Tzamanthia, Mad Scientist Bee Princess

[TheFred]

Note for Saberfan: This is a second character; I just wanted to write it up for fun but you've already got plenty to review to feel free just to ignore it (unless you love the concept too, I guess 🙂)

 

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Princess Tzamanthia

Apine Artificer | Teen Technologist | Individualist Inventor

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"When a hive gets too big, one of its royal daughters is sent out to seek a new home. With a small band of bodyguards, workers and advisors, she travels across the wilderness in search of a place to found a new community. Once there, she chooses a mate from amongst her most loyal subjects, and starts having children of her own. Pretty soon the hive is a flourishing small city, and the new Queen has daughters of her own ready to be sent out into the wild.

Yuck.

You think I want to spend my life popping out babies when I could be doing science?"

https://slightlysimian.tumblr.com

Name: Tzamanthia ("Zam") Race: Abeil ("Bee Person") Classes: TechnicianMad Scientist|ThaumaturgeExperimentalist, Martial Thaumaturge/WizardSphere Wizard/VizierSphere Vizier Alignment: Neutral Good Theme Song: Royals (Lorde) / Royals (Postmodern Jukebox cover) Likes: Technology, science!, individualism, discovering new things Dislikes: Monarchy, outmoded ways of thinking, being called a princess Party Role: Knowledge buff, skill-monkey, device specialist, ranged combat damage

 

Background

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When a hive gets too big, one of its royal daughters is sent out to seek a new home. With a small band of bodyguards, workers and advisors, she travels across the wilderness in search of a place to found a new community. Once there, she chooses a mate from amongst her most loyal subjects, and starts having children of her own. Pretty soon the hive is a flourishing small city, and the new Queen has daughters of her own ready to be sent out into the wild.

One day, the time came for Princess Tzamanthia, favoured daughter of great and much-beloved mother of our people, Queen Halazapta, to begin her sojourn. Like others before her, and like those who will follow, she set out into the great beyond.

As is the way of such things, the road was not easy. These valiant explorers were beset with trials; the rugged terrain, the harsh weather, and attacks by vicious monsters. Many such expeditions do not survive. Unfortunately, Tzamanthia's was one of them. Two weeks into their journey, the group were attacked by vicious Braughrs, swooping in to pick of beeman after beeman. Tzamanthia's bodyguard rallied around her, but they were no match for the huge, horrific beasts, and she was powerless to help as her people were quickly decimated. She tried, desperately, to invoke the magics that her mother had tried to teach her, but her attempts were ineffectual and did little to turn the tide. In despair, she reached for a power that she didn't know existed - and Realmwalked.

The few survivors fell through a gate between worlds, ending up in an alien realm unlike anything they had ever seen.

What nightmare was this? Great structures, like those of a hive but of grey stone and some gleaming substance, reared around them, lit by a myriad lights and fantastic, glowing designs. People - alien people, of various types but who each had only two arms and legs - swarmed around them, whilst large whining creatures with glowing eyes that illuminated the path in front of them whirred past, beeping and growling.

This was the world of Tameshi, a world of metal and magic, of neon and chrome, a world which never sleeps, and where information and industry are all.

Tzamanthia was startled to discover that her home was not, in fact, the epitome of civilisation. The knowledge of her people, even the magic of the bee queens, was pitifully primitive compared with the power of Tameshi. Here, they had developed metalworking, combustion, chemistry, electricity, pharmaceuticals, robotics, cybernetics, quantum mechanics, artifical intelligence, and more! Even more than that, was the concept of the social sciences, ideas like democracy and individualism. Despite their remarkable resemblance to the drones of the Abeil hives, each person here had their own thoughts and dreams. They were expected to have say in their own governance and their lives were not (entirely) predetermined by the accident of their birth. The species of Tameshi each had two genders, and both were considered equal, neither destined either to rule a hive or work on its behalf. Most of Tzamanthia's party found this world simply too alien, too much for them to bear. But she, herself, was fascinated. She had never really wanted to be a Queen, responsible for the fate of a whole city and destined only to produce offspring whilst her attendants fussed about her. She had always wanted to learn more, to discover things about their world - something that a princess simply could not do. But now... now she was free.

 

Personality

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"I wouldn't mind settling down and having a family some day, but a small one - maybe only a dozen children or so."

Perhaps it's just teenage rebellion, but Zam (as she now prefers to be called) is done with the matriarchal dictatorship of her childhood. Now, she believes strongly in individualism and self-determination, meritocracy over monarchy and freedom of thought as well as speech.

Zam is determined to enjoy everything that her childhood missed out on, which is quite a lot when you spend most of your time being groomed to lead a band of your people into the unknown and eventually rule them. She wants to have fun, but more than that she wants to try new things and experience everything that all the worlds have to offer.

Whilst Zam is technically (at least, by her homeworld's standards) a princess, she hates to be referred to as such, having long since decided that such constructs are largely meaningless in the grand scheme of the cosmos. Doing so is a sure-fire way to earn her ire. Likewise she dislikes anyone else adopting such affectations and on trips to other worlds has been known to get herself into trouble by encouraging peasant populaces to rebel against their not-so-benevolent overlords.

 

Appearance

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"How do you goofballs even solder things with only two hands?"

Zam was surprised to discover that, of all the races of Tameshi, none of them had antennae or more than two arms, both of which are characteristic traits of the bee-people. Amongst her people, she's small and slight, even for a female, with a quirky and inquisitive expression that shows up frequently whenever something piques her interest.

Eschewing the traditional dresses and robes of an Abeil princess, Zam can most often be found sporting some kind of casual outfit, often a baggy knitted hoodie (a few of which she made herself, not having many opportunities to buy garments with four sleeves on Tameshi) and jeans or sweatpants. Detracting from the homely, bee-girl-next-door look, however, are the many gadgets and gizmos she's usually decked out in - usually inventions of her own creation ranging from X-ray goggles to wrist-mounted portal guns. When on missions for the Realmwalker's Guild, Zam usually doubles down on this, replacing her homebody casual-wear for a high-tech suit of her own design which has been specially treated to and protect from extreme temperatures.

 

Edited January 28 by TheFred (see edit history)

[TheFred]

Mechanics

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"Hey, bozo! Say hello to my little friends!"

Sheet is not 100% completed but nothing major is likely to change:

Statblock

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Princess Tzamanthia
Senses: Darkvision 60ft, Perception +14, Init: +7
HP: 99/99
AC: 37, Touch: 28, Flat-footed: 30, CMD: 30 (+5 vs ranged attacks)
Saves: Fort +15, Ref +20, Will +15
Veils: Storm Gauntlets (4), Courtesan's Cloak (4), Pestilence Cloak (0)
Special: 20% concealment vs ranged (Will DC 18 negates)
Activate: Armoured Magis aegis (x2), Deflection aegis, Resistance aegis, Enhance Equipment

Inventor is a weird class, and Experimentalist is a weird Thaumaturge archetype. Realistically, though, I expect Zammie will mostly just be blasting with her laser pistols, something that she's quite good at.

Thanks to Eternal Sprite from the Technomancy Sphere, her pistols get automatically recharged, and when they're not recharging the sprites can grant a hefty +4d6 bonus to damage. Combined with the Storm Gauntlets from the Veilweaving Sphere (+3d8 energy damage) she can really put out some hurt - particularly given that she can use four of them at once. Her AB is not great, but it does target touch AC. Creatures with energy resistance are also likely to be a problem as most of the damage is laser damage (I could switch to charge-powered revolvers, I suppose - might be worth taking some as backups in fact).

Zam's magical abilities are pretty narrow, given how few talents Thaumaturges get, and I've tried to theme everything as tech-based. She can create (pretty weak) healing draughts using Instil Shapeshift and Vitality from Alteration, or she can dissect monsters to create potions of other traits. Veils, like Incarnum Soulmelds before them, work really well as nanotech or tech gizmos, with essence representing power that can be diverted between them. The Pestilence Cloak is actually a Nanotech Shield, the Storm Gaunlets are Energy Enhancement Gloves, etc. Likewise as a Mad Scientist she gets access to "spells" such as Cybernecrotics (Animate Dead), Holographic Pod-Racer (Phantom Chariot), and Search the Internet (Pagebound Epiphany). These have little-to-zero combat relevance due to their slow casting time and all cost cold but allow a little utility around all-day buffs or information-gathering via divinations.

Skill-wise, she has a high Int, all Knowledge skills, and Amazing Inspiration, so she's a bit of a knowledge-bot. Finally, she can scribe scrolls, craft wondrous items, and use Eldritch Insight (from Vizier) to get bonus charges on magical items, all of which add a little utility.

Oh, and of course nobody would be able to get by with a little help from their friends! Zam also has Mechanical Best Friends (probably a clockwork familiar), a robot Independent Invention, and I'm sorely tempted to use Conjuration + Channel Companion to create an AI co-pilot who can run informagical subroutines whilst she's shooting.

I think that the Compound Hacking talent from Technomancy is totally borked, especially if combined with Eternal Sprite. So far as I can tell, there's nothing (other than my own self-control) stopping me from putting an arbitrary number of sprites in each pistol and having them all give +damage.

 

Notes

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The "Abeil" were a little-noticed race in the old D&D 3.5 Monster Manual 2, and part of the inspiration for this character. I borrowed the name for want of a better one, though the details are fairly different.

"Tameshi" is partly borrowed from "Tamashii: Chronicle of Ascend" (a cyberpunk board game), as well as being the name of a Magic: The Gathering character from their now-cyberpunk plane Kamigawa. If it wasn't obvious - it's cyberpunk themed (I thought the contrast between stone age bee-people and cyberpunk would be fun).

Bees are actually Haplodiploid, rather than just overwhelmingly male, so you'd have female workers and male drones. But (a) these are fantasy alien bee-people anyway, not actual bees, and (b) maybe the workers are all female after all, but nobody cares because they're peasants.

Edited February 2 by TheFred (see edit history)

[TheFred]

The World of Abeil-Tzata

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"Hear ye, hear ye! Let it be known that on this glorious day, our wondrous and benevolent ruler, the great Queen Halazapta, much-beloved mother of our people, has given birth to another beautiful daughter, who shall be named Tzamanthia. The harmonious voices of our devoted people are raised in glorious exultation as they swear once again that the unquenchable fires of their passion for this great hive shall always burn for the betterment and protection of our supreme monarch and her daughters!

In her infinite wisdom and moved by her bottomless love of all her loyal subjects, our glorious leader Queen Halazapta has decreed that in celebration of this wonderful day, which historians shall always remember as momentous and the people of this great hive shall forever look back upon with longing and happiness, all peasants shall be granted one additional half-hour's rest time, and that food rations shall be increased by one-third that all loyal workers might enjoy a glorious celebratory feast to commemorate this most bounteous of occasions!"

Abeil-Tzata is a wild, dangerous world full of megafauna and flora, including terrible monsters like Braughrs and Kurunkun. The dominant intelligent species are the Abeil, or Bee-People, who live in densely-populated cities separated by vast tracts of wilderness.

Abeil society is regimented and strictly hierarchical, with each member assigned to roles for the good of the greater collective according to their birth. There are four different types of Abeil, each demonstrating a genetic polymorphism which makes them particularly suited to their roles: workers, warriors, wizards, and women.

The workers are the most populous of the beefolk, and perhaps the most hardy. They have every bit as much endurance and raw strength as the warriors, but sadly tend to be lacking in intelligence. Anyone who's not a worker tends to look down on workers, who they believe to be genetically inferior (at least in the brain department).

Warriors are also strong and tough, but where workers focus on the day-to-day running of the hive, warriors focus on military technique and tactics. The warriors of each hive train and work together as a single unit (a hive mind, if you will), making them one of the most advanced fighting forces that anyone can imagine. Only huge monsters like Braughrs can break their phalanx formations and beefolk warriors almost never rout, fighting to the last man.

The wizards are very few in number, and charged with the intellectual and societal issues of a hive. They keep records, maintain law and protocol, and advise the queen on all manner of things. They provide much-needed stability to the hive, gently guiding any monarch who might, in a rare flight of fancy, try to do something that doesn't fit with the traditions of the beefolk. Primarily bureaucrats and civil servants, some of these advisors do engage in something like scholarly pursuits (something not largely valued by the Abeil) or even practice magic.

Finally, the females of the species. These are very few in number, and all are destined one day, should fate smile upon them, to become queens of their own hives. The female Abeil are endowed with a beauty and intellect far beyond that of any mere worker or warrior, and most are also blessed with potent magical and psychic powers. This allows them to protect their hives from threats as well as guide them, often communicating telepathically with their drones and servants.

Of course, there are other races upon Abeil-Tzata, such as the nomadic Woobles and the Kun-Kun, but none of these have much in the way of society to speak of, and certainly not civilisation.

Despite having reached the pinnacle of social development, however, the Abeil are - by interplanar standards - somewhat primitive. Their infantries are strong and well-trained, but underequipped; their stone-age technology hasn't even gotten to metalworking, let alone anything further. Only the powerful magic of the Abeil Queens allows the hives to function as effectively as they do, and even this is limited, with only a few lesser practitioners supporting her.

 

The World of Tameshi

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Tameshi is about as different to Abeil-Tzata as one can get.

This is a world of science and progress, where information is everything and magic and machinery have become one. Ancient spirits inhabit computers and vehicles, whilst technomancers teleport through power cables and summon swarms of nanobots to do their bidding. It is a world of neon and chrome, where sprawling cities have consumed whatever was there before to stretch for miles into a horizon pierces by towering skyscrapers and gargantuan light displays.

Edited January 27 by TheFred (see edit history)

[TheFred]

Spare

[Saberfan]

An abeil? Now that's something I haven't seen in quite a while. Tzamanthia is an interesting concept and I will add her to the remaining half-dozen or so apps to deconstruct and review.

[TheFred]

I was going to add some notes about that. Some of the inspiration (and the name) comes from the rather forgotten Abeil from D&D 3.5's Monster Manual II. I kinda just thought that the idea of these bee-people going off and forming new hives elsewhere was a fun concept for a story or something. Tzamanthia is not quite the same as the MM2 Abeil, mechanically or story-wise, but I figured I might as well just pinch the name.

[Saberfan]

I know a lot of people thought abeils were fairly mediocre and forgettable, but my table always enjoyed the idea of quirky bee humanoids back in our 3.5 Abeir-Toril game. We were always a weird group though and that may have had something to do with it.

[TheFred]

Yeah they are cool, just never seemed to get much traction. If the Abeil Queen wasn't ECL 21 I would totally have tried to make one as a PC at some point too. I think that would be a fun hook for a game, actually: you're a bunch of bees heading out to found a new hive. Anyway, that's Tzamanthia, except she instead got transported to a cyberpunk world and became a scientist.

[Illogictree]

I have to ask... Is the name of her native world an intentional reference to the name of the Forgotten Realms' world(s)?

[TheFred]

No, not really. It’s more from the name of the race (though I guess the similarity was witting, if not entirely deliberate). I wasn’t actually going to name the world at all, in fact, it’s just hard to speak about it otherwise.

Also, I realised that I haven’t posted a link to her sheet! There is one (almost complete, in fact), so I’d better get on to that