Creates Servants

Description

Clay is more than just raw material for you. It is a trusty tool and a powerful weapon, and you’ve learned that sometimes the best way to make allies is to literally make them. Most adventurers who create servants are nanos, but many a glaive likes having someone to watch her back and jacks find it useful to be able to make scouts that can blend into the landscape.

As artificial creatures the products of this focus don’t need food, water, air, or sleep and are immune to disease and poison. They are also unaffected by any temperature that isn’t sufficiently extreme to do actual damage. A servant that is in the area where the clay to make it was gathered has an asset on stealth tasks. Your servants always seem to know what direction to travel in to reach you as long as you and they are on the same plane of existence.

Servants created by this focus are usually rough humanoid figures except where otherwise noted. If you wish to make something more lifelike you must succeed on a task with a difficulty equal to the creature’s level (+1 if you want it to be especially detailed or ornate).

Details

Connection:

Pick one other PC. Your servants can find that person the same way that they can find you.

Additional Equipment:

A set of sculptor’s tools and a small supply of clay.

Minor Effect Suggestions:

The servant lasts for twice as long as normal; +1 armor.

Major Effect Suggestions:

The servant has greater intelligence than normal; +3 armor.

Tier 1:

Homunculus (1 Intellect Point): With a handful of clay, a drop of blood – usually, but not necessarily, your own – and an hour’s work you create a tiny humanoid figure. The homunculus is a level 2 creature that lasts for only a day, but at least you can reuse the clay. The creature is roughly as intelligent as a small child, is trained in stealth, and has Speed defense one level higher due to its small size. While it lasts it will obey any of your commands without hesitation. The person who donated the blood can, while concentrating, perceive through any of her senses as if she were present at the homunculus’s location. The homunculus dissolves into a pile of dust when its time is up, or you can will it to expire at any time. Action.

Shaper’s Art: You are trained in all tasks for working with ceramics. This includes pottery, sculpting, and the gathering and mixing of clay.

Tier 2:

Caryatid (2 Intellect Points): You sculpt a level 3 creature that is designed for heavy labor. It has strength roughly equal to that of a pack aneen and can exert itself at maximum capacity indefinitely without tiring. It takes an hour to make a caryatid that lasts for up to a day. You can give the creature a humanoid shape or create it as a mount or draft animal. Action.

Clay Companion (+2 Intellect Points): You can create a slightly smarter homunculus that lasts until it is destroyed – it otherwise has all of the abilities of a normal homunculus. You may only have one such servant at a time. Enabler.

Tier 3:

Improved Servant (+1 Intellect per enhancement): You can make improvements to your homunculi and caryatids. Each of the following items counts as one enhancement except where noted, and you may apply others not listed here with the GM’s permission.

Each +1 armor; superhuman running speed; swimming speed equal to land speed; flight speed equal to running speed; each +1 person who can perceive through the homunculus (requires a drop of blood from each person); each +1 person that a caryatid mount can carry; +1 level (counts as two enhancements and can only be applied once).

At this level you can use Clay Companion to make a caryatid companion. This is in addition to a companion homunculus. You can incorporate improvements into a Clay Companion when you create it. You can modify an existing servant by succeeding on a ceramics task with a difficulty equal to the creature’s level – in cases where you improve the companion’s level, use the improved level – but failure destroys the creature.

Tier 4:

Golem (5 Intellect Points): You can create a level 4 combatant creature. The golem has 2 armor, is practiced in all weapons, and is trained in unarmed combat. Its fists count as medium blunt weapons. It takes a full day’s work and a bit more than your weight in clay to make a golem that lasts for up to a week. Action.

Master Sculptor: You are now specialized in ceramics.

Tier 5:

Improved Golem: You can use Improved Servant on golems that you create. Each weapon in which it is trained counts as one enhancement. You can now use Clay Companion to make a golem companion in addition to any other companions you have. Enabler.

Ushabti (7 Intellect Points): It takes a full day, a level 5 ceramics task, and your weight in clay, but you can create a copy of yourself. The ushabti has none of the abilities of your focus nor does it begin with any gear, but it is a level 4 creature with all of your knowledge and skills. The ushabti can use any equipment or weapons that you can, and unlike your other servants it can speak (though only the languages that you know). The ushabti looks exactly like you, but even a basic medical examination will reveal that it is an artificial creature. You can perceive through it just as you can with a homunculus. You may have only one ushabti at a time. Action.

An ushabti lasts until it is destroyed, and when you die it will do what it can to give you a proper burial and watch over your grave.

Tier 6:

Pygmalion’s Pride (7 Intellect Points): You create a level 5 NPC companion creature called a galatea; this takes three days’ work, a level 6 ceramics task, and enough clay to make a humanoid of the chosen size. This creature lasts until it is destroyed, and you can only have one at a time. A galatea likes you, perhaps even loves you, and will act in what it believes to be your best interests. However, it is its own person and will act in whatever manner it thinks is best. You have no control over its personality and skills other than making it generally well-disposed toward you and providing it with a common language. Action.

A galatea begins its life trained in four skills (GM’s choice), and you can spend your XP to give it training in additional skills or specialization in existing skills. It only has the equipment that you provide for it or that it has the chance to obtain for itself. A galatea has the same ability to use cyphers and artifacts that you do.

If you die your galatea will grieve for time before moving on with its life – which can be very long, as clay beings don’t age. There are unconfirmed reports of galateas acquiring descriptors, types, and foci and becoming adventurers in their own right.