Got a monster concept brewing the other night so I thought I would post it here. Any comments would be great to help me flesh it out.
Nightcrawler or "Ghoul Worm"
One of Kyuss' first ventures into combining worms and unlife, this foul creature was nearly forgotten by Kyuss himself.
A long undulating worm that takes up a 5' space but has 10' reach as it lashes out at its victims.
It can grapple, constrict, and its bite spreads filth fever. It also has damage resistance good 5 and any confirmed critical hit with a slashing weapon cuts the nightcrawler in half and a full round action creates two worms with 1/2 the original's hit points.
Alright, I just realized that there already is a creature called a Nightcrawler so "Ghoul Worm" it is...
Now that I'm thinking about it I'll just use the stats for a constrictor snake, make it undead type, add the damage reduction, the filth fever, and then the slice spawn stuff.
How about "Seed of Kyuss" instead, make it look like a monstrous dead sperm with a mouth?
That could work but it's not my personal style.
I was envisioning something that didn't have a Kyuss title. Something that wouldn't breed more Kyuss stuff. But now that I'm thinking about it... perhaps this worm could act as a Kyuss worm for a huge or gargantuan creature? As the smaller worms cannot effect larger creatures - just "zombify" them. These worms cannot effect smaller creatures - just disease them.
This opens the door for a possible later adventure or side quest where the party must defeat a horde of these before they infect a huge corpse (the black dragon, a giant, etc.) or somehow have to fight their way through a gargantuan infected corpse before it becomes a titanic spawn of Kyuss that could lay waste to the region?
That would make for an interesting dungeon but you'd have to use a really big monster... What would you use?
Hmmmm... gargantuan and collosal creatures...
Any Great Wyrm
Roc
Purple Worm
Or perhaps it would be too contrived to shrink the party and have them enter a Huge or larger beast...
Hmmmm... gargantuan and collosal creatures...
Any Great Wyrm
Roc
Purple WormOr perhaps it would be too contrived to shrink the party and have them enter a Huge or larger beast...
The tarrasque would be really cool, but it would have to die first. Too bad.