The Strange Bestiary
This sodden, leather-wrapped humanoid smells of the sea. It moves effortlessly through the air, levitating above the ground while its damp wrappings writhe and squirm as if infested with thousands of worms—because they are. Each collective is a mass of psionic grubs worming through a slush of salty ooze. Individually the grubs are harmless vermin, but together they're a sentient entity, a single psionic mind formed of thousands of tiny, maggotlike pupae. The tightly wound leather straps covering a collective are just as important for hiding its true nature as for adhesion. Despite being fully encased, the collective senses its environment with a hard-to-fool sixth sense. A collective's individual grubs could be an immature form of some as-yet unnamed (or unrecognized) creature.
Motive: Domination of other creatures, hunger
Environment (Magic or Psionics): Almost anywhere
Health: 30
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (7 points)
Armor: 1
Movement: Immediate; short when flying
Modifications: Perception as level 8; Speed defense as level 5 due to slow nature.
Combat: A collective can strike a single target in immediate range with a leather-wrapped "fist" as its action. When it hits and deals damage, several grubs spill out and attach to the victim (getting under most armor unless it's hermetically sealed or behind a force field), requiring a Might defense roll to shake them loose. On a failure, the grubs begin to feed and the target takes 5 points of ambient damage. If a victim is killed while in immediate range of a collective, the collective automatically engulfs the body through a wide opening in its wrappings. The grubs go into a feeding frenzy, reducing the remains to nothing within minutes. During the frenzy, the collective regenerates 2 points of health per round. A victim's equipment is retained for later study. A collective can also emit a psychic burst that can target up to three creatures in short range as its action. On a failed Intellect defense roll, a victim suffers 4 points of Intellect damage and is unable to take any actions on her subsequent turn. If she is attacked while so stunned, the difficulty of her defense rolls is increased by two steps.
Interaction: A collective can communicate telepathically with characters within short range. It negotiates only with characters strong enough to harm it; otherwise, it tries to eat whoever it runs across. Even if a collective makes a deal, it eventually reneges if it senses any advantage for doing so.
Use: A collective has been active in a small rural community for weeks, apparently in preparation for something it calls "the Great Hatching." If that refers to the hatching of more psychic grubs, it could spell trouble for a much larger region.
Loot: Collectives might have one or two cyphers, though during combat they will use any devices that could help them in the fight.
GM Intrusion: A character struck by a collective notices that she wasn't able to shake off all the grubs that spilled out. If she fails a Speed defense roll, a grub dives into her flesh and travels through her body, its route visible beneath her skin. The character is distracted, and until the grub dies (which takes one minute) or is otherwise extracted, the difficulty of all tasks she attempts is increased by one step.
GM Intrusion: A character struck by a collective notices that she wasn't able to shake off all the grubs that spilled out. If she fails a Speed defense roll, a grub dives into her flesh and travels through her body, its route visible beneath her skin. The character is distracted, and until the grub dies (which takes one minute) or is otherwise extracted, the difficulty of all tasks she attempts is increased by one step.