Giant Jellyfish [Mystara]

All three breeds float at or near the surface, buoyed by one or more huge air bladders that make up most of their bulk. Their stinging tentacles, which may reach 100 feet, hang like drifting seaweed, but the jellyfish can steer them deliberately against prey.

The marauder is 10 feet across with 40 tentacles and a body so clear that foes suffer -5 on surprise rolls. It can engage as many as 10 opponents at once, using 1d4 tentacles on each. Every tentacle that hits deals 1d10 damage, and the victim must save vs. paralyzation or be frozen for 1d10 rounds, during which 1d4 tentacles strike automatically each round. It pulls paralyzed prey to its mouth and can strip a man-sized body to the bone in 3d4 turns. One point of cutting damage severs a tentacle without counting against its hit points, which are reduced only by hits on the body, and severed tentacles regrow in a few days.

Midnight blue and 14 feet across, this breed bears a yellow to glowing green skull pattern on its body. It has 24 tentacles and starts fights on its own. It can fight four foes at once with 1d6 tentacles apiece, each doing 2 points of damage, but the real danger is its venom: anyone stung must save vs. poison or die. Even a successful save leaves the victim at -4 on all rolls for 1d8 turns, a penalty that does not stack with later stings. Sailors dread it, believing that sighting one means someone aboard will soon die.

Named for its speed and deadliness at the surface, the galley is a flattened, multicolored oval 12 feet long with 16 tentacles. Eyelike organs on its body and tentacles let it find prey, and it can fight as many as four targets simultaneously with four tentacles each, every tentacle dealing 1d8 damage. Special tubular tentacles squirt venom up to 20 feet at targets on the surface, which takes an attack roll; anyone hit who fails a save vs. paralyzation is paralyzed for 2d4 rounds, and paralyzed foes are hit automatically by its tentacles. If the venom attack roll beats the number needed by 4 or more, the stream hits the eyes, blinding the victim for 3d4 rounds in addition to the paralysis save. Galleys instinctively trail ships and often strike at anything thrown overboard.