Alk'ost

"I am one of many, but we are all the same."

In the fresh ruins of villages and cities, a pseudomechanical array of legs carry and feed a large egg-shaped capsule almost meant to be see-through, whirring and struggling with every twist of its manyfold joints.

As a self-given goal, it ravages constructs and withdraws flesh and blood, meant to keep the dormant being in its mechanical heart.

The caregiven's body is long dead, yet something must fuel the machine itself. You could suspect a symbiotic relationship, but the only intended means of opening the spider-like shell will surely kill it.

"There is nothing worth more than your objective. Value yourself and your mission above all else. This is how you will thrive."

Alk'ost machines abuse turn economy in their own way. They bear many limbs, and each limb has its own health. All connected to a core, that core will always delegate damage taken to the limb with the lowest health if possible.

An Alk'ost machine may dedicate a number of limbs to an action, packing them together for a turn. Damage taken by a limb not only detaches it from its pack, but that damage is duplicated (instead of distributed) to other limbs it was packed with, reducing their effective health as more limbs act together.

Depending on its means of function, an Alk'ost machine may require to keep a number of limbs busy at all times. For example, Survival Apparatus is made of twenty limbs, and requires a pack of at least four under itself to move. If this quota is not respected, their function fails, letting the core fall to the ground, now in peril until next turn where it will be able to dedicate other limbs to the task.

As they are truly mechanical beings, Alk'ost entities do not experience any harm that would be a threat to organic folks. Depending on their composition, they may ignore certain afflictions meant to cull them, such as spells with Rust in their name.

However, due to the nature of their core, psychic harm is not out of the question if you only care to pass through. You're not above their morals either way.

As a common rule, Necrotic and Radiant methods are vain in their entirety, having strictly no effect on them. Psychic and Lighting, however, are worryingly efficient.

Of course, each Alk'ost machine is unique, as their core makes it impossible to mass-produce. I refuse to believe such a concept.

"I used to be beautiful, but my heart fell. I remain for all of yours."

In truth, few are settlements that fail under assault.
Despite the turn abuse of Alk'ost machines, they are oftentimes frail, and their cores cannot recover from death.
This is preventable, however, as this specimen carries with them formidable knowledge as unique as themselves.

Bearing a commonly observed number of twenty limbs, it instead only needs two to carry itself, as it no longer has a full core to attend for.
Its remnants must feed on the spoils of other Alk'ost machines, adequately fixing most, if not all damage inflicted on a core, as long as it may still breathe or flow.

Due to its usefulness, many folks seek to destroy it once more, as one time wasn't enough.
For this reason, its dexterity and stealth are almost unmatched by its peers, learned from too many close calls. It weighs on the heart.

As the Saviour System is uniquely impaired, it must dedicate a pack of six limbs to an action, instead of the usual four. It stands second in pack requirement compared to other Alk'ost machines, as the one with highest pack requirement needs ten limbs for a single action.

A mere folks tale of a supposedly perfect Alk'ost machine. Considering their inherent nature, it would be unlikely that their kind be perfected, and yet not replicated. Why manufacture so many different, failure-prone instances when you have an apodictic blueprint?

This myth was birthed from knowledge acquired from dead cores, a select few of them preserved without harm to their internals. Apart from a grossly unrecognizable body, there was found perceptions of other machines already known of, along with an intruder in that information, supposedly possessing hundreds and hundreds of limbs, multiple cores, and something unique to them, as each Alk'ost does.

The village is never specified, and it is said the cores are now gone, if they ever existed at all.

"Either the S.O.S. was far too delayed, or the rampage was lightning fast. Regardless, you see it half-idle, picking out meat and foundation methodically. Its long, thin legs makes it tower far over you, but the core is no taller than you.
You make one sound too many. It freezes for half a second, and each arm coldly drops what it was holding. While turning its core towards your general direction, its four legs embedded into the ground are joined by four more, and the rest of its arms join eachother in small groups, like muscles.
You don't expect this encounter to have a victor."