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Cistern Creeper

Cistern Creeper
“Rhan-Tegoth” by unknown artist, possibly Tatsuya Nottsuo. Accessed at Pinterest here.

This squat creature has a rubbery body shaped roughly like a mushroom. Bulbous eyes glare from over a short proboscis. Eight tentacles grow from its body, each tipped with a pincer.

Taken from the Creature Codex

Cistern creepers are strange subterranean horrors that lurk in aquifers, wells and other groundwater sources. Their flexible bodies allow them to squeeze through even tiny cracks, and cistern creepers can turn up in unexpected places with ease. They are rarely seen aboveground except on dark and rainy nights.

A cistern creeper can survive indefinitely by absorbing minerals dissolved in water, but they must kill larger creatures in order to reproduce. Cistern creepers are sexless, and a cistern creeper reproduces by injecting some of itself into the corpse of a Medium-sized or larger creature. Over the course of a week, the tissue of the body transforms into a rough tentacled mass and pulls itself free, whereupon it disperses to a body of water of its own. Cistern creepers can reproduce repeatedly as long as they have access to victims, allowing populations of these monsters to reach plague proportions quickly if they are not stopped.

A cistern creeper is about three feet tall and almost spherical in shape, with tentacles that reach another three feet. They are light for their size, weighing approximately fifty pounds.

Cistern Creeper CR 9

XP 6,400
NE Small aberration (aquatic)
Init 
+10; Senses darkvision 120 ft., Perception +12

Defense

AC 22, touch 17, flat-footed 16(+1 size, +6 Dex, +5 natural)
hp 
119 (14d8+56), regeneration 3 (acid or sonic)
Fort +8, Ref +10, Will +12
Resist 
cold 10, electricity 10

Offense

Speed 20 ft., swim 40 ft.
Melee 
8 claws +17 (1d4+1)
Special Attacks rend (4 claws, 1d4+1), tangling tentacles

Statistics

Str 13, Dex 22, Con 18, Int 6, Wis17, Cha 9
Base Atk 
+10; CMB +10; CMD 30 (cannot be tripped)
Feats 
Blind-fight,Combat Reflexes, Defensive Combat Training,Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Stealth), Weapon Finesse
Skills 
Climb +15, Perception +12, Stealth +22, Swim +23; Racial Modifiers uses Dexterity for Climb and Swim
Languages 
Aklo (cannot speak)
SQ 
amphibious, compression

Ecology

Environment underground and aquatic
Organization 
solitary or pair
Treasure 
incidental

Special Abilities

Regeneration (Ex) A cistern creeper’s regeneration only functions if the cistern creeper is touching water.
Tangling Tentacles (Ex) 
Any creature that ends its turn adjacent to a cistern creeper must succeed on a DC 23 Reflex save or become entangled in the creature’s tentacles. An entangled creature cannot leave the square it is in and remains entangled until it succeeds a combat maneuver or Escape Artist check against the cistern creeper’s CMD. This condition ends if the cistern creeper moves away from the entangled creature. The save DC is Dexterity based.

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