| Notes |
This dog-sized tick has a grotesquely bulbous body and a thin head equipped with hooked mandibles.
In areas where large creatures like megafauna or dinosaurs dwell, the giant tick behaves much like its smaller kin—it lies in wait in the undergrowth, and when a suitable host passes by, it drops onto the body to feed. In other areas, these vermin are much more aggressive, and actively hunt smaller prey like dogs, livestock, or even humanoids. A giant tick drains blood quickly, but once it is sated, it drops off to crawl away to digest. A giant tick is 3 feet long and weighs 50 pounds.
If the tick successfully strikes in combat, it inflicts damage from its bite. If it successfully generates a special effect, the tick will select Choose Location, or if possible, Bypass Armour, in an attempt to find exposed skin. Whether or not damage is inflicted, it immediately establishes a grapple on the body location struck. If the creature’s attack was Parried by a limb or other natural extremity (or the creature itself is parrying an appendage), then the creature is granted the Grip effect against the opponent’s limb instead. A tick always uses its Brawn skill to resist a victim from breaking free of its grapple; however, the victim finds the roll at hard difficulty, due to the clawed hooks on its legs grasping flesh, clothing, armour, etc. Successfully ripping a tick free re-inflicts a full damage roll due to the barbed mouthparts, as it is torn free of the victim’s flesh. Killing the tick allows it to be removed with no additional damage. The bite can easily penetrating normal clothing; however, if all relevant locations are armoured, the tick will instead begin making additional attacks in an attempt to generate a Bypass Armour special effect. Otherwise, no roll is necessary as the creature forces its mouthparts into the victim. One Round thereafter, the tick will begin draining blood from the victim at a rate of 1 Fatigue per Round. After draining 4 Fatigue, the tick is considered gorged, and will release the victim and crawl away to sleep off its meal. Larger creatures possess more blood per Fatigue level, with victims of SIZ 21-40 requiring 2 Rounds to drain 1 Fatigue, and a creature of SIZ 41+ requiring 3 Rounds to drain 1 Fatigue. In this case, the tick will become gorged after 3 Fatigue from a SIZ 21-40 victim, and 2 level of drained Fatigue from a victim of SIZ 41+. If after 1d3+3 Rounds the tick cannot penetrate the defences of its victim, it will drop off and attempt to find easier prey.
A full 25% of ticks carry a disease know as the red ache which causes skin to turns red, bloated, and warm to the touch.
Application: injected by tick bite
Potency: 65
Resistance: Endurance
Onset time: 1d3 days
Duration: 2d6+5 days
Conditions:
Aches: Victim’s muscles ache. All STR and DEX skills suffer a difficulty grade of Hard.
Weakness: For the duration the victim suffers a loss of 1d6 STR.
Antidote/Cure:
A successful Healing roll and use of healers kit will allow another resistance roll vs the disease as long as symptoms have not manifested. This is sometimes done as a precaution after any tick bite. Once the symptoms show, a hard healing roll (standard herbalism) will allow a herbal balm to be prepared that will ease the aches, and if reapplied daily will stave them off. Magical healing is needed for the STR loss. |
Encounter Generator
