Fractine

A fractine looks like a flat, mirrored trapezoid with no thickness at all. Out in space it is usually active, flipping and folding and unfolding itself like animated origami. At rest it lies still as a huge looking-glass.

Fractines are drawn to movement, noise and magic, but a powerful energy burst, a lightning bolt or fireball for instance, drives one back for 1d4 rounds. Air-affecting spells can steer one, though the caster must make a save vs. spell every round to keep control.

It attacks by dropping onto victims and passing straight through them, dealing 2d4 points of damage. Each victim must save vs. breath weapon or suffer a distortion effect determined by a 1d20 roll on the fractine's effect table; some of these effects last 1d4 rounds and others 2d4+2 rounds.

Blows can shove it off course, yet it takes real harm only from spells and from silver or enchanted weapons, and only when they hit one of its two faces. Whoever damages it is hurt in turn, taking 1d4 x 25% of the damage dealt (round up), or half that with a save vs. petrification. Every point of damage it suffers adds 1% to a once-per-round chance that it breaks into 1d4 separate fragments, each getting a third of what Hit Dice and hit points remain; any creatures it held are freed. Magic that overcomes its magic resistance still allows it a saving throw, and on a success the effect is redirected at a random target.

A resting fractine makes a superb scrying mirror. A void-faring scholar must touch it and concentrate on the subject, then pass a Wisdom check with a penalty of -1 to -10 set by the DM. A failed check leaves the viewer exhausted for 1d10 turns, with a 10% chance of jolting the fractine into motion. With the right methods one can study a subject's past, its future and its weaknesses, though the warped surface may smear the image and hide vital details.

Nobody knows if fractines think or are simply a quirk of space. Fragments of a shattered one may drift apart or fuse back together.

Fractines feed on life, light, darkness and magic. Every level, Hit Die, spell level and point of bonus counts as 1 point of food, and once it has eaten points equal to its full hit points, it moves on. Each point of light eaten adds 1 to its movement rate and each point of darkness subtracts 1, to a maximum of 24 and a minimum of 1.