Creature Feature – Apocrita Arcology CR 7

Welcome to Creature Feature Starjammer Edition. Today we present the Apocrita Arcology, an entire city of intelligent but short-lived insects whose civic politics is often confused for a functional hive mind.

Apocrita Arcology CR 7

This buzzing hive of insects stretches over the environment in a dizzying series of towers and connected bridges, a constant flurry of activity that speaks with a single voice.

XP 3,200
N Diminutive aberration (swarm)
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +13

DEFENSE

AC 19, touch 19, flat-footed 14 (+5 Dex, +4 size)
hp 78 (10d8+30);
Fort +6, Ref +8, Will +7
Defensive Abilities arcology builders (cover, 50 hp), swarm traits

OFFENSE

Speed 5 ft., fly 40 ft. (good)
Melee swarm (3d6 plus distraction and entangle)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks distraction (DC 18), entangle, home defense

STATISTICS

Str 1, Dex 21, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 11, Cha 16
Base Atk +7; CMB +8 (+10 steal); CMD 13 (15 vs steal)
Feats Agile Maneuvers, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Flyby Attack, Improved Steal
Skills Craft (carpentry) +12, Knowledge (engineering) +12, Fly +26, Perception +13, Stealth +22, Survival +13
Languages Apocrita, Common, Sylvan

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Arcology Builders (Ex)

Apocrita build large city hives that they call arcologies. Most arcologies are a ten-foot cube in size and built attached to a larger structure.  A swarm of apocrita can fit entirely within a constructed arcology. Arcologies can only fit diminutive or smaller creatures inside its tunnels.

While fully inside an arcology, the apocrita have cover against any creatures outside the arcology. While only partially inside an arcology, the apocrita swarm has partial cover against any creature outside the arcology.

The arcology has fifty hit points and is vulnerable to fire damage. An apocrita swarm can construct a new arcology in 24 hours provided it has access to plant material.

Entangle (Ex)

Whenever an apocrita swarm damages a creature with its swarm attack it also attempts to entangle the creature with a successful CMB check. An entangled creature can escape with a successful escape artist check or burst the bindings with a DC 18 Strength check.

Home Defense (Ex)

Whenever an arcology is attacked by a melee attack, any inhabiting apocrita swarm can make a swarm attack as an attack of opportunity against the creature that attacked the arcology.

ECOLOGY

Environment Any
Organization Solitary or Metroplex (2-5 Apocrita Arcologies)
Treasure standard

The Apocrita are not a hive mind, nor are they unintelligent. They are instead a fully intelligent and individualistic species, roughly similar to wasps or flies in appearance. They also share the limited lifespans of those insects, few Apocrita living for longer than a month. Their limited lifespan has made cooperating with other species difficult, but in this, as in many other things, the Apocrita have adapted.

Apocrita usually organize themselves into massive Arcologies, self-contained city states constructed of chewed up plant matter and salvaged material, each individual Arcology holding thousands of the insect analogs.  Communication among the Apocrita is swift and efficient, and difficult for outsiders to understand, coming across as uniform buzzing.

The Apocrita try and swiftly make collaborative decisions through the actions and decisions of elected representatives, ultimately leading to a single executive in charge of each Arcology, and a single diplomat acting as the voice of the community when dealing with outsiders. Contact with outsiders are treated as a matter of diplomacy more than personal relationships, and those who think themselves ‘friends’ of an Arcology have instead have had a positive diplomatic relationship with the settlement over a number of generations.

The Apocrita usually try to arrange passage or stowaway on other vessels for long journeys but have recently begun producing their own ships, massive constructions made up of entire nations of Apocrita working together to patch together multiple hives of plant matter, propelled through space through solar sails.

The Apocrita usually prefer to produce slower generation ships to establish new colonies instead of using FTL drives. When a trip through FTL already is going to take multiple generations, they reason, it is already long enough not to be worth the extra effort.



About Kevin Bryan

Kevin Bryan is a monster writer for the Open Gaming Network, and is looking forward to bringing all sorts of strange and bizarre creatures to life. His personal website is Kevinswriting.com.

View all posts by Kevin Bryan →

Submit a Comment