Mossling Swarm

Mossling Swarm

Fine Animal (Swarm)

Hit Dice: 3d8+3 (16 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 5 ft. (1 square), climb 10 ft.
Armor Class: 18 (+4 Dex, +4 size), touch 18, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +2 / —
Attack: Swarm (1d4 plus cling)
Full Attack: Swarm (1d4 plus cling)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: Distraction, cling, creeping infiltration
Special Qualities: Swarm traits, damage reduction 5/slashing, camouflage, vermin sympathy, water-drifting
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +2
Abilities: Str 1, Dex 19, Con 12, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills: Hide +16 (+24 in moss or swamp foliage), Climb +12
Feats: Improved Initiative, Skill Focus (Hide)
Environment: Warm marshes and swamps
Organization: Solitary, cluster (2–4 swarms), infestation (5–12 swarms)
Challenge Rating: 2
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: —
Level Adjustment: —

DESCRIPTION

At first glance, a mossling swarm is indistinguishable from a hanging curtain of Maiden’s Hair moss draped across the limbs of a bald cypress. Each individual creature is a tiny, inch-long organism covered in wispy, gray-green filaments that perfectly mimic the soft, trailing strands of that growth. When still, they are utterly inert - even under close inspection.

When disturbed, however, the “moss” shivers… then flows. Thousands of tiny bodies ripple into motion at once, spilling downward in a silent cascade, clinging, crawling, and spreading with unsettling speed.

Individually harmless, collectively they become a persistent, invasive nuisance that overwhelms by sheer presence rather than lethality.

SPECIAL ATTACKS

Distraction (Ex): Any living creature that begins its turn with a mossling swarm in its space must succeed on a DC 12 Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1 round. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Cling (Ex): A mossling swarm does not simply deal damage - it stays. Any creature damaged by the swarm must succeed on a DC 12 Reflex save or have mosslings cling to its body. A clinging infestation continues to deal 1d4 damage at the start of the creature’s turn until removed.

Removing clinging mosslings requires a full-round action and a successful DC 12 Reflex save, or automatic removal if the creature takes at least 5 points of slashing damage to itself (representing scraping or cutting them away). Fire grants a +4 bonus to this removal attempt.

Creeping Infiltration (Ex): Mosslings instinctively seek dark, damp spaces. A creature suffering from cling takes a –2 penalty on Concentration, Listen, and Spot checks as the creatures crawl into clothing, hair, armor joints, and other crevices.

SPECIAL QUALITIES

Camouflage (Ex): In swamp environments, a mossling swarm gains a +8 racial bonus on Hide checks and can take 10 on Hide checks even while being observed, so long as it remains motionless.

Vermin Sympathy (Ex): Mosslings are ignored by normal vermin and animals native to swamp environments. Such creatures will not attack mosslings unless magically compelled.

Water-Drifting (Ex): Mosslings can disperse across the surface of still or slow-moving water without penalty, allowing them to spread between trees and across flooded terrain with ease.

LORE

Mosslings are not predators in any meaningful sense. They exist as a peculiar byproduct of swamp ecosystems - something between animal, parasite, and environmental phenomenon.

Some scholars claim they are degenerate fey, their mimicry of plant life taken to its most unsettling extreme. Others believe them to be entirely natural, a species that discovered survival not through strength, but through stillness and overwhelming numbers. A darker theory persists that they were engineered long ago as living camouflage, only to escape control and spread unchecked.

They thrive in bald cypress groves heavy with Maiden’s Hair moss, where entire trees may conceal multiple dormant swarms. Local superstition insists the moss remembers warmth and breath… and that some curtains of it are no longer entirely plant.

Their true danger lies in persistence. A single swarm is irritating. Multiple swarms become exhausting. Full infestations turn travel, rest, and even basic function into a constant battle against discomfort and distraction.

ECOLOGY & BEHAVIOR

Mosslings reproduce through fragmentation. Destroying part of a swarm often results in the survivors dispersing and reforming elsewhere, making eradication frustratingly unreliable.

They are drawn to warmth, moisture, and breath, making campsites and sleeping creatures ideal targets. Once introduced into gear, structures, or vessels, they can remain hidden for days before reactivating under favorable conditions.

Fire is their most effective countermeasure - though in the swamp, that solution is often as dangerous as the infestation itself.

Kelwyn’s Notes

Ah… Maiden’s Hair moss. A name of delicate poetry, wholly undeserved in this particular instance. What appears at first to be a gentle draping of the swamp soon reveals itself to possess… intent. I have watched it tremble, descend, and claim the unwary with a quiet enthusiasm that borders on indecent.

This is not a creature in the traditional sense, but a principle made manifest - persistence without restraint. It does not seek to harm in any meaningful way, nor to hunt, nor to defend. It simply adheres, infiltrates, and refuses to relinquish its claim. There is something profoundly improper about a lifeform that does not recognize the concept of enough.

The body suffers little. The mind, however, is worn down with ruthless efficiency. Sleep becomes uncertain. Stillness becomes suspect. One begins to question every brush of fabric, every strand of hair, every quiet moment. In time, even the most composed individual finds themselves reduced to irritation, then agitation, and finally something approaching quiet despair.

I will be uncharacteristically direct: burn it. Burn it immediately, and with conviction. There are few circumstances in which I would recommend setting fire to a tree in a swamp. This is one of them. Hesitation invites persistence, and persistence, in this case, is intolerable.

There are horrors in this world that command respect. This is not one of them. It is nuisance refined into inevitability, an insult draped in the guise of nature. Should you encounter Maiden’s Hair that stirs of its own accord… do not study it. Do not prod it. End it. With fire.