It’s officially spoopy season, so we’ll start with the themed October content this week. Expect more Sci-fi / Sci-Fantasy horror throughout the month.
Here’s an evocative phrase: ‘space whale graveyard.’ The concept isn’t hard to fathom. It’s a place (or several places) where, like the elephants in the myth, the space whales go at the end of their lives. It’s evocative, and immediately begs all kinds of questions – why do the they go there? What treasure might be found in such a place? And what horrors lurk amongst the titantic bones?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Starfinder already has a space whale analog in the Oma (AA page 88). There is even an unsavory market for the remains of these creatures, if you know where to go to find buyers. The massive stellar creatures live by dipping into gas giants and other areas of stellar gas to extract minerals and nutrients, so it isn’t hard to imagine a ring of Oma bones around a particularly large gas giant, the finally resting place of thousands of these gentle star beasts.
That’s all well and good, but if you are like me, you are already thinking of using the Oma graveyard as an encounter location. Well you’ll need maps for that, so here are an encounter map and a starship combat map. Non-starship encounters in the graveyard would have low or zero-g, and be exposed to vacuum, with all the dangers that entails. Lots of points to steady an off-kilter player or NPC on the massive bones, but what sort of dangers might a party find in there?
For that I went back to a rather unique undead found in an early PF1E adventure path (and virtually nowhere else). The Ossumental. Big amalgamates of bone and elemental energy, the ossumentals are defacto protectors of the boneyards where they arise, and make for a terrifying encounter in the cold void of an Oma graveyard. Alternatively, if you want a lower level encounter, you can use Carrion Dregs (CR 4), or a Ravenous Skull swarm (CR6) reskinned as a cloud of malevolent bone shards, or Marooned Ones (CR8) left behind by previous explorers of the Oma graveyard that never made it out.
OSSUMENTAL
CR 12
XP 19,200
NE Large undead (air, earth, fire, metal, water, or wood)
Init +4; Senses blindsense (life) 100 ft., darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +22
DEFENSE
HP 200
EAC 26; KAC 28
Fort +14; Ref +14; Will +13
DR 10/magic; Immunities cold, undead immunities;
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee slam +25 (6d4+20 B&P)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Offensive Abilities breath weapon (40 ft. cone, 13d6 damage types based on affinity, Reflex DC 19 half, usable every 1d4 rounds), discorporate
STATISTICS
Str +8; Dex +4; Con —; Int -1; Wis +2; Cha +2
Skills Athletics +27, Intimidate +22, Stealth +22
Other Abilities elemental affinity, unliving
ECOLOGY
Environment Oma graveyards, cemetery worlds, other places of massive death
Organization solitary, or gang (2-8).
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Discorporate (Su) Formed by thousands of bones and bone fragments, an ossumental can drop its form into a scattered pile of bones, allowing it to take 20 on Stealth checks to avoid being noticed for what it is. In addition, when an ossumental uses its breath weapon, it can, as part of that action, transport itself to any unoccupied area affected by the breath weapon.
Elemental Affinity (Ex) ossumentals have an affinity to one of the elemental planes, and gain traits based on that affinity. Air ossumentals have a fly speed of 30 ft. (average), are immune to electricity, and their breath weapon deals sonic and electricity damage. Earth ossumentals have a burrow speed of 30 ft., are immune to acid, and their breath weapon deals acid and bludgeoning damage. Fire ossumentals have a fly speed of 20 ft. (clumsy), are immune to fire, and their breath weapon deals fire damage. Metal ossumentals have DR 10/adamantine, are immune to sonic damage, and their breath weapon deals sonic and piercing damage. Water ossumentals have a 40 ft. swim speed and their breath weapon deals cold and slashing damage. Wood ossumentals have a 30 ft. climb speed, fast healing 10, and their breath weapon deals piercing damage.
Ossumentals act as unintended guardians and caretakers of the Oma graveyard. Formed by ambient necromantic and elemental energy, ossumentals arise in areas where death and interstellar forces interact on a massive scale.
The creatures aren’t always active; at rest, their bones lie scattered in the slowly orbiting graveyard, waiting for living creatures to wander by before clattering together to attack. An ossumental is a tricky combatant, attacking with its appendages in melee combat and then using its breath weapon to attack multiple targets that are out of reach. It makes use of its discorporate ability to quickly shift position on the battlefield and get behind its attackers.
Fully formed, an ossumental stands approximately 16 feet tall and weighs around 300 pounds.
As always, if you like this or any of the other content here on Solo Run Studio I would welcome a little of your support through Ko-fi. Until next time Starfinders!
Jeremy Corff
Artist and Writer