Aishwarra
Aishwarra
The Aishwarra (pronounced eye-sh-wahr-rah) is a deadly creature from beyond the Rifts. It originates from the alien home world of the Grackle Tooth D-Bee. There, the Grackle Tooth call themselves “Jin-Ro,” where the Aishwarra are considered to be demons of destruction and a plague to all life. They are not actually demons, but horrible monsters that eat people, swallowing them whole and destroying entire villages and towns.Aishwarra are giant creatures that hunt and devour virtually everything in their path. On the Grackle Tooth’s world, the monsters damage their environment by permanently draining their surroundings of ambient magical energy (P.P.E.). These massive, dinosaursized predators tower 100 feet (30.5 m) tall and are constantly on the hunt for food. First, they feed upon ley lines where they breed, and absorb the magic energy. When the ley line energy is drained (or kept at barely measurable levels due to the presence of so many Aishwarra), these P.P.E. vampires fan out, often in large herds, looking for other sources of P.P.E. Their primary targets are creatures of magic and magic practitioners. However, ALL sentient and animal life forms possess some amount of P.P.E., making them targets as well, even if they possess only a tiny amount of P.P.E.; and a rampaging herd is nearly unstoppable.
On the Grackle Tooth’s home world the Aishwarra have been systematically hunted and wiped out to the point of near extinction.
But somehow, pockets of the monsters resurface to cause death and destruction, leaving some to wonder if the creature can travel using the Rifts, and come and go to other worlds and dimensions.
These giant monsters have no natural predators and indiscriminately kill just about anyone or anything they see as prey or who tries to oppose them. The exception being dragons, Greater Demons, Demon Lords, Elementals and gods, which they instinctively ignore as too powerful and large to fight without a life and death battle; and just too big (in their natural form and full size) for the Aishwarra to swallow and store in its belly sacks to nurture and grow the young inside its egg sacks.
The unluckiest victims are not killed outright, instead they are swallowed whole and stored in feeding sacks located under the female’s abdomen where the victim’s P.P.E. and life energy are slowly drained away to nurture the female’s unborn young still inside their eggs. The monster swallows practitioners of magic, Shamans, Priests, Faerie Folk, Lesser Demons, and other beings with high amounts of P.P.E., whole, and stores them, alive but unconscious, inside her body, so that the beast may procreate and lay eggs.
Females needs the P.P.E. batteries of living sorcerers and creatures of magic to spawn new Aishwarra; the ambient energy from ley lines is not sufficient. This also enables the monsters’ numbers to grow quickly and take over new environments.
Once gorged on sufficient magical energy (P.P.E.), the Aishwarra spawn and lay eggs that are, themselves, batteries of magic.
Before these eggs hatch into young Aishwarra, they can be used by practitioners of magic for powering magic spells, rituals, wards, circles, Techno-Wizard devices and virtually any other type of mystical enchantment. The eggs can also be tapped by P.P.E. vampires such as Psi-Stalkers to feed upon. However, the P.P.E. that can be drawn from Aishwarra eggs vanishes as soon as the creature hatches from it, and draining the P.P.E. stored within an egg kills the creature inside and permanently negates the energy of the egg.
Young Aishwarra that hatch instinctively search out a source of ambient magic energy, e.g. ley lines, and hunt people, killing them for their P.P.E.
If there are enough Aishwarra – several hundred or thousands – living along a ley line, the beasts absorb enough of the P.P.E. that they, in effect, negate the available ambient energy, rendering the ley line useless and diminishing the power of nexus points by 1D4x10+40%.
Few people, not even the scientists and leaders of the Coalition States and other nations, know the full danger the Aishwarra represent, but all Grackle Tooth know about the creatures via stories and legends passed down by their ancestors. Likewise, only some mages and dimensional travelers know much, if anything about the Aishwarra.
Thankfully, it is enough that the creatures are terrifying, gigantic, devouring monsters that they are destroyed by the CS and others whenever the great beasts are encountered. The only true expert on this animal is one the most unlikely of people, Doctor Desmond Bradford.
Doctor Bradford once held a captured Aishwarra at the Lone Star Complex, studied and analyzed it, cloned a dozen young Aishwarra and created a smaller, different, genetic offshoot of the creature that he dubbed the Omega Beast (described elsewhere in the Bestiary series). All were kept secret deep within the labyrinth of the Lone Star Complex until the Doctor was forced to secretly let them loose and destroy all evidence that they had ever existed.
Unknown to even high ranking members of the Coalition States government, Doctor Bradford regularly engages in secret, unsanctioned, Doctor Frankenstein-like genetic experiments in the name of science and the Coalition States. Experiments and creations that disregard morality and stray far outside the legal boundaries of even the CS.
Desmond Bradford enjoys playing god with the genetic codes of other living creatures. Though the man is human, many would say he is a monster that should be listed in this “Bestiary.” (See Rifts® World Book 13: Lone Star for more details about Doctor Bradford, Dog Boys and some of his other mutant creations.)
Some years ago, several Aishwarra emerged from the Devil’s Gate at the Saint Louis Archway. The Devil’s Gate is an active Rift where every few days, the Coalition soldiers and scientists stationed there fight, and often obliterate, the things that crawl out of that Rift before they can slither off into the world. On the day the giant Aishwarra appeared, as is often the case, all but one of the emerging creatures were destroyed. The one survivor captured and quietly crated and shipped – off the record – to the Lone Star Complex. The long reach of the illustrious Doctor Bradford, creator of the famed CS Dog Boys, has many loyal agents working for him. Men and women who procure new, exotic specimens for his secret experiments at the Lone Star Complex.
One of the commanders at the Devil’s Gate and a cadre of soldiers under her command have been providing Bradford with specimens, off the books, for years. A lucrative sideline that has earned them all promotions, position, benefits and money.
Not long ago, a ragtag group of heroes stumbled across Doctor Bradford’s scheme to unleash an army of Aishwarra and Omega Beasts into the notorious Magic Zone. His plan being that the creatures would wash over the land and bring down the Federation of Magic and other mages. Over time, he hoped they would grow to sufficient number to drain the many ley lines within the Zone.
Long story short, the intervention of this group of heroes, followed by the advent of the Minion War, has thwarted Bradford’s secret agenda, but the danger still looms. Some Aishwarra slipped through the Coalition’s net around the Devil’s Gate and have found their way into the Magic Zone. In addition, Doctor Bradford unleashed a dozen young Aishwarra into the wild, as well as a few thousand of his Omega Beasts. Whatever mad dreams the Doctor had for his mysterious Project Omega have been ruined, but his initial handiwork remains with the creatures he let loose. With a dramatic increase in the number of military forces sent to operate out of the Lone Star facility, and much more oversight by his superiors, Doctor Bradford felt it necessary to completely destroy all evidence of the existence of the Aishwarra and his creation of the Omega Beasts. To do anything less could jeopardize his position of power and make him face a number of serious charges.
The scarcity of the Aishwarra and Omega Beasts makes them of minimal concern for most communities in North America, particularly the fortress cities of the CS. But the appearance of even one or two can be a huge problem for practitioners of magic and any travelers who encounter one in the wild. And who knows what the future might hold should their numbers grow?
Aishwarra – P.P.E. Predator
Pronunciation: eye-sh-wahr-rahAlso Known As: The “Jin-Ro’s demon” and “Demon Plague.”
Alignment: Animal predator generally considered Diabolic.
Attributes:
I.Q. 1D6+2 (6) (Low animal intelligence), M.E. 1D6+2 (6), M.A. 1D4 (2), P.S. 2D6+38 (45) (Supernatural), P.P. 1D6+9 (13), P.E. 2D6+21 (28) (Supernatural), P.B. 1D4 (2), Spd 1D6+52 (56) running, or 37.5 mph (60 km). The beast is able to run at this speed for three hours before needing to stop and rest. 56 mph (89.6 km) for a short burst lasting 1D6+10 minutes. A trotting speed of 10-20 mph (16 to 32 km) can be maintained without stopping for an astonishing 36 hours straight! Walking speed is 4-6 mph (6.4 to 9.6 km) and can be sustained for 48 hours straight.
M.D.C. by Location:
- *Antennae (4; back) – 200 each
- *Eyes (2; recessed) – 75 each
- *Ears (circles on head and back; 6) – 120 each
- Head – 1D4x100+330 (530)
- Tri-Beak/Mouth – 1D6x10+200 (240)
- *Nostril Spikes (2; extendible) – 40 each
- Cheek Tusks (2) – 200 each
- *Mouth Tentacles (1D6+4; mouth) – 20 each
- Mantis Arms (2) – 1D6x100+250 each (650)
- *Throat Hands (2; under neck) – 1D4x10+20 each (40)
- Legs (2) – 2D4x100+400 each (800)
- Clawed Feet (2) – 1D4x100+300 each (500)
- *Storage Sacks (32-42) – 2D6+10 each (17)
- Main Body – Young Aishwarra (size of a bear) – 4D6x10+60 (200)M.D.C.
- Main Body – Adult male – 2D4x100+500 (900)
- Main Body – Adult female – 2D6x100+800 (1500) M.D.C.
Horror Factor: Adult Male: 16. Adult Female: 18. Young: 11-14 depending upon age and size.
Size: Females: 100-150 feet (30.5 to 45.7 m) tall and about the same length. Males are 20% smaller.
Weight: Females: 2D6+10 tons! Males: 2D4+7 tons.
Average Life Span: 3D6+20 years. The fertilized female hunts and swallows a sufficient number of people with high amounts of P.P.E. to nurture the eggs (one egg per each of the 32-42 egg sacks) inside of her. See the Spawning Process under Natural Abilities for details. When the young in the eggs are well fed and close to hatching, the female lays the eggs and buries them inside a hole or inside a cave, and wanders off; her job is done.
When the eggs hatch, the young Aishwarra must fend for themselves and sometime hunt in pairs or trios until they are one or two years old. Babies are extremely aggressive because the more prey they kill and eat, the faster they grow. Most reach 20 feet (6.1 m) tall within one year’s time, but need another four years to reach full size and physical maturity; sexual maturity in 7 years.
P.P.E.: 1D4x50
Disposition: The Aishwarra is a single-minded monstrosity consumed with eating (people!) and devouring practitioners and creatures of magic. Male Aishwarra will simply devour their prey, while females may do the same, or they might swallow them whole for storage, as they are needed to bear young.
1. Aishwarra are solitary creatures and hunt alone. Juvenile and adult animals NEVER team up for any purpose, work together, or function as an organized group or pack. The only contact they have with each other is either when competing for food, mating, or when one Aishwarra encroaches on the hunting ground of another, resulting in a battle over territory. Even after mating the male leaves after 1D4 days, never to be seen again by the female.
The exception to the rule about gathering in groups is when there are so many Aishwarra in an area that they seem to gather in what may appear to be massive herds, usually along ley lines. However, this is not a true herd. There is no herd mentality, society or pack leader. The creatures do not, generally, move as a herd, but rather each goes about its own business, with the largest females being the most aggressive. So while they may graze on the ambient energy of a ley line, the Aishwarra do so as individuals, not as a group. Such individuals wander off to explore or hunt on their own. That said, sometimes large numbers of individuals wander off, again creating the sense of a herd or pack, but each monster has only its own best interest at heart and hunts only for itself. Moreover, they regard each other as rivals, so two or more may fight each other over the same humanoid/magic using prey.
When such a battle between competing Aishwarra happens within a humanoid community, their scuffle can cause massive amounts of damage, collapse buildings, trample vehicles, livestock and people, and kill hundreds before the dumb beasts get to gobble them up. Other times, competing Aishwarra do just that, run around gobbling up people before their competitors can get to them. It is no wonder the Grackle Tooth consider them to be devouring demons.
The Hunger Plague: One reason the Jin-Ro/Grackle Tooth consider Aishwarra to be demons is that they eat people for food. Lots and lots and lots of people. The monster plows through everything in its path and eats anything that moves or gets in its way. While the monster will eat large dogs, goats, cattle, horses, and other large animals, its main food of choice is people, humans and D-Bees. And it attacks entire towns and cities, cracking open vehicles and tearing down the sides of buildings to get at and devour the people inside. The monster requires 20-80 people a week to live, and while it can go two weeks between feedings, it typically gorges itself, eating two or three times as many people whenever the opportunity presents itself. Females eat four times as much per week when pregnant!
2. Aishwarra are cannibals. Generally, the Aishwarra young that hatch first instinctively run for the hills, otherwise one of their brothers or sisters may eat them for their P.P.E. Young Aishwarra, in turn, become prey for adults, particularly adult males. When Aishwarra sense each other, they generally fight, with the result being that the stronger of the two feeds upon the weaker, smaller creature. If both are of similar strength, the fight is over territory, with one eventually giving up and leaving the area. If it is a battle for dominance, the loser is allowed to live provided it is always submissive to the other, or runs off to live elsewhere. Some battles between Aishwarra are battles to the death. In the latter case, the loser serves as a meal for the winner, and whatever is left of its carcass left for the carrion eaters. Slain Aishwarra quickly deteriorate into S.D.C. material suitable for other animals. Only its massive bones remain M.D.C. and may be used by intelligent beings, especially giants like the Pogtal Dragon Slayers, as weapons.
Aishwarra young that survive attacks from adults, flee ley lines inhabited by one or more elder Aishwarra for a safer place to hunt and live away from ambient magic energy. This is bad news for humanoids in the area, because it means without ley line energy, the young must find other sources of magic energy, such as practitioners of magic with high P.P.E. and large numbers of people with low P.P.E.
3. The Aishwarra are not smart creatures. With the equivalent of low animal intelligence, Aishwarra are driven by instinct, hunger and the need to procreate. That’s it. They kill, eat, spawn and repeat. As dumb animals, they frequently engage in battles they cannot win, and often fight to the death.
They do not adapt to new environments so much as they bulldoze their way through them. That means the same animal repeatedly falls for the same trap, tricks, or tactics. It is very seldom that an Aishwarra can learn from experience.
Immensely formidable and dangerous, however, the dumb brutes are more like weapons of mass destruction or a force of nature that comes sweeping through an area before moving on.
Natural Abilities: Climbing 55%, Swimming 30% (poor swimmers and dislike deep water), keen sense of smell and hearing, excellent vision, nightvision 500 feet (152 m), and is able to leap 120 feet (36.6 m) high and 260 feet (79 m) across.
Bio-Regeneration (special): The creature recovers 1D6 M.D.C. per hour as part of its natural healing process. It also regenerates a lost tentacle, spike, egg sack, toe, foot, eye, or ear within 2D6 days, and a leg or arm within 2D6+20 days.
It may also draw upon the living beings held inside its feeding/storage/egg sacks to heal itself. For every one P.P.E. point the monster drains from one of its victims, one M.D.C. point is restored to the monster.
Furthermore, similar to the Ley Line Walker ability, the monster can regenerate 1D6x10 M.D.C. per hour by resting on a ley line or nexus.
Tunneling (special): The creature tunnels at 14 mph (22.4 km). Aishwarra are natural diggers and burrowers (80% skill) and, on the rare occasions they are frightened, may tunnel underground to elude their pursuer. They also dig their nest into the ground where they lay clutches of 1D4 eggs per burial location. In the alternative, eggs are sometimes laid inside caves or ravines. It should be noted that while the female buries eggs in batches of 1D4, there are likely to be many burial locations, as a female can lay as many as 2D6+30 eggs (but needs one victim with a minimum of 50 P.P.E. for each egg). A female with enough live, unconscious victims stored her belly sacks can lay several dozens of eggs.
Sense/Smell and Track P.P.E., Creatures of Magic and the Supernatural: The Aishwarra can literally sniff out P.P.E. Anyone with more than 2 P.P.E. points is on its radar, but those with the highest levels of P.P.E. are sought out and targeted first. The creature can differentiate between multiple sources of P.P.E. based on the amount of P.P.E. each individual possesses even in a tightly packed crowd.
Sensing Range: 30 miles (48 km), double if magic is being cast/used or if there is a gathering of more than 50 beings with P.P.E. in excess of 50 P.P.E. points each. 400 miles (640 km) to sense the location of a ley line or nexus point.
Track to the specific source (i.e., individual with the P.P.E.) 88% (+10% if the “source” has more than 140 P.P.E. reduce by half on a ley line, as the ambient energy interferes with the senses.
Spawning Process of the Aishwarra (special): Practitioners of magic, minor creatures of magic like Faerie Folk (dragons and gods are usually too large and too powerful), Lesser Demons, and other beings with high P.P.E. (70 points or more) are necessary to bear young. These beings are swallowed whole and unharmed, stored, unconscious, and held in a sort of stasissleep inside individual storage sacks filled with a protein solution.
Victims can be held in stasis inside a sack for up to 10 weeks before the monster will either eat them or use them to bear young.
Females generate one egg for every storage sack that contains a live mage, creature of magic, or other being with great magic energy (70 or more points of P.P.E.). And female Aishwarra have 2D6+30 storage sacks located in the underbelly toward the rear. This is the sack-like appendage Moses, from the graphic novel, was held inside after he was swallowed whole.
Once at least half the sacks are filled with sources of living P.P.E., young start to gestate, feeding on the magical and life energy of the captives to grow strong. A Note About Victims Swallowed by an Aishwarra:
If a pregnant female Aishwarra is captured or slain, those trapped inside her storage/egg sacks still live. So do any eggs, which continue to draw upon the P.P.E./life energy of their victim’s held in stasis inside the egg sacks until ready to hatch from within the rotting corpse of their dead mother. To rescue anyone inside the sack, someone on the outside must cut into the sack and physically pull each victim out of the soupy containment. Most victims make a full recovery even if they have been trapped inside for weeks, but suffer from the phobia of being eaten alive and one random Phobia or Obsession (see the core rule book for random Phobia and Obsession tables).
Another one of the Aishwarra’s strange abilities is that a female without an available male can still become pregnant and bear eggs with live young. Somehow, the Aishwarra can use the mystic energy of her many captives to fertilize her eggs and generate new life. This ability only occurs when no male is present. However, once males are available (usually 60% male, 40% female ratio are born), they do the work of fertilization.
The ability for a lone female to generate new life without a male is unique and amazing.
Once eggs are fertilized by a male, the captives inside stasis sacks are slowly drained of their P.P.E. and life energy over a 1D4+10 week period. At the end of this period, the process kills everyone in each of the 2D6+30 sacks and the embryos are released as eggs the size of a 50 gallon (189 liter) drum. The hard, leathery eggs (each has 1D6x10+20 M.D.C.) are buried in a safe place on or near a source of P.P.E. energy (ley line, place of magic, etc.) by the mother. They continue to gestate, buried, for another 2D4+4 weeks. When they hatch, the baby Aishwarra, each the size of a black bear, scatter into the surrounding wilderness and immediately begin hunting for humanoid food, both for their meat and their P.P.E.
Aishwarra eggs are alive with magic energy. The very growth of the infants within seems to raise the level of magic and keep it generating P.P.E. Each egg contains 1D4x100 P.P.E. that can be drawn upon by practitioners of magic.
Use up all the available P.P.E. and all but 5% of it regenerates within 24 hours. Each time more than 50% of the remaining energy is used, it returns 5% weaker the next day. This process will, eventually, permanently whittle the available P.P.E. below 50% of its original amount, at which point the baby inside dies and the remaining P.P.E. slips away into the ether. Use less than half of the egg’s original P.P.E. and the mystic energy returns, in full, 24 hours later, time and time again. How exactly this can be, is unknown, but that’s how it works.
Of course, sooner or later the baby will hatch, though frequent draining of the egg’s energy (4 or more times a week) retards the gestation, requiring an extra two weeks to grow and hatch. This only occurs when the energy is drained below 50%.
Should a baby Aishwarra be born after an extended period of regular drain-offs, it will be half-starved, half the normal size and half the usual M.D.C. Masters of Runic and Bio-Wizard magic, like the Splugorth, can preserve the eggs, and use them the same way they use other living beings trapped inside their magic weapons and devices.
Young Aishwarra grow to the size of a 15 foot (4.6 m) truck within one month, and double in size every month until they reach 80 feet (24.4 m) tall/long, at which point their growth slows down. They reach full size in two years’ time, though they don’t reach physical maturity till the end of four years.
Attacks per Melee: Six.
Mega-Damage:
- Punch/Slap/Jab with Mantis Arms: 1D6x10 S.D.C. on a restrained strike, 6D6 M.D. on a full strength strike (+6 M.D. by females), 2D4x10 M.D. on a Power Punch but counts as two melee attacks.
- Head Butt or Body Bump/Nudge: 5D6 M.D., 1D6x10 M.D. on a Power Butt, or 1D6x10 S.D.C. on a restrained strike.
- Punch from Small Throat Arms: 3D6 M.D., 6D6 M.D. on a Power Punch, or 1D4x10 on restrained punch. And by “small” we mean the hands are only about the size of a human’s entire body!
- Stomp or Kick: 1D6x10+12 M.D.,
- Bite with Beak: 1D4x10 M.D. The feet and preying mantis-like arms are also used for digging.
- Gore/Stab with Face/Cheek Tusks: 2D4x10 M.D., but counts as two attacks. These horns are 10-15 feet (3 to 4.6 m) long. Also used for digging and burying eggs.
- Stab Attack with Nostril Spike (1): 4D6 M.D. or the spike can unleash an electrical blast that does 1D6x10 S.D.C. damage.
- This may be used to subdue opponents the creature wants to swallow whole or to zap people and creatures who are minor annoyances.
This attack is designed entirely to grab and swallow prey and opponents whole! People with high P.P.E. are usually funneled around the gullet and into an empty food storage sack.
The victim is immediately stunned and once dropped into a sack (takes one melee round/15 seconds), he is completely immobilized in a coma-like stasis. Food is channeled into the stomach where the victim, alive and conscious, is dropped into a vat of stomach acid that does 1D6x10 M.D. every melee round (15 seconds).
Humanoids as large as 16 feet (4.9 m) tall can be swallowed whole. 20 feet (6.1 m) may be possible by the largest females, nothing bigger.
Bonuses (in addition to possible attribute bonuses): +4 on Perception Rolls involving finding food/sources of P.P.E., and caves. +3 to strike with bite, feet and arms, +6 to strike when up close with its mouth tentacles, +2 to parry, +4 to pull punch (can regulate the amount of M.D. it inflicts when it wants to, but never in a panic), impervious to Earth diseases, and +4 to save vs magic attacks.
Vulnerabilities: Fire. Aishwarra suffer double damage from fire.
However, its fear of flames is out of proportion to the damage it actually inflicts. Aishwarra have been known to flee in panic from fires no larger than a bonfire. Setting fires to drive away the Aishwarra was a standard Grackle Tooth tactic, however, a panicked and stampeding Aishwarra becomes extremely unpredictable, running in any direction and through buildings and walls, trampling vehicles, crops, livestock and people, and creating carnage. Consequently, it may be wise to relegate the use of fire to preemptive tactics to keep them away or as a last-ditch defense against a group of attacking monsters if everything else fails. Furthermore, the one thing the monster will brave fire to get at is people with high P.P.E. (70 points or greater), gobbling up as many of them as it can in a few minutes before running away.
Also a terrible swimmer (30% skill) and dislikes deep water, and can be drowned in 2D4 minutes when dragged underwater, but doesn’t mind wading through water as deep as 60 feet (18.3 m).
Magic: None.
Psionics: None.
Habitat: Prefer deserts and arid environments, but can be found anywhere during summer months, migrating south in the winter.
Allies: None, not even each other.
Value: The eggs are worth 1D4 million credits as magic batteries and the Splugorth love to use them in their Bio-Wizard creations whenever they can acquire them.
Note: Originally appeared in the Rifts® Machinations of Doom™ Sourcebook and Graphic Novel, page 110.
Horrible monsters that eat people