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Venusi

Venusi CR 15

This sprawling purple tangle of vines bears broad leaves and twining tendrils trailing off in all directions. Pulsing nodes of bright red dangle from many of its tendrils, weeping sticky purple sap and leaking a noxious fume.

XP 51,200
N Huge plant
Init +1; Senses low-light vision, tremorsense 30 ft.; Perception +26

DEFENSE HP 235

EAC 28; KAC 29
Fort +15, Ref +13, Will +18
Defensive Abilities mind blank, spore cloud, torrid healing, unflankable; DR 10/-; Immunities acid, fire, plant immunities

OFFENSE

Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft.
Melee slam +22 (6d4+20 A, B & F plus soporific spores)
Multiattack 4 slams +16 (2d10+20 A, B & F plus soporific spores)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.
Offensive Abilities death throes, elvenbane, soporific spores, spinal sprouting
Spells Known (CL 15th)

5th (3/day)dominate person (DC 25), feeblemind (DC 25), mind thrust (DC 25), prying eyes
4th (6/day)dimension door, mind probe (DC 24), telepathic bond
3rd (at will)charm monster (DC 23), holographic image (DC 23), speak with dead, suggestion (DC 23)

STATISTICS

Str +5, Dex +1, Con +7, Int +4, Wis +9, Cha +4
Skills Bluff +26, Mysticism +31, Sense Motive +31
Feats Blind-Fight
Languages Aklo, Elven (can’t speak); telepathy 100 ft.

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Death Throes (Ex)

When killed, a venusi explodes in a 30-foot-radius burst of burning acid that deals 8d6 points of acid damage and 8d6 points of fire damage (Reflex save DC 23 for half).

The sap sticks to creatures that fail their save, causing them to become sickened and dealing 4d6 points of acid damage and 4d6 points of fire damage each round until they succeed on a Reflex save. Creatures that are entrapped by the venusi when it is killed take a -4 penalty on their initial Reflex save, but this penalty does not apply to subsequent saves end ongoing damage.

The save DC is Constitution-based.

Elvenbane (Su)

A venusi’s natural weapons gains a +2 circumstance bonus on attack rolls, saving throws, caster level checks, ability checks, and skill checks made against elves and half-elves, and the elven immunities racial trait of such creatures is ineffective against effects created by a venusi.

Mind Blank (Su)

The venusi is permanently protected from all devices and spells that gather information about the it through divination magic. Mind blank even foils miracle and wish spells when they are used in such a way as to gain information about the target. In the case of scrying that scans an area the creature is in, such as arcane eye, the spell works but the venusi simply isn’t detected. Scrying attempts that are targeted specifically at the subject do not work at all.

Soporific Spores (Ex)

A venusi is coated with a layer of spores that impair agility and dull the reflexes. Creatures struck by its slam attack take 1 point of Dexterity damage (DC 23 Reflex negates); this is doubled on a critical hit. A creature striking a venusi with a natural weapon or melee touch attack must likewise save or take Dexterity damage from these spores, though the creature gains a +2 circumstance bonus on the save. This is a poison effect.

Spinal Sprouting (Ex)

When a venusi entraps an unconscious or helpless creature, including creatures made helpless by Dexterity damage, it can spend 1 minute infusing its target with psychoactive spores that corrupt and transform its central nervous system. Thereafter, the target takes a -6 penalty on Will saves, Wisdom checks, and Wisdom-based skill checks against effects created by the venusi. In addition, the DC to detect or dispel any mind-affecting effect used by the venusi upon the sprouted creature is increased by 6, including sensing its mental influence with Sense Motive checks. This corruption can be removed with a regenerate spell to regrow the target’s nervous system, but the infected creature must attempt a Fortitude save to resist the regenerate spell. This sprouting lasts for 24 hours, after which the victim’s nervous system recovers, though it takes 2d4 points of Dexterity damage from neurological decay. Six times per day the venusi can sprout a nascent venusi within the target’s spine, allowing its spores to linger for up to 6 days. In addition to this, six times per day it can either choose to renew one it has previously implanted for an additional six days or create a new one. It can be any distance away from the sprout when it renews it, as long as it and the sprout are on the same plane. A venusi can maintain multiple spinal sprouts indefinitely as long as it renews them. A creature bearing a sprout gains resistance 10 against acid and fire.

Torrid Healing (Ex)

A magical attack that deals fire damage instead heals a venusi 1 point of damage for each 3 points of damage the attack would otherwise deal. If the amount of healing would cause the venusi to exceed its full normal hit points, it gains any excess as temporary hit points. A venusi gets no saving throw against fire effects. A venusi can grant this ability for 6 hours to a creature bearing a spinal sprout.

ECOLOGY

Environment warm forests
Organization solitary

Venusi (singular and plural) are alien plants native to the steaming jungles of a verdant far-off world.

Among the deadliest predators of their homeworld, they are quite intelligent and wield great psychic power, using it to learn about the world around them and to secure servants to safeguard it and bring it prey. A venusi is a tangled mass of vines 15 feet across and weighing 2,500 pounds.

Venusi are solitary hunters, able to dissolve the flesh of other creatures with their enzymatic sap. Trapped or injured creatures are reduced to a fetid chyme which the venusi absorbs for its sustenance. They become torpid when food is scarce; however, it rarely needs to hunt on its own, as its psychic powers enable it to locate potential prey and inveigle it within its reach, or to enslave others to its will and force them to bring it offerings and sacrifices. Particularly useful servants may be implanted with one of the venusi many nodes, dissolving its nervous system from the inside and replacing it with a network of microtendril fibers that resonate with the venusi’s mental impulses, making their commands nearly impossible to resist.

Habitat And Society

Venusi dislike competition and rarely tolerate the presence of other venusi in territory they claim as their own. However, they are cunning strategists and may use their psychic powers to communicate with other venusi far away and coordinate their efforts or share bits of knowledge and lore. Unlike terrestrial plants, Venusi can enter a meditative dream state akin to sleep (though they are not subject to sleep effect) and can use their dream mastery to venture far from their homes to other lands or even other worlds.

Venusi are wary of arcane and divine spellcasters but always curious to examine the minds of psychic magic users. They may carefully dissolve the flesh of their victims while carefully preserving the brains of psychic creatures in order to study them.

They are also very inquisitive and seek to learn all they can about new lands they enter, looking to find a safe and secure haven before exploring their new home.

The homeworld of the venusi is believed to be one of the far-flung homeworlds of the elven race.

On this green planet, the venusi long grew in the reeking acid jungles of the planet’s torrid zone and had little contact with the few elves that remained behind. However, when an exodus occurred from the elven colony worlds back to their home planets an age ago, their spreading numbers attracted the attention of the venusi, who began venturing out of their purple jungles to learn more of this strange humanoid species that had long shared their world. They watched them from afar and began capturing elves and carrying them off to their jungles, sending back assimilated servants to spy on their fellows and find new places for the venusi to explore and colonize. The elves regarded them as hostile invaders and warred against them, while also descending into civil war as paranoia rose about those that had been infected or assimilated to serve the venusi. Many elves sought a return to the colony worlds, and the venusi perceived their intentions and followed along, spreading into new worlds in the wake of elves fleeing the homeworld.

In time, the venusi left the elves to their own devices, though some factions of the homeworld elves still advocate a crusade to exterminate the venusi once and for all to make the homeworld safe. For their part, Venusi have never hated the elves nor wished them ill as a species, though after millennia of study they regard them as somewhat willful, aggressive, and unpredictable pets and primitives. Other humanoid races are far more interesting to the venusi, as they are curious to see what insights their long study of elves might render in understanding others like them, and they are often genuinely surprised by the actions and reactions they observe. Through their dream communion with the venusi of the homeworld, they share their findings and continue their exploration of a much wider universe.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Alien Bestiary (Starfinder) © 2018, Legendary Games; Lead Designer: Jason Nelson. Authors: Anthony Adam, Kate Baker, John Bennet, Eytan Bernstein, Robert Brookes, Russ Brown, Duan Byrd, Jeff Dahl, Robyn Fields, Joel Flank, Matt Goodall, Robert J. Grady, Jim Groves, Steven T. Helt, Thurston Hillman, Tim Hitchcock, Nick Hite, Daniel Hunt, Mike Kimmel Marshall, Isabelle Lee, Jeff Lee, Lyz Liddell, Jason Nelson, Richard Pett, Tom Phillips, Alistair J. Rigg, Alex Riggs, Wendall Roy, Mike Shel, Neil Spicer, Todd Stewart, Russ Taylor, Rachel Ventura, Mike Welham, George Loki Williams, Scott Young.