Archives of Nethys

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Template Grafts | Universal Monster Rules


Spookfish Swarm

Source Starfinder #30: Puppets Without Strings pg. 61

Spookfish Swarm CR 16

XP 76,800
NE Tiny undead (incorporeal, swarm)
Init +10; Senses blindsense (scent) 60 ft., darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +28

Defense

HP 275
EAC 30; KAC 32
Fort +18; Ref +18; Will +16
Defensive Abilities incorporeal, swarm defenses; Immunities undead immunities

Offense

Speed fly 40 ft. (Su, average)
Melee swarm attack (3d10+15 C)
Space 20 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Offensive Abilities distraction (DC 22), whelming curse (DC 22)

Statistics

STR -1; DEX +10; CON —; INT -4; WIS +7; CHA -2
Skills Acrobatics +28, Stealth +28, Survival +28
Other Abilities unliving

Ecology

Environment warm land (Akiton)
Organization solitary or school (2–4)

Special Abilities

Whelming Curse (Su) As a standard action, the spookfish swarm lashes out into a disorienting frenzy of flashing fins and ghostly currents around a creature within its space. That creature must succeed at a DC 22 Will save or be afflicted by the curse of the depths (see below). A creature that has a swim speed or that doesn’t need to breathe gains a +2 circumstance bonus on this save.

Curse of the Depths

Type curse; Save Will DC 22
Effect The victim feels as though they are standing in chest-high water, no matter their current environment. The victim counts all terrain as difficult terrain and must spend 20 feet of movement to move 5 feet (and the victim can’t attempt to swim through this illusory water). When the victim rolls a natural 1 on an attack roll, they feel as though they have been fully submerged in water and must hold their breath or begin drowning (regardless of the availability of breathable air or any equipment that would normally allow them to breathe underwater); creatures that don’t need to breathe are immune to this effect. At the start of each subsequent round, the victim can attempt a Will saving throw to end the drowning effect of this curse.
Cure The victim must spend 1 week fully submerged underwater; they can use equipment to breathe, but spending time in a submersible vehicle or domed underwater facility or settlement does not meet this requirement.

Description

Explorers and wanderers sometimes return from their ventures in the galaxy’s wild and lonely places with chilling ghost stories or wondrous “big fish” tales. Prospectors and outlaws brave enough to travel the ancient seabed of Akiton’s arid Irkonian Sea sometimes come back with a bit of both. They speak of dreamlike beings that haunt the barren gorges and desert flats, apparitions from the bottom of a prehistoric ocean who drift and swim through the air. The most terrifying of these marine phantasms is known simply as the spookfish; though individually tiny, they rise from the sand in bloodthirsty swarms of flashing scales and serrated teeth. Each spectral fish is dotted with false eyespots along its flanks; this defensive camouflage has proven utterly disorienting to those hapless souls caught in a spookfish swarm.
Akitonian archaeologists have unearthed fossils of creatures with a physiology that matches the spookfish, and some speculate that the impact of a meteor evaporated the Irkonian Sea and obliterated the entire species in one fateful instant. Some victims relate a strange curse inflicted by these swarming aquatic ghosts. Innocent travelers report feeling slowly engulfed by steadily rising (though unseen) water—as though an entire spectral ocean was rising up in retribution.