Intro-- Original Creature Bone Spawn Urchin
Folklore-- Recorded story of a retired Captain Named Bartholomew Bowlson about Bone Spawn Urchins Dictated to paper by Dorvenson Willrith: Foreword: Bartholomew Bowlson is an odd but trustworthy source of information about the strange marine plague that some have spoken of. I have tracked him to Graben and the Island colony seems to have relegated him to a shack on the far side of the dock's. His mercentile shipping records that I have studied saw him have fortune in the Nocturnal Sea, for the most part and yet he appears a pauper to this mans eye. I learned that he had fallen into debt with the local merchants established here and has been paying off the debt for the past twenty odd years. He is a man of about seventy five and has a good health about him. He has shown me the graves of the men of his ship and I will list him as one of my more reliable sources.
Sincerly Dorvenson Willrith of Mordentshire
I tell ya I don't know how I was so lucky to have owned the Fair Maiden for the 35 years I sailed her but I would not want to take that ship out again even if she was still afloat.
She had went through much under me hand and I was proud to sail her but she was also in me worst memory when she died in them docks by my hand.
We had been travelin up an down the coast of Darkon and Nova Vasa for most of our years with many a yarn to speak of I tell you. My crew an I were more than able an we had the speed o the Maiden to thank for many a good run. Never had to chance it often till I wound up at the end o a run at Arbora docked to try an fill my holds but with no merchant not already sent his wears. Then after I was jus about to head for warmer waters as it were, a man in some of the fanciest wears I have seen shows up and offers me a kings ransom to run a shipment of chickens to Graben as quick as possible due to thier own ship had been late in comin.
Now I am not sayin I wasn't tempted but the man was not quick to speak of the missing ship and I had not been too keen on losing me own but when he said that I would be givin some papers for the return shipment of what was to be talc which as a canny trader knew at the time was a good deal on return profit for me I had less reason to worry.
Accepten the deal I went to the charts and me an Tob, me first mate, plotted the fastest course we could from and found ourselves crossing some bad weather. The chickens were so noisy and my crew was always goin on about wantin to strangle the damned things and the constant storm didna help much. I was so busy trying to tell if it twer day or night that I missed me mark on the tides and felt the ship scrape what had to be a reef I hadn't had marked on my chart.
Well I went down to find out what the damage was and got me crew nailin boards over some of the planks and sealin them with pitch and a few haulin a couple of birds that had died in the impact fallin in thier cages on to deck. Most of the crew ate good for the trip but I was too busy to join them and had to miss out. Im glad to say that it was a good thing that I did.
The next day the storms had let up and I was tired for lack of sleep from the damned birds squwakin and such could be heard as they were packed to the brim in me holds. Course when I came out and found the crew looking almost to a man sick. Tob as big and round a man as he was, looked worst of the lot and after ordern the poor dogs to work, I went down to check the birds for some kinda sickness or such. I then found as I neared the damaged birds that some where dead and red spines were poken through them as well the green from the pitch an boards.
I ordered the dead ones above and had them thrown over the back of my ship cages an all, and thought that once I reached port that that would be the end of it. Disease on a ship usually ain't much that cannot be over come with some work and drink so I kept those that were able worken.
Course durring that day I found some of my men were complaining of stomach aches and pains in other areas. The next day I had to run a skeleton crew and had little to no way to treat the ill but to give em fruit or hard rum to clear thier blood. Tob got worse and worse and I saw the sign of a spine on his neck. Over the days I came to see more and more spines poken through not only the pitch and boards of my ship but my crew as well. I watched Tob go the next day with little to say as his neck had more spines then I could count with my hands and feet. Those that did recover did so with in the first couple a days but those that got ill eventually died in the night spines haven grown out of them near most every where.
The cursed things had grown and gone over the top of my right rail and were being scraped off most every day. The burst from the plank like flowers and I tried drownen them with pitch just to seal the holes but soon ran out. I kept tryin to get the crew to give burials at sea for those that had died but some where stuck to the floor boards from the spines.
When I made dock me crew left the poor Maiden and me, and out of me share I had to hire the porters to brave the holds. The chicks that had survived were good enough but my ship was covered in the things and while I tried to get help none of the workers after hearen the stories my crew were tellen wanted any part of the task.
Eventually the ship banged the dock and the little green spiny balls began growen on it. The traders that owned the dock burned in down and by then the Fair Maiden was all but covered in the little things and was a sorry thing to see as I helped burn her. We dragged what we could and burned it on the beach to make sure of the damned things not spreadin any further
But oddly those things died quick in the sand an air an just disappeared cause I ain't seen none round the beach far as I can tell. They aint on the rocks nor on the other docks, as they made me build the new dock's and liven here on the shore as I am. I guess they may be near but I ain't seen none and only heard of some gossip that I ain't too keen to search out on other ship's run a foul by it.
So here I am now on the same isle those things left me on all those years ago tryin to clear my debt to the traders and mournin me crew. I don't see much o the sea beyond the shore now days and I raise chickens for now. But god I still hate the noisy things!
*Description -- A small sphere of bone hard pale slightly serated green spines while feeding on plant matter or bright red spines when fed upon blood filled creatures, is one of many on a reef that upon closer inspection appears to be the remains of a whale.
*Habitat -- Domain Nocturnal Sea or possible other, preferred conditions salt water, temperate to tropical temperature, depth are found on reefs and such but not below the line of visable light, terrain features preferred reefs, wrecks, lairs (None)
*Habits -- Activity patterns include migratory for food which means detaching and letting the tide take them to a new location, behavior in the wild is simply feeding off of an attached organic source, diet is meat and decaying organic matter of many types from drift wood to corpses, natural enemies intelligent species and races as well as some crabs that are specifically immune to all of the urchines defenses.
*Life Cycle -- Breeding/spawn creation is by using living or even dead hosts as incubators as they A-sextually create eggs that they inject into them through there spines, maturation depends upon food and size can reach near 5ft by 5ft square or small size total.
*Society -- Grouping habits is that they form large reefs that slowly swallow anything that touches the spines but are unintelligent and have little more than touch to go on.
*Threat -- Can grow unchecked on wood of ships and on any organic surface that is able to hold it, and once it begins feeding it is capable of sustaining it's self above water for near 24 hours while its young that develop beneth the victims skin are able to survive in the environment until exposed almost indefinately until the hosts death. As long as it is underwater the urchin will live for up to three years if food is present and new urchins will devour thier dead until all nutrients are exhausted.
*Pursuit -- Ice and colder climates as well as long exposures to fresh air. Food depravation for more that five days. The cold kills the urchin but the eggs inside can stay active for years until able to infect a viable host.
Bone Spawn Urchin
Bone Spawn Urchin
Fine Vermin(Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 1/4 1d8+2 Fine (2 hp), 1/2 2d8+2 Diminutive (7 hp), 3d8+2 Tiny (18 hp), 4d8+2 Small (22 hp)
Inititive: +0
Speed: -
Armor Class: 24 (+6 natural +8 size) Touch 18, Flatfooted 24
Base Attack/Grapple: 0/+16
Attack: Spines (1d2)
Full Attack: Spines (1d2)
Space/Reach: 0ft./0ft.
Special Attacks: Poison, Eggs, Improved Grab
Special Qualities: Camoflage, Vermin Traits
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +0, Will +4,
Abillities: Str -, Dex -, Con 14, Int -, Wis 15, Cha 1
Skills: When green in water Hide: +10, but when red in water +4, When out of water green +0, and when red out of water -4.
Feats: Improved Grapple
Environment: Any Temperate or Tropical Aquatic(Reefs or Shipwrecks)
Organization: Tangle 1-11, Patch 12-65, Cluster 66-250, Garden 251-425, Reef 526 or higher.
Challenge Rating: 1/2 (Fine), 1(Diminutive), 2 (Tiny), 3 (Small)
Treasure: None
Alignment: Neutral
Advancement: 1 HD (Fine), 2 HD (Diminutive), 3 HD (Tiny), 4 HD (Small)
Level Adjustment: -
Discription: Your oar has smacked the side of what must have been some kind of reef. You pull it up to discover a small barbed green ball on the end of it. You are about to start again ignoring it but you hear a rough scrape along the bottom of the longboat. Red and green spines have ripped small holes in the boat and you fear to touch them as you start to take on water.
These urchins are seemingly similar to there slightly less harmful cousins and may exist in many new reefs and such slowly covering them over a matter of months. Aquatic creatures stay as clear as they can from these blights and while that may work most times the Bone Spawn Urchins grow in number with each stab of thier spines. They vary in color from pale green to a bright red color and are only found on the remains of a living thing weather drift wood, coral, or an unfortunate animal. Many communities will attempt to destroy such reefs as the quick reproduction of these creatures is sure to overtake any shipyard if it manages to spread. They are found in coastal reefs or any that are in warm waters but as the seas get cold the urchins will go dormant and only require above freezing temperatures to survive. The eggs however are not killed by the cold as long as they are within thier parent. Whole reef's of these vile things have gone dormant until revived by warm weather and a fresh meal.
Combat: Combat is not really much with Bone Spawn Urchins, as they have little defense or way of retalitating against attackers. However should one of the stining barbs take hold the creature so stung may find that it is now under assault from within.
Improved Grab: A Bone Spawn Urchin is always considered to be attempting a grapple when ever it would deal it's damage against an organic substance. The creature or object must make a DC 16 +2 per size catagory of the urchin, grapple check to escape the grapple or he takes the damage of the spines and is subject to both the poison and then the eggs on the second round. Removing a Bone Spawn Urchin is a fullround action that deals it's spine damage +1 per size catagory to the victim and requires a DC Grapple check equal to the one above or a full round DC 15 heal check. If some one aids the person and provokes a grapple, depending upon the size of the urchin they may be grappled as well. A Fine urchin may grapple two victims, and for every size larger may grapple +1 victim total. The urchin does not deal damage each round unless the grapple is opposed or the victim is other wise force to act but it still injects both it's poison and eggs each round. Upon taking mortal damage the urchin will automatically release the grapple.
Poison: The Bone Spawn Urchin automatically injects a poison through its spines when it's primitive sense of touch is stimulated. This poison has the following statistics: Injury/Injestion DC 14 +1 per hit die of urchin, initial Paralysis 1 hour, Secondary damage Paralysis 24 hours. This save is made every minute after the secondary damage that the urchin remains attached and the durrations stack with poison from the same source. Once the Urchin dies the poison still inside it becomes inert after 24 hours and collecting it requires a DC 25 check to avoid injury durring the process.
Eggs: At the start of the second round of the grapple on the urchins inititive, the victim must make a Fort save DC of 14 +1 per hit die of the urchin or have the eggs enter the blood stream. These eggs act like a disease with an incubation period of 24 hours. The damage of the Disease is -1 Constitution + -1 Constitution per failed save previous and the DC begins to rise by +1 for each previous failed save. After the second day the victim then also takes -1 Charisma and takes one more every day after but this does not increase as the Constitution damage does because the spines are not all pushing out of the outside of the skin. It continues to grow as the victim gets worse and neither the Constitution or Charisma Damage cannot be recovered until a remove disease spell is cast on the victim. This is meant to repressent more urchins growing within the victim and spines beginning to show through. These Fine size urchins may be removed through surgery but this deals 1d8 points of damage to the victim and requires a DC 25 Heal check to do so. Removing an urchin allows the victim to heal one point of Constitution but no further. There are a number of urchins in the body equal to the Constitution lost and even if all are removed and the Constitution healed the victim must still fight off the disease as if it where the first day when the damage rolls round. Once the victim dies depending on the conditions the victims corpse may support the urchins for up to one month per point of constitution the creature originally had.
Camouflage: Bone Spawn Urchin when green spined appers to be similar to normal Urchins and requires a DC 20 Spot check to notice the difference. If some one is looking specifically for Bone Spawn Urchin then the DC is equal to its Hide score depending upon the results. When red spined however it stands out to be very obvious and uses its reduced hide score even if not being looked for. Any one with Survival or Knowledge (Vermin) can use those skills in place of Spot to notice the Urchin.
Vermin Traits: A Bone Spawn Urchin is immune to all mind-affecting spells and abilities (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects). It does not gain darkvision out 60ft but does recieve tremor sense out to 5ft.
All fixed as it was a small couple of changes...
Now what else do I do to finish it up if anything? 
