Shriv


 * Togruta (That's Ahsoka / Shaak Ti's race. Doesn't really have to be this, as long as they're kind of rare and don't usually live alone (hook!))
 * mid 20s to mid 30s
 * she/they? (Kinda trying to slightly sidestep the typical mad scientist trope. Also, big Borderlands 1 Patricia Tannis energy.)

Background

Shriv is a xenobiologist who left their home planet of Shili and traveled to Vohd to study the lung fungus as soon as they found out about the discovery. They’re now the foremost expert on local flora and fauna, by virtue of being the only expert if nothing else.

Location

They can be found in their makeshift lab, organized in an old abandoned pre-UTiCo above ground facility. The lab is full of equipment, made out of assorted local junk and held together by duct tape and sheer force of will. Everything rattles and makes weird noises, and the owner will probably yell at you if you try to touch anything sensitive (which is to say, anything at all).

Interactions

Shriv is surprisingly cheerful, maybe even too cheerful for a lonely Togruta stuck on a swamp hellhole light years away from home. They are extremely excited about fungi, the local biosphere and the effects of Fog, and will talk about their research for hours if given the chance.

UTiCo uses Shriv’s research (that they readily share with anyone who asks or feigns interest) for their own reasons, and doesn’t mind not having to pay them for the work.

Danger tourists are an annoyance, until they show any form of interest in Shriv’s research, at which point they become potential students / lecture victims.

The Force relics are only interesting to Shriv as something that affected the evolution of local species.

Hooks

Why are they so excited about being in this shithole? Is it the drugs in the air? Is it the drugs in the mushrooms? Are they just stuck here because of fung lung?

(The answer is probably neither - it's just their personality. I really like it when characters look like they should have a Dark Secret and then it turns out that they just, well, don't. This can be played up a lot if the players show interest. Why does the NPC go to a weird spot in the forest every night? They're collecting samples.)

One of the major discoveries they appear to have made so far is that Togruta aren’t affected by fung lung, and though that is difficult to confirm with a sample size of one, they are able to walk around without a rebreather, seemingly unaffected by the Fog. How is that possible, and why has no one figured it out before?

(I see two ways to play this - either they're Force sensitive (which also ties into how they got here) and suppress the effects automatically, or Togruta really are unaffected and the only reason no one found that out before is because why the fuck would a Togruta even be here. This could also tie into finding a proper cure for fung lung, which is something the players will probably eventually want.)

(NPC submitted by K900)