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Marauders are by definition unpredictable, but often their servants are even more dangerous. And sometimes they even turn their victims into servants; 434 ZHJ is a horrific example.
What most mages first notice is the smoke; it smells of blood. Then the roaring noise. Then it suddenly appears out of the shadows, shredding, devouring and destroying. Shocked survivors tell confusing stories about a man-car descending upon them, impaling flesh upon rusty pipes and shafts and drinking the gushing blood through what could be a mouth, or could be a motor hood with teeth.
The story behind this umbral terror is known to only the Marauders and 434 ZHJ itself. Several years ago a cabal of Bai Dai descended upon a small British village, rending reality with Paradox and dragging the buildings screaming into the Deep Umbra. Among the victims was also another kind of being than the wailing and easily shattered sleepers, a vampire. When the Bai Dai found the frenzied man-beast they immediately took a liking to him and decided to reward him for his hunger. They took a car that had followed the buildings into the Abyss and merged the screaming undead with it, filling its tanks with blood and paradox. Then they left it, too involved with ruthlessly exterminating the number three from reality to care about what they had done.
Seven months and seven days later 434 ZHJ broke through the Gauntlet in a night-club in Soho, killing 5 people before being driven back by a paradox backlash. A few hours later a baglady witnessed how something awful crashed through one wall in a back alley, collapsed into a bloody pile on the ground, and then jumped into the sky roaring like a lion. Since then 434 ZHJ has appeared in the most unlikely places, breaking the Gauntlet to attack people and then withdrawing as paradox caught up with it.
Appearance: A huge hybrid between car, man and beast. 434 ZHJ is over three meters tall when it stands up, and masses at least a ton. Its consists of a warped mixture of undead flesh, rusty car parts and dirt, dripping blood, oil and smoke. Its arms and legs end in broken wheels and metal claws. Its body is partially human, partially a car, ending in a huge head dominated by a gaping mouth/hood filled with metal teeth and a roaring engine that massacres any flesh it bites on. Instead of eyes it has two powerful red lights.
Sometimes 434 ZHJ walks like a man, sometimes it bounds like a tiger and sometimes it moves like a car. No man can outrun it in an open area, and in enclosed spaces it can easily reach out with its claws and pipes. It is hideously strong, and its metal-flesh is highly resistant to damage. Even worse, it can heal itself using the blood and flesh it devours.
Str (machine): 7 Cha: - Per: 2 Dex: 3 Man: - Int: 1 Sta (metal): 5 App: - Wit: 4 Alertness: 3 Brawl: 4 Intimidation (bestial) 6 Drive (self): 4 Repair: 2 Willpower: 5 Arete: 5The metal flesh corresponds to three automatic successes on the soak roll. To affect it, Matter combined with Life is needed.
434 ZHJ has rusty iron claws, doing Str + 3 damage, a fanged hood (Str + 2 damage, each health level damage gives it a blood point) and various loose shafts, pipes, sharp edges and doors (Str damage, difficulty 5 to hit. The pipes can drain blood).
Up to the Spirit PageAnders Sandberg / nv91-asa@nada.kth.se