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.