Hesper

Source: Alien Archive

CR: 2 XP: 600

CN Medium fey

Init.: +1 Senses: low-light vision Perception: +7

Defense

HP: 21

EAC: 13 KAC: 12

Fort: +3 Ref: +3 Will: +5

Offense

Speed: 30 ft.

Melee: mutating touch +3 (see below)

Offensive Abilities: None

Statistics

Str: +0 Dex: +1 Con: +2 Wis: +1 Int: +0 Cha: +4

Skills: Diplomacy +12, Engineering +7, Physical Science +12

Languages: Common

Ecology

Environment: any starship or urban

Organization: solitary, pair, or clique (3–12)

Special Abilities

<p><b>Mutating Touch (Su)</b> A hesper can deliver an enormous dose of radiation with a touch, triggering sudden mutations and pain in living creatures. With a successful attack against a living creature’s KAC, a hesper causes the target to sprout tumors that erupt at the beginning of its next turn, causing a random mutation (roll 1d20 on the table below) that persists for 24 hours. An affected creature can negate this transformation with a successful DC 13 Fortitude saving throw. Once a creature has been affected by a hesper’s mutating touch, it becomes immune to that particular fey’s mutating touch for 24 hours.<br/><br/> <b>Reactor Sprite (Su)</b> If a hesper spends 1 hour in close contact with a starship’s power core or another large power source (such as a fusion reactor), it can form a long-term bond. A hesper can merge with its bonded reactor, gaining fast healing 5 while it remains merged. A merged hesper is aware of what happens in the reactor’s immediate vicinity, but if the reactor is broken or suffers the wrecked critical damage condition, the hesper is immediately expelled and takes 3d6 damage. If the reactor is destroyed while the hesper is merged with it, the hesper is slain instantly (Fortitude DC 15 negates). A hesper can bond with only one reactor at a time, and forming a new bond severs its previous bond.</p>

Description

Lithe and handsome, hespers embody the potential for change inherent in technological power sources. They are energetic and excitable, interested in new faces, sights, and sensations, which drives them to spread across the universe. However, hespers are invested in change for change’s sake. Though rarely malicious, they worm their way into any repository of advanced technology, rebuilding devices and asking endless questions. Most line their nests with all sorts of souvenirs— most of them stolen—which they occasionally rebuild into bizarre and sometimes radioactive totems.

Hespers stand 4 to 5 feet tall but are deceptively dense, weighing 300 to 400 pounds despite their slim, generally masculine builds. Their hair color changes from day to day, running the gamut of the colors of the humanoids around them, and their flesh glows softly in the dark. Though they’re not dangerously radioactive unless they wish to be, their presence excites the air around them, creating drifting motes of light. A hesper can focus this energy at will to project rays of fire, emit arcs of electricity, or overload electronic devices. This same energy can infuse other living creatures with focused doses of radiation, skipping the normal radiation sickness and instead causing short-lived changes to a victim’s genetic structure.

Once vanishingly rare, hespers have become somewhat commonplace as more civilizations have taken to the stars. The glowing fey are especially at home in starships, bonding to the vessels’ reactors. They can be blessings for some ships, serving as constant attendants for one of a starship’s most crucial systems, but their fickle nature also means they grow bored with regular routes or overlong stays in port, and they create drama to amuse themselves.