Treasure Mollusk

Right now, I'm just finishing up some loose ends for the first level of the Anomalous Subsurface Environment.  Mostly, that's refining some traps, and finishing off the last of the new monsters.  After 30 years of playing D&D, I'm a little tired of the typical monsters, and almost everything I put in is something new - either a re-skinned existing monster, or something entirely novel.  It keeps the players on their toes, and it keeps my eyes from glazing over.  I don't think I ever want to write up another kobold lair again in this lifetime.

For one of the last rooms in the dungeon key, I had written "some kind of construct made of treasure."  I think the gatehouse has been filled with enough constructs, though, and I was in a mimic/trapper/lurker above/piercer kind of mood.  Those are all higher hit dice than I should reasonably be using on the first level, so here's something custom, that keeps my original monster-made-of-treasure idea.  My players make a comment about mimics every time they see a chest, so they have this coming.

After finishing up these loose ends in the first level, I'll be preparing lists of henchmen and wizard encounters, and posting them over the next week.  Then, it's time to install my old copy of Dungeon Designer 2 and see if I can come up with some reasonable electronic copies of the map.  I'll need decent electronic copies to put together a PDF of the first level of the megadungeon for people to take a look at.

Anyhow, here's my contribution to the timeless D&D tradition of "ha ha! gotcha!" monsters.

Treasure Mollusk
No. Enc: 1d6
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 60' (20')
Armor Class: 4
Hit Dice: 3
Attacks: 2, or see below
Damage: 1d6 each, or see below
Save: F3
Morale: 8
Hoard Class: XXI
XP: 95

These mollusks, in their natural form, are 4’ wide grotesque lumps of muscle and organs, with several slimy tentacle-like appendages.  They are ringed with jewel-like eyes on short stalks, and their bodies excrete an incredibly sticky slime.

The mollusk uses this adhesive slime to attach treasure (primarily coins) to itself, and weapons to the end of its two primary pseudopods.  It will then settle into a pile on a dungeon floor, with only its jewel-like eyes visible through the layer of treasure, and wait for prey, surprising on 1-4 on a d6.

On each successful hit, the victim must save vs. paralyzation or be stuck to the treasure mollusck’s pseudopod.  While a pseudopod is stuck to a character, it is no longer used as a weapon, and the character will only have to contend against one pseudopod, albeit at a +1 penalty to AC.

Once stuck to both primary pseudopods, the character will be drawn towards the mollusk’s mouthparts on the next round, which will attempt to bite for 1d8 points of damage.  A character stuck to both pseudopods suffers a +4 penalty to AC.

A character may spend a round attempting to break free from a pseudopod, by making an Open Doors check.  If successful, he has broken free of one pseudopod.  Other party members may also attempt to pull the character free, by making Open Doors checks.

Should a mollusk fail a morale check while stuck to a character, it will drag its victim along behind it, until that character successfully breaks free from both pseudopods.