Roper

Roper

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(Creature)

2E1E

Uncommon

CE

Large

Aberration

Level

10

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Bestiary, pg(s). 282

Type

Aberration

CR

12

Environment

Any underground

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Bestiary, pg(s). 237

Ropers are cone-shaped, subterranean aberrations who change their color to blend in with their environment and ambush prey.

Origin

Ropers believe they were created by Rovagug, and seek to discover the reason for their existence. One tale claims that Rovagug's blood was spilled and tainted an underground cavern, with the pollution forming the ropers.

There are similarities between ropers and mimics, and some sages believe they might have a common ancestry, with the ropers possibly being the result of the experiments of a mad wizard.

Appearance

Ropers appear as nothing more than stony outcrops until they send forth their strands and open their massive, two-foot-wide maws. Their stony hides are typically six inches thick. They have no blood; instead, fine dust passes through their interior channels.

A typical specimen is nine feet tall and weighs 2,200 pounds.

Habitat and society

Ropers live in the rocky caverns beneath Golarion's surface, and lose their will to live if exiled from the Darklands for any significant length of time.

They gather in cabals and engage in philosophical explorations of pain and terror. They enjoy conversing with their intelligent victims as they eat them one limb at a time; the prey can avoid death for as long as the roper finds it interesting.

Both male and female ropers exist.

A roper derives its sustenance solely from the bones of its victims, and ultimately spews any of their flesh and blood.

Abilities

Ropers have incredibly tough skin, and are extremely strong and hardy. They can extend up to six fifty-foot-long strands from their bodies. These strands grapple, numb, and weaken their victims before bringing them into the roper's fearsome maw to be devoured at leisure.

Variants

Ropers are a diverse race.

Basalt roper

Also known as vulkards, their stony skin resembles basalt. They feed on fire and grow stronger when exposed to it.

Molting strangler

These ropers shed their outer carapace every few months. The more they do this, the more mutable their forms become, until eventually they can take on other forms in a similar way to mimics.

Their shed skins can sometimes take on a strange half-life of their own. Molting stranglers sometimes use them as decoys to lure victims into traps.

Shard strangler

These brutal and pragmatic ropers have jagged threads which damage, grapple, and weaken foes. They can inflict particularly nasty wounds on foes grasped by more than one thread.

Sigil crag

A roper who consumes a suitable victim (such as a powerful spellcaster) in a suitably slow fashion can manifest a crystal rune on its carapace. These ropers are known as sigil crags. Most have only a few such runes, but particularly old ones might develop numerous sigils. A sigil crag can create one magical symbol per day per rune it exhibits.

On Golarion

Ropers can be found across vast expanses of underground terrain. An elven explorer named Talsindro Yarmaht was one of the first to attempt to map the ropers' territory. His letters and maps are kept under lock and key at the Grand Lodge of the Pathfinder Society in Absalom.

Ropers live in the Darklands region of Nar-Voth, especially in a large cave called the Endless Gulf. Ropers in the deeper region of Sekamina attack travelers who attempt to reach the Dying Sea.

Closer to the surface, ropers live in ice caves in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings and are known locally as the Takers in the Ice.

On distant worlds

Ropers also live on the distant planet Triaxus, where they behave much the same as their Golarion-based kindred.