NEW MONSTER: CELLAR DWELLER

CELLAR DWELLER 

FREQUENCY: Rare

NO. APPEARING: 10-60
ARMOR CLASS: 6
MOVE: 9”
HIT DICE: 2
% IN LAIR: 45%
TREASURE TYPE: C
NO. OF ATTACKS: 2
DAMAGE/ ATTACK: 1-4/1-4 or by weapon type
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Ink
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
SAVE: Fighter 2
INTELLIGENCE: Average to exceptional
ALIGNMENT: Lawful evil
SIZE: M
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
LEVEL/ X.P. VALUE: II/ 28 + 2/hp

Creations of hideous sorcery and science, the cellar dwellers appear to combine the worst features of insects and mollusks. Their heads and upper body are octopoid but they have four great jointed legs. Their upper bodies sport many small tentacles and two great ones, which can be used to grasp weapons and tools. Combining the use of their great and small tentacles, they have dexterity equivalent to that of a man. These creatures always obscure their bodies in strips of black cloth and they hide their faces behind stylized white masks. Removing the mask reveals their horrific face of wrinkled flesh and multiple misplaced mouths. 

Once per day, the creature can squirt a stream of viscid ink up to 9”. This foul-smelling liquid is extremely caustic and does 1-6 points of damage on a successful hit. The next round it will do another 1-4 points of damage automatically before becoming inert. Cellar dwellers can see, even in complete darkness, up to 90'. They speak among themselves in low-pitched whistles and clicks, but can also speak the common tongue of men.

Cellar dwellers are quite canny and inventive. The most brilliant are known to modify their bodies to make them more effective in combat and to attempt to put fear into their brethren. There are no young, as these creatures emerge fully formed from the vats.

Description: The octopoid portion of their body is pale pink, with unwholesome pale or gray patches. The insectoid legs and abdomen are glossy black or vomit green.

History: Theses foul beings are vat creatures, fabricated by Valerian Triskelion in the dungeons below Castle Triskelion. When he saw what he produced, he was disgusted and scheduled them for termination. Before he had the opportunity to have his servants destroy them, however, a cataclysm struck the castle. In the confusion, the creatures escaped and fled, eventually finding their way to the cellars below the inner ward, founding a colony an d preying on anything unfortunate enough to fall in their path.

With the passage of time the cellar dwellers, as they came to be known, were unable to reconcile their rejection by their creator. In their own minds they recast Valerian as a god who would one day come back to lead them to a promised land of pleasure and slaughter of men. Now they bide their time. They have built new vats to replenish their numbers and seek men and humanoids on which to experiment and satisfy their lust for torture.