Knights-Marshal of the Commonwealth - Monstrous Datafile - Nebula Dhole!

 A menace to starfarers that has largely been removed from Commonspace, nebula dholes are still found on the Edge and Beyond. They are an enigmatic species of starship-sized creatures that have evolved and survive in interstellar space. Their minds are unknowable, they have never communicated with any known being, and they drift between the stars for aeons, occasionally disappearing to reappear light years distant. Small ones are as large as medium-class star ships, between one and two hundred feet in length. Their mass is difficult to measure. Some survivors have reported them as registering impossibly massive, as though possessed of a small black hole in their innards. Others have stated that their instruments reported little or no mass at all. There is some speculation that this dichotomy may be connected to the creatures’ appetite, because those who registered as of little or no mass have attacked almost immediately. Once fixated upon a ‘meal’, a dhole will pursue with vigor, jumping and following fleeing ships a dozen light years distance or more. They are adept at pursuit, their own integral guidance systems easily as sophisticated as the finest Shard sensor arrays.

Nebular Dholes are a menace to interstellar traffic, and generally eradicated when found [assuming that sufficient firepower is present to undertake the task]. They feed on certain bands of radiation, many of which are present in significant amounts in Shard Drives. Thus, hungry dholes are often rapacious and attack as soon as they perceive a ship. However, on other occasions, perhaps when the creature is not hungry, encountered ships have gone unmolested as the dhole swims the void alongside for a time, its inner nebular display of ‘star-motes’ treating the travellers to a spectacular show. Indeed, there is a small industry of Dhole-Hunters, who take tourists to view the creatures. So beautiful is the display, that wealthy enthusiasts are willing to risk death by plasma stream or exposure in deep space for a glimpse.

Nebular dholes seem to have no interest in sentient life, and do not consume organic matter. They are, however destroyers of such life incidentally, leaving travellers to the perils of deep space as their ship is wrecked or the only slightly less cruel fate of being marooned, powerless in the husk of a dead star ship. Whether they themselves are sentient is unknown. More than one Order of the Well exploratory ship has included psyche in the hopes of communing with one. Thus far, no one is known to have survived long enough to answer the question.

Fearless: Dholes have no fear. They may or may not attack, depending on their hunger of the moment. And they may break off an attack if subjected to Wounds, but they will not flee in fear.

Alien Mind: Dholes possess such unknowable minds that they are extremely difficult to contact.  If contact is established, each round of contact, a PC or NPC psyche should roll Mind [Difficulty 40] to retain consciousness. Regardless of their success, they will become [at least temporarily] mad, after the experience.

In’dhole’ence: Dholes are enigmatic in the extreme. No one really understands them, but for extended periods, possibly years, decades, even centuries, they exist in a sort of torpor, in which they travel the deeps of space. During these times they are docile, even inert. If attacked however, they awake quickly, and will defend themselves aggressively.

Uncomprehending: The alien experience and thought process of the dholes make it such that they are not aware of difficulties their appearance or appetite cause.

SIZE 3, Ship Class: The nebula Dhole is a threat to star ships, and a MUCH greater one to mere humans.

At Size 3, Dholes are the size of medium class star ships and gain all of the Size modifiers to soak and damage, etc. such an object would have against other things of greater or lesser size. Dholes of Size 4 are not unheard of, and Size 5 behemoths the size of a Great Ship have been encountered.

As Ship Class creatures, they are far more devastating to living organisms of roughly human size, adding x3 Damage and a +3 Dice bonus to Damage [a 30 foot radius burst, doing x11 damage, with an average roll of 110 damage, with the target’s personal Soak reduced to ½ normal]. Similarly, they are naturally hardier against damage form such sources [normal personal weapons that are not considered HEAVY], gaining a Soak equal to the SIze difference times its Wound Threshold. Details have been provided on the datafile for non-heavy personal weapons and for Size 0 targets [like most heroes].