Giant Squid

A giant squid is an outsized version of the ordinary shell-less squid: a long, armored head with two eyes, ten trailing arms, and a hard, parrot-like beak where the arms meet the body. The kraken is its far rarer, gargantuan relative, ranked among the deadliest things alive.

The squid seizes prey, squeezes, and hauls the victim toward its beak. Two arms always anchor the body, leaving eight free to attack, and all eight may go after a single target, though just one at a time can wrap a man-sized foe. Arms strike for 1d6, a wrapped victim takes 2d6 each round after the first hit, and the beak bites for 5d4.

No strength can pry an arm loose; it has to be cut, which takes 12 points of damage from an edged or sharp blade, separate from the squid's Hit Dice. A grabbed character rolls percentile dice for pinned limbs: 01-25 left arm, 26-50 right arm, 51-75 neither, 76-100 both. Held victims cannot cast spells but may hack at the arm with a weapon, at -3 with one arm free or -1 with both.

After losing four or more arms, the squid has an 80% chance to release a blinding ink cloud (60 feet high, 60 wide, 80 long) and jet home to its lair. It can drag small vessels straight under and halt a larger one after a turn of hauling; six or more arms gripping a hull for three straight rounds inflict ramming damage, and the ship floods and sinks.

A kraken fights the same way, only bigger. Its two barbed arms hit for 3d6 and pull prey toward a 7d4 bite, while the six other free arms deal 2d6 and constrict for 3d6 per round thereafter. Each arm takes 18 points from sharp or edged weapons to sever, apart from its Hit Dice. It is 80% likely to withdraw after losing three arms, and 50% likely to carry its catch home once four arms hold victims, leaving ink behind in either case. That cloud measures 80 by 80 by 120 feet, is poisonous for 2d4 per round to anyone inside, and fades in 2-5 rounds. A fleeing kraken jets off at movement rate 21, and it can sink ships up to 60 feet long.

Krakens can keep the water breathable (airy water) continuously in a 120-yard sphere or 240-yard hemisphere. At will, one power at a time, they also use faerie fire lasting up to eight hours and continuous control temperature over a 40-yard radius; once a day each they can use weather summoning and control winds, and three times a day animal summoning III, which brings only fish and grants no command over them. Triton conch horns do not affect them.

With genius Intelligence or better, krakens often rule large undersea territories from cave complexes thousands of feet down, where they breed captive humans as servants and food.

Krakens breathe air or water and hunt aggressively; raids have stripped some tropical islands of every person and animal. Legend says they retreated to the depths after good powers foiled their attempt to master the seas, and that someday they will rise again.