Mythopoeic Rambling: Frightful Fridays! (Thanksgiving Week Spectacular) Murducken

Hello, and welcome back to this week's mini monster marathon. Today's monster is in celebration of that most atrocious of creations, the turducken, but this one is undead and can explode into its components to wreak further havoc.

I hope you enjoy the murducken. I'll wrap things up tomorrow with an actual Friday monster. Happy Thanksgiving! I am truly thankful for my readers.

Oddly, I couldn't find the exact image I wanted, but this will do nicely.

This denuded turkey oozes rotting flesh. Its herky-jerky movements belie its speed and adroitness.

Murducken CR 5

XP 1,600

NE Small undead

Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +5

DEFENSE

AC 19, touch 15, flat-footed 15 (+4 Dex, +4 natural, +1 size)

hp 52 (7d8+21)

Fort +5, Ref +6, Will +6

DR 5/good or piercing; Immune fire, undead traits; Resist electricity 10

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., fly 20 ft. (clumsy)

Melee 2 slams +10 (1d6+3 plus ghoul fever and grab)

Special Attacks bursting split

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 7th; concentration +10)

1/day—grease (centered on murducken only)

STATISTICS

Str 17, Dex 19, Con —, Int 3, Wis 12, Cha 16

Base Atk +5; CMB +7 (+11 grapple); CMD 21

Feats Improved Initiative, Outflank^APG, Precise Strike^APG, Weapon Focus (slam)

Skills Acrobatics +10, Disguise +7, Escape Artist +14, Fly +2, Perception +5; Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics, +8 Escape Artist

ECOLOGY

Environment any land

Organization solitary, pair, or feast of death (3–6)

Treasure incidental

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Bursting Split (Ex) Once per day as a standard action, a murducken can burst into its necromantic poultry components with an attendant spray of gore and bones. All creatures within 20 feet of the murducken must attempt a DC 16 Reflex save. On a failed save, a victim takes 4d6 points of piercing and slashing damage, is nauseated for 1d4 rounds (and sickened for an additional 1d6 minutes afterwards), and subject to the murducken’s ghoul fever. On a successful save, a victim takes half damage and is sickened for 1d6 rounds.

This ability replaces the murducken with three component creatures. A component creature is the same as the base murducken but has half its hit points and takes a –2 penalty on attack and damage rolls, saving throws, ability checks, and skill checks.

Disease (Su) Ghoul Fever: Slam—injury; save DC 16; onset 1 day; frequency 1/day; effect 1d4 Con and 1d4 Dex damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Charisma-based. A humanoid who dies of ghoul fever rises as a ghoul at the next midnight, while a humanoid of 4 Hit Dice or more rises as a ghast. An animal or magical beast with 4 or more Hit Dice rises as a murducken. A creature who returns as an undead creature in this way is independent of other undead creatures and retains none of the abilities it possessed in life.

Grease (Sp) A murducken is immune to its own grease spell-like ability and can move through greased squares without penalty. This immunity does not apply to other castings of grease.

Terrifying abominations created from terrifying abominations, murduckens are ghastly creations seeking to spread disease and directly destroy the living. The duplicitous creatures look like ordinary turkeys filled with duck and chicken meat, but their lack of intellect and impatience usually lead to them blowing their disguise before they can fool potential victims. In ghoul enclaves, murduckens are created and hunted as part of a horrifying unholy day, where powerful murduckens usually lay waste to dozens of ghouls before being wrestled down and devoured.

Murducken Creation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lay the boned chicken skin-side down on a platter and season liberally with salt, pepper, Creole seasoning, and pureed ghoul flesh. Lay the boned duck skin-side down on top of the chicken and season liberally with salt, pepper, Creole seasoning, and pureed ghoul flesh. Cover and refrigerate.
Lay the boned turkey skin-side down on a flat surface. Cover with a layer of cold Flesh and Oyster Dressing and push the dressing into the leg and wing cavities so they will look as if they still have bones in them.
Lay the duck on top of the turkey skin-side down and cover it with a layer of unnaturally cold dressing. Lay the chicken on top of the duck skin-side down and cover it with a layer of unnaturally cold dressing.
With the help of an assistant, bring the edges of the turkey skin up and fasten them together with toothpicks. Add the bones back to the unholy mass of flesh. Use kitchen string to lace around the toothpicks to help hold the stuffed turkey together. Carefully place the murducken, breast up in a large roasting pan.
Roast covered for 4 hours or until the murducken is golden brown. Continue to roast uncovered for 1 hour or until a meat thermometer inserted through the thigh registers 180 degrees F. and a thermometer inserted through the stuffing registers 165 degrees F. Check the murducken every few hours to baste and remove excess liquid. There will be enough pan juices for a gallon of gravy.
Cast animate dead and enjoy!