Living Lake

The lake's surface is calm and serene, and a cool morning mist rises from it. Suddenly, it is alive with activity as a massive pseudopod, towering dozens of feet into the air, erupts like a cyclone.

Living Lake (CR 22)

Colossal Ooze
Alignment: Neutral
Initiative: +4
Senses: Blindsight 60 feet, Tremorsense 120 feet; Perception +40

Speed: 30 feet
Space: 100 feet

Defense

Armor Class: 23, touch 2, flat-footed 23 (+21 natural, -8 size)
Hit Points: 525 (30d8+390)
Saving Throws: Fort +24, Ref +12, Will +18
Immunity: gaze attacks, visual effects, poison, sleep, paralysis, polymorph, stunning

Offense

Melee: 4 (or more) slams +31 (4d6+17 plus Grab)
Reach: 20 feet

Special Attacks: Constrict (4d6+17), Engulf (4d6+17 bludgeoning, AC 20, 52 hp), Trample (4d6+25, DC 42)

Spells Known (CL 12th; Concentration +17):

• 6th (3) - Permanent Image (DC 21)
  
  
• 5th (6) - Feeblemind (DC 20), Nightmare (DC 20)
  
  
• 4th (7) - Charm Monster (DC 19), Confusion (DC 19), Locate Creature
  
  
• 3rd (7) - Dispel Magic, Fly, Keen Edge, Wind Wall
  
  
• 2nd (7) - Ghoul touch (DC 17), Invisibility, Knock, Touch of Idiocy
  
  
• 1st (8) - Charm Person (DC 16), Disguise Self, Obscuring Mist, Shocking Grasp, Sleep (DC 16)
  
  
• 0 (at will) - Arcane Mark, Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Ghost Sound (DC 15), Mage Hand, Message, Open/Close, Prestidigitation, Read Magic

Druid Spells Prepared (CL 20th):

• 9th - Antipathy (DC 25), Cure Critical Wounds, Mass, Regenerate, Summon Nature's Ally IX
  
  
• 8th - Control Plants (DC 24), Earthquake, Sunburst (DC 24), Whirlwind (DC 24)
  
  
• 7th - Animate Plants, Control Weather, Heal, Sunbeam (DC 23)
  
  
• 6th - Dispel Magic, Greater, Liveoak, Move Earth, Stone Tell, Summon Nature's Ally VI
  
  
• 5th - Animal Growth, Baleful Polymorph (DC 21), Insect Plague, Summon Nature's Ally V, Wall Of Thorns
  
  
• 4th - Blight (DC 20), Command Plants (DC 20), Flame Strike (DC 20), Scrying, Summon Nature's Ally IV
  
  
• 3rd - Call Lightning (DC 19), Dominate Animal (DC 19), Poison (DC 19), Sleet Storm, Water Breathing
  
  
• 2nd - Animal Trance (DC 18), Bull's Strength, Flaming Sphere (DC 18), Heat Metal (DC 18), Hold Animal (DC 18), Restoration, Lesser
  
  
• 1st - Calm Animals (DC 17), Charm Animal (DC 17), Cure Light Wounds, Obscuring Mist, Produce Flame, Summon Nature's Ally I 0 (at will)-Detect Magic, Flare (DC 16), Purify Food and Drink, Virtue

Statistics

Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
45 (+17)	10 (+0)	35 (+12)	16 (+3)	22 (+6)	16 (+3)

Base Attack Bonus: +22
CMB +47 (+51 Grapple)
CMD 57 (can't be tripped)

Feats: Alertness, Cleave, Combat Casting, Empower Spell, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Improved Natural Armor, Improved Natural Attack (slam), Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Quicken Spell, Spell Focus (conjuration), Toughness, Weapon Focus (slam)

Skills: Knowledge (local) +33, Knowledge (nature) +33, Perception +40, Sense Motive +8, Stealth +14, Survival +38

• Racial Modifiers: +2 Survival

Languages: Aquan, Common, Orc, Sylvan

Special Abilities

Engulf (Ex)

A living lake that has grabbed an opponent can try to engulf the creature in its body. This ability functions as swallow whole, except for the following changes. An engulfed creature is trapped in the living lake's body, where the ooze inflicts automatic slam damage each round. In addition, an engulfed foe has no air to breathe and must hold its breath or risk drowning (see the Pathfinder Core Rulebook for rules on drowning). A living lake can engulf 1 Gargantuan, 2 Huge, 8 Large, 16 Medium, 32 Small, 64 Tiny, 128 Diminutive, or 512 Fine creatures. If an engulfed creature cuts its way free, living lake simply flows together again and can still use its engulf attack.

Ecology

Environment: Any Land
Organization: solitary
Treasure: double standard


Hundreds of feet across, a living lake, also called an agrath-ogh in the language of the orcs, is an ooze of truly colossal proportions. The first living lake is said to have fallen from the heavens ages ago at a time so ancient that no eyes were around to witness its fall. The protoplasmic body of a living lake is fluid in nature and transparent in water, such that one of these creatures could remain unseen and unknown for centuries.

Unlike most oozes, a living lake is not a mindless blob of muck. It is intelligent, but it is also highly receptive to the thoughts and beliefs of any large group of intelligent creatures that live near it. A living lake can become a god—so to speak—because of the will of the creatures that worship it. Thus, it responds in a manner dictated by its own worshipers. The god is created by the worshiper, instead of vice-versa.

Unfortunately for the world, living lakes are generally found in hills and badlands— the very same environs favored by orcs. Living lakes worshiped by orcs are cruel, chaotic, destructive things, since those are the qualities most revered in orcish deities. Once it has been ensconced as a god, a living lake uses its abilities to live up to the expectations of its worshipers. It can reward a tasty sacrifice with a life-giving rain, or punish insolence with a plague of insects.

A living lake attacks by forming pseudopods from its oozy form and pummeling its opponents. A grabbed foe is constricted or engulfed in the creature's body, usually only released when it dies or falls unconscious. Against powerful opponents, or those that press the combat, the living lake mixes its spells with its natural attacks, usually summoning animals or animating plants to help it. A living lake usually forms at least one pseudopod per opponent it faces. It can form a maximum of one pseudopod per 3 Hit Dice it possesses.

Copyright Notice Author Erica Balsley.