No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 10' (3')
Armor Class: 10
Hit Dice: 8+
Attacks: 1 (Crush or Swallow)
Damage: 3d4 or see below
Save: MU10
Morale: 8
Huge, ponderous creatures of ambiguous outline and protean form, the Type IV Gobbling Grout is a grotesque combination of a living stain and some sort of protoplasmic blob that sloshes about the lower sections of some alleys, fills old cellars and wallows in backed-up and over-full cess-pits where they slowly digest all the organic matter that they come into contact with, often producing massive amounts of highly explosive gasses.
These creatures grow to a size where they can shift buildings off of their foundations when disturbed.
They generally do not attack, so much as they roll over and crush anyone within reach as they stretch and slither about in their feverish dreaming. If a human-sized or smaller victim insists upon being swallowed by clambering atop one of the things, or if they get caught within the blubbery folds of the thing, it will swallow them, but this is totally involuntary and un-premeditated as these things are not truly conscious on any level recognized by sentient beings. But they do dream. How and why has yet to be determined, but they most definitely do dream.
Flattened at the top and festooned with the filth they slumber beneath, Pit Pore Leviathans are a constant nuisance and menace to densely populated cities as they block drains, stop-up pipes, re-direct gutters, and cause back-flows, ruptures, floods of rotting waste, and the aforementioned pockets of explosive gas.
The Grand Marshall of the Sewer Militia traditionally has offered a fairly substantial bounty on these creatures, but collecting the reward is a very difficult and dangerous task. Capturing or killing a gravid female before it can expel its spawnage into the sewers is worth a great deal more than just another slow-moving mountain of fetid ooze dug out of someone's basement.
Certain specimens of the Type IV have shown a remarkable talent for a sort of dreaming that Oneirists, Fantomists, and others have begun to investigate. There might be some esoteric secret or occult knowledge to be gained from dredging through the noisome muck and darksome mire below the city streets after all.
There are other types of Gobbling Grout, at least four distinct varieties are noted in the Sewer System Concordance & Cthonic Ephemeris published every October by the Sewer Militia in Wermspittle.
This creature could be harnessed for waste management and energy production, given its gaseous output, if the right kind of container could be found. They also make a greaf source of new dungeons, given that can cause buildings to collapse.
ReplyDelete@Tallgeese: Welcome! Oh the various types/sub-types of Gobbling Grout are very important to the local industry and other enterprises in Wermspittle. The old systems are in a bit of disarray, but as groups of Player characters discover things and learn about what's available, they have every opportunity to be directly involved in the recovery and development process. Getting a secure supply of self-generating gas to maintain the flame-lamps along the outer walls would be a good thing, with various armies prowling the low lands and aerial raiders being a distinct possibility in the near future. And you are right--the Type IVs are notorious for making a real mess when they go on a rampage, and there are several dungeons that have gotten their start in the wake of such a rampage...and at least one that resulting from the mysterious tunnels revealed by the Type Iv's death throes...
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