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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shade" data-source="post: 4877445" data-attributes="member: 287">PropagatorPropagators appear in a variety of animalistic and humanoid shapes, from a distance.  From within 30 feet, it’s easy to see the “animal” for what it is: a sheen.  Its “skin” is an ill-made garment of mirror-bright points, hanging together only with metallic stitching that covers most of the creature.  Cracks and gaps in the skin leak drying blood, though small sparks and tiny red lights also wink from within.  Smeared gore and the strong smell of rot and fetor hint at the terrible transformation responsible for the propagator.Propagators have two primary manifestations.  The sheens begin as exceptionally tiny glassy nodules (called “Nhan Ohtych Seeds” by divinatory oracles).  In fact, the nodules are so tiny that they are invisible to normal vision, but they have been perceived with true seeing and eyes of minute seeing.  Singly, the nodules are sessile.  (They cannot move under their own power.)  When the glassy nodules come in contact with a notile living creature, they adhere via miniature microtendrils.  Once an organism is “infected,” the nodules begin to replicate on the skin surface and within a week are visible as a rash.  As replication and vitrification continues, the nodules spread over (and throughout) the tiny body surface, killing the host in 1d6 months.  In the final stages, the infected organism appears to be covered in particularly fine glassy particles that catch and refract light into thousands of tiny rainbows.Though the host organism is dead, the opportunistic propagators makes good use of the bony scaffolding, through much of the excess fleshy matter slowly decays.  An artificial ligature of microtendrils, propagators animate the body, using it to seek out and infect ever more potential motile hosts.It is uncertain what role, if any, a propagator plays in the overall function of a machine cyst.  It seems clear they were developed solely as a method to eliminate biological life forms.Propagator, sheen (2-4): AC 3; MV 6; HD 8; hp 64; THAC0 12; #AT 1; Dmg 1d12 (flailing strike); SA propagating touch; SD superfluid self-repair nodules regenerate 3 hp/round unless sheen is burned or doused in acid; immune to all mind-affecting spells, spells that affect life force, and psionics; SW Magic susceptibility; SZ M (6’); ML Champion (16); AL N; XP 2,000; Str 12, Dex 5, Con 20, Int 5, Wis 5, Cha 0.SA – Propagating Touch.  Wounds inflicted by a propagator infect its foe if a saving throw vs. death magic is failed.  (Roll only once at the end of an encounter for eachwounded character.)  The flesh of infected PCs shows a glassy rash within 1 week and proves fatal in 1d6 months.  For each month propagation advances, the victim permanently loses 2 points of Charisma.  Standard healing spells such as cure disease do not affect propagation of the glassy rash.  However, each time the victim is the target of a spell that conducts electricity (such as shocking grasp or lightning bolt), the replicating nodules are scrambled, and the victim is allowed another saving throw vs. death magic at a +1 bonus for each 10 hp of damage inflicted by the electricity.SW - Magic Susceptibility.  Most forms of machines are unsuited to resist mage, with the exception of mind-affecting magic.  Sheens make saving throws against all spells with a -3 penalty, and sheens suffer an additional +1 point of damage per die of damage delivered from spells that cause physical harm.  Thus, a 6d6 fireball inflicts 6d6+6 points of damage to a sheen.Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #270 (2000).</blockquote>

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