Gongorinan

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Gongorinan

(Creature)

Type

Outsider
(chaotic, evil, extraplanar, qlippoth)

CR

11

Environment

Any underground (the Abyss)

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Beyond the Doomsday Door, pg(s). 90

The gongorinan is a powerful, six-legged qlippoth spawned from the qlippoth lord Yamasoth.

Appearance

Gongorinans resemble human-sized, six-legged, rock-encrusted crabs without any of the crab's aquatic adaptations. They have four different arms: a humanoid one, a mantis-like claw, a crab pincer, and a tentacle ending in an envenomed needle. Each gongorinan has at least a dozen eyes, connected to the body by stalks that can extend to nearly three feet long. Its mouth is a rasping, shrieking, complex tangle of sliding plates and toothy ridges, unsuited to attacking. When idle, gongorinans retract their limbs, making them look like boulders. A typical gongorinan stands about six feet tall and weighs 800 pounds.

Ecology

Each gongorinan carries a horrific brood of heart-sized 'eggs', which are not actually used for procreation; instead, each egg contains a mix of Abyssal quintessence and the ichor of Yamasoth. These eggs are implanted into living hosts via a hideous ovipositor in the gongorinan's mouth. Implantation is time-consuming and leaves the gongorinan open to attack.

Gongorinan eggs take many days to grow, and hosts are often cocooned and stranded in hidden locations so the egg can gestate. As it grows, the egg feeds upon the host's intelligence, eventually permanently transforming it into an animal, aberration, magical beast, or vermin chosen by the gongorinan. Victims are loyal to the gongorinan 'progenitor' and lose the memories of their previous lives, but those who are restored by powerful magic remember their time as a monster. Many of them become insane, regarding their monstrous life as true and their actual life as a curse. The most despondent ones commit suicide, plagued by dreams of their monstrous life, which carry a horrible longing to return to the qlippoth's arms.

Habitat

Gongorinans build immense hive-like cities to live in. In the Abyss, such hives can reach populations of thousands, and they can also be found on the Universe. The largest gongorinan hive is located deep beneath Hollow Mountain, in Gongorina, where Yamasoth once dwelt in the Age of Legend and allegedly created the first gongorinans; while he no longer travels to Gongorina, his spawn dwell there still.

Society

Gongorinans have been Yamasoth's favoured minions since their creation. They serve as functionaries in his realm and often serve as officers in his army.

Elder gongorinan

Elder gongorinans are larger and more powerful, but rarer, versions of the gongorinan qlippoth; they may have more than four 'arms' which perform additional, more dangerous functions.