Synx'keres (3.5e Monster)



''They're eating her. And then... it's going to eat me! Oh my goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!''

Born from a nightmare which touched the far realm and was given life, synx'keres are terrible fiends who embody the fear of being devoured. Synx'keres have long white slender bodies like a mink yet sporting a grotesque potbelly, and the head of a goat with a constantly wide grinning mouth from ear to ear, filled with dozens of sharp needle like teeth. Marks around its eyes make it look like its crying blood or tar, and its limbs are long, gangly, and double-jointed, each tipped with long black nails hard as iron. Their tail is long and prehensile, and in fact it appears that their entire bodies are quite mobile, able to contort themselves in impossible shapes and disjoint bones from each other, or seemingly dissolve what bones they have, turning themselves into gurgling mobile sacks of meat and flesh. It is them stretchability that allows them to devour so many, including creatures not much smaller than themselves. They are in essence all teeth and stomach, with an internal structure alien and vile.

Synx'kerii are intelligent and cruel. They do not need to eat but devour anything with vigor and glee, even devouring helpless victims slowly and piece by piece to draw out their suffering. For them, it is an art and they are fine connoisseurs of food. Though they originated on the edge of the far realm and the plane of dreams, they have been expanding and can be found in the ethereal plane, where they feast on ghosts and other ethereal creatures. On these three planes they do not possess the extraplanar subtype.

Synx'kerii speak common, infernal, and abyssal. Unusually intelligent synx'kerii will learn the language of their favorite prey in order to torment them while eating. A synx'keres is about 10 feet tall when standing straight (though it is often slouching) and 500 pounds.

Combat
The synx'keres always attempts to ambush its prey when they least expect it, stalking after them hidden from view and striking when the surroundings are most ideal for their tactics. They grab and devour one creature and, if they feel confident and are still hungry, they lash out with claws and bite, relying on their damage reduction and fast healing to keep them afloat (even so far as employing Robilar's Gambit, so they may swallow them in the resulting attacks of opportunity). If in a dangerous situation, it attempts to create a decoy (such as vomiting an eaten victim off a cliff or into a hazard) to provide a means of escape while their allies go to rescue their friend from whatever danger the synx'keres has deposited them.

Adamant Weapons (Ex): Synx'keres natural weapons count as adamantine for bypassing damage reduction and hardness.

Devour Soul (Su): To the synx'keres, everything can be eaten, be it flesh, fat, bones, or even the soul. All of the synx'keres natural weapons and manufactured weapons it wields count as ghost touch weapons. In addition, they may devour the souls of fallen enemies as a standard action. If a synx'keres makes a touch attack on a corpse that has perished in the last 5 rounds, the synx'keres eats its soul. The target cannot be raised or resurrected until that particular synx'keres is destroyed or freedom is cast on the spot where it was eaten. When it has eaten a soul, a synx'keres gains a cumulative +1 profane bonus on attack, damage, AC, skill checks, and saving throws, as well as temporary hp equal to twice the HD of the devoured creature, up to a number of times equal to their Con bonus (the sample creature above can devour 5 souls a day and benefit from the bonuses, further souls are still consumed by grant no bonuses). This benefit lasts for 24 hours.

Dreamborn Traits (Ex): Introduced in the book Hyperconciousness, Dreamborn creatures are spawned from, and made of "dreamstuff". They appear slightly hazy and out of focus, and so all melee and ranged attacks against them suffer a 20% miss chance, as they are not entirely real. This miss chance is not the same as concealment and does not prevent the use of sneak attacks or other precision strikes. The subtype also determines if it is vulnerable to certain spells and effects which deal with dream-based creatures.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a synx'keres must hit with a bite attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity.

Monstrous Birth (Su): The synx'keres can give birth to terrible monsters drawn from nightmares, the beasts ripping from its flesh and the hole resealing immediately after. It can duplicate the effects of summon monster, summoning up any non-good non-unique creature half of its CR (or 1d4 creatures of half CR -1, or 1d4+1 half CR-2). Unlike summon monsters, the creatures actually exist but are extremely unstable biologically, and disintegrates when its duration is up. Protection from Alignment spells do not help against being touched by these summons, as they are created and not summoned in the traditional sense. It can make one of the births stable and permanent as a standard action while a monster is active, but has no control of the creature after the duration of the normal effect ends. The monster becomes indifferent and goes off on its own as appropriate for its behavior. Synx'keres can employ Monstrous Birth 3/day, and make one of those 3 attempts permanent 1/day.

Nightmare Aura (Su): The presence of a synx'keres corrupts its surroundings, causing it to turn it nightmarish and disconcerting. It varies from synx'keres to synx'keres but often normal matter and earth take on the visual appearance of being made of meat (it possesses the same hardness and properties as normal however). The aura spreads out to 120 ft. and all those within the aura take a -1 morale penalty to attack rolls, saves, and skill checks due to the disturbance. It may toggle its aura on and off as a swift action, so that it may sneak up and hide without causing the surroundings to transform into nightmares.

Rend (Ex): If a synx'keres hits with both claw attacks, it latches onto the opponent’s body and tears the flesh. This attack automatically deals an additional 2d8+12 points of damage.

Smite Good (Su): A synx'keres gains the ability to smite like an evil paladin. 3/day, the synx'keres may add it's Charisma bonus to its attack and its HD to its damage roll against a good-aligned creature.

Swallow Whole (Ex): The synx'keres can try to swallow a grabbed opponent of Medium or smaller size by making a successful grapple check. Once inside, the opponent takes 2d6+8 points of crushing damage plus 2d6+4 points of acid damage per round from the synx'kerii's digestive juices. A swallowed creature can cut its way out by dealing 24 points of damage to the synx'kerii's digestive tract (AC 16). They suffer the miss chance from Dreamborn as normal. Once the creature exits, muscular action closes the hole; another swallowed opponent must cut its own way out. The synx'kerii's gullet can hold 2 Medium, 8 Small, 32 Tiny, 128 Diminutive, or 512 Fine or smaller creatures.

Skills: The extremely flexible body of the synx'keres gives it a +8 racial bonus on Escape Artist checks and grapple checks made to escape a grapple.