The need for more dragon's blood.
After the initial conver
sion, blood from another dragon must be provided every six
months. This typically costs another 1 0,000-40,000 credits. Sol
diers for the Federation of Magic are provided the additional
fluid free of charge as long as they serve them faithfully.
Dragon's Blood withdrawal
is a debilitating and painful ex
perience. If the Juicer can't get a new supply every six months,
his M.D.C. and all combat bonuses drop by half, he loses two
melee attacks/actions, and is racked by terrible bouts of stomach
cramps and fever I D4 times a day (each bout lasts 2D6 minutes;
-6 on initiative and loses one more attack per melee round for
the duration of the pain). Unless the character can get more
dragon ' s blood within the next six months, he will die ! Most of
the time, Dragon Juicers never get the chance - as soon as
word gets around that somebody is gunning after ancient drag
ons, one or more of these powerful beasts will take action.
Insanity.
The typical Dragon Juicer has nightmares about
dragons I D4 times a week for the rest of his life. Sometimes the
dreams are that the Juicer is a dragon himself (these can be good
or bad), that body-chop-shops are after him and/or drain him of
his blood, that he is hated and stalked by a dragon, and so on.
After two years, roll on the following insanity table:
0 1 -30 Paranoia and phobia: dragons. Afraid that dragons are
out to get him (perhaps for good reason).
3 1 -60 Obsessed with fighting (and killing?) dragons and
other supernatural beings.
6 1 -90 Delusional. Thinks he or she is a dragon! Roll on the
Juicer Psychosis table for the character' s general disposition and
outlook on life (roll again if either phobia is rolled).
9 1 -00 Dragon vampire ! The character drinks the untreated
blood of slain dragons whenever he can. Strangely enough, this
keeps him alive and prevents him from having to find an alche
mist every six months to get more treated blood-based chemi
cals. It also adds another I D6 months to his life. This may have
something to do with the Juicer's large P.P.E. base and some la
tent magical property of the blood. Dragon vampires are usually
quite mad (roll once on the neurosis table and once on the obses
sion table in the Rifts® RPG).
10. Dragon Vulnerabilities:
Any weapon, magical attack or
power that does extra damage to dragons will affect the Dragon
Blood Drinker in the same fashion.
O.C.c. Skills:
Radio: B asic (+5%)
Wilderness Survival (+5%)
Land Navigation (+5%)
Piloting (one of choice; + 1 0%)
Demon and monster lore (+ 1 0%)
Language (two of choice; + 1 0%)
W.P. Energy Rifle
W.P. (two of choice)
Hand to Hand: Expert
Hand to Hand: Expert can be changed to Martial Arts (or As
sassin, if evil) at the cost of one "other" skill.
O.C.C. Related Skills:
Select five other skills. Plus select two
additional skills at level three and one at levels six, nine, and
twelve. All new skills start at level one proficiency.
Communications: Any
Domestic: Any
Electrical: None
49
Espionage: Intelligence, escape artist, detect ambush and de
tect concealment only (+5%).
Mechanical: None
Medical: None
Military: Any
Physical: Any (+5 % where applicable)
Pilot: Any
Pilot Related: Any
Rogue: Any (+5 % to Prowl)
Science: Basic Math only.
Technical: Any
W.P. : Any
Wilderness: Any (+5%)
Secondary Skills :
The character also gets to select four Sec
ondary Ski lls from the Secondary Skills list in
Rifts® Ulti
m ate E d itio n ,
page 300. These are additional areas of
know ledge that do not get the benefit of the bonuses listed
in parentheses. A l l Secondary Skills start at the base skill
leve l .
Standard Equipment:
Techno-wizard bio-comp, bio-data and
bio-feedback implants, drug harness and dragon blood supply
(needs to be replenished twice a year), portable IRMSS kit,
set of fatigues, utility belt, backpack, sunglasses, canteen,
compass, and personal items. Weapons and armor include a
suit of Dragon Skin Combat Armor ( 1 00 M.D.C.), three
weapons of choice and five E-Clips for each energy weapon.
Money:
Dragon Juicers tend to make more money than regular
Juicers. 6D6x 1 00 in credits and another I D6x 1 000 in black
market items.
Cybernetics:
None, ever.
Dragon Juicer Conversion Cost:
600,000 to one million cred
its ! Very rare.
Murder-Wraith
Undead Juicer
-
NPC Villain
Dell kicked the door open and rolled into the room, gun
ready. "You' re dead, Max!" he shouted. Max had betrayed him,
gone off to join some crazy cult, leaving Dell to fulfill a contract
by himself. Not only had Dell failed in the mission, he'd made so
many enemies that he was forced to leave Escanoba. It was time
for some quick payback before skipping town.
Dell had tracked his former partner to this room in the worst
section of town. He' d seen Max enter a few minutes before; the
bastard looked drunk or hooked up on some new drug because
his movements were jerky and uncoordinated, very strange for a
Juicer. Dell was a Juicer himself, and he figured that if his ex
partner was under the influence, he' d be an easy kill.
Gun in hand, Dell looked around the room, his bio-comp en
hanced senses absorbing every detail. The shades were drawn,
shrouding the room in darkness. The first thing Dell noticed was
the sickly-rich smell of death. The last time he had smelled
something this foul was when he and Max kidnapped some rich
merchant in Del Rio and left him in the trunk of their vehicle for
three weeks under the merciless Texas sun. The utterly decom
posed corpse they had found that day had this same rotten-to
mato stench.
50
Movement out of the corner of his eye! Dell spun expertly and
fired a laser pulse-burst. Max, who had stepped out of the bath
room, was knocked backwards with three smoking holes in his
chest; laser beams that went on to punch past the flimsy motel
walls.
"What the .. ? " Dell said, blinking incredulously. In the flash
of the laser lights, he had gotten a good look at his former
friend. Max was . . . rotting. He had been barely able to recognize
Max' s face; flaccid skin was blackened and sagging over flesh
less cheeks, and his eyes were partially sunken in. The laser
beams had cored through a near skeletal body. Dell had just
shot a walking corpse!
"You' re dead, " Dell said. This time, the words were not a
threat, but a tentative statement of fact.
"Yes, I am, " Max replied, sitting up. He smiled, and two
blackening teeth fell out of his mouth . "Long time no see, Dell. "
Dell screamed and emptied the laser gun into Max. The
corpse pushed on, oblivious to energies that could melt through
tank armor. At the last second, Dell tried to run, but Max's re
flexes were as good as always.
It didn ' t take long. The screams stopped after only a few min
utes and blessed unconsciousness overcame Dell just after he
saw Max' s fingers descending towards his eyes. But it was
enough time to find out there were much worse things than being
dead.
Ever since the Juicer Process was developed in the 2 1 st
Century, many thinkers have wondered about the philosophical
and spiritual implications of becoming a Juicer - to embrace
death with little hope of escape. Since the Coming of the Rifts
and magic, some of these thinkers have come to include men and
woman who have long trafficked with forces beyond life and
death. Many necromancers on Rifts Earth have watched these
"walking dead" with growing fascination. A death cult from the
Federation of Magic finally decided to try their hand in mixing
their arts with technology. The result is the
Murder-Wraith.
Murder-Wraiths are a form of undead, the combination of
Juicer technology with the forbidden lore of the necromancer. Its
creation is the ultimate consequence of magical corruption af
fecting both the body and soul of the subject. Unlike most types
of undead, one does not become a Murder-Wraith unless one
wishes to do so. Only the most insane and depraved cultists will
undergo the foul rituals necessary to become one of these ob
scene creatures.
The mysterious cult known as the Grim Reapers holds the se
cret of Juicer Undeath. Those few Juicers who will do anything
to escape death, or who become fascinated by it in all its forms,
may seek out the Grim Reapers. Those who manage to join the
group spend the last months or years of their lives serving the
Horseman of Death (described in
Rifts® World Book Four:
Africa),
murdering innocent people in the name of this dark god.
A number of blood rituals prepare the Juicer's body for the
transformations, even as his soul is thoroughly corrupted by his
crimes. During the last year of the Juicer's human life, the
chemicals of his bio-comp system are gradually replaced with
noxious potions, products of dark alchemy. The last rite is con
ducted as the Juicer is about to die. The necromancers who lead
these death-cults become mystically linked to the "candidates"
and can sense the time when the Juicer' s death is at hand. A final
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