Coastline

Undines are humans whose ancestry includes elemental beings of water, such as marids. This connection with the Plane of Water is most noticeably manifested in their coloration, which tends to mimic that of lakes or oceans—all undines have limpid, blue eyes, and their skin and hair can range from pale blue-white to the deep blue or green of the sea.

UNDINE CHARACTERS
Undines are defined by class levels—they do not possess racial Hit Dice. Undines have the following racial traits.
+2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, –2 Strength: Undines are both perceptive and agile, but tend to adapt rather than match force with force.
Speed: Undines have a swim speed of 30 feet.
Darkvision: Undines can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
Spell-Like Abilities: Hydraulic push 1/day. (Caster level equals the undine’s total Hit Dice.)
Energy Resistance: Undines have cold resistance 5.
Water Affinity: See above.
Languages: Undines begin play speaking Common and Aquan. Undines with high Intelligence scores can choose any of the following bonus languages: Auran, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Halfling, Ignan, and Terran.

Reefclaws are vicious predators. They possess greater intelligence than animals, but rely mainly on their strength and instincts to survive. They hunt fish, giant crabs, dolphins, and even land-dwelling creatures that come within a hundred paces of the water. In populated areas, reefclaws prey on beachcombers, divers, and fishermen, sometimes abandoning their usual solitary nature and coordinating attacks with other reefclaws. The creatures must be wary, however, because in some regions, these abominations find their way to the dinner plate. Brave fishermen troll bays and coastlines infested with reefclaws, baiting the creatures with fresh meat and then harvesting their powerful claws with axes. Reefclaws cannot speak, but the creatures understand the languages used by humanoids near their hunting grounds. They use this knowledge in order to avoid fishermen and coordinate attacks. Reefclaws keep no treasure, instead savoring the taste of flesh and crunch of bone and shell as much as a miser covets his gold. A typical reefclaw reaches approximately 3-1/2 feet long at adulthood and weighs 70 pounds. Females gather to breed once every 2 to 3 years, engaging in a predatory hunt for a male and leaving him shredded to pieces.

Draugr smell of decay and the sea, and drip water wherever they go. These foul beings are usually created when humanoid creatures are lost at sea in regions haunted by evil spirits or necromantic effects. The corpses of these drowned sailors cling fiercely to unlife, attacking any living creatures that intrude upon them. Their attacks smear rancid flesh, rotting seaweed, and swaths of vermin on whatever they hit. In the case of draugr who manifest when an entire ship sinks, these undead usually stay with the wreck of their ship. Some draugr may be found under the control of aquatic necromancers, while others may wander the seas as undead pirates aboard ghost ships.

DRAUGR CAPTAIN (CR 3)
Draugr captains have malevolent, burning red eyes. They may be more richly dressed than other draugr, though their clothes are always in a similar tattered condition. A draugr captain is a draugr with the advanced simple template. In addition to this, most draugr captains have additional class levels, usually as barbarians, fighters, or rogues. Draugr captains can also use obscuring mist as a spell-like ability (CL 5th, concentration +8) three times per day, and instead of causing nausea with a successful hit, they bestow 1 negative level on a hit. A draugr captain can even bestow a negative level via a weapon it wields, but if it gains multiple attacks with a weapon, it can only bestow 1 negative level per round in this manner.

Giant crabs behave much like their smaller cousins, feeding on both plant material like algae and fungus and animal matter such as fish, seabirds, and even unwary humanoids. The coloration of a giant crab’s hard exoskeleton varies widely depending on species, and over time even shifts in response to its diet. Other species of giant crab exist as well, some smaller but most quite a bit larger.

Giant sea anemones are beautiful but deadly ocean-dwelling vermin that rely on camouflage and paralytic toxins to draw in their prey. A sea anemone has a long, cylindrical body that ends in a flat circular disc with a slit-like orifice for both ingesting food and dispelling waste. This disc is surrounded by a thicket of tendrils that vary in thickness from fine, hairlike cilia to thick, swollen appendages. The creature uses all of these tentacles at once when it attacks prey. Like their smaller kin, giant sea anemones come in a broad spectrum of colors—many are known for their brilliant hues. Giant sea anemones can move at a slow pace by walking along the projections at their bases. More often, however, these predators affix themselves to rock, coral, or sunken objects like ships, then wait for prey to come to them. As mindless creatures, giant sea anemones have no use for treasure, but the remains of prey digested and then expelled often litter the area around these creatures. Massive sea anemones big enough to eat dolphins, whales, or even sea serpents reportedly exist in the deepest parts of the ocean. Called deep tigers for their alternating fronds of black and brilliant orange, these giant sea anemones are said to lair in undersea ruins and sunken ships, where the promise of sought-after treasure conveniently lures in a constant food supply.

The pteranodon is not itself a dinosaur but rather a large flying reptile that is often found in areas dinosaurs are common. Its flight lacks grace, so it lands on the ground to fight foes it can’t carry away. A pteranodon has a wingspan of 30 feet but only weighs 40 pounds.

Seaweed leshys usually dwell along coastlines, happily splashing and playing in tide pools, but they are equally at home at sea, floating among large kelp beds. Although perfectly capable of existing out of water indefinitely, seaweed leshys prefer to limit their time away from the sea almost out of a sense of pride. Most seaweed leshys take a dim view of freshwater plant life, to the point of mocking such plants in the same way an urbanite might talk down to folk who live in more rural areas. Rumors of freshwater leshys are a sure way to bring peals of mocking laughter from a seaweed leshy. Seaweed leshys resemble miniature, waterlogged green humans grown from leafy green seaweed, with skinny arms and legs, webbed hands and feet, and long strands of brown, green, or red seaweed for hair. They wear armor made from a pair of large clam shells or from several smaller shells tied together. This armor functions as a suit of masterwork padded armor for a seaweed leshy, but not for any other creature. Patient and thoughtful by inclination (save for matters associated with those silly freshwater leshys), seaweed leshys believe that in time nature brings what is needed by the ebb and flow of the tide or the steady flow of the river. They counsel against hasty decisions and rash actions, always preferring to wait and see what another day might bring.

In either humanoid or hybrid form, a wereshark is generally burly, has a mouth full of unusually large teeth, and typically has a personality that is both crude and bullying. They’re bloodthirsty and are very easy to anger. They will jump into fights they have no stake in just to snap bones and draw blood. Weresharks prefer life at sea or in port settlements commonly frequented by seagoing merchants and pirates. They can be found leading pirate gangs or loitering at seaside taverns accompanied by crowds of toadies. Since they get into fights so often, they try to stick close to the sea so they can escape into the water if they bite off more than they can chew. The other members of a wereshark’s crew learn quickly that the boss is bound to skip out without much notice once a bigger fish comes along.

Crab swarms contain over a thousand normal-sized crabs that rush over their victims, plucking flesh with thousands of pinching claws. Some fishermen claim tides and phases of the moon cause these creatures to swarm as they do.

Samurai are renowned for their resolve, but sometimes a samurai becomes so obsessed with her purpose that her soul can’t depart from the Material Plane upon her death. Unable to seek eternal rest, and unwilling to become undead in the pursuit of vengeance, the samurai’s soul instead finds a suitable host in which to continue its existence. A heikegani is the effect of such a joining: a tragic, furious symbiosis of the soul of a dead samurai and the body of a crustacean. This usually occurs when the samurai dies near a crab habitat and her soul imprints upon a newly hatched crab zoea. Magic is always involved, either because the death happened in a high-magic environment or because the samurai was dealt a magical deathblow. A heikegani is especially vicious when young, and kills other crabs and marine creatures it encounters until it develops the ability to travel onto land. Each time the heikegani molts, its new shell comes to more closely resemble an angry demonic face.  The soul of a heikegani has very few of its memories from life, but retains its single-minded sense of purpose and honor, and is quick to challenge those it meets to mortal combat. A heikegani believes it has been reincarnated, but in reality it never passed on to be judged. The unnatural genesis of a heikegani causes it great agony, and the dangerous crustacean scuttles along the shores, seeking foes that it can defeat in honorable combat so its soul can finally be put to rest.

A globster is a living collection of half-digested parts from large sea creatures such as whales and squid. Passersby usually discover it by smell long before they see it. Many unfortunate folk who happen upon a globster mistake it for the carcass of a beached sea animal, getting too close before discovering the seemingly dead creature is very much alive. For a time, sages believed globsters were undead—that they were simply undulating wads of rotting flesh animated with a drive to feed. However, globsters are actually living creatures. Globsters usually wash up on a beach or float to the shore to feed on terrestrial stock for a few hours before returning to the safety of water. Some say the tides and phases of the moon are to blame for the times globsters come to land to feed. Globsters reproduce by mixing parts of their own foul bodies with the poorly digested remains of their meals.

A grodair is a bloated aquatic creature from the primal world of the fey. The bulbous sac on its spine is an extradimensional space that can contain thousands of gallons of water. The creature drains water (including small bits of debris and even very small creatures) from one place and releases it in another, typically creating boggy areas as it moves so it can travel more quickly than its tentacles can carry it. A grodair can rise up to 6 feet on its tentacles, measures 7 feet long, and weighs about 400 pounds. A grodair is intelligent, but extremely absentminded and careless. Its memory is poor, and it has difficulty remembering things it was told even 5 minutes prior— though it can recall some events of the distant past with perfect (and often frustrating) clarity.

While obviously the product of draconic inbreeding, the heritage of sea drakes is less clear than that of other drakes. Among the strongest of the drakes, sea drakes still lack the mental acuity of their true dragon forebears, though they remain as brutally cunning as other drakes. Although amphibious, sea drakes spend the majority of their time in shallow coastal waters. Sea drakes are up to 14 feet long from their noses to the tips of their powerful tails. They weigh 2,000 pounds. The most solitary of all drakes, sea drakes prefer to hunt alone. Occasionally, however, they band together in packs to hunt larger prey. Such rampages can be a significant danger to coastal shipping.

The giant starfish dwells along coastlines and in other shallow marine areas. The undersides of each of the giant starfish’s arms are lined with thousands of small tube feet that propel it along and aid in grappling and pinning its prey. The tube feet at the end of the arms are also sensory organs, detecting scents and textures. The starfish moves via a water vascular system, drawing in ocean water and pumping the water throughout its body and out to its tube feet. Because of this, the giant starfish is highly dependent on water to remain mobile and alive.  The giant starfish can be an active hunter, relentlessly attacking marine mammals and coastal avian life alike, but just as often it lies in wait along the water’s edge for its prey to venture into reach. When attacking, the giant starfish latches on with up to three of its arms and attempts to pin its opponent. It then extends its stomach outside of its inner cavity in order to begin digesting the pinned or grappled creature. The giant starfish’s stomach can also shoot out as an elongated tubelike stalk to strike potential prey up to 20 feet away. When the series of barbed hooks at the end of the stomach stalk catch the targeted creature, the starfish begins to pull it closer, in order to more thoroughly secure its meal with its multiple arms. A giant starfish can have anywhere from five to 24 arms, and while the total number of arms can result in a wildly different-looking creature, the number of limbs has no effect on its statistics since a giant starfish of any size can attack with only up to three of its limbs at a time.  A giant starfish typically measures 15 feet in diameter and weighs 800 pounds.

In sunless ocean trenches, aberrant fleshcrafters created the first galvos to serve as soldiers in their war against the sahuagin and skum. Since those days, galvos have moved beyond their darkened trenches, breeding and expanding into shallower, warmer waters. In recent years, they have come closer to civilizations, preying on coastal communities. A galvo can live both in the water and on land, and frightening stories tell of galvos springing up from the water to strike at prey both on ships and on beaches. A true horror to look upon, a galvo averages 7 feet tall and weighs around 300 pounds.

Giant snapping turtles typically grow to diameters of about 35 feet and weigh 20,000 pounds.

Tiberoliths are magical constructs with primitive internal mechanical components, held together with sinew and plant matter. Created by a vicious lost civilization to protect its citadels, villages, and treasures, tiberoliths are found in submerged ruins and remain immobile unless attacked or approached by unauthorized intruders. Each is covered in a unique pattern of markings that glow blue when it moves. When active, it makes an unmistakable high-pitched whirring sound. A tiberolith typically stands 18 feet tall and weighs 7,000 pounds. Its stone body is filled with an acidic blue alchemical liquid that channels electricity from its mechanisms. In addition to this fluid, its hollow interior spaces have puzzlebox-like devices anchored within them, though how these relate to the creature’s movement is unknown.

A lorelei resembles an enormous, stony sea anemone with a humanlike face covering much of its body. Noted for their magical murmurs that entrance sailors, the creatures lurk near rocky shoals barely concealed by crashing waves or rushing rivers, eager to lure humanoids to their deaths. Also known as a “murmur stone” for its rocklike natural camouflage, a lorelei is a solitary creature that shuns peaceful contact with other living things. It broods in the shadows of seaside cliffs and ocean trenches, emerging only to torment the living. When not pursuing complicated schemes, a lorelei is fond of wrecking ships on rocks and luring sailors beneath the surface to drown. Some scholars claim that these creatures were once a species of beautiful fey cursed by foul forces. This claim is backed by the fact that they behave much like nereids, nixies, and sirens. A lorelei stands 9 feet tall, not counting the mess of tentacles atop its body, and weighs around 2,000 pounds.

Bronze dragons have been known to ally with travelers and adventurers if the cause and reward is right and just.

Ketesthiuses are large sea monsters with wolf like heads and foreclaws, eel-like bodies, and powerful fish tails. They are voracious eaters with great jaws that can gulp down prey that can be as large as themselves. Creatures a ketesthius swallows are not digested immediately, because ketesthiuses’ vast stomachs and unique anatomy allow them to sustain living creatures inside their gullets indefinitely. Entire ecologies can form within a single ketesthius’s extradimensional digestive tract. Though the stomach’s ecosystem is capable of supporting life, it’s far from a welcome environment: no sunlight comes in, the air is thin and dank, and most creatures trapped within become feral in short order. Larger creatures that end up inside a ketesthius have a difficult time surviving long term, and must resort to quickly snapping up prey that their host later swallows.  Though it makes no attempt to hoard treasure, within a ketesthius’s vast gut lies all the treasure of the creatures—and even ships—that the ketesthius has swallowed. More than once, tales of lost treasure within have led foolish adventurers to risk being intentionally swallowed by a ketesthius.  An adult ketesthius typically measures over 50 feet long. Its weight varies based on the size of its extradimensional gullet, but usually ranges from 5–60 tons.

A seaweed siren is a predator that uses false humanlike heads on its upper appendages in order to lure prey. The heads babble nonsense words and fragments of overheard sentences. If spoken to, they respond with words from a similar language. This behavior allows the seaweed siren to creep about under the water with only the heads showing, pretending to be swimming humanoids until it is ready to attack.

The scylla is one of the more nightmarish aberrations to blight the mortal world. Conf licting tales of her origins abound, from demonic flesh-crafting and arcane experiments to a divine curse handed down by a vengeful deity. The most popular stories cast the first scylla as the monstrous spawn of a union between a mortal and a god. Whatever the case, scyllas are fortunately quite rare, enough so that many consider them nothing more than tall tales told by sailors deep in their cups. Scyllas dwell along major shipping lanes, often near coastlines, where they use their spell-like abilities to lure entire ships to their doom. The hideous monsters are intelligent creatures, though half-mad with hunger and self-loathing. They normally do not use weapons, but when they do, they prefer to fight with light weapons wielded by their human-sized upper arms. However, they much prefer to keep their hands free to utilize magic items like wands, staves, and other powerful devices.