Seugathi

Seugathi

(Creature)

Type

Aberration

CR

6

Environment

Any underground

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Images of seugathi

Source: Bestiary 2, pg(s). 243

Seugathi are a subterranean race of intelligent, tentacled worms that serve even more bizarre, alien masters in the darkest depths of the earth. These monstrous creatures follow strange orders that often seem completely insane to humans.

Appearance

Seugathi resemble a horrible cross between an enormous caterpillar and a writhing worm, their bodies stretching to about 14 feet in length and weighing upwards of 650 pounds. They tend to rear up when threatened, using their dexterous caterpillar-like legs to support themselves. Their heads sit directly at the top end of their bodies and are covered in horrible, insect-like emerald eyes. Below this sits an alien mouth, a vortex of teeth from within which three sharp, bony jaws click and clack menacingly. At the other end of their bodies, their torsos split into two long, slender tentacles. These tentacles are each about six feet in length and are incredibly dexterous, able to perform delicate manipulations as easily as the human hand. In combat, seugathi often wield additional weapons in their tentacles making them even fiercer opponents.

Habitat and ecology

Seugathi dwell—or at least begin their lives—in the deepest depths of the Darklands: the Orvian vault of Denebrum. It is their home and that of their dark masters, the neothelids. Neothelids are huge worms with incredible mental powers who are the creators of the seugathi, who serve them as fanatically loyal servants. They are created when a neothelid spawns hundreds of young seugathi into a pit like depression. They are only a foot long when spawned, but grow quickly, consuming their brothers and sisters. Within a year, only one fully grown seugathi remains. Having consumed the flesh and the minds of its fellows, the newborn seugathi is filled with numerous missions, as each juvenile seugathi is created with a single purpose. These missions often seem insane, but normally further their masters' secret purposes which often involve the summoning of creatures from the Dark Tapestry (creatures like the havero or the spawn of Yog-Sothoth).

Apart from their birth, the other most aberrant aspect of the seugathi is their feeding habits. While they can survive off Darklands fungus or the flesh of subterranean creatures, their favoured food is the rational thoughts of sane beings. These thoughts give them some sort of bizarre sustenance, but siphoning them from their victims has the unfortunate side effect of completely destroying the creature's sanity. At first, this leaves the victim confused and bewildered but, by the end, the victim is a gibbering, insane mess. Seugathi can repress this hunger—they need not constantly feed—but only do so in the most important of circumstances. When denied their favourite food, however, seugathi become even more short-tempered and violent. Another interesting facet of their ecology is that their bite is poisonous and the poison actually makes their victims more susceptible to their feeding.

Society

Seugathi found outside of Orv are generally loners and rarely interact with other creatures, though they can sometimes be found in small groups of their own kind referred to as cults, or being led by similarly-minded creatures, such as a worm that walks. Sometimes, their strange missions require them to become a part of non-seugathi societies; often, other Darklands civilisations such as the drow, or the equally mad deros. When interacting with others, they can take on a variety of roles: from religious leader, to profane advisor, to simple guardians or servants. When forced to become a part of these societies, the seugathi must exercise extreme self control in their thirst for sane thoughts otherwise they are sure to be destroyed for their sanity-draining abilities.

Even though their minds and motives are quite alien to most humanoids, seugathi are known to have a very human-like trait: they keep pets. Specifically, they make pets of the eel-like olaggi, keeping them in large numbers.

Religion

Very little is known of seugathi beliefs, but some are known to worship the Old Ones, the beings who inhabit the Dark Tapestry.

On Golarion

The neothelids are waging a proxy war against the xoarians of Ilvarandin. Their forces, including many seugathi, have captured the Alimentral district of Ilvarandin. The seugathi can also be found in the aptly-named "worm district" of the ghoul city of Nemret Noktoria in Sekamina. Not all seugathi are confined to the Darklands, however, as some have been spotted assisting their neothelid masters in the Thassilonian ruins of Hollow Mountain in Varisia.

Seugathi are also known to dwell in the sewers of the Chelish city of Vyre, although their purpose there is unknown. A particularly powerful seugathi sorcerer named Crawlbrother is also known to inhabit the waters below Osirion's Kilik-tura Oasis.

On the opposite side of Golarion, seugathi are also known to inhabit the Darklands beneath the continent of Tian Xia, particularly the realm of Zaikongon beneath the Valashmai Jungle.

In the Great Beyond

A race of fiendish seugathi are believed to inhabit the Abyssal realm of Sekatar-Seraktis, and were first summoned by the ancient runelord Sorshen who was intrigued by their ability to alter the minds of others.

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.