Orb Cluster (Wermspittle)

Orb Cluster (Type I)
No. Enc.: 1 (0)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 90' (Omnidirectional)
Armor Class: 7 (only take half damage from non-magical weapons)
Hit Dice: 4+1 (Improves)
Attacks: 1
Damage: (Fear, Paralysis, Suffocation or Dissolve)
Save: F3
Morale: 9

Special: Breach Weak Point, Call Damned Things

Orb clusters are strange, viridescent congeries of soap-bubble-like spheres that hover about on the very fringes of consciousness prowling for lost souls, negligent dreamers or arrogant mentalists to prey upon.


Be Afraid
All Orb Clusters (there are other types...) emanate a constant Fear effect in a 20' radius that seeps across planes and into adjacent worlds. This is a constant effect and causes all who come within 20' of the Orb Cluster to make a Save at a penalty of -4 or suffer the effects of a Fear spell. (LL. p.25)

Stopping Power
Orb Clusters attack by extending a portion of the slime-like ectoplasmic material that surrounds them like an aethyric sheath. This corrupted ecto-stuff is a foul, milky green and  causes paralysis on contact for 1d4 turns. Fantomists collect this material for use in some of the illicit substances that they peddle in the back alleys of Wermspittle and other such unsavory locales. It is conjectured that this matter is some sort of residue of those that the Orb Cluster has already digested in the past.

A Nasty Follow-Up 
Orb Clusters that score a successful follow-up attack on an already paralyzed victim will then envelope their prey, either suffocating them for 1d4 damage/turn or saturating them with the weird sorcerous digestive fluids they exude from inside each of their bubble-like segments. This attack inflicts 1d6 damage per turn, but also grants the paralyzed victim a new Save each time they sustain damage. Anyone completely consumed by an Orb Cluster is lost completely and unrecoverable. There is a slight 10% chance per point of INT above 12 of the victim that they might find themself the abiding intelligence of the Orb Cluster that devoured them.

Orb Clusters can innately Detect Ley-Lines, Discern Weak Points and Find Dreamer. They also can Breach Weak Point once per week, allowing them to cross-over from one plane or world at random so long as they have access to a Weak Point. Once per day an Orb Cluster can cast Call Damned Thing, allowing it to summon forth one random effect from any of the Damned Things Tables.

Little Known Facts Regarding Orb Clusters

• Orb Clusters avoid Ordrang at all costs and will automatically flee any location where an Ordrang is present.
• The spell Dispel Ectoplasm causes 1d6 damage per level of the caster when used against one of these things, while Ectoplasmic Wall will effectively trap one for the duration of the spell.
• The Moth-Wing Scrolls of Nildru are reputed to hold the secret of binding Orb Clusters into various sorts of magical items and/or weapons.