by
Adam Frank and Tim Wallace
Faernych
A horrendous buzzing surrounds
you, and before you know what happened, you then see the mound you kicked freeing
the colony of five-headed stinging and biting bugs. They swarm around you buzzing
their terrible song the whole time.
 |
| © Nicholas Cloister, Monsters by Email, licensed to Timothy Wallace |
FAERNYCH CR 5
XP 1,600
CN Small magical beast
Init +5 (+9 with hive mind); Senses darkvision 60 ft., hive mind, low-light vision; Perception +8 (+12 with hive mind)
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DEFENSE
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AC 18, touch 16, flat-footed 15 (+3 Dex, +2 insight, +2 natural,
+1 size)
hp 43 (6d10+6)
Fort +6, Ref +10, Will +4 (+2 against attempts to scry on
you or read your mind)
Defensive Abilities prescience
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OFFENSE
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Speed 20 ft., fly 60 ft. (good)
Melee 5 bites +10 (1d4 plus 1d4 acid), sting +10 (1d4 plus poison)
Special Attacks agonizing venom
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 6th; concentration +7)
Constant—ant
haul (DC 12)
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STATISTICS
--------------------
Str 10, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 13
Base Atk +6; CMB +5; CMD 20 (28 vs. trip)
Feats Careful Speaker, Wall of Flesh, Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +3 (-1 to jump), Bluff +4 (+6 to fool
someone or pass secret messages), Fly +18, Perception +8 (+12 with hive mind)
Languages Abyssal, Common; telepathy 60 ft.
SQ hive mind, swarming
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ECOLOGY
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Environment any deserts
Organization solitary, formation (2-5), hive (11-40 and 1
queen)
Treasure none
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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Careful Speaker (Ex) Faernychs gain a +2 bonus on all Bluff
checks made to fool someone or pass secret messages (but not to feint in combat),
and a +2 bonus on all Will saves against attempts to scry upon it or read its mind
(Inner Sea World Guide).
Vampiric Venom (Su) Whenever a creature fails its saving throw
against a faernych’s poison, the faernych with the least hit points within 60 feet
is healed 1d4 hit points.
Hive Mind (Ex) Faernychs share a telepathic bond with ther members
of their hive that enhances their hive mates’ perception. As long as a faernych
is within telepathic range of at least one hive mate, it gains a +4 racial bonus
on initiative checks and Perception checks. If at least one faernych disbelieves
an illusion, all faernychs within its telepathic range are also considered to disbelieve
that illusion. If one faernych is aware of combatants, all other hive mates within
the range of its telepathy are also aware of those combatants.
Poison (Ex) Sting—injury; save Fort DC 14; frequency 1/round
for 4 rounds; effect 1d4 Dex; cure 2 consecutive saves.
Prescience (Su) Limited precognitive abilities grant a faernych
a +2 insight bonus on initiative checks, on Reflex saves, and to its Armor Class.
Faernychs are never surprised or flat-footed.
Swarming (Ex) Up to two faernychs can share the same square
at the same time. If two faernychs in the same square attack the same foe, they
are considered to be flanking that foe as if they were in two opposite squares.
Wall of Flesh (Ex) When adjacent to an another faernych, the faernych
is considered one size category larger for determining CMD and the way combat maneuvers
and abilities affect it (Kobolds of Golarion).
The small faernych is a terrifying pest. They
are, it is said, what happens when a wizard with more magic than wits, and a demon
with more ambition than smarts team up. The original hive was created some centuries
with a mixture of both the blackest arcane, and the foulest demon magics. This hive
quickly overpowered and destroyed its makers. As it ate their bodies the colony
absorbed some of the residual power of its creators and gained a sort of hive sentience.
Mostly preferring arid places with dry loose dirt
to make their mounds in the faernych will use their preternatural ability to sense
destruction and flock to an easy meal. Each colony is its own sentience. When a
fledgling queen leave the previous colony for a new home and to start her own colony
her mind separates from that of her previous hive and she forms her own consciousness.
Because of the way these terrifying creatures spread they all have memories of every
colony in their line of ancestry back to the progenitors.
The faernych will typically avoid a fight unless
provoked, normally by the destruction of their mound or someone killing a few faernych.
They prefer easy meals and due to their ability to sense impending death and rot
are often seen as harbingers of ill fortune, famine, death, plague, and other horrors
beyond the limited imaginings of mere mortals.
They will attack in groups and generally use their
barbed stingers to attack, when they sting they inject a fast acting toxin that
slowly disables their foes and leaches the life magically from those infected. Their
bites are painful as the five heads have sharp fang like teeth and saliva that breaks
down organic matter to be more easily digested for them.
The faernych are incredibly intelligent and capable
of speech. They have been known to warn beings away from their lands as well have
given some travelers safe passage. Incredibly fickle, it is not always wise to trust
their words as they lie as much as they tell the truth. An old mound is often easy
to spot by the bones and death that surround it. Some adventurers are brave enough
to try to loot some of the corpses around a mound, though this will often get a
brave adventurer attacked and will certainly bring death to the unwary.
FAERNYCH QUEEN CR
7
XP 3,200
CN Small magical beast
Init +6 (+10 with hive mind); Senses darkvision 60 ft., hive mind,
low-light vision; Perception +15 (+19 with hive mind)
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DEFENSE
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AC 21, touch 17, flat-footed 17 (+4 Dex, +2 insight, +4 natural,
+1 size)
hp 72 (9d10+18)
Fort +8, Ref +12, Will +6 (+2 against attempts to scry on
you or read your mind)
Defensive Abilities prescience
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OFFENSE
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Speed 20 ft., fly 60 ft. (good)
Melee 5 bites +14 (1d4+1 plus 1d4 acid), sting +14 (1d4+1 plus
poison)
Special Attacks agonizing venom
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 9th; concentration +11)
At will—dimension
door (self only)
3/day—dispel
magic, invisibility
1/day—bestow
curse (DC 15), curse of magic negation
(DC 15), life pact
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STATISTICS
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Str 12, Dex 18, Con 15, Int 13, Wis 16, Cha 15
Base Atk +9; CMB +9; CMD 25 (29 vs. trip)
Feats Careful Speaker, Dimensional
Agility, Dimensional
Assault, Dimensional
Dervish, Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +4 (+0 to jump), Bluff +11 (+13 to
fool someone or pass secret messages), Fly +22, Perception +15 (+19 with hive mind)
Languages Abyssal, Common; telepathy 120 ft.
SQ hive frenzy, hive mind
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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Dimensional Dervish (Su) A faernych queen can take
a full-attack action, casting dimension door
as a swift action. If she does, she can teleport up to twice her speed (up to
the maximum distance allowed by the spell), dividing this teleportation into increments
she uses before her first attack, between each attack, and after her last attack.
She must teleport at least 5 feet each time it teleports.
Hive Frenzy (Su) Once per day as a standard action, the queen
can send out a command to all faernychs within range of her telepathy. Those faernychs
are affected as if by a haste spell (CL 9th).
Poison (Ex) Sting—injury; save Fort DC 16; frequency 1/round
for 4 rounds; effect 1d6 Dex; cure 2 consecutive saves.
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