| Item: | Cucurbitati, formerly Pumpkinati |
| Size: | ~20-50 cm³ |
| Type: | Plant, Spiritual |
| Living: | Yes |
| Sentient: | Yes |
| Potential/Current Hazards | Strangulation, Decapitation, Combustion |
| Location: | Base 8, several farms and seed-vendors (locations to be given upon request) |
| Reported Anomaly: | expended sentience, possession, spiritual capture |
Usage
The item is used to catch roaming spirits, demons and anomalous residue from the night of October 31th to November 1th. It is also deployed as a financial drain on organizations trying to hide the supernatural. The item is usually deployed in smaller communities, where first time response from paranormal organizations will not interfere with the collection of specimens and large population centers where maintaining the veil of normalcy would be most personnel and money intensive.
Instances of the items are given over to local farmers markets and supermarket chains in October to a highly competitive price. The money from these sales substitute insurgency sponsored farms and pumpkin seed suppliers.
The items will activate on there own and can be collected after dawn. After a check with holy water (to be prepared by diluting holy water from known supernatural sources), deployed via spray bottle the gourd construct can ether be collected or left behind. In case of supernatural possession the gourde will show a reaction to the holy water. To lock out for: Shivers, Smoke, cursing (non-magical), sneezing, a drop in temperature and sprouting extremities.
The item is not to be approached before dawn. If encountered flee on notice and report the situation and await further orders. If an instance follows an operative into a building the building has to be abandoned with haste.
Report
The item consists of squads, gourds and pumpkins that gain a magically created life from sundown on October 31th to sunrise of November 1th if the squad, gourd or pumpkin was for sale for at least five business days before the October 31th.
The item, hereafter referred to as Cucurbitati will activate their abilities at sundown, growing vine like limbs from their stems. They will move these limbs and search for a form of exoskeleton. Their further development hinges on what they encounter to in their blind search. During this stage the Cucurbitati do not posses sight, only a tremor sense and smell. They are attracted to living creatures and wooden structures and try to hide during there approach. If spotted they have been observed to go limb or increase their tempo. It is unclear how the Cucurbitati sens that they were spotted.
Human Host
Should a Cucurbitati encounter a human they will strangle their victim until decapitation and sink their limbs inside the limbs of its host, usually assuming the hosts clothes in the process. The bulbous center of the Cucurbitati replaces the head of their host. The Cucurbitati will attempt to break off teeth from the head of the host to carve a rudimentary face into the hard gourd that has replaced the head, from which they will expel their plant insides. This somehow gains them sight. Some instances were observed to install the teeth of their hosts in the rudimentary carved mouths.
The Cucurbitati than seek out a source of fire. Should it find an open flame such as a candle, cigarette bud or a torch it will place the fire in its head through the carved eyes or mouth and than pick a nearby dwelling to enter. It sometimes targets residents that house people that have seen the Cucurbitati move without a host or have seen part of its self-mutilation.
When within a dwelling it will wander aimlessly until violently explodeing in a fireball disproportionate to the fuel a pumpkin and body would normally provide. Should the Cucurbitati not find a dwelling they will instead take on a sitting position and will only regain its mobility if the Cucurbitati sees signs of civilization, such as wandering groups or a vihicles, which it will stalk ether to the nearest dwelling or until sunrise.
Wooden/Plastic Host
If a Cucurbitati encounters sticks, plastic pipes or other pieces of aproximatly straight wood or plastic it will break them into desired pieces creating a scarecrow like body and use splintered wood/plastic fingers to carve their faces.
These inhuman Cucurbitati will not seek out fire, but instead will enter secluded places and guard them until sunrise, such as quiet parking lots, graveyards or open fields. Should an animal, human, spirit, demon or vehicle enter their chosen territory they will attempt to hunt them down in a bipedal sprint.
Should they catch something material in this way the Cucurbitati will dismember the intruder and scatter their remains on the edge of their territory. They will repeat the process until they are killed via a headshot or decapitation. They will cease their guard shortly (5-10 minutes) before sunrise. On first sunlight the inhuman Cucurbitati will ram its leg approximations in the ground in a freestanding position and spread its arms before all living matter on the creature dries within seconds hardening the creature into its final position.
Aftermath
Pumpkins that are grown from seeds from Cucurbitati have a 60% probability of becoming Cucurbitati if they are for sale and not sold as described above. All in-human Cucurbitati have a 15% chance of containing a bound spirit or demon which is incapable of leaving the intact, dried gourd.
Such capture wandering spirits were usually looking for a body to possess or overstay their time in the human world granted on the weakening of the barrier between worlds. The Cucurbitati are able to hold onto such supernatural entities up to December 25th when the next weakening of the barrier between worlds releases the captured. Subjects brought in for questioning or experimentation have to be secured before December 23th to not encounter edge cases of barrier crossings.
