#088 - Gestator

[Lazarus Carter]

GESTATOR

Name: Gestator
Aliases: Splicer, Grower, Rootmother

Sphere: Darkroot Domain
Tier: Elite

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Spoiler:

Abilities: Part organic, part synthetic, the fifteen-foot tall Gestator is truly a gruesome sight for all involved. One of the Domain's most horrifying creatures, its base combat abilities lie in its mechanical framework. It possesses six mechanical legs forged into its pale amorphous sac of a body, thinly defensible, viscous and almost liquid-like, a thick blubber coating which absorbs any attacks on its vital organs, held at the very centre.

Its front two organic arms are linked into a pair of mechanical cannons, from which it fires large bursts of nondescript soul energy; though the weapons are automatic, they rotate slowly, and the cannons can overheat after a solid thirty seconds of continual use, meaning the Gestator must use them sparingly. Surprisingly for an Elite, it has no direct combat abilities aside from these cannons, and whilst its speed and evasive nature is something to be reckoned with, physically, it is not defensible or strong. A few direct hits and it will go down easily.

This is far from the ugly creature's true purpose however.

Anything the Gestator slays, it will, without a doubt, consume. Infact, it will do so on the alive and critically wounded or incapacitated without even euthanising them first. It will viciously tear into them for its meal, and of the small pieces of whatever it eats, even smaller fragments will be absorbed into a small mechanical complex known as "The Gestation Matrix" within its body. Once tissues are moved into the Gestation Matrix, they will be broken down on a microscopic, genetic level, and mimicked, and then, at an accelerated rate, deformed variants of the Demon or creature consumed will be grown in the three tanks on the Gestator's back and the two on its front.

The Gestator is able to grow these mimicry creatures rapidly but they will almost always spawn with deformities. Once they grow large enough, in a process painful for both the Gestator and the growing creature, the tanks will explode outwards, and the creature, hereby referred to as a Gestated Thrall, will drop to the side of the Gestator, and with all its life and will, defend it. The Gestator can only host five living things at a time, and will grow them at different rates. However, even when "full", it will continue to eat, seemingly for its own vindictive and neverending gluttonous hunger.

These Thralls will be highly unintelligent and able only to follow basic orders, and in many cases, severely limited when opposed to the regular variant of Demon, but growth time for each type in the tube is as follows:

- Level 1 or Familiar class Demons will leave the tanks after an hour. (Lifespan three hours)
- Level 1/2 or Lesser class Demons will leave the tanks after three hours. (Lifespan six hours)
- Level 2/3 or Greater class Demons will leave the tanks after six hours. (Lifespan twelve hours)
- Level 3/4 or Elite class Demons (bestiary included) will leave the tanks after twelve hours. (Lifespan one day)
- Level 4 or Hellguard class Demons will leave the tanks after twenty-four hours. (Lifespan 2 days)
- Humans will leave the tanks after three days. (Lifespan up to a month, also most intelligent)

After the lifespan "expires", these Demons will undergo critical body failures and disappear.

Miscellaneous Notes: - The Gestator itself is sentient, but can communicate only through limited telepathy. It cannot speak - only hiss and gurgle.
- Killing Thralls seems to harm and agitate the Gestator itself, and wiping out all of its Thralls will leave it vulnerable and mentally debilitated.
- Gestation Thralls appear almost zombified, and are completely insentient apart from able to silently take orders from the Gestator.
- Gestators and their Thralls live in networks of large, expansive, cavernous underground hovels, where they draw their prey to and "store" their thralls.
- Marked as Elite because it's not uncommon to find a Gestator surrounded and defended by at least five or ten Thralls of various tier and level.
- Provided it has one Thrall, will hardly ever fight.