Sapient Purple OrbSource Alien Archive 4 pg. 104
With its pleasant, slowly swirling lavender surface, a sapient purple orb supplies a comforting—yet strange—presence. Purple orbs are curious and social beings that attempt to make contact with all new life they encounter, though they can be rather inept at doing so. They are able to communicate with few life-forms via their language, Orbian, as it is ancient and almost unknown to outsiders. Instead, they seek to connect directly with the minds of those they meet, supplementing their telepathy by flashing images or scenes onto the mist they emit from their surface. Less-mature purple orbs that haven’t yet bonded with others of their kind are typically more likely to be deceived or misled due to their willingness to trust and reach out to others. The typical sapient purple orb is 3 feet in diameter.
Purple orbs express a strong desire for cooperation and solidarity, both with each other and with life-forms they’ve had positive interactions with. This may be attributed to their low population and apparent lack of a homeworld; indeed, if such a place exists, they are either reluctant or unable to identify it. Those who have interfaced with purple orbs often describe imagery that may suggest that significant numbers of the strange creatures lived within the Drift in past centuries. A purple orb with companions is fiercely defensive of them. If caught off-guard and attacked, their appearance changes to more intensely deep and dark purple, and they may spin violently, flinging the whole of their weight into the attacker—though purple orbs generally refrain from fatally damaging their opponents.
A curious and rarely observed aspect of purple orbs is their bonding process. Clusters of three to six orbs at advanced stages of their life cycle sometimes opt to bond themselves to each other for the remainder of their existence, forming a single life-form called a luminant with vastly heightened capabilities resulting from their collective knowledge.
Sightings of purple orbs are sporadic, though not necessarily uncommon; they’re spotted in large numbers for short periods of time, then seem to almost completely disappear from the entirety of the Pact Worlds for a year or longer. Those who have studied purple orbs have noted that each time they reappear, it’s in lower numbers than before.Aliens in the "Sapient Purple Orb" FamilySource Alien Archive 4 pg. 104Luminant CR 11 XP 12,800
NG Large aberration
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +20
DefenseHP 155
EAC 23; KAC 24
Fort +10; Ref +10; Will +16
Defensive Abilities void adaptation; Immunities bleed, cold, radiation; SR 22
OffenseSpeed fly 60 ft. (Su, perfect)
Melee slam +17 (2d10+11 B)
Ranged fused memory blast +19 (2d8+11; Will DC 20)
Offensive Abilities excandescent flash
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 11th)
1/day—confusion (DC 22), mind thrust (4th level, DC 22)
3/day—dispel magic, haste, mental block (DC 21), slow (DC 21)
At will—detect thoughts (DC 19), mystic cure (2nd level)StatisticsSTR +0; DEX +3; CON +2; INT +3; WIS +8; CHA +5
Skills Acrobatics +20 (+28 to fly), Mysticism +25, Sense Motive +20
Languages Orbian; telepathy 60 ft.
Other Abilities astral mistEcologyEnvironment any
Organization solitarySpecial AbilitiesAstral Mist (Su) As a standard action, a purple orb can emit a pleasant, opaque, and effervescent mist that spreads 20 feet outward from the orb’s location, granting a +2 morale bonus to saving throws for each ally within the mist until the beginning of the purple orb’s next turn. Enemies that enter or start their turn in the mist must succeed at a Will saving throw or gain the fascinated condition.
Excandescent Flash (Su) Once every minute as a standard action, a purple orb can increase its luminance to an aggressively bright spectrum. Each other creature within 20 feet that can see the purple orb must attempt a Reflex saving throw or be dazzled for 1d4 rounds. If a creature fails this saving throw by 5 or more, it is blinded for 1 round instead.
Fused Memory Blast (Su) A sapient purple orb luminant can draw upon their collective memories to gather an inner magical force, briefly shifting their appearance from a single entity to the number of bonded purple orbs the luminant formed from. They expel the fused memory blast from the center of the gathered orbs as a glittering, holographic sphere imprinted with their most potent memories on its surface. A luminant’s fused memory blast has a range increment of 60 feet and targets EAC; this is a mind-affecting force effect. A creature hit by this attack must succeed at a Will save or be overcome by the mix of memories and gain the stunned condition for 1 round; this ability can stun a given creature only once every 24 hours.
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