I've only got the Critters that comes with the GM Screen. Is there additional information about these lizards in any of the other sourcebooks? It just seems that these would be perfect for magical security everywhere.

Most salamanders don't reach sexual maturity until ~2-8 years of age, smaller salamanders reaching maturity younger (so N's Salamanders would probably reach it in ~2-4 years), but that would still allow quite a lot of breeding in a rather short time period.

Salamanders lay from a dozen to several hundred eggs, depending on whether they lay them underwater or on land. In a controlled enviroment, the majority of these should reach maturity.

Assuming 20 eggs per year per salamander, 50% of which reach maturity, 5 years to sexual maturity and 7 years of sexual longevity (almost a worst case scenario), and a starting adult population of 50 (half female, or whatever), we'd get 50+250 after a year, 300+1,000 after 5, 550+2,500 after 6, 50+750+5,250 after 7, etc. 20 years and there'd be quite enough of the buggers to guard every major facility of the megacorp.

Since they're so damn small, feeding them or providing enough space for them wouldn't be a problem -- at least not to a megacorp, considering their immense usefulness. Since they're small they are also weak, and they have no dangerous powers apart from the Magic Drain, so if reasonably maintained they would never cause problems.

Any site the owners of which are serious about security and where magic will not be used often should have a few dozen of them, with 2 guys taking care of them and rotating them between a large terrarium and smaller cages all over the site.

What am I missing here?

Paranormals of Europe, page 72.

The shadowtalk explains why they don't work well as magical security.

Well, I don't have that book so I can just go ahead and seriously screw magicians.

Your premise about keeping them in terrariums around the facility may work. Keep in mind that they can use absorbed magic to boost their strength, and glass breaks. Once they do drain a spell, their innate "run away" insticts takes over, and they will try to flee the source of the magic. This may include shattering a terrarium (if the booster strength is enough to do so) and dissapearing into a nearby sink.

But at least they'd be eaten by teh devil rats once they did.

I didn't say down the drain, I was speculating that they would hide in the sink and remain there quite comfortably until they forget the danger or the danger casts a spell near the sink.

In this case, maintaining them reasonably would include not having them anywhere around when the staff uses magic, and the main terrariums should probably be deep inside the facility so that magic used by intruders wouldn't be affected.

The smaller around the facility could be made out of a harder material. And note that they only get a Strength of 6 even with the Enhanced Physical Attributes, which isn't that high -- thick bulletproof glass should restrain them pretty well.

I said they may be able to break out. If you spend the to insure that the material will withstand the theoretical maximum salamander fury, the chances of a typical nimue salamander breaking out approaches 0.

Okay.

So, as long as you don't make the mistake of buying PAoE, Nimue's Salamanders do make almost perfect guard animals.

How many of these buggers are we talking about in a given area?
Doesn't strength become cummulative when you have multiple things pushing? If you got 60 Str 3 N. Slamanders, that 180 str, pretty impressive. Take into account the law of diminishing returns, etc. you might get an actual str of around 60 to 70 depending on how many of the little darlings are in one given terrerium. That's impressive stuff.

Hence the law of diminishing returns comment. But you're right, to a point. 1 single human cannot generally flip a car over, however, 4 to 6 motivated gents can flip them if working together. Get enough motivated creatures wanting to go one way at the same time, and you've got a true force to be reckoned with.

Saying "theoretical maximum salamander fury" gives me a giggle fit.

true, heck a zapper strip covering a foot fromt he walls should do nicely, until the buggers fry themselves and start covering it.

You could also keep them gased, they can still absorb the magic in their sleep can't they? Or howabout paralasys? pin them to a board and feed them from time to time.

Or a quickly oxidizing, weak poison spray in the terrarium-room (not the terrariums themselves) if one of the terrariums breaks. Since the NS's have a Body of 1 and Vulnerability: Poisons, they'd die mighty quick.

I'm all for the humane treatment for animals, so I wouldn't use those methods... Or not really, I just think it's generally best to keep animals you want working for you "happy".

That could work. Problem is, with a species that prolific, they'd potentially become immune to the poison after a while.

Not that fast. I'm assuming 1 set of eggs per year, 10 adults from each batch, and it always takes 5 years before the next generation can lay more eggs. It would actually take pretty god damn long.

By the 26-hundreds there might be a population living in the sewers that's broken out of facilities and is resistant to poisons, though.

And woah be the dragon that flies too close there

Can someone explain what these things are? They sound interesting, but I lack both books that mention them.

25cm long salamanders, completely uninteresting except that they have the Magic Sense Power and, much more importantly, a Magic Drain Power that allows them to lower the Force of any spell cast within 12 meters of them depending on an opposed test of their Essence vs the caster's Magic Rating.

My question is this, does that power activate when they are sleeping?

Since the paragraphs uses verbs like "uses", "may use", etc. it seems like it is meant to be somewhat conscious. However, to me it would make more sense if it were subconscious and happened even when asleep.

There might be some side-effects from gasing them to sleep when they are "on duty", though. They might lose their Powers, for example. In fact, considering the whole Deadly damage = Magic loss and Doctoring The Awakened stuff, I'm pretty sure they'd eventually (or even quickly) lose their Powers.

Do they drain spells that were being sustained and then carried into their range? Or just spells cast within their range?

Just spells that are cast.

They certainly don't provide absolute protection against magic, but combined with all the other possible forms of magic protection they might give an edge. If they knock a few points off the Force of a spell, it's that much easier to use Spell Defense against, etc.

Another option would be to suspend them in a harnes, anchored to teh floor so they might sway, but not really ever get their feet on anything. Then no matter how strong, they won't get loose, and they won't be harmed, which means they won't lose their powers.

It seems keeping an iguana costs about $75 monthly + vets. Assuming these are extremely picky sonsabitches about their diets and environment, let's double that. And you gotta pay someone to handle them, so add 500 nuyen per month per facility per 20 animals for training and paying the NS-handlers. The cost of getting the terrariums, cages, etc is probably about, I dunno, 500 nuyen per animal?

A large facility with 50 such animals (enough to make most important areas almost completely magic-free) would have to pay an original investment of about 30,000 plus the cost of the salamanders themselves, and the upkeep would be about 10,000 per month. About the same as 4 dedicated on-site security workers. That ain't bad.

It's a Shadowrun Yslimiri.