Hedgepig

Hedgepigs are a quasi-paranormal version of the common European hedgehog. They are only slightly larger than a standard hedgehog and are primarily insectivores (30-40cm in length and weighing 2kg). They are unusual because of their ability to effectively raise the background count around them by drawing it into themselves in a manner similar to photosynthesis. Many biologists believe that this is adaptation is linked to the higher than average magical activity and as a defense against the many paranormal predators in the British Isles; similar to the evolution of the Fomori offshoot of the common troll. This combined with there natural territoriality and relatively small foraging area can lead to large swaths of land being “destroyed” when a large colony takes root.

This feature has lead to a unique situation where many mundane people welcome them and feed them to help insure that they remain close to their homes. By contrast those who use magic find them to be extremely annoying and try to trap and kill as many as possible before they can warp the astral space in an area. This can often lead to conflict between Mundane and Awakened individuals over their habitat.

Several corporations that specialize in technology have started to use them around there facilities as a cheap form of astral security and pest control, but the hindrance that they provide is not generally worth it.

Stats:
Hedgepig.aka “F’ing Prick”, “Manapig” or “Magebane”
Body: 1
Agility: 2
Reaction: 3
Strength: 1
Char: 3
Instinct: 3
Logic: 1
Will: 5
EDG:1
ESS:6
Init: 5
IP: 1


Frequency: Uncommon in the British Isles only
Movement: 5/20
Skills: Perception 2, Tracking 2, Unarmed Combat 1
Powers: Low-Light Vision, Digging claws, Quills, Astral Hazing
Weaknesses: Fragile 1
Note: Reach –1

Availability: 8R
Cost: 2,000
Lifestyle/Cost per month: Low/ 40

Hehehe. Nice.

Now if only I could remember the reference.......

The "Prickling of my thumbs" is from Macbeth, its what the witches say when he visits them.
Act 4, Scene 1


And thanks. Just need to get this stuff out of my head sometimes. Figure other people might like or use the stuff I post here. Should make a website to keep them all on.

Arg, of course.

Uncommon in the Isles, but common everywhere else ??
Uncommon in the Isles, because they don't use them in the same role as other places ??

Should be "Uncommon. In the British Isles only" ??
Though that would be negated by companies all over the world using them as cheap security.

I guess it should be Uncommon British Isles. Rare Western Europe. Not found in the wild else where.

Denmark has normal hedgehogs as a protected species so I know there exist there.

I've seen a hedgehog scampering across my lawn recently. They do live in urban areas, but they're fairly hard to spot, and mostly move about at night. They do make enough noise to be found though.

I know they were pretty common last few times I was in the UK. I know that some people consider them to be a cute little garden visitor and some consider them to be a spiny pest that throw themselves in front of your car just to annoy you.

I guess the big question is what do you think would happen if you plunked these things in a post awakened world? Would they be hunted to death or hunted for sale untill there were none left? Would people like to have them around?

Just how plausible would they be?

Didn't something like this already exist in the form of Nimue's Salamander, which was uncommon in Britain and not found elsewhere?

Nimue's are WAY to beneficial to not be hunted into extinction in the wild. That and they are to delicate and localized. Lets face it "Central and eastern Alps above 700 meters" and "Fragile (2), Vulnerability (Pollutants, Severe)" are not really good conditions for life in the wild.

Also they were way to powerful. Counterspelling? Absorption metamagic? In a newt with no good reason for it? Its a little to much cool for cools sake.

I like the image of a scrounging little critter that is hardy and just has a little bit of an edge that makes biological sense. A magical version of quills if you will.

I would definitely buy a 3-4 of these things and live it in my home.

Don't forget they're probably lice-infested and carry all kinds of diseases. And they like to go through your trash.

If they are kept in your house as pets, they'd be a lot less likely to have fleas and diseases. Of course leaving it in your house for all that time giving the BC time to grow would probably piss off any Awakened neighbors. What would be the limit on how far the BC would be allowed to grow. I don't remember a maximum listed in Runner's Companion for Astral Hazing but I don't have access to my books to check there or in Street Magic right now.

There isn't. Hence the joke about a character with it finding an apartment next to an archology and not moving for a month (covering a full 1 mile radius of city with a BC -4).

Ok now I am envisioning one of my magic prejudiced NPC's spending money finding some bum surged with Astral Hazing and buying him a Full Immersion Liestyle just to be able blanket his neighborhood in a BC. I already have an NPC sorta Mister J. that has the money to do so and would be more than willing.

Sorry for the highjack, back on topic.

I enjoyed the mental image of a mage hunting Sonic the Hedgehog.

It can dig and is firly smll. Good luck finding it. The people with the most to gain by killing it have the hardest time finding it

Also I take the "same area" part of Astral Hazing to be not leaving the area of your haze (so if you have 6 ESS if you do not leave a 6m diameter area it starts to grow.) I can see a small hedgepig doing that for few weeks.

Oh no no no. I mean A Hedgepig spray painted blue screwing over a mage. Basically replace Dr. Robotnik with a Chaos Mage and you get what I was seeing.


On another note to boost his Astral Defenses I think my TM is going to have a few of these imported.

Nothing that a monthly travel to the vet can't cure, also, if they go through my garbage it is the begining of a recycling process: I trash, they eat, they crap, I use their crap as fertilizer, also, they screw any mage coming over. It is a win-win situation.

Just keep in mind that you are going to start to piss off every Mage and Adapt in you neighborhood after a few weeks or months. Like I said there are some downsides to having one as a pet. But for some people or companies its worth it.

Just like Draco18s said, I don't think that Astral Hazing or any kind of creature-centered BC should grow like that. It is just like picking a cyber-zombie and leting him inside of a building the rest of his (un)life, it would come a moment where the entire planet would be caught up inside a BC eventually.
I think my GM would rule just like a lodge, as in: only inside the property would be affected.

Covering the world:

IIRC, that actually takes a century plus, depending on how you measure the distance (surface or strait line through the core). It, however, doesn't take long to be overwhelmingly large (three months tops covers most of Seattle).

It is GM Caveot and as it is a Negative Quality I would say that it should be very hard to use it in a positive way. So it doesn't work tht way when you wnt to extend your count into the next building. But it does happen when you are forced into hiding and it could give away your location.

Just my 2

The entire planet was an exageration, I know. But you just made my point, in three months a Ciber-zombie or one of these pigs would have covered Seattle whole. If you consider that most people play in Seattle and somewhere along the campaign they fight a CZ (possibly near the end), you must ask yourself how the hell the city wasn't covered in BC?

Character takes Astral Hazing and intentionally uses it to be immune to magic, completely flaunting all magical security to the point of having two other party members tag a long in close company.

How do you turn that negative?

All 2 of them.

Not only that, but they're effectively not-mages when they show up to murder your pets. Shotfun to the chest FTW.

The fastest way to make it unfun for them is this: astral hazing tends to draw unpleasant astral entities which are attracted to said hazing. Areas of astral sickness, for instance, draw toxic apathy spirits.

And that's not fun for anyone.

Also, the next time they're being cocky about magic, toss a couple of combat mages at them with Filtering. Surprise.

A few ways actually.
1) There are very few people that are walking background counts. That would men that the corp they ran against will have a VERY easy time tracking them down.
2) A background count of 4 is bad, but there are still a lot of mages that can punch through that and still dish out some damage with spells or spirits.
3) Plain old regular security will just start lobbing area attacks into the nice clustered group. That or just concentrate fire on they guy the mage says to kill.

In general you are giving up ever having the party mage be able to help you that much, being a priority target on all runs and not being able to disappear into the shadows when the job is done.

Only works if 1) mages know he's there and 2) realize that the background count is him. On point 1 on the few runs that character had (player swapped characters twice) mages never were in direct confrontation with him, so never saw and ascenced him. On point 2, because they hadn't ascenced him, but had a ritual link they were only F1 fireballing him from afar, repeatedly, hoping for an eventual kill (of course, with the -4 force and then having Magic Resist of "lots" he never needed to roll against spells, and if he did, had more dice than normal, so the ritual spells never did anything).

One of the infiltrations we did involved a spirit using concealment. I don't recall if that character was Concealed or not, but I do remember bits of the discussion about needing a F6 spirit to do it.