Delver

This fleshy, slug-like creature has two long pseudopods that end in lumps of hard, callused flesh, and its whole body sizzles with acidic slime as it slides forward through melting stone.

Defense

Offense

Statistics

Ecology

Description

use and, as they are uninterested in commerce, they see little use in collecting treasure to trade with others. The hunting grounds of a dire corby flock, or the floor beneath a rookery, are usually littered with the remains of past kills. Those adventurers with patience (and a firm grip on their gag reflexes) can frequently find items of value ignored by the corbies among the corpses of slain intelligent creatures. Nevertheless, corbies are intelligent enough to recognize valuable objects, and sometimes deign to take choice items back to their lairs. They are especially attracted to shiny, glittering objects such as gems or jewelry, or anything that gives off light (such as an item with a light spell cast on it or a glowing magic sword). Dire corbies are particularly fond of rubies, and can spend hours staring into a ruby’s crimson depths, making strange cooing noises.

A dire corby nest often contains several such shiny objects (though there is as much a chance of finding worthless colored glass as there is of discovering valuable gemstones). A particularly intelligent and powerful dread corby might even possess a masterwork or magical weapon, though it most likely carries the weapon only as a status symbol, relying on its own claws in combat.

Variants Several varieties of dire corby are known to exist. Dread Corby: Said to be the spawn of harpies and dire corbies, dread corbies are bigger, stronger, and faster than their dire corby kin. Equally fearless, dread corbies possess enough intelligence to sometimes use weapons, usually crude javelins. In addition, dread corbies possess a terrifying shriek, possibly inherited from their harpy mothers, that evokes paralyzing fear in those who hear it. Dread corbies usually occupy positions of leadership within dire corby hunting flocks or rookeries, either through the deference of their lesser kin or by bullying their way to the top. Dread corbies are 6 to 7 feet tall and weigh close to 200 pounds. To create a dread corby, add the advanced creature simple template to a dire corby. A dread corby is immune to fear, and has a ranged javelin attack (attack +5 ranged, 1d6+3 damage) and the following special quality: Screech of Doom (Su): Once per day, a dread corby can loose a horrible shriek that terrifies its opponents. The dread corby can target one creature within 30 feet. This target must make a DC 12 Will save or be frozen in fear, cowering for 1d6 rounds. Any other creatures within 100 feet must make a DC 12 Will save or be frightened for 1d4 rounds. Those who make the save are shaken for 1 round. Dire corbies and dread corbies are immune to this effect. This is a sonic mind-affecting fear effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Ghost Corby: Occasionally, a dire corby is born with no color to its plumage. Stark white, with glittering red eyes, these albino corbies are known as ghost corbies. Despite being smaller and weaker than normal corbies, ghost corbies manage to hold their own in the flock by virtue of being significantly smarter than their kin, as well as through the unusual ability to turn invisible. When hunting, they lie silently and invisibly in wait, seeming to appear out of thin air to take their prey by surprise. Fortunately, ghost corbies are more sensitive to light than their brethren, and can be driven off with displays of bright light. Some dire corby flocks view ghost corbies as dead corbies returned to life, and treat them with respect and awe. Other flocks see them as abominations and kill them on sight. Ghost corbies are smaller than normal dire corbies, standing just under 5 feet tall and weighing about 120 pounds.

To create a ghost corby, add the advanced creature simple template to a dire corby. Ghost corbies have light sensitivity, sneak attack +2d6, a +4 racial bonus on Stealth checks, and invisibility as a spell-like ability 1/day (CL 2nd, concentration +1).

Ghoul Corby: Dire corbies who feed solely on carrion have been known to succumb to ghoul fever and be reborn as undead ghoul corbies with a hunger for living flesh. Ghoul corbies appear as emaciated dire corbies with jagged beaks and dull, grayish feathers that are often missing in patches. They gain a bite attack that deals 1d6 points of damage, and a ghoul’s channel resistance, disease, and paralysis abilities (DC 12). Afflicted with a gnawing hunger, ghoul corbies often return to their home rookeries in search of fresh meat. A single ghoul corby can wipe out an entire rookery, spawning in its place an undead rookery. But something in the xenophobic mind of dire corbies changes in undeath and prevents ghoul corbies from working together, such that an undead rookery usually destroys itself before the disease can spread. Nevertheless, rumors tell of “civilized” Darklands ghouls keeping hunting flocks of ghoul corbies Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Misfit Monsters Redeemed as pets, much as human hunters might keep a pack of dogs. A ghoul corby is a CR 2 creature.

Winged Corbies: Wingless corbies are the norm, but reports occasionally surface of dire corbies with wings. Whether these specimens are naturally born throwbacks to that remote time when all corbies possessed the power of flight, the offspring of unholy unions with other winged creatures of the dark depths—such as cloakers, bats, or demons—or the product of magical experimentation (such as drow fleshwarping) is unknown. Winged corbies usually inhabit vast subterranean caverns that give them room to fly, but have been reported aboveground as well, stealthily winging through nighttime skies. A winged corby has the same statistics as a normal dire corby, but its climb speed is replaced with a fly speed of 40 feet (average maneuverability), and it has the Fly skill (+5) instead of Acrobatics.

Dire Corbies on Golarion Dire corbies primarily inhabit the Darklands region of Sekamina, though small flocks (perhaps exiled from larger rookeries) have been reported in Nar-Voth and even Orv. The Endless Gulf: The most well-known rookery of dire corbies in Sekamina is located in the Endless Gulf, a vast, supposedly bottomless chasm. The dire corby rookeries of the Endless Gulf actually form a sort of “super-rookery” of hundreds, if not thousands, of individual corbies. These flocks are said to be ruled by a queen from the lands above, an ancient harpy crone named Nevaki who has mated with the dire corbies to hatch several deformed daughters in the lightless cavern. Though flightless like their savage dire corby fathers, Nevaki’s “princesses” have still inherited their mother’s captivating song.

The Midnight Mountains: One of the largest vaults in Orv, the Midnight Mountains lie at the bottom of the Endless Gulf. A small rookery of dire corbies makes its home in this vault, under the leadership of the highly charismatic and intelligent (for a corby) Trekaalk (CE male half-fiend dread corby cleric of Pazuzu 7). Believed to be an exile from the Endless Gulf, Trekaalk claims to be the son of Pazuzu himself, sent to Golarion to return the dire corby race to the worship of his father. He preaches to his flock that the demon lord will return the corbies’ wings to them in exchange for their faithful worship and sacrifice. To this end, the dire corbies regularly raid nearby settlements of mongrelmen, morlocks, and troglodytes for sacrifices to their demonic patron. Trekaalk dreams of spreading his message to all the dire corbies of the Darklands, but new converts are rare so deep in Orv, and his flock continues to dwindle, preyed upon by gugs and other warring races of the Midnight Mountains.

Tower of the Rook: One of the few dire corby flocks on the surface world inhabits this crumbling tower in the nation of Nidal. This flock came up from the Darklands and found the shadow-haunted eaves of the Uskwood to its liking, taking up residence in a ruined tower of black stone deep in the wood. The dire corbies only venture forth at night, running stealthily through the trees hunting game and occasionally raiding isolated hamlets. Nidalese peasants give the tower a wide berth, and even though more than one village has lost residents to the shrieking “night-birds,” the albino druids of the Uskwood seem strangely reluctant to clear the tower of its current inhabitants. The Tunnels of Ghostly Claws: These tunnels outside the svirfneblin city of Dwimovel are said to be haunted by invisible clawed arms that snatch unwary travelers and pull them into the rock. Unknown to the deep gnomes, these “ghostly claws” are actually a small flock of albino ghost corbies who have taken up residence in the tunnels. But as tales of the haunted tunnels have spread, the corbies have found their supply of fresh meat dwindling. Now one of the flock’s members, a doomsinger with a talent for mimicry, lurks near more frequently traveled passages making plaintive cries for help in hopes of luring unsuspecting rescuers down the tunnels.

Dire Corby Religion Dire corbies have no organized religion, but individual rookeries sometimes venerate a particular deity. These rookeries maintain rudimentary shrines to their patrons, and often express their faith by carving and worshiping elaborate scrimshaw totems made out of polished dire corby skulls, but even then, “worship” is mostly a matter of placating a deity with occasional offerings or sacrifices, rather than a practice involving any sort of regular, organized ceremonies.

Examples have been found of dire corbies worshiping Lamashtu, Rovagug, Urgathoa, and Zon-Kuthon, but veneration of demon lords is much more common. Even though dire corbies have no wings, Pazuzu is a popular demon among their kind, as is Baphomet, Demon Lord of Beasts. Successful hunting flocks sometimes venerate Shax, Demon Lord of Murder, and dire corby rookeries near troglodyte settlements have even been known to worship Zevgavizeb, Demon Lord of Troglodytes and Caverns. In some cases, dire corby “gods” are nothing more than the scrimshaw skulls themselves, placed atop crude bodies of bone, skins, and feathers.

For some unknown reason, corby shrines are tended solely by female dire corbies. While many of these “priestesses” gain no spells, some few are adepts, or more rarely, actual clerics or oracles. Occasionally, dire corby witches make pacts with demon lords or other otherworldly powers, usually taking bats as their familiars.

Compression (Ex) A delver’s boneless body can squeeze through spaces that would normally exclude anything larger than a Medium creature; it does not need to make Escape Artist checks to pass through such spaces. When it squeezes through a 5-foot opening, its speed is reduced to 5 feet until it passes completely through.

Corrosive Slime (Ex) The delver’s skin is covered in an acidic slime that it uses to dissolve stone and defend against enemies. The slime deals 2d6 acid damage to flesh, 4d8 damage to metal, or 8d10 to stone or crystal. If the delver hits with a natural attack or grapple, it automatically adds its slime damage, and the slime continues to deal 2d6 damage per round for the next 2 rounds. Armor or clothing worn by a creature grappled by a delver takes the same amount of acid damage unless the wearer succeeds on a DC 22 Reflex saving throw. A quart or more of water can wash away the slime. Any weapon that strikes the delver takes slime damage, as does a creature grappling or attacking the delver with natural weapons (both Reflex half DC 22). The saves are Constitution-based.

Sculpt Stone (Ex) A delver can secrete a weaker form of its slime from its tentacles that momentarily softens stone rather than destroying it, allowing the creature to reshape up to 25 cubic feet of stone as if using stone shape as a 15th-level caster. This ability has no effect on stone that is protected against acid. It can use this ability at will. Delvers are enormous gastropods covered with corrosive slime and designed for burrowing through stone. Fifteen feet long and weighing several tons, they are most commonly encountered deep below ground, particularly near underground water sources. Surprisingly intelligent, these juggernauts exist to tunnel, surviving off metals— which they find intoxicating, and sometimes maddening— and leaving behind smooth, 10-foot-diameter passages. Dire Corby Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Misfit Monsters Redeemed “The tunnel ended at a precipice overlooking a vast underground crevasse, which disappeared into impenetrable depths below and unimaginable heights above. Before I could move, Jarasta was plucked from the ledge and hurled screaming into the darkness. In the dwindling flickers of the paladin’s torch, we could see shadowy forms clinging to the rock walls—muscular, wingless bird-men with feathers as dark as the subterranean abyss that spawned them. As they fell upon us, I fled back into the tunnel, chased by the shrieking cries, which to my terrified ears sounded like nothing so much as ‘Doom! Doom!’, foretelling the fate of my lost companions...”

—from the journals of Kivil Moon-Eye, sole survivor of Jarasta Firehand’s ill-fated Darklands expedition Dire Corby D ire corbies are a race of bipedal birdmen who inhabit the deep tunnels and caverns of the Darklands, far below Golarion’s surface. While resembling oversized, humanoid crows, dire corbies are wingless, and instead possess powerful arms and grasping hands tipped with razor-sharp claws. Though flightless, dire corbies are exceptional climbers, able to scale sheer cliffs with surprising agility, and can leap great distances, propelled by their powerful, taloned legs. They often cling to walls or ceilings above well-traveled tunnels, leaping into the midst of unsuspecting travelers to wreak havoc and destruction.

Dire corbies are utterly without fear, even of death, throwing themselves blindly into the dark across chasms of unimaginable depth or gleefully engaging enemies who far outmatch and outnumber them. Once battle is joined, dire corbies fight with maniacal tenacity, continuing to rend their foes with their talons long after they themselves should have fallen from their wounds.

Although intelligent, dire corbies have little use for communication or commerce with other races. Xenophobic in the extreme, dire corbies are hostile to almost all other living creatures, viewing them as competitors or enemies. If a creature is small enough or weak enough, it is prey, and if it is too big or too powerful to hunt and eat, it is an enemy to be avoided or fought until one side is utterly defeated. Disturbingly, dire corbies don’t seem to care whether they’re the ones who perish. No one knows why dire corbies act this way—perhaps untold years in the cruel caves and tunnels of the Darklands have forced them to compete in this way for food and living space, or perhaps the same curse they believe took their wings so long ago also took their sanity, afflicting them with some sort of racial madness. Whatever the cause, few creatures, if any, have ever befriended a dire corby, and the guano-covered bones of those who have tried litter the cavern floors beneath corby rookeries. This intolerant disposition has won the corbies a reputation as dark as their feathers, and most Darklanders consider dire corbies fierce and tenacious pests to be eradicated wherever possible.

Source: Misfit Monsters Redeemed, p. 16