Stalking Horror

Called the moonbeast, the stalking horror is among the most dreaded things on the desert world. Few survivors exist, and they mostly babble. It appears only on clear nights when the world's moons stand in a certain alignment, and is believed to stem from an ancient summoning.

Its huge, octopus-like bulb is ringed by ten or more tentacles around a central maw that reportedly holds three or more rows of needle fangs. Thirty-six foot-long eyestalks give it all-around vision and can be retracted when it squeezes through narrow gaps. Its hooked arms, up to 20 feet long, can tear buildings apart and pull the body along by reaching ahead and dragging. A slimy mottled-gray skin and boneless shape let it fit through any opening the size of a human doorway.

Moonbeasts have wiped out whole towns, and stripped carcasses of pack insect herds, great scale-runners, and even dune hulks mark their passing. Though normally invisible, the beast is so loud and makes the ground shake so badly that it almost never surprises anyone, and it always lets its real shape be seen before it strikes.

Each round up to 7 tentacles strike for 2d8 apiece. A hit that beats the required roll by 4 or more seizes the target, which then takes 1d10 constriction damage per round. Percentile dice decide pinned limbs: 76-100 both, 51-75 none, 26-50 right, 1-25 left. Held victims cannot cast spells but may strike the tentacle, at -3 with just one hand free. Nothing can force the grip open; the arm must be severed with 12 points from a piercing or slashing weapon. Its 3d10 bite works only on creatures already held, and comes in addition to its other attacks.

It has 25% magic resistance and is immune to spells under 3rd level. Once per day each, without components and at 12th level, it casts these with the usual land-blighting effect of life-draining wizard magic: chain lightning, cloudkill, dispel magic, fireball, fog cloud, ice storm, lightning bolt, mirror image, spectral force, black tentacles, and wall of fog.

A constant fear aura reaches 60 feet: those who fail a save vs. paralyzation stand frozen for 2d6 rounds, unable to flee, fight, cast, or use psionics. It likes to add phobia amplification, and anyone who fails against both must pass a system shock roll or collapse into babbling shock for 1d6 weeks, afterward recalling nothing. Life draining and time shift are other favorites.

Psionics: psychokinesis (sciences telekinesis and disintegrate; devotions inertial barrier, opposite reaction, control body, molecular manipulation); psychometabolism (science life detection; devotions displacement, ectoplasmic form, body equilibrium); psychoportation (devotions time shift, wrench, astral projection; science summon planar creature); telepathy (sciences psionic blast and mind link; devotions mind thrust, ego whip, contact, psionic drain, id insinuation, psionic crush, mind bar).

The beast lies dormant for months or years, astrally projecting to its home plane and lingering wherever it last felt content, returning only to rest and regain PSPs. When the moons align it stirs and feeds, only at night and invisibly. It eats nearly any animal but consumes only the bones, leaving the flesh, and wails its fury at being stranded here with no way home. It lairs in remote, defensible caves and long-abandoned ruins where it can meditate undisturbed.

Nothing hunts it, and its flesh poisons Prime Material beings: eating it causes 2d4 hours of nausea and hallucinations, then a 1d4-day coma full of nightmares about a gray, misty land crawling with twisted things. Cured hide makes AC 5 leather armor that adds +1 to saves against 1st- and 2nd-level spells, though few merchants know its worth.

Each moonbeast is bound to at least one magic item linked to its summoning, whether jewelry, weapon, or sculpture. Every such item holds a gem worth 500 gp or more and a once-per-day power such as fireball, cloudkill, fog cloud, lightning bolt, dispel magic, black tentacles, or wall of fog. The holder gains 25% magic resistance, and weapons may be up to +2. The item cannot harm its own moonbeast but works against others.

Owners grow obsessive, refuse to put the item down, and turn violent if it is taken. After a month of continuous ownership they become night creatures, at -1 on attacks, saves, and ability checks in sunlight but +1 under a full moon. Many carry one for years unaware. Once the moonbeast wakes and feeds, it hunts the current owner, kills him if it can, and leaves the item for the next victim; one sage believes this is revenge for being summoned here at all.