Where a Watchful Monitor just watches, a Chronodrone remembers, predicts, and intervenes. Forged in the Guild’s deeper workshops and bonded to a Journeyman Tuner during promotion rites, each Chronodrone carries not only upgraded armor and armaments, but a dedicated chronal buffer core synced to the Metronome network. Its hull is ringed with rotating sensor vanes and ticking holo-glyphs that track local time drift in real time, flashing warnings when causality starts to fray.
In the field, a Chronodrone hovers just ahead of its Tuner, mapping gravitational shear, delay-echoes, and glitch zones before the team walks into them. When firefights break out around Metronomes or temporal artifacts, the drone projects stabilizing lattices, rewinds its own position a heartbeat to avoid lethal fire, or slams a hard-light shield in front of a VIP. Guild crews talk about “riding the beat behind the chrono,” trusting the drone’s path more than their own instincts when the Rift gets loud.
Chronodrone Robot Companion 4
The Chronodrone is the Journeyman Tuner’s evolved exocortex partner: a combat-capable, time-aware field drone that helps anchor the beat when reality starts to slip.
Perception +14 Darkvision; Echolocation Precise Hearing 30ft
Skills: Athletics +10, Acrobatics +13, Computers +9, Crafting +9, Chronomancer Lore +8, Stealth +10
Str +3, Dex +6, Con +5, Int +2, Wis +6, Cha +3
AC 21; Fortitude +8, Reflex +14, Will +14
HP 42
Immunities: bleed, death effects, disease, doomed, drained, fatigued, healing, mental, nonlethal attacks, paralyzed, poison, sickened, spirit, vitality, and void
Customizations: Camera, Grounded
Speed 25 feet, fly 20 feet
Melee Slam +9 [5/1] (Agile, Finnese), Damage 2d4+4 bludgeoning
Ranged [one-action] spark +14 [+9/+4] (range increment 30 feet), Damage 2d6+5 electricity
Special Abilities
Exocortex Link: While within 100 ft. of its bonded Journeyman Tuner, the Chronodrone shares sensory data; the Tuner is not made off-guard by flanking if either can see the attacker
Remote Operation: The Tuner can operate vehicles, doors, and machines through the Chronodrone as if physically present, using their own skill modifiers.
Advanced Maneuver Blinding Spotlight
Temporal Buffer (Reaction): Trigger: The drone or its Tuner would be hit by an attack. Effect: The drone projects a micro-stabilization field, granting +2 circumstance bonus to AC vs. the triggering attack. If the attack still hits, reduce damage by 5.
Anchoring Ping (1 action, concentrate, aura 15 ft.): Once per encounter, emit a timed pulse; allies in the area gain a +1 status bonus to checks against confusion, fear, or teleport/forced-movement effects for 1 minute.
Utility Functions
Diagnostic Sweep (2 actions): Scan a 20-foot burst for malfunctioning tech, traps, or temporal anomalies; GM may allow a Computers or Chronomancer Lore check with a +2 circumstance bonus to identify or disable such threats.
Record & Replay: The Chronodrone continuously records; with 1 action it can project a 6-second holographic playback of any event in the last 10 minutes, granting a +2 circumstance bonus to Recall Knowledge or to contest falsified accounts of that scene.
Non-Combat Applications
Metronome Calibration: Used to fine-tune local Metronomes, aligning station time to Guild standards during dock inspections.
Evidence Custodian: Provides incontrovertible holo-records in Guild tribunals or insurance disputes when timelines are contested.
Survey & Salvage: Scans derelicts for temporal hazards or unstable engines before scavenger crews cut in, marking “safe corridors” in Rift-scarred hulks[repository_file:6ae05a67-fbf8-48bd-8cc5-59866e7f9c9a].
Societal Impact
Chronodrones have turned Journeyman Tuners into mobile audit teams and emergency-response anchors. Stations that can’t afford full Chronologist detachments will often contract a single Tuner–Chronodrone pair as “beat-stabilizers” for high-risk docks, shipyards, or Rift-proximate settlements. Black markets both fear and covet them: smugglers hate that the drones’ recordings can survive witnesses, while high-end crews pay heavily for stolen shells to strip and reprogram.
Over time, people have started to treat Chronodrones like walking clocks of fate; there are dockside superstitions about never stepping in front of a chrono that has just jerked sideways to avoid a future bullet.
Adventure Hooks
“Corrupted Playback”: A Chronodrone’s log shows two different outcomes of the same event. The Guild hires the PCs to track which version is “real” and where the interference came from.
“Dead Beat”: A station’s dockside time collapses into chaotic desync after its resident Chronodrone is sabotaged; the PCs must retrieve and reboot the core while reality stutters.
“Stolen Shell”: A rival guild or data-cult steals a Chronodrone chassis; the PCs must recover it before its chronal buffer is weaponized as a localized time-bomb[repository_file:6ae05a67-fbf8-48bd-8cc5-59866e7f9c9a].
Chronodrones embody the Guild’s creed that survival in Starfall depends on not just watching the beat, but reinforcing it with engineered precision.
Comments
Post a Comment