Name: Norb Chi'Surn
Age: 42 human years, which is not far into the cultural age of majority for a Chiwen.
Sex: Male
Species: Chiwen. They are a small and not particularly robust species. Chiwen are best known as a tech-savvy people, often to be found working in maintenance and engineering sectors, though it's not uncommon to see one in a marketplace selling anything from shiny trinkets to space ship parts. They were one of the first to use plasma-based weaponry on a large scale, and it is said they're still the best at it today. The Chiwen have genetically modified themselves over many decades in order to promote the highest of intellects, among other strange changes.
Appearance: See image, borrowed from
Ship Survivor or Colonist?: Colonist.
Biography: Norb has led a simple life. He grew up on the Chiwen homeworld and was just as fascinated by technology as any of his fellows. Throughout his schooling years he developed particular interests in the wide world of technology, as was common for his species. Norb found himself especially fascinated by plasma weaponry, the history of technological advancements, and modern primitive tech. It came as no surprise to anyone when he chose to leave home and go in search of primitives to study as soon as he reached the Chiwen age of majority (roughly equivalent to 38 human years).
Upon hearing of the species that managed to survive a Chrysalid extermination attempt despite only barely being to the point of solving the light speed barrier problem, Norb knew he'd found a worthy species to study. He slowly made his way to Terran space, working as an engineer and maintenance person on various stations and ships to pay his way. Rather than making it to their new homeworld as intended, Norb found himself somewhat marooned on an agrarian colony on the outskirts of their territory. He worked hard to learn their language (developing a fascination for curse words along the way, since they were a linguistic phenomenon not found in the Chiwen tongue) and found work for himself in a city called Bellsford.
Lacking money and expecting life on New Earth to be as relatively expensive as it tended to be on most home worlds, Norb kept on working after scraping together enough money to buy a spot on a ship headed elsewhere. He helped the locals repair and upgrade machinery and tools of all kinds, and along the way he did some work to teach the backwards people some more advanced techniques. After a while he hatched a plan to make himself a wealthy Chiwen: convince the humans to convert from their foolish ballistic weaponry to superior plasma armaments from his people, with himself as the middleman of the deal of course, and everyone would be happier for it. It felt somewhat wrong to manipulate a primitive species for personal gain, but Norb told himself it was fine because he could use those finances to further his studies and his side projects in invention in innovation, and that would outweigh the negatives by tons.
Unfortunately, long before he could get this plan in motion an attack came that shook his greedy dreams. In the very recent past Norb decided that staying alive was better than making tons of money, and now he simply wishes to survive and go far away from Terran space as fast as possible.
Stats:
- Strength: 3
- Agility: 8
- Marksmanship: 6
- Intelligence: 10
- Courage: 3
- Survival: 2
Traits:
Chiwen Pellets: One of the more radical genetic modifications the Chiwen have made to themselves is their method of waste disposal. Rather than excreting it as most other species do, they have a special organ that acts as organic nuclear fission reactor that takes in waste material and produces energy that is stored in roughly spherical hard shelled pellets. The form of energy found in these pellets is a volatile cousin to traditional plasma, and it has a couple possible uses: if a pellet is punctured and the energy is not contained it will violently explode (much like a plasma grenade) after a few seconds; if a pellet is punctured and then plopped onto a valid energy receptacle (such as where the fuel pack for a plasma weapon would be plugged in) it can provide a bit of emergency energy to that device, enough for two shots with a plasma rifle and up to four for a plasma pistol if they're not high energy models. Norb's internal pellet pouch can hold up to three at a time, a new one is made roughly every 12 hours, and they are expelled through the mouth at will rather than through less convenient orifices. Fun fact: Chiwen are the only known species with a vestigial anus. (Biologically produced plasma grenades/emergency energy supply for plasma weapons, max hold limit 3, new one produced every ~12 hours.)
Chiwen Tech Savant: One of the less radical genetic modifications the Chiwen have made to themselves is to favor intellect over physical prowess. That combined with good old cultural eugenics of certain traits and skills being highly attractive have pushed the species toward great inborn talent with technology of all sorts. Norb is no exception to this. No matter where it comes from, no matter how primitive or advanced or alien it might be, he has a knack for figuring out how something works, how to break it, how to fix it, and how to hack it. Give him some time and supplies and he can probably come up with ways to improve it, too. (Bonus to all use of tech.)
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Customized Chiwen Multitool (Rank 2): Many races have created tools that can be altered on the fly to fill many uses, and of course the Chiwen have done so. They are among those who have declared mastery of this nice little utility tech, for they (as with some other species) discovered the secrets to making the tool respond to the needs of the user without any physical input. What this means in less mystical terms is that these tools are made of special metal and treated by powerful telepaths to make them quite literally sense the tool needs of the wielder and morph to fit them. It's fancy and impresses the primitives, but it's simple enough that the most tech-savvy species take it for granted as a norm, and the Chiwen rank among them. Norb has such a tool and as such doesn't need to lug around a giant tool kit, but what makes his special is that he has modified it to also be capable of delivering a powerful electrical jolt to something it touches; it can be used to overload electrical systems or as an antipersonnel weapon. Though it's something of a downgrade of the fuel's potential, Norb added on a port so that plasma energy cells can be used to power the thing at need, and each zap takes about as much energy as a plasma pistol shot. (Multitool that negates the need for other tools but provides no special bonus to tech things, has electrical zapping ability for overloading electronics or shocking people.)
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Adaptive Engineering (Rank 3): Norb has gotten used to lacking all the parts and time he would like, and as such he has figured out many ways to speed things up and to make do with what is on hand. He carries a lot of odds and ends with him out of habit, and they are usually enough to get by with thanks to his particular talents. Some notable useful things he can do that others would find nigh impossible includes tinkering with energy input interfaces to turn them into plasma energy adapters so they can use that instead of whatever they were built to work with, repairing machines by welding together bits of scrap, and building all manner of useful gadgets on the fly. As long as he's carrying some metal, wires, and a few other choice bits (or can cannibalize other objects to get them), Norb can make, alter, repair, or upgrade pretty much anything. (MacGyver type skills with all manner of technology.)
Old Melty: No self-respecting Chiwen would go out into the cold and unforgiving universe without some kind of weapon, ideally a Chiwen-made plasma blaster of some sort, and Norb does indeed respect himself. Old Melty is the modern iteration of what was the first plasma rifle Norb ever built, but it has had so many repairs, replacements, and upgrades that none of the original components remain so it's hard to call it the same gun. Even so, Old Melty is an old friend and companion to Norb, and he never goes anywhere without it. It's a rifle sized for a Chiwen (meaning that in size it's about half the size of a human rifle), but it packs all the punch of a larger gun without any loss of structural integrity or added kickback or danger of exploding horribly in Norb's hands. It doesn't look pretty, all of cobbled parts from different sources, but it fires bolts of plasma that can melt through organic material and most metals with the same ease, so it gets the job done.
Equipment List: Chiwen Pellets (stored in an internal organ, 3 max storage capacity)
Customized Chiwen Multitool
Old Melty (plasma rifle)
3 Plasma Rifle Energy Cells (ammo for the above, 12 shots each)
Techie Leathers (worn clothing)
4 Pouches of assorted bits (wires, scrap metal, fasteners, and other assorted detritus that could be found around a workshop; used for Adaptive Engineering trait)
Signature: Jorick still agrees to the murder clause.