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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BLACKDIRGE" data-source="post: 828212" data-attributes="member: 1953">Ok, I said I wouldn't do it but what the hell. This thread is supposed to be for classic monsters but a request was made the piqued my interest. Now its not a classic monster but it is without a doubt the nastiest critter I have ever made. So with out further ado. Schmoe, here is your Advanced Corrupted Tauric Girallon of Legend.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> I had to fudge a bit because technically the tauric template could not be applied to this monster, but I think it came out pretty good anyway. Here is hwo the moster breaks down: Girallon from the MM, giant constrictor snake from the MM, monster of legend template from MM2, corrupted template from the BoVD, and finally the tauric template from the MM2.**************************************************The NamelessAdvanced Corrupted Tauric (gargantuan constrictor) Girallon of Legend Gargantuan Magical BeastHit Dice: 38d8+380 (532 hp)Initiative: +9 (+5 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative)Speed: 20 ft. climb 20 ft.AC: 33 (-4 size, +5 Dex, +22 natural)Attacks: 4 claws +52 melee, bite +50 meleeDamage: Claw 2d6+18 plus 20 vile (crit 19-20), bite 2d8+9 plus 20 vileFace/Reach: 20 ft. by 20 ft. /15 ft.Special Attacks: Rend 4d6+27, constrict 2d6+27, frightful presence, improved grab, disruptive attackSpecial Qualities: Scent, fast healing 10, SR 29, damage reduction 10/+3, darkvision 60 ft., acid immunity, enhanced powerSaves: Fortitude +36, Reflex +29, Will +19Abilities: Str 47, Dex 21, Con 31, Int 05, Wis 14, Cha 11Skills: Balance +21, Climb +31, Hide +1, Listen +15, Move Silently +14, Spot +15Feats: Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Great Cleave, Great Fortitude, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Initiative, Improved Multi-Grab, Iron Will, Multi-Attack, Multi-Grab, Mobility, Power Attack, Spring Attack, SunderClimate/Terrain: Warm forest, mountains and undergroundOrganization: Solitary Challenge Rating: 28Treasure: StandardAlignment: Chaotic EvilRend (Ex): If the Nameless hits with two or more claw attacks it latches onto the opponent’s body and tears the flesh. This attack automatically deals an additional 4d6+27 points of damage. Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability the Nameless must hit with at least two claws. If it gets a hold it can constrict.Constrict (Ex): The Nameless deals 2d6+24 points of damage with a successful grapple check against huge or smaller creatures.Frightful Presence (Ex): The mere sight of the Nameless is enough to inspire terror in lesser creatures. All creatures with fewer than 38 hit dice within 20 ft. must make a Will save DC 33 on first sight of the Nameless or become shaken. The shaken affect lasts until the affected creature moves out of range. A successful save against the Nameless’s frightful presence leaves that opponent immune for 24 hours.Fast Healing (Ex): The Nameless heals 10 points of damage each round, provided it still has at least 1 hit point. Fast healing does not restore hit points lost from starvation, thirst or suffocation.Disruptive Attack (Ex): The nameless deals an additional 20 points of vile damage with each natural attack. Vile damage can only be healed on consecrated or hallowed ground. Deep within the steaming jungles of the Chultan peninsula, sheltered from the light of reason and sanity an abomination has been born. The mingled power of ancient evil and the savage nature of the land itself have heaved forth an unrivaled blasphemy onto the face of Faerun. The few men that make their homes within the trackless green expanse whisper a name synonymous with ancient sleeping evil, mumbling prayers to the gods of light and sanity that death may linger within the deep jungle and leaves the humble homes of men in peace. What is this nameless fear that stalks beneath the forest canopy? What manner of beast could have even the fearless wild dwarves of Thard Harr beseeching their savage deity for protection? These questions are better answered by the vile serpent-folk who haunt the old places within the jungles. The villainous yuan-ti have long been a blight upon the jungles of Chult, engaging in all manner of blasphemous rituals that often include the sacrifice of sentient beings. The twisted deity of the yuan-ti, a declining and decadent god known as Merrshaulk spends the unfolding eons in a drug induced stupor caring little for the plight of his slowly devolving people. But his people, vile and degenerate still draw upon his dwindling divinity, using these god energies to weave dark sorceries and further pollute their own malformed flesh. The yuan-ti are wise and their keen intellects, although twisted, are formidable. But even the sagest of the serpent folk are not immune to folly and perhaps the greatest evil in recent history can be directly attributed to the malignant disregard for all life exhibited by the yuan-ti. Above all else the yuan-ti desire power and domination over the “lesser” races of Faerun and from their hidden temples and shrines they work tirelessly towards this goal. The divine energy of their god Merrshaulk is often used in all manner of bizarre experiments involving the cross breeding of various animals and monsters. Most of these hideous creatures die seconds after their birth, but some live on to serve their fiendish masters or haunt the jungles in deformed agony inflicting their rage and pain upon all they encounter. One such experiment, an ill conceived venture pioneered by an ambitious yuan-ti abomination named Skessex, led to the total annihilation of his people and his own death. Skessex was a powerful cleric and had long admired the savage strength and ferocity of one of Chult’s most feared native creatures, the girallon. The huge beast was shaped much like a massive ape but featured four powerful arms ending in wicked flesh tearing talons and a maw filled with jagged dagger-like teeth. The girallon was unmatched in sheer savagery, attacking even dragons with little regard to its own safety, tearing into an opponent with the force of a raging storm. Of course for all Skessex’s admiration he felt that the girallon could only be improved by adding the strength and beauty of the serpent to its already fearsome form. His interest piqued and the foul inner workings of his demented genius bubbling way with furious activity, the yuan-ti priest ordered his servants to go into the jungle and bring back two specimens form experimentations. Skessex wanted a girallon of largest size as well as the one of the giant constrictor snakes that hunts the deepest places of the jungle. Armed with considerable magic Skessex’s servants set forth on their errand, returning one week later dragging the drugged, netted bodies of a massive girallon and a serpent of the likes Skessex had only dreamed of. With his two specimens in hand Skessex set to work on divining a way to combine the strengths of the two beasts into one powerful form. For weeks the yuan-ti cleric poured over ancient scrolls and dark forbidden tombs searching for the answer to his blasphemous questions, but to no avail. The answer sprang upon the serpent man in a dream, as the vast and terrible form of Merrshaulk appearing in all its unholy glory holding forth a stone tablet covered in strange arcane glyphs and sigils. As Skessex shrank away from his terrible god, retreating back into wakeful consciousness a last burning impression scorched an indelible image upon the serpent man’s brain. Skessex awoke with the location of a long buried temple pounding in his mind, he knew with out doubt that the answers he sought could be found therein. Skessex set out the next morning with a retinue of yuan-ti warriors delving deep into the dense jungle. Skessex led his band to a vast and crumbling temple whose god had long since been erased but the passing of time. The yuan-ti cleric plunged into the ruined temple with the fervor of creature possessed, making his way through the empty vine choked halls until he reached the place that he had been shown in his dream. A wide circular room held an altar of green marble, pitted and decayed but hiding a secret that Skessex burned to possess. The altar gave up its secrets after very little investigation, its huge cumbersome top sliding away to reveal a hollow space within the stone. Two stone tablets stared up at Skessex, identical to those his god had revealed to him in the depths of slumber. The serpent-man wasted no time and snatched up the tablets, placing them in a magically sealed pouch to safeguard them on the journey home. On returning to his temple Skessex went immediately to his laboratory to wrestle with the secrets of the stone tablets. It was almost comically simple to unlock the information held within, require nothing more than an elementary divination spell. The tablets detailed a complex ritual that would combine the essence of two separate creatures into one being. The ritual was long and very dangerous requiring the blood sacrifice of fifty sentient humanoids and an infusion of the caster’s will to spark the magical process. Skessex would call upon the might of his deity to aid him during the ceremony and was confident that he would be able to achieve the results he desired. To prepare for the ritual of joining, Skessex had a massive circular pit dug, measuring thirty feet across and some twenty feet deep. He then ordered his warriors to raid the villages of the local humans and dwarves for suitable sacrifices to fuel the blasphemous rite. When all was prepared Skessex had his specimens, the huge girallon and the giant serpent, cast into the pit still drugged and netted. The foul serpent-man then personally open up the throats of each sacrificial victim letting their life’s blood flow in to the pit to mingle with the divine energies that would coalesce there. When all the sacrifices had been made Skessex cast the bodies of his victims into the pit, hoping their flesh would aid in the transformation process. All that was left was the ritual itself, which required Skessex and ten under priests to chant uninterrupted for twelve hours. Long into the night the ancient guttural language contained on the stone tablets echoed through the jungle and then finally near the early hours of dawn Skessex intoned the final incantation to set the joining process in motion. When the final words of the rite were spoken the pit suddenly filled with a pungent greenish vapor and the agonized howls of the girallon echoed up from the interior of the hole. Accompanying this cacophony were horrible wet ripping sounds and the acrid stench of blood and something far fouler. The sounds continued for sometime and then suddenly ceased, leaving the jungle in a state of horrified silence. Skessex stood at the edge of the pit bubbling with excitement having no doubt that Merrshaulk had blessed him with success. Success he had but Merrshaulk had nothing to do with it.The evil goddess Shar in her guise as Eshowdow had much interest in the Chultan peninsula. Her worship among the primitive peoples of the jungle had grown and Shar had no use for rivals. The yuan-ti and their veneration of the vile snake god Merrshaulk presented a thorn in the side of the dark goddess and she set out to destroy the serpent-folk that resided in her area of control. The mind of Skessex was a perfect tool for Shar and his eager and reckless nature made it very simple for her to appear to the serpent-man in the guise of Merrshaulk and plant whatever information she desired. The stone tablets and the forgotten temple they resided in were once under the control of a long dead god named Remnos. A bizarre frog deity, Remnos had been destroyed by none other than Merrshaulk in the days when the serpent lord as more active in the realms. Shar found it quite amusing that a former rival of Merrshaulk would help bring low the god’s people. The ritual had gone as Skessex planned but Shar had secretly mingled some of her dark sorcery into the mixture of magical and profane incantations, ensuring the Skessex got much more than he had bargained for. Shar instilled much power into the new beast that resulted from the ritual of joining as well as a deep and abiding hatred for its creators. As Skessex peered through the fading green vapor anxious for that first glimpse of his ultimate creation somewhere amid the darkness of the unfathomable plane of shadow, Shar smiled. With a tremendous roar a huge and towering bulk shot up from the pit its form still partially hidden by the vapor. Two massive claws snatched up Skessex and pulled him screaming into the noisome mist but his cries were short lived and they ended abruptly with the sounds of rending flesh. The yuan-ti warriors and lay priests stumbled back from the pit as Skessex was thrown back into their number, his body in two separate pieces.  What followed Skessex’s ravaged corpse was a thing of indescribable horror, and as it pulled its misshapen bulk from the pit of death and pain that had birthed it, two eyes glaring with rage and hatred fell on the assembled yuan-ti warriors and priests. The serpent-folk didn’t stand a chance; Shar and the unwitting Skessex had created an unstoppable abomination that fell among the yuan-ti in a maelstrom of teeth and claws. The slaughter was total, the beast proving resistant to all the magic and force of arms the yuan-ti could bring to bear, and when the last of the serpent folk met his end at the ripping claws of the beast, Shar’s victory was complete. The beast retreated into the deep jungle and there it remains haunting the dark places within the trackless green eternity. Hunters often see its trail made obvious by the crushed trees and butchered animals that mark its passage. Reports of whole villages of goblins and dwarves slaughtered down to the very last man have come in from the deep jungle and the few civilized areas held by humans hope in earnest that evil stays in the jungle and hungers not for the blood of men.Description & TacticsThe unfortunate few who have laid eyes on the Nameless are barely capable of describing the beast, as its form is too horrendous to conceive. It has retained much of the aspects of the two beasts that were twined together to create it. The large muscular torso of the girallon, as well as its four arms is still in evidence but the long thick body of a colossal serpent has replaced its legs. The corrupt energies that went into the Nameless’s creation have worked much havoc on the beast and its form is twisted and bizarre. Most of the coarse fur that normally covers a girallon has been burned away and replaced with a thick coat of armor like scales. The creature’s face has combined features of serpent and girallon but not in any rational or coherent way. The random patchwork of the Nameless’s head is truly horrible and the only things that are easily identifiable are the two large eyes, featuring slitted pupils and glowing with a hellish green malevolence. Shar’s magic has also hardened and lengthened the creature’s claws and teeth and these fearsome weapons are capable of rending stone or even steel. The Nameless uses tactics that are unsubtle and direct. It is not bright but possesses a feral cunning that allows it utilize simple ambushes and make the most of its various combat feats. The Nameless knows no fear and will fall upon its enemies with tooth and claw with little regard to its own safety. It will typically focus all its attacks on a single opponent, routinely using Power Attack to add at least twenty points of damage, and then move on to another foe once the first has fallen. The dark energies used in the Nameless’s creation have gifted it with many special powers including the ability to inflict vile damage with its natural attacks. These hideous festering wounds are resistant to normal healing and may only be cured upon holy ground. In addition a powerful aura of absolute fear surrounds the beast at all times causing all but the stoutest of hearts to quail in terror. The Nameless is immune to nearly all forms of attack requiring powerful enchanted weapons or mighty spells to damage its near invulnerable body. It is easily the most powerful creature on the Chultan peninsula, more dangerous than the few dragons that live in the jungle depths.It is likely that the Nameless will only grow in power serving Shar’s purposes unwittingly and continue its rapid assent to the status of one of Faerun’s most powerful evils.</blockquote>

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