Writhing Mass
Select Subtype:
Description:
A writhing mass is a formless pile of rotting guts, organs, eyes and mouths that slithers and tumbles over the ground, entangling and devouring humanoid or animal prey, eating their flesh and muscle, while absorbing their offal into the ever growing mass. How a writhing mass comes to be is unclear - some speculate they are created by necromancers - but a writhing mass is constantly rotting, and will not last long if it does not consume and incorporate fresh victims.
Uniquely, the Writhing Mass can increase its Health above maximum with its Bloodlust perk, allowing it to grow in size. The more corpses (humanoid or animal) a writing mass consumes, the larger and more powerful it becomes, as defined below.
Special:
The stench from a writhing mass is unbearable. The stench can be detected within 25 hexes. At the start of every turn, any creature with a sense of smell that is within 10 hexes of a Writhing Mass must roll a 21C using Will, or be placed in the stunned state for the turn, suffering -2 on all Challenges. Those with the Olfactory Sense perk make this roll at -4.
A writhing mass is literally covered in eyes, ears and noses, effectively granting them both the 360 Degree Vision perk and the Olfactory Sense perk, making them very difficult to gain surprise against. Beyond a certain size, they also have an effectively unlimited number of twisting appendages formed from the entrails of their victims, along with an effectively unlimited number of mouths - this allows a writing mass to attack multiple adjacent targets with bite attacks and constrict attacks every turn.
A writhing mass prefers to use its constrict attack to entangle victims. As with all constrict attacks, the first attack must be an attempt to entangle, after which, each turn that the victim does not escape, the writhing mass can choose to apply Strong constrict damage automatically. Additionally, a writhing mass it can also perform a bite attack against a helpless target against anything it has entangled.
Writhing masses are particularly vulnerable to both frost and fire, taking +25% damage from either type of attack. They are immune to shock damage.
Variants:
The current size of a writing mass increases based on the number of victims it has consumed, and decreases as it's health is reduced.
Very Small
A writhing mass is reduced to the Very Small size when its Health reaches 5 or less. At this size, it is still smaller than a single hex, and can only perform one bite and one contrict attack per turn. If its Health increases to 8 due to its Bloodlust, or if it moves into a hex with a freshly dead body it will grow to the Small size, or to an appropriate larger size if the victim is larger.
Small
A writhing mass is reduced to the Small size when its Health reaches 8 or less. At this size, it is still smaller than a single hex, and can perform one bite attack and one contrict attack per turn against two targets in adjacent hexes. If its Health increases to 13 due to its Bloodlust, or if it kills a victim it is grappling, or moves into a hex with a freshly dead body it will grow to the Medium size, or to an appropriate larger size if the victim is larger.
Medium
A writhing mass is reduced to the Medium size when its Health reaches 13 or less. At this size, it is still smaller than a single hex, and can perform one bite attack and one contrict attack per turn against four targets in adjacent hexes. If its Health increases to 21 due to its Bloodlust, or if it kills a victim it is grappling, or moves into a hex with a freshly dead body it will grow to the Large size, or to an appropriate larger size if the victim is larger.
Large
A writhing mass is reduced to the Large size when its Health reaches 21 or less. At this size, it fills a full hex, and can perform one bite attack and one contrict attack per turn against six targets (one in each adjacent hex). If its Health increases to 34 due to its Bloodlust, or if it kills a victim it is grappling, or moves into a hex with a freshly dead body it will grow to the Very Large size, or to an appropriate larger size if the victim is larger.
Very Large
A writhing mass is reduced to the Very Large size when its Health reaches 34 or less. At this size, it fills two adjacent hexes. It can perform one bite attack and one contrict attack per turn against every target in any adjacent hex. If its Health increases to 55 due to its Bloodlust, or if it kills two (humanoid sized) victims it is grappling, or moves into hexes with two (humanoid sized) freshly dead bodies it will grow to the Huge size, or to an appropriate larger size if the victim(s) are larger.
Huge
A writhing mass is reduced to the Huge size when its Health reaches 55 or less. At this size, it fills four adjacent hexes, which can be arranged in any configuration, but must be contiguous. It can perform one bite attack and one contrict attack per turn against every target in any adjacent hex. If its Health increases to 89 due to its Bloodlust, or if it kills four (humanoid sized) victims it is grappling, or moves into hexes with four (humanoid sized) freshly dead bodies it will grow to the Humongous size, or to an appropriate larger size if the victim(s) are larger.
Humongous
A writhing mass is reduced to the Humongous size when its Health reaches 89 or less. At this size, it fills eight adjacent hexes, which can be arranged in any configuration, but must be contiguous. It can perform one bite attack and one contrict attack per turn against every target in any adjacent hex. If its Health increases to 144 due to its Bloodlust, or if it kills eight (humanoid sized) victims it is grappling, or moves into hexes with eight (humanoid sized) freshly dead bodies it will grow to the Enormous size, or to an appropriate larger size if the victim(s) are larger.
Enormous
A writhing mass is reduced to the Enormous size when its Health reaches 144 or less. At this size, it fills sixteen adjacent hexes, which can be arranged in any configuration, but must be contiguous. It can perform one bite attack and one contrict attack per turn against every target in any adjacent hex. If its Health increases to 233 due to its Bloodlust, or if it kills sixteen (humanoid sized) victims it is grappling, or moves into hexes with sixteen (humanoid sized) freshly dead bodies it will grow to the Enormous size, or to an appropriate larger size if the victim(s) are larger.
Gigantic
A writhing mass is reduced to the Gigantic size when its Health reaches 233 or less. At this size, it fills thirty-two adjacent hexes, which can be arranged in any configuration, but must be contiguous. It can perform one bite attack and one contrict attack per turn against every target in any adjacent hex. If its Health increases to 377 due to its Bloodlust, or if it kills thirty-two (humanoid sized) victims it is grappling, or moves into hexes with thirty-two (humanoid sized) freshly dead bodies it will grow to the Titanic size, or to an appropriate larger size if the victim(s) are larger.
Titanic
A writhing mass has the Titanic size when its Health is 377 or higher. At this size, it fills sixty-four adjacent hexes, which can be arranged in any configuration, but must be contiguous. It can perform one bite attack and one contrict attack per turn against every target in any adjacent hex. If its Health increases to 411 (34 points above max) due to its Bloodlust, or for each four (humanoid sized) victims it kills while grappling, or each four (humanoid sized) freshly dead bodies it consumes by entering their hexes, it will cause a new, fresh Very Large sized Writhing Mass to separate from itself, becoming a new, second creature.