Deep Dive Sneak Peek: Pravin “Glitch” Das (Patreon)

The extraterrestrial otherworldly conspiracy I've been working on isn't ready to share, yet. I had to redirect a bunch of energy to arranging repairs to my refrigerator. Because there is clearly no more convenient time for that to happen than four days after you fill it with a month worth of freezer meals and four days before your partner goes into a surgery that she's been super stressed out about for months. So, I've been a bit distracted.

However, busy bee that I am, I have no shortage of things to share, so I'm going to show you the Devoted companion of the conspiracy I shared last week.

Pravin “Glitch” Das

Quote: Stop hogging the crackers, Moe! Those are for our guests! I’m sorry about my companion’s inconsiderate behavior. He seems to think that just because people can’t see him, they don’t realize that he’s being impolite.

Background: Pravin was born in a city overrun with crime. Mobsters shook down family businesses while police took bribes to look the other way. Elected officials and bureaucrats took money earmarked for schools and other public services and used it to line their own pockets, furthering the slow decay of his hometown. By the time he was in high school, Pravin was sick of letting bullies push him – or anyone else – around.

For the next few years, he fancied himself a hacktivist, and after graduation, he took a thankless job in tech support to pay the bills. After hours, he exposed corruption and took aim at the financial lifeblood of local criminal organizations. At the culmination of his brief rampage, Pravin locked dozens of mobsters out of their cryptocurrency wallets, costing them millions of dollars.

Their retribution was swift, and within hours Pravin found himself bound and gagged in the trunk. To the hacktivist’s surprise, rather than being taken somewhere he could be shot without anyone finding his body, the driver brought him to the basement of a curious research facility where he met Dr. William Hardison.

During weeks of examinations and medical tests, Dr. Hardison explained his purpose at length. He was a scientist specializing in hybridizing humans with animals to create near-sapient scouts for his employer. The doctor always said “near” in a peculiar way, like it was the most important part of his job. Assuming Pravin’s body and mind were found suitable, he would have the opportunity to make a significant contribution to both science and the company’s bottom line.

Despite several desperate escape attempts, Pravin was ultimately anesthetized, euthanized, and his brain tissue incorporated into the bodies of several dozen squirrels to increase their intelligence and grant them supernatural abilities. To his surprise – and Dr. Hardison’s consternation – Pravin’s awareness endured in the body of a squirrel nicknamed Glitch. For reasons not clear to him at the time, PIETA didn’t eliminate him, especially once it became clear that his ability to communicate with and command the Manticore squirrels extended to all rodents.

Pravin didn’t want to serve the conspiracy, but one night, he was visited by a talking mouse named Jonathan. The rat claimed that he was the result of Dr. Hardison’s previous mistake with enhancing animals’ intelligence – one involving lab rats and mice. Jonathan had escaped and was building an army of rodents to take down PIETA.

Pravin begged Jonathan to free him and let him join, but Jonathan demurred. What the rodent resistance really needed was a spy inside the conspiracy who could report on its activities and possibly gain access to its files, which the mouse somehow knew Pravin could do. The hacktivist in a squirrel’s body agreed, and he has played at being a useful Devoted in the service of PIETA ever since, reporting his observations to Jonathan every week or so when the mouse visits his cage, where he waits for the revolution to come.

In the conspiracy’s service, he has lost his right arm, which PIETA has replaced with a cybernetic one. Manticore squirrels he calls the Stooges accompany him everywhere, and he can call on other Manticores and rodents at need. Most of his work concerns intelligence gathering, whether it’s hacking into computer systems or using his powers of unnatural influence to wring secrets out of a target’s allies.

Appearance: Glitch is a well-fed squirrel with a cybernetic right arm

Roleplaying Hints: Pravin hates PIETA and everything it stands for. The only reason he does their bidding with such enthusiasm is to hide the fact that he’s secretly betraying them to Jonathan’s rodent resistance, and every successful mission, every conspiracy target surveilled and captured keeps Animal Control from suspecting the truth.

Origin: Exomorph

Clade: Chimeric/Invasive

Forms: Amalgam (Floating Skill 4, Six Degrees 1), Transitional (Glitch has a cybernetic arm after an injury in PIETA’s service), Uplift (large squirrel; Size 1, +1 Wits)

Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 2, Resolve 2; Strength 3 (1), Dexterity 2 (4), Stamina 2; Presence 1, Manipulation 3, Composure 2

Mental Skills: Academics 1, Computers 3 (Hacking), Crafts 2, Medicine 1, Occult 1, Science 3

Physical Skills: Athletics 3, Larceny 3 (Picking Locks), Stealth 2

Social Skills: Animal Ken (Rodents) 3, Persuasion 1

Merits: Far-Reaching (Pheromones) 2, Manticore Companion 1 (Larry; Gigantic 1), Manticore Companion 2 (Curly; Inhuman Digestion [Adamant Jaws] 2)

Willpower: 4

Stability: 6

Conviction: 2

Loyalty: 3

Aspiration: Steal a coworker’s password and use it to learn something that will be useful to the rodent resistance

Initiative: 4

Defense: 5

Speed: 10

Health: 3

Size: 1

Acclimation: 0

Adaptations: Adrenaline Surge, Ferocious, Untamed

Persistent Scars: Glitch 5, Hallucinations 5*, Alternate Persona (Natural; Brachiation; Bestial) 2**

Variations: Brachiation (Natural; Subliminal Conditioning; Generalist) 2; Electrokinesis (Scar-Free Magnitude; Glitch; Input, Output, Power, Research; Mental) 4; Beast Mastery (Glitch; Rodents; Command [Enhanced], Summon; Mental) 3; Pheromones (Hallucinations; Aura; Mental) 5; Predator’s Cunning (Glitch; Mental) 2

* Rating in parentheses includes modifications from the Uplift Form.

** Jonathan and the whole rodent resistance are part of an elaborate delusion. Glitch also speaks with a third, “invisible” third Manticore squirrel named Moe who is the source of endless frustration for him but is also fictitious.

*** Glitch’s squirrel nature often gets the better of him, causing him to unthinkingly hide small objects, flee potential predators (including humans), and hatch elaborate schemes to access food even if he isn’t hungry.

Acquainted: +1 Intelligence, +1 Wits; +1 Empathy, +1 Persuasion, +1 Socialize, +1 Subterfuge, +1 Computers; Enhanced Speed (Paranoia; Mental) 1, Predator’s Cunning (Glitch; Uncanny; Mental) 3; Paranoia (Enhanced Speed) 1

Personal: +1 Resolve; +1 Larceny, +1 Stealth, +1 Persuasion; Integrate Technology (Paranoia; Mental) 2; Paranoia (Enhanced Speed, Integrate Technology) 3

Obsessive: +1 Wits; +1 Academics, +1 Athletics, +1 Computers; Sensor Array 2 (Paranoia; Mental); Paranoia (Enhanced Speed, Integrate Technology, Sensor Array) 4