Polypous Abomination (Type VI)

"Malevolent Cnidarian beings, the warriors of the [UNTRANSLATABLE] Legions of the Third Decan of the Venefice are not to be called forth save one at a time..."

The Lexicon of Destruction

Third Edition, Expurgated

Polypous Abomination (Type VI)

No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Undetermined
Movement: 90' (Move Freely/Levitation)
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 4+2
Attacks: 2 (Slash or Pierce, +Spells)
Damage: 3d4 or 2d6, or by Spell
Save: MU 8
Morale: 11

Special: Spell-casting ability as 8th level magic-user, Regeneration (1hp/round), 1d4 random psychic abilities (each ability replaces a normal spell-slot).

Physically sessile creatures, the spawn of gargantuan, planetary-scale reef-colony-organisms that swarm and saturate the vast oceans of hundreds of watery worlds, these Polyps are only known through vague references in a few disreputable grimoires of dubious provenance.

Until only recently even the leading authorities on such matters doubted that these things even existed as anything other than the crude and incoherent imaginings of diseased minds and illiterate charlatans. That all changed with the discovery of a hither-to unregistered and un-recorded tomb-complex deep below Wermspittle. At least, preliminary surveys indicate that it is a tomb of some sorts, so the Sewer Militia has cordoned-off the immediate area and called for Ecclesiastical Support, a standard precaution in such situations, as well as for a Tactical Academic Investigation Team to go in and determine how best to deal with the situation.

It was in the twenty-third chamber that the initial discoverers, a group of Danglers and Foragers who had ostensibly been in the area looking for fungal growths or mineral outcroppings, encountered what has since been termed 'The Black Lake.' Only two of the group managed to return, neither of them intact. One of them attempted to forcibly graft portions of her sorcerously-hybridized body unto six victims before she was destroyed. The other one escaped and is presumed to be lurking in the vicinity of the tomb complex, possibly having returned to the Black Lake.

What We Know...
This particular polypous organism is extremely intelligent, sorcerously skilled, and able to slash anyone who gets within range of its tentacles to bloody ribbons in short order. But what makes these creatures profoundly more dangerous is their practice of forcibly grafting portions of their weird flesh into the wounds that they've inflicted, healing the damage and hybridizing their victims. According to certain unspecified evidence, it is accepted as proven that these things can also repair and restore the dead to a semblance of life, a horrible form of ablife. Anyone so afflicted/compromised is quickly integrated into the solitary consciousness and personality of the main entity, acting as drones or pawns.

Those forcibly hybridized by a Polypous Abomination gain a lesser form of regeneration and display a formidable capacity for rapid biological self-modification in response to stimuli, leading the Sewer Militia to take drastic measures...