Kaion

Kaion CR 2

XP 600
N Small animal
Init +4; Senses blindsense (electromagnetism) 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +7

DEFENSE

HP 25
EAC 12; KAC 16
Fort +5; Ref +7; Will +1
Defensive Abilities void adaptation

OFFENSE

Speed 10 ft., fly 60 ft. (Ex, perfect)
Melee radula +7 (1d6+3 S) or slam +7 (1d4+3 B plus grab)
Ranged sclerite +10 (1d6+2 P plus entangled)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (10 ft. with slam)
Offensive Abilities polarity pulse

STATISTICS

Str +1; Dex +4; Con +2; Int –4; Wis +0; Cha –2
Skills Acrobatics +7 (+15 to fly), Athletics +7
Other Abilities magnetic levitation

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Magnetic Levitation (Ex)

A kaion can fly in a vacuum. However, this flight is limited to within 60 feet of a planet or asteroid’s surface or a nearby metallic structure, such as a steel railing or a starship’s hull.

Polarity Pulse (Ex)

As a standard action, a kaion can release a magnetic pulse in a 60-foot-radius spread. Each creature in that area wielding metallic weapons, wearing metallic armor, or entangled by a kaion’s sclerites must succeed at a DC 13 Reflex save or be pulled up to 30 feet toward the kaion, or double that on a failure by 5 or more. This movement doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity. If a creature is affected only because of an object it holds, it can drop the object to cease being pulled; this does not require an action. Unsecured metallic objects in the area are automatically pulled 60 feet toward the kaion.

Sclerites (Ex)

As a standard action, a kaion can fire a sclerite as a ranged attack with a range increment of 60 feet that targets KAC. The sclerite lodges in or sticks to the target on a hit, causing the target to become entangled as long as the sclerite remains. An entangled creature can remove a sclerite as a move action by succeeding at a DC 13 Athletics or Acrobatics check.

ECOLOGY

Environment mountains, urban, or vacuum
Organization solitary, pair, or pod (3–6 kaions plus 1 kaion multipole)

Kaions hound miners and shippers across the galaxy, feasting on starship hulls and mined ores alike. These mollusk-like creatures produce their own energy via chemosynthesis. As a kaion scrapes up inorganic minerals from nearby rock with its radula, symbiotic bacteria in its shell produce energy and excrete any unwanted metals as a metabolic byproduct. These metals accumulate in the kaion’s shell as well as in the numerous metallic sclerites that cover the kaion’s many tentacles and two long arms. The kaion’s armored surface also produces powerful magnetic fields that respond to the creature’s bioelectric impulses, often visible in field lines of metallic dust that adhere to the creature’s shell, expanding and contracting in rhythmic, breath-like movements.

By using a nearby metallic surface as an anchor, kaions can propel themselves via magnetic levitation. As space travel has increased, kaions have expanded far beyond their native habitat of the Diaspora by hitching rides on unsuspecting starships. By creating a magnetic gradient down its arms, a kaion can detach one of its sclerites and accelerate it to railgun speeds. These projectiles lodge in or adhere to targets; subsequent magnetic pulses can reel prey back as though they were harpooned.

Kaions are a social species organized into a pod structure, and whole pods cooperate to bring down larger prey. When multiple kaions in a pod have reached a sufficient level of size and strength, they can instead become magnetically aligned with each other and form a single multichambered chimeric organism called a multipole, that can fly through space unaided.