Cricklangal

Description

This creature is composed entirely of ice, forming a deep-blue crystalline stand with a multitude of large icicles radiating outward from a common center. As the creature waddles about, it produces a low grinding noise with every movement.

A cricklangal resembles a crystalline stand of deep-blue glacial ice. Icicle-like shards of blue ice project out from the entire surface of its body, forming a spiny covering. There are no arms or legs visible, and it advances across the surface with a clumsy waddle.

The bitterly cold nature of this being draws much of the heat from the surrounding air, instantly freezing liquids and creating a zone of deadly chill that freezes to the bone. Any free moisture nearby is immediately crystallized, including clouds of fog or vapor.

A cricklangal produces a deep ice grinding noise whenever it moves, making it nearly impossible for a cricklangal to sneak up on anyone with normal hearing. It can exist anywhere there is frozen water, although it prefers deep crevasses within glaciers. Cricklangals need little to sustain themselves, other than a very cold environment.

These ice elementals are normally non-aggressive beings, seeking only the crystalline ice on which they graze. They seem to gain whatever nutritional requirements they need to survive from pockets of minerals and gases caught within a glacial flow. The extracted minerals gradually form a beautiful rare crystal in the heart of a cricklangal that can be recovered if the being is slain. These crystals sparkle mysteriously in a rainbow of colors when they are turned about. The beautiful ichlar crystal is very rare, bringing 500gp from a reputable gem dealer.

Combat

Cricklangal attack by freezing their foes in a shell of bitterly cold ice. They can also blast shards of primordial ice at their attackers, although by doing so they wound themselves. When all else fails they will pummel an opponent with their hard, spiked bodies. If the fight goes against them, they will sink their bodies into the nearest large volume of ice and tunnel their way to safety.

They are often hunted by ice-dwelling predators and so have evolved defenses against these attacks. As they view most encroaching intruders as potential threats, they will employ their unique combat abilities to delay or deter attackers until they can slowly and noisily make their way into safer ice.

Ice Sheath (Ex): Three times a day a cricklangal can blast out dense clouds of frost crystals. On a successful ranged touch attack the cloud coalesces to immobilize a foe in a cocoon of hard ice. The range is 30 feet, and the sheaths are permanent, non-magical, and cannot be dispelled. The sheath has a thickness of 1-½ in.; break DC 15; hardness 6; 8 hp. The bitter cold from the ice sheath inflicts 1d3 hp of freezing damage to the target each round. The save DC of the break is Constitution-based.

Ice Shards (Ex): By contorting portions of its body, a cricklangal can create an explosion of 4 icy shards as a standard action. Each shard can target a separate creature, but all targets must be within 30 feet of each other. This attack has a range multiple of 20 feet. Each time the creature launches a volley of ice shards it is dealt 1d6 points of damage due to the rupturing of its body.

Freezing (Ex): Anybody who comes within reach of the cricklangal takes 1d6 points of cold damage each round. Any vapor in the air within the same radius is instantly frozen and falls to the ground as fine ice powder. This will partly negate magical fogs produced by spells or spell-like effects.

Skills: Cricklangals receive a -4 racial penalty on Listen and Move Silently checks while moving. Within an area covered by a glacier, cricklangals receive a +8 racial bonus on any Hide checks.

Cricklangal Society

The cricklangal is a solitary creature that does not require the company of its own kind or other beings. Only during mating season will they seek each other out. The eggs of a cricklangal resemble a beautiful blue crystal gem that is cold enough to instantly cause frostbite. They are laid in clutches of 3–5 eggs at the base of a deep glacial crevice and are difficult to distinguish from the surrounding ice.

The cricklangal have developed a mutually beneficial arrangement with ice mephits, and the later have partially domesticated the cricklangals. These ice elementals provide an efficient tunneling ability for the mephits, as well as a tough and potent ally. Without intending to the mephits have also selected for improved intelligence and more potent combat abilities among the cricklangal, although they have not yet eliminated out the solitary nature of this creature.

Advanced Benefits

In addition to the standard changes due to Hit Dice advancement, cricklangal also gain the following special benefits.

• The save DC of the ice sheath is equal to 10 + ½ HD + Constitution modifier, and the number of hit points of the sheath is 2 x HD. The number of ice sheath attacks per day is equal to 1 + ½ Hit Dice.
• 6+ HD ― Gain summon ice mephit (Sp): Once per day a cricklangal can attempt to summon 1d3 ice mephits with a 30% chance of success.
• 7+ HD ― The ice shards attack produces 6 shards, but the cricklangal is dealt 1d8 points of damage.
• 8+ HD ― Damage reduction improves to 10/―. The burrow speed increases to 20 feet.
• 9+ HD ― Anybody who comes within reach of the Cricklangal takes 1d8 points of cold damage each round.
• 10+ HD ― The ice shards attack produces 8 shards, but the cricklangal is dealt 1d10 points of damage.
• 11+ HD ― The summon ice mephit ability can summon 2d4 ice mephits with a 50% chance of success.
• 12+ HD ― Anybody who comes within reach of the Cricklangal takes 2d6 points of cold damage each round.

Also in this section of the source

Crypt-Cursed

Author: Dominique Crouzet. (Sample crypt-cursed creature by editor).

The crypt-cursed are a rare type of undead who suffer from a deity's curse, inflicted because they plundered a mortuary temple of that god. The nature of this divine curse is such that the victim is initially unaware of their being in a state of un-death, as they retain the same outward appearance as when they were alive. Only gradually does the nature of the curse begin to dawn upon them as they begin to realize that food couldn't satiate their hunger any more and that they can't die normally. The curse can only be lifted when all that was stolen is returned to the temple, and a bloody ceremony performed. Once this is done, the crypt-cursed are restored to their living state.

A crypt-cursed appears exactly as he did when he was still alive. Nonetheless, this is only a powerful illusion affecting all the senses (sight, smell, touch, etc.). Only when looked at with a true seeing spell, or when exposed directly to the light of the moon, do these undead really appear for what they are: skeletons and decaying corpses. Of course, noticing that they do not need to breath, eat, or drink, and that they can withstand a blade through the chest without flinching, may render them suspect to the casual onlooker.

Crypt-cursed creatures have no other motivation than recover the stolen treasure and then perform the ceremony that will lift the curse. They care for nothing else, and until then suffer from a horrible torment (thanks to the curse) which has them starving to death… without being able to satiate themselves nor die from lack of this denied nourishment.

When one steals something that comes from the stolen treasure, he is immediately cursed and gains the crypt-cursed template. The transformation, however, occurs subtly, and nobody, including the victim, ever notices it (unless it happens under the light of the moon, or if someone looks at the victim with a true seeing spell). Then, as time passes, the victim becomes more and more thirsty and hungry, as anything he ingests cannot anymore nourish him. Soon, it becomes an unbearable torment, yet the character having become an undead cannot die, and is not hindered by this suffering. The only way to lift the curse, and return the character to living form, is to bring back all the treasure stolen to the temple, and perform a bloody ceremony in which a living family member of the crypt-cursed creature will drop his blood on the treasure. When this happens, all crypt-cursed undead (wherever they happen to be at that time) will be transformed back again into living beings. Note that if anyone else again steal something out of the treasure, he will in turn become a crypt-cursed undead.

Sample Crypt-Cursed

This example uses a 5th-level human rogue as the character.