Flying polyp

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Flying polyp

(Creature)

Type

Aberration
(air)

CR

14

Environment

Any

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Into the Nightmare Rift, pg(s). 86

Flying polyps are a horrible race of half-polypous, utterly alien entities of aberrant air from dark corners of the cosmos.

Appearance

Flying polyps are 30-foot long disgusting masses of flesh, eyes, mouths, and tentacles, weighing roughly 2,000 pounds. Their flesh is made from an alien material that often behaves in impossible ways. The material seems to randomly fade in and out of visibility, revealing the flying polyp's inner organs. A flying polyp feels moist and damp to the touch. Its 'blood' behaves more like vortices of wind, and a wounded flying polyp does not bleed so much as whistle and gust.

Ecology

Flying polyps are associated with air. They use no tools, but wield their remarkable power to control the air to wage war and build cities. They appear not to die from old age, but their warlike temperament eventually results in violent deaths.

Habitat

Flying polyps live in towers and chambers which they construct from basalt with precise bursts of sand-laden wind, and whose architecture tends to be unsettling to other races.

History

Millions of years ago, the flying polyps ruled over a race of strange, cone-shaped beings on the distant planet Earth, whom they treated as mere playthings. When the Great Race of Yith, fleeing the doom of their homeworld Yith, transferred their minds into the bodies of the cone-shaped beings, the flying polyps were completely unaware, and when the yithians rose up in rebellion, the flying polyps were caught completely off guard. The Great Race tried to kill as many flying polyps as possible, but most managed to flee into the tunnels beneath their titanic black towers. The yithians sealed the entrances with stone and magic, and assigned guards to keep the flying polyps from returning. A small number of flying polyps escaped into space, where they eventually pledged their allegiance to Hastur.

During the millennia imprisoned under Earth's surface, the flying polyps multiplied. Eventually, geological changes opened portals that allowed them to escape. The flying polyps destroyed the bodies of the yithians, but by this time, their ancient enemies had already transferred their minds again into swarms of intelligent beetles that lived in the far future.

Society

Flying polyps have no name for themselves and engage in no social constructs except war. An aggressive and predatory species, they wipe out entire civilisations and pursue their enemies across planets with their powers over air.

History

Millennia ago, during the Age of Serpents, a storm of Hastur-worshipping flying polyps landed on Golarion and established Star Stelae in two locations to call down the Great Old One Xhamen-Dor: the site of modern Thrushmoor in Ustalav; and a nameless city in the Parchlands in southwestern Casmaron (later named Neruzavin). The former were destroyed by serpentfolk and the latter by yithians, leaving only the Star Stelae standing. However, some flying polyps survive, imprisoned in the Darklands, waiting for tectonic events to free them.

References

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