Thursday, October 27, 2016

Harpy pod

Harpy (Pod)
A Fortean creation, this pod splices transhuman lines from Furies and Lunar Fliers with large raptor genetics to produce a flight-capable combat pod. Unlike a majority of Lunar Fliers, the harpy is more like a Neo-Avian, with wings on the arms which have flexible hands tipped with sharp talons for gripping. The feet are also reinforced and fully prehensile and armed with claws - and allow the Harpy to grip and manipulate objects with it's legs while its arms are in flight. Harpies are also heavily muscled, with enhanced torso muscle groups to give them the ability to fly, and are gifted with sensory augmentations and low pressure protection to operate at high altitudes. For "thematic" purposes, the Harpy are nearly always produced as female, with sharp, austere features.
Implants: Access Jacks, Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Bioweave Armor (Light), Claws, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Direction Sense, Enhanced Hearing, Enhanced Vision, Low Pressure Tolerance, Mnemonic Augmentation, Muscle Augmentation, Neurachem (1), Prehensile Feet, Wings
Movement Rate: Walker (3/19), Flight (8/40)
Aptitude Maximum: 30
Durability: 50
Wound Threshold: 10
Advantages: +10 SOM (w/ Muscle Augmentation), +5 COO, +5 INT, +5 to one Aptitude of your choice, +1 Speed (Neurachem)
Notes: Nonmammalian Biochemistry, Social Stigma (Pod)
CP Cost: 55
Credit Cost: Expensive (55,000+)

-Siren Variant
While some use the Harpy for combat and survival purposes, a variant designed for socialization also exists - the Siren. This model has its maximum combat potential toned down to make way for more socially focused implants. Similarly, the morph is respecc'd both for physical appearance and social acumen. Sirens tend to be more thin and finely built than Harpies, with softer, more alluring features.
Implants: Remove Neurachem (1), add Clean Metabolism, Enhanced Pheromones and Lyre's Syrinx
Advantages: +5 SOM (w/ Muscle Augmentation), +5 SAV, +5 COO, +5 INT, +5 to one Aptitude of your choice, add Striking Looks (1) trait
CP Cost: 60
Credit Cost: Expensive (60,000+)

(Though ultimately made as another pod from Fortean, my Harpy design as a combat morph+wings has gone through a couple of iterations, including just as a Fury variant with the Wings. Thematically, mods which make sense for the Harpy also interestingly make it ideal for a fighting morph, with the claws, strong upper-body strength for the wings, the enhanced sensory, etc. Once it stood on it's own, it was possible to produce the more expensive Siren variant, which moves around its bonuses to allow a more social focus, which bridges the gap between avian and humanoid morphs. It might be interesting to see how a Neo-Avian handles the presence of the Pod - do some communities like them for allowing them to interact with humanoids while retaining many natural capabilities, or do they find it an offensive "cultural appropriation" (and some with a less than positive view of Mercurials might point out Neo-Avians didn't have a culture when the Greeks were making urns). The Lyre's Syrinx is an interesting implant which originates from Seedware. I don't often cross-reference other big homebrew works, but the nature of the implant both mechanically and fluff-wise made it an ideal pick for the Siren variant)

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