QUAGMIRE

Huge Ooze

Hit Dice: 6d10+32 (65 hp)

Initiative: -5 (Dex)

Speed: 5 ft

AC: 3 (-2 size, -5 Dex)

Attacks: Slam +5 melee

Damage: Slam 1d3+4

Face/Reach: 15 ft by 15 ft/10 ft (with pseudopod)

Special Attacks: Improved grab, swallow whole

Special Qualities: Blindsight, heat sense, camouflage, ooze

Saves: Fort +4, Ref -3, Will -3

Climate/Terrain: Any marsh

Organization: Solitary

Challenge Rating: 6

Treasure: None

Alignment: Always neutral

Advancement: 7-12 HD (Huge); 13-18 HD (Gargantuan)

Quagmires are known as living quicksand and appear as huge pools of colorless liquid about 30 feet in diameter. They blend with their surroundings and are nearly impossible to spot. Quagmires make no sound, but can attract prey by emitting a variety of attractive scents (detectable only by animals).

      Quagmires can devour organic matter, including leather, bone, and paper, but cannot digest metal and gems. Quagmires are huge, averaging about 30 feet in diameter.

COMBAT

When a creature comes within a 10-foot range of a quagmire, it lashes out with a pseudopod and draws a held opponent into its body where it smothers it.

      Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, the quagmire must hit an opponent of Large size or smaller with its slam attack.  If it gets a hold, it can try to swallow the foe. The quagmire’s grapple bonus is +19.

      Swallow Whole (Ex): The quagmire can try to swallow a grabbed opponent of Large or smaller size by making a successful grapple check (grapple bonus is +19). Once inside, the opponent takes 1d4 points of acid damage from the quagmire’s digestive juices and also takes suffocation damage (page 88 in the DMG). A suffocating creature can only hold its breath for a number of rounds equal to its Constitution score rather than twice its score (because a creature doesn’t have time to take a deep breath before being swallowed).

      A swallowed creature can climb out of the quagmire with a successful grapple check. This returns it to the quagmire’s maw, where another successful grapple check is needed to get free.

      The quagmire’s interior can hold two Medium-size, four Small, eight Tiny, sixteen Diminutive, or thirty-two Fine or smaller opponents.

      Sense Living (Ex): A quagmire can sense the heat given off by living creatures within 1,000 feet of it.

      Camouflage (Ex): Quagmires blend in nearly perfectly with their surroundings, and are very hard to see. It takes a Spot check (DC 17) to recognize a motionless quagmire for what it really is.

The quagmire first appeared in Dragon Magazine #127 (Dragon's Bestiary, 1987, Scott Bennie).