Squirmy-Gurgle (Red Bestiary)

“Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.”

Denis Diderot

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Squirmy-Gurgle
No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 90' (30')
Armor Class: 7*
Hit Dice: 2+1
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d4, Special
Save: C4
Morale: 11

Special: Detect Royalty, Levitate, Locate Lineage, Sense Status, Passwall at will. Immune to all visual and olfactory stimuli. Can hear/feel even the faintest heartbeat at 600 paces. Gains +3 bonus to defense against all non-magic melee weapons due to 'hunches.'

Strangle Attack: On any attack roll of 18 or better, the Squirmy-Gurgle latches onto the victim and attempts to strangle them, gaining an automatic hit for each subsequent attack and inflicting double damage until either dislodged or destroyed.

Vulnerabilities: Squirmy-Gurgles take double damage from cheap liquor and can be Turned as 5 HD creatures, but only by ecclesiastics/monastics that have taken vows of poverty.

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Squirmy-Gurgles were originally necromantic terror-weapons intended to strike down tyrants, aristocrats, nobles and the like. However the discriminatory faculties of these creatures, such as they are, have drifted, even degenerated over time to become more democratic in their choice of victims. They still have a taste for tracking down members of noble and ignoble lineages and killing royalty, but these days they're as likely to assassinate a rich merchant or some other so-called authority figure who has no claim to any hereditary title or office.

Deliberately created by radical anti-monarchists and other enemies of the would-be elites, Squirmy-Gurgles are formed from the entrails of summarily abducted and sorcerously executed priests who were disemboweled in the course of blasphemous, heretical rites nearly every major and most minor sects have attempted to suppress, ban, censor or eliminate over the years, but somehow versions of the rites still crop up from time to time, often in the unlikeliest of places. Conspiracy theories surround these creatures as thickly as the swarms of flies they tend to attract.

Slippery, slimy heaps of mindless entrails that ooze and wriggle through walls, these things never rest, never sleep, never give up in their pursuit of their victims. However, some are not quite so straight-forward in the execution of their chosen victims, opting instead to wriggle about within the walls, between the floor-boards, and beneath the beds of their victims, as though taking a great deal of pleasure in driving their victims mad with fright whenever possible. This behavior is as rare as it is troublesome, as it indicates that some of these things may somehow have retained some measure of intelligence, or perhaps they are becoming tainted or twisted by malign spirits...