Steadied Dohv-Dranna
CREATURE 10Variant brain collector
The grotesque brain collectors originate from worlds far beyond the known solar system, and are part of a conglomeration of hostile aliens known collectively as the Dominion of the Black. Whether driven by their own schemes or directives from sinister overlords, brain collectors arrive in living starships to harvest the brains of intelligent creatures. These aberrations draw no nutrition from brains, instead storing them for analysis and as vessels for occult magical energies.
A brain collector's form evokes that of a tailless scorpion, but the pulsing brain-filled blisters that glisten along its back make them impossible to mistake for merely oversized arachnids. Baleful eyes glare from the joints on their legs, and the unsettling, intrusive whisper-thoughts they telepathically broadcast into the minds of those they seek to feed on can be interpreted as threats or promises alike.
Brain collectors have very little empathy for the denizens of any world they visit, despite the fact that certain cults venerate them, or the Dominion they hail from, as if they were gods. To brain collectors, terrestrial creatures are simply resources for their magical needs and occult powers. They have little interest in worshipping gods or being worshipped themselves, yet they do practice strange forms of religion of their own, in which they consider the primordial forces of deep space as worthy of faith and fear.
A monster with telepathy can communicate mentally with any creatures within the listed radius, as long as they share a language. This doesn't give any special access to their thoughts, and communicates no more information than normal speech would.
A brain collector has seven brain blisters on its back that it uses to house stolen brains. A brain collector without all seven blisters full is Stupefied with a value equal to the number of empty blisters.
If a brain collector takes 30 damage from a critical hit or takes 25 mental damage, it must succeed at a DC 29 save (DC 29 Fortitude for critical damage or DC 29 Will for mental damage) or one of its brain blisters is destroyed.
The brain collector collects a brain of a creature that has been dead for no more than 1 minute. It can then use an Interact action to secure the brain in one of its empty brain blisters.
The mutant brain collector's death reveals one last surprise as it explodes into radioactive ash. When it dies, it explodes, dealing 5d6 acid damage to each creature in a 10-foot emanation, with a DC 27 basic Reflex save.
Whenever the mutant brain collector takes energy damage to which it isn't resistant or immune, after taking the damage normally, it gains resistance 10 to that damage type. If it had a resistance to a different damage type from shifting iridescence, it replaces the old resistance with the new resistance.