By Anders Sandberg (nv91-asa@black16.nada.kth.se) (10 Nov 94)
Jason looked at the man in dark suit across the street. Such emptiness, no trace of new possibilities... this unfortunate soul was in desperate need of the Good Death. He moved silently back into the shadow.
"Excuse me, do you have any spare change sir?". The man looked into the dismal alley, right into the unkempt face of Jason. Jason struck out with his hand in a silent and swift movement, intended to painlessly and cleanly break the man's neck. To his surprise his hand just sank into the flesh instead of connecting with bone. With more confusion than fear, he saw how his hand had seamlessly merged with the man's throat like molten rubber. A strange numbness spread from his hand.
Desperately he tried to pull away, but only managed to drag the still expressionless man close to himself. He tried to shove him away, but his free hand just melted together with the suit, which had become fluid and warm as flesh. With a scream he backed away, tripping over a pile of trash and falling over with the man on top of him. The last thing Jason saw before their faces merged was how the expressionless eyes had begun to melt.
These nightmarish beings appear to be vaguely allied with the Marauders or Nephandi, if they are indeed allies and not creations of the mages. The liquid people look human, at least to a casual observer. Closer scrutiny will however reveal that their bland and expressionless faces are somehow inhumanely smooth, almost as if they were painted onto their heads. The nose lacks nostrils, and the mouth has no teeth. They never speak or do anything to attract attention, and their clothing is uniformly bland.
Its when they are hurt or in a fight the difference become obvious. Their bodies and clothes are made of liquid flesh, flowing smoothly from one form to another. Wounds will just seal up, with no bleeding. Arms and legs bend jointlessly, and are quite elastic. When their flesh comes into contact with the flesh of another being, it will instantly and painlessly merge with it. A person striking a liquid person will suddenly find his hand seamlessly joined with the opponent. Further struggle usually brings them closer into contact, and usually ends in both combatants being melted together into a single mass. When this happens, the mass slowly divides into two new lumps of flesh, which reform into two exactly identical liquid people looking like some kind of average of the victim and the liquid person.
The liquid people are not particularly bright, and often behave a bit like discreet sleepwalkers. They have an amazing ability to avoid notice, just walking along with other people and following the crowd. Their origin is unknown. Some mages claim they are a Technocracy experiment. One possibility is that they are a failed Progenitor experiment. Another is that they are the raw material for the Men In Black. Other mages guess that they are spirits lusting after the stability of material life, or some kind of magickal disease. And there is some evidence they might be used by the Marauders and Nephandi for unknown purposes. Some fear that they are stocking up for a wholesale invasion with liquid people, turning them into an unstoppable army. Others equally fear that the liquid people are already among us, secretly doing the bidding of their masters.
Liquid Person
Str: ** Cha: * Per: *
Dex: ** Man: * Int: *
Sta: ** App: **
Wit: *
Alertness: **
Brawl: **
Stealth: **
(Other skills like Drive or Law are possible depending on the previous victims).
Arcane: ****
Willpower: 1
Liquid people seems to almost completely lack willpower. If confronted with a problem, they just give up and walk away. They don't have any thoughts or emotions, and their memories are hazy and "soft".
Arete: 4
Life magick has trouble dealing with their liquid flesh. They have 2 extra dice countermagick against Life magick.
Health: 0, 0, 0, -1, -2, -3, dissolved (immune to non-aggravated damage)
Merge: Their liquid flesh will merge with any other flesh it touches, immediately growing into it. This doesn't feel anything, the victim just feels a strange numbness in the area. The two persons will be inseparably joined unless the link is severed in some way. To be able to merge, the liquid person has to touch skin to skin (its clothes doesn't work very efficiently for this, taking several turns to merge with flesh). When a victim has been more or less completely attached, the liquid flesh flows around and into him, turning him into liquid in a few turns.
All attacks done by the liquid person (who usually uses its fists) which touch an unprotected person will cause a merging. The same is true for all brawl attacks against it. Its enough that the attack hits, not that it does any damage (if a dodge manages to evade the attack nothing happens). Instead of doing any damage to either the victim or liquid person, the attack results in a partial merge or a more complete merge. When the total "damage" reaches 10, both have merged totally and start to unite completely. The only way to escape the merging is to sever the connections, all attempts to push away will just result in further merging.
Regeneration: The liquid people are fairly immune to damage. Penetrating damage like guns or knives simply heal directly, just causing the flesh to flow together. If a cutting weapon manages to sever a limb or a head, it will fall off and dissolve in a puddle, doing just one point of aggravated damage. Aggravated damage (magick, fire and acid) work as normal, destroying parts of the person which fall off. It will take seven aggravated wounds to completely destroy it.
Undetectable: Liquid people are normally practically impossible to spot in a crowd. They blend in completely, leaving no trace. When among other people, increase their Arcane to 6.