Furcifer

Twisting vines and vibrant flowers grow from the back of this titanic, multicolored reptile. A sickly-sweet scent fills the swirling air around it.

Furcifer CR 13

XP 25,600
CN Huge magical beast
Init +9; Senses blindsense 30 ft., darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +16
Aura deleriant aura (50 ft.)

DEFENSE

AC 27, touch 13, flat-footed 22 (+5 Dex, +14 natural, –2 size)
hp 171 (18d10+72)
Fort +15, Ref +16, Will +12
Defensive Abilities all-around vision, displacement, evasion, uncanny dodge; Immune illusions
Weaknesses vulnerability to cold

OFFENSE

Speed 40 ft., climb 40 ft.
Melee bite +22 (2d6+6), 2 claws +22 (1d8+6), tail slap +17 (2d6+3) or tongue +22
Space 15 ft.; Reach 10 ft. (25 ft. with tongue)
Special Attacks pull (tongue, 10 ft.), swallow whole (3d6+6, AC 17, hp 17), tongue

STATISTICS

Str 22, Dex 21, Con 18, Int 5, Wis 19, Cha 12
Base Atk +18; CMB +26; CMD 41 (45 vs. trip)
Feats Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Endurance, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Run, Skill Focus (Perception), Skill Focus (Stealth), Staggering Critical
Skills Climb +23, Perception +16, Stealth +21; Racial Modifiers Stealth +12
Languages Sylvan (can’t speak)

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Deleriant Aura (Ex)

A furcifer’s pollen induces euphoria and confusion, imposing a –2 penalty on Will saving throws on any creatures within 50 feet of the furcifer. Creatures immune to poison are immune to this effect.

Displacement (Su)

A furcifer’s illusory pollen constantly distorts its presence. It gains a 50% miss chance as if it had total concealment. Unlike actual total concealment, displacement does not prevent enemies from targeting the creature normally. True seeing reveals its true location and negates the miss chance, and creatures immune to illusions or poison are immune to this effect.

Tongue (Ex)

A furcifer can grab a foe with its tongue and draw the victim to its mouth. This tongue attack has a reach of 25 feet. The attack deals no damage but allows the furcifer to grab its target. A furcifer does not gain the grappled condition while using its tongue in this manner.

Utopia (Sp)

A furcifer is blessed with strange powers of illusion and can warp the world around it at will to seem idyllic and safe. This functions as a mirage arcana spell, though the furcifer’s simplistic intellect means it may create unusual or surreal illusions based on what its victims find appealing. Creatures in the affected area may recognize the landscape as unnatural with a successful DC 20 Will saving throw; otherwise, the furcifer’s powers lull them into accepting the impossible. Affected creatures cannot recognize any natural hazards in the area, and the furcifer itself appears as something harmless within the affected area, such as a flower-covered hill, quaint home, or friendly animal, making it effectively invisible; if the furcifer attacks, it immediately breaks the invisibility effect but does not end the mirage arcana effect. Creatures immune to illusions and mind-affecting effects are immune to this effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.

ECOLOGY

Environment any forest
Organization solitary or pair
Treasure incidental

Standing as tall as a house and draped in intoxicating blossoms, the furcifer is a bizarre synthesis of reptile and plant born from enormous surges of positive energy. Despite their inviting, vibrant hides, furcifers are ravenous predators, capable of warping the world around them into almost any placid scene and concealing themselves from ordinary senses. These abilities make them extraordinary ambush predators, and parties of human-sized travelers are easily picked off one by one from above thanks to the clever reptilian hunters’ long, prehensile tongues.

Lazy and patient, these large reptiles sometimes lull whole caravans into complacency, letting them linger in false wonderlands for days or weeks as the furcifer picks off its prey one at a time. Furcifers are cantankerous and stubborn, and dispense with all subtlety to pursue prey relentlessly if it escapes their illusory paradise.

Furcifers on average stand over 15 feet tall and 35 feet long thanks to their long, curled tails. Furcifers weigh up to 6-1/2 tons.

A primordial creature of incredible size and impressive innate magic, the furcifer blends reptile and plant features into the form of a deadly ambush hunter. With the frame of a massive, hunchbacked lizard, opposable claws on each limb, a long prehensile tail, and a bony crest to protect their neck, this vicious beast lacks little in comparison to other predators. Despite all this, furcifers are lazy and capricious, preferring to lie in wait and snatch smaller prey with their long, prehensile tongues. Their broad-set eyes can rotate independently, allowing them to look in multiple directions at once and constantly watch for other dangerous creatures.

Furcifers command impressive innate magic that allows them to cloak the world around them in a placid disguise. They have rudimentary psychic abilities and can read glimpses of whatever their prey finds inviting and harmless, and then spin those stolen images into a soft landscape. When confronting intelligent creatures, the beasts’ limited intellects sometimes result in surreal illusions—such as fruit trees heavy with bunnies, rippling ponds sitting at angles in hillsides, or houses made from candy— but the mind-numbing euphoria of their magic often makes such impossible landscapes feel sensible to their unsuspecting prey.

The orchid-like plants growing from the furcifer’s back help further define their abilities. Rather than a symbiotic relationship, the blossoms are as much a part of the predator’s anatomy as its eyes or claws, and they secrete a sweetly scented narcotic pollen that lulls most warmblooded animals into a mild euphoria.

The plants provide some sustenance to the furcifer but also produce a bevy of alchemical reagents that help power its magical abilities as well as its consumption. With the aid of these botanical factories, furcifers can digest practically anything they can swallow— from rocks and debris to armor worn by their prey.

Habitat and Society

Furcifers flourish in warm and temperate forests, as their cold-blooded nature and hothouse flower elements make them vulnerable to the cold. The resilient creatures could survive in desert and mountain environments if transplanted, limited only by available water and prey, but they rarely leave the familiar hunting grounds where they are born.

As asexual creatures, furcifers rely on pollinating insects for reproduction.

Once their blossoms are fertilized, they release their spore-like eggs into the wind, and those that settle on trees develop into small, carnivorous flowers that feed on their host trees and passing insects and birds for several years before maturing into miniature furcifers that begin hunting. The youngs’ first meals often consist of other larval furcifers that have yet to mature into their ambulatory states. On rare occasion, a single larval bloom will produce twin young, who bond and share their territory for life.

Infused with positive energy and strange alchemical reagents, furcifers are useful components for a variety of projects. Their pollen remains psychoactive for years after death, and the nectar harvested from a single beast can provides weeks’ worth of potent hallucinogens. Their bones are coveted for magic items involving acid, and their skin can be readily fashioned into cloaks and robes with illusory properties. The flesh itself is mildly toxic, and dead furcifers may rot slowly for months rather than be scavenged by other animals.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Adventure Path #142: Gardens of Gallowspire © 2019, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Crystal Frasier, with Ron Lundeen, Andrew Mullen, Emily Parks, Rhett Skubis, and Christopher Wasko.

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