Endless Blue - Week 37.5 - The Kraken: Ancient Wyrms from Below the Waves

Zoology

The Kraken:  Ancient Wyrms from Below the Wave

Nothing strikes utter terror into the hearts of the Known World as the mere mention of the world kraken.  Centuries of their ruthless occupation have made their name a terrifying sound, perhaps more feared than even the Vastness.  But the history of their brutality go back further than the existence of the Fluid Nation, as the depraved leviathans are far more ancient than any piscean could imagine.

The entire race numbered less than one hundred known specimens, solitary hermits that were fiercely territorial and shunned others of their own kind.  They staked out their indulgent kingdoms in and around the Maw, and from their underground caverns brought a reign of horror to the placid seas.  They competed with each other, playing out their power struggles in an attempt to gain prominence over others of their kind, forever enacting and re-enacting the same efforts of dominance.  Yet despite their isolationist instincts, under the direction of one particularly cruel kraken they put aside their petty jealousies and hubris to  band together for the first time in written history.  That wicked alliance led to the thousand years of Kraken domination over the piscean way of life.

Kraken are a long lived race, only reaching adulthood at an age when most pisceans become venerable.  Their young are born from perfectly round eggs, each with a diamter of ten or twelve inches.  The shell is thick and semi-translucent, with the gestating yolk visible through a frosty haze.  The floating embryo inside is curled into a w-shape that parallels the pupil of a grown Kraken, making the egg resemble a rendered eye.

Category	Age (Years)
Larva	0-5
Very young	6-15
Young	16-30
Juvenile	31-50
Young Adult	51-100
Adult	101-200
Mature adult	201-400
Old	401-600
Very old	601-1,000
Ancient	1,001-2,000
Squid	2,001-3,000
Great Squid	3,000 or more

Despite the length of time it takes for maturity, the Kraken are intelligent at birth.  They have not learned to talk, but have enough wits about them distinguish danger or potential prey immediately and take appropriate measures.

Kraken

Magical Beast (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: By age category
Initiative: By age category
Speed: By age category
Armor Class: By age category
Base Attack/Grapple: By age category
Attack: By age category
Full Attack: By age category
Space/Reach: By age category
Special Attacks: Improved grab, constrict.
Special Qualities: Camouflage, darkvision, frightful presence, ink cloud, low-light vision, spell-like abilities, tracescent, ultravision
Saves: By age category
Abilities: By age category
Skills: Concentration +21, Disguise +17, Hide +10, Intimidate +16, Knowledge (oceanography) +17, Listen +30, Search +28, Sense Motive +17, Spot +30, Survival +10 (+15 following tracescent), Use Magic Device +16
Feats: Alertness, Blind Fight, Improved Critical (barbed tentacle), Improved Initiative
Environment: Temperate underwater caverns
Organization: Solitary (1)
Challenge Rating: Larva 3; very young 4; young 5; juvenile 7; young adult 9; adult 11; mature adult 14; old 16; very old 18; ancient 19; squid 20; great squid 22
Treasure: Triple standard
Alignment: Always neutral evil.
Advancement: By age category.
Level Adjustment: —

These colossal squid are approximately 40 feet long, with a thickly muscled yet streamlined body, and a mass of coursucating tentacles around its hugely beaked mouth.  Its bulbous eyes stares out menacingly through its strangely shaped pupils.  Six of its eight limbs stretch out to lengths of 30 feet, with the last pair of tentacles reaching twice that distance.  Covered in barbs, these function as the monstrosity's hands.

Kraken speak the now dead tongue of Aquelan and their native Krakonian.

Combat
Kraken are wily predators, and will employ complex tactics to amuse themselves as much as to out-think their opponent.  They will employ their camouflage skills to their greatest effect, picking off stragglers until the main school is weakened enough for a full assault.  Initiating combat, they will normally use all their barbed tentacles to deal damage and their subsidiary other tentacles to grapple, but once into the fray they will take any opportunity that presents itself.  Opponents can attempt to sunder the Kraken's tentacles as if they were weapons.  The primary barbed tentacles have 20 hit points each, and the secondary off-hand tentacles have 10.  The Kraken can use any one of its free tentacles to make a retributive attack of opportunity in response to the sunder attempt.  Severing a tentacle deals damage to the Kraken equal to half of the limb's full normal hit points (10 or 5 hit points, respectively).  Should a Kraken lose both its barbed tentacles and at least three of its other limbs, it will retreat.  It takes 1d10+10 days to regrow severed limbs.

Size	Space/Reach	1 Bite	1 Barbed Tentacle	1 Tentacle
Tiny	2 1/2 ft. long/1 ft. (5 ft. with barbed tentacles, 2 1/2 ft. with other tentacles)	1d2	1	-
Small	5 ft. long/2.5 ft. (10 ft. with barbed tentacles, 5 ft. with other tentacles)	1d3	1d2	1
Medium	10 ft. long/5 ft. (20 ft. with barbed tentacles, 10 ft. with other tentacles)	1d4	1d4	1d2
Large	15 ft. long/10 ft. (30 ft. with barbed tentacles, 15 ft. with other tentacles)	2d4	1d6	1d4
Huge	20 ft. long/10 ft. (40 ft. with barbed tentacles, 20 ft. with other tentacles)	3d4	1d8	1d6
Gargantuan	30 ft. long/15 ft. (50 ft. with barbed tentacles, 25 ft. with other tentacles)	4d4	2d6	1d8
Colossal	40 ft. long/15 ft. (60 ft. with barbed tentacles, 30 ft. with other tentacles)	5d4	2d8	2d6

Improved Grab (Ex): If the kraken successfully hits with a tentacle attack, it can then attempt to start a grapple without invoking an attack of opportunity.  It establishes a hold and can constrict if it wins the grapple check.

Constrict (Ex): A Kraken automatically deals damage with a successful grapple check.  The damage is 2d8 + Str modifier for the barbed tentacles or 1d6 + 1/2 Str modifier for normal tentacles.

Jet (Ex): In the rare occurrences that a Kraken decides to flee, it can jet backwards at a speed of 200 feet (50 cubes).  This can be done once per round as a full-round action that does not invoke an attack of opportunity, and movement must be in a straight line.

Camouflage (Ex): Pigments saturating the Kraken's toughened skin are malleable, and with a successful Disguise check a Kraken can blend in with its surroundings.  This gives the Kraken the Hide In Plain Sight feat and adds a +10 racial bonus to Hide checks.  The Kraken must maintain his concentration while using his camouflage ability to maintain this effect for more than a round, however failing the Concentration check does not result in the Kraken breaking its camouflage, just losing the racial bonus (it failed to adjust its coloration to take into account an observer’s movement, etc.).

Ink Cloud (Ex): The Kraken can eject a cloud of inky pigment in an 80 foot spread once per round as a free action.  Providing total concealment, creatures caught in the cloud are considered to be in darkness.  The cloud is dissipated in 1d2 rounds.  This ability can may be unusable should the Kraken use the cloud's second form (see below)

Alternately to the cloud effect, once every 1d4 rounds the Kraken can spit a concentrated spout of the jet-black ichor.  This chemically irritating and toxic excretion inflames the gills of those caught in the area of effect and causes suffocation.  Its poison is absorbed into the bloodstream, and as the creature's panicking send its blood coursing through its veins, it carries the toxicity further and faster throughout the body.  A cure poison spell can counteract the poison effect, and the clogged gills can be cleared with a purify food and water.  There is no cloud effect in this form, and the Kraken cannot use the cloud form again until the spout effect has recharged.

Kraken Size	Ink Spout Cone (Length)
Tiny	5 ft.
Small	10 ft.
Medium	20 ft.
Large	40 ft.
Huge	80 ft.
Gargantuan	160 ft.
Colossal	280 ft.

Spell-like Abilities: Kraken may cast the following 1/day as a 9th level caster -- control currents, dominate animal, resist energy, and vortex.  Save DCs for these spells are Charisma based.

Kraken by Age

Age	Size	Hit Dice (hp)	Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha	Base Attack/ Grapple	Attack	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Ink Cloud (DC)	Frightful Presence DC
Larva	T	5d12+5 (37)	15	10	13	14	15	14	+5/+11	+6	+5	+4	+6	2d6 (13)	—
Very young	S	8d12+16 (68)	19	10	15	16	17	16	+8/+16	+11	+7	+5	+9	4d6 (16)	—
Young	M	11d12+22 (93)	23	10	15	16	17	16	+11/+21	+16	+9	+7	+10	6d6 (17)	—
Juvenile	L	14d12+42 (133)	27	10	17	18	19	18	+14/+30	+20	+12	+9	+13	8d6 (20)	—
Young adult	L	17d12+68 (178)	29	10	19	18	19	18	+17/+34	+24	+14	+10	+14	10d6 (23)	22
Adult	H	20d12+80 (210)	31	10	19	20	21	20	+20/+38	+28	+16	+12	+17	12d6 (24)	25
Mature adult	H	23d12+115 (264)	31	10	21	20	21	20	+23/+45	+29	+18	+13	+18	14d6 (27)	26
Old	G	26d12+156 (325)	33	10	23	24	21	24	+26/+49	+33	+21	+15	+20	16d6 (30)	29
Very old	G	29d12+203 (391)	35	10	25	26	23	26	+29/+53	+37	+23	+16	+22	18d6 (32)	31
Ancient	C	32d12+256 (464)	37	10	27	28	25	28	+32/+63	+37	+26	+18	+25	20d6 (34)	34
Squid	C	35d12+315 (542)	39	10	29	30	27	30	+35/+65	+41	+28	+19	+27	22d6 (37)	36
Great squid	C	38d12+380 (627)	41	10	31	32	33	32	+38/+69	+45	+31	+21	+32	24d6 (39)	39

Special Abilities by Age

Age	Speed	Initiative	AC	Special Abilities	Caster Level	SR
Larva	swim 200 ft. (perfect)	+0	16 (+2 size, +4 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 16	Camouflage	—	—
Very young	swim 200 ft. (good)	+0	18 (+1 size, +7 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 18		—	—
Young	swim 200 ft. (good)	+0	21 (+11 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 21	Jet	—	—
Juvenile	swim 200 ft. (average)	+0	23 (–1 size, +14 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 23		3rd	—
Young adult	swim 200 ft. (average)	+0	26 (–1 size, +17 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 26	Damage reduction 5/magic	5th	20
Adult	swim 200 ft. (average)	+0	28 (–2 size, +20 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 28		7th	22
Mature adult	swim 200 ft. (poor)	+0	31 (–2 size, +23 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 31	Damage reduction 10/magic	9th	23
Old	swim 250 ft. (poor)	+0	34 (–3 size, +27 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 34		11th	25
Very old	swim 250 ft. (poor)	+0	37 (–3 size, +30 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 37	Damage reduction 15/magic	13th	26
Ancient	swim 250 ft. (clumsy)	+0	38 (–4 size, +32 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 38		15th	28
Squid	swim 250 ft. (clumsy)	+0	41 (–4 size, +35 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 41	Damage reduction 20/magic	17th	29
Great squid	swim 250 ft. (clumsy)	+0	44 (–4 size, +38 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 44		19th	31

The remnants of the Kraken Empire, abandoned by their otherworldly gods, degenerated rapidly over the years into what is now called the Ceph.  Believed extinct, one Kraken still lives yet.  Trapped in the Undertow when it was still very young, it lurks hidden in the labyrinthine tunnels of the Bubble Below, avoiding all life and slowly losing touch with reality as the years accumulated and became centuries.  It guards its hoard zealously, as if its very existence depends on it remaining safe.

"Dreams do not tell children the Kraken exist; children already know that Kraken exist
Dreams tell children the Kraken can be killed.  Those dreams are our salvation."
-- famous words spoken  by the Cetacean commander at the fall of the Kraken Empire.