Why, that's an Embryomace!

The final comments are in from last week's "Weekly What the Heck". The result is the embryomace, a sentry/guardian sort of critter.

I'd like to thank Ripper and Scott (with special thanks to Ripper for the inspiration for the name) for their ideas, all of which have been mashed together to create:

Embryomace

An embryomace looks like a combination of a bee and a lobster, with a vaguely human face. Its innocent face lures enemies into range of its deadly bite.

Level 12 Artillery

Embryomace

XP 700

Medium elemental beast

Initiative +12 Senses Perception +8
HP 97; Bloodied 48
AC 24; Fortitude 24, Reflex 27, Will 23
Speed 4, fly 8

mBite (standard; at-will)

+19 vs. AC; 1d8 + 4 damage.

REye Ray (standard; at-will) * Necrotic, plus see text

Requires orb. The embryomace possesses one of the eye ray powers in the list below as long as it is holding one of its orbs. An embryomace adjacent to its nest can swap orbs as a move action, thus changing which power it has. Getting an embryomace to drop its orb requires a melee Str attack against its Reflex.
1-Fire Ray (Fire): Ranged 10; +17 vs. Reflex; 1d6 + 6 fire damage, 1d6 necrotic damage, and the target takes ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends).
2-Cold Ray (Cold): Ranged 10; +17 vs. Reflex; 2d6 + 6 cold damage, 1d6 necrotic damage, and the target is slowed (save ends).
3-Electric Ray (Lightning): Ranged 10; +17 vs. Reflex; 1d6 + 6 lightning damage, 1d6 necrotic damage, and the embryomace makes a secondary attack against two targets within 5 squares of the target. Secondary Attack: +15 vs. Reflex; 1d6 + 6 lightning damage.

CEye Blast (standard, usable only while bloodied; recharge 6) * Fire, Cold, Lightning, Necrotic

Close blast 5; +12 vs. Reflex; 1d10 each of fire, cold, lightning and necrotic damage.

Alignment Unaligned Languages -
Str 19 (+10) Dex 22 (+12) Wis 14 (+8)
Con 19 (+10) Int 2 (+2) Cha 19 (+10)

Embryomace Tactics

An embryomace prefers to stay by its nest. It switches orbs randomly after hitting once or twice with its eye blast or eye rays.

Embryomace Lore

A character knows the following information with a successful Nature check.
DC 15: Embryomaces are generally harmless unless encountered guarding a nest of their orbs.
DC 20: A nest of orbs will typically have a variety of elemental types - the embryomace can switch between orbs. Its attacks pull some of the victim's life force into the orb, and the creature tends to switch orbs often to pull some life force into each of them.

Encounter Groups

Powerful wizards sometimes abduct embryomaces and their nests. They then place the nests where they want something guarded, surrounded by constructs and/or undead that the beast will ignore.

Level 12 Encounter (XP 3,500)
* 1 embryomace (level 12 artillery)
* 1 shield guardian (level 14 soldier)
* 2 skeletal tomb guardians (level 10 brute)
* 1 helmed horror (level 13 soldier)

The idea, in case it's not clear, is that the orbs are eggs and once enough life force has been pulled into them they hatch into baby embryomaces...