Gammenore

Spikes of ice jut from the carapace of this stocky crustacean. It scuttles sideways on its eight legs with surprising speed, while its two pincers-one small and sharp, the other monstrously large- flex in anticipation of combat.

Gammenore (CR 8)

Large Magical Beast (Cold)
Alignment: Neutral
Initiative: +5
Senses: Darkvision 60 feet, Low-Light Vision; Perception +10

Speed: 40 feet, Climb 20 feet
Space: 10 feet

Defense

Armor Class: 22, touch 10, flat-footed 21 (+1 Dex, +12 natural, -1 size)
Hit Points: 102 (12d10+36)
Saving Throws: Fort +11, Ref +11, Will +7
shell of ice
Immunity: cold
Weaknesses: vulnerability to fire

Offense

Melee: claw +17 (1d6+6/19-20), pincer +17 (2d6+9 plus Grab)
Reach: 10 feet

Special Attacks: Constrict (2d6+9), ice spikes, oversized pincer

Statistics

Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
23 (+6)	12 (+1)	16 (+3)	3 (-4)	16 (+3)	7 (-2)

Base Attack Bonus: +12
CMB +19 (+23 Grapple)
CMD 30 (42 vs. Trip)

Feats: Combat Reflexes, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Lunge

Skills: Climb +14, Perception +10, Stealth +8 (+16 in icy or snowy terrain)

• Racial Modifiers: +8 Stealth in icy or snowy terrain

Languages:

Special Abilities

Ice Spikes (Su)

As a standard action, a gammenore can force freezing water through pores in its carapace to produce long, sharp spikes of ice. These spikes impale nearby creatures, dealing 6d6 points of piercing damage to each creature adjacent to the gammenore (Reflex DC 19 half). Additionally, the spikes shatter easily, embedding shards of ice in the flesh of creatures that fail their saving throws against the attack-these shards deal 1d6 points of bleed damage each round until the wounds are healed. A gammenore can use this ability once every 1d4 rounds. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Oversized Pincer (Ex)

A gammenore's pincer attack is a primary attack that deals the indicated amount of damage plus 1-1/2 times its Strength modifier.

Shell of Ice (Su)

Much of a gammenore's carapace is encased in a thick layer of jagged icicles. This shell of ice functions much like spiked armor, dealing 1d8 points of piercing damage to the target of any successful grapple combat maneuver check made by the gammenore. Additionally, this frozen shell helps to regulate the gammenore's cold body temperature, granting it resistance 10 to fire. The shell can absorb up to 60 points of fire damage before melting. Once the shell melts, the gammenore takes a -4 penalty to its natural armor bonus, it loses its fire resistance, and it deals no additional damage when grappling. A gammenore can reconstitute a melted shell by spending time in areas of intense cold. This process takes 2 hours in a cold environment, 3d10 minutes in areas of severe cold, and 1d10 minutes in areas of extreme cold.

Ecology

Environment: Any Cold
Organization: solitary, pair, or cluster (3-9)
Treasure: none


The gammenore is a prime example of how Triaxian fauna has adapted to survive the planet's long, cruel winters. While other creatures struggle to survive the planet's decades-long season of cold and ice, the gammenore thrives, turning the might of winter into the very tools of its survival. Absent its icy armor, the gammenore looks like a large, blue-and-white-shelled crustacean. It has a rather wide, oval-shaped carapace, a pair of powerful pincers, and four pairs of strong, articulated legs. A gammenore's two pincers serve very different purposes. The primary claw is monstrously large and extremely strong, and is used to break through ice and crush the gammenore's prey. The other claw is smaller, less cumbersome, and sharp enough to rend flesh and bone. The gammenore uses this smaller claw to tear its victims into pieces small enough to eat, and to perform any manipulations too delicate for the large claw. Its eyes are located on short stalks that rise from the front of its carapace, allowing it to see even when encased in its shell of ice. A gammenore is approximately 8 feet wide, and weighs between 2,000 and 3,000 pounds.

Ecology

Despite their resemblance to mundane crabs, gammenores are primarily terrestrial creatures, living in water only as larvae and while mating. They can be found anywhere ice and snow exists on Triaxus, from the high mountains to the low snowy plains, or even atop the ice-covered seas. The gammenore is an ambush predator, preferring to conceal itself in snow banks or among ice formations and wait for prey to approach. Once a victim is within reach, the gammenore erupts from hiding and attempts to grab or cripple the target with its large claw. Failing that, it may chase down its prey on foot, especially if the victim seems injured or the terrain favors climbing over sprinting. When times are lean, a gammenore may resort to scavenging or even to stealing food from larger predators, trusting its shell to protect it from enemies' reprisals.

When threatened, a gammenore forces freezing water through pores in its shell to form a barrier of spikes across its carapace. These spikes break and fuse together over time to form a thick sheet of jagged ice over much of the gammenore's body, granting it a second layer of defense against attacks. A gammenore is able to excrete more water this way than it should theoretically be able to carry within its body, leading many scholars to conclude that much of the ice is magically produced or conjured. Despite this, gammenores seem to possess an unquenchable thirst, spending much of their time eating snow and ice. The creatures also prefer to eat their food frozen, letting victims' torn bodies freeze before crunching away at their meals.

Habitat & Society

During Triaxus's harsh winters, gammenores rarely spend much time in each other's company, as they are extremely competitive and fight each other for food or territory. Their behavior changes drastically as the season begins to turn- they become much more companionable as winter's grip on the land weakens. As spring nears, gammenores from across Triaxus instinctively begin to migrate to the nearest body of water to mate and lay their eggs. These eggs then go dormant during the planet's long summer, hatching as the water temperature begins to drop once again. After laying their eggs, gammenores migrate to the coldest, most remote parts of the world. This is a time of danger for the civilized races of Triaxus, for gammenore migration routes are hardly regular each season and often cross through populated areas. In the northern stretches of the Allied Territories, inhabitants tell tales of armies of gammenores, over a hundred strong, marching through cities and leaving naught but rubble and ruin. These stories are most likely exaggerations, as gammenores rarely travel in groups larger than nine, but such packs of migrating gammenores can still wreak havoc on a community.

At the end of the gammenores' journey, they gather by the hundreds atop the tallest mountains and in the deepest caverns of the world to flee the coming heat. Near the planet's north pole these colonies can grow into the thousands, covering swaths of land in a living blanket of gammenores. Piled atop each other, the gammenores extend their ice shells to cover their entire bodies, encasing themselves in ice and slowing their metabolisms in an attempt to preserve themselves. Precipitation during the tail end of winter combines with the gammenore's own supernatural cold to further cement the creatures together, forming miniature glaciers and mountain icecaps to protect the colony from the heat of the planet's long summer.

This defense is far from perfect and few gammenores survive to the next winter. During particularly hot summers, gammenores on the periphery of the colony thaw prematurely. These gammenores either die quickly from the heat, or stumble into glacial runoff and are washed downstream, becoming short-lived menaces to riverside communities. Summertime gammenores react to heat dangers as though they were one category more severe-normal temperatures count as hot conditions, hot conditions count as severe heat, etc. The high temperatures of summer also disorient the gammenores, giving them the confused condition. Gammenores in the heat lose their shell of ice ability entirely, and produce sprays of cold water from their bodies in place of ice spikes, allowing them to attempt a single combat maneuver check to bull rush all adjacent creatures once every 1d4 rounds. Reduce the CR of a gammenore encountered in the summertime by 2.

Gammenore eggs hatch in late fall, releasing swarms of larvae into the waters in which they were deposited. These larvae feed upon each other, and on anything the current washes them across, until they mature into adult gammenores at the start of winter. Meanwhile, the adults that survived the summer chip themselves free from their communal glaciers to seek new hunting grounds away from their competitive kin, so that they can feed and restore their strength.