Gibbering Mouther

This amoeboid horror is nothing but mouths and eyes. With all of them shut it passes for a heap of earth, ambushing anyone who stumbles onto it. Its only drive is hunger, and animal, vegetable and mineral are all food. It drags itself forward by biting into the ground and hauling, and it swims through mud and quicksand faster than it crawls.

The brain drifts in the center of a jellylike mass that is hard to strike cleanly, hence the weak Armor Class. On sighting food the mouther starts gibbering, and all within 60 feet must save vs. spell or roll 1d8: 1, stumble about at random for a round; 2 to 5, stand stunned for a round; 6 or 7, attack the nearest living thing for a round; 8, run in terror for two rounds.

Spit that hits a hard surface erupts in a brilliant flash, blinding watchers who fail a save vs. petrification for 1d3 rounds. The blind fight at -4 and the mouther bites them at +2.

Six mouths bite each round. A bite that beats the required roll by 2 or more clings on, dealing an extra point each round. Once three or more cling to one target, it must make a Dexterity check each round or topple, and the mouther then oozes over the fallen victim and bites with 12 mouths at +4 while reaching for its next meal. Anyone reduced to 0 hit points is absorbed, giving the mouther another mouth, two more eyes and a permanent extra hit point, never beyond its Hit Dice maximum. Dead flesh cannot be taken in.

Within 5 feet of itself the mouther can soften earth and stone and set their thickness, turning soil to doughy quicksand in 30 seconds; stone first takes a full round to become soil.

Mouthers breed by fission. At maximum hit points one retreats to a small, dark hole for a four-hour split into two of 4+3 Hit Dice, with 17 and 18 hit points. Each recovers for 7+3d12 turns and then leaves to claim its own range.

They avoid each other's lands and each other's touch, perhaps because contact makes two merge into one monster of double size, Hit Dice and attacks but half their already poor speed. Such giants eat the land bare and usually starve when prey dwindles.

Mouthers are not natural. Foul magic usually creates them, and wizards and depraved cults keep them as guards. Loose in the wild they scavenge more than they hunt and rarely establish breeding numbers except in the richest swamps.