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Byakee

Byakee CR 8

Its wings rhythmically flapping, a hideous thing rears before you, its disjointed limbs ending in cruel claws and its scabrous tail dripping dark venom. Its skin seems to split in a welter of weeping sores and creases, as though its inward parts were ready to burst.

XP 4,800
CE Medium monstrous humanoid
Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +16

DEFENSE HP 125

EAC 20; KAC 22
Fort +10, Ref +12, Will +9
Defensive Abilities DR 5/magic; Immunities disease, poison; Resistances acid 20, cold 20
Weaknesses mythos minion

OFFENSE

Speed 20 ft., fly 60 ft. (Su, good)
Melee claw +20 (3d4+14 S plus grab)
Multiattack 2 claws +14 (3d4+14 S plus grab), sting +14 (1d10+14 P plus byakhee toxin)
Offensive Abilities carry off, unspeakable molt

STATISTICS

Str +6, Dex +4, Con +2, Int +0, Wis +0, Cha +0
Skills Acrobatics +21, Athletics +16
Languages Aklo
Other Abilities no breath

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Carry Off (Ex)

A byakhee that successfully grabs a Medium or smaller creature can move with its target after making its attack, even if its movement for the round would otherwise have been completed, as long as the total distance it moves does not exceed its speed. A byakhee cannot renew the grapple on subsequent turns, and will drop any held creature, potentially damaging them from the fall. If both the byakhee and the creature it dragged are willing, the dragged creature can hold on long enough to mount the byakhee on its next turn as a move action and begin riding it. A byakhee cannot use this ability when carrying a passenger.

Hybrid Mount (Ex)

A Medium or smaller creature can ride on a flying byakhee as a mount even though a byakhee is itself Medium-sized. It cannot carry a Medium-sized creature as a rider when not flying.

Mythos Minion (Su)

Byakhee are called to serve many who follow the cults of the mythos, taking a -4 penalty on saving throws to avoid mind-affecting effects created by creatures or spells with the mythos descriptor, or by spellcasters that serve any of the Great Old Ones.

Starflight (Su)

A byakhee can survive in the void of outer space. It flies through space at an incredible speed. Although exact travel times vary, a trip within a single solar system should take 3d20 hours, while a trip beyond should take 3d20 days (or more, at the GM’s discretion)—provided the byakhee knows the way to its destination.

Unspeakable Molt (Ex)

A byakhee’s wings are constantly shifting through phases of molt, decay, and regrowth, like those of a decomposing vulture suffused with tissue that is simultaneously insectoid and bat-like, with a corrupted humanoid core underneath. Whenever a byakhee is critically hit, or whenever one is killed, its external tissues rupture and slough off in pestilential shreds, revealing disgustingly malformed new tissues beneath.

Any creature within 30 feet that witnesses a byakhee’s unspeakable molt must make a DC 16 Fortitude save. A failed Fortitude save causes a creature to become sickened until the end of its next turn.

Byakhee Toxin

Type poison (injury); Save Fortitude DC 16; Track Wisdom; Frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; Cure 1 save

ECOLOGY

Environment any (outer space)
Organization single, pair, or flight (3-10)

Byakhee are inhuman servants of the Great Old Ones and the Outer Gods whom they serve. They are a race of interstellar predators, vaguely humanoid in shape but prone to frequent mutation and aberrant physiology, both internally and externally. They are always winged, with a generally humanoid head and torso and at least four limbs. In some byakhee these are more akin to legs than arms and in some the opposite, and vestigial or accessory limbs are not at all unusual, but in all cases their appendages are tipped with cruel claws. Though byakhee are most comfortable in the air, they typically have webbed digits to aid in swimming. Most byakhee have tails as well, sometimes long and sinuous and in others bulbous and insectoid, like the abdomen of a wasp. Those who have beheld the byakhee in person rarely describe them the same way, in part due to the grotesque variation these creatures exhibit, but also due to the fog of nightmares that inevitably follow in the wake of their advent.

It is unknown whether byakhee originated on one of the home planets or prison worlds wherein the Great Old Ones are bound, or perhaps were refugees from a planet long since destroyed by the predations of world-devouring elder things, or perhaps have always been a star-spanning race and never a terrestrial one. What is certain is that as a race they are bound to the will of the Great Old Ones and their masters (especially Hastur the Unspeakable), and often compelled to answer the summons of earthly cultists calling upon their alien patrons for aid. Byakhee are strong flyers and may carry willing supplicants (as well as unwilling victims) far from their terrestrial home into the reaches of space and the dark places between and beyond the stars, though their passengers are best advised to have their own means of survival amid the rigors of space. Byakhee are willing warriors as well when called to serve, snatching up their victims and tearing them limb from limb or dropping them into gaping pits of toxic effluence that open in the byakhee’s presence like rents in a reality that rebels against their alien presence.

Byakhee are primarily carnivorous, preferring fresh blood and flesh. They are cruel beasts and enjoy stinging their prey with their mind-rotting venom and allowing their victim to descend into madness, giving themselves over to the byakhee for their feasting pleasure. However, byakhee are also scavengers, taking whatever nourishment they can find to fuel their long interplanetary and interstellar journeys.

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.