Kilitomb

Kilitomb

Skill 9

Stamina 24

Initiative 3

Armour 3

Damage as Polearm

Mien:

1.      Deep in thought

2.      Prepared for you

3.      Baiting an ambush

4.      Wondering when you would turn up

5.      Fermenting revolt

6.      Silent reading

Quiddity

Behind every gang of armed matachins is a kilitomb, sat in an abandoned workhouse or treacherous monarchists stately home, holding court like some feign barbarian King, granting gifts to their favoured vassals. Helmets bud from their flesh endlessly, slowly, which they pluck and give to their chosen agents. Once worn a transformation begins in the wearer: their skull and mind soften and the barriers break down, allowing the matachin to feel the edicts of their kilitomb like some great lighthouse flashing along the horizon, and the kilitomb to see through their senses. The kilitomb wields them like a knife seeking the heart of Troika, but it is a body with no organs, so they slash wildly.  

Violence

Kilitombs main purpose is to act as switchboards of armed revolt. When a threat to the kilitomb node is identified there will be a calculated escalation, starting with deniable assets, then matachins – both helmed and unhelmed – and finally the kilitomb itself will act directly. It will appear prepared, reinforced, and unannounced, towering over a cadre of matachins, its 12ft bulk wielding a glaive like a toothpick.

Ecology

It is generally agreed that the kilitombs are agents of the Anti-City, sent up to establish beachheads towards the downfall of the Universal Congress. What isn’t clear is what the kilitomb’s necessary positive counterpart is. Since nothing in Troika matches its substance, the prevailing theory is that the reason for its absence is because the counterpart is, similarly, in the Anti-City below doing the exact mirror thing as the kilitomb above.

Lair

Kilitombs make lairs of any defensible building they can take over. They usually start by squatting in a warehouse or under a bridge and, through the proliferation of their matachins and the leveraging of monarchist sentiment amongst the elite, work their way up into the literal and figurative halls of power.

Special

If killed, their matachins will lose the benefit of their hive mind and revert to their old selves, but otherwise be unchanged. Anyone wearing one of their budded helmets must Test Their Luck or else become a part of the kilitomb hive mind (effectively dead unless the kilitomb is found and killed).