STR: 6 (90)--- WPR: 3 (45)
DEX: 2 (30) --- PER: 1 (15)
AGL: 2 (30) --- PCN: 1 (15)
STA: 5 (75) --- PWR: NA
ATT: 2/60% --- WND: 15
MV: L 100
Experience: 600
When a large number of animals are slaughtered and gutted, hunters and butchers alike usually dispose of the internal organs into a charnel pit of some kind. Sometimes these cast-off tissues will fuse together and, when exposed to arcane rituals and/or toxic chemicals, a humanoid nightmare will arise from the castoff remains.
A Gutpile is a human-shaped creature composed of various internal organs that have fused together: stomachs, brains, hearts, lungs, intestines, and various other cast-offs from meat-processing. A Gutpile varies in size, depending on the amount of tissues that were in the pit at the time of its resurrection, but they stand on average about 6 feet high. The Gutpile's surface is constantly oozing and dripping with various fluids, blood, and ichors. The creature doesn't speak or make any noise, except for the wet "sloshing" of its body as it lunges along. The Gutpile also reeks of decay and decomposition; its odor usually is detected long before the creature arrives.
The Gutpile is constantly in a state of agonizing pain as its nerve endings are on fire. (Imagine having all of your skin removed, your organs exposed, and being unable to scream.) Due to this, what little intelligence it may have is blinded by agony, and it lashes out in a constant insane fury at any it encounters. The Gutpile attacks with its two bulbous "fists" for two crushing attacks per round. Also, due to the rot and decay that permeates the diseased THING, there is a chance that a victim will contract the Flesh-Eating Bacteria disease (CW rules, pg. 42). Upon a successful strike, a victim must make a specific check versus a potency 8 illness to avoid contracting the disease, which will slowly begin eroding parts of the body.
When a Gutpile is encountered, the most humane thing to do is to put it out of its misery as quickly as possible. While it "lives," it will rampage wildly, killing and infecting all in its path. Once destroyed, the charnel pit that spawned it should be set ablaze lest the same event occur again.
NOTE: This "living charnel pit" originally appeared here as a Mutant Future creature. But the idea of a writhing, walking mass of organs was horrific enough to convert the concept to a Cryptworld THING!
The Darkest Shadows
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Whatever one's feelings about the setting itself, Gerald Brom's artwork for *Dark
Sun* was truly stunning. Take, for example, this piece which appeared on...