Fantasy Monster: Last Rays Of The Deep Sun

You can now support Shaper Of Worlds on Patreon.

Last Rays Of The Deep Sun

A bright white radiant shard crowns this pillar of brass. The whole construction is covered with glyphs and pictograms, and walks on four spidery legs.

CR 6; XP 2,400
N Large Construct

Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +3

Aura deep sun (300 ft./600 ft.)

Defense
AC 19, touch 13, flat-footed 15 (+5 Dex, +5 natural, –1 size)
hp 74 (8d10+30)
Fort +2; Ref +7; Will +5

Defensive Qualities all-around vision, half damage from light effects, hardness 10; Immune construct traits

Offense
Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft.

Melee 2 claws +12 (2d4+5)

Ranged focused light +12 ray (6d6, 19–20/×3 plus blindness for 1d4 rounds)

Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.

Statistics
Str 20, Dex 20, Con —, Int —, Wis 17, Cha 1
Base Atk +8; CMB +13; CMD 29 (33 vs. trip)

Feats Improved Critical (ray)^B, Point-Blank Shot^B, Weapon Focus (ray)^B

Skills Climb +12, Perception +3, Stealth +0

SQ climbing claws

Ecology
Environment underground, urban
Organization solitary, pair, or alley (3–10)
Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Climbing Claws (Ex) Last rays of the deep sun have claws strong enough to attach it to walls at any angle, including hanging upside down from the ceiling, as long as the ceiling itself is strong enough to support the construct's considerable (even if parts of the pillar and its legs are hollow) weight. It seems that hanging from the ceiling of huge caverns, or sticking horizontally from the walls was one of the intended uses of these devices.

Deep Sun Aura (Su) Last rays of the deep sun emanates intense radiance, providing bright illumination within 300 feet, and increasing illumination level within another 300 feet by one step. This light is capable of fully sustaining vegetation deep underground, though sunbathing in it doesn't seem to give an actual tan to humans.

Focused Light (Su) Last rays of the deep sun can focus its light into a powerful ray with 300 feet range that sears creatures and objects struck dealing 6d6 points of damage. On a confirmed critical hit it deals triple damage and causes blindness for 1d4 rounds.

Last rays of the deep sun were made long ago by an ancient empire that lived deep underground to provide them with sunlight they were missing. If the glyphs that can be found on the recovered frames were deciphered correctly, they had their own divine Deep Sun, providing them with light and warmth they needed to sustain their civilization. When it apparently died, or maybe was extinguished in a cataclysm (or was that war? sabotage? assassination? the glyphs are unclear and the accompanying pictograms seem very allegoric, some suggest that the Deep Sun was a deity, a person, or a machine, or all of those and more), they salvaged its embers, embedding them into pylons of enchanted brass and turned into walking lanterns.

The original creators might be long gone, but last rays of the deep sun stayed behind, initially following long forgotten paths underneath the earth—winding tunnels, vast caverns, alleys of the magnificent chambers, and underground gardens. As the times passed, tunnels collapsed, stone walls shifted, the paths scrambled. Without ancient priest-technicians supervising the last rays, these light-bringing constructs veered from their prescribed paths and spread across the deep lands underneath the roots of mountains.

Last rays of the deep sun are of great interest to students of both ancient lore and the arts of construct crafting. The former desire to learn more of the lost civilization that made them, the later want to understand their construction and replicate their creation process. And there are always those who simply want to find the ancient cities and scavenge their riches for themselves. Following one of the roaming last rays in hope that its path is intact enough for it to finally return home is one of the possibilities for successful achievement of one or more of those goals.

And then, there is the mystery behind the color of the light emanated by those devices. Is there are reason why a few of them have different hue than the blueish-white common among the others?