ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

Scattered throughout Nexus are numerous forms of life unique to the dimension. Some forms of life use the fluctuations of time to accelerate themselves, slow their prey or even as a source of food. Continuum researchers have discovered many strange plants and animals and a few even more exotic life forms, manipulating time to aid in their survival. Below are just a few of the more commonly encountered creatures native to Nexus.

Lance Grass

The plant known as Lance Grass appears as a patch of very thick grass of irregular size, with some blades no more than a few inches tall and other blades several feet in height. Whenever a creature passes by, advanced thermal sensory cilia in the grass triggers a growth reaction in the smaller blades, causing them to shoot up from the ground and impale themselves in the passing animal. After the blades strike their prey a set of secondary cilia along the blade begin to siphon fluids from the slain creature. Once the plant grows out to its fullest length, it can no longer accelerate its growth and will soon sprout thousands of baby seedlings around itself. Lance Grass has been known to stay in the seedling stage for decades, waiting for a passing animal to start its growth cycle.

Some species of Lance Grass are known to grow fractally. These are identical in behavior to the normal species but as they grow in the body the blades split into smaller and smaller fractal branches. Also, the structure of the fractal plant constantly appears to shift depending on the angle from which it is viewed.

Lance Grass can be treated as having 0 STA and 0 STR. For every square meter of grass present the plant can take three wounds and attacks with a damage of 2 and an automatic hit. Once a patch makes an attack, it can strike repeatedly due to its numerous seedlings.

Fungal Wind

A horrible parasitic fungus has recently been discovered in one of the Virtuals and brought back to Nexus where it has thrived (see "Fungal Wind" in Virtuals). The Fungal Wind is an airborne spore that takes root in any mammal's lungs and throat. Once in place the spores begin to grow throughout the creature, increasing his adrenaline and endorphins while destroying his nervous system and body. Once a creature is infected it becomes a transmitter, spreading the spores to all who come within ten feet of it (three feet in Nexus due to the speed in growth the creature experiences. While the Fungal Wind typically took five to six weeks to kill its host in its home Virtual, it grows more rapidly in the more humid environment of Nexus. This gives its host only three to four weeks of life. But the Fungal Wind of Nexus does not completely destroy the host's mind, turning him into a fully rational creature of death and disease.

Whenever a mammal is exposed to a carrier (or group of carriers), have him make a stamina roll (difficulty 10, 3 successes needed). If he succeeds he is immune to all attacks of Fungal Wind. If he fails he becomes a carrier. In Nexus the Fungal Wind changes a character's attributes as follows: STR +2, STA +4, all Manipulation scores at -5. In the original dimension the Fungal Wind caused the following changes: DEX -1, STR +3, STA +5, INT -3, WIT -2 and all Social Attributes at -5. Life magic can be used to affect the Fungal Wind but all attempts are at +2 difficulty.

Shimmer Wave

The debate continues among Continuum members as to whether or not this is even a form of life. Some say that the Shimmer Wave is merely attracted to the bio-electrical fields of living creatures, much as dust in space is attracted to planets by gravity. Others disagree, stating instances of Shimmer Waves using tactics to stalk its prey and other Waves seemingly trying to protect Continuum researchers.

Either way, Shimmer Waves appear as bizarre, two-dimensional clouds of golden light up to a dozen meters in diameter. Shimmer Waves wash over plant and animals, either accelerating or reversing the age of a creature. Inanimate objects are also affected but the Shimmer Waves are drawn toward living creatures. There appears to be no known reason for Shimmer Wave behavior or any way to predict which path a Wave will age those it passes over; some will be aged and some will be made young again. In fact, some Waves have been known to immediately return to those it has passed over, reversing its own changes.

For those the Wave ages, subtract one from all physical attributes and add one to all mental attributes. For those the wave makes young, subtract one from INT and STR, and add one to DEX and STA. Inanimate items are also affected so that an old car may become new again, or a new watch may rust and stop working.

Keevar

The Keevar are a breed of dinosaur-like carnivores originating from Sauron that are able to "jump" through their evolutionary path. The first form of the Keevar is that of a giant shark with legs to swim, the second is a very fast tyrannosaur creature that uses it arms to grab prey, and the third is a large winged harpy-like beast. The Keevar will shapeshift throughout combat in order to frighten and confuse its prey. Keevar always travel alone, except during the mating season when huge flocks will gather for an orgy of breeding.

Many among the Continuum fear the Keevar will soon develop another form, a form that will give the Keevar the power to force the Continuum out of Nexus. Given the growing intellect of the Keevar and their increasing numbers, this view is gaining followers quickly.

The Keevar have three forms and are able to change from any form into any of the other three once per turn. Keevar health levels are shared between forms so that if a Keevar take five wounds in its shark form, all forms have five wounds less. Keevar health levels are: OK (x5), -1 (x5), -2 (x3), -3, Incapacitated, Dead.

Shark Form - STR 10, DEX 3, STA 12, PER 4, Dodge 3, Brawl 3, Alertness 3. Treat as having 4 points of armor. Bite (Diff 6, Dam 12), Trample (Diff 8, Dam 14). Running speed 15 yards, swimming speed 35 yards.

Tyranno Form - STR 11, DEX 5, STA 10, PER 3, Dodge 2, Brawl 5, Alertness 2. Treat as having 1 point of armor. Bite (Diff 6, Dam 14). Running speed 35 yards.

Harpy Form - STR 6, DEX 9, STA 8, PER 6, Dodge 3, Brawl 1, Alertness 5. Claw rake (Diff 6, Dam- 6), Bite (Diff 8, Dam 8). Flying Speed 45, Running speed 9 yards.

Fallers

Fallers are only theoretical to the Continuum at this point. As a series of data collections were being conducted in Nexus, the research team began noticing fluctuations in the time stream. The researchers were able to determine that something was traveling backwards through time and that this something was about to appear. Ten minutes later one of the members was comatose, three had disappeared into the future and two were dead and partially devoured.

With mental probes of the comatose victim, the Continuum was able to discover that a species of insects were falling from the future into the past and that they used sentient life from the times they entered to take their place in the future. Some Continuum members fear that these creatures acting in Nexus, and the Zigg'raugglurr acting in Gaia, point to the existence of the Aswad of Time waiting for them in the future of the Continuum.

Further inconclusive encounters with the Fallers have yielded enough information to allow the Continuum to at least theorize about their nature and behavior (though as yet no one has seen a Faller in the flesh). It appears that Fallers are beings that travel linearly, but in a non-continuous manner, through time from our future to our past. As they travel, they devour Quintessence from patterns around them in order to power their jumps back through time. The amount of Quintessence devoured determines the span of the jump. This puts mages at great risk as their Avatars can provide much fuel for the Fallers' journeys.

The consensus in the Continuum is that Fallers are very insidious agents of the Darkness, created to destroy Virtuals (though they can be found in Nexus). They arrive at the end of the timespan of the Virtual Corridors (perhaps where the walls of the Virtual are the weakest) and travel back in time along the Virtual, devouring any Quintessence along the way. When they arrive at the start of the Virtual Corridor (remember that the universe before the Virtual branched off from Main Corridor is also duplicated when the Virtual is created) they are very powerful from the Quintessence they have devoured along the way, which allows them to devour the nascent Virtual universe before it even has a chance to form. Of course, this means the Virtual effectively never existed. Since they are agents of the Darkness, the Fallers themselves are unaffected by the destruction of the Virtual. However, since the Virtual itself never formed (because they ate it when it was young) all the Quintessence they absorbed never existed. So they leave the destroyed Virtual with no more Quintessence than they started off with and then move on to another Virtual, where they arrive at the end of that Virtual's timestream relatively weak and start the whole process again.

There are obvious similarities between the Fallers and the Zigg'raugglurr in Main Corridor and it is believed the two are related somehow.

No one has yet encountered a Faller and been able to give a complete description. Even the mental probings of the comatose subject revealed little. However, the Continuum fears that Fallers cannot be wounded by those outside of their timestream and that the only way to stop them is to freeze time in an area and let Fallers fall into the frozen moment.

If anyone should encounter Fallers their stats are as follows: STR 5, DEX 6, STA 3, PER 4, WIT ?, INT ?, Brawl 3, Dodge 2, Alertness 3, Other Abilities ?. Claws (Diff 6, Dam 6), Bite (Diff 7, Dam 8). Has 2 points of armor. Health Levels OK (x2), -1 (x2), -3, Incapacitated, Dead.

Tran

The Tran are a species of carrion eaters with the ability to foresee the deaths of other creatures. The wolf-like tran are usually very peaceful creatures, especially since they know where their next meal is coming from. However, if food is scarce, tran have been known to attack.

Despite this, most animals are calm in the presence of a pack of tran who are just waiting. Continuum members in Nexus often look for tran as a warning of impending danger. Sometimes fate will not be denied and the presence of tran causes enough fear and excitement that the very act of fleeing causes creatures to die.

Tran tend to travel in small packs of three to six members. Tran stats are as follows: STR 2, DEX 3, STA 2, PER 3, Dodge 1, Brawl 1, Alertness 3. Bite (Diff 6, Dam 3).

Time Mosquitos

These insects are the Nexus version of common mosquitos but suck time instead of blood. They usually suck out a few seconds, which will vanish while the insect is biting. The victim will just notice that everything seems to jump a little bit, nothing more (the bite is, however, rather itchy). However, a swarm of time mosquitos can be quite irritating or even fatal, as they suck out time at a cruicial point. These swarms are very confusing, since the mosquitoes phase in and out of time, suddenly appearing out of nowhere or vanishing when struck.

Jumping Plants

Another relatively harmless kind of being. Many plants are able to move through time and use this both to get as much sunlight as possible and avoid herbivores. When the sun is clouded, the weather is going to become too dry or the plant is in shadow, it will move forward into time until conditions are good again and it will vanish when someone tries to eat it or hurt it. Sometimes whole fields or groves just vanish, only to reappear later.

Waiting Rabbits

These small creatures look somewhat like very small rabbits although they spend most of their time sitting around waiting. They are able to snatch beings out of the timestream, especially Jumping Plants, and spend most of their time waiting for something to pass. They can make long jumps in time and space and when scared they just vanish. They also have the irritating habit of snatching passing things regardless of what they are and hiding them in their burrows.

Timespiders

These large spiders build elaborate four dimensional nets, catching small animals moving through space-time in their region. They look like a Picasso rendition of a spider, constantly shifting in perspective and surrounding by a strange net which seems to grow from nothing, expand to a size of a few meters and then shrink and vanish as "now" moves past it. Time mosquitos, young waiting rabbits and birds suddenly find themselves trapped in the net and eaten by the spider.

Eating Balls

A spherical creature, when young not unlike a tribble from Star Trek but its adult form is a big, shaggy ball which rolls, jumps and teleports so that something moving through time will get trapped inside their specially adapted digestive systems (they don't need any mouth). They are omnivorous and eat time mosquitos, jumping plants, waiting rabbits and careless chrononauts...

Snatchers

Snatchers look like packs of wolves with strangely iridescent fur (actually, the effect is quite similar to Timestone) and unusually big mouths filled with fangs which reflect light in a distinctly odd way. Snatcher packs roam Nexus and find places close to Virtuals where they gather together, chew a hole through reality into a virtual and snatch away their food. From inside the Virtual the event resembles the victim vanishing into thin air, possibly leaving a bloodstain. These beings are behind many unexpected disappearances and their ability to chew through the walls of reality is very worrying.