Fixed.
On to the next one...
Headless Avenger: About 30 years ago, a band of drunken ogres was stumbling down a lonely section of the Moonsea Ride in Mistledale, looking for trouble. They came upon a giant constrictor writhing in the road, painfully giving birth. The ogres hid in the bushes, waiting for the last snake to be born, then set upon the mother and children with swords. They slaughtered dozens of the tiny snakes, then turned on the exhausted mother. With a single blow, an ogre lopped off her head with a battle axe. Howling with laughter, the ogres abandoned the corpses and continued on their way.
Woodland deities steered the ogres in the direction of a starving red dragon, then resurrected the constrictor to avenge the death of her offspring. To this day, the constrictor haunts the Moonsea Ride across Mistledale, attacking anyone she deems a threat. She looks like a normal constrictor made of clear glass, her head resembling the creature she most recently killed. She attacks with the special abilities of her current head, and can squeeze her victims with enough force to crush a tree.
The spirit constrictor plays no role in the natural order, though it apparently can consume any creature it can kill, regardless of species. The bones of its babies can be used to magically summon serpentine aides.
Moonsea Ride Spirit Constrictor
Int animal; AL CN; AC 6; MV 15; HD 6 + 1; #AT 2; Dmg (see below for head attack)/3d6 (constriction); THAC0 15; SA encoils victim on successful hit, victim suffers an automatic 3d6 points of damage every round thereafter; victim can be extricated with the combined efforts of 60 total points of Strength; SD immune to sleep, charm, hold, and death magic spells, immune to all poisons and cold-based attacks; SZ L (30’ long); ML 18; XP 4,000.
The spirit constrictor has the head of its most recent victim. The head, which looks like clear glass, can.t speak, but it can make attacks similar to those it could make in life. To determine the constrictor’s current head, roll on the following table or create your own based on the following examples:
D4 Head (damage from attack)
1 Giant raven (bite causes 1d4 + 2 points of damage)
2 Jackalwere (bite causes 2d4 points of damage; creatures meeting the head.s gaze must save vs. spell or suffer the effects of a sleep spell)
3 Wild stag (horn causes 2d4 points of damage)
4 Medusa*
*The Medusa’s head causes no physical damage. A successful attack against an opponent within 30 feet means the victim has looked into its eyes and will turn to stone unless he makes a saving throw vs. petrifaction.
The spirit constrictor only appears at night, and only on the Moonsea Ride in Mistledale. It will pursue its victims, but not more than 100 feet into the terrain on either side of the Ride. The bones of the constrictor’s babies can be used to summon nonmagical serpents, the effect similar to that of the animal summoning spell. The user rubs the bones between his palms for one round; the bones disappear, and the serpent, if available, arrives as soon as it can.
Each inch of bone summons 1 HD worth of serpent; for instance, 3 inches of bone summons one 3 HD serpent, three 1 HD serpents, or one 1 HD serpent and one 2 HD serpent. The user can request serpents of a particular type and size, but the final choice is up to the DM. Serpents only arrive if they exist within a one-mile radius of the caster. Summoned serpents aid the caster as conjured or summoned creatures; for more information refer to the various monster summoning spells.
Originally appeared in Elminster’s Ecologies (1994).
This is a tough one. To account for the wide variety of heads, we'll either need to make it something like a template, or have some other system in place to account for CR adjustments due to deadlier heads.
