Vermin

Vermin of the waste operate on instinct, driven by simple needs such as food and reproduction. In the case of monstrous vermin, these needs can be deadly for those who encounter them.

This large crustacean has dozens of feathery, flat legs and crushing mandibles. It flips through the salt water with great agility. Brine swimmers are a giant form of brine shrimp, perfectly adapted to the salty, shallow lakes of the waste.

While ordinary brine shrimp feed on algae, these giant creatures eat fish, larval brine swimmers, and even young crocodiles if they can get them. They are a danger to any creature of Medium or smaller size that enters their territory.

A brine swimmer’s many legs act as fins, gills, and food-gathering tools. They are fringed with bristles that both filter food from the water and tear at prey held in the creature’s mandibles. Brine swimmers swim constantly and seem to cavort as they twist and spin in the water.

Brine swimmer eggs are able to withstand extended periods of drought. If a salt lake dries up, the eggs can survive for several years in a crystalline form, hatching within hours once they are immersed again.

Brine swimmers and their eggs are an important food source for many waste-dwellers, although hunting the creatures is by no means safe.

Combat

A brine swimmer grabs at prey with its mandibles, then holds on and rakes with its legs.

Brine swimmers can make sudden turns by flexing their segmented abdomens, and they use this surprising maneuverability both when hunting and when attempting to escape danger.

Brine swimmers generally travel in large groups, and a movement by one toward a food source soon brings dozens of others.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a brine swimmer must hit an opponent with its bite attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking attacks of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can rake.

Rake (Ex): Six legs, attack bonus +5 melee, damage 1d4+1.

Snap Turn (Ex): A brine swimmer can change direction quickly once each round as a free action. It can turn 180 degrees without expending any of its swim speed and can even use the run action after executing such a turn.

Skills: A brine swimmer has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.

At the bottom of a sandy pit lies a bristled horror with enormous, hooked jaws. It looks like a fat-bodied louse but is the size of a warhorse. A giant ant lion is the larval form of a giant insect that resembles a dragonfly. It spends almost its entire life in larval form, voraciously consuming giant ants or anything that stumbles into its trap.

Giant ant lions are perfectly adapted to trapping and devouring prey. They dig slippery pits in loose sand and hide themselves at the bottom, with only their outsized jaws protruding. If a creature comes too close to the pit’s edge, it falls in and slides toward the waiting predator. A giant ant lion is expert at knocking down hapless creatures that try to escape the trap, and its body has thick, forward-pointing bristles that keep it from being pulled out of its pit once it has seized its prey.

Combat

A giant ant lion finds a dry slope of loose, sandy soil and digs its way in backward, hurling sand out in circles until it has formed a funnel-shaped pit about 20 feet deep. It lurks there and waits for a creature to slide in, then grabs it with lightning speed and paralyzes the prey with its poisonous bite.

Constrict (Ex): A giant ant lion deals 2d8+6 points of damage with a successful grapple check.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a giant ant lion must hit a creature with its bite attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking attacks of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can constrict.

Pit (Ex): The pit of a giant ant lion fills four adjacent 5-foot squares and is 20 feet deep. It isn’t hard to recognize, requiring a DC 10 Spot or Survival check to notice. Charging or running characters are not entitled to a check. A creature that does not notice the pit can make a DC 17 Reflex save to avoid falling in.

A creature that falls into the pit begins to slide to the bottom at the rate of 10 feet per round. A DC 17 Climb check is necessary to arrest the slide, and struggling out of the pit requires a DC 22 Climb check.

Poison (Ex): Injury, Fortitude DC 17, initial damage none, secondary damage paralysis 1d6 rounds. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Sand Burst (Ex): A giant ant lion can hurl sand at a struggling creature to knock it from the pit walls. It makes a ranged touch attack; on a hit, the target must make an immediate DC 22 Climb check or slide 10 feet toward the bottom of the pit. Skills: Giant ant lions have a +8 racial bonus on Hide checks. *This bonus rises to +12 when buried in their sandy pits. They also have a +4 racial bonus on Listen checks.

Giant termite mounds are landmarks in the waste, averaging 20 feet high—although some can be as tall as 50 feet. Predators often use these as lookout points. The mounds, made from the workers’ saliva and body wastes, are as hard as stone. They act as ventilators for the colony, circulating air as the desert winds blow against them. Abandoned termite mounds often serve as lairs for various desert creatures.

Termite workers are small, feeble creatures no more than 2 feet long devoted to the endless maintenance of the colony. Soldiers are much larger, up to 6 feet in length, with outsized, swordlike jaws that can cut an enemy in half with one bite. The queen is a bloated monster that can barely move; she spends her life laying eggs.

Combat

Only the soldier termites actively fight. Workers and the queen have weak bite attacks that they use only to defend themselves.

Worker Termite

Combat

Workers try to flee if attacked, racing toward prearranged positions where large numbers of soldiers congregate. Workers attack only if they have no avenue of escape. Skills: Giant worker termites have a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks. A worker can always choose to take 10 on a Climb check, even if rushed or threatened.

*A worker’s bite is treated as a secondary attack.

Soldier Termite

Combat

Giant soldier termites don’t back down from invaders. They fight to the death to defend their queen. Although not intelligent, soldier termites have some innate sense of tactics as a result of breeding. They attempt to flank targets when possible, and will even use the aid another action (see page 154 of the Player’s Handbook) in an attempt to bring down foes that are particularly difficult to strike.

Constrict (Ex): A giant termite soldier deals automatic bite damage on a successful grapple check.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a giant termite soldier must hit a creature with its bite attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking attacks of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can constrict.

Poison (Ex): Injury, Fortitude DC 14, initial damage 1d4 acid, secondary damage paralysis 1d4 rounds. Skills: Giant soldier termites have a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks. A soldier can always choose to take 10 on a Climb check, even if rushed or threatened.

Queen Termite

Combat

The sedentary giant queen termite has even less combat capability than the workers. Barely able to shift her massive abdomen around, she relies exclusively on soldier termites for protection. A queen is always accompanied at least a half-dozen soldier termites.