Flying Polyp (3pp)

Flying Polyp CR 14

This huge tentacled entity is not shapeless so much as its shape is not entirely visible. Parts of it vanish and reappear as it moves: its eyes, mouths, and tendrils flash in and out of sight. A great sweeping whistle penetrates your ears, blocking out all other noises for a moment.

XP 38,400
CE Huge aberration (air)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +26
Aura frightful presence (90 ft., DC 24)

DEFENSE

AC 29, touch 16, flat-footed 26 (+5 deflection, +2 Dex, +1 dodge, +13 natural, –2 size)
hp 207 (18d8+126)
Fort +13, Ref +12, Will +16
Defensive Abilities amorphous, deflecting winds, partial existence, shared mind; DR 10/magic and slashing; Immune acid, cold, sonic; SR 25
Weaknesses vulnerable to electricity

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (perfect)
Melee 4 tentacles +21 (1d8+9/19–20 plus grab)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks constrict (1d8+9), sucking wind, wind blast
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 14th; concentration +19)

At willgust of wind (DC 17), whispering wind, wind walk
3/daycontrol winds (DC 20), wind wall
1/daycontrol weather, whirlwind (DC 23)

STATISTICS

Str 28, Dex 15, Con 24, Int 19, Wis 20, Cha 21
Base Atk +13; CMB +24 (+28 grapple); CMD 42 (can’t be tripped)
Feats Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Flyby Attack, Improved Critical (tentacle), Improved Initiative, Mobility, Power Attack, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (tentacle)
Skills Fly +27, Knowledge (engineering) +22, Knowledge (history) +22, Knowledge (nature) +22, Profession (Yog-Sothothery philosopher) +25, Perception +26, Stealth +15, Use Magic Device +23
Languages Aklo, Yithian
SQ cooperative Weather Control, multi-dimensional duplicates

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Cooperative Weather Control (Su)

Multiple flying polyps (not merely multiple bodies, but multiple minds) can pool their efforts when casting control weather. Each additional flying polyp who casts control weather in this way extends the area of effect of the control weather spell-like ability by a factor of one. Thus, two flying polyps working together double the area of effect, while three can triple it, four can quadruple it, and so on.

Deflecting Winds (Su)

A flying polyp’s mastery over air and wind allows it to surround itself with blasts of precisely aimed gusts, granting the creature a +5 deflection bonus to its Armor Class and a +4 resistance bonus on Reflex saving throws.

Multi-Dimensional Duplicates (Su)

A flying polyp exists in multiple separate bodies, each of which acts independently, but all are part of the same creature. A flying polyp can have up to eight separate bodies at one time, but at no time can any two of these bodies be more than a mile apart. Each body functions physically as a separate creature capable of taking its own actions, so combat against a flying polyp is treated as combat against multiple creatures. If a flying polyp’s body is slain or destroyed, it takes a full year for it to grow a replacement. Only if all eight bodies are slain within a year can a flying polyp truly be destroyed. A full group of 8 flying polyps is thus a CR 20 encounter (consisting, in effect, of 8 CR 14 individuals). Roll 1d8 (or simply choose a number appropriate to the desired challenge) to determine how many active bodies a particular flying polyp has when it is encountered.

Partial Existence (Su)

A flying polyp’s body constantly flickers and shifts, passing from visibility to invisibility and shifting from reality to elsewhere in a seemingly random pattern and often not wholly at once. This effect, combined with the flying polyp’s amorphous and elastic form, makes it difficult to target the creature, granting it a 30% miss chance against all attacks. By concentrating (standard action at will), a flying polyp can become fully invisible. True seeing and see invisibility allow the viewer to see all of a polyp’s currently extant body parts, but does not help to target portions of the polyp’s body that do not currently exist. Under such circumstances, attacks against the flying polyp by such a character suffer only a 15% miss chance rather than the normal 30% miss chance.

Shared Mind (Ex)

A flying polyp does not share the senses of each of its bodies, but it does share a singular mind. A flying polyp possesses telepathy with its other bodies. When a flying polyp is subjected to a mind-affecting effect that allows a saving throw, it rolls a number of times equal to the number of bodies it has and takes the highest result. If a mind-affecting effect would normally affect more than one of the flying polyps, only one of the polyps needs to make a successful save for all of the polyps to save.

Although the flying polyp shares a single mind, it can “compartmentalize” minds reflexively, so if one of its bodies is affected by a mind-affecting effect, the others are not affected by the same effect unless they are targeted by the effect..

Sucking Wind (Su)

This attack allows the flying polyp to send an eerie wind out to slow and eventually stop a creature’s escape. The wind itself isn’t particularly strong, but it creates a peculiar sucking sensation as if it were attempting to pull creatures back toward the flying polyp. Activating this ability is a full-round action, and the polyp must concentrate each round to maintain the effect. The sucking wind manifests as a 100-foot-radius spread, with the flying polyp at the center. Each round the polyp maintains concentration, the sucking wind’s radius increases by 100 feet, to a maximum radius of a mile. A flying polyp can detect creatures within this area via tremorsense. As a free action, it can increase the effects of the sucking wind on up to five different creatures within the area at one time.

Each targeted creature must succeed at a DC 26 Fortitude save each round it remains in the area of the sucking wind or be slowed until it leaves the area. A creature already under the effects of any slowing effect (such as from this sucking wind or a slow spell) that fails this save is held in place for 1 round. While held, the creature is not helpless, but it cannot move by any means. Freedom of movement protects against the effects of the sucking wind, and control winds (cast by the PCs, not the polyp) negates its effects in the area of effect of the control winds spell. Natural windstorms or other powerful winds have no effect on a sucking wind. A flying polyp can activate a sucking wind once per day, and can maintain concentration on the effect for up to an hour. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Wind Blast (Su)

Once every 1d4 rounds as a standard action, a flying polyp can create a powerful blast of wind at a range of up to 120 feet. This blast of wind creates a sudden explosion of flesh-scouring wind in a 30-foot-radius burst. All creatures within this area take 14d6 points of bludgeoning damage, with a successful DC 26 Reflex save halving the damage. In addition, these winds blow away creatures as if they were tornado-strength winds. The save DC is Constitution-based.

ECOLOGY

Environment any
Organization solitary, pair, or storm (3–10)
Treasure standard

Flying polyps are one of the most terrifying species Lovecraft created, with a history to back up their reputation. They are genius-level predators with terrifying abilities.

A single polyp is a terrifying threat: a creature with multiple bodies, each shifting in and out of existence.

While it has in theory a size and weight, this is difficult to measure because it keeps moving in and out of our dimension and does not seem to be affected by gravity as are beings of normal matter. When grouped together, the mock-flesh of a single polyp body is at least 16 feet across. When killed, the remaining flesh usually weighs a few thousand pounds at least.

Flying polyps don’t obey known physical laws. They shift in and out of mortal reality, and at any given time much of their existence is on other planes of existence (though they feed on creatures on the material plane).

With their polypous, gestalt nature, the various parts of their form in our dimension don’t even need to be adjacent, which may help explain how they can emanate winds which pull a target back toward them, rather than push a target away. Typically, a hungry polyp emits a strange sucking wind to hamper a target while at the same time flying forward at top speed. By concentration and focus, a flying polyp can become totally invisible, and anyone trying to strike at the polyp must be guided by other senses—typically sound, as flying polyps emit a continual piping noise.

Damage from a polyp’s tentacles looks like desiccated tissue, almost like a mummified patch of flesh.

History

When the flying polyps first arrived from space, they occupied four different worlds. They built cities of basalt with high windowless towers and fed horribly on the native life. They were eventually defeated in war with the great race of Yith and forced underground.

The ingresses to flying polyp habitats are typically old ruins, within which are huge pits sealed with stone.

The polyps live deep below these pits, waiting and deadly.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Sandy Petersen’s Cthulhu Mythos, © 2017, Petersen Games; Authors: Sandy Petersen, Arthur Petersen, Ian Starcher.

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