Shipping and Receiving

While the original plan was to have Zak go right at the heart of the mound from the onset, the image I posted yesterday has been echoing around in the old noggin, and we’re going to start instead at the fringes of the mound, at one of the more remote entrances. Zak will be hiding out along a road leading to the mound, waiting for a termite supply truck to go by – then he can (secretly) hitch a ride into the mound.

The termites share a ‘central’ shipping and receiving facility, with secure branches that lead into other parts of the mound. There’s something nicely bizarre about a group of warring, insane creatures who share a common loading dock for their stuff… they stand around trying to psych each other out, and when a shipment arrives for one, their reps grab it and run into the facility laughing maniacally at the others. This is a metaphor, but it’s kind of the idea. They all work in secret in this shared facility, taking their individual shipments through secured gateways, but using the common receiving area. They don’t actually bring the fight here – in large part because it’s the lackeys who are sent to retrieve shipments - and the lackeys don’t really want to fight and kill each other unless ordered to do so. They probably talk a lot of smack and threaten each other routinely, but they leave their guns at home.

It might be a good idea that this is a bit more formalized, so that no weapons are allowed into the shipping section – all have agreed that they need a way to get things into the mound that they can use, and so they allow this common area to remain common.

I suppose that any sort of ‘gentleman’s agreement’ of this sort is likely to break down at some point; maybe we need a fifth faction within the mound (connecting this faction to the workers who maintain the place) of an elite royal guard whose only purpose is to moderate the fight between factions. They are adjudicators of the will of the High Queen, fulfilling her final wishes. They are the ones who prevent others from just picking off workers at random, and they are the ones who prevent larger attacks upon the mound. In fact, these guys are the biggest challenge to a group of ants that might try to sneak in, because they are actively looking for non-termite intruders! The other termites don’t really care if ants are poking around (and probably will try to use them to attack other factions), but the royal guard? Not so much…

Termite Sentry

20 CPs; Level 3; Hits 9; Feat +2

Body D6; Mind D6; Prowess D8; Spirit D10

Aim +2; Binding Spit +2; Flight +1; Melee +2; Security +2

Rifle (D6; range 3); stun grenade (D6+D10); knife +1

Termite Ability: Binding Spit. The termite may strike a target up to rating centimeters away, rolling Prowess + Binding Spit and the target rolls a Body Feat to shrug off the effects of the spit. Targets failing the feat take a -1 die shift to all physical actions, and take a -1 shift to Move. It takes D4 rounds to remove the spit.