Golden Ammonite

Two accounts describe this creature. Both agree that it is a tentacled shell-dweller of the deepest, coldest ocean trenches, that its exposed flesh is dark brown spotted with black, and that its shell is pure gold worth a fortune. They differ on the details, so each version is given separately below.

In this telling the ammonite is a big-shelled mollusk that grazes on silt, debris and minerals in lightless abyssal plains. It pulls gold out of the sludge it swallows and lays the metal down on its coiled shell, producing an eerie, gleaming spiral. Two fist-sized faceted eyes on stalks peek over the shell's rim. They are badly nearsighted, working best on lit objects no more than 30 feet off, although they sense heat and light out to 120 feet. Far keener is its skin, which feels every vibration and movement within 600 feet, so it can never be surprised, not even by magically silenced foes. Blinding it with light spells is easy and pointless, since this sonar-like sense is unaffected.

Anything coming within 90 feet draws fire. Each eye independently hurls a 1-foot globe of magical light, usually at the biggest target first, so two victims can be attacked each round. A target that fails a save vs. spell takes the guided globe square in the face. Deep-dwelling creatures with eyes are blinded at once and flee; surface folk are effectively blinded and fight at -4. Dispel magic removes the effect if it succeeds against 8th-level magic. Should blindness last over 12 turns, the eyes are permanently harmed, leaving a -2 attack penalty after the globe is gone that only cure blindness, heal or wish can repair.

Within grappling reach it attacks as many as 10 foes with tentacles. Each squeezes for 1d4 and its suckers drain fluids for extra damage, the number of points matching the victim's Armor Class value ignoring Dexterity and shield bonuses, so a man in chain mail takes 1d4+5 per round. Once wrapped, a victim is hit automatically in later rounds. Each round the victim may try to break free by rolling at or under its bend bars/lift gates chance; making an open doors roll instead frees its arms to fight back at -2.

Each blow from a mindless or indiscriminate attacker has a 50% chance to hit the AC 6 shell rather than the AC 8 body. Thinking foes aim only at the body, but every miss is rerolled against AC 6 to see whether it struck the shell. An intelligent attacker rolling 4 or more above the needed number may strike an eye instead, which any damage destroys; losing an eye makes the ammonite retreat into its shell for hours until every wound has regenerated.

Weapons without an edge deal only half damage to its rubbery body, and the shell also absorbs half of any blow (round down), so blunt weapons on the shell do one-quarter damage. Many weapons are impractical underwater anyway. It is partly cold-adapted and takes half damage from cold. Body wounds heal at 1 hit point each turn; a damaged shell takes 7-12 months to regrow.

Rich surface buyers will pay 50,000-80,000 gp for a shell, and some ocean races call them priceless. Each point of shell damage knocks 1,000 gp off the price, down to a floor of 10,000 gp for a ruined shell. Whole or wrecked, a shell weighs roughly 1,000 pounds.

These ammonites live at the bottoms of vast marine trenches where horrific monsters are said to dwell and where even sahuagin supposedly refuse to go. No society has been observed. Their minds are so alien that ESP and telepathy return only confused, disturbing images, and psionic attacks and mind-affecting spells are equally useless. Sages speculate about a language of touch or sound waves, without proof. They gather no treasure and make nothing. No empty shell or juvenile has ever been found, suggesting lifespans of centuries. Beyond eating carcasses and debris, their role in the deep is unknown.

The second account calls the ammonite an octopus-like creature that lives in a great coiled shell, much as a hermit crab does. The solid gold shell weighs 1,200 to 1,800 pounds and a buyer with deep enough pockets might pay as much as 150,000 gp for one. A large faceted eye sits on each side just past the shell's rim, and 10 tentacles let it haul itself slowly over the seabed. It makes no sounds, though some suspect a tentacle sign language.

A lightball can leave each eye once per round with a 90-foot range, and since the eyes swivel independently like a chameleon's, it can shoot in any direction with clear line of sight. The attack resembles a fireball streaking out, though no fireball works underwater. Targets save vs. spell, adjusted for Dexterity; failure means a lightball in the face and blindness as from continual light, removable only by wish or by dispel magic from a caster of 12th level or higher. This ammonite is immune to psionic attacks but vulnerable to ESP.

Attacked physically, it is equally likely to fight back with tentacles or to withdraw and seal its shell, gaining AC 2 all around. Against an unsealed ammonite, a blow has a 5% chance of hitting an eye (AC 2), 45% of hitting the body or tentacles (AC 8) and 50% of hitting the shell (AC 2). An eye is destroyed by even 1 point of damage, and the creature hides inside for 4d6 turns. Each point of damage to the shell costs 1,000 gp of value, bottoming out at 15,000 gp for the shards. Fighting, it makes up to 10 tentacle attacks; any foe struck is constricted for 1d4 per round until one side dies or the ammonite is driven into its shell. It seems to direct these attacks intelligently. A single edged blow of 8+ damage or a natural 20 severs a tentacle, which regrows in a few weeks.

It lives only in the deepest, coldest, darkest sea canyons below 1,000 feet, grazing slowly across the floor and keeping no treasure. There is a 76% chance of an allied deep-sea gazer kin nearby, which the ammonite never attacks. Nobody has ever recovered a vacant shell, which hints at lifespans of thousands of years. Where the gold comes from is as unknown as its daily habits, and most predators leave the creature alone.