Otyugh

Otyugh CR 4

XP 1,200
N Large aberration
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent; Perception +9

DEFENSE

AC 17, touch 9, flat-footed 17 (+8 natural, –1 size)
hp 39 (6d8+12)
Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +6
Immune disease

OFFENSE

Speed 20 ft.
Melee bite +7 (1d8+4 plus disease), 2 tentacles +3 (1d6+2 plus grab)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. (15 ft. with tentacle)
Special Attacks constrict (tentacle, 1d6+2)

STATISTICS

Str 18, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 5, Wis 13, Cha 6
Base Atk +4; CMB +9 (+13 grapple); CMD 19 (21 vs. trip)
Feats Alertness, Toughness, Weapon Focus (tentacle)
Skills Perception +9, Stealth +2 (+10 in lair); Racial Modifiers +8 Stealth in lair
Languages Common

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Disease (Ex)

Filth fever: Bite—injury; save Fortitude DC 14; onset 1d3 days; frequency 1/day; effect 1d3 Dex damage and 1d3 Con damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Constitution-based.

ECOLOGY

Environment any underground
Organization solitary, pair, or cluster (3–4)
Treasure standard

This three-legged freak is mostly mouth. Three tentacles, two tipped with barbs and one with eyes, extend from its sides.

Otyughs are particularly vile and horrid creatures that lurk in places most sane creatures avoid. Their lairs are middens, cesspools, offal pits, toxic swamps, and sewers—the greater a lair’s filth, the greater the draw to the refuse-eating otyugh. They glory in the role of scavenger, wandering through vast underground caverns in search of the choicest cuts of garbage and waste. Upon finding such refuse, they gorge upon it, gathering what cannot be consumed in one debauch to bring back to their foul-smelling lairs. Otyughs spend most of their time in these filthy dens, which they keep constantly filled with carrion, dung, and worse sorts of stinking effluvia.

Intelligent creatures dwelling in subterranean areas near an otyugh often form a partnership of convenience with the disgusting beast. These creatures gladly provide their refuse and piles of raw meat to the otyugh, transforming the creature into an effective form of trash disposal. In return, the otyugh leaves its benefactors alone, and does not attack them, possibly even acting as a guardian.

The most horrifying thing to most races about the notorious otyugh is not the nature of its diet or its choice of lairs, but rather that a creature with an otyugh’s tastes can be anything other than a mindless scavenger. In fact, otyughs are surprisingly intelligent, and often quite eager to form alliances with those who offer them a steady supply of delicious diversions in the form of offal and waste. Most otyughs understand the fact that other creatures find them unpleasant and hideous, but few really care.

Variants

Otyughs sometimes dwell in environments with dangerous hazards and strange food sources. As a result, some exhibit odd mutations and other physical deformities.

  • Corpsefeaster: Some otyughs develop a particular taste for the flesh of dead creatures, preferring it above all other sources of food. Corpsefeaster otyughs possess a particularly heinous ability that allows them to vomit forth a shower of rotting meat and bones in a 20-foot cone. Anyone caught in this cone must make a DC 14 Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1d4 rounds. Creatures caught in this cone must also make a save against the corpsefeaster’s disease, as if it had bitten them. Corpsefeaster otyughs lose the constrict ability.
  • Meat Puppet Meat puppets are boneless, skinless corpses reanimated after being exposed to necromantic energies.
  • Mutant: An otyugh might be born with an extra tentacle (adding one tentacle attack), another leg (increasing speed by 10 feet), or webbed feet and gills (granting a swim speed of 30 and the amphibious subtype).
  • Oozing: Otyughs that dwell in caustic environments, or those that dine on alchemical refuse, may develop the ability to secrete an acidic toxin through their hide.
  • Plaguebearer: Considering where they live, otyughs make for natural disease carriers. Otyughs are immune to filth fever, the most common ailment for those visiting the sewers or swamps, and every otyugh is a carrier of the disease. Sometimes, however, an otyugh can become infected with so many ailments that it becomes a plaguebearer otyugh. These disgusting creatures are covered in lesions, boils, and rashes, and anyone in combat with them risks contracting a truly terrible sickness. Among their own kind, plaguebearers are regarded as prophets, and make proclamations (of dubious wisdom or veracity) to others of their kind, who accept these statements as truth. While other otyughs are smart enough to keep their distance,they often help to feed their stricken cousins and use them to punish those who intrude upon their domain.
  • Plaguebearer otyughs are in constant pain, leading many to believe they are in a sort of rage. Because they lack the proper appendages to sooth their wounds, these wretched creatures spend most of their time mindlessly bashing at anything that moves, desperate to distract themselves from the pain.
  • Scaly Otyugh (CR 5): At first glance a scaly otyugh appears to be one of its normal cousins, but closer inspection reveals its body is covered in mottled scales and its tentacles end in the heads of poisonous snakes. A scaly otyugh has the same statistics as a normal otyugh, but with the following changes:
    • +3 natural armor
    • Poison Bite (Ex) A bite from one of a scaly otyugh’s snake heads injects poison that weakens its prey: injury; save Fort DC 14; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d3 Str; cure 1 save. The save DC is Constitution-based.
    • Stealth: a scaly otyugh has a +4 racial bonus on Stealth checks when in its lair, due to its natural coloration.
    • A scaly otyugh has a CR of 5.

Otyugh Treasures

Otyughs place a great amount of value in objects that most other creatures would find worthless. When a group of adventurers explores an otyugh’s lair, use the following chart to randomly determine a few objects that can be found on display.

d20 Object
1 Broken weapon
2 Bent shield
3 Rotting barrel
4 Basket full of fish heads
5 Sack of rotten apples
6 Half-used candle
7 Human skull
8 Severed arm/leg
9 Decaying corpse
10 Tarnished silver plate (5 gp)
11 Bent golden spoon (2 gp)
12 Half-empty wine bottle
13 Soiled tapestry
14 Rotting meat
15 Collection of broken glass shards
16 Cracked stone lid of a sarcophagus
17 Length of chain
18 Used torches
19 Rusted kettle with a hole in it
20 Soiled minor magic item

Otyugh Scent

Otyughs can communicate through scent, although the messages are very rudimentary. The following guide shows some common messages, and what they smell like.

Scent Message
Rotting fish Danger is near
Smoke Come quickly
Flowers Stay away
Sour apples I am hungry, got food?
Rancid meat No food here
Wet fungus Delicious food here
Rotten potatoes Bad food here
Ammonia Time for a moot
Overripe fruit Looking for a mate
Vinegar Intruders
Onion I am lost
Old wine I am injured and need help
Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Chronicles: Dungeon Denizens Revisited. Copyright 2009, Paizo Publishing, LLC Authors Clinton Boomer, Jason Bulmahn, Joshua J. Frost, Nicolas Logue, Robert McCreary, Jason Nelson, Richard Pett, Sean K Reynolds, James L. Sutter, and Greg A. Vaughan.

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