 Side Projects Wiki for Robots Everywhere |
PilotedManAutopsy Result - Piloted Man Observations by Sara, Sinclair, Myrrh following capture of a barely functional specimen. This is a very strange being, sharing traits of a homunculus and a plague zombie. The organic parts are freeze-dried, possibly to last longer; opening the chest plate revealed that only the head and part of the chest were used, namely the heart, lungs and diaphragm. There was a bag of what we assume to be chicken broth in which the chest was soaked, possibly to allow animalcules to feed on it, again for longevity: the heart could have some rudimentary function in pumping the stuff around, as it was set to dig from it. One lung was left intact, with the other having been plugged; this would allow the creature to speak, in theory, if it had the spirit to -- which it doesn't. The goose-like honk was generated from a simple bellows in the lower chest. The rest of the creature is mechanical; the crude construction reminds of a stone golem rather than an iron golem, but Sinclair assures that this is a homunculus, blood-bound to the zombie. This bypasses the main issue with controlling more than a handful of homunculi, but causes a number of other problems -- even at best, what intelligence it would have is extremely basic unless the zombie could be controlled to give high-level commands The creature was indeed built from a crude suit of plate armor, the insides filled with animated metal, wood and sinews; it would be able to behave as a basic footsoldier, as long as some semblance of life remained in the upper portion. What is strange is how ineffective this would be: the zombie would seek to shamble and feed, but the helmet's design prevents it! Overall, the creature seems to have been made by a committee of bickering mages, each pushing for their way of animation; the compromise seems to be less than the sum of its parts. While the Piloted Man is probably a fierce opponent in a close melee, despite its potential ability to move quickly, it would likely have a poor reaction time. Myrrh's belief is that this is a prototype, used as a distraction as it is no longer useful otherwise to its creator. She also thinks the evil magics used to control it (when it spoke) was as much an attempt to get past the anti-scrying field.
  |