Body Snatcher
A massive lump of shadow, like a gargantuan hillock, shifts in the darkness and reveals itself to be a living creature. Its body is mostly torso and is roughly barrel shaped, with four elephantine legs and two long arms ending in three-fingered hands. A massive mouth-like opening dominates the top of its frame, from which extends a long, prehensile tongue studded with spiky outgrowths at its tip. The entire beast appears to be covered in — or perhaps made of — a lumpy, lichen-like substance with tiny, leafy growths.
Special Attacks
Absorb Cadaver (Ex)
Any living creature slain by a melee attack or the swallow whole ability of the Body Snatcher is immediately absorbed into its body as a free action. If the Body Snatcher is not destroyed by the end of its next turn, the recently slain cadaver is irrevocably destroyed, and the creature can be returned to life only with a true resurrection. If the slain creature is Large, then its body is fully destroyed in 2 full rounds, and a Huge creature requires 3 full rounds. A creature larger than Huge is not subject to the Body Snatcher’s absorb cadaver ability, and it must use the properties of its create blight ability to absorb the deceased. If the Body Snatcher is destroyed before an absorbed cadaver is fully destroyed, then it can be recovered from among the mounds of blight lichen and returned to life by normal means.Create Blight (Ex)
As a move action, the Body Snatcher can exude a 10-foot-by-10-foot patch of blight (see Appendix D) in an area adjacent to its body. This patch is immediately eligible to be grown and directed as part of the Body Snatcher’s hive mind ability.Darkness Vitality (Ex)
When in total darkness, the Body Snatcher gains vigor and deftness. This effect is equal to a haste spell and gives the Body Snatcher fast healing 5.Hive Mind (Su)
The Body Snatcher is constantly aware of all growths of blight within 50 miles and can see anything within visual range of these patches. It can direct the direction and speed of their growth as a free action as long as that patch of blight is in darkness. It can only focus the direction and speed of growth of one patch of blight in a single round. A patch of blight in darkness can double its size in this way every round that the Body Snatcher focuses its will on it. Whenever a patch of blight absorbs the corpse of a formerly living creature (see Appendix D), the essence of that creature is projected into the Body Snatcher as its own psychic nourishment. Because of its hive mind awareness, the Body Snatcher cannot be surprised.Light Somnolence (Ex)
When exposed to bright light, the Body Snatcher becomes slow and lethargic. This effect is equal to a slow spell.Spore Burst (Ex)
As a standard action, the Body Snatcher can cause a pustule of spores to burst forth from its body as a concussive blast at a target within 40 feet. This ranged attack deals 6d6+16 points of bludgeoning damage. The Body Snatcher can use this attack every other round.Swallow Whole (Ex)
An opponent swallowed by the Body Snatcher does not take physical damage while within the creature’s body but must immediately hold its breath or begin to suffocate. An opponent that suffocates within the Body Snatcher’s body is subject to its absorb cadaver ability. If a swallowed creature cuts its way out of the Body Snatcher, the hive nature of its body immediately reseals the opening allowing it to use its swallow whole ability again.Basic Information
Anatomy
Known only as the Body Snatcher by the dwarves of the Underneath, this massive overgrowth of ambulatory blight lichen lurks in the deepest caverns where the boundaries between the mundane world and Between are thinnest. The creature somehow possesses sentience — likely from its long exposure to the strange influence of that other-realm — and shares some traits of Between creatures. The conglomeration of lichen growths has taken on the form of a massive quadruped, but it shares no special affinity with that form and, in truth, its body possesses no internal organs or structures other than the undifferentiated blight of which is it composed.
Biological Traits
The Body Snatcher stands 25 feet tall. Even though it is made only of tiny lichen growths, these conglomerate quite densely so the creature weighs more than 30,000 pounds. It is well over a thousand years old and is probably much older, and it may well be immortal.
Ecology and Habitats
The Body Snatcher, like the blight that makes up its body, is at its strongest in absolute darkness and is debilitated by the presence of bright light.
Dietary Needs and Habits
It desires nothing more than to consume humanoid bodies upon their deaths, directing its remote blight growths to do that whenever possible. The nutrients obtained from the consumed corpses help feed the growth of these blight patches, but something about these feedings is somehow transmitted telepathically back through the hive mind and serves some mysterious purpose for the Body Snatcher. It is for this reason that the dwarves gave the Body Snatcher its name, though none understand the full significance of the creature’s impulse to consume these corpses. Whatever the reason, most speculate it has something to do with the creature’s proximity to Between and that it is unlikely to have any benign purpose.
Additional Information
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Its hive mind gives it a mental connection to and the ability to see through all growths of blight within 50 miles, and it is with this ability that it has managed to maintain observation of the lands above and its inhabitants since before the city existed. Through this observation, it has learned much of the ways of humanoids and has come to understand many of their languages.
While the Body Snatcher does gain the temporary hit points of a Between creature, it is not one itself. These temporary hit points are renewed daily from its close proximity to Between, even though it never technically crosses over into that realm. If the Body Snatcher leaves its lightless domain deep beneath the city, it stops regaining these daily temporary hit points until it once again returns to that area.
NE Gargantuan Plant (fungus)
Darkvision 60 ft
Low-Light Vision
+3 DEX, +1 Dodge, +24 Natural, -4 Size
Dislocated (Blurred MovementACG)
Distorted (25%)
Hive Mind
Bite +27 (4d6+11)
Tongue +24 (2d6+5 plus Grab)
Swallow Whole (Suffocation, AC 22, 29 hp)
Trample (2d8+16, DC 34)
*See Appendix E
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