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Tuesday 7 April 2015

Spine of the Saracen

Every now and then a book or tv show throws up a neat idea for a weird war artifact. This time it comes courtesy if Warehouse 13. I'm not quite sure what to do with it yet, but here it is...


In series 1 Mica and Pete come across an 11th century Saracen artifact called the Spine of the Saracen. This device attaches itself to a host and feeds off their bio-electricity, amplifying it in the process. The excess electricity is continuously discharged by the Spine and hosts body, which causes anybody that the host touches to be electrocuted. The host's rage is vastly increased and drives them to attack whatever they hate most. Once attached, the only way to remove it is for the host to die, or to seriously overload it with electricity.


So how can we use this neat little device?

For in-game situations this sounds like something that would have been created by the Saracens as a defense against the creeping darkness whenever it broke through; possibly some cult of warriors who could calm the rage.

I can imagine some of these surfacing in an excavation in the Middle East an ending up being harnessed by a Black Sun assault trooper, or a sacrificial experiment. Black Sun (or whoever) would probably want to send an escort with the Spine bearer in order to recover/reuse the device later. These individuals would be faster, stronger and tougher than normal infantry, but limited to close combat only due to the electricity. I can't imagine it working too well with explosives. Weaknesses would have to be overcharging the artifact with electricity.

Alternatively it would work quite well as an artifact bearing cultist for Strange Aeons or Kulten. 

2 comments:

  1. That's definately an interesting concept. Could work very nicely in a weird wars setting for some shock troops :)

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