The Migo Queen
by Reuben Dodd for the OctoberNomicon Art Contest
“Police are on day 6 of a manhunt searching for the serial killer plaguing Redwood Heights. So far 7 bodies have been found, with parts of the bodies surgically removed. Local conspiracy theorists are calling back to the cattle mutilations north of Redwood Heights back in the 80’s. This and Girl’s soccer tournament results tonight for you on News Channel 6”
The Migo “Queen” is a case of the means justifying the ends. To understand this; one must be versed in Migo culture and biology. Migo are bioengineers through and through. Even going as far as to grow themselves new appendages as needed. They also don’t think like we do; their intelligence is completely alien to ours on a basic architectural level. They lack, for example, intuition and leaps of thought. Their intelligence is solely methodic, and our ability to think “outside of the box” is something they have been envious of for quite some time. As such, the migo have been experimenting with human intelligence for a relatively long time, although not long at all by migo standards; due to the limitation of how their ideas progress. The Migo Queen is an attempt to industrialize this process. Essentially a small group of migo head out to explore, with one opting to become the queen. It should be noted at this point that the queen is a misnomer and has no control or power over the other migo in something recognized as a hierarchical command structure or otherwise.
The migo nominated as queen begins to augment itself greatly. It grows exponentially in mass, and creates specific organs to act as purposeful rooms inside of itself. Thus providing it’s compatriots a fully functional lab and reproduction facility for experiments on samples from the field. This migo then lands in an appropriate spot and then begins to bury itself into the local terrain. From there the other migo start their work. Collecting biological samples from interesting creatures in the area. In the case of marine life, as migo are notoriously hydrophobic, or even hazardous locales they may recruit humans or built automatons to harvest samples for them.
Inside there are many chambers, but the main ones are generally variations of the following;
Control Crystal: Allows telepathic communication and commands between the queen itself and other migos. Other lifeforms making physical contact with the control crystal should make a constitution check; with success causing unconsciousness for at least a month and failure causing death from the severe neural shock. But oh what visions you will see if you wake up.
Surgical room: You’ll find several “beds” here for lack of a better word. Crustaceus mutilation platforms isn’t a single word. Here specimens are dissected or augmented as required. Here is where PC’s might wake up, and where the nightmares will be given. Imagine waking up to watch the vivisection of your friendly helpful NPC.
Nursery: Several pools feed into several large pods. In these pods fresh new migo are grown from scratch, with samples collected applied into the pools. What happens should a PC wade or fall into these pools, should be up to the most sadistic gm’s discretion.
Drone Abilities
Sonic Claw: (Harvested from the Mantis Shrimp) a clicking claw that causes a sonic compression wave for 7′ in a conical pattern. The blast does 1/d12 damage to all targets in front of it and takes 3 rounds per attack.
Regeneration: (Harvested from starfish) A migo regains 1d4 hp for every 5 rounds.
Sharp Shooting: (Harvest from humans) Increases missile weapon proficiency +20%
Webbing: (Harvested from spiders)
Scorpion Sting: (Harvested from Scorpions) Built as a large, to scale, scorpion’s sting.
Color change: (Harvested Octopuses) Harvesting from the natural camouflage of the mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus), the migo gain the ability to hide QUITE well; they have a natural 45% sneak, and 65% hide.
Poison Glands: These migo have spines radiating from what serves as their forearms/shins/furthest limb segment from the body. They cause 1d3 damage upon strike (45% chance) and contain one of the following possible venoms.
Southwest US: (Harvested from Rattlesnakes) This poison results in difficulty breathing, vomiting & nausea (-10% to Con), blurred vision (-20% to Spot Hidden), numbness in the face & limbs (-15% dex).
South America (Harvested from Dart Frogs) This poison results in muscle and respiratory paralysis, strong muscle contractions, convulsions, salivation, and death
Australia: (Harvested from Platypi) This poison results in extreme unimaginable pain with a spreading swelling around the wound. Morphine will not help this pain, it is all consuming. The poison wears off in few days to a few weeks. There is a 40% chance of the victim developing hyperalgesia (increased sensitivity to pain)
Europe: (Harvested from Vipers) This poison results in severe pain, light headedness, nausea, weakness coupled with trouble breathing.
Migo Queen, Sentient alien genetics lab.
char – rolls – avg*
STR 3d6x5 52-53
CON 3d6+30 40-41
SIZ 3d6*100 300-1800
INT 2d6+6 13
POW 5d6 17-18
DEX 2d6 7
Mov 1/100 Crawl/Fly HP 63
Av. Damage Bonus: +4d6
Weapons: 4-6 Altered Migo inside of it.
Sanity Loss: 1d4/1d8 Sanity Points to see a queen.
