The spirit warrior is an enormous undead insect, the primary long-range weapon of elven crack troops during the Unhuman Wars. All Spirit Warriors went into time storage after the end of the Unhuman Wars, and they occasionally emerge in modem times.
    A fighter operates the spirit warrior from a cavity inside the chest. This is the spirit warrior’s master (also called a spirit warrior, as the two become essentially one).
    Spirit warriors are of three types: carnivores, herbivores, and nektars.
    &    Carnivores descend from the praying mantis. They have its slashing, grasping forelimbs and biting mandibles. Their wings bear eye-spots that they reflexively display before combat.
    &    Herbivores are based on the katydid. Though they are thin and spindly in build, their powerful legs carry them 600’ forward or backward, and up to 400’ vertically. Their wings and limbs are leaf-shaped.
    &    Nektars descend from an insect similar to both a butterfly and a wasp. Nektar spirit warriors are brightly colored, with iridescent thoraxes and alternating bands of color on their abdomens. Their wings are large and colorful, with various patterns.
    All breeds of spirit warrior have at least two clawed hands, feet that adhere to any surface, and functional wings. They also wield various melee weapons scaled to their size.

    Combat: Spirit warrior’s number of attacks and combat bonusses (if any) depends on its master’s level. Most spirit warriors attack with a giant longsword, doing triple normal damage (3d8). Some warriors use special bows with a range increment of 600 feet. The arrows do triple normal damage (3d6); there is a 5% chance that a Spirit Warrior carries one arrow of slaying. All spirit warriors can deliver two claw attacks for 3d6 per claw, in lieu of the weapon strike.
    The spirit warrior body “remembers” its previous existence as a living insect and confers its sense of absolute balance to the master, making disorientation impossible.

    The various species also have different attacks, as follows:
    &    Carnivores bite for 5d6 damage. The forelimbs of the carnivore spirit warrior can grapple an opponent on a successful attack roll, inflicting 1d6 crushing damage each round thereafter. A successful grapple immobilizes a smaller opponent, and later attacks hit automatically. A grappled opponent gets a Strength ability check each round to break free.
    &    Herbivores can change color like a chameleon, becoming almost invisible to an opponent (+10 on Hide-Check). Their screech attack does 2d6 sonic damage per round. The herbivore uses its leaping ability to jump over its opponent, somersaulting in midair to land and strike from behind ( + 2 to hit when the master makes a successful Jump-check).
    &    Nektars have a smooth wasp-like stinger. In life, a gland pumps a poison through the stinger, inflicting a painful wound. The spirit warrior has a hollow stinger outfitted with a small greek fire projector with 1d3 shots. The stinger can fire every other round for 3d6 damage at a range of 50 yards.

    Balance (Su): A Spirit Warrior is immune against desorientation magic, such as Confusion.

    Charging Jump (Ex): When a Herbivore successfully pass a Jump check and that action is followed by an attack, the Herbivore receives a +2 attack bonus.

    Crush (Ex): When a Spirit Warrior gets a hold on its opponent it automatically deals 1d6+9 points of damage for each round.

    Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, the Spirit Warrior must hit with one of its Claws. If it gets a hold it can attempt to crush the foe.

    Sound Immunity (Su): The Herbivore is immune to sound-based attacks. Charm and compulsion work normally.

    Sonic Screech (Su): The Herbivore can emit a sonic screech in a 20 ft. sphere dealing 2d6 points of vibration damage.

    Skills: A Herbivore has a +20 racial bonus on Jump and +10 racial bonus on Hide Checks.

In the Spheres
    Spirit warriors are weapons from the Unhuman Wars. There are three ways to acquire one: find one that has been abandoned, wrest one from its owner in combat, or grow one from an egg and perform the appropriate spells. Since the Wars ranged over a great area, the chance of finding an abandoned warrior is small. Also, those still piloted have most likely been around since the time of the Wars, so wresting one from its master in combat is also unlikely. This leaves the method of growing one from an egg, as follows:
    The would-be spirit warrior receives an egg. The fighter must incubate the pinhead-sized egg in a warm and secure environ­ment, preferably next to the fighter’s body. When the egg hatches, the warrior must nurture and protect the fragile larva from six months to a year, until it is mature. This nurturing involves close emotional contact with the insect (stroking, petting, cuddling, thinking pleasant thoughts) to develop a strong emotional bond as one would with a pet or familiar. After a year the insect is ma­ture, and the spells of modification begin; however, for the strongest bond, this final process is delayed until after the insect has died of old age. If the spells are performed on a living insect, it dies during the ceremony.
    The insect becomes a spirit warrior via spells that enlarge, animate, strengthen, and physically modify the insect’s remains. These spells also link the minds of warrior and insect in an un­breakable bond, unaffected by magic, disease, physical attack, or mental control. The final stage of the process installs a special mi­nor helm in the hollow chest cavity of the insect warrior.
    There is a base 5% chance that the discoverer of an abandoned warrior can forge a new bond with it. Alignment affects this chance, for warriors created for the Unhuman Wars were of either good or neutral alignment (law and chaos were of no consequence). If the discoverer’s alignment differs from the warrior’s, the bonding chance decreases 1% for each degree of difference- for example, if the spirit warrior is good in alignment and the finder is neutral, the chance of bonding drops to 4%; if the finder is evil, the chance drops to 3%.
    If the 5% chance fails, the effects on the discoverer who at­tempted the bond range from devastating to deadly. Roll percen­tile dice and consult this table.

Die Roll Effect
01-25	Unconscious for 1d3 days
26-85	Stroke (cerebral hemmorhage); victim incapacitated. DM’s choice of specific effects:     &    Loss of motor skills     &    Speech impairment
86-100	Death due to massive stroke and psychic trauma.

    The reason for such severe results is the bonding process itself. The process effects physical changes on the would-be spirit war­rior’s brain and nervous system. When the bonding takes place between an insect and its keeper, the links are easily forged due to the years of intimate contact. For a stranger to attempt such a bonding is dangerous indeed.
    Carnivores also develop preferences and are more insistent. The master may grow anxious when the insect is hungry, resulting in mood swings and irrational behavior (for instance, drastic re­ductions in the local space hamster population) in both master and insect.
    During the Unhuman Wars, elvish mages created the warriors as armored, super-strong weapons to counter orcish monsters be­ing released on various worlds. At first their years of research only worked up to a point: the giant undead insects ran amok, killing researchers and damaging Armada Noble itself.
    An assistant, Rowan Starblade by name, discovered that the ceremonies failed because the researchers and the insects shared no emotional bond. When one of Rowan’s “pet” research insects rampaged after the ill-fated ceremony, she threw herself in front of the beast, begging it to stop. To her surprise, the giant insect obeyed her command!
    Further experimentation with Rowan’s pet zombie revealed that when she welded a modified minor helm in the insect’s hollow chest cavity with gold and platinum wire, she could sit in the helm and pilot the insect with her speed and agility, and with the insect’s strength.
    This is only important when the spirit warrior larva is being nurtured. Nektars and herbivores feed on one or two specific types of flowering plants. Growing these flowers requires a hothouse. An insect can eat up to 30 times its body weight in a day.

Zwarth
Gargantuan Construct
Hit Dice: as base creature +20d10
Initiative: as base creature
Speed: 60 ft., fly 80 ft. (average)
AC: 28 (–4 Size, –1 Dex, +23 natural)
Attacks: Claw 2x (by base +15) or Sword (by base +15) or Longbow (by base +10)
Damage: 3d6+13 Claw, Sword 3d8+13 or Longbow 3d6
Face/Reach: 20 ft. by 40 ft. / 10 ft.
Special Attacks: Spell enhancement
Special Qualities: Balance
Saves: Fort as base +7, Ref as base +2, Wil as base +7
Abilities:Str 36, Dex 8, Con as base, Int as base, Wis as base, Chr as base
Skills: As base creature
Feats: As base creature

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Climate/Terrain: Any
Organization: Group (1–10)
Challenge Rating: As base +10
Treasure: As base creature
Alignment: Always neutral good
Advancement: As base creature

    This large version of the spirit warrior, piloted by crews of 5-8 people, has as many attacks per round as it has crew members. It is capable of true spelljamming flight and can use many weapons.

    Spell Enhancement (Su): The zwarth has the magical power of spell projection. A spellcaster in a zwarth can amplify attack spells, so each dice is upgraded one step (1d4 becomming 1d6, 1d6 becomming 1d8 with a maximum of 1d12) and all spells are cast as if they were cast with the Maximized Spell feat. For instance, if an ordinary fireball does 6d6 points of damage, then the same fireball, cast through the zwarth's hands, would do 48 (6d8) points of damage!
    Zwarth construction resembles that of a spirit warrior. Growth and bonding processes are the same. (Yes, an entire party must undergo this process!)

In the Spheres
    When nurturing nektars and herivores feed on one or two specific types of flowering plants. Growing these flowers requires a hothouse. An insect can eat up to 30 times its body weight in a day.

Sample Spirit Warrior / Zwarth

		Base elven Fighter 5 / Mage 5		This example uses an elven Fighter 5 / Mage 5 as the base.		This example uses six elven Fighter 5 / Mage 5 as the base.
		Medium Humanoid		Carnivore Spirit Warrior: Huge Construct		Zwarth Spirit Warrior: Gargantuan Construct
Hit Dice:		5d10 +5d4 +10 (50 hp)		5d10 +5d4 +10d10 +10 (105 hp)		300 +20d10 (410 hp)
Initiative:		+4 (Improved Initiative)		+4 (Improved Initiative)		+4 (Improved Initiative)
Speed:		30 ft		40 ft., Fl 40 ft (Poor)		60 ft., Fl 80 ft (Average)
AC:		+4 (Bracers of Armor)		25 (-2 Size, -1 Dex, +18 Natural)		28 (-4 Size, -1 Dex, +23 Natural)
Attacks:		Longsword +11/+6 (base attack +7/+2)		2 Claws +16, Bite +16 or Sword +16/+11 or Longbow +6/+1		2 Claws +22 or Sword +22/+17 or Longbow +17/+12
Damage:		Longsword 1d8+5		3d6+9 Claw, 5d6+9 Bite or Sword 3d8+9 or Longbow 3d6 +Special (5%)		3d8+13 Claw, Sword 3d10+13 or Longbow 3d8
Face/Reach:		5ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.		10ft x 10ft / 10ft		20ft x 40ft / 10ft
Special Attacks:		None		Crush, Improved Grab		Spell Enhancement
Special Qualities:		Low-Light Vision 90 ft, Immune to magical sleep effects.		Balance, Immune to magical sleep effects, Low-Light Vision 90 ft		Balance, Immune to magical sleep effects, Low-Light Vision 90 ft
Saves:		Fort +6, Ref +2, Will +6		Fort +13, Ref +4, Wil +13		Fort +13, Ref +4, Wil +13
Abilities:		Str 16, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 15, Wis 12, Chr 8		Str 28, Dex 9, Con 13, Int 15, Wis 12, Chr 8		Str 36, Dex 8, Con 13, Int 15 , Wis 12, Chr 8
Skills:		Varies		Varies		Varies
Feats:		Weapon Focus (Longsword), Improved Intiative, Power Attack, Weapon Specialization (Longsword), Combat Casting, Brew Potion		Weapon Focus (Longsword), Improved Intiative, Power Attack, Weapon Specialization (Longsword), Combat Casting, Brew Potion		Weapon Focus (Longsword), Improved Intiative, Power Attack, Weapon Specialization (Longsword), Combat Casting, Brew Potion
Climate/Terrain:		Any		Any		Any
Organization:		Any		Tribe (1-20)		Group (1-10)
Challange Rating:		10		15		23
Treasure:		Standard		as base creature		as base total
Alignment:		Any non-evil		Allways Neutral Good		Allways Neutral Good
Advancement:		By character class		By character class		None

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