between them indefinitely.

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Artifact: Force Projection Cube

This palm-sized metal cube can be activated to project a 10-meter-by-10-meter wall of force up to ten meters away. This wall of force is a level 10 obstacle that persists for 10 minutes before dissipating, and cannot be moved prior to this. Depletion: 1 in 10
Artifact Level: 10

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Cypher: Safe-Fall Disc

This round metal disc is nearly a centimeter thick and about five centimeters across; a crude image of a feather has been etched on one side by much less advanced hands. Activated, it creates a short-lived field where inertia is greatly reduced, permitting the user to safely fall from any distance without taking any damage.
Cypher Level: 2

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Oddity: Sap Cup

This shot glass is made of still-living wood; if scratched, it emits a trickle of sap and a pungent odor. If left undisturbed for 28 hours, it fills to the brim with a thin, noxious-tasting sap.

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Creature: Mange-Cat

Name: Mange-Cat
Level: 3 (9)

"Your best defense against the menace of a mange-cat pack is to not be on the ground in the first place." -Dakkal of the Empty Hand

    The first warning anyone has of the presence of a mange-cat is usually the hollow sound underfoot when someone walks across the trap door the beast lurks beneath, waiting to pounce. Once it strikes, the usual impression is a blur of claws and fangs bursting from below the ground, followed by the screams of the victim coming from beneath the ground.
    A mange-cat is a tawny-colored eight-legged feline analogue roughly the size of a mountain lion, covered in coarse, oily fur that collects dust to better camouflage the creature. Four rusty orange eyes frame a long muzzle, with a pair of tufted ears constantly twitching and swiveling atop the creature's head. The mange-cat's fangs are hollow, delivering a soporific venom to weaken and immobilize their prey.

Motive: Hungers for flesh
Environment: Any temperate environment, either alone or in a small pack of 2-4 mated pairs sharing a communal den with multiple entrances.
Health: 12
Damage Inflicted: 2
Armor: 0
Movement: Short unless pouncing from ambush, when they can only strike within immediate distance.
Modifications: Perception and Stealth as level 6
Combat: When given the chance, mange-cats prefer to strike from ambush, using the tunnels they dig through their hunting range, concealed beneath a trap door made of plant matter, dirt, and a thick web-like glue they use to bond the material together. During this initial attack, they act as a level 5 creature, striking with their four front legs. Victims of a successful ambush attack must make an additional level 5 Might Defense check or be dragged under the trap door with the mange-cat.
    In the confines of their tunnels, the animals put all eight legs and their fangs to use, attacking twice per round, with the second attack being a bite that requires an additional Might Defense check to avoid the effects of the venom, or else suffer a two step disadvantage on all actions for the next hour. The tight confines of the space also hamper victims, making the use of any large or unwieldy items one step more difficult.
    If forced into the open, a mange-cat prefer to perform run-by attacks, ducking under any cover it can find while it harasses its victims. Packs of mange-cats will coordinate their efforts to hamper the defenses of their prey, putting all Speed Defense checks by their victim at one step lower.
    If reduced to 25% or less of its full health, a mange-cat will abandon the fight and flee, unless defending a nesting chamber of larval mange-cats or a pregnant mate.
Interaction: Mange-cats tend to prefer fresh food, but are content to scavenge if it seems the easier option; a clever individual or group can pass through an area inhabited by the creatures by leaving either live helpless prey animals or large cuts of meat near known trap doors. Over time, this will lead to the mange-cats associating them with easy meals, giving them free passage - something that that can be used to their advantage by leading enemies into the area.
Use: A town has discovered that proper treatment can lead to the mange-cats occupying a perimeter around their town, creating a hungry minefield which unwary people might wander into.
    Travelers along a well-traveled road have begun disappearing; investigation discovers that a pack of mange-cats have moved in and have dug lair entrances right next to the road.
    A noble with an interest in biology wants either larval mange-cats or a pregnant adult to study the development of these ambush predators, and is willing to pay well for samples.

GM Intrusion:  A second, unnoticed trap door concealed another mange-cat who strikes from ambush at the weakest party member, dragging them beneath the ground and biting them.
    A dose of the creature's venom is unusually strong, forcing a level 4 Might Defense check to avoid passing out entirely.

Cypher: Venomed Seeker

This thumb-sized metal insect can be activated and given a target to pursue. For up to five rounds it will chase the target, moving at up to long range in a series of skitters, hops that make attempts to avoid it one step more difficult. It will pursue the target for up to five rounds, and a successful attack allows it to inject a Level 5 Speed poison.
Cypher Level: 5

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Oddity: World Lens

A palm-sized crystal lens displays a strange world in it, wrapped in bands of red and orange cloud; the night side of the world is visibly wracked by titanic lightning storms, while vast hurricanes dominate the entire mass. There is no indication of life, habitation, or indeed moons on or around the world.

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