Teslites

*“....so much for sneaking in under the cover of darkness....”*

*“I suspect the Shemarrians really wanted just a flashlight that would follow them if they accidentally dropped it.”*

## Teslites E-Animal

Teslites are odd-little robotic drones originally created by the Darkwaters, supposedly to assist them in underwater work, but other sources claim the EShemar developed them from knicknacks found inside an abandoned underwater resort dome. Whatever their origin, teslites have become fairly ubiquitous around Darkwater facilities. .

Teslites resemble small handheld flashlights with swiveling heads, and bodies that split into three articulated insect-like legs. A flagellum tail can also be fitted, allowing the device-animal to swim freely.

Teslites are powered by small, but powerful, internal battery cells that are powered by induction contact with larger EShemar, Warmounts, and e-plants. This battery life limits their range, and teslites are never found far from other EShemar.

Teslites serve as mobile point light-sources, but deployed in large numbers (as they frequently are) they can serve as tripwire watch animals, suddenly lighting up in response to the presence of intruders. They can also clamper onto intruders, tagging them with light. They cannot fight as such, but they can ‘tag’ enemies and illuminate battlegrounds in their small way.

Though originally developed by the Darkwaters, teslites have begun appearing with other Tribes as well, most notably the Wayfinders, Horrorwoods, Steel Gaians, Clan Vespa, and Clan Motron.

## Abilities

The Teslite is very simple, equipped with basic sensors, completely waterproof for operations underwater, and has a few options to make it a little more useful than just a plain walking or swimming flashlight.

### Sensors

The Teslite has basic and low-light optics. The headlight is both standard and IR with a range of 30 ft

#### Radio

Short range, about 1,000 ft, but groups of teslites can serve as relays.

### Special Systems

#### Clinger Legs

The teslite can cling to just about any material like an insect.

### Programming

Teslites are not terribly intelligent or skilled; they know just enough how to get around and not blunder stupidly into the path of oncoming vehicles or fall off cliffs.

* Land/Water Navigation 88%

* Prowl 85%

* Detect Ambush 50%

### Combat

 Dodge
 Parry
 Roll
 Pull Punch

Teslites are not designed for combat, but they can cling to a target or shine their lights on a target to light it up for other EShemarrians to easily target them with their weapons.

## Options

### Molecular Sensor Chip

Teslites can be upgraded with up to 8 chips giving them the ability to
sense 8 separate odors/chemical traces. Teslites will often signal detection hits by changing the color of their lights.

### Laser Chip

This acts as both communications laser and lidar, with a range of 600 ft.

### Laser

The teslite can fire a single short range laser that does 1d4 MD and has a range of 50 ft. This is a one-shot attack.

In the alternative, the teslite can fire a laser pulse that does 2d4 MD and has a range of 500 ft, but the thermal buildup destroys the e-animal.

## Variants

### ’Sparklit’

The Wayfinders have figured out how to imbue Teslites with a tiny bit of Ecotroz essence....no more than a spark, that gives the tiny constructs a single point (1) of PPE, and allows them to show up like insect life. More to the point, Sparklits now have ‘ghostlight’ lenses in their flashlight heads, that cause beings that are mystically invisible to fluoresce quite nicely, making them show up, even 1d4 melees after light beam contact is broken.

Also, Sparklits can drive back vampires as if they were marked with the cross sign. As few as five Sparklit can drive back a feral vampire, 10 or more a secondary vampire. Master vampires are unfazed by the light beam attack of a Sparklit , no matter how many there are, though they do find them annoying.