Sapient Purple Orb

Sapient Purple Orb CR 4

XP 1,200
NG Small aberration
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +10

DEFENSE

HP 43
EAC 15; KAC 16
Fort +3; Ref +3; Will +9
Defensive Abilities void adaptation; Immunities bleed, cold, radiation; SR 15

OFFENSE

Speed fly 60 ft. (Su, perfect)
Melee slam +8 (1d4+4 B)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 4th; melee +8)

• 1/day—force blast (DC 17), mind thrust (2nd level; DC 17)
• 3/day—mystic cure (1st level), reflecting armor (DC 16), share language
• At will—daze (DC 15), ghost sound

Offensive Abilities excandescent flash (DC 15)

STATISTICS

Str +0; Dex +2; Con +1; Int +1; Wis +5; Cha +3
Skills Acrobatics +15 (+23 to fly), Mysticism +15, Sense Motive +10
Languages Orbian; telepathy 60 ft.
Other Abilities astral mist (DC 15)

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Astral Mist (Su)

As a standard action, a purple orb can emit a pleasant, opaque, and effervescent mist that spreads 20 feet outward from the orb’s location, granting a +2 morale bonus to saving throws for each ally within the mist until the beginning of the purple orb’s next turn. Enemies that enter or start their turn in the mist must succeed at a Will saving throw or gain the fascinated condition.

Excandescent Flash (Su)

Once every minute as a standard action, a purple orb can increase its luminance to an aggressively bright spectrum. Each other creature within 20 feet that can see the purple orb must attempt a Reflex saving throw or be dazzled for 1d4 rounds. If a creature fails this saving throw by 5 or more, it is blinded for 1 round instead.

ECOLOGY

Environment any
Organization solitary or cluster (3–6)

With its pleasant, slowly swirling lavender surface, a sapient purple orb supplies a comforting—yet strange—presence.

Purple orbs are curious and social beings that attempt to make contact with all new life they encounter, though they can be rather inept at doing so. They are able to communicate with few life-forms via their language, Orbian, as it is ancient and almost unknown to outsiders. Instead, they seek to connect directly with the minds of those they meet, supplementing their telepathy by flashing images or scenes onto the mist they emit from their surface. Less-mature purple orbs that haven’t yet bonded with others of their kind are typically more likely to be deceived or misled due to their willingness to trust and reach out to others. The typical sapient purple orb is 3 feet in diameter.

Purple orbs express a strong desire for cooperation and solidarity, both with each other and with life-forms they’ve had positive interactions with. This may be attributed to their low population and apparent lack of a homeworld; indeed, if such a place exists, they are either reluctant or unable to identify it. Those who have interfaced with purple orbs often describe imagery that may suggest that significant numbers of the strange creatures lived within Hyperspace in past centuries.

A purple orb with companions is fiercely defensive of them. If caught off-guard and attacked, their appearance changes to more intensely deep and dark purple, and they may spin violently, flinging the whole of their weight into the attacker—though purple orbs generally refrain from fatally damaging their opponents.

A curious and rarely observed aspect of purple orbs is their bonding process. Clusters of three to six orbs at advanced stages of their life cycle sometimes opt to bond themselves to each other for the remainder of their existence, forming a single life-form called a luminant with vastly heightened capabilities resulting from their collective knowledge.

Sightings of purple orbs are sporadic, though not necessarily uncommon; they’re spotted in large numbers for short periods of time, then seem to almost completely disappear for a year or longer.

Those who have studied purple orbs have noted that each time they reappear, it’s in lower numbers than before.

When a purple orb dies, its perfect spherical shape gradually collapses, condensing into a jagged crystalline object known as a purple core. Sapient purple orbs mourn the loss of their kind, but they reject the remnant crystals as anything other than inert (albeit magical) matter—there is no reverence for physical remains among purple orbs. However, other species have come to value the orbs’ crystalline cores for their magical properties, with some evil individuals even contracting assassins and poachers for the purpose of obtaining them.

Purple cores are a special material that can be incorporated into crafted shields and armor. The cost of enhancing a piece of equipment with a purple core is equal to 10% of the price of the equipment.

A piece of equipment can benefit from a maximum of one purple core.

Purple core–enhanced equipment glows a deep purple and emits a fine lavender mist; this mist has no mechanical effect. The first time each combat that a character wielding a shield or wearing armor enhanced by a purple core is hit by an attack, the equipment erupts in excandescent light, and the attacker must succeed at a Reflex saving throw (DC = 15 + half the level of the equipment) or be dazzled for 1d4 rounds. If the attacker rolls a natural 1 (the result on the d20 is a 1) or fails the saving throw by 5 or more, it is blinded for 1 round instead.