Bestiary: Ghidjarin

by Adam Frank and Tim Wallace

Ghidjarin

A slow, horrible flapping precedes an ear splitting sound that can be described as the bastard child of a shriek and a roar. A gigantic yellow striped creature with pointed legs emerges over the mountains. It flies toward you at a breakneck speed and comes to a surprisingly graceful landing in front of you, dwarfing your body. It opens its mouth again, wide enough to fit a group of adventurers, and out of its gaping jaw emerges a foul smelling swarm of stinging flies.

© Nicholas Cloister, Monsters by Email, licensed to Timothy Wallace

GHIDJARIN      CR 25

XP 1,638,400

CE Colossal dragon (extraplanar, fire)

Init +7; Senses dragon senses; Perception +35

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DEFENSE

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AC 42, touch 10, flat-footed 34 (+7 Dex, +1 dodge, +32 natural, -8 size)

hp 525 (30d12+360)

Fort +29, Ref +24, Will +19

DR 15/epic; Immune fire, paralysis, sleep; SR 36

Weaknesses vulnerable to cold

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OFFENSE

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Speed 50 ft., fly 250 ft. (clumsy)

Melee bite +38 (4d8+16), 2 gores +39 (4d6+18/19-20 plus burn), 2 wings +33 (2d8+8/19-20)

Space 30 ft.; Reach 30 ft.

Special Attacks burn (2d6, DC 37), swarm breath

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STATISTICS

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Str 42, Dex 25, Con 34, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 9

Base Atk +30; CMB +54; CMD 72

Feats Critical Focus, Death From Above, Dodge, Flyby Attack, Impaling Critical, Improved Critical (gore), Improved Critical (wing), Improved Impaling Critical, Intimidating Prowess, Skill Focus (Fly), Staggering Critical, Stunning Critical, Visceral Threat, Weapon Focus (gore), Weapon Specialization (gore)^B, Wingover

Skills Acrobatics +7 (+15 to jump), Fly +30, Intimidate +48, Perception +35, Stealth +24, Survival +35

Languages Abyssal, Draconic

SQ demolisher

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ECOLOGY

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Environment any mountain or swamp

Organization solitary

Treasure triple

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SPECIAL ABILITIES

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Critical Focus (Ex) A ghidjarin receives a +4 circumstance bonus on attack rolls made to confirm critical hits.

Death from Above (Ex) A ghidjarin receives a +5 bonus on attack rolls when charging from higher ground or flying.

Demolisher (Ex) A ghidjarin ignores up to 10 points of hardness when damaging objects.

Dragon Senses (Ex) Dragons have darkvision 120 ft. and blindsense 60 ft. They see four times as well as a human in dim light and twice as well in normal light.

Impaling Critical (Ex) Whenever a ghidjarin scores a critical hit with one of its gore attacks, it can impale its opponent on the gore. While its opponent is impaled in this way, each time he starts his turn, it deals damage equal to its gore's damage dice plus the ghidjarin's burn special attack. As an immediate action, the ghidjarin can pull its gore out of its opponent. If the ghidjarin's opponent is ever outside its reach, it must spend a free action to pull it out of him. The ghidjarin's opponent can also spend a move action to pull its gore out. When the gore comes out, its opponent takes damage as if starting his turn impaled. While the ghidjarin impales its opponent with its gore, it cannot use it to attack. The ghidjarin can only apply the effects of one critical feat to a given critical hit.

Improved Impaling Critical (Ex) While a ghidjarin is using Impaling Critical to impale an opponent with one of its gore attacks, that opponent must succeed at a grapple combat maneuver check against it to pull the gore out. Until the opponent pulls the gore out, his speed in all modes is halved and his maneuverability, if any, is reduced by one step. When the gore comes out, instead of dealing the damage normal for Impaling Critical, the ghidjarin can deal bleed damage equal to its gore's damage dice result once per round at the start of that opponent's turn.

Stunning Critical (Ex) Whenever a ghidjarin scores a critical hit, its opponent becomes stunned for 1d4 rounds. A successful Fortitude save (DC 40) reduces this to staggered for 1d4 rounds. The effects of this feat do not stack. Additional hits instead add to the duration. The ghidjarin can only apply the effects of one critical feat to a given critical hit.

Swarm Breath (Su) A ghidjarin's breath weapon summons an abyssal swarm. The swarm begins adjacent to the ghidjarin, but if no living creatures are within its area, it moves in one direction of the ghidjarin's choosing at its normal speed. The ghidjarin can move the swarm or change the swarm's direction by spending a standard action to concentrate on the swarm, otherwise it continues moving in its current direction. An abyssal swarm is in all ways identical to a hellwasp swarm, except that its alignment is CE and it understands Abyssal instead of Infernal. In addition, the Fortitude save DC versus the abyssal swarm's distraction and poison abilities are equal to the save DC of the ghidjarin's breath weapon (DC 36). The save is Constitution-based.

Visceral Threat (Ex) A ghidjarin may use Intimidate, rather than Bluff, to attempt a feint against a creature within its melee reach.

No one is sure where the ghidjarin came from; these creatures are as shrouded in mystery as they are terrifying. A single ghidjarin has been known to lay waste to kingdoms. They have only been sighted alone, not even a nest of baby ghidjarin has ever been found. There are theories that they are related to dragons in some way based on their similar reptilian features. Before feeding and as an attack they release a swarm of tiny stinging flies that attack anything nearby.

The ghidjarin are gigantic creatures, easily hundreds of feet from head to fin and three times that or more in wingspan. Their legs end in sharp points that they commonly use to skewer larger prey. For its size, a ghidjarin is surprisingly graceful; those who survive seeing one will commonly mention horrible flapping sound that preceded it's arrival and, should it travel on the ground, left no physical trace of its passing save the carnage strewn in its wake.

Incredibly violent, no one can tell if the ghidjarin are intelligent creatures as they would rather kill everything in sight than talk. There are groups of kobold clans that worship the ghidjarin as gods and will leave sacrifices of living creatures, including humanoids, even other kobolds should they feel the need for a sacrifice. This has never resulted in a particular kobold clan, should it be noticed by a ghidjarin, escaping the violent deaths these monstrous creatures bring.

There has been one known instance of a powerful wizard capturing a ghidjarin. Using magical traps, intricate spells and very rare and strong materials he made a cage for the creature and was able to coax it inside. In two days, the ghidjarin had escaped. Worthy of note here is that it left the cage unharmed and the city unrazed.