KaionSource Alien Archive 4 pg. 58
Kaions hound miners and shippers across the galaxy, feasting on starship hulls and mined ores alike. These mollusk-like creatures produce their own energy via chemosynthesis. As a kaion scrapes up inorganic minerals from nearby rock with its radula, symbiotic bacteria in its shell produce energy and excrete any unwanted metals as a metabolic byproduct. These metals accumulate in the kaion’s shell as well as in the numerous metallic sclerites that cover the kaion’s many tentacles and two long arms. The kaion’s armored surface also produces powerful magnetic fields that respond to the creature’s bioelectric impulses, often visible in field lines of metallic dust that adhere to the creature’s shell, expanding and contracting in rhythmic, breath-like movements. By using a nearby metallic surface as an anchor, kaions can propel themselves via magnetic levitation. As space travel has increased, kaions have expanded far beyond their native habitat of the Diaspora by hitching rides on unsuspecting starships. By creating a magnetic gradient down its arms, a kaion can detach one of its sclerites and accelerate it to railgun speeds. These projectiles lodge in or adhere to targets; subsequent magnetic pulses can reel prey back as though they were harpooned.
Kaions are a social species organized into a pod structure, and whole pods cooperate to bring down larger prey. When multiple kaions in a pod have reached a sufficient level of size and strength, they can instead become magnetically aligned with each other and form a single multichambered chimeric organism called a multipole, that can fly through space unaided.Aliens in the "Kaion" FamilySource Alien Archive 4 pg. 58Multipole CR 11 XP 12,800
N Huge animal
Init +8; Senses blindsense (electromagnetism) 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +20
DefenseHP 180
EAC 23; KAC 26
Fort +14; Ref +16; Will +10
Defensive Abilities void adaptation
OffenseSpeed 10 ft., fly 60 ft. (Ex, perfect)
Melee radula +20 (4d6+14 S) or slam +20 (3d8+14 B plus grab)
Ranged sclerite +23 (3d10+11 P plus entangle)
Offensive Abilities polarity pulse, sclerite showerStatisticsSTR +3; DEX +8; CON +5; INT -4; WIS +0; CHA -2
Skills Acrobatics +20 (+28 to fly), Athletics +20
Other Abilities magnetic levitationEcologyEnvironment mountains, urban, or vacuum (Diaspora)
Organization solitary or pod (1 kaion multipole plus 3–6 kaions)Special AbilitiesMagnetic Levitation (Ex) A kaion multipole can fly in a vacuum. A kaion multipole’s magnetic levitation is powerful enough that it can fly even when not near a planetary surface or metallic object, and it counts as a metallic structure for the purpose of enabling other kaions’ magnetic levitation.
Polarity Pulse (Ex) As a standard action, a kaion multipole can release a magnetic pulse that creates a 60-foot-radius spread centered at a point within 60 feet. Each creature in that area wielding metallic weapons, wearing metallic armor, or entangled by a kaion’s sclerites must succeed at a DC 18 Reflex save or be pulled up to 30 feet toward the center of the pulse, or double that if it fails by 5 or more. If a creature is affected only because of an object it holds, it can drop the object to cease being pulled; this does not require an action. Unsecured metallic objects in the area are automatically pulled 60 feet toward the center of the pulse. Being pulled doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity.
Sclerites (Ex) As a standard action, a kaion can fire a sclerite as a ranged attack with a range increment of 60 feet that targets KAC. The sclerite lodges in or sticks to the target on a hit, causing the target to become entangled as long as the sclerite remains. An entangled creature can remove a sclerite as a move action by succeeding at a DC 26 Athletics or Acrobatics check.
Sclerite Shower (Ex) Once every 1d4 rounds, a kaion multipole can shoot a cluster of sclerites in a 30-foot cone or 60-foot line burst. Creatures in the area take 6d6 piercing damage and are entangled by the kaion multipole’s sclerites (page 58). An affected creature can attempt a DC 18 Reflex save to take half damage and ignore the entangled effect.
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