Grick, Hunting

Family: Grick

Medium ravager (devastation), chaotic evil or unaligned

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 55 (10d8 + 10); Wound Threshold 14
Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
17 (+3)	16 (+3)	12 (+1)	10 (+0)	15 (+2)	5 (-3)

Skills Perception +4, Stealth +5
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from non-magical attacks
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages Phantasm
Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Corrosive Fluids. After dealing a Wound or a critical hit to the hunting grick, the melee weapon or ammunition used is covered in corrosive fluids. Any non-magical weapon or armor under this effect, and which is not protected by an appropriate forging technique (such as dwarven forging), becomes fragile (see Adventurers, Equipment, Armory: Damaged Weapons and Armor).
• Devastating Critical. The hunting grick’s weapon attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 18, 19, or 20. On a critical hit, the target’s armor (on the condition that it isn’t magical) takes a -1 AC penalty and becomes fragile. Moreover, the target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of its next turn.
• Sneak Attack (1/Turn). The hunting grick deals an extra 7 (2d6) damage when it hits a target with a weapon attack and has advantage on the attack roll, or when the target is within 5 feet of an ally of the hunting grick that isn’t incapacitated and the hunting grick doesn’t have disadvantage on the attack roll.
• Stone Camouflage. The hunting grick has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide in rocky terrain.

ACTIONS

• Multiattack. The hunting grick makes two tentacle attacks and one beak attack against the same target.
• Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage.
• Tentacle. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) piercing damage.

ABOUT

When under stress, gricks emit a chemical substance that spreads throughout their bloodstream and rises in the air when they bleed. The odorous substance serves as an olfactory alarm, which is transmitted little by little to the cells of the Cankerous nest and the creatures in them. To prevent the alarm from being raised, one must circumvent this particularity. For example:

Killing the grick without spilling a drop of blood. Taking the grick by surprise and killing it in one blow, so that it doesn’t see death coming. Wounding it and killing it where the air currents won’t carry the smell to other gricks. A grick is a serpentine and creeping creature whose face is the unnatural union between a sharp beak and tentacles, the grick is both discreet and versatile. It functions as a worker, a collector, a scout, and a nurse. This ravager is the first type that a Cankerous nest can produce, making it one of the basic units in ravager troops.

Gricks can regurgitate a substance sometimes called “regurgrick.” It can be used as a building material with a wide variety of applications. When fresh, the regurgrick is slimy, soft and malleable. After drying, it hardens, becoming rigid and delicate like gristle. Here are some applications:

• Secondary Alarm System. The grick generates thin threads of regurgrick, stretching them between the walls of passageways that enemies might take. The area is regularly patrolled: if threads are broken, the grick knows that a creature has entered. This method of alarm is used during the early days of a Cankerous nest, when it cannot yet form carnemones in great numbers.
• Mimicry. Seen from a distance, grick threads can be mistaken for spider webs. The wetnurse gricks of a young beating growth may try to disguise the surroundings of their lair as a giant spider’s nest to deter curious creatures from approaching.
• Mortar. Combined with stones or other materials, the substance can also be used as mortar to build protective walls.
• Concealed trap. Several thin layers of the substance covered with rock dust can be used to place a pit trap (simple, holding, etc.).