Friday, March 25, 2011

"N" is for "Nox"

Nox  ("Zombeef")

No. Enc.:  0 (1d8)
Alignment:  Neutral
Movement:  120' (40')
Armor Class:  8
Hit Dice:  5+2
Attacks:  2 or 1 (1 gore and 1 bite, or 1 trample)
Damage:  2d4 / 1d6 or 2d6
Save:  L8
Morale:  9
Hoard Class:  None
XP:  2,060

To satisfy their all-consuming appetites, The Ancients devised all manner of methods—chemical and pharmacological additives, radiation treatments, genetic manipulation—to process and manufacture their "frankenfoods".  The noxen are the results of such experimentation gone hideously, horribly, and altogether disgustingly awry.

Noxen are large, hairless bovines with two sharp horns and raw, angry skin covered in suppurating lesions and swollen tumors.  They reek of spoilt meat, and their bellows are labored and phlegmy.  Noxen can consume grasses, vegetation, and carrion, but they prefer to hunt and devour living prey.

Noxen are prone to Charging and Trampling.  Anyone gored and/or bitten by a noxen must make a Saving Throw Versus Poison, or become infected with "nox-rot", an aggressively disfiguring skin disease that lasts 1d3+2 weeks.  The victim takes 1d6 damage per day from weeping sores and bulging nodules (called "moomurs"), and suffers a temporary loss of -2 DEX, -1 CON, and -5 CHA.  After the disease passes, survivors still endure a permanent reduction of -3 CHA due to scarring.

Bare contact with a nox's skin causes Class 3 poison damage.

The cancers that ravage their bodies provide noxen with astounding regenerative abilities.  Not only do they take half damage from all physical attacks, but they also heal back 5 hit points per round.  And anyone successfully striking a nox with a melee weapon must immediately follow up with an Ability Check Versus Strength [per p. 51 of the Mutant Future Core Rules], with failure indicating that the weapon has become embedded in the creature's ever-healing mass.  Noxen cannot regenerate damage from fire or acid, and they take an additional +2 per damage die from cold-based attacks.

While noxen have solid skeletons, they can spend two rounds shifting into a more amorphous form so as to flow through cracks and crevices.  They must spend another two rounds afterwards to become solid again.

As if noxen weren't formidable enough, they can manipulate the body chemistries and hormones of others, resulting in radical physical alteration.  They are considered to have a WIL of 1d6+4 for this ability.

Mutations:  Aberrant Form (Amorphousness), Bizarre Appearance [D], Density Alteration (Others), Frailty (Cold) [D], Dermal Poison Slime, Regenerative Capability, Toxic Weapon ("Nox-Rot")