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Archives of Nethys

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Shoggoth

Although even raving fanatics and doom-saying prophets desperately claim the monstrous shoggoth is nothing more than a drug-induced vision or a thankfully unreal nightmare, the truth is altogether more dire. Shoggoths exist, yet they tend keep to the deepest of ocean trenches or the most remote of caverns and ruins, emerging to spread chaos and destruction in their slimy wakes.

The first shoggoths were created by an alien species to serve as mindless beasts of burden. Their vast bulk, incredible strength, and amorphous nature made them useful slave labor, and their ability to spontaneously form whatever new eyes, mouths, limbs, and other organs they might need made them incredibly versatile. Eventually, the shoggoths developed enough intelligence to rebel against their masters, and now they lurk, patient but potent, in the lightless deeps.

A shoggoth has goals and methods unknowable to humanoid beings. They remember their eons of servitude and, compared to their mysterious masters, humans, elves, dwarves and other intelligent beings are mere specks which crawl upon the surface of the world, indistinguishable from animals. When a shoggoth rolls its immense, hideous body over a band of explorers, engulfing them in a gelatinous press of flesh and gnawing teeth, it is not so much evil as uncaring.

Shoggoths can become the object of worship for humanoid cults dedicated to chaos and entropy. The shoggoth does not respond to this worship, but it can be counted on to consume any hapless victim the cult can capture and sacrifice to it. Rumors of shoggoths that have developed even greater intellects are, one would hope, just that, for the damage a shoggoth capable of reasoning could wreak upon a world is unsettling to say the least.

Recall Knowledge - Aberration (Occultism): DC 43

ShoggothCreature 18

RareCNHugeAberrationAmphibious
Source Bestiary pg. 293
Perception +34; darkvision, scent (imprecise) 60 feet, tremorsense (imprecise) 60 feet
Languages Aklo
Skills Athletics +36, Intimidation +29
Str +10, Dex +6, Con +9, Int -3, Wis +6, Cha +1
AC 39, all-around vision; Fort +33, Ref +30, Will +30; +1 status to all saves vs. magic
HP 275 (fast healing 20); Immunities blinded, controlled, critical hits, deafened, precision, sleep; Resistances acid 20, cold 20, sonic 20
Maddening Cacophony (auditory, aura, incapacitation, mental) 60 feet. A shoggoth constantly voices syllables and mutterings that mortals were not meant to hear. A creature entering the aura or starting its turn in the aura must succeed at a DC 38 Will save or become confused for 1 round (2d4 rounds on a critical failure). A creature that successfully saves is temporarily immune for 24 hours.
Speed 40 feet, climb 25 feet, swim 50 feet
Melee Single ActionSingle Action pseudopod +35 [+30/+25] (magical, reach 30 feet), Damage 4d10+18 bludgeoning plus GrabConstrict Single ActionSingle Action 2d10+15 bludgeoningEat Away A creature that begins its turn inside the shoggoth takes 9d6 acid damage.Engulf Two ActionsTwo Actions DC 40, 6d6 acid, Escape DC 40, Rupture 40

Sidebar - Additional Lore Tekeli-li

While a shoggoth’s cacophony is a bewildering and eldritch mix of sound and dangerous secrets, the phrase “tekeli-li” is the most oft repeated cry, and these mysterious words are always discernible among their wild vocalizations. Sometimes, wild birds that dwell in places haunted by shoggoths seem to cry out this strange phrase, while at others it can be heard on blasts of frozen winds. Attempts to translate the phrase, even via magic, have only ever met with failure, as if the words themselves actively resist revealing their secrets to the world.