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The following monster first appeared on the Open Gaming Network blog, and stalks your low-level Starfinder PCs in silence!
Sandstalker CR 2
What looks like a cross between a scorpion and a lizard bursts from the dunes, sun glinting off its dark carapace and the stinger already arcing over its back.
N Huge animal
Init +2; Senses low-light vision, blindsense (movement) 10 ft.; Perception +7
DEFENSE HP 25
EAC 13; KAC 14
Fort +6; Ref +6; Will +1
Resistance fire 1
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft., burrow 15 ft.
Melee pincers +7 (1d6+7 S, grab), stinger +10 (1d6+5 P, fleshrot venom)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.
STATISTICS
Str +5; Dex +2; Con +2; Int -5; Wis +1; Cha -1
Skills Athletics +12, Stealth +7, Survival +7
Languages none
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Fleshrot Venom (Ex)
A sandstalker’s stinger is loaded with a nasty payload of acid and venom. On a successful stinger attack, the target must make a DC 11 Fortitude check or be injected with fleshrot venom. If afflicted, this venom requires a DC 11 Fortitude save every turn. Every failed save causes it to progress one step down the Constitution poison track. Curing this affliction requires either three successful saves, which need not be consecutive, or one dose of antivenom derived from sandstalker saliva. The antivenom can be created using at least one bulk of saliva and a successful DC 10 Medicine check. A sandstalker’s body can be harvested for 1d4 bulk of saliva and 1d2 doses of fleshrot venom, each requiring a DC 13 Survival check to harvest.
ECOLOGY
Environment deserts, dry grasslands, any arid environment
Organization single, pair
Sandstalkers are the apex predators of their native environments. Their preferred hunting method is to simply burrow beneath the sand and lie in wait for prey. When they detect something passing by with their tremorsense, they burst from the sand to seize it in their pincers and sting it repeatedly. They will do their best to hold onto the victim and get in multiple stings, but one sting is all they really need. Some will even let prey go after delivering the first sting, avoiding wasting energy by struggling to hold onto the prey and simply following it until the toxin fully sets in and they die. It’s a curiosity that a sandstalkers venom actually acts more like a virus than any poison or toxin. The substance is composed of two parts, an acidic base and a specialized series of cells suspended within it. Once injected, the acid breaks down the flesh f the victim, which the cells quickly consume as raw material to replicate at an incredible rate. As a side effect and as waste products, the cells produce more acid, which damages more of the body, which lets the cells reproduce more quickly, and so on until the victim is melted from the inside out. |