Swarm of Flood Infection Forms (5e Halo Setting)
Swarm of Flood Infection Forms[edit]
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Medium swarm of Tiny undead, unaligned Armor Class 12
Saving Throws Dex +4 Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature's space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny infection form. The swarm can't regain hit points or gain temporary hit points. Chain Reaction Flood Infection forms explode upon death, if many infection forms are tightly packed in a swarm, this reaction can kill up to 3 or 4 other infection forms on the death of one. When 5 or more damage is dealt in a single attack, 2(1d4) other infections forms die as well, dealing 2 damage per infection form killed. ACTIONSInfect. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 0 ft., one target Hit: If this attack hits a creature which is not a plant, construct, or undead, and can be permanently killed (Aboleths, for example), the attack deals 24 (6d8) piercing damage. A target hit by this attack must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw, one at the start of each of the Infection Form's turns. On the first failure, the target becomes poisoned, on the second failure, the target becomes unconscious, and on the third failure, the target dies and rises as a flood combat form. The creature no longer needs to make saves if it succeeds twice, or if the infection form dies. A creature may give the target advantage on its saving throws by continually using its action to remove the parasite.
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Curing the InfectionA swarm of around 20 infection forms densely packed into a group. It can seem terrifying upon first encounter but the swarm has one major weakness - each death of a single infection form can cause a chain reaction, killing up to 3 or 4 others on the death of one. The Flood is, in the majority of cases, incurable. There are, however, exceptions. The difficulty isn't in getting rid of the parasite, but a combination of two other factors. These other factors are the death of a host- when a host is infected, it dies, meaning that just casting lesser restoration will kill the parasite, but will leave the host dead- and the restructuring of the body. The restructuring of the body means that lower level reanimation spells like Revivify, which are not able to restore missing body parts, are unable to regenerate the host's bones. There is also one, final stipulation. The Flood Supercell must be purged entirely from the desceased's body, via a spell such as Cure Disease, before the host is reanimated. The Flood (Inferi Redivivus) are a parasitic lifeform which plagued even the Forerunners, so great was their power. Not only did this inspire the Forerunners to commit a genocide unto themselves, but also a genocide of all other sentient races in the galaxy, in order to starve the Flood of its prey. The Flood is capable of restructuring organisms it infects, shifting organs around to minimise the effectiveness of attacks against it. The main vector for the transmission of the Flood are its infection forms. The parasite latches onto a host with a nervous system and releases the flood supercell into the host. This cell assimilates all cells it comes in contact with, creating copies of itself. This should be complete 6 seconds after the host fails the 3rd roll. From this point, calcium in bones is brought to the skin to increase durability, and the parasite detaches the host's head and takes its place as the coordinating engine of the body. |
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