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Message: <blockquote data-quote="demiurge1138" data-source="post: 4698724" data-attributes="member: 7451">This thread's not dead! It's just... pining for the fjords. To prove its totally-not-dead nature, I've got a new creature for you all. It's inspired by a line in Into the Darklands about their White Kingdom-esque ghouls, which I found delightfully creepy. Enjoy!Ghollo (Filth-Eater)A pale, bloated, vaguely humanoid mass lurches towards you, its useless legs dragging behind it. Its maw is distended and filled with dozens of cracked, rotten teeth. Its dull eyes show no emotion or thought, only hunger.Ghollo    CR 4Usually NE Medium aberrationInit -1 Senses darkvision 120 ft, Listen -3, keen scent, Spot -3Aura crippling stench (30 ft, DC 18)DefensesAC 15, touch 9, flat-footed 15    (-1 Dex, +6 natural)hp 57 (6d8+30)Fort +7, Ref +1, Will +3Defensive Abilities blubbery, tomb-tainted; Immune disease, poisonVulnerability tomb-taintedOffensesSpd 20ft (4 squares)Melee bite +7 melee (1d6+3 plus disease) and 2 claws +5 melee (1d4+1)Space 5 ft; Reach 5 ftMoraleBefore Combat although ghollos are almost mindless, they still are capable of arranging for crude ambushes, hiding near watering holes, fungal gardens and other sites of activity.During Combat a ghollo will prefer to target foes overcome with its crippling stench with its melee attacks. Beyond this, they have little to no concept of strategy. If a ghollo slays an opponent, it will stop for at least a round to feed, even if other opponents are still present.Morale ghollos have no fear of death and will attempt to gorge themselves regardless of danger. They fight until slain.StatisticsStr 17, Dex 8, Con 20, Int 3, Wis 5, Cha 3Feats Iron Will, Multiattack, StealthySkills Hide +7, Move Silently +6Base Attack +4; Grapple +7EcologyEnvironment Underground (Sekmina)Organization SolitaryTreasure Half standardAdvancement 7-12 HD (Medium), 13-18 HD (Large), 19-24 HD (Huge)Special AbilitiesBlubbery (Ex) The corpulent bulk of a ghollo gives it some protection against blunt weapons. All bludgeoning damage dealt to a ghollo is considered to be nonlethal.Crippling Stench (Ex) Any creature within 30 feet of a ghollo must succeed a DC 18 Fortitude save or be dazed for 1d4 rounds from the overwhelming carrion stink. This is a poison effect—any bonus to Fortitude saves against poison applies to this save, and creatures immune to poison are likewise immune. A creature that successfully saves is immune to the crippling stench of that individual ghollo for the next 24 hours. The save DC is Constitution based.Disease (Ex) Grave rot. Injury—bite. Fortitude DC 18 negates, incubation 1d3 days, damage 1d4 Constitution. Unlike most diseases, a victim of grave rot must succeed three Fortitude save to overcome the infection. The save DC is Constitution based.Keen Scent (Ex) A ghollo can detect creatures through scent at a range of 180 feet and pinpoint the square of creatures within 30 feet. Tomb-Tainted (Su) Ghollos are imbued with negative energy, much like an undead creature. A ghollo is healed by inflict spells and harmed by cure spells as if it were undead, and can be turned or rebuked as if it were an undead creature. The most horrible thing about ghollos is not their stench, or the disease they carry, or their unceasing hunger for the flesh of both the living and the dead. The most horrible thing about ghollos is that they used to be humanoids.The average ghollo stands only four feet tall and is as wide. They weigh at least two hundred and fifty pounds, but rumors among the ghouls of Nemret Noktoria suggest that they may grow to the size of giants.EcologyThe ghouls of Nemret Noktoria raise in their chattel pits captive humanoids as livestock—goblinoids and grimlocks, dwarves and deep gnomes and humans—feeding them the castoffs of their own fellow victims and keeping them in a dull-minded, bloated tranquility. Occasionally, a member of one of these humanoid herds will grow violent, attacking other chattel and even their keepers in order to assuage their perpetual hunger for flesh. The ghouls are capable of putting down most of these freaks, but some have escaped into the wilds of the Darklands, which they forever scour for flesh. Ghollos (a corruption of the noble name of “ghoul”, which the ghouls themselves despise) are stupid, yet effective predators. Their overwhelming stink incapacitates potential meals, while their numerous immunities allow them to make meals of even ghouls themselves (although most ghouls are fast and clever enough to escape predation by these eaters of filth). If no fresh meat is available for the taking, ghollos will resort to carrion, even venturing close to the surface in search of fresh graves.Habitat and SocietyFilth-eaters have no society—they are far too stupid to consider other ghollos anything but food. But still, they are somehow capable of reproducing themselves, because there are far more ghollos lumbering through Sekmina to be explainable by outbreaks of cannibal frenzy among ghoul captive stock. The drow sages of Zirnakaynin, in their studies of captive ghollo, have discovered that they reproduce by budding, growing first faces and then entire bodies out of their bulk before the parent passes into a coma and splits in half. Some filial instinct prevents the newly budded ghollo from turning on and eating their parent, although such instinct eventually fades, at least in captivity.The drow of House Parastric are the ones with the most interest in ghollo as a resource and not as a threat, and several types of fleshcrafting poisons have been brewed using ghollo flesh and ichor as components. Other Darklands races find filth-eaters to be despicable menaces, but none devote as much resource to their destruction as do the civilized ghouls of Nemret Noktoria. The Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting is copyright 2008 Paizo Publishing. Copyright 2008 Nicholas Herold.</blockquote>

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