Hit Dice: 2
Armor Class: 6 [13]
Attacks: 2 Pseudopods (1d4+1)
Saving Throw: 16
Special: Clinging Crud
Move: n/a
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 2/30
Mindless, blind and disgusting, these subterranean nuisances resemble gelatinous gut-piles with a few smoothly-eroded bone fragments poking out of their pseudopods. They sense vibrations and heat, and are rumored to possess a highly developed sense of smell, which is doubtful, given their predilection for infesting places rife with rot and decay.
Anyone coming within 20' of a Moundling must make a Save or find that their boots, sandals or other footwear is coated with a nasty-smelling clinging crud that seeps into them and begins to fester, swell and develop disconcerting bulges over the course of the next hour or so. Those bulges will rupture to release 1d4 larval Moundlings that resemble squiggly little slugs with only 1 hit point apiece. The larvae will quickly wriggle off into the surrounding darkness to find a suitable spot to take root and begin the process all over again.
Nuisance is right. It would be fun to sic these on players.
ReplyDeleteThat's the idea. Glad you like it.
DeleteThat sense of gelatinous flow really works, like the movement is following weird rules. The life cycle is unusual too. And a character or two being left without footwear could definitely be an inconvenience far from home...
ReplyDeleteI was pleased with this one as it just clicked together nicely. I will try this approach out again later in the week, after I get the pdf wrapped. I really enjoy messing around with life-cycles and such biological/ecological things as it makes for more interesting creatures, usually. Totally random assemblages of disparate pieces and parts with no regard to biology can be fun too, but a lot of those tend to be one-offs or monsters-of-the-week sort of things, which is fine...but some times I really like for a monster to have the means to grow into something other than just a gold-dropping cadaver...
DeleteAlso, sometimes it isn't the hit points inflicted that really make a creature dangerous; wearing down supplies, ruining equipment and that sort of thing can have serious consequences and might prove as much a threat as any beasty with great big teeth ever could.