The Intruder Dalek

A write-up of the Intruder Dalek from Tyranny of the Daleks.  This is using the second edition rules for the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game from Cubicle 7.

INTRUDER DALEK

Intruder Dalek on the forest floor on Galentor

Concept: Infiltration-Class Unit of the Second Dalek Empire

Focus: Reconnaissance

Homeworld: Skaro

Tech level: 9

Short-term goal: Exterminate!

Long-term goal: Exterminate!

Awareness 5, Coordination 5,

Ingenuity 4, Presence 3,

Resolve 4, Strength 6

Skills: Athletics 3 (Climbing), Conflict 3, Medicine 2, Science 4, Subterfuge 5 (Sneaking), Survival 3, Technology 5 (Sensory operations)

Distinctions: Dalek - its mutated body is housed in a thin layer of Dalekanium, reducing damage by 7, and protected by a forcefield that reduces the effects of projectile weapons by one stage (those shooting at it will have their result reduced for example from Success to Barely, or Almost to Failure). It can survive in space or underwater. It can also interface with technology, and, if necessary, self-destruct (3/6/9 damage in a 10m radius).  

Equipment and weaponry:

Digital Manipulator Claw (x 2) 

Two multi‑jointed, micro‑servo “hands” for manipulation and articulation in the field, often used to assist with climbing, or to tear and pull vegetation, animal life and so forth out of the way when traversing planetary surfaces.

Combat Use: The Digital Manipulator Claw can be put to use in close combat if required.,  An Intruder Dalek may attempt a Grapple/Disarm attack: roll Coordination + Conflict vs. target’s Coordination + Athletics. On success, the Dalek can seize a handheld item belonging to the target (such as a gun) or pin a limb (target is restrained until they break free with a Strength + Athletics v Scientist Daleks’ Strength + Conflict  test).  The Intruder Dalek can also use the Digital Manipulator Claws in close combat just as a human would with their arms and fists in fighting hand-to-hand in accordance with normal combat rules.

Pincer Gunsticks (x 2)

The Intruder Dalek is equipped with two metallic pincers at the front, underneath the head turret.  These have the following functions.

Weapons: The pincers are used by the Intruder Dalek to assist with cutting through vegetation and foliage, and can also be used in this way as weapons in close combat with +2 to Strength. The Intruder Dalek can attack with both pincers in one round, with the usual penalty for more than one action, either against one target or against two targets at the same time.  In addition, if a pincer is used in close combat to attack a target that has been successfully grappled with a Digital Manipulation Claw that attack has Advantage.

Plasma cutting and welding torch - Heavy‑duty industrial cutter & fuser. Distinction - Unlock/Seal Each pincer can emit a focused plasma arc beam capable of melting or fusing most known materials, applying a damage factor of 5 per combat round.  This can be used on metal, brick, stone, rock or wooden walls, for instance, and helps the Intruder Dalek enter otherwise secure locations. Unlock/Seal - can only be used to cut or seal up objects.

Combat use of torch: The pincer’s torch can be treated as a short‑range energy weapon in close combat. Damage is (3/5/8); ignores 3 points of physical Armour due to heat damage, but can overheat; on a roll of double 1s the torch powers down for one round.

Special: When the torch is being used, it generates intense light; any adjacent target, including anyone in close combat with the Intruder Dalek, not wearing appropriate eye protection must make an Awareness + Resolve v 9 test or be dazzled (lose 2 Awareness points). It is careful not to use the torch if it might give its position away.

Exterminator (3/L/L) - In addition, the pincer’s point can open to reveal an Exterminator weapon,  slightly less powerful than the usual. It is normally cautious about using it in case it gives away its position. It takes one round to switch from the pincer’s normal use to that of the Exterminator. It can only fire one Exterminator per round due to the energy drain.

Speed: Normal travelling speed for an Intruder Dalek is slow when infiltrating, Average in normal mode, and Fast speed when in open terrain and galloping on its six legs.

Story Points: 6

Character notes

“The first claws on the ground … and the last thing you’ll never hear.”

First onto the ground and last to be detected, the Intruder Dalek is the silent herald of any Dalek incursion. From the moment its drop‑pod hisses open, this six‑legged horror vanishes into the landscape, its beetle‑black carapace absorbing starlight while telescopic, microscopic and infrared optics sweep the horizon for the faintest trace of resistance. Each humming hemisphere along its back crackles with unseen data, sifting electromagnetic chatter for troop movements and power signatures, while hypertuned audio receptors drink in every whispered consonant a kilometre away. In motion it looks ungainly; roughly five metres of turret, thorax and chitinous limb, but every joint rotates with lethal grace: four points of articulation per leg, armoured shields along each segment, and hydraulic strength enough to vault craters or, with the enormous gripping strength of its "feet", cling to rock like a titanic insect.

At its prow gleam paired Digital Manipulator Claws, capable of rending jungle vines or lifting a butterfly’s wing without tearing it. Those claws seize foliage, slice samples, or snap shut around the wrists of an unfortunate sentry, dragging the captive toward the Dalek’s unblinking eye for analysis. Behind them, smaller pincer probes flick out, shearing bark, armour plate or, when curiosity turns to cruelty, the soft tissue beneath a helmet. A front hatch irises wide to swallow whatever the Dalek harvests: chemical swabs, alien flora, entire severed heads destined for later cerebral interrogation. Samples are catalogued, coded and stowed deep in the machine’s belly before it melts back into shadow.

The only Dalek caste to walk on articulated legs, an Intruder can scamper over scree, wade through marsh, or sink beneath leaf litter to wait, motionless, for hours, days, even weeks. Many a patrol has marched past an innocuous mound of rubble only for the “rubble” to rear up once their backs are turned, scuttling after them in uncanny silence. It moves with almost no noise at all, a stealth at odds with its size, and when the moment comes to sprint it drops into a terrifying six‑legged gallop that closes distance faster than most soldiers can shout a warning. Normally silent, it only rarely speaks, but if it does, its voice is lower and more guttural than is normal for a Dalek.

During the opening strikes of the Galen Campaign, swarms of Intruder Daleks crawled across three continents, mapping fortifications and severing communications before the first battle‑fleet entered orbit. Most have since redeployed to fresh theatres of war, yet each of the four Dalek battleships in the Galentor system still carries a quintet of these infiltration specialists. Somewhere, even now, one of them is out there, buried beneath debris, sensors twitching, waiting for the precise second the time travellers dare to breathe too loudly.