Frightful Fridays! Megapede

Hello, and welcome to this week's Frightful Fridays! One of my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/FrightfulFridays--yes, it's a shameless plug) patrons suggested a "millipede" made up of multiple centipedes, and the idea evolved from there. It became a swarm of centipedes with the ability to take the form of a gigantic centipede capable of crushing opponents. Plus it electrifies victims. In short, it's fun all around for characters.

I hope you enjoy this week's monster, and I'll be back with another monster next week. Thanks for reading!

Oddly, Google wasn't very forthcoming on the search for "centipede made of centipedes"

The “skin” of this massive centipede ripples. The ripples derive from thousands of centipedes comprising this creature.

Megapede      CR 9

XP 6,400

N Tiny magical beast (swarm)

Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, tremorsense 60 ft.; Perception +19

Aura electricity (5 ft., 1d6 electricity)

DEFENSE

AC 24, touch 24, flat-footed 20 (+8 deflection, +4 Dex, +2 size)

hp 102 (12d10+36)

Fort +12, Ref +12, Will +4

Defensive Abilities swarm traits, wrest metal; Immune cold, mind-affecting effects, negative energy

Weaknesses vulnerability to electricity

OFFENSE

Speed 20 ft., burrow 20 ft., climb 20 ft.

Melee swarm (3d6 plus 5d6 electricity, distraction, and poison)

Space 20 ft.; Reach 0 ft.

Special Attacks distraction (DC 18), megapede crush (3d6 plus 2d6 electricity, DC 16), poison, slough centipedes

STATISTICS

Str 10, Dex 19, Con 14, Int 3, Wis 10, Cha 7

Base Atk +12; CMB —; CMD —

Feats Deadly Finish^UC, Great Fortitude, Improved Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Skill Focus (Perception), Toughness

Skills Climb +12, Perception +19, Stealth +17

ECOLOGY

Environment temperate or warm land

Organization solitary or pair

Treasure none

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Megapede Crush (Ex) As a full round action, a megapede can coalesce itself into a long centipede form, allowing it to trample all creatures in a 50-foot line (allowing a chance to evade the trample or make an attack of opportunity as per the trample ability), starting at any square occupied by the megapede. At the end of this action, the megapede returns to its 20-foot space at the line’s terminus.

Megapede Poison (Ex) Swarm—injury; save Fort DC 18; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 2d4 Dex; cure 2 consecutive saves.

Slough Centipedes (Ex) As a standard action, a megapede can dislodge enough centipedes to create a centipede swarm in at least one adjacent square. This reduces the megapede’s hit point total by the centipede swarm’s hit points and reduces the megapede’s space by 5 feet; it also loses access to its megapede crush ability. If a megapede ends its turn in the same square as the centipede swarm, it can reincorporate the swarm into its mass, adding the swarm’s current hit points to its total and increasing its space by 5 feet again. A megapede cannot reduce its space below 10 feet by means of this ability.

Vulnerability to Electricity (Ex) Spells or effects that deal electricity damage to a single target affect a megapede; the electricity damage is unadjusted (not dealing +50% damage) in this case. Spells or effects that deal electricity damage and affect an area deal twice the electricity damage to a megapede. However, a megapede takes no electricity damage from another megapede's attacks or abilities.

Wrest Metal (Ex) The electrostatic field holding the megapede together also interacts with metal weapons. If a metal weapon strikes a megapede it receives a free disarm attempt that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. Its effective CMB for the attempt is +16.

A discovery by a wizard who wished to create a gigantic gestalt creature in the image of its component creatures, centipedes turned out to have the best aptitude for the electrostatic process binding them together. The resultant megapedes were loosed into the world to wreak havoc. The process gives them a modicum of intelligence as the component creatures can rapidly exchange information throughout the whole, allowing them to use basic tactics. Megapedes typically attack like typical swarms but they also jolt creatures which enter their electrical fields. They can launch out into a centipede-like form to target difficult-to-reach opponents, and they are capable of expelling centipedes from the gestalt to independently attack foes. Megapedes are carrion eaters, but they are aggressive enough to kill creatures and wait for decay to set in.

Megapedes spawn by breaking off a piece of their collective, which holds a lesser electrostatic field, when they encounter a large number of centipedes. This smaller unit absorbs the independent centipedes and grows into a full-sized creature in an hour-long process.