Tizheruk

This serpentine beast has transparent, scaly skin that reveals the creature’s murky red-and-brown organs through its flesh.

Source Tears at Bitter Manor pg. 63
Originally posted in Archives of Nethys

The vicious tizheruk is a foul freshwater predator that wreaks havoc in the lakes and rivers it inhabits. To make matters worse, tizheruks also frequently travel far inland via smaller streams where animals and humanoids might think themselves safer. When a tizheruk swims upstream in such waters, it naturally compresses its muscles and organs, enabling it to remain in water less than a foot deep. It explodes to its full size as soon as it attacks, swallowing smaller prey or dragging larger creatures into the water before swimming away with its meal.

Though tizheruks mostly subsist on aquatic prey, they supplement their diets with creatures on the shore, particularly sizeable mammals such as deer or wild boar. To capture such creatures, a tizheruk extends its tightly coiled, whiplike tongue to snare one of the prey’s legs, then retracts the appendage to pull the creature to its mouth.

A tizheruk’s skin is nearly transparent, granting it a sort of natural camouflage beneath the water because its rust-colored organs and tissue can easily be mistaken for the floor of a creek or stream. After gorging itself on fish or on land animals that wander near the shore, the tizheruk compresses itself on the bottom of a lake or river while it slowly digests its prey.

An adult tizheruk is 8 feet long and weighs 180 pounds, though a tizheruk that has just fed may weigh up to two or three times as much.

Tizheruk CR 5

XP 1,600 N Large magical beast (aquatic) Init +3; Senses Darkvision 60 ft., Low-Light Vision; Perception +7

DEFENSE

AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+3 Dexterity, +6 natural, –1 size) hp 52 (5d10+25) Fort +9, Ref +7, Will +2

OFFENSE

Speed 10 ft., Swim 40 ft. Melee bite +12 (2d6+10 plus grab) or tongue +12 (grab and pull) Space 10 ft., Reach 10 ft. (20 ft. with tongue) Special Attacks pull (tongue, 15 ft.), swallow whole (1d6 acid damage, AC 14, 8 hp)

STATISTICS

Strength 24, Dexterity 17, Constitution 21, Intelligence 2, Wisdom 13, Charisma 6 Base Atk +5; CMB +13; CMD 26 (can’t be tripped) Feats Power Attack, Skill Focus (Stealth), Weapon Focus (bite) Skills Perception +7, Stealth +6 (+14 in water), Swim +19; Racial Modifiers +8 Stealth in water SQ compression, see-through skin

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Compression (Ex) A tizheruk can use its compression ability to remain in waterways as shallow as 8 inches deep. While compressing itself against the floor of a body of water, a tizheruk gains a +4 circumstance bonus on Stealth checks.   See-Through Skin (Ex) Because so much of a tizheruk’s body is transparent, a creature swallowed whole by it has line of sight to creatures outside the creature, and creatures outside the tizheruk can see anyone inside. Tongue (Ex) A tizheruk’s tongue is a primary attack with a reach equal to double the tizheruk’s normal reach (20 feet for a Large tizheruk). A tizheruk’s tongue deals no damage on a hit, but can be used to grab a creature and pull it closer. A tizheruk doesn’t gain the grappled condition while using its tongue in this manner.

ECOLOGY

Environment temperate rivers and marshes Organization solitary or pair Treasure none