Fantasy Monster: Salt Miser

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Salt Miser

A little, shrunken old man, with beard and hair sprinkled with salt, and big crystals of salt growing on his back.

CR 10; XP 9,600
LE Small Fey

Init +5; Senses low-light vision; Perception +23

Aura scintillating salt (60 ft.)

Defense
AC 24, touch 22, flat-footed 18 (+5 deflection, +5 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 natural, +1 size)
hp 135 (18d6+72)
Fort +9; Ref +16; Will +13

Weakness susceptible to fresh water

Offense
Speed 30 ft.

Melee cane +15 melee touch (entrap)

Ranged 3 salt shards +15 ranged (4d6 piercing, 19-20/×2)

Special Attacks curse of bitter salt, entrap (DC 20, 24 hours, hardness 5, hp 40)

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 18th; concentration +19)

Constant—shield of faith

At Will—salt shards, bless salt fields

Statistics
Str 10, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 13, Wis 15, Cha 13
Base Atk +9; CMB +8; CMD 38

Feats Blind-Fight, Defensive Combat Training, Dodge, Nimble Moves, Improved Critical (salt shards), Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Toughness, Weapon Finesse

Skills Appraise +19, Diplomacy +22, Knowledge (engineering or local) +19, Knowledge (nature) +22, Perception +23, Profession (miner or salt worker) +20, Stealth +30

Language Common, Sylvan, Terran

Ecology
Environment warm coasts, salt lakes and fields, underground (salt mines)
Organization solitary or pair
Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Curse Of Bitter Salt (Su) Salt misers jealously guard their salt deposits. They can curse any load of salt taken without their consent to become bitter and corrosive. Anyone who consumes cursed salt or food exposed to it becomes nauseated for 1d4+1 rounds. All skill checks made when processing cursed salt or using it as a material or component suffer –5 penalty.

Entrap (Su) Salt miser's cane strike entraps the target in a shell of quickly growing salt crystals. Creatures that die while entrapped slowly turn into salt over the next 24 hours.

Scintillating Salt (Su) Salt miser's presence resonates with nearby deposits of salt. All salt within 60 feet of a salt miser (regardless of line of sight or effect) has a fluorescent glow to it. Smaller salt crystals produce dim illumination within 10 feet, larger can illuminate area up to 20 feet diameter.

Spell-Like Abilities (Sp) Salt shards works like scorching ray, but it is a conjuration (creation) effect, ignoring spell resistance and dealing piercing damage on a successful ranged attack roll. Bless salt fields acts like enrichment version of plant growth, except it applies to harvest of salt from the affected area, be it by mining or evaporation of brine.

Susceptible To Fresh Water (Ex) Fresh water burns salt misers like acid and brackish water is unpleasantly irritating, and undrinkable to them but otherwise harmless. Concentrated brine on the other hand, provides salt misers with fast healing 2.

Salt misers appear near deposits of salt—salt mines, salt fields, brine pools, certain intrusions from the elemental plane of Earth—which they view as their sole property and guard jealously against anyone who would try to harvest and utilize them without their permission. And acquiring their permission is costly, usually involving regular offerings or tributes, sometimes  in the form of gems, sometimes exotic foodstuffs and liquors, sometimes as performances, specific veneration rituals, or often some combination thereof.

While salt misers generally honor the deals they made, they are prone to altering them if they feel the other party is pressed for access for salt, or if there is competitor for the deposit—more than once a salt miser pitted two groups of salt workers against each other for his own amusement.

Occasionally, a deposit is tended to by two salt misers—while they can be quite vitriolic toward each other, they never come in conflict and will come to each others aid if threatened. What's worse, each of them has to be appeased before such salt can be harvested, and they might have vastly different demands.

Fantasy Monster: Mammoth Ape

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Mammoth Ape

An enormous, bulky ape with a long, mammoth-like tusks.

CR 11; XP 12,800
N Gargantuan Monstrous Humanoid

Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent; Perception +21

Defense
AC 25, touch 10, flat-footed 21 (+4 Dex, +15 natural, –4 size)
hp 152 (16d10+64)
Fort +11; Ref +14; Will +14

DR 5/–

Offense
Speed 50 ft., climb 30 ft.; long steps

Melee 2 slams +20 (2d6+8) and gore +20 (3d6+8)

Ranged thrown boulders or logs +16 (3d6+12)

Space 20 ft.; Reach 10 ft.

Special Attacks long throws, terrifying roars

Statistics
Str 26, Dex 18, Con 18, Int 9, Wis 15, Cha 13
Base Atk +16; CMB +28; CMD 42

Feats Acrobatic Step, Blind-Fight, Combat Reflexes, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Nimble Moves, Throw Anything

Skills Climb +16, Intimidate +20, Perception +21, Stealth +11

Language understands Sylvan, doesn't speak

Ecology
Environment tropical plains, jungles, hills, and mountains.
Organization solitary or pair
Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Long Steps (Ex) When a mammoth ape takes a 5-ft. step, it can actually reposition itself up to 10 feet without provoking attacks of opportunity.

Long Throws (Ex) A mammoth ape can throw massive boulders and logs of wood with ease, picking them up with a move action and throwing them (using two hands) as a standard action with range increment of 30 ft. On a failed attack roll they hit a random spot nearby like a  missed splash weapon and deal their minimum damage (usually 15) to everyone within 5 feet.

Terrifying Roars (Ex) A mammoth ape can attempt to demoralize a single opponent within 60 feet as a swift action, or all enemies within the same range as a standard action.

A mighty, yet extremally rare denizen of tropical lands, a mammoth ape is an enormous ape with equally enormous tusks—despite of what terrified witnesses might say, they are not as long as the beast's arms, however.

Mammoth apes are territorial and uncommunicative, but they can be placated with shows of submission and slow withdrawal from their territory. They are particularly aggressive towards others big humanoid and monstrous humanoids—relentlessly pursuing giants, trolls, and other specimens of their own kind. Their solitary nature can turn on them, though, when giants and trolls gang on them. Weirdly, they seem to mourn killed opponents, often issuing sad-sounding roars afterwards or going as far as carefully cover bodies of killed humanoids with leaves, branches or even whole trees.

They seem to be much more tolerant of wild animals, especially those that are much smaller than them. While strictly speaking, they are omnivores, the bulk of their sustenance is composed of plants, with animal hunting being only an occasional supplement to their diet. Obviously, they are far too huge to bother with minuscule snacks that appeals to smaller primates, such as eggs or insects, and when they eat fruits, they typically swallow a whole branch full of them.

Fantasy Monster: Crushing Sphere

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Crushing Sphere

A massive orb of polished obsidian, griddled in the middle with a belt of metal etched with arcane symbols that stays in its place even as the sphere rolls forward.

CR 10; XP 9,600
N Gargantuan Construct

Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, tremorsense 100 ft.; Perception +0

Defense
AC 24, touch 14, flat-footed 16 (+8 Dex, +10 natural, –4 size)
hp 126 (12d10+60)
Fort +4; Ref +12; Will +4

Defensive Qualities hardness 20; Immune construct traits

Offense
Speed 50 ft.

Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft.

Special Attacks crushing roll (DC 21, 12d6), double damage against immobile obstacles and structures

Statistics
Str 20, Dex 26, Con —, Int —, Wis 11, Cha 1
Base Atk +12; CMB +20; CMD 38 (can't be tripped)

Skills Acrobatics +8, Perception +0

Ecology
Environment urban, ruins, hills
Organization solitary or pair
Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Crushing Roll (Ex) A crushing sphere can roll over Large or smaller creatures and obstacles while moving, running or charging and ignores most of difficult terrains. Creatures or objects moved over suffer 12d6 points of damage, though creatures capable of acting can choose to either attempt an attack of opportunity against the crushing sphere, or attempt a Reflex saving throw (DC 21) to negate the damage. When the crushing sphere bumps into a Huge or larger creature or obstacle, it deals 12d6 points of bludgeoning damage and stops in its tracks (a successful Reflex saving throw halves this damage). Each creature suffers crushing roll damage only once per turn, even if the sphere's trail goes over them multiple times. The saving throw DC is Strength-based.

The initial design for the crushing sphere probably assumed it will be used as some sort of grain or ore mill, until it was upscaled into an monstrous grinding machine capable of flattening huts, breaching walls, and squashing enemies.

A crushing sphere moves under its own power, in a slightly wobbly trajectory, and can roll uphill (though it might treat particularly angled slopes as one of the few types of difficult terrain that can hinder it) to the painful surprise of those who would try to escape it that way. Its massive size also belies its speed and maneuverability.

Constructing crushing sphere

The creation process requires procuring a massive sphere of obsidian costing 10,000 gp.

CL 20th; Price 60,000 gp

Requirements Craft Construct, move earth, telekinetic sphere; Skill Craft (sculpture); DC 25; Cost 35,000 gp.

Fantasy Monster: Scintillating Bubbles

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Scintillating Bubbles

A thick veil of semitransparent, sparkling, pastel-hued bubbles  floats through the air.

CR 8; XP 4,800
N Tiny Ooze (aquatic, swarm)

Init +8; Senses blindsense 60 ft. (600 feet in water or similar liquids); Perception +0

Defense
AC 21, touch 21, flat-footed 12 (+9 Dex, +2 size)
hp 99 (22d8)
Fort +7; Ref +16; Will +7

Defensive Abilities half damage from bludgeoning weapons, swarm traits; Resist acid 20, electricity 20

Weakness vulnerable to area effects

Offense
Speed fly 20 ft. (perfect), swim 30 ft.

Melee swarm (5d6 acid and 5d6 electricity)

Space 10 ft.; Reach 0 ft.

Special Attacks distraction (DC 21), erode

Statistics
Str 1, Dex 28, Con 10, Int —, Wis 11, Cha 1
Base Atk +6; CMB —; CMD —

Skills Fly +21; Perception +0, Swim +3

SQ amphibious

Ecology
Environment aquatic, coastal
Organization solitary, pair, or shoal (3–6)
Treasure incidental

Special Abilities

Erode (Ex) Creatures that fail their saving throw against distraction special attack have their resistances to acid and electricity reduced by 10 until the beginning of their following turn.

Scintillating bubbles are spheres of some sort of primal ooze that comes out of depths of the oceans, threatening passing ships and occasionally even coastal areas. Their hollow interior contains gas that provide them with buoyancy, both in water and in the air, and they seem to be propelled by subtle changes to their electric and magnetic fields.

Sages are divided in their opinion what makes them leave their native depths—are they swarming because nutrients deep down are insufficient, or maybe they are swarming because there is too many nutrients and their number grew too much? Is something deliberately sending them against the surface?

It is also unknown what exactly attracts them—the swarms of scintillating bubbles certainly seem capable of responding to movement, but at other times they remain passive and calm, just hanging around, until some unknown factor trigger their aggression. That might be a simple hunger or maybe some sort of chemical cues, though it was never proven either way.