Tyrannosaurus Rex

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The party found themselves facing a red jester on a castle parapet. The monster opened with its fear cackle, and druid Eric and fighter Jason Thrustsword failed their saves, running screaming down the stairs behind them. Eric's vermin companion, a giant spider named Boudicca, was immune to the fear cackle but followed Eric anyway because...that's what she does when she hasn't been given a command.

3 rounds later, Eric stops running and screaming, thoroughly winded.

Eric: "Whew! *wheeze* That was terrifying." *gasp*
*looks over to see Boudicca just staring at him*
Eric: "Don't you *pant* judge me!"

Later in that fight, the red jester's Deck of Many Things attack backfired on him horrendously, as one of the cards granted the meek and shy rogue Wishes, which she used to turn herself into a Huge gold dragon.

Red Jester: "That did not go the way I planned..."


As we made our way through a dungeon filled with undead, having just survived a fight in which Eric was pummeled by advanced mummies...

Thorn: Eric, what's up with you? Why are you so tense?
Eric: I'm tense because every time I turn a corner, SOMETHING PUNCHES ME IN THE FACE!
Annika (OoC): I punch him in the face.

Later, we faced the lich at the heart of the dungeon. Two party members died, but finally Annika got in close and opened an industrial strength can of whoopass on the thing.

Annika: Why don't you slip into something more comfortable...like a coma. *epic beatdown*


DungeonmasterCal wrote:
I'll say. They stink on ice!

I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought something like that; I had Dragonheart flashbacks.

Einon: The peasants are revolting!

Brok: They've always been revolting; now they're rebelling!


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Last session we were fighting a mothman in a foggy swamp, and inevitably the creature ended up using Phantasmal Killer on three of us, forcing us to face our deepest, darkest fears, leading to a mix of awesome and funny.

When Eric was hit with it, he saw his mentor/love interest...

Spoiler:
a jorogumo named Kasumi, the source of his vermin focus and the origin of the spider part of his Vermin Heart feat (she taught him some of her Spider Empathy)

...telling him how deeply disappointed she was in him and how pathetic he'd become. Eric made the save to disbelieve and got even more cross with the mothman.

Dwarven fighter Annika (new member of the party) saw a man from her mercenary past emerge from the fog, taunting her and saying she would never have her revenge and her comrades' souls would never pass on. She failed the Will save to disbelieve but made the Fortitude save to avoid dying instantly.

And then it came to Prince Perry...

GM: You see figures approaching out of the mist. As they come closer, you realize that they're peasants.

Prince Perry: Oh...

GM: And they're demanding fair taxation...

Perry: No...

GM: And human rights.

Perry: Oh, God!

GM: And democracy!

Perry: *fails save to disbelieve* NOOOOO!!! The peasants, Chauncey! THE PEASANTS ARE REVOLTING!


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Last night, the party went on an expedition into a part of the forest that was under the control of an evil fey. The fey, a skin stealer who had acquired immense magical power, was transforming the woods into what vermin-focused druid Eric kept referring to as the "Meat Forest". The trees became bone, the ground was slimy flesh, the rivers ran with blood, and there was a nasty, sweaty mist over the whole place. All the animals had been turned homicidal, and Eric was forced to kill several vermin (very special animals to him), and he just got more and more fed up with the Meat Forest.

Finally, we met the skin stealer on an island (a malformed, giant face) in the middle of a lake of blood, and Eric just lost it.

Eric Droverson: I have had it up to HERE with you and your f*cking meat forest! The ground bruises if you step on it too hard! It bruises! Soil should never do that! Your trees are made of bone, your dirt's made of meat and... *lifts boot up, trailing slime* ...and I don't even wanna know what this sh*t is. Furthermore, I've seen more vermin in the last DAY than I've seen in my entire time adventuring with these idiots *indicates party* and thanks to you, I have to had to kill EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! YOU are MAKING ME BEAT! UP! VERMIN!

Skin Stealer: So I take it you don't like the changes I've made to the forest.

Eric: *inarticulate screams of rage*


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Chauncey, a paladin, uses Lay on Hands to heal Dwarf fighter Annika

Chauncey: BY THE POWER OF ALERIA, YOU ARE HEALED!

*cures 1 hp*

DM (to Annika): You're honestly not sure if you've been healed at all.


dragonhunterq wrote:
Wild empathy is exactly what you need (Which I still think needs a +3 class skill bonus). Once you have improved it's disposition to friendly you can then start teaching it tricks.

That thought did occur to me, but generally Wild Empathy acts like Diplomacy, and attitude shifts effected via Diplomacy generally last for 1d4 hours, although it does say the GM can have the effect last longer.

So I could change a creature's attitude and teach it tricks, but would I then have to make a Wild Empathy check every day just to get it to listen to me?

In addition, this only works for animals and magical beasts, and there are other creatures an adventurer may wish to train. For instance, Dungeon Denizens Revisited gave me the idea of taming and training a rust monster, which unfortunately is an aberration, and as such Wild Empathy has no effect on it.


The Handle Animal description talks about rearing a wild animal or magical beast, as in raising it from infancy, but does anyone know if there are rules regarding taming an animal/monster that's not an infant?

I ask because my druid (who has a special affinity for bugs) recently went looking for an ankheg, having heard that they could be trained and used as mounts.

My plan had been to find a nest, take three eggs and rear the hatchlings as per the rules, but research indicated that ankhegs take one year to mature, and the DM indicated that the entire campaign could be over in a year in-game. How he decided to handle it was to capture an adult ankheg and then tame it, which led me here.

What I've been able to find with a general search is that taming an adult monster is a thing...

Spoiler:
Axe Beaks (CR 2 with 3 HD) require 6 weeks and a DC 25 Handle Animal check.

Cinder Wolves (CR 2 with 2 HD) require 6 weeks and a DC 25 check (DC 20 in very hot conditions).

Trollhounds (CR 3 with 4 HD) require 4 weeks and a DC 25 check.

Owlbears (CR 4 with 5 HD) require a DC 30 check to tame an adult (no time frame provided).

...But I haven't been able to find a system for it. Does anybody know of any rules on this subject?


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Thorn, elven treesinger and clueless about animals, upon witnessing normal druid Eric wild shaping into a seagull:

Thorn: "My gods! He was a bird all along!"


Just last night, something utterly badass happened in our weekly game.

Dramatis Personae:
Baxter "The Badger": Human lore warden who seeks to face and slay the toughest monsters the world has to offer. Raised on the plains by an aboriginal tribe, and so ended up speaking with an Australian accent (mostly for humor value). Has a trained cheetah named Paul McCatney (usually just referred to as Paul). Primary weapon is a fauchard, with which Baxter excels at tripping enemies. Really, really dislikes Prince Perry.

Chauncey: Prince Perry's (see below) squire and a low-level paladin. Very old and slow moving, courtesy of his heavy armor and the fact that Perry's always making him carry stuff. Mostly useful in combat due to his Lay on Hands ability.

Eric Droverson: Human druid specializing in vermin. Has low Constitution due to a time in his childhood when he almost starved to death, and as such tends to stay back from the front lines and summon things. Has a giant spider companion named Boudicca.

Ivan "The Terrible" Grenadier with an unhealthy interest in SCIENCE! Tends to shoot himself up with new formulas he's devised just to see what will happen (this is how he ended up with a third arm). Has a tumor familiar named Mathilde. Due to being played by the same guy as Rindel in the evil campaign, is prone to impulsive - some might even say stupid - behavior.

Prince Perry Thrustsword: Human swashbuckler and second or third in line for the throne of his home country. His father sent him out to adventure in hopes that he would man up...or get killed. Rides in a carriage rather than walking, and has a pug named Sir Chigglebum, who is spoiled beyond belief (lives in the carriage, poops on pillows and has his own set of food and linens).

Thorn: Elven treesinger. Raised by intelligent plant creatures in a forest devoid of animal life and, as such, totally ignorant in matters of animals. Has a sapling treant companion named Brute, who at this point has an Intelligence score of 3 and thus knows very few words of common, naturally including the phrase "I am Brute".

We had wandered into a town whose inhabitants had been slaughtered by a greater barghest. A lone elf named Malachi remained, and he was a member of the last adventuring party to go through here. His party had slain the barghest that had been terrorizing the town, but didn't know about its more powerful mate, which was the thing that had laid waste to the town after the party left. Malachi had heard of this and returned by himself to kill the beast.

The town was now overrun with dire wolves, which we had to brave because Prince Perry had accidentally left Sir Chigglebum in the carriage, which the wolves were closing in on. We had a plan to distract the wolves and rescue the pug (and Lord how insane does that sound?), but that plan fell apart when Ivan went all Leeroy Jenkins and tried to rescue the dog and ride off on the horse (the one that had been pulling the carriage) by himself. We ended up fairly banged up and low on spells, because our GM seems not to have realized that nine CR 3 dire wolves comes out to a CR 9 fight, which is kind of rough on a level 5 party.

So of course, after we'd been worn down by the wolves, the greater barghest appeared, having already used its mass enlarge person spell-like ability to grow to Huge size. Eric and Boudicca, Ivan, Thorn and Brute made a run for it, figuring we'd heal up and try and track the barghest the next day. Malachi provided cover for our retreat with his bow (granted he also just wanted to kill this thing), and Thorn summoned a dire badger to occupy the barghest as long as possible while we ran.

Prince Perry, by the way, was already gone, having last been seen running screaming into the forest with three dire wolves in hot pursuit.

While everyone else ran, however, Baxter advanced on the monster. This thing was what he adventured for, a great beast truly worth facing. He attempted to trip it, rolling a Nat 20 on his combat maneuver roll, but the beast was not only Huge, it apparently had also used mass bull's strength on itself, and the best Baxter could do was not enough to topple the monster.

The barghest tore the dire badger in half and charged Baxter. He got an attack of opportunity in on it, hitting, and its bite attack missed, but now it was do or die, because on the monster's next turn it wouldn't have to move, and so could make a full attack with teeth and claws, and it was not likely to miss again.

Baxter's turn, and he hit, threatened a crit and rolled a Nat 20 on his confirmation roll. The end result, combined with the damage from Malachi's arrows, was more than fatal.

The GM described it thus: as the twenty foot long demonic wolf-beast lunged, jaws agape, Baxter drove his fauchard directly into its open maw, the blade penetrating the roof of its mouth, passing through the brain and erupting from the top of its head. Screaming a mighty battle cry, Baxter hurled the vile thing's corpse to the ground in a cloud of dust.

Needless to say, everyone, Malachi included, was suitably impressed with Baxter.


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We had quite a few good moments in our evil campaign, but nothing quite beats the tale of Operation Dino Drop.

Dramatis Personae:
Argentinio Cervantes: Human wizard with a Jersey Shore accent (Hispanic name notwithstanding) and a douchebag personality to match.

Rebecca the Kind: Human wizard, focused on debuffs and transmutation (she had in fact turned an assassin who tried to kill her into a newt). Very old and prone to sentences starting with "In my day..."

Rindel: Antipaladin (race unknown) who fought with a blood crystal greatsword. Prone to impulsive - some might even say stupid - behavior.

Michael Baumhauer / "Michael Bomber": Human sorcerer with the draconic bloodline (Red dragon), focused on destructive evocation spells. Gained his nickname by basically being a mad pyro.

Zaknarak (spelling uncertain): Drow synthesist; name translates to "shadow storm"; fond of casting Deeper Darkness all over the battlefield...whether it would be helpful to the rest of the party or not.

We had been tasked with assassinating thirteen high profile paladins, all of whom had gathered into one city. One of them, known only as The Judge, would come out every day and give a rousing speech to his comrades. The other twelve, known, of course, as The Jury, would be present as well. So we knew where they'd be, but none of us really wanted to engage them in combat, 60% of us being squishy spellcasters and all.

To that end, we deliberated in our party's airship (basically a wooden ship suspended beneath a massive balloon), currently hanging 1,000 feet above the city. Given the Judge's renowned skill in combat, along with the enchanted axe he wielded with said legendary skill, just flying down into the city seemed a bad idea. We considered sneaking in under cover of darkness, but then we wouldn't know where our targets had gone.

And then, out of nowhere, a plan was hatched.

Argentinio: "You know, I could just summon a buncha f*ckin' dinosaurs and we could drop 'em on those mooks down there."

The rest of the party balked, laughed, thought about it, agreed and laughed even harder.

It was decided that Triceratops would be our weapon of choice. Argentinio summoned four of them, Rebecca cast Animal Growth on one, and Michael doused it with oil and set it aflame (because...why not?), and using telekinesis the dinosaurs were sent hurtling toward the ground. Seeing as they would have to be steered onto target, we all jumped overboard (either casting Fly or, in Michael's case, growing wings) to guide the dinosaurs in. For reasons unknown to me, the DM began playing Kanye West's "Power" at this point. Just before impact, we all broke off, except for Rindel, who figured he had enough hp, and decided to go all Doctor Strangelove and ride the biggest Triceratops all the way in.

And so it was that at exactly the 25 second mark (NO ONE MAN SHOULD HAVE ALL THAT POWER!), the Judge looked up to see what may be the most metal image possible: a warrior clad in black armor, wielding a blood-red sword, riding a flaming, 60 foot long fiendish dinosaur, coming right at him at terminal velocity, with four crazy spellcasters guiding smaller dinosaurs toward other paladins.

The largest dinosaur landed directly on top of the Judge, killing him instantly (the ranged touch attack scored a crit). Rindel survived the impact, dismounted and attacked. All three other Triceratops also successfully hit their targets.

The battle that followed was awesome as well, with Michael dropping out of the sky and hitting half a dozen paladins with Chain Lightning and Rebecca disintegrating an opponent, but nothing could top the insanity of the initial dino strike (not to mention the DM's impression of the paladins' reactions).


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This one happened earlier in the evil campaign. At this point the party consisted of:

Dramatis Personae:
Argentinio Cervantes: Human wizard with a Jersey Shore accent (Hispanic name notwithstanding) and a douchebag personality to match.

KT-49: Android gunslinger (musket master IIRC); put on this Earth for the sole purpose of killing meatbags. Any resemblance to HK-47 completely coincidental.

Mackier: Cleric (race unknown) with a focus on undead. Spoke with an Australian accent when the player remembered he was supposed to.

Michael Baumhauer / "Michael Bomber": The mad pyro sorcerer mentioned in my previous post.

Zaknarak (spelling uncertain): Drow synthesist; name translates to "shadow storm"; fond of casting Deeper Darkness all over the battlefield...whether it would be helpful to the rest of the party or not.

We had been hired to investigate an increase in undead activity in the region, and had heard tell of a lich holed up in a tower nearby. As we drew closer to the tower, the lich's vampire lieutenant made the occasional mysterious appearance in an attempt to warn us away from pursuing his master.

Before I go any further, it should be noted that for this campaign we had decided that unless you actually said "out of character", then anything that came out of your mouth came out of your character's mouth as well.

Anyway, we get attacked by a large number of undead creatures in an abandoned village. While the rest of the party throws down with the undead, KT scouts for a safe way out of town, only to run straight into the vampire. He immediately raises his musket.

Vampire: "Stay your hand. Your weapon would not do much to me anyway. I have come with a message from my master. I have come to-"

And it's at exactly this moment that DM farts. Not a quiet fart either, but a loud, undeniable one. Needless to say the entire game dissolved into laughter for a good five minutes, after which we decided unanimously that that had been in-character, and that the vampire had just broken dusty, undead wind with the reek of centuries behind it.

KT: *shakes head* "F**k this."

He proceeded to shoot the vampire, crit and blow his entire left arm off at the shoulder. The vampire was so humiliated that we never saw him again, though we did believe at points that we could smell his presence.


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Near the end of our evil campaign, which in general was a joke goldmine (we figured the only way to play an evil game was to do it as black comedy), we came face to face with a star-spawn of Cthulhu, resulting in a truly massive battle.

While the party's wizards were keeping the star-spawn contained with their summons, and the synthesist was slashing at it, my mad pyro sorcerer (draconic bloodline [red dragon]; specialized in destructive evocation spells) was hitting it over and over again with empowered delayed blast fireballs, slowly but surely dealing damage it couldn't regenerate. The accursed thing kept making its Reflex saves (as you'd expect), but my hope was that if I kept forcing it to roll, sooner or later...

Finally, the star-spawn failed a Reflex save, at which point my fireball dealt well over 120 damage, freaking vaporizing the creature. The other players demanded some form of one-liner, resulting in:

Sorcerer: "Looks like...

(•_•)

( •_•)>⌐■−■

(⌐■_■)

"...we won't get Cthuled again."

YEEEEAAAAAAHHH!!!


Indagare wrote:

Yeah, that's going to be really hard to stop once it gets started. You could always say that it can control an unlimited number of vermin and constructs, but it there would be some kind of limit as to the number of plants and animals that it corrupted for it to control. Even if the spawn won't attack the corruption or other spawn, it would be easier if they weren't part of the hive mind.

Perhaps you could have it where once a certain HD amount of animals has been reached, the Corruption splits and a new one is formed? 2 HD/level is the way control undead and control plants work. You could use its CR for a level so it could control up to 24 HD worth of creatures, not counting vermin and constructs.

It could also be possible that the hivemind doesn't work so well over long distances. Most control spells are within about 30 ft. (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels). Beyond that point spawn could act out whatever orders were given last until they return closer to the Corruption.

Thoughts?

I've had a thought on that. It could be that the Corruption's control over intelligent creatures is closely tied to the number of ooze-forms in existence. After all, the Ash Spawn it uses at the book's climax involves setting an ungodly amount of ooze afire.

How Much Ooze?:
I actually caught Skipp and Spector doing their math wrong here. According to the book, 100,000 barrels of hazardous waste, averaging 440 points apiece, ignite at once, resulting in a blast force of just over two megatons (equivalent to a strategic nuclear device).

Turns out they were off by about two decimal places. 100,000 * 440 = 44,000,000 pounds. Divide by 2,000 pounds per ton and you get 22,000 tons, or 22 kilotons, a little bigger than the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki (which had a yield of 20 kilotons).

Not that I'd want to be anywhere near an explosion that big, living ash or not.

So tens of thousands of HD of intelligent Newspawn require tens of thousands of tons of ooze, along with a recuperative period where the hive mind puts itself back together.

Given all this, I'd say that the ooze-form I statted above (which has 15 HD) can tie 30 HD of Newspawn with an Intelligence score to itself and to each other with a hive mind. Mindless Newspawn (defined here as Newspawn whose base creatures had an intelligence of "-") and animated objects do not count against this limit, but are also not controllable beyond very basic commands (equivalent to what a necromancer might give to skeletons or zombies).

An ooze-form can create more Newspawn beyond this limit, but they are not under its control and simply act like predatory animals, hunting and killing whatever enters their territory.

As such, in an effort to spread, the Corruption likely has intelligent Newspawn actively seek out other sources of hazardous waste or pollution that it can awaken as more ooze-forms. If a storm is available, it may gather all these ooze-forms together and utilize their Ash Spawn ability to corrupt living things over an extremely wide area.


Indagare wrote:
This looks really good to me. I'm a poor judge of difficulty, but you don't mention if the Newspawn are controlled by the Corruption nor whether there is a limited number it can have at a given time (like how a necromancer or evil cleric can only control a certain number of undead or a certain amount of HD).

The Corruption is controlled by a hive mind, which hypothetically should have no upper limit (since each assimilated creature adds its brain's processing power to the whole, like a distributed computer network), but going by the book, there does seem to be some sort of limit on how many creatures the hive mind can control.

The thing, though, is that the collective consciousness can adapt. Let me refer to the book here. This is just after the use of the Ash Spawn ability:

Skipp & Spector wrote:

And still the rain came down.

It came in many colors now, an oilslick rainbow that crowded the sky. Like its brethren at the bridge, it had lost all but peripheral touch with Overmind. There were simply too many drops to imbue with one single consciousness.

The connection remained as a sort of collective unconscious: a molecule of telepathic toxicity that stayed in touch with its essence, implicitly recognizing itself in every face it saw.

But as it landed and spattered and pooled, a group consciousness reemerged. Not Overmind, precisely, but a shared beingness that evolved very quickly into a shared identity. A second-level Overbeing.

A new elemental.

The spirit of the New Blood of the Earth.

So if it corrupts and assimilates a certain number of creatures, it temporarily loses control of some of them, but it seems that the hive mind can reassemble and redefine itself after a delay. During the delay, most Newspawn fall asleep.

Skipp & Spector wrote:

The effort had been exhausting, leaving even the Overcore tapped and drained. The malaise was contagious, shared in common by all Its creatures, great and small. Dragging them inexorably toward an agonizing, fitful, rejuvenating slumber.

Leaving behind only the slow-metabolizing Plant Spawn, the witless rumbling Machine Spawn, and the handful of mad raw Savage Spawn that were not afterborn with the capacity for sleep.

At a guess, anything with an Intelligence score goes to sleep, while mindless things like Vermin, some Plants and animated objects continue to function, but without any sort of intelligent guidance. They probably just wander aimlessly and attack any non-Newspawn organism that they come across.

When the hive mind wakes, the Corruption now has a new HD limit for its control, allowing it to spread further.

What is the HD limit? It's going to be high, but we can't really rely on the book for this, because when it goes to sleep, the Corruption has just used its Ash Spawn to hit (conservative estimate) 150,000 people.

In game terms, we should probably go with something smaller.


TheBlackPlague wrote:
Who might the author be for The Bridge? Your monster and the quoted passage has piqued my interest.

Two authors, actually: John Skipp and Craig Spector.

Bear in mind that the sugenre of horror this book belongs to is known as "Splatterpunk", which should give you an idea as to the level of violence present. Also,

Spoiler:
it does not end well.

You may be totally fine with both of those things, but I figured I ought to warn you just in case.


Note
This is the product of my last thread on monsters from the obscure horror novel The Bridge. Many thanks to Indagare for giving me an approximate CR to start with when using the Monster Creation rules.

I think I've calculated save DCs, hp and other stats correctly based on the rules, but I still definitely want some outside opinions. Is it way too strong/weak for CR 12? Did I calculate something wrong? Any input is appreciated.

******************

Drew was less than six feet away from the rail when the massive liquid blowback erupted: a solid pillar of displaced fluid that shot from the creek to the peak of Black Bridge in a fraction of a second. It towered above him and stayed there, impossible: fracturing physics, disemboweling logic.

Coalescing into form.

The creature loomed, not freeze-framed or static but swaying like a wind funnel, an enormous oily serpent. Against the black sky, it did not look real; but he could feel the incredible life-shredding charge of its presence, pulsating in the air. It made every hair on his body stand on end in total, mortal terror

And then the lightning struck, releasing him utterly from his sanity. In the light, he could see all too clearly the things that suffered and swirled within it. Could see the rusted struts and rotted shells of the barrels: skeletal, clawing. Could see the multicolored Rorschach toxins that were its blood and soul.

Could see the hundreds and hundreds of fish: not dead, no longer alive.

All of them staring. At him.

With new eyes...

Then the lightning decayed; and before he could scream, the black wall descended upon him.
-The Bridge

The Corruption

All civilizations produce waste, from the cow manure on a peasant’s farm to the spent fuel rods that once powered the reactors of unfathomably advanced civilizations, outwardly silent and still as they radiate killing energy.

Regardless of the intentions of the society that produced them, these substances alter the environment they are introduced into, disrupting the balance of nature. Manure runoff might encourage the growth of algae, choking the life from streams and lakes, while the fuel rods warp the essence of heredity itself with their invisible power. Still other toxins subtly infiltrate the landscape, soaking into the plants and animals around them until fruit and meat become poisonous to those who consume them.

Still, disturbing though these effects may be, in areas where careless alchemists or wizards have set up shop, there lies the potential for something far worse. When these individuals cast the byproducts of their experiments into the environment, the swill of enchanting, necromantic and transmutative elixirs can mix together with other waste and breathe a terrible form of life into it. Poisons, acids, carcinogens and mutagens take on an unholy, unified sentience. Where once the waste harmed life with the innocence of the inanimate, now there is conscious malice, a drive to twist or destroy all in its path; to remake the world in its own cancerous image.

This is the Corruption.

The Corruption begins as a single ooze, a living mass of deadly chemicals that suddenly wakes to sentience and sapience. This requires a large amount of hazardous waste, generally the result of years or even decades of dumping, as well as a certain amount of twisted luck. Generally, even ideal conditions result in only small amounts of waste animating in a mindless state, resulting in the relatively harmless alchemical ooze swarms.

No one knows just what makes the difference (some believe the influence of the Great Old One known as Xhamen-Dor is at work, while others credit random chance), but in the minutest fraction of cases, the entire poisonous mass animates as one organism, with powers and intelligence far beyond a normal alchemical ooze.

Corruption Ooze-Form (CR 12)
NE Huge ooze
Init +2; Senses Blindsight 60 ft., Perception +15
Aura anti-life (20 ft., DC 21), stench (30 ft., DC 21, 5 rounds)
DEFENSE
AC 6 (-2 Dex, -2 size)
hp 127 (15d8+60)
Fort +10, Ref +3, Will +7
Immune acid, disease, poison, ooze traits; SR 23
Weaknesses vulnerability to fire
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
Melee Slam +19 (4d6+12 plus 2d6 acid and disease)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks acid, disease
STATISTICS
Str 26, Dex 6, Con 18, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 14
Base Attack +11; CMB +21; CMD 29
Skills Climb +23, Knowledge (arcana) +16 Perception +15, Swim +16
Feats Ability Focus (disease), Cleave, Diehard, Endurance, Great Cleave, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Power Attack
SQ animating touch, ash spawn, ooze traits
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Acid (Ex) A Corruption ooze-form contains extremely corrosive chemicals that dissolve organic matter and metal but do not affect stone. Each time a creature suffers damage from the ooze-form’s acid, its clothing and armor take the same amount of damage from the acid. A DC 21 Reflex save prevents damage to clothing and armor. A metal or wooden weapon that strikes a Corruption ooze-form takes 2d6 acid damage unless the weapon's wielder succeeds on a DC 21 Reflex save. The save DCs are Constitution-based.

Animating Touch (Su) The Corruption’s bizarre nature gives it dominion over all things unnatural, and it can breathe life into inanimate objects through physical contact. For solid objects, this acts in a similar manner to the Animate Objects spell, save that it is permanent and the time it takes to animate an object depends on its size. Fine, Diminutive and Tiny objects can be animated as a standard action. Small objects take a full round action to animate, Medium objects require a minute, and Large or larger objects require an hour. For this reason, the Corruption generally does not animate solid objects of significant size during combat.

However, while it can take a very long time to animate solid objects, unnatural liquids, such as potions, flasks of acid and barrels of hazardous waste can be animated much faster. Containers of liquid from Fine to Huge can be animated as a standard action, while Gargantuan and Colossal volumes of liquid require a full round (for the upper reaches of the Colossal category, a lake’s worth of toxic waste, for instance, a minute may be required). Liquids thus animated become an ooze of the appropriate size category. Potions have a tendency to become alchemical oozes, while hazardous waste awakens as another Corruption Ooze-form (these tend to be Medium size or larger; apply the Young template once or twice to produce Large or Medium ooze-forms).

Note that only unnatural substances and objects are subject to the Corruption’s animating touch. A large boulder, for instance, cannot be animated, but a statue carved from stone may be.

Attended or magical objects may make a Will save (DC 19) to resist being animated and/or brought under the Corruption’s control. The save is Charisma-based.

Anti-Life Aura (Su) The Corruption is an abomination, its very existence a blasphemy against nature. This innate perversion of existence radiates outward from an ooze-form, unnerving and even physically harming living creatures. All living creatures within 20 feet of a Corruption ooze-form must make a DC 21 Fortitude save or be nauseated (this starts as a tingling in the affected’s lips and extremities, followed by a buzzing inside the head and a burning of the eyes). A creature that makes the save is immune to the ooze-form’s anti-life aura for the next 24 hours, though they still get the unmistakable sense that something is unspeakably, nightmarishly wrong with the monster they face. Heal breaks the effect, as does leaving the aura’s area of effect.

Constructs and Undead are immune to the anti-life aura.

Ash Spawn (Su) When a Corruption ooze-form is killed with fire, the flammable chemicals inside of it burn in a flash, dealing 6d6 fire damage to all creatures in a 20 foot radius (Reflex save DC 21 for half damage). The burn produces a cloud of ash that fouls any water it settles into, turning it to acid. Worse, if there are rainclouds overhead, the ash can rise into them and dissolve into the water droplets in the clouds. The resulting black rain deals 2d6 acid damage per round. Those slain by the black rain dissolve into a gory paste, while those who survive must save against the Disease special attack (same DCs and rapid progression as below). At times, the Corruption may deliberately invoke this ability, setting an ooze-form or specialized Newspawn ablaze in order to seed a thunderstorm and spread itself over a wider area.

Disease (Su) An ooze-form’s slam attack transmits a potent mixture of arcane transmutation, twisted microbial life and mutagenic toxins. Living creatures slain by an ooze-form rise 1d4 minutes later as Newspawn, but those not immediately killed suffer from disease effects as their immune systems struggle against the chemicals. For all intents and purposes the same as Mana Fever (from the Mana Wasted mutant template), the Corruption ooze-form’s mutagenic chemicals are far more concentrated than they are in its spawn, meaning that the disease progresses much more quickly.

Mana Fever injury; save Fort DC 23; onset 1d4 minutes; frequency 1/hour; effect 1d3 Con damage, 1d3 Cha drain; cure 2 consecutive saves.

Anyone who lives with this variant of mana fever for 7 hours straight without dying becomes immune to the disease, but also becomes a Newspawn.

Stench (Ex) A Corruption ooze-form exudes an ugly, vaguely industrial reek with the distinct underlying scent of decomposition. All living creatures (except those with the stench special ability) within 30 feet must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 21) or be sickened for 5 rounds. Creatures that successfully save cannot be affected by that ooze-form's stench for 24 hours.


Indagare wrote:
I'm not sure what the save DCs might be, but I hope this helps.

Actually this helps quite a lot. Having an approximate CR to shoot for means I can actually use the monster creation rules. I'll work on it and, hopefully, post the ooze-form's stats here when I'm done.

Thank you!


Indagare wrote:
What are the ooze-form's powers beyond mutating animals and magically bringing stuff to life? Or aren't there any mentioned?

Well, it can affect nuclear fission, but I figure that's not relevant to Pathfinder (unless there are some really advanced gnomes out there). In game terms, here's what I have so far:

Anti-Life Aura: The ooze-form is blasphemous, unnatural and all-around wrong, and its very presence hurts living things. In the book, this "life-shredding charge" extends at most ten feet from the ooze-form, and manifests as a tingling in the extremities and lips, followed by a buzzing inside the affected's head and then a burning in the eyes. At a guess, the Sickened condition fits best in game terms.

Awaken: I wrote this as something different from Animate Objects because it works a little differently. The ooze-form can "become one" with solid, unnatural objects (automobiles and, in one case, lawn ornaments), which works like a permanent version of Animate Objects, but takes a long time to work, namely about an hour to animate a pickup truck.

However, the ooze-form can animate other toxic waste almost instantly (a standard action, at a guess), turning liquid waste or semi-liquid sludge into more ooze with a touch. Hypothetically, this could apply to magic potions or alchemical substances as well.

All of these new oozes could merge with the original or, as in the book, spread outward to awaken more waste/objects or create more Newspawn. Either way, they're all linked by a hive mind (referred to as "Overmind" in the book, but as a StarCraft fan I just can't use that term) and continue to function as one giant super-organism.

Mutagens: This is basically just mana fever as shown in the Mana-Wasted mutant's description, except that the toxins are more concentrated in the ooze-form, so things progress faster (after the incubation period, saves probably have to be made every hour instead of every day).

Stench: Described in the book as "an ugly, vaguely industrial reek with the distinct undertaint of decomposition." Granted, the book mentions this in the context of a soap bubble-thin glaze of mutagens that's slowly spreading outward, but I figure since it originated with the ooze-form that it probably has that smell too.

The glaze, by the way, doesn't require stats. It spreads slowly and doesn't attack, so it's more of an environmental hazard than a creature.

What Is This I Don't Even: I seriously don't know what to call this last one, but it's so insane I can't not mention it. Near the end of the book, one of the Newspawn, filled to bursting with animate liquid waste, immolates itself in an explosion akin to a very small nuclear device. The fireball carries the apparently-still-living ash up into the thunderstorm overhead and transmutes all of the water into black acid rain, which proceeds to start eating its way through everyone it lands on (those who aren't killed outright become Newspawn).

I don't know whether to include that last one, as it makes the creature rather difficult to kill short of a Disintegrate spell. At the very least, I suppose it means don't kill it with fire.


Hello, everyone. I've never posted on these forums before (though I used to spend a lot of time on the Wizards forums in the days before 4th edition), and I wanted to see if any of you folks could help me. My apologies if this is the wrong forum, as I know this might be better placed in the "advice" forum.

Anyway, there's a fairly obscure horror novel from 1991 by John Skipp and Craig Spector called The Bridge. It has a fairly ludicrous premise, namely that when enough toxic waste accumulates in one place it spontaneously becomes alive, sentient and evil, but if you can get past how silly the start is the rest of the book works fairly well.

It occurred to me recently that while this premise is silly in the real world, it's actually fairly plausible in Pathfinder, what with wizards and alchemists dumping all manner of runoff from their experiments into the sewers or the wilderness. And seeing as our party contains not one but two druids (one of whom I play), a pollution entity bent on reshaping the world in its own image would actually make a great threat for at least a few adventures. I pitched the idea to my DM and he thought it could be cool, but I'm having trouble adapting the creatures from the book.

In the book, the threat comes in three categories: the animate waste itself (only appears at the beginning), mutated wildlife (called Newspawn) and animated objects.

Animated objects are easy, since there are stats for those in the Bestiary, and the Mana-Wasted mutant template should cover the Newspawn, but it's the ooze-form I'm having trouble with.

While the bestiary does contain instructions for monster creation, I'm having trouble using them, since they seem to want me to start with a CR and go from there, which doesn't work terribly well when you know what special abilities the thing has but not what its CR is supposed to be.

Any thoughts? Again, I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this question, and any help is greatly appreciated.