| Mod | Save | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| STR | 18 | +4 | +14 |
| DEX | 10 | +0 | +0 |
| CON | 19 | +4 | +14 |
| Mod | Save | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| INT | 3 | -4 | -4 |
| WIS | 12 | +1 | +1 |
| CHA | 5 | -3 | -3 |
Amphibious. The Sludge Maw can breathe air and water.
Amorphous. The Sludge Maw can can move through a space as narrow as 1 foot wide without squeezing.
Slime Coat. Dexterity Saving Throw: DC 16, A creature that touches the Sludge Maw or hits it with a melee attack while within 5 feet of it is covered in slick, acrid slime. A slimed creature has disadvantage on Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks made to escape a grapple and on Dexterity saving throws. The slime can be removed by spending an action to scrape or wash it off.
Fetid Presence. The Sludge Maw is surrounded by an aura of its sweet yet nauseating scent. Constitution Saving Throw: DC 15, any creature other than an ooze or aberration that starts its turn within 20 feet of the Sludge Maw and in the same body of water is Poisoned for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, it is immune to the Sludge Maw's Fetid Presence for the next 24 hours.
Siege Monster. The Sludge Maw deals double damage to objects and structures.
Multiattack. The Slude Maw makes two attacks: one with its Maw and one with its Sludge Slam.
Maw. Melee Attack Roll: +7, reach 5 ft. Hit: 17 (3d8 + 4) Piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) Acid damage. If the target is a Large or smaller creature, it has the Grappled condition (escape DC 15) from its Maw. Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained and the Sludge Maw can't bite another target. As a bonus action on its next turn, the Sludge Maw can attempt to swallow a grappled creature by making another Maw attack roll against it. If this attack hits, the creature is swallowed.
Sludge Slam. Melee Attack Roll: +7, reach 10 ft. Hit: 13 2d8 + 4) Bludgeoning damage. Strength Saving Throw: DC 15, if the target is a Huge or smaller creature it has the Prone condition (escape DC 15) and is knocked back 10 ft. Success: resist the prone and knockback effects.
Acid Sit (Recharge 5–6). Ranged Attack Roll: +7 (30/60 ft.), Hit: 22 5d8) Acid damage. If the target is wearing nonmagical metal armor, its armor is partly corroded and takes a permanent and cumulative -1 penalty to the AC it offers. The armor is destroyed if the penalty reduces its AC to 10.
Swallow. The Sludge Maw makes one bite attack against a Medium or smaller creature it is grappling. If the attack hits, the target takes the bite's damage, the target is swallowed, and the grapple ends. While swallowed, the creature is blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the Sludge Maw, and it takes 10 (3d6) (3d6) acid damage at the start of each of the Sludge Maw's turns. If the Sludge Maw takes 20 damage or more on a single turn from a creature inside it, the Sludge Maw must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw at the end of that turn or regurgitate all swallowed creatures, which fall prone in a space within 10 feet of the Sludge Maw. If the Sludge Maw dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse by using 10 feet of movement, exiting prone.
Description
The Abyssal Sludge Maw is a horrifying aberration native to the deepest, darkest, and most refuse-choked trenches of the ocean floor, though it sometimes lairs within forgotten underwater ruins or near sites of intense necromantic or abyssal energy. It is not a creature of high intellect or calculated malice, but rather a colossal, primeval scavenger and ambush predator driven by an insatiable, indiscriminate hunger.
Visually, it is a grotesque, slug-like mass, easily fifteen to twenty feet in length and several feet thick, classifying it as a Huge creature. Its segmented body is a mottled camouflage of diseased-looking dark greens, browns, and blacks, constantly glistening with a thick, translucent, and foul-smelling slime. This slime, paradoxically, exudes a deceptively sweet, cloying overtone – a scent that can sometimes lure unsuspecting prey or mask its otherwise fetid nature. It possesses no discernible limbs for locomotion, instead moving with a slow, ponderous, oozing motion that ripples its immense bulk. It is capable of burrowing through mud, silt, and loose debris.
Its most prominent and terrifying features are at its anterior end. Two massive, independently swiveling stalked eyes, each the size of a dinner plate, glow with a sickly, internal yellow-green luminescence, allowing it to see in the deepest darkness and track prey with unnerving focus. Its entire "front" is dominated by a horrifying, cavernous fanged maw, ringed with multiple rows of needle-sharp, regenerating teeth, capable of distending to swallow Medium-sized prey whole. It communicates through low, wet gurgles, guttural clicks, and hisses.
The Sludge Maw's natural intentions are simply to feed and exist. It is drawn to areas with abundant organic decay, carrion, or weak or isolated life forms. It is fiercely territorial and will aggressively attack any creature it perceives as a threat or potential meal that enters its established domain. While not intelligent in a conventional, tool-using sense, it possesses a primal cunning, often lurking patiently in shadows, mud, or debris, using its amorphous qualities to squeeze into surprisingly tight spaces before erupting to ambush prey.
The Sludge Maw does not digest bones, as it has evolved in a manner finding that its ingested skeletal excretions attract other bottom feeders resulting in a more stable localized food source found along its most traversed scavenging areas. As such, there are often large quantities of bones from different species littering the tunnel floors near a Sludge Maw's lair.
Lair and Lair Actions
An Abyssal Sludge Maw typically lairs in the most forgotten and refuse-choked corners of the deep, lightless places of the world, whether they be natural abyssal trenches, ancient sunken ruins, or the deepest, flooded sections of forgotten undercities. It seeks out locations where decay is rampant, where currents deposit organic matter, or where other denizens create ample waste, as these conditions provide both sustenance and ideal ambush opportunities. The actual lair is typically a 40 to 50 foot cavernous space half of which can be filled by the Abyssal Sludge Maw. An aggressive Sludge Maw may easily trap intruders within the lair by causing entrances to the lair to collapse by the indirect use of its Sludge Slam ability (This debris can usually be cleared by hand, but can take 10 minutes to an hour to do so).
The tunnel systems containing a Sludge Maw's lair consists of widening tunnels or corridors as the lair is approached, with increasingly visible slime and excretion residue covering the walls, floors, and ceilings, with an ever increasing deceptively sweet aroma that fills the water, and offends the senses.
Slime-Coated Surfaces: The walls, floor, and any significant structures within at least a 60-foot radius of the Maw's central resting spot are invariably coated in a thick, glistening layer of its translucent, acrid slime. This slime creates difficult terrain for any creature not adapted to it. Creatures moving through these areas or touching the slime may need to make Dexterity saving throws to avoid slipping or becoming partially mired.
Weakened Structures (in ruins): The Maw's acidic secretions and burrowing activities often undermine stonework, leading to sections of unstable or crumbling walls and ceilings. Significant vibrations or damage in these areas (such as from spells with concussive force) might trigger collapses, creating falling debris and further difficult terrain.
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