Krakentua

This dreaded demon spirit has a human body topped by a kraken's head and stands 80-100 feet tall in rich silken robes, usually red or violet. Its dark green, leathery skin is cool as snakeskin. Seven tentacles nearly 20 feet long hang from its head, as dexterous as hands, hiding a chitin beak beneath; its eyes are huge and red with black pupils. Red mist constantly seeps from its pores, so many witnesses think it rides on a crimson cloud. It breathes air and water and speaks the languages of every land and creature of the eastern realms.

Males have 200-250 hit points, females about 350; each tentacle has another 15 hp. A male's tentacles whip for 1-4 each, and one that hits can also grab, crushing for 1-10 per round after. A grabbed victim has one arm pinned 50% of the time, neither 25%, both 25%, and cannot escape unless the tentacle is cut off. Some tentacles usually wield katana and wakizashi. The male also punches for 1-10 per fist, tramples fallen victims for 1-100, spits cherry milk up to 100 feet at one target (save vs. poison or blinded 2-12 segments) and belches a 50-foot cloud of red mist (save vs. poison or lose 1 hit point).

Females are far stronger. Their tentacles hit for 1-8 and constrict for 2-12 per round, and they have all the male's powers plus continual ESP plus detect evil, detect good, detect lie and clairaudience. A female can trap intelligent victims in dreams indistinguishable from reality and imprint their mental aura to track them later; the harder they struggle in the dream, the stronger the imprint and the easier the hunt. Dreaming is exhausting: no more than an hour per month and never more than three dreams in a row. Females can also float through the air as if levitating, for at most 10 hours before needing a full day in sea water, leaving a trail of dead octopi under 3 feet across, probably gated from the sea and drained to fuel the flight.

They lurk in remote seas, favoring empty islands and warm depths, though some live off civilized coasts. Reproduction is asexual: at about 1,000 years a female's eighth tentacle, used only for breeding, breaks off and sinks, sprouting one to four buds that swell into 30-foot pods, each hatching a new krakentua. They ignore treasure but crave slaves, preferably human, whom they force to revere and worship them.

Krakentua eat any vegetable matter, above all cherries and cherry tree milk.