Crathog

Huge aberration, neutral evil

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 123 (13d12 + 39)
Speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
20 (+5)	13 (+1)	17 (+3)	10 (+0)	13 (+1)	9 (-1)

Saving Throws Dex +4, Wis +4, Cha +3
Damage Immunities acid
Condition Immunities prone
Languages Aquan, Deep Speech
Skills Perception +4, Stealth +4
Senses darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 30 ft.
Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)

Special Traits

• Acidic Trail. The crathog’s skin exudes a layer of acid. This coating leaves a slimy trail behind the crathog similar to a slug’s trail. All spaces that the crathog occupied since its last turn retain this acidic coating; any creature that enters or starts its turn in such a space takes 1d6 acid damage. At the start of the crathog’s turn, all previously acidic spaces become safe.
• Blending Skin. When at rest, a crathog shifts the color of its flesh to blend perfectly with the surrounding terrain. While motionless, the crathog is invisible.

Actions

• Multiattack. The crathog attacks twice with tentacles, then either bites twice or uses distended bite once.
• Tentacle. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit (reach 10 ft.; one creature). Hit: 2d8 + 5 bludgeoning damage plus 1d10 acid damage. If both tentacle attacks hit the same creature on the crathog’s turn, the creature is grappled (escape DC 15). The crathog can have up to two creatures grappled and still use tentacle attacks.
• Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit (reach 10 ft.; one creature). Hit: 1d8 + 5 piercing damage plus 1d10 acid damage.
• Distended Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit (reach 20 ft.; one creature); Hit: 1d12 + 5 piercing damage plus 1d10 acid damage.

About

Environment Coast
Organization solitary

This creature draws its leech-like body along by great barbed spindly tentacles that glisten with fluid. Somewhere inside its cluster of spines and sharp bones lurks a great maw that distends itself outward.

The crathog are octopod horrors that had their origins in the exits of large cities’ sewers emptying into the sea. The mixture of alchemical fluids, waste products, and other toxins caused mutations within the sea life that grew in the area until a new species spawned and bred true. The crathog began to gain an incessant drive to reproduce, a deeper understanding of their surroundings, and a greater intelligence.

A crathog seeps a corrosive acid from its porous flesh. Its tentacles move with an eerie quickness to grasp its prey and pull it toward its distended jaw. These jaws are hinged on a flexible tendon that allows the crathog to contract a coiled muscle and launch this set of jaws outward to burst from its clustered mouth. The creature is able to blend into its surroundings like a chameleon. It moves almost totally silently but leaves a slimy trail which in itself is acidic and dangerous. A crathog is incredibly strong and stealthy, known to climb onto ships to feed on unsuspecting sailors, dissolving their flesh with its acid.

Their intelligence allows them the insight to use their special abilities as ambush hunters. They tend to hide in crooks of old harbors and lie in wait until a fisherman ventures past. Crathog are not only cunning, they are incredibly cruel; they delight in mutilating or tormenting prey, and disfiguring their opponents with their acids. Why they do this is open to conjecture, but many scholars believe that crathog are somehow spawned by the influence of Between and that they seethe with the inherent injustice of those who have died in the river, particularly those who have suffered from its acidic toxins.