Click-Sonar Palate
Echolocation splice: click-and-listen navigation that maps a room and its occupants without a photon.
A chimeric palate and auditory cortex spliced from bat stock, tuned to read the echoes of the bearer's own clicks. Within range the bearer fights blind, maps a dark hold, and tracks a held-breath intruder by the shape of the silence they leave. It is not sight -- Vacuum and truly still air defeat it -- but in atmosphere it is close, and the bearers click softly to themselves in a way baseline crews learn not to remark on.
Rules Reference
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Category | sensory-neural |
| Engineering Lineage | fringe splice programme (bat-stock), shut down; survivors on the Reservation |
| Point Cost | 3 |
| Point Direction | cost |
Notes
Effect Text: Navigate and fight without penalty within 30 ft when blinded or in total darkness; ignore the Blinded condition within range; +2 to Perception vs. invisible or hidden foes within 30 ft. Silent targets (held breath, vacuum) reduce range to 10 ft.
Lore Note: This splice is one of the disallowed lines -- the fringe biotechs who built it were scattered or prosecuted, and the survivors live in the Spliced communities on the Rim and in the Reservation on Helix Spire's deep continent. A retired Helix gene-crafter is rumoured to still teach the technique in the Long Lab, off the books. The click is the tell, and in the Core it draws stares; in a blackout hull breach, it draws grateful silence.
Trait Id: Click-Sonar Palate
Mechanical Effects
condition: within 30 ft in atmosphere
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
condition | within 30 ft in atmosphere |
modifier | ignored |
target | Blinded condition |
condition: within 30 ft in atmosphere
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
condition | within 30 ft in atmosphere |
modifier | +2 |
target | Perception vs invisible/hidden |
condition: silent targets or vacuum
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
condition | silent targets or vacuum |
modifier | 10 ft |
target | sonar range |