Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Frightful Fridays! Ghost Maw

Hello, and welcome to a new edition of Frightful FridaysTerrible Tuesdays! This week's monster, the ghost maw, is fun for underground explorations where flight is not quite so easy. Maybe it's not fun for the characters who find themselves trapped in 30 cubic feet of stone, though.

I hope you enjoy the ghost maw, and I'll see you again with another monster. Thanks for reading!


A ghostly worm of incredible size and featuring a gnashing, toothy mouth emerges from the surrounding stone.
Ghost Maw      CR 14
XP 38,400
NE Colossal undead (incorporeal)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 120 ft.; Perception +17
DEFENSE
AC 26, touch 26, flat-footed 23 (+21 deflection, +2 Dex, +1 dodge, –8 size)
hp 210 (20d8+120); fast healing 5 (while underground)
Fort +12, Ref +8, Will +14
Defensive Abilities incorporeal, malevolent mantle, rejuvenation; Immune undead traits
OFFENSE
Speed fly 90 ft. (poor)
Melee incorporeal touch +18 (6d6+8 negative energy/19–20)
Space 30 ft.; Reach 30 ft.
Special Attacks incorporeal terrain, trample (6d6+11 negative energy, DC 22)
STATISTICS
Str —, Dex 15, Con —, Int 1, Wis 14, Cha 23
Base Atk +15; CMB +33; CMD 57 (can't be tripped)
Feats Critical Focus, Dodge, Exhausting Critical, Improved Critical (incorporeal touch), Improved Initiative, Mobility, Skill Focus (Fly), Skill Focus (Perception), Tiring Critical, Weapon Focus (incorporeal touch)
Skills Fly +10, Perception +17, Stealth –6 (+10 underground); Racial Modifiers +8 Stealth (+24 underground)
ECOLOGY
Environment any underground
Organization solitary
Treasure none
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Incorporeal Terrain (Su) As a standard action, a ghost maw can transform force solid terrain equal to its space to become incorporeal. Creatures on the transformed terrain must succeed at a DC 26 Reflex save or fall 30 feet (taking 3d6 points of damage). As a free action at the beginning of the ghost maw’s next turn, it can return the terrain to corporeality. Creatures caught in the reconstituted terrain take 8d6 points of damage, as if buried in a cave-in (DC 26 Reflex save for half damage). The creature takes damage as per being buried in a cave-in (1d6 points of nonlethal damage per minute, and then 1d6 points of lethal damage on a failed DC 15 Constitution check each minute after falling unconscious). The save DCs are Charisma-based.
Malevolent Mantle (Su) A ghost maw has a +16 deflection bonus (which stacks with the deflection bonus provided by its Charisma modifier). It also has a +8 racial bonus on its attack and damage rolls.
Rejuvenation (Su) When a ghost maw is destroyed, it only remains destroyed for 2d6 days. After this time, the creature reforms where it was destroyed, fully healed. The only way to permanently destroy a ghost maw is to destroy its corpse and cover the remains in a gallon of holy water (or use a spell such as consecrate).

The malevolent spirit of a burrowing worm which dies while trapped in the earth, a ghost maw seeks to entomb other creatures in the earth and watch them slowly die due to lack of lack of oxygen and the press of earth upon their bodies. It achieves this by rendering ground it intersects with into incorporeality, pulling victims into the ground, and then restoring the earth to reality, crushing all those unable to escape the trap. Failing to harm its prey through its preferred method, it passes over them and drains the life from those unable to move out of the way.

Intelligent incorporeal creatures lure ghost maws to groups of victims and wait for the ghostly worms to entomb the victims within rock where they make easy targets. Ghost maws attack anything that moves, so incorporeality is no guarantee of safety from the creatures. However, the worms prefer flesh and blood creatures to incorporeal prey, so they attack available corporeal creatures, especially those rooted to the ground. Ghost maws are instinctively aware of their connection to the earth and usually stay within reach so they can benefit from its embrace.