Foulspawn Grue
Image by Mike Sass, © (?) Wizards of the Coast. Accessed at the artist’s website here
[Much like the sorrowsworn before them, this is a monster family with a weird and shifting pedigree. So much so, in fact, that they have a different name every time they appear! This family of monsters first appeared in 3.5′s Monster Manual V as the ushemoi, subterranean aberrations whose gimmick was hyperspeed Lamarckian evolution. They get tougher the longer you fight them, you see; some of them gain attack bonus and AC the more damage they take, others gain better spellcasting the more spells they cast. This was, clearly, a lot of paperwork for a GM, and so that gimmick was dropped when they reappeared in 4e’s core Monster Manual as the foulspawn. There were five foulspawn, as opposed to only four ushemoi, because there was one for each of the main monster “roles” in the 4e system (controller, brute, soldier, skirmisher, artillery) and they were designed to be used together in encounter building. Their appearances were tweaked slightly, but the foulspawn are clearly built on top of the ushemoi. In Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, they became “starspawn” instead of “foulspawn”, and the abilities of the brute and the soldier were collapsed back into one creature. And they didn’t get illustrations! The only starspawn that gets a picture is the “larva mage”, which is the D&D 5e version of the Worm that Walks. Some of the unused illustrations (like the one above) have made it to the internet, as well as some of the new pictures they’re getting in Monsters of the Multiverse.
So I had a lot of decisions to make with these entries. Which version of the ushemoi/foulspawn/starspawn to use as my base? Which name to give them? What pictures to use? I’m sticking to the 4e foulspawn designation, but giving them ushemoi as an endonym, and the ushemoi species names as type endonyms (although the lashemoi is the least like the grue it eventually became). My base is the 5e statistics, but I am incorporating more of their 4e abilities, because 5e monsters tend to be a little boring mechanically. And I’m making them natives of Aucturn because it seems like a logical place in the Pathfinder setting for them to live. @thecreaturechronicle placed them there as well, as the spawn of the daelkyr, but I’ve made them more “natural” lifeforms from that unnatural world.]
Foulspawn (Ushemoi) The planet Aucturn slumbers. Believed by the maddest sages to be the embryonic form of an Outer God, that mysterious world nevertheless has characteristics of life. And like large organisms the multiverse over, smaller things live on it, surviving on its excretions and relying on it for shelter. These commensal creatures are the foulspawn.
Foulspawn are vaguely humanoid creatures with warped bodies and even more warped psyches. They are spawned in pits where secretions of Aucturn mingle with organic debris, and the larger the wound, the more fecund it is in foulspawn. They call themselves the ushemoi when speaking in Aklo. Foulspawn can be found carrying out strange, destructive missions on multiple worlds, presumably in some way serving the needs of their home planet. As Aucturn is the site of a careful détente between the servitors of the Great Old Ones and the Dominion of the Black, ushemoi may be found among either of these forces, although they are not slavishly loyal to either.
Foulspawn is a subtype of aberration with the following racial abilities: Madness (Ex) Foulspawn use their Charisma modifier on Will saves instead of their Wisdom modifier, and are immune to insanity and confusion effects. Only a miracle or wish can remove a foulspawn's madness. If this occurs, the foulspawn gains 6 points of Wisdom and loses 6 points of Charisma. No breath (Ex) as the universal monster ability. Telepathy 60 ft.
Foulspawn Grue CR 3 NE Aberration This small humanoid creature has stooped posture and wrinkled skin, from which black bristles protrude at irregular intervals. Its hands and feet end in sharp, cracked nails. It has no nose and a fanged maw.
Grues are among the weakest and most numerous of the foulspawn. The bristles that grow off of their bodies are filamentous structures more akin to the contents of a blackhead than anything else, and foulspawn grues spend much of their idle time picking and squeezing at them. Foulspawn grues are fidgety and twitchy in general, and often giggle nervously. They are called “lashemoi” in Aklo.
Foulspawn grues prefer to attack from ambush or alongside larger, more powerful foulspawn. Their madness is contagious, and creatures standing too close to a foulspawn grue suffer from flashes of color, emotional surges and other minor hallucinations. They usually target the weakest seeming individuals, and enjoy drawing out their assaults into extended torment sessions rather than finishing off any one victim. This also helps to spread their maddening bite, which causes more potent confusion. One side effect of the maddening bite is to make its victims target the grue that bit them above other targets, which allows more powerful foulspawn to take advantage of the distraction.
