Necrophage Swarm

Necrophage Swarm CR 1

XP 400
NE Diminutive aberration (swarm)
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +4

DEFENSE

AC 17, touch 17, flat-footed 14 (+3 Dex, +4 size)
hp 9 (2d8)
Fort +0, Ref +3, Will +3
Defensive Abilities swarm traits, from the void
Immune cold, disease, mind-affecting effects, poison, weapon damage
Weaknesses swarm traits

OFFENSE

Speed 20 ft., Climb 20 ft.
Melee swarm (1d8 plus distraction plus attach

STATISTICS

Str 1, Dex 17, Con 10, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 4
Base Attack +1; CMB -; CMD –
Skills Climb +11, Perception +4; Racial Modifiers +4 Perception; Dex for Climb

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Attach (Ex)

Any creature that takes damage from the necrophage swarm must make a Reflex save DC 14 Reflex save or continue to take the swarm damage on their turn after leaving its area. An affected creature can make a Reflex save as a standard action to end the effect.

From the Void (Ex)

The necrophage is inured to the blackness of the void. Any necrophage creature does not need to eat, sleep, drink or breathe. Additionally, they are not subject to environmental hazards of being in the void with the exception of a lack of gravity.

Limb Weakness (Ex)

If the necrophage is subject to a critical hit, it loses a limb, the limb lost can be randomly determined or chosen by the GM. If it loses a leg, it could cause the creature to become prone or if an attacking limb is severed, it loses a natural attack.

An attacker can also make a targeted attack against a limb of the necrophage. This targeted attack takes a -4 penalty.

If the necrophage is hit by a critical or a targeted attack, it bypasses their DR.

ABOUT

The necrophage is not undead, the necrophage is not a disease. The necrophage is a living organism that infests corpses, reconstitutes the organic material into new forms that it uses to kill more host creatures to continue to grow and expand. The forms the necrophage-infested bodies take are visceral, twisted horrors of their former selves. It can also form small discreet creatures out of the biological material it has subsumed. The necrophage is controlled and originally created by a insidious, psychic artifact found deep in the void. No one yet has been able to discern where the artifact came from, why it was created, or by whom. Some say, especially the fanatic cults that have grown up around its influence, that it created itself as a manifestation of the universe’s need to ascend to a higher, singular being. In either case, its goals and actions involve adding more biological material under its control and creating more unused biological material for it to take.

The artifact itself can infest the minds of living creatures nearby and slowly corrupt their minds and bodies, eventually turning them into a new necrophage creature. The artifact has little control over the exact form the necrophage takes, but it is usually efficient at its particular job.

The artifact is intelligent, it schemes, it corrupts, and it finds the most effective way to safely get more material.

Created from the loose organic material and viscera left behind by the work of their larger kin, these small necrophage creatures are the prime example of the necrophage letting nothing go to waste. They are typically formed within the distended cavities of necrophage carriers as they pick up and ‘eat stray body parts. However, they can also be created if there is enough ‘extra material’ left behind within the influence of the Void Artifact.