Savage Menagerie: Gallows

No. Enc.: 1 (1d8)
Alignment: None
Movement: None
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 6
Attacks: 4
Damage: 1d6/1d6/1d6/1d6/Special
Save: L3
Morale: None
Hoard Class: VII

A Gallows is an air-breathing, tree-dwelling cephalopod. An adult Gallows is a rather large creature, with a body mass roughly 15 feet in diameter, having between 7 and 12 tentacles (1d6+6) when fully grown. Upon birth, a Gallows will drop out of the tree holding its parent and slither slowly along the ground to another nearby tree. It will then climb up into the top-most branches of its new home, entangling itself in the boughs, where it will spend the rest of its life.

Although seemingly passive, a Gallows is an aggressive hunter, using its many tentacles to “fish” for prey. A Gallows drapes and dangles its tentacles across the tree’s lower branches, where they look like common vines. When a mutant gets too close or walks under the tree’s branches, the Gallows will attack with 1d4 “vines,” lashing out to ensnare its victim. Each tentacle does 1d6 hit points of damage when struck.

If a victim is successfully hit on two consecutive attacks, the second tentacle has wrapped around one of the victim’s limbs, immobilizing it. The Gallows then receives a +2 bonus to hit its snared prey on future attacks. However, a Gallows’ preferred tactic is to snare its prey around the neck, pulling them off the ground until they strangle to death. On a third consecutive successful attack, the Gallows has wrapped a tentacle around the victim’s throat, automatically strangling them for 1d12 hit points per round until dead. Once a victim is dead, the Gallows lifts the corpse into the tree where it begins to feed. There may be coins and small items scattered around the trunk of the tree from the Gallows' previous victims

A small grove of vine-draped trees may be the lair of a pod of Gallows and should be avoided at all costs.

Mutations: none