Crawling hand

Crawling hand

(Creature)

2E1E

Common

Tiny

Undead

Unholy

Level

-1

Source: Monster Core, pg(s). 68

Crawling hands had the

NE

trait and lacked the

Unholy

trait in Bestiary 2 56.

Type

Undead

CR

1/2
1 (necrotic claw)

Environment

Any land

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Bestiary 2, pg(s). 59

Ⅰ

Ⅱ

Giant crawling hand

(Creature)

2E1E

Common

Medium

Undead

Unholy

Level

5

Source: Monster Core, pg(s). 68

Giant crawling hands had the

NE

trait and lacked the

Unholy

trait in Bestiary 2 56.

Type

Undead

CR

5

Environment

Any land or underground

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Bestiary 2, pg(s). 59

Ⅰ

Ⅱ

Crawling hand swarm

(Creature)

Common

NE

Large

Swarm

Undead

Level

5

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Lost Mammoth Valley, pg(s). 38

Ⅱ

Crawling hands are severed hands empowered with necromantic energies to gain a crude form of sentience. While most are created, some form spontaneously when a creature loses an appendage in a place infused with such energies or with a close connection to the Void. Particularly powerful crawling hands are termed necrotic claws. A crawling hand formed from a larger creature, such as a giant, is called a giant crawling hand.

History

Necromancers share a legend about the first crawling hand, in which an ancient wizard's hand became possessed during a summoning ritual, strangled them in their sleep, dragged their corpse to a workbench, and severed itself from the body. This legendary crawling hand was then believed to have gone on a murderous spree before escaping into a city's sewers, where the tale claims it continues to commit murders unabated.

Abilities

Crawling hands are stealthy creatures and often attempt to strangle or otherwise stifle the voices of their foes, cutting off their victims' abilities to speak or cast spells. A crawling hand can be marked with a target's blood, whether anointed with it or by contact from its own attempts to harm a creature, after which it relentlessly tracks that marked quarry.

A crawling hand can understand Common tongues but cannot speak, though some can communicate by manipulating pockets of air within their flesh to whistle or form crude approximations of words. Crawling hands can also sense forms of life and the sources of nearby vibrations. Some crawling hands can climb sheer walls in a manner similar to a spider.

When pierced or cut, giant crawling hands spurt sickening, void energy-infused pus.

Many of these creatures working together can form a crawling hand swarm that can pummel a victim with their claws.

Known crawling hands

• Arghun the Annihilator, an ancient general of Geb whose only remains are his crawling left hand