The Skrill- Advanced Cold Element Shocker Lizard
Medium Elemental (Cold)
Hit Dice: 4d8+12 (30 hp)
Initiative: +5 (Dex +1, Improved Initiative +4)
Speed: 40 ft., climb 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
AC: 19 (+0 size, +1 Dex, +8 natural)
BAB: +4
Attacks: Bite +6 melee
Damage: Bite 1d6+2 + 1d4 cold
Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Stunning shock, lethal shock, Chill
Special Qualities: Electricity sense, electricity immunity
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +2
Abilities: Str 14, Dex 13, Con 17, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills: Climb +11(1), Hide +7(3), Jump +4(1), Listen +4(1), Spot +4(1)
Feats: Improved Initiative
Climate/Terrain: Any land and underground
Organization: Solitary, pair, clutch (3-5), or colony (6-11)
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: 1/10 coins; 50% goods; 50% items
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 5-6 HD (Large)
Stunning Shock (Su): Once per round, the Skrill can deliver an electrical shock to a single opponent within 5 feet. This attack deals 2d8 points of subdual damage to living opponents (Reflex half DC 15).
Lethal Shock (Su): Whenever two or more shocker lizards (The Skrill included) are within 25 feet of each other, they can work together to create a lethal shock. This effect has a radius of 25 feet, centered on any one contributing lizard. The shock deals 2d8 points of damage for each lizard contributing to it (Reflex half DC 10 + number of lizards -contributing).
Chill (Ex): In addition to the damage from its attacks, the Skrill deal additional cold damage with its natural weapons.
Elemental (Ex): In addition to its immunity to electricity, the Skrill gain immunity to sleep, poison, paralysis, and stunning, and is not subject to critical hits.
Cold Subtype (Ex): Cold Immunity, double damage from fire except on a successful save.
Icewalking (Ex): This ability works like the spider climb spell but applies to all icy surfaces. Within the Elemental Plane of Cold, the Skrill may move normally.
Electricity Sense (Ex): Shocker lizards (including the Skrill) automatically detect any electrical discharges within 100 feet.
Skills: Shocker lizards (including the Skrill) receive a +4 racial bonus to Hide checks due to their coloration. They receive a +2 racial bonus to Listen and Spot checks.
Description:
The Skrill resembles a shocker lizard in most respects, but is larger than the average, and made purely of ice, snow, and frozen rock. His dark blue scales are chipped ice, his tail-spike an icicle, and his two ear-spikes dark, almost black, icicles. His belly is snow white, as are his pointed, razor teeth. He stands on his hind legs, but when using his icewalking ability, shuffles on all four feet. All in all, he is four feet tall, and six long, including his tail.
History:
The Skrill was origionally the familier of a cold mephit named Cryox. He was harshly abused by his master, who would often leave the shocker lizard alone on the Plane of Cold when he was summoned away, thinking his "pet" too weak to survive the rigors of planar travel and binding. One day, Cryox was summoned away, but never returned. Across the endless expanses of time and space, the Skrill could feel his master's death, but it did not pain him.
For years, the Skrill wandered the Plane of Cold, searching for a way out. Something about the inhospitable environment, whether it was the blowing winds, the numbing cold, or the jagged ice, forced the shocker lizard to adapt, and under these adverse conditions, he grew bigger, and was tainted irrevecably by the cold.
That is, until he found a way out.
Often, in the dark blue-black depths of the plane, the Skrill could make out shapes in the ice and wind. He could hear the heavy lumbering of earth elementals who had wandered to the colder parts of thier planes, and into the Plane of Cold. He followed the earth elementals, and when he saw the one he was chasing glow with the famillier light of summoning, the plane around the elemental rippling as a planar tunnel warped it, he jumped onto it. He was ripped through the tunnel, barely holding on to the elemental.
On the other end of the tunnel, a dwarven cleric was quite surprised when the elemental she had summoned arrived with some icy baggage. She was even more surprised when the Skrill, suddenly in the presence of warm food, blasted her with a stunning electrical shock. The shock burned, enough that she faltered in her magical movements, and the planar tunnel snapped shut, pulling the earth elemental back with it. The Skrill managed to pull himself out of the way, shifting his reptilian body left and right, up and down, avoiding the magical backlash of the portal.
Seconds later, he was gone, leaving a confused dwarven cleric wondering exactly why a wingless white dragon had been summoned in place of the earth elemental she had called for.
The Skrill wandered the underdark far and wide, until finally he detected the presence of another shocker lizard. Many of them, a whole pack. Confronting them in thier cavern home, he easily dispatched thier leader with his chilly touch, and took control of the pack, mating with its females and protecting them from danger. His children's eggs were unnaturally cold, and when they were born, they too shared the magic of the Plane of Cold.
The Skrill’s pack actually inhabits an ancient dwarven hero’s tomb, and they make quite a meal of the pilgrims and adventurers who venture into it. The Skrill has used his chill effect to unnaturally ice the walls of the crypt, such that he and his children can have free reign of the complex. Rumors have been drifting through Mrid, the nearby dwarven capital of a wingless white dragon that has taken control of a hero’s tomb, and is using it to hide his horde. Although it is true that the Skrill does possess various items once owned by his victims, he is far to much of an instinctive creature to actually “horde” such things, although he is attracted to the armor and weapons capable of carrying a current.
Combat:
The Skrill is a cunning, but ultimately reflexive, creature. He will set up rudimentary ambushes, such as icewalking onto the ceiling with a group of cold element shocker lizards, hiding, and then unleashing their Lethal Shock attack before entering combat. But once combat starts, the Skrill will simply attack, usually with a pack of regular cold element shocker lizards in tow, use his Stunning Shock and Lethal Shock as often as he can, and retreat when down to one-quarter hit points, preferably using his Icewalking ability.
