| Vrylakos | 5th April 2002 02:10 AM |
The Star Spawn is available on the Wizard's Cthulhu site, under the 'excepts' heading. Since I just cut and paste the thing to a Word file, here it is:
Star-Spawn of Cthulhu
Huge Aquatic Outsider (Greater Servitor Race)
Hit Dice: 20d10+100 (210 hp)
Initiative: +4 (Improved Initiative)
Speed: 40 ft., swim 40 ft.
Armor Class: 22 (-2 size, +14 natural)
Attacks: 4 tentacle rakes +27 melee, 2 claws +22 melee
Damage: Tentacle rake 2d6+9 (improved critical), claw 2d4+4
Face/Reach: 10 ft. by 10 ft./15 ft.
Special Attacks: Damage reduction 20/+2, fast healing 5, improved grab, rotting constriction
Special Qualities: Spells
Saves: Fort +17, Ref +14, Will +16
Abilities: Str 28, Dex 10, Con 20, Int 21, Wis 19, Cha 10
Skills: Concentration +19, Cthulhu Mythos +15, Listen +15, Search +14, Speak Other Language (any twenty) +15, Spot +15
Feats: Blind-Fight, Expertise, Improved Critical (tentacle), Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes
Climate/Terrain: Any aquatic
Advancement: 21-32 HD (Huge); 33-60 HD (Gargantuan)
CR: 14
Sanity Loss: 1d6/1d20
They all lay in stone houses in their great city of R'lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty Cthulhu for a glorious resurrection when the stars and the earth might once more be ready. . . .
-- H.P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"
A star-spawn is a 20-foot-tall anthropoid creature whose head is a mass of feelers and tentacles, above which two eyes as old and cold as an ice age glare at its foes. Its body is rubbery, yet scaled, and its hands and feet end in tremendous claws. Narrow wings hang like a shroud over a star-spawn's shoulders. Wings aren't used for flight, but are deployed for swimming, much as a manta swims.
Star-spawn are lesser, younger examples of the same race from which great Cthulhu himself sprang, though even the youngest is older than humanity. Many were trapped in R'lyeh when it sank, sealed up with their high priest Cthulhu, but some avoided imprisonment. Some still live in deep trenches beneath the ocean and other drowned locales (including a few human city sewers). Others dwell among the stars, such as the entities infesting the Lake of Hali near Aldebaran.
Star-spawn might be encountered by deep-sea explorers intent on raising (or at least searching) a sunken ship or submarine. Sometimes enclaves of deep ones are found near the lairs of star-spawn -- deep ones may even worship lone star-spawn.
Star-spawn are steeped in lore, and can speak the languages of most creatures who once walked the earth in the past, as well as many of the present Earth languages spoken by humans.
Combat
Star-spawn meet most challenges they face with tentacles and claws.
Improved Grab (Ex): If a star-spawn hits an opponent smaller than it with a tentacle, it deals normal damage and attempts to start a grapple as a free action without allowing its opponent a free attack. The star spawn uses its tentacle to hold the opponent. Assuming the victim doesn't break free on its action, the star-spawn deals 2d8+9 points of damage or use rotting constriction (see below) each round.
Rotting Constriction (Ex): Once a star-spawn has held an opponent with improved grab, it can drain a living victim of 2d4 points of Strength per round.
Spells: All star-spawn know 1d10 spells chosen from the Magic chapter. Star-spawn never lose Sanity when casting spells (since they don't have a Sanity score).
Terror From Beyond
Large Outsider (Lesser Independent Race)
Hit Dice: 3d8 (13 hp)
Initiative: +4 (Improved Initiative)
Speed: Fly 30 ft. (perfect)
Armor Class: 10 (+1 natural, -1 size)
Attacks: 1 tendril +4 melee
Damage: Tendril 1d8+3
Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./10 ft.
Special Qualities: Blindsight, coexistent form, damage reduction 5/+1
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +4
Abilities: Str 15, Dex 11, Con 11, Int 5, Wis 13, Cha 12
Skills: Listen +7, Spot +7
Feats: Improved Initiative
Climate/Terrain: Any
Advancement: 4-6 HD (Large), 7-12 HD (Huge), 13-24 HD (Gargantuan), 25-50 HD (Colossal)
CR: 1
Sanity Loss: 1/1d10
. . . other beings [ . . . ] can never be detected by the senses we have. [ . . . ] Foremost among the living creatures were inky, jellyfish monstrosities which flabbily quivered [ . . . ]. They were present in loathsome confusion, and I saw to my horror that they overlapped, that they were semifluid and capable of passing through one another and through what we know as solids.
-- H.P. Lovecraft, "From Beyond."
When seen, Terrors from Beyond appear as putrescent, translucent bags of semisolid flesh trailing nests of writhing tendrils. Most of the tendrils are sense organs, but the thickest tendril ends in a cruelly fanged mouth. Predatory in the extreme, terrors constantly prey on each other in their own realm.
The Terrors exist in the greater reality of which humanity's three dimensions of space and one of time are the least part; this far realm overlays normal reality. Likewise, the Terrors are only one example of a realm stranger, by far, than mortal minds can encompass. In the normal course of events, Terrors from Beyond and creatures on earth go blithely about their own business, each unaware of the other. Specific triggers, mechanical or psychic, sometimes coax human senses to that rarified precipice where the Terrors can be sensed -- and where the Terrors can in turn sense their unfortunate observers.
Combat
When a creature of the normal realm of Earth becomes capable of sensing a Terror from Beyond, so can the terror sense that creature, and moreover, act upon it. Always hungry, a Terror uses its main tendril to bite chunks of flesh away from its victim. To those who can't sense the creature, the wounds appear from nowhere.
If a victim is rendered unconscious, the Terror grabs its prey with its tendril, "dragging" the prey bodily into the Terror's own mad realm, where the creature can dine at leisure. Only the victim's clothes and effects remain behind, and anything clutched in the victim's hands takes a one-way trip beyond.
Coexistent Form (Su): Terrors from Beyond are normally invisible. When a material creature (such as an investigator) senses the Terror, it can sense them -- and attack. The Terror can interact only with material creatures that can sense it.
Force-effect spells can affect Terrors from Beyond, as can spells that provide an enhancement bonus. All other spells automatically fail because the Terrors partially exist on another plane of existence. Investigators can still harm them with melee and ranged weapons, but the Terror has damage reduction 5/+1.
An investigator with the Second Sight psychic feat can sense a terror, even if others around him cannot. Successful use of the invisibility purge spell, the Powder of Ibin-Gazi, or an Ultraviolet Projector reveals the Terror to all investigators present. |
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