General notes: Parenthetical numbers for the No. Appearing entry refer to nest/lair encounters; and the intelligence score, with the exception of the queen, represents an innate cunning and hive mind ability, not a true intelligence rating. For the purpose of spell effects based on intelligence scores, all Denkai except the queen and the egg sac have an intelligence rating of 1 (Animal).

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Stasis: Denkai can enter a form of stasis, resembling natural hibernation for the most part, under certain circumstances. Denkai subjected to prolonged exposure to extreme cold or vacuum will curl up into a fetal position and secrete a slimy mucous from various appendages along their backs. This mucous will thoroughly coat the Denkai and harden into a tough chitonous shell that serves to protect the Denkai. After 1d6 rounds of exposure to a milder environment the Denkai will awaken and break out of its shell. The other form of stasis resembles more of a sleeping mode. To reduce food requirements for the nest, the queen will direct various unneeded Denkai to conceal themselves in discrete locations and enter sleep stasis.

Sleep stasis generally does not last longer than a week or two before the queen awakens the sleeping Denkai and replaces them with other Denkai. A sleeping Denkai is effectively "switched off" and is completely oblivious to its surroundings unless it is physically poked, prodded, attacked or signaled by the queen, at which point it immediately awakens.

Biological Spell Immunity: The Denkai are unique in that they are a silicon based, rather than carbon based, life-form. This unusual chemical composition is what gives them a special immunity to many biological spells. Most biological spells are of the Necromancy school, though some do fall into the other school categories. It is up to the DM as to what exactly qualifies as a biological spell, but generally any spell that wouldn’t have any effect if cast upon a chunk of normal rock qualifies. Here are some spells that Denkai are immune to: all Cause/Cure Wounds spells, Cause/Cure Disease, Slay Living/Raise Dead, Destruction/Resurrection, Vampiric Touch, Contagion, Enervation, Death Spell, Reincarnation, Finger of Death, Energy Drain, Polymorph Other (a Polymorph Any Object is needed), ESP, and Detect Life. All Denkai that are in the telepathic communication range of the queen (approximately a mile) receive her saving throws against Enchantment/Charm school spells. The same applies for Illusion/Phantasm school spells that directly affect the mind (like Fear). Denkai are not hampered by many spells that affect the senses. They do not posses any eyes whatsoever and their sense of smell is likewise primitive though it can detect their own pheromones within about thirty yards. What sense of perception they do have is an extremely advanced form of hearing. Rather than hearing just sound, Denkai can actually sense minute changes of air pressure caused by objects that are moving. This is essentially a form of passive sonar, which differs from bats which use a form of active sonar known as echolocation. Denkai are attracted to irregular motion, typically that caused by loud sounds or rapid movement. Used in conjunction with this is another sense Denkai posses, a form of limited ESP which has a range of approximately fifteen feet. This ability lets the Denkai sense surface thought patterns and emotions (both basically meaningless to the Denkai except to indicate a living creature) which helps the Denkai to distinguish between a simple moving inedible object, such as a falling rock, and fleeing potential prey.

Molecular Acid Blood: By far the most feared aspect of the Denkai is the substance they employ as blood. This is an extremely deadly acid capable of dissolving almost any known substance. Bone, glass, ceramics, steel, even mithril are all vulnerable to this horribly caustic substance. Even creatures normally immune to acid suffer one hit point of damage per round of contact (except other silicon based life-forms or solid stone constructs like stone golems). The blood remains active for about ten minutes of exposure to air. During this time, anyone foolish enough to touch the blood will suffer 1d6 hp of damage for their actions. The only know substance to be immune to this acid is the carapace of a Denkai. Enchanted items tend resist the effects somewhat and are allowed a saving throw vs. acid every round they remain exposed to the blood. Items that fail a save are destroyed. Creatures splashed with blood suffer 1d6 hp of damage every round until the acid is neutralized or becomes inert. Blood splashes can occur anytime someone is within five feet of a Denkai during a round when it is struck by a slashing, cleaving or piercing weapon. Anything in this splash zone must make a DEX check or be splashed by the blood. There is a penalty to this check of -1 for every multiple of five points of damage of the blow suffered by the Denkai rounded down. Each separate blow necessitates a separate DEX check. For example, a swordsman is attacking a Denkai. He strikes the Denkai for 16 hp of damage, while at the same time a companion shoots it twice with arrows for 3 hp and 6 hp of damage. The poor swordsman must make three DEX checks to avoid a blood splash. The first check is made at a -3 penalty, the second check is a normal check, and the third check is with a -1 penalty. Objects splashed by blood will suffer acid effects for 1d8+2 rounds at which point the acid becomes inert. Any time a creature is splashed, any carried or worn magic items that might have been exposed (DM’s judgment call here) will have to make the acid saving throws described earlier. They receive a penalty to their saves equal to the DEX check penalty for the failed splash dodge. Creatures completely covered head-to-toe in protective clothing or armor (suit armor only, i.e. field plate or full plate armor only) will suffer no damage until this covering is destroyed (non-magical armor and clothing is destroyed in a single round). For very thick items, the blood dissolves through a one inch thickness per round of activity. Normally, blood clotting and arterial clamping stop a Denkai’s bleeding wounds at the end of any round, but special circumstances sometimes apply. Any time a cleaving or slashing weapon strikes a Denkai with a natural 20 on the to-hit roll a random limb (not the head) will be severed. The stump will bleed for 1d4+1 rounds. During this time the Denkai suffers 1d6 hp of damage each round, but it is continuously spraying blood in its five foot splash zone. The Denkai will continue to melee with any opponents during this time forcing them to have to make normal DEX checks in addition to any other normal blood splash checks. These effects are the same if a character employs some type of severing item like a vorpal sword or a sword of sharpness, though a Denkai without a head is a dead Denkai and doesn’t continue meleeing. If someone is foolish enough to employ a sword of wounding or some other weapon with the same special effects, the Denkai will not stop bleeding for the normal duration of the swords power, though the Denkai will only suffer extra damage as per the swords description and any DEX checks against blood spray are made with a +3 bonus.

Egg Sac: This appears similar to most reptile eggs with a tough, leathery shell. It stands approximately 3 feet tall and has a double seam on its upper end. This seam is shaped like an "X" and covers the upper third of the egg sac. Under bright light (like a Continual Light spell) an unopened egg sac is partially translucent. A ominous dark shape can be seen occasionally shifting about inside. This shape is a unhatched facehugger. Egg sacs that have already opened are dry, brittle and dull in appearance, their contents long gone. Egg Sacs can be seen in both Alien and Aliens.

Facehugger: Looking like a nightmare version of a cross between a spider and a scorpion these horrifying creatures are small, but extremely quick. They have a flattened body about eight inches in diameter with ten multi-jointed legs, each about one foot long, and a very muscular, segmented prehensile tail that is about three feet long. They have no visible sensory organs and no mouth or other eating orifice. Through a ventral (belly) opening they can extend an ovipositor (a tube for laying small eggs) that is about eighteen inches long. Facehuggers can be seen in both Alien and Aliens.

Larva & Queen Larva: Larvae (also known as chest-bursters) are about three feet long. They look similar to snakes with small limbs and a large head with a mouth filled with needle-like fangs. They can easily compress their bodies to fit into small openings to conceal themselves (rat holes and ventilation ducts being favorite places). A larva is visible in both Alien and Aliens, but no mention is given to Queen-larvae in the movies. For reasons described later in the Habitat / Society section, it would appear that the larva in the movie Alien was actually a queen larva and was in the process of developing into a proto-queen before it was blown out an airlock and destroyed by Lt. Ripley.

Worker: Workers are the first mature true Denkai and have a humanoid appearance. Standing roughly six feet tall with a six foot long tail they look like a creature straight from the Abyss. Thin limbs, exoskeletal bodies covered with many tubular structures, extremely elongated heads with metallic fangs, razor sharp metallic claws, and a muscular spiked tail give a Denkai almost a mechanical cyborg appearance. What might pass for workers can be seen in the egg sac/queen scene in Aliens when Lt. Ripley threatens the egg sacs with a flame thrower and the queen orders the alien workers in the chamber to back away from Ripley.

Warrior: Identical in appearance to a worker except for its larger size, the warrior Denkai are usually what player characters encounter most often. Warriors appear in great numbers in Aliens. As stated above in the larva section, the creature in the movie Alien was probably a proto-queen, but didn’t survive long enough to develop fully.

Proto-Queen: Identical to workers and warriors, but still larger and even more fearsome. The proto-queen is the creature featured in the movie Aliens³.

Queen: Towering over the rest of her brood is the powerful queen. She only differs slightly in appearance from a warrior, with a larger head and a thicker exoskeleton. When normally encountered the queen has a large, distended tube attached to her abdomen through which she lays new egg sacs. This pouch is up to thirty feet long and between six to eight feet in diameter, filled with developing egg sacs. In extreme situations the queen can tear free from this pouch (i.e. if personal combat becomes necessary), but this is rarely done as a new pouch can take up to a year to be re-grown. The queen makes a starring role in the movie Aliens.

Facehugger: Fast and dangerous, theses creatures are capable of springing distances of up to ten feet. They attach themselves to the face of a warm-blooded creature (the facehugger has an effective strength of 18) and insert the ovipositor down into the creatures esophagus. During the first round of solid contact the facehugger secretes a small amount of its acid blood from pores on its ventral surface to dissolve any teeth and/or face coverings that might prevent it from inserting the ovipositor. This acid only does damage for one round (for 1d6) since only a very minute amount is actually secreted. During the round after a successful attachment the facehugger continuously secretes a powerful paralyzing sleep toxin through the ovipositor directly into the victims esophagus. A save vs. poison at a penalty of -4 must be made every round until it either is failed or the facehugger is forcibly removed. This specialized poison paralyzes all major muscles in the victim’s body preventing breathing, movement, and regurgitation, but not heart pumping, for a period of six hours. During this time the facehugger takes over breathing for the victim while it lays a small egg into the victim’s stomach. After the six hour period, this egg will have attached to the wall of the stomach and begins to grow. The facehugger then detaches and crawls off to die while the victim regains the ability to breath and move. The egg will be laid the round after the victim is successfully paralyzed. At this point, the only hope for the victim is to regurgitate its stomach contents or to have a priest cast Cure Disease upon the victim. Once the egg has attached to the stomach wall, only Cure Disease will work. Twenty-four hours after attachment, the victim suddenly dies in horrible agony as a larva eats its way through the victim’s heart and bursts out of its chest.

Larva and Queen Larva: One of the few Denkai that will actually retreat from combat, the larvae seek only to survive and to feed upon any available food source. They hide in small openings and tunnels while stalking prey. A larva can reach its fully mature form in as little as twenty-four hours if there is enough food available for it to consume. A larva that develops and hatches in a location lacking a queen will become a queen larva and undergo the process of evolving into a queen (i.e. queen larva --- proto-queen --- queen). Under normal circumstances, the queen’s telepathic link triggers a hormone secretion among all the developing larva in the nest preventing them from hatching as queen larvae and becoming possible rivals.

Worker: Worker Denkai are strong (20 STR) opponents, but rarely see combat unless the nest is invaded. They will take paralyzed or unconscious warm-blooded creatures to various egg chambers in the nest where they secrete a strong resin to cement the victim into the wall. They make no allowances for the victim’s comfort and simply break limbs, etc. in order to fit the victim into an available space. This resin can be broken with a combined strength of 15, though the victim is seldom in any physical condition to attempt this. Next, if there are none present, the workers will bring an unhatched egg sac back and place it near the victim. One egg sac will be brought for each victim. Cold-blooded creatures and dead warm-blooded creatures are instead sliced into easily transportable pieces and are taken back to the queen’s chamber for consumption by the rest of the Denkai.

Warrior: Warrior Denkai form the majority of the nest. They act both as defenders and as hunters. They are most often encountered outside of the nest in a hunting party of 1d8+3 Denkai. Warriors are powerful, with an effective strength score of 21. While hunting, if they should encounter a warm blooded creature they will attempt to grasp the victim instead of inflicting claw damage and if successful with both claw attacks they will attack with the paralyzing tail sting with a +4 bonus to hit. In all other combat situations, if both claw attacks are successful, then in addition to the claw damage, the warrior will have grasped its victim and will attack with its bite with a +4 bonus to hit. Held victims may attempt an opposed strength check every round in order to break free. A held opponent may only use size S or natural body weapons against the Denkai and they suffer a -2 penalty on their attack rolls while held. Warrior Denkai are fearless and will never flee an encounter unless directly ordered by the queen (this is normally only done if the queen is being threatened, or if the queen is preparing an ambush and is trying to get the characters to proceed into a certain direction).

Proto-queen: Proto-queens fight and act the same as a warrior Denkai, but will retreat in order to save their own lives. Proto-queens are never encountered in a nest that has a living queen. Proto-queens attempt to always capture warm blooded opponents when possible to serve as hosts to expand their nests.

Queen: The queen seldom ever engages in battle, but when she does, it’s always to kill. An established queen never attempts to capture opponents, leaving that chore to her warriors.