Monday, November 7, 2022

The Macronaut, Explorer From Overspace

The Macronaut fills the "mysterious visitor from beyond" role, mixing elements of Kirby's Celestials with Superman's Braniac and a fair bit of the "giant monster" comics that predated the renewed superhero boom.  It's also an inversion of the microverse concept, as the campaign setting lies within a sub-atomic space from its point of view.

The Macronaut

The entity humanity has named the Macronaut is native to a dimension known as Overspace, a plenum that acts as a cosmic balance to the subatomic-scale microverses some size-changing heroes have encountered.  Overspace is even harder to access than the micro-realms, and scientists suspect that the Macronaut may, in fact, be a very powerful "shrinker" in its home universe, exerting its full power to diminish itself to a mere few hundred feet in height while in our dimension.  Most of what little is known of the being comes from secondhand sources and a few abductees who managed to escape Overspace and return home.

The Macronaut has never communicated meaningfully and its exact motives remain unclear, but its behavior suggests that it descends to our universe to collect specimens for study back home.  These may be individuals that attract its attention, but are more often large pieces of technology, natural landmarks, entire buildings or even urban areas the size of a city.  Some space travelers relate stories of the entity carrying off entire moons or planets.  The amount of time and effort involved in the collection process varies based on the size of the specimen, but individual humans apparently take a trivial amount of exertion.  Larger targets require deploying colossal machines and significant preparation time, which has allowed heroes to interfere in the past.

While extremely powerful the Macronaut is not invincible, and has been driven off in the past.  To date it has simply vanished when defeated, apparently returning to Overspace via some automatic recall protocol.  It still isn't clear whether the giant is some form of robot or if there's an organic being within its wonder-metal shell. 

Description: A colossal humanoid figure, apparently mechanical or wearing an all-enclosing powered suit of immense scale.  The design is exotic with a decidedly Kirby-inspired style.  Strange protrusions and antennas form a crown of sorts on its enormous helmet, where six glowing sensors form a hexagon on the faceplate.  The whole figure is surrounded in an aura of seething orange and yellow energy.  Its movements are ponderous and deliberate, but strangely silent unless it's currently smashing its way through a physical obstacle in pursuit of a particular specimen.  

Gender: Unknown            Age: Unknown        Height: 300'       Sensors: Lambent Orange

Cosmic Antennas: Gold     Mecha-Epidermis: Dark Gold, Silver Accents     Build: Immense

Approach: Mastermind

Archetype: Titan (Status Challenge: Access Power Conduits 00  Siphon Energy 0)

Health:  50 + (5 x H)

Powers: Power Suit d12, Cosmic d10, Teleport d8

Qualities: Technology d10, Imposing d8, Investigation d8, Otherworldly Mythos d8, Overspace Explorer d8, Science d8

Status: Titan Challenge Start - d12 / Stage 1 Completed - d10 / Stage 2 Completed - d8

Abilities:

Calculate and Adapt (A) Boost yourself using Technology.  Use your Max die.  Either make that bonus persistent and exclusive, or Boost yourself again using your Mid + Min dice.

Containment Spheres (A) Attack using Cosmic.  Use your Max die.  The target can either be Hindered using your Max + Mid + Min dice, or be unable to take actions other than using an Overcome to attempt to escape.

Overspace Denizen (I) Reduce all damage you take by 6 (at d12 status), 4 (at d10 status), or 2 (at d8 or less status).

Overwhelming Presence (A) Hinder all opponents that can see or hear you using Imposing.  Boost yourself using your Max die.

Reactive Defenses (R) When Attacked by a roll that includes doubles, remove one success from the Titan's Challenge.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Power Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  Increase the die size of all your powers by one step (max d12).  Add Crushing Might (A) Attack multiple targets using Power Suit.  Use your Max die.  Hinder each target using your Min die.

Master of Mad Science (A) As long as you have access to materials, automatically succeed at an Overcome by using scientific principles and inventions.

Tactics

The Macronaut is primarily interested in collecting intriguing specimens, and anything that even attempts to resist its efforts immediately becomes intriguing.  It will use Containment Spheres to capture specimens as often as possible.  If seriously opposed it resorts to Calculate and Adapt, followed with Overwhelming Presence and attempts to collect attackers with more Containment SpheresReactive Defenses will keep its status die up, and Overspace Denizen makes it extremely resistant to damage.

With its upgrade (which will often be active if it's making a serious investigation into our universe rather than a probing foray) it may resort to brute physical force using its added Crushing Might ability, and its other power dice will be even larger.  Its mastery will generally be used with some external mega-gadget to collect a larger sample of our world - anything from a building to a city to an entire island country - along with suitable challenges.

If a scene ends while there are targets still caught inside a containment sphere it's a safe bet they'll be taking a ride to Overspace as the Macronaut returns to its otherworldly laboratory.  Other heroes might manage to hitch a ride by clinging to their giant foe or one of the spheres, and inventive Overcomes might let you follow the dimensional trail left behind as well.  If the Macronaut is defeated its spheres will simply dissipate, although a desperate villain might attempt escape by clinging to the being as it vanishes.


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