Grimslake

This nauseating maggot-like creature has a long tail covered with frightening hooked suckers.

Grimslake (CR 6)

Large Aberration (Extraplanar)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Initiative: +5
Senses: Darkvision 60 feet, Tremorsense 30 feet; Perception +13

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

Defense

Armor Class: 19, touch 10, flat-footed 18 (+1 Dex, +9 natural, -1 size)
Hit Points: 68 (8d8+32) Fast Healing 5
Saving Throws: Fort +6, Ref +5, Will +10
slashing scales
Immunity: disease
Energy Resistance: acid 10, fire 10

Offense

Melee: bite +11 (2d6+6 plus Grab), sting +11 (1d6+6 plus Grab)
Reach: 10 feet

Special Attacks: Constrict (1d6+6), marrow drain, penetrating jaws

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 6th; Concentration +6):

• 3/day- Death Knell (DC 12), Ray of Exhaustion (DC 13)
  
  
• 1/day- Slow (DC 13)

Statistics

Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
22 (+6)	13 (+1)	19 (+4)	6 (-2)	14 (+2)	11 (+0)

Base Attack Bonus: +6
CMB +13 (+17 Grapple)
CMD 24 (can't be tripped)

Feats: Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Step Up

Skills: Climb +25, Perception +13

Languages: Abyssal

Special Abilities

Marrow Drain (Ex)

A grimslake's tail is covered with suckers that extend long, thin, razor-sharp tendrils to drill into its victim's bones, draining them of marrow. The grimslake can drain marrow from any creature it is grappling or from any helpless creature as a swift action. The victim can resist this painful attack with a successful DC 18 Fortitude save; otherwise, he becomes staggered from the horrific agony for 1 round and takes 1 point of Constitution drain. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Penetrating Jaws (Su)

A grimslake's bite attack penetrates cold iron and silver damage reduction.

Slashing Scales (Ex)

The scales running in a line down a grimslake's back have razor-sharp ridges and spines, and the creature is adept at lashing at attackers with these scales. Any creature that attacks a grimslake with a natural weapon, unarmed strike, or light weapon must succeed at a DC 15 Reflex save to avoid taking 1d4 points of slashing damage. The save DC is Dexterity-based.

Ecology

Environment: Any
Organization: solitary, pair, or tangle (3-10)
Treasure: incidental


The grimslake is a nauseating creature commonly found amid Abyssal battlefields, where it crawls among the bodies, sucking away marrow and other vital tissues found within the dead. Of course, when fresh carcasses aren't available, grimslakes eagerly to turn to living victims-they take particular delight in the sound of screams as they feed. While on the Abyss, they often hunt lesser demons, but these semi-intelligent scavengers find mortal humanoids a particular delicacy.

The hermaphroditic grimslakes use the remnants of their meals as incubators for their eggs. After eating, they fill the drained bodies with their eggs and fertilize them. Then they abandon the eggs to search for new feeding grounds, leaving behind a hideous legacy. Other scavengers instinctively avoid the egg-filled bodies, and 10 to 12 days later, the corpses burst open, releasing a mass of grimslakes the length of a human arm.

These creatures fall upon each other in a ravenous orgy of cannibalism, growing quickly as they consume their kin until, a few days later, the few surviving, fully grown grimslakes go off in search of new food and incubators.

On the Abyss, some demon lords use grimslakes to dispose of bodies. Others use them as implements of torture. The worst keep them as food sources-not to eat the grown specimens, of course, but to dine on corpses pregnant with the grimslakes' seething young.