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Holo scutigera Mantisquido 5

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by

Dale
in

Original Life Forms — This creature is a feral amalgamation of four distinct life forms from different major classes of the Animalia Kingdom:
Class Myriapoda: House Centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata)
Class Malacostraca: Peacock Mantis Shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus)
Class Cephalopoda: Vampire Squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis)
Class Holothuroidea: Sea Pig (Scotoplanes)

Appearance

The Mantisquido is a horrifying, low-slung creature that skitters through damp, dark places. Its body is long and segmented, like a centipede’s, but plump and semi-translucent like a sea pig’s, with faint bioluminescent organs glowing within. It moves on dozens of delicate, rapidly moving legs. From its front section sprout two formidable raptorial appendages like those of a mantis shrimp, capable of delivering blindingly fast, powerful strikes. Its head is a bizarre fusion, dominated by the large, globular red eyes of a vampire squid. Instead of a mouth, it has a retractable web of skin that connects its two main raptorial limbs, which it can unfurl into a dark, fleshy cloak lined with soft, glowing cirri.

Size

It’s about the size of a large dog, roughly four feet long from head to tail, but only stands about a foot and a half off the ground due to its sprawling, multi-legged stance.

Speed

The Mantisquido possesses an unnerving and explosive speed. It can remain perfectly still for long periods before bursting into motion, its many legs carrying it across cave floors and up walls with startling swiftness.

Stat Modifiers

  • Dexterity: Very High
  • Strength: High
  • Constitution: Moderate
  • Wisdom (Perception): Moderate
  • Intelligence: Low (Animalistic)
  • Charisma: Very Low

Skills

  • Acrobatics: Masterful at climbing walls and ceilings.
  • Stealth: Proficient, especially in darkness.
  • Intimidation: Uses its threat display to terrifying effect.

Behavior

This creature is a territorial ambush predator that thrives in total darkness. It clings to the ceilings or walls of caves, waiting for prey to pass beneath it. When a target is in range, it drops down, using its webbed cloak to disorient and entangle its victim while striking with its powerful raptorial claws. If threatened by a larger foe, it will flash its internal bioluminescent organs in a dizzying, hypnotic pattern as a deimatic display before skittering away into a crevice.

Diet

The Mantisquido is a carnivore, feeding on cave fish, large insects, and any creature unfortunate enough to wander into its subterranean domain. It pulverizes its prey’s exoskeleton or bones with its powerful strikes before feeding.

Emotions

It operates on simple, primal drives: hunger, territoriality, and a reactive fear that manifests as a startling threat display. It is an anxious, jittery creature, prone to explosive bursts of action.

Environment Where Found

It is found exclusively in deep, damp, and dark environments. It thrives in the megacities in dark cave systems and the unlit grottos of the underworld, often near subterranean rivers or fungal forests.

Tags: Feral, Amalgamation, Carnivore, Ambusher, Cave Dweller, Bioluminescent, Subterranean, Wall Climber, High Speed, Territorial, Raptorial Claws, Threat Display, Mantisquido, Multi-legged, Exoskeleton, Darkvision, Ensnaring Web, Bludgeoning Strikes, Pouncer, Translucent Flesh, Jittery

Life Cycle & Mating

The life cycle of a Mantisquido is a strange, multi-stage process. They begin life as soft-bodied, gelatinous larvae hatched from a large, communal egg mass left in a subterranean pool. These larvae are scavengers, feeding on cave fungi and detritus. After several months, they crawl onto land and undergo their first molt, hardening into a “nymph” stage where they resemble smaller, faster versions of the adult with less-developed claws. They are highly cannibalistic during this phase. After several more molts over the course of a year, they reach their adult size and full power.

Mating is a rare and hazardous event. Once every few years, a biological imperative drives them to seek each other out. They gather in large, dark caverns and engage in complex, competitive courtship rituals involving intricate, pulsating displays of their internal bioluminescent organs. After a brief and violent mating period, the females deposit a single, massive gelatinous egg clutch in a secluded pool before the creatures aggressively disperse, their temporary truce forgotten.

Tactics

The Mantisquido is a “pouncer” and an “ambusher,” using the three-dimensional nature of its cave environment to its full advantage.

  • Ceiling Ambush: Its primary tactic is to use its many legs to cling silently to the ceiling of a cave, often over a narrow passageway. Its dark coloration makes it nearly impossible to spot from below. It will wait patiently, sometimes for days, for prey to pass directly underneath it.
  • Drop & Ensnare: Once a target is in position, it drops from the ceiling. As it falls, it unfurls the webbed cloak between its raptorial limbs. Its goal is to land on top of its prey, using the fleshy web to disorient, entangle, and obscure the victim’s vision, preventing immediate retaliation.
  • Pulverizing Strikes: While the target is confused and entangled, the Mantisquido unleashes a rapid series of devastating blows with its mantis shrimp-like claws. These aren’t for cutting, but for pulverizing. The strikes are fast enough to boil the water around them and powerful enough to shatter exoskeletons and bone with pure concussive force.
  • Threat Display: If confronted by a foe it perceives as superior, it will not attack. Instead, it will flash all of its bioluminescent organs in a chaotic, blinding strobe pattern and simultaneously hiss loudly, hoping to startle the threat long enough for it to skitter away at high speed into a nearby crevice.

Actions

In a combat scenario, a Mantisquido would use these unique actions:

  • Raptorial Pummel (Melee Attack): A melee attack that deals heavy bludgeoning damage. Due to the speed of the strike, a target hit by this attack may have difficulty using reactions until their next turn.
  • Dropping Pounce (Special Attack): If the Mantisquido is on a ceiling above a creature, it can use its action to drop onto it. The target must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, the target is knocked prone, takes bludgeoning damage, and is entangled by the creature’s fleshy cloak until the start of the Mantisquido’s next turn.
  • Disorienting Pulse (Bonus Action): The Mantisquido can flash its internal lights in a dizzying pattern. Any creature that can see it must make a Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on its next attack roll.
  • Wall Skitter: The Mantisquido can use its full movement to move up, down, or across vertical surfaces and ceilings without making an ability check.

Other Interesting Information

  • Bioluminescent Chitin: The chitinous shell shed by a Mantisquido during its molting process retains a faint, ghostly bioluminescence for weeks. Subterranean races and deep-cave explorers prize this material, using fragments of it as long-lasting, low-light trail markers or incorporating it into ceremonial gear.
  • Symbiotic Fungi: Certain species of bioluminescent cave fungi have a symbiotic relationship with the Mantisquido. The creature does not eat these fungi and its presence deters other creatures that would. In return, the glow of the fungi can help attract the insects and other small prey that the Mantisquido feeds on.
  • Transparent Predator: An adventurer’s light source will pass through the creature’s semi-translucent body, revealing the ghostly outlines of its internal organs and, disturbingly, the partially digested remains of its last meal.

Adventurers would cross paths with a Holo-scutigera Mantisquido either through misadventure in the deep places of the world or as the target of a very specific, dangerous contract.

Incidental Encounters

The Mantisquido is a master of its subterranean environment, meaning most encounters happen when a party unknowingly intrudes on its territory.

  • Delving into the Depths: The most common encounter would happen while a party is exploring a dungeon, ancient ruins, or a natural cave system. They might be focused on avoiding traps and other monsters, only to realize too late that the strange, glowing fungus on the ceiling is actually a Mantisquido waiting to drop on them.
  • The “Safe” Passage: In the world of Saṃsāra, sometimes the quickest path between two surface locations is through the vast, dark megacave systems. A party taking such a perilous shortcut could easily wander through a Mantisquido hunting ground, forcing them into a sudden, terrifying confrontation in the dark.
  • Fleeing Into Danger: An adventuring party might be retreating from another, larger subterranean threat—like a horde of smaller creatures or a massive beast—and take refuge in a side cavern. This supposed safe haven could turn out to be the lair of a Mantisquido, forcing them to fight a new battle on two fronts.

Deliberate Hunts

Given the extreme danger and remote location of these creatures, a party would only hunt one intentionally if the reward was significant.

  • A Light in the Darkness: The bioluminescent organs and shed chitin of a Mantisquido are highly prized. They produce a powerful, long-lasting, cold light without magic. A subterranean city or a deep-earth mining guild might post a lucrative bounty for these components, needing them to create permanent lighting for their tunnels and settlements.
  • The Secret of the Strike: The raptorial appendages of a Mantisquido are a marvel of biological engineering, capable of striking with incredible speed and force. A master weaponsmith or an engineer’s college would hire a party to bring back an intact, undamaged specimen. Their goal would be to study the unique muscle and chitin structure to replicate its power in new forms of gear, like siege weapons or powerful gauntlets.
  • The Terror of the Tunnels: A Mantisquido establishing a lair near a critical underground trade route or a mining outpost is a disaster. It can pick off workers and travelers with impunity. The governing body of a subterranean city or the head of a mining operation would pay a handsome reward to any group of adventurers skilled enough to track the creature to its lair and eliminate the threat.
  • An Exotic Ingredient: The strange, gelatinous flesh of the creature, while inedible to most, is said to have unique properties when used in advanced alchemy. A reclusive alchemist or a powerful noble might require the translucent hide of a Mantisquido for a single, potent potion—perhaps one that grants temporary wall-climbing abilities or resistance to pressure.

Beyond the bioluminescent organs and chitin, a carefully prepared harvester can extract several other valuable ingredients from the corpse of a Holo-scutigera Mantisquido.

Resonant Striker Nodules

These are the dense, layered chitinous tips of the creature’s two primary raptorial appendages. Their internal micro-structure is uniquely formed to withstand and amplify kinetic force.

  • Use: A master smith can carefully extract these nodules and incorporate them into the striking surface of a warhammer, mace, or gauntlet. A weapon fitted with a Resonant Striker Nodule delivers a devastating concussive shockwave on impact, making it exceptionally good at sundering enemy armor or stunning opponents.

Abyssal Lenses

These are the large, perfectly spherical lenses from the creature’s globular red eyes. They are adapted to perceive light in the absolute darkest environments.

  • Use: When ground and set into goggles or a helmet by a skilled artificer, Abyssal Lenses grant the wearer superior darkvision. More importantly, they are sensitive enough to perceive the faint energy of magical auras, allowing the user to see the ambient glow of enchanted items or active spells, even in complete darkness.

Umbral Cloak Membrane

This is the dark, leathery, and surprisingly durable web of skin that connects the creature’s two main raptorial limbs. It is naturally light-absorbent and lined with soft, bioluminescent cirri.

  • Use: A leatherworker can cure this membrane to create an Umbral Cloak. The cloak’s texture and dark color make it excellent for moving silently through shadows, granting a significant bonus to stealth checks in dim light or darkness. A high-tier enchanter can reactivate the dormant cirri, allowing the wearer to command the cloak to produce a single, disorienting flash of light to blind nearby enemies.

Gelatinous Insulator

The semi-translucent hide of the Mantisquido is filled with a thick, non-conductive gel that protects it from environmental extremes.

  • Use: This gel can be carefully rendered down by an alchemist. The resulting substance is a powerful insulator. It can be applied to armor to provide temporary resistance to fire or cold damage, or used as the key ingredient in a Potion of Environmental Adaptation, which allows the drinker to ignore the effects of extreme heat or cold for a time.

Tale of the Light-Drinkers

It is recounted from whispers and crumbling glyphs found in the deep, dark places of the world, of a city that is no more. It was a city of the underworld, carved from the living rock, and its people were said to be so proud that they waged a war against darkness itself. They were masters of crystal and light magic, and they hung great, glowing stones in their vast caverns until there was no night, only a permanent, beautiful, and arrogant day.

They had forgotten the first rule of the depths: that some darkness is sacred, for it is ancient and it is home to things that were not meant for the light.

In the deepest, unlit chasms below their shining city, there dwelled the creatures the glyphs name the Light-Drinkers, for it was said they consumed the light and left only fear. These are the beasts now known as the Mantisquido. They were creatures of absolute darkness and silence, and the eternal, magical daylight of the great city was a torment to them. It was a constant, painful noise against their very being. The light seeped into their quiet homes, and it awoke them.

First they came one by one. A miner would vanish from a newly lit tunnel. A guard at a deep outpost would be found broken, their light-crystal shattered. The people of the city did not understand. They saw these as isolated attacks by lesser beasts, and in their pride, their answer was to bring even more light, to push the shadows back further.

This was their doom. The great light was a tide that drove the Light-Drinkers from their homes, and they swarmed upwards, towards the source of their pain. They came not as a mindless horde, but as a silent, skittering plague. They climbed the cavern walls, their dozens of legs finding purchase where no other could. They were shadows moving against the brilliant glow of the city.

The people of the city, whose lives were built around what their eyes could see, were helpless. The Light-Drinkers used the city’s own brilliance against them. They would flash their own internal, bioluminescent organs, creating strobing, disorienting pulses that confused the eye. In the moments of blindness, they would drop from the ceilings, their webbed cloaks unfurling to smother and entangle. Their powerful claws did not just strike at flesh; they struck at the great light-crystals themselves.

With each crystal that shattered, a section of the city was plunged back into the primordial darkness it had forgotten. And in that darkness, the Light-Drinkers were kings. The city’s guards could not fight what they could not see, a hundred skittering legs moving in perfect silence. The screams of the proud echoed in the newly born night of the caverns, and then they too fell silent.

The great city did not fall in a single, glorious battle. It was eaten from the inside out, district by district, light by light. The people who had sought to banish all shadows were consumed by a darkness of their own making. The last of them fled to the surface, blinded by the sun, with tales of skittering things that drank the light and left only silence. The great subterranean city is now a dark hive, the largest known hunting ground of the Mantisquido, its only light the faint, ghostly glow of their passing.

The Moral of the Story: A great light, when cast upon a place that loves the dark, does not banish shadows; it only makes them deeper, and wakes what sleeps within them.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

Skittering Light-Eater

A chittering horror from the sunless depths of the earth, this creature is a fusion of alien biologies that scuttles at the edge of an investigator’s light. Its appearance is an affront to natural law, and its speed is terrifying to behold.

Characteristics STR 70, CON 65, SIZ 55, DEX 85, INT 30, POW 60, APP 05

Combat HP: 12 Damage Bonus: +1d4 Build: 1 Move: 12 Magic Points: 12

Sanity Loss: 1/1d6 Sanity points to see the Skittering Light-Eater drop from a ceiling or burst from the darkness. 0/1d3 Sanity points to be caught in its Ensnaring Cloak.

Attacks

  • Fighting (Brawl) 60% (30/12), damage with its raptorial claws for 1d8 + DB (bludgeoning).

Special Attacks & Abilities

  • Ceiling Pounce: If the creature is on a ceiling above an investigator, its first attack is made with a bonus die. If it hits, the investigator must succeed on a DEX roll or be knocked prone and entangled.
  • Ensnaring Cloak: A pounced-upon or grappled investigator is entangled in the creature’s fleshy web. They must win an opposed STR roll as their action to break free. While entangled, all their physical actions are at a penalty die.
  • Disorienting Flash: As an action, the creature can pulse its bioluminescent organs. All investigators who can see it must pass a POW roll or suffer a penalty die on their next action.
  • Wall Crawler: It can move at its full Move rate on walls and ceilings.
  • Armor: Its chitinous segments provide 1 point of armor.

Blades in the Dark

Gutter-Mantis

(A swift, demonic predator that haunts the ink-black under-tunnels and forgotten cisterns of Doskvol; Tier III Threat)

This fiend doesn’t walk, it flows through the darkness in a series of impossibly fast, skittering movements. It uses the city’s verticality to its advantage, clinging to the underside of bridges or the top of high arches to drop on unsuspecting scoundrels.

Drives:

  • To ambush and pulverize prey in the dark.
  • To defend its damp, secluded lair with startling violence.

Abilities & Tactics: The Gutter-Mantis is a skirmisher and a terror. It strikes hard and fast, then uses its incredible speed to disengage and reposition for another ambush. It aims to disorient and separate its targets.

Custom Moves:

  • Flow Up the Walls: The Gutter-Mantis disengages from a fight, ignoring obstacles, by skittering up a nearby wall or ceiling into the darkness.
  • Drop from the Inky Blackness: It ambushes a target from above. Inflict Level 3 Harm (“Crushed by the Impact”) and entangle them in its disorienting cloak.
  • Hypnotic Strobe: Unleash a confusing flash of internal light. All who see it are mesmerized and hesitate; the GM may tick a relevant clock or describe how the crew loses the initiative.
  • Shattering Blow: Its claw attack is so powerful it can destroy a piece of gear carried by the target (a lantern, a bottle, a finely-made pistol).

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Holo-scutigera

Medium monstrosity, unaligned

Armor Class 16 (natural armor) Hit Points 82 (11d8 + 33) Speed 40 ft., climb 40 ft.

Ability Scores STR 17 (+3), DEX 18 (+4), CON 16 (+3), INT 3 (-4), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 6 (-2)

Skills Acrobatics +7, Perception +4, Stealth +7 Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 14 Languages — Challenge 5 (1,800 XP) Proficiency Bonus +3

Traits

  • Spider Climb. The holo-scutigera can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
  • Ambusher. In the first round of a combat, the holo-scutigera has advantage on attack rolls against any creature it has surprised.

Actions

  • Multiattack. The holo-scutigera makes two Raptorial Pummel attacks.
  • Raptorial Pummel. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of its next turn.
  • Ceiling Drop. If the holo-scutigera is on a ceiling, it can drop onto a creature directly below it. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone and take 11 (2d10) bludgeoning damage. The holo-scutigera lands in an unoccupied space adjacent to the target.

Bonus Actions

  • Disorienting Flash. The holo-scutigera pulses its bioluminescent organs. Each creature within 20 feet that can see it must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn.

Knave (2nd Edition)

Glimmer-Mantis

A creature of the deep caves, a flash of light and a blur of legs. It is known for its incredible speed and the bone-shattering force of its claws.

Level 4 Hit Dice 4 (18 HP) Armor 1 (Reduces damage from each hit by 1) Morale 9 Attacks: Two Claw attacks (d8 damage each)

Qualities

  • Lightning Fast: The Glimmer-Mantis always makes two moves on its turn instead of one. It can attack after its first move.
  • Wall Crawler: Can move on walls and ceilings at its full speed.
  • Pounce: If it drops on a PC from a ceiling or high ledge, its first Claw attack automatically hits and deals maximum damage.
  • Strobe Flash: Once per combat, it can emit a blinding pulse. All PCs who can see it must pass a Wisdom save or be stunned, unable to take an action on their next turn.
  • Brittle: An attack that hits the Glimmer-Mantis’s head (a called shot at disadvantage) bypasses its armor.

Fate Core

The Skittering Flash

(A blindingly fast predator from the sunless caves, a creature of instinct and startling violence)

Aspects

  • High Concept: Lightning-Fast Subterranean Predator
  • Trouble: Jittery, Paranoid, and Always on Edge
  • Other Aspects: Flows Across Walls and Ceilings, A Blinding Pulse of Inner Light, Bone-Shattering Raptorial Claws

Skills

  • Great (+4): Athletics
  • Good (+3): Fight
  • Fair (+2): Stealth, Notice
  • Average (+1): Physique

Stunts

  • Ceiling Pounce: Because it Flows Across Walls and Ceilings, the Skittering Flash gets a +2 to its Fight attack when dropping onto an opponent from above.
  • Shattering Blow: Because it has Bone-Shattering Raptorial Claws, when it succeeds with style on a Fight attack, it can choose to reduce the result by one shift to inflict a Mild Consequence on the target, such as Cracked Ribs or Broken Shield Arm.
  • Disorienting Flash: Because of its Blinding Pulse of Inner Light, once per scene, it can use its action to disorient its foes. All targets in its zone must defend against a Fair (+2) attack; any who fail are hit with the Dazzled and Confused situation aspect with one free invocation.

Stress & Consequences

  • Stress: [1] [1] [1]
  • Consequences: One mild, one moderate.

Numenera & Cypher System

Photic Scuttler

This creature is a common predator in the deep, unlit places of the world. It navigates by sensing vibrations and changes in air pressure, only revealing its presence with a sudden, blinding flash of its internal bioluminescence before it strikes.

Level: 4 Motive: To hunt and ambush prey in the dark. Environment: Subterranean caves, ruins, and tunnels. Health: 12 Damage: 4 Armor: 1 Movement: Long; can move on walls and ceilings at the same speed.

Modifications: Stealth-related tasks as level 6 in darkness.

Combat: The Photic Scuttler clings to ceilings and high walls, waiting for creatures to pass below. It will then drop down, striking with its powerful forelimbs to shatter armor and bone. It often uses its flash ability to disorient a group before singling out a target.

GM Intrusion: The creature skitters away after an attack, but its path takes it across a weak point in the ceiling, causing a rockfall that separates the party.

Special Abilities:

  • Pounce: If the scuttler drops onto a target from above, the attack is modified by one step to its benefit (level 5 for 5 points of damage).
  • Blinding Flash: Once per encounter, the scuttler can emit a powerful pulse of light. This is a level 4 attack against all creatures within short range who can see it. A successful Intellect defense task is required to avert one’s gaze. On a failure, a character is blinded, and all their tasks are modified by two steps to their detriment for one minute.

Pathfinder (2nd Edition)

Cavern Scuttler – Creature 5

Neutral, Medium, Beast

Perception +12; darkvision, tremorsense (imprecise) 30 feet Skills Acrobatics +15, Athletics +11, Stealth +15 Str +4, Dex +6, Con +3, Int -4, Wis +1, Cha -2

AC 22; Fort +12, Ref +15, Will +10 HP 75

Abilities

  • Ceiling Pounce [reaction] Trigger A creature walks directly under the scuttler while it is on a ceiling. Effect The scuttler drops on the creature, which must attempt a DC 23 Reflex save. On a failure, the creature is knocked prone and takes 2d8+4 bludgeoning damage. The scuttler lands in an adjacent unoccupied space.
  • Wall Strider The Cavern Scuttler can climb on walls and ceilings as if they were flat ground.

Actions

  • [one-action] Strike Raptorial Claw; Melee +15, Damage 2d8+6 bludgeoning.
  • [two-actions] Skittering Assault The scuttler Strides up to its Speed and makes two Raptorial Claw Strikes at any point during its movement. Each attack counts toward its multiple attack penalty, but the penalty doesn’t increase until after both attacks are made.
  • [two-actions] Disorienting Flash (Evocation, Light, Primal, Visual) The scuttler unleashes a pulse of blinding light. All creatures in a 20-foot emanation must attempt a DC 23 Fortitude save.
    • Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
    • Success The creature is dazzled for 1 round.
    • Failure The creature is blinded for 1 round and dazzled for 1 minute.
    • Critical Failure The creature is blinded for 1 minute.

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition

Glimmer-Maw

A jittery, lightning-fast predator of the deep places, the Glimmer-Maw is named for the hypnotic, bioluminescent pulse it emits just before it strikes with bone-shattering force.

Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d4(A), Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d8 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d10, Notice d8, Stealth d10 Pace: 8; Parry: 7; Toughness: 8 (2)

Special Abilities

  • Armor +2: Hardened chitin.
  • Blinding Flash: As an action, the Glimmer-Maw can emit a blinding pulse. All characters who can see it must make a Vigor roll or become Stunned.
  • Frenzy: Can make one additional Fighting attack on its turn at a –2 penalty.
  • Raptorial Claws: Str+d8.
  • Wall Walker: Pace of 8 on vertical and inverted surfaces.
  • Pounce: The Glimmer-Maw can leap 1d6″ to make a Wild Attack, adding +4 to its damage instead of the usual +2.

Shadowrun, Sixth World

Glimmer-Scythe

This paracritter is a terrifyingly fast ambush predator found in the deep tunnels of the Underplex and other dark, forgotten places. Corporations, particularly Ares, have shown interest in capturing them for bio-weaponization, a task far easier said than done. It’s known on the street for the hypnotic flash of light just before its claws shatter reinforced concrete. ⚡

Attributes

  • Body: 6
  • Agility: 6
  • Reaction: 5 (7)
  • Strength: 5
  • Willpower: 4
  • Logic: 2
  • Intuition: 4
  • Charisma: 1
  • Edge: 3, Essence: 6.0, Initiative: 9 + 2d6

Derived Stats

  • Defense Rating: 9
  • Physical Condition Monitor: 11
  • Stun Condition Monitor: 10

Skills

  • Unarmed Combat: 6 (8)
  • Stealth: 6 (8)
  • Perception: 5 (7)

Critter Powers

  • Armor: The Glimmer-Scythe has natural chitinous plating, granting it an Armor rating of +5 (total soak 11).
  • Wall-Crawling: The creature can move on vertical and inverted surfaces at its normal speed without needing a test.
  • Strobe Flash: As a Major Action, the Glimmer-Scythe can emit a blinding pulse. Any character with a direct line of sight must make a Body + Willpower (3) test. On a failure, the character receives the Blinded status for 1d3 rounds. This power can be used once per combat round.
  • Natural Weapon (Scythe Claws): The creature’s Unarmed Combat attacks have a DV of (STR/2 + 3)P and an AP of -2.

Starfinder

Photic Predator – CR 5

XP 1,600 N Medium magical beast

Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft., blindsense (vibration) 30 ft.; Perception +11

Defense

  • EAC 17; KAC 19
  • HP 70
  • Fort +9, Ref +9, Will +4
  • Defensive Abilities reactive camouflage

Offense

  • Speed 40 ft., climb 40 ft.
  • Melee raptorial claw +14 (1d8+9 B & S)
  • Offensive Abilities pounce, strobe flash

Statistics

  • STR +4, DEX +5, CON +2, INT -4, WIS +1, CHA -2
  • Skills Acrobatics +16, Athletics +11, Stealth +11

Ecology

  • Environment subterranean caves and tunnels
  • Organization solitary or pair

Special Abilities

  • Pounce (Ex) As a full action, the photic predator can move up to its speed and make a full attack at the end of its movement.
  • Reactive Camouflage (Ex) The creature’s skin is semi-translucent and reflects its surroundings poorly. Any time an attack misses the photic predator, it gains the benefits of concealment (20% miss chance) until the start of its next turn.
  • Strobe Flash (Ex) As a standard action, the photic predator can unleash a blinding pulse of light in a 30-foot cone. Creatures in the cone must succeed at a DC 14 Fortitude save or be dazzled for 1 minute. A creature that fails its save by 5 or more is blinded for 1 round and dazzled for 1 minute. This is a visual sense-dependent effect.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Holo-scutigera Mantisquido (Cave Skitterer)

UPP: 7BAA43-3

A mid-sized predator found in the cave systems of low-light worlds. Its defining characteristics are its extreme speed and the powerful, club-like raptorial appendages it uses to pulverize prey. Its bioluminescence is used as a threat display and a tool to disorient its victims.

Traits

  • Pack: 0 (Solitary)
  • Instinct: 7
  • Attacks: Raptorial Claw (3d6, AP 2)
  • Skills: Stealth 2, Recon 1, Athletics 2
  • Armor: 3 (Segmented Chitin)
  • Endurance: 10
  • Behavior: Pouncer, Ambusher
  • Special Abilities:
    • Fast: The creature is exceptionally fast, gaining DM+2 on all initiative checks.
    • Wall-Crawler: Can move on any surface at full speed.
    • Strobe Flash: Once per encounter, the creature can emit a disorienting flash. All targets with line of sight must make a Difficult (10+) END check or be stunned and unable to act for one round.
    • Territorial: Will attack any creature its size or smaller that enters its territory without hesitation.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition)

Clatter-Maw

A nightmare of the deep places, found in collapsed Dwarf holds and the tunnels beneath the Grey Mountains. It is a creature of unnerving speed, a hundred chittering legs carrying it across ceilings and walls before it drops on its prey like a stone, its heavy forelimbs striking with the force of a smith’s hammer. 🔨

Main Profile

  • WS 55, BS —, S 45, T 40, I 50, Agi 50, Dex 30, Int 10, WP 40, Fel —

Secondary Profile

  • A 2, W 15, SB 4, TB 4, M 5, Mag —, IP —, FP —

Skills: Athletics 60, Climb 70, Endurance 50, Intimidate 55, Perception 50, Stealth (Underground) 65 Talents: Ambidextrous, Lightning Reflexes, Relentless, Frightening Traits:

  • Armour: 2 (Chitinous Plates)
  • Fear: 2
  • Weapon (Pulverizing Claws): WS 55, Damage +8 (S+TB). Qualities: Pummel, Fast.
  • Size: Medium
  • Wall-Crawler: Can move on walls and ceilings at its normal Movement.
  • Blinding Flash: As an action, the Clatter-Maw can emit a powerful flash. All targets who can see it must make a Challenging (+0) Endurance Test or gain one Blinded Condition.
  • Skittering Charge: The Clatter-Maw can use the Charge action even over difficult terrain, so long as it is climbing on a wall or ceiling.