Homonculus

Homonculi are a type of artificial Other created by Alchemists.<ref>Lore Schools

[...]

Material: Alchemy

Produces draughts and potions, among other (generally temporary/consumable) items. Alchemists have incredible versatility, with the ability to create life (homonculi), alter it, heal, destroy even things that cannot typically be destroyed, and otherwise do things at the extreme reach of other schools and practices. The catch is that alchemy, which delves deeper into the search for answers than nearly any other practice, oft sets a high bar for the pre-existing researches already done and for materials used. - Pact Dice: The Practice - Wbow Version </ref>

Appearances

Uniform in appearance, half the size of an ordinary person, pale, hairless and spindly, with fingers like a spider’s legs and no noses or ears to speak of. Their mouths are wide and crowded with teeth, with their teeth and fingernails looking like they’d been collected from people who’d lost theirs. Diseased, cavity-ridden to the point you could see through some, torn, splintered, crusted with plaque or fungus, the bulk of them were so featureless that it almost suggested there was nothing to them but tooth and nail.

They carry a scent of bad meat,<ref name=":0">“It smells like bad meat,” Green Eyes said.

The thing’s ear twitched. Its head turned, quicker eliciting a grinding noise, like the roll of a tire over gravel, yet audible from two hundred feet or so away.

[...]

“It-” Green Eyes tried, testing, her voice even quieter. When it didn’t react, she whispered, “Smells like the little things back at the house.”

Homunculus? - Excerpt from Execution 13.8</ref> but whatever they're made from is not true flesh, inedible even to carnivores.<ref name=":1">Green Eyes lunged, and caught the gargoyle-thing that was chasing Evan out of the air.  She landed in a snowbank with a bit of a puff of snow, before shaking her head like a dog might, killing it.

Evan settled on my shoulder, very obviously breathing hard.

“Couldn’t-” he started.

“Breathe.”

“Could- couldn’t turn.  Or he’d get me.  Used my Evan-mojo, dodge.  Kept having to fly away.  Saw a chance, space in trees, big enough for me.  Not him.  Turned, flew here.  Thank you, thank you.  Good mermaid.”

“Bleugh,” Green Eyes said, dropping the gargoyle.  “It’s not meat.”

[...]

“Do you get it?” Evan asked, “Because I’ve flown over this town a lot, and I still almost didn’t get it, especially being distracted by the gargoyle things.”

“Things, plural?” I asked.  Perched at my shoulder, he used a wing to point.

They  were flocking.  Them and something larger.

- Excerpt from Execution 13.3 </ref>

Gargoyle

A type of homunculus that mixes stone with calloused ossified flesh.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">She moved with glacial slowness, scaling the side of the house.

If I looked, I could see some of the homunculus.  Its flesh looked like it was ninety percent callus, the worst sort of callus that appeared on the feet, as dirt and sweat colored it yellow and gray.  Being homeless, working for a farmer, living at Carl’s commune, I’d had chances to build up some pretty gruesome calluses.

But it went a step beyond.  Large patches of its flesh had almost ossified, or calcified, or something.  It, in simple terms, looked as tough as dammit.

Makes me think of those biopunk movies, I thought.

Green Eyes reached the roof.  Helped in being silent and unnoticed by Evan’s presence.

As she moved through the snow, though, a lump of snow fell from the roof.  A miniature avalanche, much like the one I’d created earlier.

Green Eyes pounced on the gargoyle, setting her teeth into its neck. 

Her tail scraped and stripped flesh from one wing, rendering it to 

tatters, and one layer of flesh from the thing’s side.  She made a screeching noise, and the thing howled at her, in return. - Excerpt from Execution 13.8 </ref> Carved stone hair, glowing eyes, wings, and a veriety of natural weapons (horns, claws, spikes down its spine.)<ref name=":3">A gargoyle.

More animal than person, it had a jutting jaw and hair that was carved out of stone. Its eyes glowed. It had horns, claws, and wings, with spikes down its spine.

It was perched on the edge of the roof, above the back door where Duchamps were filing into the house. Its head swept from one side to another, moving like a security camera might. Except this security camera was attached to something the size of a small car. - Excerpt from Execution 13.8</ref> They can serve as extremely agile flying minions<ref name=":1" /> or rooftop sentinels.<ref name=":3" />

Although they may look armoured, Green Eyes was able to flay even a larger gargoyle apart with ease.<ref name=":2" /><ref>Green Eyes and the gargoyle fell from the roof, in a heap.  She was covered in blood, and I had no idea how much of it was hers. - Excerpt from Execution 13.8</ref>

They can be as large as a small car,<ref name=":3" /> or small enough for Green Eyes to catch in her mouth.<ref name=":1" />

Homunculus-Bird

A magpie with a caricatured human face instead of a beak, able to act as a mouthpiece for it's owner to hold remote conversations. Created and utilized by the Briar Girl;<ref>“Briar-”

A bird landed in front of me, a storm of wings and feathers.

Black and white, instead of a beak, it had a very human face on a tall head, pale, with features reminiscent of one of the statues on Easter Island.  Exaggerated, stern, any eyes hidden beneath the shadows of a heavy brow.

“Thank you for answering,” I said.

“What are you doing, calling me?” the thing asked, speaking in her voice.

“I want to deal,” I said.  “I know what you want, you know what I want.  We’re going to talk sooner or later, so let’s talk.”

“Follow the homunculus,” she replied.  The bird-thing turned to prepare to fly away.

[...]

I trudged through the snow, while the homunculus-bird circled back to keep me in sight, allowing me to follow.  The

[...]

Rose continued, “The homunculus, I recognize that word.  Manufactured life.  You made it.  A lot of these Others are tools, aren’t they?  Hand

crafted Others?  They’re weapons as much as that hatchet is.” - excerpt from Breach 3.1

</ref> it's unclear whether she used alchemy or some other method.

Uses

The homonculi are weak but they come in great numbers. While anyone could presumably fight off a few of them their teeth with completely infect or cripple anyone bitten or cut.== References ==

<references/>