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GM > Starship > Starship-Scale Creature List > Vermelith
Starfinder Alien Archive 2 p.130
N Huge starship magical beast
Speed 4; Maneuverability poor (turn 3)
AC 25; TL 22; Immunities EMP, radiation, vacuum
HP 200; DT 5; CT 40
Shields none
Attack (Forward) gravity gun +13 (6d6), bite +13 (8d6 plus EMP and swallow starship)
Attack (Turret) tail whip +13 (8d6, ripper)
Skills Engineering +17, Piloting +18
Power Core vermelith heart (150 PCU); Drift Engine none; Systems mk 5 defenses, mk 8 armor; Expansion Bays swallow starship
Other Abilities encyst, extreme resistance, living starship, void adaptation
Engineer (1 action) Engineering +17 (9 ranks)
Gunners (2 actions) gunnery +15 (9th level)
Pilot (1 action) Piloting +18 (9 ranks)
Environment any vacuum
Organization solitary
Bite (Ex) A vermelith can use its bite only against a ship in
an adjacent hex. If the vermelith deals damage with this
attack to a ship of its size or smaller, it holds that ship in
place. As an action, the pilot of the bitten starship can
attempt a DC 28 Piloting check to break free of the jaws.
While holding a starship in its jaws, the vermelith can’t
move, turn, or use its gravity gun, but it can make tail
attacks or attempt to bite or swallow the same starship.
The vermelith and the ship it is holding take a –2 penalty
to AC and TL and to Piloting checks to determine
movement order in starship combat.
Encyst (Ex) A vermelith can coil up and, over 6 hours,
exude a rocky layer that resembles an asteroid.
An encysted vermelith can take no actions, but it
increases its AC and TL by 5 and its DT by 10. A creature
that succeeds at a DC 28 Mysticism check can identify
an encysted vermelith as a creature. A vermelith can
remain encysted indefinitely. If awakened during
starship combat, a vermelith bursts out of its cyst during
the engineering phase and acts normally.
Extreme Resistance (Ex) A vermelith gains a +4 bonus to its
AC against direct fire weapons that have the EMP special
property or use gravity, and its DT against such weapons
is 15. A vermelith has a +5 bonus to Piloting checks it
attempts due to gravity, such as escaping a tractor beam.
Living Starship (Ex) A vermelith is a living creature that
can engages only in starship combat. It has no crew, but
it can still take engineer, gunner, and pilot actions using
the skill bonuses, ranks, and level listed in the Crew
Actions section above. Modifiers for its size, speed, and
maneuverability are already factored into its statistics. Use
the table below when the vermelith takes critical damage.
The vermelith’s brain can’t gain the wrecked condition.
D% | SYSTEM | EFFECT |
---|---|---|
1–30 | Weapon array/td> | Condition applies to all gunner actions |
31–60 | Gravity centers/td> | Condition applies to gunner actions with the gravity gun and all pilot actions |
61–90 | Heart/td> | Condition applies to engineer actions except patching or repairing the heart |
91–100 | Brain/td> | Condition applies to all actions |
Swallow Starship (Ex) If a vermelith is holding a starship
smaller than it in place, it can swallow that vessel by
making a successful bite attack against it. A vermelith’s
gullet can hold one Large ship, two Medium ships, four
Small ships, or eight Tiny ships. A vermelith can take an
action during the gunnery phase to crush starships inside
it, dealing 4d6 damage (divide this damage equally across
all arcs, starting with the forward arc and proceeding
clockwise) and applying the EMP special property. A
swallowed vessel can still attack. The vermelith’s interior
has AC 21, TL 18, and DT 0. However, starship weapons
deal half their damage to the firing ship through a
combination of blowback and the vermelith’s physical
reactions. If a swallowed starship deals 50 damage to the
vermelith’s interior, the ship blows a hole in the creature
big enough to attempt to fly through. During the helm
phase, the pilot of a swallowed starship can attempt to
fly free with a Piloting check (DC 28, or DC 33 if the
vermelith has no hole in it). On a failure, the starship
remains within the vermelith.
Tail Whip (Ex) A vermelith can use its tail whip only against
a starship in an adjacent hex. This attack has the ripper
special property.
Vermeliths are silicon-based worms of various sizes, but the
titanic, starship-eating variety commands the most attention.
These worms are lithotrophs that eat rock and metal. They dwell
in asteroid fields, comet heads, dust clouds, and small moons.
Growing slowly but constantly, vermeliths live thousands
of years, taking centuries to mature. They’re adapted to zero-gravity
and vacuum, but they can tolerate gravity, so they
inhabit moons and planetoids, with or without atmosphere.
Vermeliths can also perceive and manipulate electromagnetic
and gravitational fields, including their own internal fields,
which the worms use to move through space, rend objects,
and find food by sensing the density of nearby materials.
Vermeliths begin life as egglike cysts, which are smooth,
rocky orbs 5 feet across, drifting through space. The worm
remains quiescent until its cyst drifts near a mineral-rich body.
Once it finds such a prize, the worm dissolves its cyst and uses
gravity manipulation to land. The young vermelith burrows in,
gorging on the minerals. When the vermelith exhausts its food,
it travels to nearby sources. If no such target can be found, the
worm launches itself into space and encysts again, awakening
when a chance encounter brings it near a new potential meal.
These star worms lead solitary lives and react aggressively
to any interlopers in their territory, whether they are starships
or other vermeliths. If an adult vermelith ventures near another
mature specimen, both release a cloud of gametes before the
stronger vermelith drives the weaker one away. These gamete
clouds mix and form dozens of eggs, propagating the species.
The reflective nutritive dust released with the gametes also
forms vermeliths’ natural defensive countermeasures.
Adult vermeliths spend much of their time asleep, conserving
energy and digesting. A sleeping vermelith poses little threat to
explorers unless something awakens it. While tall tales tell of
ships that accidentally landed inside a sleeping vermelith with
its mouth agape, deliberate exploration can also prove lucrative.
The cavernous innards of an adult vermelith can enclose an
entire ecosystem, including diverse life-forms. Moisture and
gases from the vermelith’s digestive processes fill this internal
cavity, kept in place by pressure and the vermelith’s bizarre
internal gravity. Derelict ships and ancient technology that
survived digestion can be found inside, sometimes thousands of
years old. Some vermeliths even have breathable atmospheres
inside them. Inhabitants of these ecosystems aid their host’s
digestion or feed off the vermelith, while others are opportunistic
survivors from destroyed vessels or smaller asteroids the worm
swallowed. No two vermeliths house the same internal ecology.
Mature vermeliths average 1,200 feet long, but these
worms continue growing throughout their lives. Truly ancient
vermeliths can be Colossal and threaten the largest starships.
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