AzgenzakThis undulating, amorphous sac is a turgid, brown-black mass
scarcely hiding a seething jumble of rounded subcutaneous
masses churning within. One end opens into a yawning maw,
revealing a fiery cauldron of innumerable, lidless eyeballs of
every size, shape, and color, each wreathed in sooty orange flame.
Azgenzak CR 8Source Pathfinder #69: Maiden, Mother, Crone pg. 82
XP 4,800
NE Large aberration (aquatic)
Init +3; Senses all-around vision, darkvision 60 ft., low-light
vision; Perception +20
Aura frightful presence (30 ft., DC 16, inverted form only)
DefenseAC 22, touch 12, flat-footed 19 (+3 Dex, +10 natural, –1 size)
hp 95 (10d8+50)
Fort +8, Ref +6, Will +8
Defensive Abilities amorphous; Immune fire, poison
OffenseSpeed 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
Melee 3 slams +11 (1d6+4 plus burn and grab)
Space 10 ft., Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks burn (1d6, DC 20), burning blindness,
constrict (1d6+4), swallow whole (2d6 fire, AC 15, 9 hp),
swarming pyrocules
StatisticsStr 18, Dex 17, Con 20, Int 7, Wis 13, Cha 12
Base Atk +7; CMB +12 (+16
grapple); CMD 25
Feats Blind-Fight, Nimble
Moves, Skill Focus
(Perception), Step Up, Weapon Focus (slam)
Skills Climb +8, Perception +20, Stealth +10 (+18 when
underwater), Swim +16; Racial Modifiers +8 Stealth when
underwater
Languages Aklo
SQ amphibious, compression, inversion
EcologyEnvironment warm and temperate fresh water and swamps
Organization solitary
Treasure incidental
Special AbilitiesBurning Blindness (Su) When an azgenzak confirms a critical
hit or a creature fails its save against the distraction attack
of its swarming pyrocules, the azgenzak attempts to pluck
out one of the target’s eyes (Fortitude DC 20 negates). If
the save fails, the target takes 1d6 additional points of fire
damage, is sickened by pain for 1d4 rounds, and becomes
permanently dazzled. If this results in the loss of all of the
target’s eyes, it is permanently blinded.
Inversion (Ex) As a move action, an azgenzak can invert its
sac-like body, turning itself inside out and exposing its
innumerable burning eyes. Doing so surrounds the azgenzak
with a fiery aura and activates its frightful presence ability.
These abilities are suppressed when the azgenzak is not
inverted. When it’s inverted, creatures adjacent to the
azgenzak take 2d6 points of fire damage and risk catching
on fire. A successful DC 16 Reflex save halves this damage
and keeps the creature from catching on fire. An inverted
azgenzak loses its racial bonus to Stealth underwater and
takes a further –10 penalty on Stealth checks. In addition,
when inverted, an azgenzak can’t swallow its victim whole;
however, if it begins its turn with a creature grappled, it
can revert itself as a move action and then use its swallow
whole ability. A creature swallowed by an azgenzak is
subject to its fiery aura and frightful presence even when
the azgenzak is not inverted.
Swarming Pyrocules (Su) As a full-round action, an
azgenzak can disgorge a swarm of burning
eyeballs. This swarm has the same
statistics as a bat swarm (Pathfinder
RPG Bestiary 30), except
it lacks the wounding
special ability, which
is replaced by
the azgenzak’s
burn ability and
immunity to fire.
An azgenzak
using this
ability takes
2d6 points of
damage (though
damage dealt
to the swarming
pyrocules does not damage the azgenzak). The swarming
pyrocules can’t survive long separated from the azgenzak,
and take 1 point of damage each round at the end of its
turn. The swarming pyrocules can be reabsorbed by the
azgenzak as a full-round action, healing the creature of 1d6
points of damage.
DescriptionAzgenzaks, also called more prosaically “sacks of burning
eyes,” are shapeless predators of unfathomable appetites
and undeniable malevolence. They might have congealed
into existence within some forgotten crack of the Outer
Rifts, escaping (or being set loose) into the Material Plane
ages ago. However, many theorize that these beings are
entirely natural, primeval creatures that fell into savagery
or never evolved from their primitive state in the first
place. Azgenzaks are roughly 8 feet in diameter and weigh
over 800 pounds.
EcologyAzgenzaks are amorphous, their bodies composed of
a flaccid, leathery outer skin enveloping an interior of
glistening, wrinkled tissue, which in turn surrounds
hundreds of cilia-rimmed sockets that weep flammable
mucus. An azgenzak can suppress its flames by squeezing its
sac tightly closed, but it rarely does so unless it has need for
stealth. If it wishes to maintain its flames even when it dives
underwater, it simply enfolds a large bubble of air within
its fundus, seals the aperture with a layer of mucus, and
inflates itself into a lumpy spheroid, periodically venting
exhaust gases to propel itself through the water. A rush of
foul-scented bubbles and brief flares of deep orange below
the water’s surface usually accompany such venting as jets
of flame escape the azgenzak’s interior and are snuffed out.
Azgenzaks are primarily carnivorous, though they’re
able to digest any organic material, engulfing it within
their flaming cavities. An azgenzak that has recently
feasted—having swallowed its prey whole—might sink to
the bottom of a body of water and enfold itself to slowly
digest its meal, settling into a torpor for days or even
weeks at a time. If undisturbed, a hibernating azgenzak
might appear indistinguishable from an algae-covered
boulder, a rotting log, or submerged carrion.
Azgenzaks reproduce by asexual budding, which is
abetted in some unknown way by the vitreous humors
found within eyeballs. Its drive to extract the eyes of its
prey is to further of its attempts at reproduction, as the
distilled essence of the eyes it steals germinates tissue buds
within the depths of its stomach. These buds then replicate
and mat together into a translucent sheath of tissue, with
a portion of the eyes within the azgenzak adsorbing into
this sheath as it grows. Once a sufficient sheath-mass has
accreted, it begins sloughing off from the parent azgenzak’s
stomach walls, and is eventually disgorged and discarded
in a steaming puddle of semisolid translucent slime shot
through with eyeballs. Now ravenously hungry, the parent
moves on to feast elsewhere and replenish its discarded mass.
Meanwhile, the newly birthed azgenzak begins to darken
and congeal, baked from within by the unquenchable heat
of its burning eyes, even as its outer tissues are tempered
by exposure to open air and water, gradually toughening
into a mottled brown outer skin. Gorging itself on organic
matter, the newly formed azgenzak matures within a month
and can begin to unleash the swarming pyrocules that are
its deadly signature.
Habitat & Society
Azgenzaks are solitary creatures, despising the presence
of others of their kind as rivals for their hunting terrain.
They prefer to make their dens in murky lakes, though
they are equally happy in swamps, bogs, and even slowmoving
rivers. They are not powerful swimmers and
avoid fast-moving water, though they are perfectly capable
of climbing out of the water and traversing land in an
undulant slither. Their malleable mass is able to ooze
over, around, and between obstacles that might block the
passage of a more solid creature.
Azgenzaks are sometimes confused with will-o’-wisps
in folktales and legends, as both dwell in boglands and
are blamed for mysterious marshlights that lead travelers
to their doom. This is because azgenzaks are thought of
more in terms of the swarming pyrocules they unleash
rather than their true bodies—the strings of floating,
flaming eyes are often believed to be the true creature
and the “bag” of its body a gate to Hell, a fleshy opening
into the Abyss, or a shroud stitched from the skins of
its victims. In many cultures, strange bubbling and
dancing marshlights below the water or bobbing above
bogs are seen as portents of death even when seen in
the far distance, regardless of the creature responsible.
In lands where azgenzaks are known to dwell, animals
are often blindered at night and children are taught to
keep shutters and curtains drawn tight to avoid seeing
the deadly lights.
In truth, azgenzaks are fairly simple creatures, mostly
interested in their next meal. That said, they prefer the
flesh of sentient victims and the screams of victims
perishing in fear and fire. While they have no love for
will-o’-wisps, they do sense a certain kinship with them,
and more importantly they perceive the advantages
of working with them to secure prey. Will-o’-wisps
themselves offer no sustenance for an azgenzak, with
their nearly immaterial bodies, but an azgenzak’s ability
to instill fear has much to offer hunting will-o’-wisps.
The two creatures thus sometimes work in concert, with
the azgenzak feasting physically upon its victims while
the will-o’-wisp feeds psychically.
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