Servitor of the Outer Gods

Servitor of the Outer Gods CR 3

A constantly-flickering mass of eyes, mouths, and tentacles hangs in the air before you, emitting a piping noise from flutes of bone. As it writhes to its own horrific melody, a sense of dread envelopes you, as if you realize that something else—something far beyond space and time—is also listening.

XP 800
CE Medium aberration
Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., see in darkness; Perception +9
Aura piping (30 ft.)

DEFENSE

AC 16, touch 14, flat-footed 12 (+4 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 17 (5d8–5)
Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +5
Defensive Abilities amorphous, avoid blow, evasion; Immune cold, disease, poison, sonic

OFFENSE

Speed 50 ft., fly 30 ft. (average)
Melee tentacles +5 (2d6+3)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 3rd; concentration +6)

At willsummon eldritch horror
3/daycause fear (DC 14), lesser confusion (DC 14)
1/dayconfusion (DC 17, one target only)

STATISTICS

Str 14, Dex 19, Con 8, Int 11, Wis 12, Cha 17
Base Atk +3; CMB +5; CMD 19 (can’t be tripped)
Feats Combat Casting, Combat Reflexes, Great Fortitude
Skills Acrobatics +12, Fly +12, Perception +9, Perform (wind) +8
Languages Aklo
SQ no breath, recursive summoner

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Amorphous (Ex)

A servitor of the Outer Gods is malleable.

It is immune to precision damage (like sneak attacks) and critical hits.

Avoid Blow (Ex)

A servitor of the Outer Gods is fast and agile, its body writhing and dancing in discordant synchronicity to the alien music it constantly plays on its flute. Ranged weapon attacks suffer a 75% miss chance against a servitor of the Outer Gods, and melee weapon attacks suffer a 50% miss chance. A servitor of the Outer Gods loses its avoid blow defensive ability when under the effects of a slow spell, when entangled, when grappled, and whenever it could not choose to take a move or standard action (such as when paralyzed, stunned, or dazed).

No Breath (Ex)

A servitor of the Outer Gods does not breathe and is immune to effects that require breathing (such as inhaled poison). This does not give it immunity to cloud or gas attacks that do not require breathing.

Piping (Su)

A servitor of the Outer Gods constantly pipes strange and unsettling alien music via a long, thin, flute-like instrument. The piping continues for as long as the servitor takes a swift action to pipe each round. If the servitor takes 5 or more points of damage from one attack, its piping ceases to function until it uses a swift action to resume its performance. It can’t pipe while concentrating on summoning an eldritch horror. When a servitor plays its flute, it generates discordant music that can be heard for hundreds of feet, but all creatures within a 30-foot radius of the servitor are particularly vexed and distracted as the music causes minor but disturbing hallucinations. Creatures in this area of effect suffer a –4 penalty on Perception checks and a –2 penalty on all saving throws against mind-affecting effects that cause dread, confusion, or insanity. This is a mind-affecting, sonic effect. Although it cannot physically attack with its flute, the device is treated as a club for the purposes of disarm and sunder attempts. A servitor that loses its flute cannot use its summon eldritch horror ability, but it can extrude a new flute from its body with 1 minute of concentration.

Recursive Summoner (Ex)

Unlike most creatures, when a servitor of the Outer Gods is summoned via any summon effect (including summon eldritch horror), it can use its summon eldritch horror spell-like ability normally.

Summon Eldritch Horror (Sp)

As a standard action, a servitor of the Outer Gods can begin playing a particularly hideous tune on its flute that reaches out across the dimensions in an attempt to summon monsters to its location. At the start of each round the servitor continues to concentrate on the song, it gains 1 summoning point. It can immediately end a song upon gaining a summoning point to summon a monster of a CR equal to or less than its current number of summoning points, as if casting a summon monster spell. A summoned creature remains for 1 minute before it vanishes. The types of monsters a servitor of the Outer Gods can summon this way are limited to creatures associated with the Outer Gods or Great Old Ones. It cannot summon unique creatures or specific individuals with this ability. Summoned eldritch horrors are not under the servitor’s control, and may be hostile toward the servitor. A creature that is summoned in this way cannot use any spells or spell-like abilities that require material components costing more than 1 gp unless those components are supplied, nor can it use its own summon ability (unless the summoned creature is another servitor of the Outer Gods). Summon eldritch horror functions as a 4th-level spell for the purposes of caster level checks and concentration checks. Although servitors of the Outer Gods can summon eldritch horrors at will, they generally avoid summoning creatures of a CR more than twice their own CR, and when not in combat typically avoid using this ability entirely.

ECOLOGY

Environment any (outer space)
Organization solitary, pair, or ensemble (3–12)
Treasure none

These creatures exist to appease the Outer Gods and advance their interests when brought to the mortal world. While they are individually weak, their summoning ability makes them quite dangerous.

They play a haunting melody on their pipes, which can call forth dire beings from beyond: hunting horrors, byakhee, star vampires, and stranger things.

In combat, servitors of the Outer Gods writhe and dance to their own music, in such a way that allows them to avoid most blows, particularly ranged attacks.

A common tactic for one is to immediately summon another servitor and then something else. The servitor summoned immediately summons yet another servitor, before going on to call other beings. In this way, every servitor calls another, so that they multiply rapidly.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

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

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