Pest Drake SwarmThese songbird-sized drakes declare their territory with an
insistent chorus of shrill chirps.Pest Drake Swarm CR 9Source Pathfinder #141: Last Watch pg. 84
XP 6,400
N Diminutive dragon (swarm)
Init +11; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision;
Perception +8DefenseAC 23, touch 21, flat-footed 16 (+7 Dex, +2 natural, +4 size)
hp 115 (11d12+44)
Fort +12, Ref +14, Will +9
Defensive Abilities swarm traits; Immune acid, paralysis,
sleep, weapon damageOffenseSpeed 15 ft., fly 60 ft. (good)
Melee swarm (3d6 acid plus blistering slime and distraction)
Space 10 ft., Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks blistering slime, caustic cloud (10-ft.-radius
burst, 8d6 acid, Reflex DC 20 half, usable every 1d4
rounds), distraction (DC 18)StatisticsStr 3, Dex 24, Con 16, Int 3, Wis 11, Cha 14
Base Atk +11; CMB —; CMD —
Feats Ability Focus (caustic cloud), Alertness, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Toughness
Skills Acrobatics +12, Fly +24, Perception +8, Sense Motive +8,
Stealth +13, Survival +11; Racial Modifiers +4 Survival
SQ homingEcologyEnvironment any urban
Organization solitary, pair, or rampage (3–5)
Treasure noneSpecial AbilitiesBlistering Slime (Ex) A creature that leaves a pest drake
swarm’s space becomes coated in acidic slime. A creature
coated in acidic slime takes 3d6 points of acid damage at
the end of its turn each round. As a full-round action, an
affected creature can attempt a DC 18 Reflex save to clean
off the slime. Dropping and rolling on the ground grants a
+4 bonus on this save. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Caustic Cloud (Su) The dragons making up the pest drake
swarm can coordinate their acidic breath together to create
a caustic cloud as a standard action. The pest drake swarm
can create a caustic cloud once every 1d4 rounds. All
creatures within a 10-foot-radius burst, including creatures
within the swarm’s squares, take 8d6 points of acid damage
(Reflex DC 20 half). The save DC is Constitution-based.
Homing (Ex) As a standard action, the pest drake swarm
can determine its approximate distance from its home as
well as the direction it must travel to reach it. A pest drake
must spend 1 week in a new location to designate the new
location as its home.DescriptionRoosting on statuary and eaves, pest drakes are the bane of
masons and carpenters across Golarion. By itself, a single
pest drake is a tolerated nuisance, eating insects and other
vermin in the city. Its distinctive song-like chirp greets
passersby and thanks those who throw it scraps of food.
When pest drakes gather, however, they become much
more dangerous. The little wyvern-like dragons erode the
stone where they nest and grow territorial in large groups,
becoming deadly, acid-spitting flocks when agitated.
Some of the smallest dragons, adult pest drakes are just
under a foot in length and weigh 1–2 pounds. They live
approximately 10–15 years.EcologyCenturies ago, a wizard who was jealous of his colleague’s
bond with a pseudodragon captured a clutch of
pseudodragons, determined to create his own draconic
familiar. He drained his family’s fortune in countless
experiments to create a less intelligent and more obedient
dragon. His experiments routinely failed, with many of the
resulting offspring unable to properly bond as familiars or
so frail they died within days of hatching. Decades later,
a young paladin of Apsu discovered the wizard’s atrocities
against dragonkind and confronted the wizard. The
wizard’s daughter, who had cared for the failed experiments
all of her life, released them from their cages, attempting to
spare them from her father’s magic and the paladin’s ire.
Not long after the paladin left the wizard’s mansion,
the drakes returned to their pen. The daughter, intending
to grant them freedom, released them further and further
away from her home, only to discover them back in her
courtyard each time she returned. Unable to “free” the
drakes, she instead created a messenger service with
them in an attempt to recover her family’s fortune. Her
plan did not work quite as intended. The drakes became
a decades-long fashion fad that spread like wildfire across
Golarion’s nobility, especially after it was discovered that
the creatures could be easily bred to exhibit a variety of
colors, spikes, and frill styles. By the time the drakes fell
out of fashion, they had become too embedded in their
urban homes to ever be fully removed.
Unlike their draconic cousins, pest drakes are highly
fertile and mature quickly. Mated pairs lay clutches of two
to three eggs each year in the spring and fall. The eggs
incubate for 2 months, and a hatchling reaches physical
and sexual maturity within 5 months. A mated pair of
pest drakes remains together while incubating eggs and
raising the hatchlings, but they often find new mates
within the flock after those young mature. Each adult in
the flock takes at least some role in a hatchling’s growth,
often teaching it which places to frequent for food and
which to avoid due to danger. Some smaller flocks have
been known to follow people who feed them, even as
those people age and move to different homes within the
city, passing the tribal knowledge of previous kindness
from one generation of pest drakes to the next.
Pest drakes are not as vicious as their drake cousins, and
they rarely attack creatures larger than themselves. They
are omnivorous, subsisting primarily on berries, seeds,
insects, and small rodents, though those that inhabit cities
get the majority of their diet from scraps dropped by the
city’s inhabitants. Many pest drakes perch patiently in
parks where citizens are likely to rest and eat, waiting for
a dropped scrap or the opportunity to steal an untended
meal. Some pest drakes have learned that chirping, dancing,
and other displays often delight the local populace, leading
to the drakes getting more scraps of food.Habitat and SocietyPest drakes are social, communal
creatures that exist almost entirely
within cities. Flocks within cities
tend to claim sections of the city as
their territories and defend these
territories from outside menaces,
whether those menaces are other
flocks of pest drakes, an invasion
of stowaway rats on the docks, or
new construction in the nobles’
district that disrupts their nests.
Flocks of pest drakes found
outside of cities still frequently
gravitate toward humanoid
settlements, latching onto tribes
or villages. Pest drakes communicate with each
other through a mixture of body language,
chirps, clicks, and whistles. They can understand
basic words and simple commands in the languages of
the humanoids around them, but they lack the ability to
fully understand or speak a language.
Masons despise pest drakes. The drakes’ acidic biology
eventually permeates their roosting places, slowly eating
away at the structure beneath. Their acid erodes details
on statues, inscriptions on walls, and designs on column
capitals. Buildings and statuary made of marble or painted
in lighter colors are particularly susceptible to this
corrosion, as it slowly darkens the stone and dissolves the
paint. Once established, these pests have proven difficult
to remove, as they are often too numerous and too prolific
to fully exterminate, especially when the local populace so
regularly feeds the friendly creatures. In poorer areas where
vermin are more prevalent, the citizens often encourage
the habitation of pest drakes to help keep the populations
of other pests down.
Many minor nobles still collect and breed pest drakes
for racing stock due to their innate ability to always find
their way home. Some pest drakes are bred for speed,
others for endurance. These races are collectively referred
to as “Rainbow Races” due to the bright streaks of color
that fill the sky when the pest drakes are released. Owners
keep racing drakes in housing that limits the drakes’
ability to form a bond with others of their kind. Current
Rainbow Races have regulations limiting how many pest
drakes can be raced at the same time after the Great Drake
Disaster in Taldor, in which thousands of half-starved
pest drakes were released for a race and subsequently
bonded into a flock that decimated the nearby farmland.
|