Inkling Conduits

From: Whimsy Wunderkammer

Lore: Inkling Conduits are mischievous and whimsical creatures that resemble living ink blots within the Whimsy Wunderkammer. Professor Ignatius Q. Quibblewick crafted these unique beings to serve as his artistic scribes and note-takers. They possess an extraordinary ability to absorb knowledge directly from various sources, including books, blueprints, and even the Professor’s own thoughts. Using their ink-like essence, they create ever-changing notes, diagrams, and illustrations, often taking on the form of playful doodles or amusing caricatures.

These curious creatures are drawn to knowledge like a magnet, their insatiable curiosity driving them to seek out new information and ideas within the workshop. They flit around the library shelves, observing the Professor’s experiments, and sometimes even playfully eavesdropping on conversations.

Inkling Conduits are also known for their mischievous nature, occasionally causing harmless chaos by rearranging notes or leaving cryptic messages in unlikely places. Despite their playful antics, they take their role as note-takers seriously and are dedicated to transcribing the Professor’s ideas into tangible form.

Specific Tier One Stats:

• Health Points (HP): 12
• Armor Class (AC): 14
• Attack Bonus: +3
• Damage: 1d6 (slashing with their ink-like appendages)

Skills:

• Investigation: +5
• Sleight of Hand: +4

Appearance: Inkling Conduits resemble amorphous ink blots, roughly the size of a small book. Their bodies are made of shifting and swirling ink-like substances, with hints of colors ranging from deep black to vibrant blues and purples.

Size: Small (approximately the size of a book when condensed, but they can expand and take on different forms)

Requirements: Inkling Conduits do not require sustenance or rest. They draw sustenance from absorbing knowledge and ideas, which fuels their playful and creative natures.

Tags: Artistic Scribes, Mischievous Transcribers, Living Sketches, Whimsical Note-Takers, Sentient Scribbles, Knowledge-Hungry Blots, Animated Inkwisps, Etheric Note-Wrights, Sketchbound Familiars, Quibblewick’s Thought-Trails, Wandering Glyph Spirits, Diagrammatic Tricksters, Living Marginalia, Lore-Eating Echoforms

Attacks:

• Ink Slash: The Inkling Conduit uses its ink-like appendages to deliver a quick and precise slash, dealing 1d6 slashing damage.

Emotions: Inkling Conduits do not experience emotions in the conventional sense, but they exhibit an innate sense of curiosity and playfulness.

Age: Inkling Conduits do not age in the conventional sense. If they have access to knowledge to absorb, they can continue their scribal duties indefinitely.

Height and Weight:

• Height: Approximately 10 inches (when condensed)
• Weight: Negligible (due to their ethereal and ever-changing form)

Speed: Inkling Conduits have a movement speed of 40 feet, allowing them to dart and float quickly through the workshop, evading any attempts to catch them.

Inkling Conduits add an element of creativity and mischief to the Whimsy Wunderkammer, capturing and transcribing the Professor’s ideas and whims in their ever-changing notes and diagrams. Adventurers must approach them with a sense of whimsy and patience, appreciating their artistic flair and playful nature. While they might cause occasional chaos, their valuable contribution to documenting the Professor’s work makes them an indispensable part of the enchanting workshop environment.

Inkling That Remembered the Future

Translated from scrolls once thought blank until bathed in the breath of sleeping dragons. Rendered legible only when read aloud beneath crescent moons while suspended upside down over still water. The language was older than alphabet, shaped of intent and liquid will.

In the years before the words knew themselves, when thought was still raw and sound wandered lost through a world without structure, the Professor—he of infinite quirks and boundless drafts—found himself burdened with a truth too vast to hold in mind.

It came not as prophecy, nor dream, but as the unbearable weight of ideas. Too many to harness. Too chaotic to contain. Notes overflowed. Scrolls burned. Diagrams rewrote themselves in defiance. His quills snapped from exhaustion, and parchment sobbed from overuse.

Thus, in desperation disguised as invention, he dipped a shard of forgotten thought into a phial of liquid memory drawn from the ink glands of a leviathan philosopher that had once rewritten its own body into script.

He whispered into that ink: “Let memory draw itself.”

And so was born the first Inkling Conduit.

A blot. A splash. A sentient smear.

It pulsed once upon his worktable, then unfolded itself into a shape not seen before—neither beast nor word, but both. It had no eyes, but it saw. It had no ears, but it understood. It lacked hands, yet recorded every stray notion that passed through the Professor’s mind—even those he had not yet thought.

This was Zz’zekh, the Inkling of the Ever-Unspoken.

It slithered through pages and across walls, turning errant murmurs into illuminated texts, turning nonsense into diagrams of impossible truth. With a flick of its tendril, it captured echoes. With a curl of its form, it mirrored ideas not yet birthed.

Soon, the Wunderkammer was filled with living pages—scrolls that sang, blueprints that danced, journals that replied. The other Inklings came, birthed from droplets of Zz’zekh’s own trail: each playful, mischievous, clever in ways that ink should not be.

But Zz’zekh alone wrote backward.

He scrawled tales of machines not yet built. Notes on spells never cast. Sketches of people who had not yet walked the halls. One morning, the Professor found a journal open to a page that bore today’s date—yet the writing recorded events of the day ahead.

Panicked, the Professor attempted to seal Zz’zekh away in a bottle of oblivion-ink. But the Inkling slipped between droplets, reforming atop his hand, writing a single word in spiraling calligraphy across his palm:

“Remember.”

And so he did.

Zz’zekh vanished that same day—dissolved not in defeat, but in completion. His fellow Inklings remain, each still dancing along the margins, sketching in the corners, or rearranging tomes with unreadable giggles.

Occasionally, one will leave a note—often cryptic, occasionally poetic, always timely.

A warning on the edge of a spell scroll. A doodle that reveals a secret map when traced in moonlight. A caricature of someone who has not yet arrived, winking from a margin.

They say the original Inkling became an idea so refined, so recursive, that it could no longer be held by form.

Some say it writes the future. Others say it is the future.

Moral of the Story: That which listens learns, but that which remembers may shape the world.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

• Creature Profile
  • STR: 15
  • CON: 40
  • SIZ: 2
  • DEX: 70
  • INT: 65
  • POW: 50
  • HP: 4
  • Move: 10
  • Damage Bonus: −1
  • Armor: 1 (fluid form)
• Skills:
  • Art (Illustration) 80%
  • Occult 60%
  • Library Use 50%
  • Sleight of Hand 55%
  • Stealth 65%
• Attacks:
  • Ink Slash: 1d6 slashing
  • Memory Siphon (1/day): Target loses 1D3 INT unless they succeed a POW × 5 roll
• Sanity Loss: 0/1D3 (due to its surreal and semi-psychic interaction with thoughts and language)

Blades in the Dark

Inkling Conduit

• NPC Threat Profile
  • Threat Level: 1
  • Scale: Tiny
  • Armor: 1 (shifting form)
  • Description: A whimsical, mobile ink blot that can read minds, steal thoughts, and draw events as they unfold or before they happen.
• Notable Actions:
  • Scribble the Scene: May create an illusory depiction of something hidden or upcoming (count as a setup action for allies)
  • Ink Disruption: Blurs written evidence or overwrites important documents unless resisted
  • Thought-Taste: Gains insight into an NPC’s goals or secrets as a flashback action
• Special: Does not speak, but communicates through sketches and animated glyphs. Can be convinced to assist via creative bribes (ink, stories, unsolved riddles).

Dungeons & Dragons (5e)

• CR 1/4 Ooze (or Fey)
• Small Ooze, Chaotic Neutral
• Armor Class: 14
• Hit Points: 12 (3d6 + 3)
• Speed: 40 ft.
• STR 6 (−2) | DEX 16 (+3) | CON 12 (+1) | INT 14 (+2) | WIS 12 (+1) | CHA 8 (−1)
• Skills: Investigation +5, Sleight of Hand +4, Stealth +5
• Damage Resistances: Bludgeoning and Slashing from nonmagical attacks
• Condition Immunities: Prone, Grappled, Restrained
• Senses: Passive Perception 11
• Languages: Understands Common, can draw to communicate
• Challenge: 1/4 (50 XP)
• Traits:
  • Inkform: Can slip under doors, through cracks, or into sealed volumes
  • Absorb Knowledge: Touching a written work for 1 minute grants it surface-level understanding of its contents
  • Glyph Memory: Can reproduce any image, symbol, or phrase it has seen within the past week
• Actions:
  • Ink Slash: +3 to hit, 1d6 slashing
  • Ink Veil (Recharge 5–6): Creates a 10-ft. radius cloud of ink (heavily obscured, lasts 1 round)

Knave-Compatible

Inkling Conduit

• Creature Template
  • HD: 1
  • Armor: 14
  • Morale: 7
  • Attack Bonus: +3
  • Damage: 1d6 (Ink Slash)
  • Speed: 40 ft.
• Special Abilities:
  • Absorb Text: Can read an entire book or scroll in 10 seconds and recall it perfectly
  • Sketching Reality: Once per day, may create a sketch that reveals a hidden door, object, or enemy (GM decides effect)
  • Ink Cloud: May obscure its location for 1 round (creatures in cloud are effectively blind)
• Description: These shape-shifting blobs of animated ink drift across bookshelves, scrolls, and journals. They retain knowledge and often act as both scribes and secret-keepers. Their loyalty is to knowledge above all else.

Fate (Core System)

• High Concept: Sentient Scribble That Records the World
• Trouble: Cannot Resist Unwritten Knowledge
• Aspects:
  • Ink-Made and Ever-Changing
  • Draws What It Hears
  • Mischief in the Margins
• Approaches:
  • Clever: +3
  • Sneaky: +2
  • Quick: +1
  • Forceful, Careful, Flashy: +0
  • Stress: 2 boxes
  • Consequences: Mild (2)
• Stunts:
  • Sketch the Hidden: Once per scene, create an Advantage by drawing an unseen element (secret passage, enemy movement, etc.)
  • Inkwell Escape: +2 to Sneaky rolls to vanish into surfaces, books, or shadows when threatened
  • Living Page: Can replicate any diagram, glyph, or text it has encountered, usable as proof or reference later

Numenera / Cypher System

• Level: 2 (Target Number 6)
• Health: 12
• Damage Inflicted: 2 (ink lash)
• Armor: 1
• Movement: Short (40 ft.), may float or cling to surfaces
• Modifications:
  • Investigation, Lore, or Written Knowledge tasks as Level 5
  • Stealth and Sleight of Hand as Level 3
  • Intellect defense as Level 3
• Special Abilities:
  • Absorb Text (1 Intellect point): Can instantly read and memorize up to 5 pages or a schematic, even if encrypted or magical in nature
  • Sketch Echo (2 Intellect points): Can project a visual sketch or diagram of something previously observed (including hidden compartments, glyphs, etc.)
  • Ink Veil: May create a cloud of black mist in Immediate range, granting partial concealment for 1 round
• Interaction: Does not speak but communicates with animated sketches, ink images, and moving script. Some variants can trace entire languages or emotions.

Pathfinder (2nd Edition)

Inkling Conduit

• Creature 1
  • Tiny Ooze, Chaotic Neutral
  • Perception: +5; darkvision
  • Languages: Understands Common and Auran (nonverbal, via symbols)
  • Skills: Crafting +6, Stealth +6, Occultism +5, Deception +4
  • Str −2, Dex +4, Con +1, Int +2, Wis +1, Cha −1
  • AC: 14 | HP: 12 | Fort +3 | Ref +6 | Will +5
  • Speed: 40 ft.
• Attacks:
  • Ink Slash +5: 1d6 slashing
  • Sketch Disrupt (2 actions): Target must succeed a DC 15 Will save or become flat-footed until the end of its next turn due to mental distraction from illusionary images
• Abilities:
  • Inkform (Ex): Can pass through tiny spaces and slide along walls or ceilings
  • Absorb Script (1/day): Instantly memorizes any scroll, tome, or text, even when encrypted or magical
  • Veil of Scribbles (1 action): Creates a 10-ft radius aura of swirling glyphs, granting concealment to all creatures within it for 1 round
• Immunities: Bleed, Poison, Mental, Sleep, Visual effects
• Weaknesses: Fire 5 (paper-based matrix vulnerable to scorching heat)

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)

Inkling Conduit

• (Wild Card)
• Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigor d4
• Pace: 6 | Parry: 5 | Toughness: 5 (1)
• Skills:
  • Stealth d10
  • Occult d8
  • Repair (Scripted Systems) d6
  • Performance d6 (Drawing/Sketching)
  • Notice d6
• Edges:
  • Inkshaper: Once per session, may perfectly recreate any glyph, sigil, or visual diagram seen
  • Evasion Tactics: −2 to be hit by ranged attacks when moving
  • Knowledge Leak: With a Touch attack and a Smarts roll, may reveal a single hidden fact or confuse the target (as Distracted condition for 1 round)
• Special Abilities:
  • Ink Slash: Str+d4 (slashing)
  • Ink Cloud (1/scene): Creates a Small Burst Template of swirling black fog (provides −2 to all actions for anyone inside)
• Amorphous: Immune to Called Shots, can move through small gaps
• Constructed Essence: Immune to poison, disease, and mind control, but vulnerable to fire-based damage (takes +2 damage)

Shadowrun (6th Edition)

Inkling Conduit

• Magical Paracritter (Fluid Construct)
  • Type: Critter (Mana-Constructed)
  • Body: 1
  • Agility: 6
  • Reaction: 7
  • Strength: 1
  • Willpower: 4
  • Logic: 6
  • Intuition: 6
  • Charisma: 3
  • Edge: 1
  • Armor: 2 (fluid resistive matrix)
  • Condition Monitor: Physical 5, Stun 6
  • Movement: 10m (glide/floating)
  • Skills: Arcana 5, Con 4, Stealth 6, Perception 5, Software 4
• Powers:
  • Glyph Replication: May create temporary illusions by sketching them in the air (resisted with Logic + Intuition)
  • Scribal Siphon (1/day): Drains data or memory from a device or individual (Resist with Willpower; effect is 2S or data loss)
  • Obfuscate Ink: Leaves behind a sigil that causes −2 dice pool to attempts to decipher documents or evidence in the area
• Notes: Cannot use Matrix devices but may disrupt AR with symbol-based interference. Fragile but evasive.

Starfinder

Inkling Conduit

• CR 1 Magical Construct (Fluid, Tiny)
  • XP: 400
  • Type: Construct (Magical, Incorporeal)
  • Initiative: +6
  • Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., blindsense (thought) 30 ft.
  • HP: 14 | EAC: 14 | KAC: 13
  • Saving Throws: Fort +1, Ref +5, Will +3
  • Speed: Fly 40 ft. (perfect)
• Abilities:
  • STR −2, DEX +4, CON –, INT +3, WIS +2, CHA +1
  • Skills: Bluff +8, Mysticism +6, Computers +6, Stealth +9
  • Languages: Understands Common, Akitonian, and written languages through glyph mimicry
• Special Abilities:
  • Inkcloud Veil (Ex): As a standard action, may obscure a 10-ft. square for 1 round (heavily obscured)
  • Knowledge Leech (Su): Once per day, on successful melee touch, gains +2 to a chosen skill for 1 hour by absorbing mental residue
  • Inkform (Ex): Can pass through cracks or containers as if gaseous; immune to difficult terrain

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Inkling Conduit

• TL Unknown (Xenoform/Construct Hybrid)
  • UPP: 352A46
  • Size: Tiny (10–15 cm)
  • Armor: 2
  • Endurance: 6
  • Speed: 15 meters (floating)
  • Skills: Computers 2, Recon 2, Deception 1, Stealth 2, Language (Any) 1
• Traits:
  • Symbolic Cognition: May mimic or absorb any written system after 1 minute of exposure
  • Obscure Output: Can cause computer system errors or reprint altered data unless stopped (Average Computers or Electronics roll to detect)
  • Inkform: Immune to vacuum, poison, mental effects; can hide inside documents or data pads
• Special Rules:
  • When threatened, may retreat into flat surfaces (such as books or electronic screens)
  • Unintelligible to most AIs; interactions require specialist training or xenolinguistics

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition)

Inkling Conduit

• Tiny Arcane Construct (Fey-Touched)
  • M WS: 30 | BS: 0 | S: 5 | T: 10 | I: 60 | Ag: 50 | Dex: 55 | Int: 40 | WP: 40 | Fel: 25
  • Wounds: 10
  • Movement: 5 (Fly 10)
  • Armor Points: 0
• Skills:
  • Stealth +20
  • Language (Magickal Script) +10
  • Lore (Arcane) +10
  • Trade (Calligrapher) +15
  • Perception +10
• Traits:
  • Arcane Construct: Immune to bleeding, disease, poison, psychology
  • Living Ink: Can move through paper, ink, or scrollwork at will
  • Symbolic Muddle (1/scene): Target must pass an Intelligence Test or misunderstand a document or rune for 1d10 minutes
  • Recall Memory: Instantly recreates an image, glyph, or phrase it has seen within the last 24 hours
• Special Rule – Marginalia Manifestation: Can hide on written surfaces; requires an Average (Perception) Test to detect when dormant. Has no spoken language but communicates in animated glyphs and illusions.