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Prock
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| Large Elemental (Earth, Extraplanar) |
| Hit Dice: | 10d8+20 (65 hp) |
| Initiative: | -5 (Dex) |
| Speed: | 0 ft. |
| AC: | 9 (-1 size, -4 Dex, +4 cover) |
| Base Attack/Grapple: | +7/+19 |
| Space/Reach: | 10 ft./0 ft. |
| Special Attacks: | Crush (2d8+8) | | Special Qualities: | Aura of darkness, mindless, blind, DR 8/-, SR 11, elemental traits |
| Saves: | Fort 9, Ref -1, Will -2 |
| Abilities: | Str 27, Dex 3, Con 14, Int 0, Wis 1, Cha 1 |
| Environment: | Any underground |
| Organization: | Cluster 5-20 (5d4) |
| Challenge Rating: | 3 |
| Treasure: | ½ coins, no goods, 1/10th items |
| Alignment: | Always Neutral |
| Advancement: | 11 to 18 (Large);
19 to 25 (Huge);
26 to 30 (Gargantuan) |
| Level Adjustment: | - |
- Appearance
- A prock appear as a large gaping mouth of stone, built into the cave floor. Their stony mouth opens and closes
over and over, forever in one place. One may always know when a prock is near by the grinding sound (Listen, DC 5)
of their pit-like maw. Most of a prock's body is hidden beneath the hard rock of the flooring they are within, their mouths
being their only visible part to most observers. When the mouth of a prock is closed it is difficult to notice (Spot, DC 20),
particularly since their presence negates both magical and mundane light in a sixty foot radius.
- Combat
- A prock never initiates combat. Instead they simply wait for prey to fall into their moving mouths. Creatures who enter a
space occupied by a prock must make a Reflex save (DC 10 + ½ HD of prock) or fall into their maw as it flexes and opens
beneath them. A prock has a gullet that is twice as deep as it has hit dice, so a typical 10 HD prock has a 20 foot deep
pit-like gullet and creatures falling into it take falling damage.
Crush (Ex): Anything that falls into a prock suffers 2d8+8 (2d8+ Strength
modifier) points of damage and must make an opposed grapple check against the prock or be grappled. On the following
round the prock attempts to pin a grappled creature with its mouth, closing upon them and afflicting a further 2d8+8 points
of damage each round until the unfortunate victim is turned into a bloody paste. A victim that succeeds a grapple check and
is free to move may attempt to climb out of the prock (Climb, DC 15).
Aura of Darkness (Su): The presence of a prock suppressed all forms of light,
magical or mundane, within a 60 foot radius.
Mindless: No Intelligence score, and immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms,
compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects).
Blind: Immune to gaze attacks, visual effects, illusions, and other attack forms
that rely on sight.
Elemental Traits: Immune to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, and stunning. Not
subject to critical hits or flanking. Does not eat, sleep, or breathe.
- Habitat/Society
- Little is known about procks and it is greatly speculated that there is little to be learned. The creatures, if they can be
called that, seem to be unintelligent by any measure, unaware of anything that isn't in their gullet, and unaffected by
aging or most any other thing. Apparently they do grow with time, but this takes too long to reasonably study. Procks
seem to have no mode of communication. Procks rarely appear alone.
- Ecology
- A prock can live for thousands of years, not needing any manner of sustenance to live. It is unknown how they populate
themselves or how to judge the age of a prock except that the largest ones are assumed to be the oldest. They do not
move except to grind their mouths. Creatures of the underhalls generally avoid entering areas with prock populations.
They have no predators and they have no preferred prey. Procks are suspected to be a magical experiment between a
magic mouth spell and an earth elemental gone terribly awry, though there is no evidence to support this conjecture.
- History
- Procks have been used by wizards to guard their underground vaults and are also known to exist near the Hall of Kings where the war-lords of the UnHoly Wars (AC2506 - AC2559) are buried. It is said that they also guard several other
mystical places of the subterranean as well, places that are rarely trodden even by those who know the dangers of the
procks.
- Variants and Resources
- There are rumors that there are procks which have a glimmer of intelligence. These creatures are said to be able to
sense passing creatures and lie in wait with their mouths closed, only opening them when the victim is sure to fall
within and be crushed. Perhaps these rumors are just from some lucky adventurer whose footsteps trod upon a sleeping
prock and awoke it even as they stood above its closed maw.
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