Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Frightful Fridays! Fleshroil

Hello, and welcome back to Frightful Fridays, celebrating its third anniversary on this blog (plus maybe a little catch up from missing weeks). The next monster "rolls" in to grab PCs' arms and legs...permanently. I couldn't find an image I was happy with, but I'm sure that my searching put my household on a few federal watchlists. So, I am providing a somewhat related image that I will eventually create a monster for instead.

By the way, for sadistic or sinister GMs, note that the fleshroil cannot use the treasure it obtains incidentally when it takes arms and legs. However, there's nothing saying you can't allow it to benefit from rings of protection and other passive magical items.

I hope you enjoy the fleshroil, and I'll see you tomorrow with another seasonal monster. Thanks for reading!



This creature looks like a tumbleweed composed of dismembered arms and legs.
Fleshroil      CR 7
XP 3,200
CE Large undead
Init –1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +12
DEFENSE
AC 20, touch 8, flat-footed 20 (–1 Dex, +12 natural, –1 size)
hp 85 (10d8+40); regeneration 5 (acid)
Fort +7, Ref +2, Will +7
Defensive Abilities amorphous; Immune undead traits; Resist cold 10, electricity 10, fire 5
OFFENSE
Speed 50 ft., climb 30 ft.
Melee 2 slams +13 (2d6+7 plus grab)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks dismember, rend (2 slams, 2d6+10)
STATISTICS
Str 24, Dex 9, Con —, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 19
Base Atk +7; CMB +15 (+20 grapple, +17 sunder); CMD 24 (26 vs. sunder, can't be tripped)
Feats Improved Sunder, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Perception), Step Up, Weapon Focus (grapple)
Skills Acrobatics +10 (+18 to jump), Climb +19, Perception +12; Racial Modifiers +8 Acrobatics
ECOLOGY
Environment any land
Organization solitary, pair, or malignancy (3–6)
Treasure standard (magic rings, gloves, boots, etc.)
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Consume (Ex) As a full round action, a fleshroil can tear apart and harvest the limbs of a helpless creature of its size or smaller, killing the creature. It is treated as fighting defensively while using this ability. After it has consumed a creature, it gains hit points equal to the creature’s Constitution score and a 10-foot increase to its base speed. If it has consumed one Medium creature (or the equivalent), it applies the advanced creature template. If it has consumed four Medium creatures (or the equivalent), it applies the giant creature template. It cannot gain more than one of each template.
Within 1 minute of consuming four Medium creatures, a fleshroil splits into two identical creatures, both with the same statistics as the original fleshroil (thus losing the templates).
Dismember (Ex) If a fleshroil deals rending damage to an opponent or pins its opponent, it makes a sunder attempt against that opponent as a swift action. If the attempt succeeds, the fleshroil tears off one of the opponent’s arms or legs. The target takes 1d6 points of bleed damage and cannot perform actions requiring two arms (with the loss of an arm) or cannot walk or run (with the loss of a leg).

Speculation about the fleshroil, also known as the fleshwheel or limbroll, focuses on two possible origins: it grew from a troll’s (or multiple trolls’) severed limbs or it derives from partially ooze-digested victims. It shares odd traits with both trolls and oozes, making either theory possible. However, it is an undead creature, animated by malign energies created by the trauma of losing limbs. The dim intelligence it possesses drives it to add more limbs to its mass, eventually “reproducing” once it has added enough to its collective.

Ghouls and other creatures with a taste for humanoid flesh farm fleshroils and send them out to wreak terror in the surrounding lands while gathering meals for the fleshroils’ masters. A creature with a minimum caster level of 18 that can cast create undead may use that spell to create a fleshroil, but this requires at least two corpses.