Jaquito
Gargantuan Animal
Hit Dice: 20d8+150 (230 hp)Initiative: +4 Improved Initiative
Speed: Swim 20 feet
AC: 18 (-4 size, +12 natural)
Attacks: 2 tentacle rakes +25 melee, 6 arms +21 melee, bite +20 melee
Damage: Tentacle rake 2d8+10, arm 1d6+5, bite 4d8+3
Face/Reach: 20ft by 40 ft/10 ft. (100 ft with tentacle)
Special Attacks: Improved Grab, constrict 2d6+10 or 1d6+4
Special Qualities: Jet, Ink cloud
Saves: Fort: +20, Ref: +16, Will: +7
Abilities: Str: 30, Dex: 14, Con: 25, Int: 6, Wis: 10, Cha: 10
Skills: Listen +12, Search +10, Spot +14
Feats: Alertness, Blind-fight, Improved Critical (tentacle), Improved initiative, Improved Grip
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 11
Treasure: None
Alignment: Neutral
Advancement: 20 - 27 HD (Gargantuan); 28 - 35 (Colossal)
DESCRIPTION
The Jaquito is a huge carnivorous creature. It appears to be a cross between a sting ray and a squid. The body has the kite-like appearance of a sting ray giving it increadible speed and a graceful mobility that is almost unmatched by other aquatic creatures of it's same size. Around it's head are the squid-like tentacles that allow it to grab it's prey and pull it into it's viscious maw. The underside of the creature's tentacles are covered with plate sized suction cups that also have hundreds of little bone-like hooks in the cups. These suction cups not only allow the Jaquito to capture and hold it's prey, but it also allows it to begin the kill before the victim nears the more vulnerable head of the Jaquito. The creature has an animal intelligence and is driven only by it's need to obtain food or to mate. It will eat virtually anything that it sees moving through the water.
In Terragloria this beast is a creature of legend. They are (luckily) very rare and usually only stay in the deepest of waters where the bottom is sandy, allowing them to shuffle themselves into the sand and remain hidden until it is time to attack, or move on. Though a few sailors have claimed to come across one of these creatures fewer still will believe their horrid tales of the massive creature and it's destructive powers.
COMBAT
Jaquito wait silently on the sandy bottom of the ocean, just below the surface of the sand. They watch and wait without moving or making a sound until something that they consider eadible swims into attack range. When they decide to attack they burst forth from the sandy bottom and propell themselves, with their jet ability, towards their intended victim. A Jaquito will then try and grab their victim in their barbed tentacles and drag the victim into their mouth.
EXTRAORDINARY
Improved Grab (Ex): To use the improved grab ability a Jaquito must successfully hit an opponent no bigger than one size below its own size with a tentacle attack. If it is successful in grabbing it's opponent it can then constrict.
Constrict (Ex): Once a victim caught with the improved grapple ability the Jaquito can then deal automatic tentacle damage to any creature one size smaller than itself until either the creature is dead, or it frees itself.
Jet (Ex): Jet allows the Jaquito to move backwards rapidly through the water by pulsing water out around it's tentacles with a great force of pressure. The Jaquito will fold its wings around itself to make it more aerodynamic while doing this, so it can only move in a streight line while using this ability. It can use this ability once per round as a double move action, allowing it to move 250 feet.
Ink Cloud (Ex): The Jaquito has the ability to release a cloud of black ink once per minute as a free action. The ink will cover a 80 feet high by 80 feet wide by 100 feet long. The cloud totally conceals the area and the Jaquito, and the creatures within the black cloud suffer the effects of total darkness. The Jaquito will only use this tactic if it is badly losing a battle and must escape. This ink is also slightly poisonous to water breathing creatures - Fortitude save (DC 10) Initial damage sleep for 1 minute.
SOCIETY
Though the Jaquito is a viscious predator they do not seem to be too territorial. They only attack to feed their hungry, the problem is that they are always hungry.
A Jaquito will not deliberately attack another Jaquito, unless it is mating season and two male bulls are after the affections of the same female at the same time. This situation can lead to a viscious battle that often leaves both parties horribly injured and scarred. If a bull is obviously larger than it's opponent the smaller creature will have enough sense of self preservation to back down and go away. The female always ignores these battles or will often swim away, forcing the victor to track her down when the battle is done.
A female Jaquito will lay her eggs, approximately the size of a large crystal ball, in the sandy bottom of the ocean where the sun can reach the eggs and keep them incubated. She will have the eggs buried a few feet below the surface. Three months after the eggs are layed they will hatch and the infant Jaquito will begin combing the shallower waters in search of food. The infant Jaquito is about three feet long at birth, but their body weight and size will double almost every month for the first year. This is the busiest time in a Jaquito's life. His metabolism is so fast that they must almost constantly eat to keep the hunger away. This first year is also the time when the Jaquito is most vulnerable. Many die because they try to take prey that is larger than themselves and will often become the eaten instead of the eater. Only about one in ten Jaquito live through the first year.
