The Tome Of Drow Lore.pdf - RoseRed

to dry. At the end of the second hour, irritation from the
dryness causes the Sulzthul to take a –1 penalty on all
rolls. At the end of the third hour, the Sulzthul begins to
take 1 hp of damage for every hour he remains outside
the water.
� Favoured Class: Ranger. This trait replaces the drow’s
favoured class.
� Level Adjustment: +2
Shangu
Medium Aberration
Hit Dice: 8d8 + 16 (52 hp)
Initiative: +6
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)
Armour Class: 17 (+2 Dex, +5 natural), touch 12, flatfooted
15
Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+9
Attack: Claw +9 melee (1d8+3) or glaive +10 melee
(1d10+4)
Full Attack: Claw +9 melee (1d8+3) and bite +4 melee
(1d6+1) or glaive +10 melee (1d10+4)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Paralyse, terrify
Special Qualities: Spell resistance 12
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +7
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 12*, Wis 12, Cha 17
Skills: Hide +7, Intimidate +7, Jump +5, Listen +5, Move
Silently +7, Search +5, Spot +5 and Survival +5
Feats: Improved Initiative, Run, Weapon Focus (glaive)
Climate/Terrain: Underground
Organisation: Solitary, pair, clutch (5 to 8 individuals) or
hunters (10 to 20 individuals)
Challenge Rating: 6
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually lawful evil
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +7
* A shangu has no natural intelligence beyond the level
of an animal, but rather gains all his intelligence from the
creature that hosted him while he was in the worm stage of
his development.
This creature stands about seven feet tall and, though
humanoid, has a vaguely saurian appearance. Its head is
elongated and scaly. Its jaws are filled with serrated teeth
and the jaw itself can unhinge to swallow larger prey. Its
eyes seem to have no discernible pupils or irises, instead
appearing as a mottled swirl of colours. The digits of its
hands have three joints.
These terrible creatures of the Underdeep are often simply
called Devourers. Once little more than animal predators,
they have become a highly intelligent, rigidly ordered
society. They prefer to work flesh and bone rather than
stone and metal, and much of their war gear and structures
are living organisms forged from the meat of slaves taken
from other Underdeep races.
The life cycle of the shangu is divided into three stages,
the egg, the worm and the adult. Of the three, the adult
stage is the only one in which the shangu is intrinsically
dangerous, having access to its powerful physical attacks
and supernatural abilities, but it is the worm stage that
makes these creature so infamous.
The egg of a shangu is a soft-shelled thing about the size
of a human fist. After it is laid by a female shangu, it must
be kept in liquid until it matures and hatches; a process that
takes about a month. From the egg, the worm emerges. In
its worm stage, a shangu is a sightless worm about a foot
in length, with soft, slimy skin. At this stage of its life, the
shangu is an unintelligent parasite, incapable of defending
itself. In order to mature into an adult, the worm must be
introduced to a host creature, which must be mammalian.
The worm enters the host creature through the mouth
or any other large orifice. Once inside, it attaches itself
to the victim’s nervous system and begins to feed. This
process awakens the worm’s intelligence, and from this
point forward, it directs the actions of the host creature.
The worm remains in the host for three months, growing
quickly as it matures into the humanoid form of an adult.
The body of the host begins to waste away during this time,
as the worm consumes it from within, and by the second
month, the body is usually distended and twisted by the
increasing size of the parasite within it. The species of the
host has no effect on the development of the physical form
of the shangu; however the shangu’s intelligence as an adult
will be identical to that of the host creature it inhabited as
a worm.
At the end of the three months, the adult shangu emerges
from the ravaged body of its host and, as its first act,
consumes the creature that harboured it. Upon emerging,
the shangu is usually no more than two or three feet tall,
but over the course of the next six months, the creature will
grow to its full stature.
Combat
Shangu are deadly foes in combat, whether attacking
armed or merely with their natural weapons. Furthermore,
adult shangu have the power to paralyse opponents with
a thought or terrify them with merely a glance. Shangu
prefer to attack using surprise, leaping upon their foes in a
well-coordinated assault from at least two sides. They use
their supernatural abilities to incapacitate all the foes they
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