Drudge (Menial Task Spirit)

Mitchell stumbled back into his humble apartment after an exhausting month on the run from the Mob. Months old food left on counters moldered into unrecognizable shapes and the entire place looked like it had been wrecked by professionals. “I guess when we ran they figured we must have left some clue behind… They really did a job on my doss.” With a snap of his fingers four small figures appeared in front of him like a line of small soldiers. “Clean this place up while I get some rest.” The small figures started their work as Mitchell wandered off to bed. “What’s the point of being a mage if you have to do all the menial work yourself?” he smiled to himself as he nodded off to the sounds of his apartment being put back together.


Drudge’s are small spirits that are mindless doers of manual tasks. They are summoned and bound in groups for larger tasks as there appears that no Drudge is more powerful than any other Drudge. They completely lack free will and will follow the summoner’s orders to the letter, without complaint or hesitation. That means they will not stop performing any given task until the task is completed, the summoning duration ends or the summoner sends them away even if it is impossible. They do not have an astral form, they immodestly materialize on the material plane when needed or else reside wherever it is they come from on their own metaplane. While they are good at performing menial tasks, they lack the capacity of creative thought required for many more complex skills. They are however good at making things and are able to innately repair broken objects. This has lead some to believe they are some sort of drone slave race or servitor race created by some unknown being.


Drudge
Attributes:
Body: 2
Agility: 2
Reaction: 1
Strength: 3
Charisma: 1
Intuition: 2
Logic: 1
Willpower: 1
Edge: 1
Init: 3
IP: 1

Movement: 5/15
Skills: Artesian, Perception,
Powers: Innate Spell(Fix*), Materialization, Search*,

Note: Drudges are summoned and ordered as a group. Each Force of summoning/binding will summon/bind 1 Drudge (Ex. Summoning a Force 5 Drudge will summon 5 Drudges). A group of Drudges count as a single spirit for total spirit cap. They can work together on a task or each can be given a different task. However as they finish of their work they will join those who are still working until all services for the group have been completed. A single Drudge is always considered to be Force 1.

*The force for the Fix spell and Search power is equal to the number currently trying to fix the object.

Should also apply to Search, and rather than "numbered ordered to" should be "number currently" as they do reassign them selves if they complete a task.

Thanks, I fixed that. I was thinking that Fix is such a fast spell that there would only be a given number working on it. However in a smashed up room there could be 20 or 30 things that need to be repaired.

I don't see any need or value of this spirit during an actual game. Watchers and regular spirits are good enough.

[One of my friends once played a magician who used her spirits to, er, assist her using the toilet.]

Watchers can only Materialize, not Manifest. That means they can only show in in the material plane as a ghostly image. They are simalar to Watchers in power levels though.

As for why they would be used; they are less dangerous, get things done faster (they come in groups), rather than using up multiple services from regular spirits for simple tasks you can get a bunch done for one summoning.

And there is of course the fluffy reason of its just cool.

Okay, I see how they can work in your game.

Would they not your in your game? I'm always curious to find out how people would break the stuff I make.

I like the idea, but I would suggest that rather than counting cumulatively as a single higher-force spirit, they count against the summoner's limit on watchers. The parallels to watchers are pretty strong, and this would keep them out of your normal mix of spirits. I'm also not sure about them not having an astral form--it's too inconsistent with the handling of spirits in general. I'll agree that they should be effectively powerless in astral form, though, with no astral combat skill. If you essentially make them watchers with Materialization/Possession (perhaps in exchange for losing Search), I think it would be a little easier to integrate them smoothly into a game.

For extra flavor, give them one rank in Artisan (Singing) and have them sing work songs in creepy, childlike voices.

I figured if I gave them an astral form they would be to much like Watchers. I'll think about using the Watcher limit through and summoning them ones at a time.
eAnd if they suntg then the next thing you know dwarves would be protesting the summoner for racist stereotypes.

Summon somewhere inconvenient, tell them to start digging.

Without shovels I don't know how deep it would get, but I wonder how long till a KE mage banishes them. They pop real easy.

You could give them shovels, but they'd still only have 1 strength.

You'd be better off finding an adept bear shifter* who took the Shattering Blow power (or whatever it's called)

*Bobson: get the 800 BP version up in the 800 BP thread ASAP. Dumpshock needs to know how ungodly broken that is ("Concrete? Yeah, I can dig through that at 0.5 miles per hour, tunneling a 2 meter wide, 2 meter tall hole")

I have a better solution - one that stops that easy.

These spirits do everything to the letter without stopping if the task is impossible or insane?

Well, know why they have those "call before you dig" laws?

Yeah.

The first time they hit a gas line will likely be the team's last.

If they follow the watcher summoning rules, they won't last very long regardless--1 hour/hit on the Summoning + Magic test. Even fairly robust conjurers are only likely to have them around for a few hours, and the drain would be pretty heavy, at that. Using the usual rules for spirit services, on the other hand, they would dig until the next sunrise or sunset (unless banished). If their strength in Materialized form is 3 (Force+2), a group of them with shovels could dig quite a respectable hole in a few hours. Give them a whole day, and they could make quite a mess, even in rock or concrete if you give them picks. Without tools, though, they're not going to get very far.

They have a strength of 3 just so you know.

I'll check my notes, I think the time of services is why I made them use the usual rules.

To be honest thought, they were based on the brooms from Fantasia. Longer times mean they do stupid tasks longer.

I can see these spirits being used to sanitize a scene. It would be almost too cheap and easy to have these buggers cleaning up the physical evidence of your 'Run.

I almost gave them Sanitize as an innate ability till I realized that is what people would use them for. Also unless you give them cleaning supplies or tell a few to search for some all they will do is smear around the blood with the dead guards uniforms and some water (if they see that.)

I would say that they don't clean the scene of physical evidence (eg. blood) any better than a metahuman of equivalent stats would (eg. a rag and some water). Bullet holes would be filled in, but the bullet would remain inside the hole, etc. etc.

The time and the drain. Summoning a bunch of these guys to stick around for an extended period would make for unpleasant drain rolls. Using the watcher rules, if you summoned 5 of them to work for 4 hours each (assuming you got enough hits for that), you'd have to roll 5 times to resist 4S drain. You'd likely end up worse off than if you just did all the cleaning work yourself.


That was precisely what I was thinking of when I mentioned a Possession version.

I just figure a control thouights and alter memory on my husband works just as well.