The Phactory

The Phactory is a sprawling complex built on and within a large meteor. It is a self sufficient station, unreliant on trade or communication with the outside world save for occasional new ingredients shipped in from beyond. This isolated nature allowed it to operate in secrecy until its discovery on August 2021.

## Overview

Due to Phantom's notoriety within N Spider's Universe (and the ones he owns), many anomalies, monsters, shapeshifters, and beings with access to body modification (not mutually exclusive groups) recognize his power and have opted to copy his look. Some create near-perfect physical avatars of the caliber 1, while others create forms with clear visual discrepancies based on what their alien senses perceive Phantom to look like or what they believe matters most about his design (A good example of this is Reverse Phantom). Oftentimes beings may simply attempt to hijack his conversations, warping his words and injecting their own propaganda into his statements. Most of this is done in an attempt to use the original's clout as a weapon, while other attempts are done as instinctual mimicry or a vague desire for power. Phantom largely tolerates these fakes; flies around his own unrotting carcass.

The Phactory is an overhaul of this trend, built by unknown aliens with the sole intention of duplicating Phantom. It operates under the assumption that imbuing lifeforms with his physical traits will eventually, inevitably, grant them his godlike abilities. The Phactory possesses tech far above both human and Kallid, with complex generators able to simulate conditions necessary for the creation of life and the many altering mechanisms that impart that life with existing cells, materials, and energies sampled from Phantom's main avatar. Each Phactory creation is different, from the makeup of their original "life", the terms of their alteration, and the ways "Phantom" as a concept is introduced into their bodies. This way, all potential bases can be covered.

Unfortunately for the Phactory, Phantom's power is based in the vasteness of his essence, which is itself intangible and not tied to his physical bodies. Incorporating an avatar's sheddings into organic compounds yields only a minute fraction of this power and in a heavily distorted form. As a result, no experiment has proved itself above a low caliber 3.

## History

The date of the Phactory's creation is not known, but generally thought to be after 1992, when Phantom took a more serious stance within N spider's universe. It is currently in a state of psuedo-abandonment, with its creators absent and clear signs of wear and tear. Despite this, the Phactory continues to produce viable specimens from its organics generators and eldritch repositories of Phantom's skin, fluid, teeth, or energy signatures.

The Phactory is currently overrun with rogue specimens establishing a crude ecosystem, with the most powerful forming the top predators and weaker variants (or unsuspecting explorers) serving as sustenance. It is likely that the creators realized the flaws of their plan early and abandoned their work to their creations. Equally likely that they continue to watch it, only with a distant detachment that fades year by year.

## Specimens

Below is a list of example specimens one might find in the Phactory and facts about each. Each specimen is different on even cellular levels, and no two look completely alike. Generally power is linked with size, as larger creatures can hold more supernatural energies within their bodies. All Specimens are instinctively hostile towards non-specimens and particularly hostile towards non-Phactory clones, though more intelligent variants may refuse to act on these urges or justify them at will.

All names are only descriptors. In reality specimens may refer to eachother by a variety of unique noises or languages specific to the Phactory.

1. Upper Teeth Phant - A bulky, squatting biped. It is not capable of standing on its own and must scoot itself along using its muscular tail. Possesses an incredibly dissolvent mouth that breaks down other organic matter in seconds, allowing its top-level teeth to cleave off sections of prey. This specimen has the ability to mash its loose gum and lip tissues into a ball which it then spits at prey to dissolve parts of them. As a creature with above-average magical empowerment, it can focus its psionics and manipulate the bodies of nearby creatures, slowing their movement or even freezing them in place. It is also constantly regenerating from within, making it harder to kill. It is intelligent but apathetic.

2. Mantis Phant - A twisted flying specimen with barbed arms and a lethal sickle tail. Its more human-like arm is stuck to its face and lacks the joints to move, but its fingers are still capable of grasping. It is not very flexible, but possesses surprisingly agile levitatiion and angles itself for any necessary grabs, slashes, or stabs. It is a plasmavore and telepathically siphons blood out from any open wound. It is intelligent but cannot move its mouth to speak.

3. Spine Phant - A slower flyer with a cracked face and misshapen smile. Spine Phant can become partially intangible, project its voice, mimic others, and speak with perfect clarity. However, it lacks the intelligence to hold a real conversation and will simply say what causes a reaction. It mildly poisons the air over time, leading to headaches in non-specimens. These headaches are mostly harmless but can have a mentally deletirious effect when combined with its incessant haunting.

4. Fungal Phant - A feeble and mindless creature that crawls with the partially developed fingers on its tail. Its face is distorted into a meaty growth of tubing that acts as a breathing apparatus. Like most other specimens, it does not need to breathe, but it will die of shock if this apparatus is blocked. Its breath expells particles of its body into the air, which irritate the throat and lungs but cause no other harm. It is not a threat.

5. Horn Phant - A severely asymmetrical creature. Two of its prongs have partially fused into a horn, with its face partially twisted in an attempt to recognize this as the "front" of the entity. It is unable to completely uncurl its tail, and its single arm defaults to a limp droop. Horn Phant is an incredibly vicious attacker, wrapping prey in its tail and striking repeatedly with its talons and teeth. It has bad breath that can cause temporary damage to the nerves, resulting in twitching and seizures. It is not intelligent and uses very little strategy, but gets distracted by the effects of its breath and will watch victims struggle for minutes on end, chuckling dumbly.

6. Spider Phant - A reclusive creature at the bottom of the food chain. Stumbles clumsily to and from hiding spots. Can spit a foul and pestilent saliva from its top head, but has no other defenses. Screams like a human child when agitated. It is resourceful and quick-minded, but not intelligent.

7. Ocular Phant - A heavily distorted specimen who's head hangs limply and who's tail serves as the face. Constantly leaks a heavily psychotropic chemical from its scarred bottom side. Can affix onlookers with its cyclopean eye, inducing a state of helplessness and depression that beget teary outbursts. It is the electrolytes found in these tears that sustain this specimen. If transfixed after ingesting the psychotrope, victims will be imbued with suicidal tendencies that last for years. It is intelligent but highly detached from reality.

8. Slug Phant - A specimen who's only telltale ancestry lies in its head-mounted tendril; its face too malformed to be recognizable as derived from Phantom. Crawls slowly on a series of simplistic leg-like muscles underneath its blubber. Its tentacle is its single strongest muscle and its feelers have an almost bone crushing grip. Other than this it has no defensive adaptations. A very instinct-based creature that flails and screeches when upset.

9. Human Phant - A particularly powerful specimen with several capabilities. Human Phant is both intelligent and self-aware, recognizing the plight of its brethren and what the Phactory represents. It acts paternally to other specimens, forming societies with those intelligent enough to partake and making pets of others. It despises Phantom on principle and will ruthlessly pursue any who injure a specimen, even in self defense. Human Phant is toothless but speaks with perfect clarity and knows several languages. Like Upper Teeth Phant, Human Phant is constantly regenerating from within as old material sloughs off an new material takes its place. Unlike the other, Human Phant has larger access to supernatural abilities, including pyrokinesis, cryokinesis, and limited necromancy. It is also passively sturdier and more graceful than most of its brethren. A comparatively dangerous adversary, though still only a caliber 3 organism at most.

10. Seahorse Phant - Another powerful specimen, and the strongest flyer of this group. Seahorse Phant is perpetually cackling and clacking its teeth. The musculature of its mouth develops rapidly and within a a 168 hour span forces the engorged jaw out from the face, resulting in a prehensile dangling snout. Later this completely detaches from the face, becoming a blind and meaty worm that survives indefinitely with enough protein. Seahorse Phant will grow a new set of teeth and mouthparts within the day, to start the cycle anew. In addition to its speed and strength, Seahorse Phant can choose to exert telepathic control over its spawn. Its goofy "arms" are also able to levitate at some distance from the body, allowing it to grab others and pull them in. Proximity to Seahorse Phant or its spawn forces muscle microcontractions that quickly result in buildup of lactic acid and fatigue.

11. Scurrier Phant - A fast and bitey specimen that makes dog-like yapping. Metastisizes food into new but short-lived brain cells, becoming more intelligent as food becomes plentiful. When there is no food, Scurrier Phant becomes a brainless and sessile being. It can survive forever in this state of dessication, but requires manual feeding to recover.

1, 9, and 10 are apex predators. While 2, 3, 5, and 7 would be considered lesser predators. The rest function as prey, but even bottom tier Phactory specimens can be dangerous to outsiders.

## Ecosystem

Not all Phactory specimens need to eat, and some require only small amounts of easily attainable compounds. The rest are satiated by the regular influx of new specimens by the laboratory's ceaseless work. Reproduction is rare among specimens, so most hunting and feeding is to benefit the self. The specimens able to reproduce into viable offspring are generally simpler, meaning that they serve as a staple food source for stronger and sterile variants. Those rare few of respectable power that can reproduce are by default apex predators provided they can collaborate or at least cohabitate amongst themselves.

In addition to new specimens, the Phactory is also home to stray biofilm and other microbe-analogous organisms which managed to breach containment. These tiny creatures are not imbued with any of Phantom's essence, with the exception of the Phungus, a tiny fungal organism who's mushroom resembles Phantom's head and neck.

## Culture

Culture among specimens is usually tribal-level, as most have limited intelligence. Occasionally, larger and more intelligent civilizations will emerge, though they are only as capable as their smartest leader. The labrynthine nature of the Phactory and the sheer differences among its residents make any permanent large scale organization difficult.

## Trivia

* The creators of the lab are unlikely to be THEM despite the fact that such a project would appear to align with their goals. This is because THEY almost certainly understand that this endeavor would not give them the anticipated results.