bloodborne….
who was responsible for this look of his?… i wanna talk about my re-stolen heart
Stone Mauler
“Earth Elemental - Pathfinder” © Paizo Publishing, by Sally Gottschalk. Accessed at her deviantArt here
[The elementals in Pathfinder 2e are less tied to the Small/Medium/Large/Huge/Greater/Elder formula established in D&D 3.0 and carried over to Pathfinder 1e. For example, the stone mauler is a CR 9, the same CR as a Greater elemental in the old schema, but is Large instead of Huge. They also tend to have more interesting and variable abilities, as opposed to the identical elementals previously.
This art piece is not used in any Bestiary for any elemental, stone mauler or otherwise, but is “official” Paizo content. This appeared as a cardboard pawn in the Summon Monster collection. I dig its underbite and kaiju-like head.]
Stone Mauler CR 9 N Outsider (elemental) This creature is vaguely ape-like, with large muscular arms and short legs. Its body is made of stone, jagged chunks of colorful crystals growing from it like spines.
Stone maulers are a variety of earth elemental infused with veins of precious stone. Crystals grow from their surfaces and from surfaces that they pass by, creating an eerie rippling as they move. Stone maulers often work in service of shaitans as messengers or mercenaries, trading their services for more gems, which they consume in order to incorporate into their own bodies. Xorns consider stone maulers to be delicious but dangerous prey, and sometimes form parties to hunt them.
A stone mauler’s body is their primary weapon. They can punch with devastating force and pluck crystals off of their skin to throw as missiles. The crystals that grow from any stone they touch are razor-sharp, and prevent fleshy creatures from getting too close. If badly injured or threatened, they crumble, breaking their bodies apart in order to burrow straight down in an instant. Most stone maulers flee from a fight after this point, but some have learned that they can use this ability early in a fight to allow themselves to reposition after having surveyed the battlefield.
The body of a stone mauler contains precious stones equal to a normal treasure of its CR. An hour worth of work and a DC 19 Knowledge (dungeoneering) or Profession (miner) check is necessary to recover all of the stones—otherwise, a treasure value worth half a normal treasure are recovered.
Gogiteth
Image © Paizo Publishing, accessed at aonprd.com here
[The folks at Paizo were proud enough of the gogiteth for it to be one of the spotlight monsters when they were promoting the release of Pathfinder 2nd Edition, and it was one of the first 2e original monsters to get its own miniature]
Gogiteth CR 12 CE Aberration This skittering horror has eyes clustered around its bony body like warts. Five mouths sit at its apex, each of them slavering and filled with human like teeth. It has long spidery legs, each tipped in a jagged claw, that pop and creak as it moves.
Gogiteths are sometimes called “skittering horrors”, and resemble a parody of a monstrous insect or spider. Their origins are unknown—some believe them to be a fleshwarping experiment gone awry, whereas others think that they are a refugee or pest having fled from the Dominion of the Black. Gogiteths are dangerous enough on their own, but are social creatures that hunt in packs in order to chase down and devour enormous prey.
In combat, a gogiteth is always on the move. They are adept at attacking on the run, and can move remarkably quickly even with a captured prey item (like a humanoid). Although their joints pop and crack as they move, this appears to be something of an affectation, as the gogiteth can suppress the sound by concentration. They make odd, whistling cries when triumphant, and choruses of these horrible songs echo through the lightless depths.
A gogiteth hive is dangerous enough that traditional enemies, like duergar and drow, will call a truce to eradicate it. These hives are littered with the broken scraps of gogiteth kills, and the treasures they once carried are often piled in central locations. It is unclear of whether gogiteths value treasure as such, but they enjoy the noises that coins and gems make sliding along each other, and musical instruments are greatly prized (albeit badly damaged when the monsters are done with them).
decided to try drawing rafok in something close to @cyareclones style
mostly i wanted to give him big lekku (his montrals had to stay cat-looking, though. that’s required)
Even more gorgeous than the last time we saw them! 😭
I'm so emotional!
Some recent sneak peeks at A Field Guide to Mermaids that I've been posting on Instagram. It releases on September 27!
The "War of 1812 Scented Candle", complete with miniature White House near the wick, is, I cannot emphasise this enough, AN ACTUAL REAL PRODUCT THAT YOU CAN BUY (even if it's currently sold out).
The candle is funny enough by itself, but the ad copy on the maker's website is gold (and surprisingly astute):
It goes on to add:
We should also note that even though the British Army DID burn Washington, it was only after Americans had burned and looted the capital of Canada, as well as a bunch of other Canadian cities. But no one ever makes a candle about that! (Including us.)
THE BEST PART AND MOST 🔥🔥🔥 TAKE:
You forgot one thing :
Why did you crop out this fucking gem of a warning 😂😂
Magic Shop: The Ascendant Apothecary
“New lofty location: Same low prices!”
Setup: While exploring a town in the highlands, the players come across a rather obvious crater at the edge of the settlement, obviously unnatural in origin. Asking around, they discover that the damage was caused when the town’s alchemist decided to pack up shop and leave town after one too many of his clients complained of unsatisfactory side effects in his creations. Though most thought him nothing more than a feckless swindler, the Alchemist Jashik Meuller, apparently managed enough magic to rip his shop and its surrounding anchorage free of the earth and have it float up into the mountains. Though the anger that nearly had Meuller chased out of town by a mob has long faded, his neighbors remember him with little fondness, instead spinning tall tales about al the mischief his creations caused.
Adventure Hooks:
- Before he was a village apothecary, Meuller spent years as a traveling huckster attempting to use his middling magical power to charm the powerful into giving him patronage. Invariably one of his slapdash spells causes trouble, and the party are hired to seek him out in the hopes of putting right the chaos he inadvertently caused. Following rumors of his antics, the party eventually finds themselves at the edge of the crater left behind by his sudden departure: and the dangerous, chilly mountain they’ll have to climb if they want to finally track the man down.
- While traveling in the mountains, the party runs across a young woman gathering herbs and other small ingredients in the foothills. This is Jashik’s daughter Lisbyth, who’s spent the last ten out of her sixteen years following her father about from one scheme to the next. Unbothered by a life of constant change and frequent “misunderstandings”, she’s delighted to have someone new to talk to as she completes her chores. When it looks like a sudden storm may force the party to find shelter for the evening, Lisbyth suggests that they might shelter in her father’s shop and warm themselves by their hearth.
- The Strangely coloured clouds that’ve started drifting down from the mountain are getting a very mixed reception: No one minded the spiraling clouds which rained beautiful hues of light, and the glinting ones that drizzled pennies across the trade river was quite an event, but the pokadotted ones that hail needles, or the mottled sort that rain mice are ill received by the populace. These clouds are caused by the oblivious Jashik “evaporating” the remnants of his failed experiments with a newly built machine, and someone needs to go up the mountain and inform him before he starts a truly disastrous period of trial and error.
Ally: Lady Keiva Marzanna, The Waylaid Huntress
“ What are you standing around for? Any longer and It’ll kill all of them, think you can distract it long enough for me to get off another few shots?”
Adventure Hook: Shots and screams ring out as the players approach the city, along with the roaring of some great beast and the thunder of its footsteps across snowy earth.
Arriving, they find a grisly scene in action: a procession of riders and their mounts slaughtered, and a towering jotun murderously trundling towards a crowd of fleeing travelers.
A woman in a voluminous winter riding gown sits with her back to a tree, face stained with blood, black powder, and frozen tears. She labors to reload her massive flintlock rifle braced against a broken leg and splintered ribs. With a plea, she turns and fires, drawing the jotun’s attention to her position and the party’s presence.
Setup: It was an inauspicious morning when Lady Keiva set out with her brother Valiboor’s hunting party, restless of her life as the family’s courtly heir and jealous of her younger sibling’s marital pursuits. As it happened, this was the morning a giant burst from the thick ice of the nearby trade river and decided to besiege the city. Barely past the gate , Valiboor and his hunting party turned about to try and delay the beast till proper help could arrive and managed to harry it for some time as it picked them off in twos and threes. Though Keiva had held back as was her duty as noble heir, she took up her brother’s gun after watching Valdiboor and his last few riders fall beneath a tree hurled by the jotun.
The party finds her just having been swatted off her mount, injured and mad with avenging grief she pulled her body free of the mangled beast’s carcass and limped over to find a better shooting vantage. If they aid her, the party will earn the favor of one of the city’s most powerful noble families, that is if they survive a confrontation with an icy, bone-crunching colossus first.