Frightful Fridays! Flitter Scorpion

Hello there and welcome back to Frightful Fridays! It's been a hot minute since I last posted, so it's nice to get back to this again. I'll have monsters out at a more frequent pace to make up for the lack of posting for the past few weeks. It all starts with the flitter scorpion, already scary because it can fly. However, its poison is even more horrifying, especially for the low-level PCs it gets to fight, because it disrupts gravity for the victim. This allows the scorpion to sting its prey while the prey flails about helplessly, or the scorpion can just wait for normal gravity to reassert itself, causing the victim to smash to the ground painfully.

I hope you enjoy the flitter scorpion (and the horde of them forming the flitter scorpion swarm). I'll see you again soon with another monster!

Note: the image is a photoshop, but I couldn't find any attribution for it. A reverse image search turned up nothing other than a video about a flying spider, which curiously did not have this image in it.

Gossamer wings support this dark brown scorpion in flight.

Flitter Scorpion      CR 1

XP 400

N Tiny vermin

Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +4

DEFENSE

AC 15, touch 15, flat-footed 12 (+3 Dex, +2 size)

hp 11 (2d8+2)

Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +0

OFFENSE

Speed 15 ft., climb 15 ft., fly 40 ft. (good)

Melee 2 claws +6 (1d2–4 plus attach), sting +6 (1d3–4 plus poison)

Space 2–1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft.

Special Attacks attach, poison

STATISTICS

Str 2, Dex 17, Con 13, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 3

Base Atk +1; CMB +2; CMD 8 (16 vs. trip)

Feats Weapon Finesse[B]

Skills Climb +11, Fly +11, Perception +4, Stealth +15; Racial Modifiers +4 Perception, +4 Stealth

ECOLOGY

Environment temperate or warm deserts and plains

Organization solitary or hunting party (2–12)

Treasure none

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Flitter Scorpion Poison (Ex) Sting—injury; save Fort DC 12; frequency 1/round for 4 rounds; effect 1d2 Str and victim is affected as if reverse gravity (2 rounds, 30-foot maximum height) had been cast on it; cure 1 save.

A droning sound accompanies a cloud of scorpions darting about.

Flitter Scorpion Swarm      CR 2

XP 600

N Tiny vermin (swarm)

Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +4

DEFENSE

AC 15, touch 15, flat-footed 12 (+3 Dex, +2 size)

hp 22 (4d8+4)

Fort +5, Ref +4, Will +1

Defensive Abilities swarm traits

OFFENSE

Speed 15 ft., climb 15 ft., fly 40 ft. (good)

Melee swarm (1d6 plus cling, distraction, and poison)

Space 10 ft.; Reach 0 ft.

Special Attacks cling, distraction (DC 13), poison

STATISTICS

Str 2, Dex 17, Con 13, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 3

Base Atk +3; CMB —; CMD —

Skills Climb +11, Fly +11, Perception +4, Stealth +15; Racial Modifiers +4 Perception, +4 Stealth

ECOLOGY

Environment temperate or warm deserts and plains

Organization solitary

Treasure none

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Cling (Ex) If a creature leaves a flitter scorpion swarm’s square, the swarm suffers 1d4 points of damage to reflect the loss of its numbers as several scorpions continue to cling tenaciously to the victim. A creature with scorpions clinging to it takes swarm damage at the end of its turn each round. As a full-round action, it can remove the scorpions with a DC 15 Reflex save. High wind or any amount of damage from an area effect destroys all clinging scorpions. The save DC is Dexterity-based.

Flitter Scorpion Poison (Ex) Swarm—injury; save Fort DC 13; frequency 1/round for 4 rounds; effect 1d3 Str and victim is affected as if reverse gravity (4 rounds, 60-foot maximum height) had been cast on it; cure 1 save.

Flitter scorpions are winged arachnids with an unusual method of hunting. Like other scorpions, they inject their prey with poison, which debilitates their victims. However, the poison also severs the victims’ link with gravity, causing the victims to float helplessly in the air for moments before falling unceremoniously. While the scorpions’ prey hovers, the creatures deliver additional stings with impunity. If stings or their weakening poison doesn’t kill their prey, the fall to the ground as the poison subsides usually does the trick. This form of attack allows individual flitter scorpions to attack creatures much larger than themselves with considerably less fear of reprisal.

When prey is plentiful, flitter scorpions gather into great clusters and deliver multitudes of stings to whatever prey they encounter. These swarms of scorpions feast on their fallen victims and move on to the next set of prey. If they devastate too much of their potential meals, they often fall into cannibalistic frenzies, reducing their swarms to a handful of survivors.

Sages speculate powerful yet diminutive fey engineered flitter scorpions as flying steeds they could direct into battle. These sages further speculate the scorpions proved to be too difficult to control, so the fey left them behind in the mortal world to wreak havoc.

A 5th-level spellcaster with the Improved Familiar feat can gain a flitter scorpion as a familiar. While the spellcaster and the scorpion familiar are within 1 mile of each other, the spellcaster gains a +3 bonus on Fly checks and the spellcaster’s maneuverability improves by one step (to a maximum of good).