CREATURES: STHEED ~ STITCHER

STITCHER 5 (15)

This class of automaton can spend vast gulfs of time inactive, only to be activated by
curious delvers or sometimes simply by lights and noise. A stitcher connects itself via an
animate umbilical to a structure or other large machine, especially one with an active power
source, in order to pass great spans of time in a low-power stasis state. It disengages that A victim who survives
umbilical when it wakes and takes to the air as it unfolds an array of metallic arms, some and sheds their cocoon
with manipulators, others strung with needles and silvery thread. sometimes gains a
beneficial mutation.
Drawn to humans and similar creatures, a stitcher bears down with needle and “thread”
held ready. It attempts to cocoon its target, even though the holes the stitcher makes to
attach the cocoon are literally pulled through a victim’s fragile skin.
Motive: “Repair” living beings Beneficial Mutations,
Environment: Usually in ruins page 124
Health: 15
Damage Inflicted: 7 points
Armor: 3
Movement: Short when flying GM Intrusion: The
Modifications: Medical tasks as level 7. character attacking the
Combat: A stitcher attacks a foe with needle and wirelike “thread.” A target damaged by the stitcher becomes tangled
needle must also succeed on a Might defense task or have a length of superconducting in its trailing thread. The
wire physically drawn through their skin and wrapped around them. Each strand of wire PC can’t make effective
attacks until they succeed
stitched into a target increases the difficulty of all physical tasks by one step until the
on an Intellect-based task
victim uses an action to draw a strand free. Each strand drawn out by a victim or an ally to untangle the thread.
inflicts 1 point of Speed damage (ignores Armor).
A victim who moves down two steps on the damage track as a result
of damage from being stitched is completely cocooned and
goes into stasis. Usually, allies try to remove a cocoon, which
sometimes kills the victim. But if a fully
cocooned victim is left undisturbed for at
least ten hours, the cocoon peels off of
its own accord, revealing the completely
healthy and undamaged character sleeping
inside. If the character was suffering from
any other disease or injury, those are also
erased.
Interaction: Stitchers do not speak, and
their blank automaton visages
betray nothing about what
they’re thinking—if they think
at all.
Use: While exploring a
prior-world ruin, the
characters find a mechanism
that seems capable of
activating an even older
“healing” mechanism, which turns
out to be a stitcher.
Loot: A few cyphers can be salvaged from
the defeated form of a stitcher, as well
as at least 50 feet (15 m) of flexible
metallic thread.

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