Lusca

This beast has three sharklike heads on short, scaly necks, while its lower body appears to be that of an octopus.

Defense

Offense

Statistics

Ecology

Description

Poison (Ex) Constrict—injury; save Fort DC 28; frequency 1/ round for 6 rounds; effect 1d6 Dex; cure 2 consecutive saves.

Rend Ship (Ex) As a full-round action, a lusca can attempt to use four of its tentacles to grapple a ship of its size or smaller by attempting a combat maneuver check opposed by the ship captain’s Profession (sailor) check; the lusca receives a cumulative +4 bonus on the check for each size category smaller than Gargantuan the ship is. If the lusca grapples the ship, it holds the ship motionless; it can attack targets anywhere on or within the ship with its remaining four tentacles, but can’t attack foes at all with its shark heads. Each round it maintains its hold on the ship, it automatically deals bite damage from all three heads to the ship’s hull.

Vicious Grapple (Ex) A lusca does not gain the grappled condition if it grabs a foe with its tentacles. It can attempt to maintain a grapple against any number of creatures in its tentacles as a swift action.

Luscas are among the most feared predators in the open ocean—their snapping shark heads and writhing tentacles spell the end for many crews. A lusca’s presence can first be felt in the air, as its body naturally conducts electricity. Sailors who have encountered the being and survived claim that thunderclouds seem to roll in alongside the creature and strange electrical fires dance in the air before it attacks, lending an eerie aura of foreboding to the oncoming assault. Ravenous and unpredictable, a lusca claims wide swaths of territory in order to maximize the number of ships it can sink and crews it can feast upon; luscas brook no other large predators in their claimed territory, and battle even mighty krakens for control. They are equally territorial with their own kind, and an encounter between two luscas, except to mate, almost always ends with one dead or driven off. While luscas prefer to make quick meals of the sailors onboard a ship, they will eat just about any aquatic creature, and even giant octopuses and whales know to steer clear of a hungry lusca’s vicinity.

The average lusca is 90 feet from tentacle to snout and weighs 3,800 pounds. Legends tell of even larger luscas that can sink Colossal ships.

Manasaputra For most creatures, the path to self-perfection ends as all mortal pursuits do: in death. For a few, however, the path to self-perfection ends with fiery rebirth in the heart of the Positive Energy Plane, where the souls of those not yet born fuse with the potential of those who’ve learned from lifetimes of reincarnation to form wholly new entities—the manasaputras. These outsiders continue their path to perfection by striving to achieve oneness with the universe, further evolving and discovering new cosmic truths, as well as guiding mortals on their paths to similar ends.

Manasaputras are benevolent and compassionate entities that follow strict practices of contemplation, introspection, and meditation. Others often view their directness and disciplined nature as inflexible, yet in truth, manasaputras are accepting when presented with new ideas and challenges—adapting to accommodate these changes can simply take hundreds or thousands of years as the manasaputras gradually evaluate and reevaluate the slightest adjustment to their personal beliefs or ideals. The patience of manasaputras is legendary, and can make action seem like inaction from a mortal’s perspective of time. Manasaputras belong to a complex hierarchy. While immortal beings known as kumaras ostensibly lead them, each manasaputra operates as an individual, free to pursue its own contemplation of the multiverse and its inhabitants. More powerful manasaputras mentor younger and less experienced ones, particularly when their paths to perfection align. These relationships are master and apprentice structures similar to the Material Plane’s monastic hierarchies. Lesser manasaputras have deep respect and reverence for the elders of their kind and the phenomenal—often godlike—power they wield.

When not contemplating reality in isolation at the heart of the Positive Energy Plane, manasaputras can be found drifting through the Astral Plane in search of wisdom, or drawn to the Material Plane when ignorance and chaos work hand in hand with cruelty and evil. Manasaputras do not often intervene in destructive events, preferring to instead aid mortals and teach them necessary skills that they can use to confront these challenges. Greater threats of a more cosmic nature can draw the direct intervention of dozens of manasaputras, especially when these threats concern the destruction of knowledge or foment disorder in the universe. To this end, manasaputras can sometimes be found working alongside aeons and inevitables on morally compatible agendas. Manasaputras respect the precious balance aeons bring to the planes, as well as inevitables’ unfaltering dedication to their assigned tasks. They are distant toward most good-aligned outsiders, unable to fully share the passions of agathions and azatas, and put off by the zeal of angels and archons. They share a special kinship with devas, who often also oversee mortal affairs. Among outsiders, their greatest rivals are the sahkils of the Ethereal Plane, who attempt to hold back mortal development and are thus sworn enemies of all manasaputras.

Manasaputras seldom interact with wicked mortal creatures of the Material Plane. Their charge is to nurture the spiritual development of those who walk the path of enlightenment, and thus have little concern for mortal creatures outside that path, except as obstacles their students must overcome.

While usually described as humanoid in form, most manasaputras are wholly incorporeal entities forged of the raw Cosmic Fire from the heart of the Positive Energy Plane. When a manasaputra chooses to become corporeal, it usually adopts a resplendent, idealized humanoid form, often with striking features such as a third eye, multiple arms, or other compelling physical characteristics that clearly set it apart from mortals.

Occult lore suggests the enormous wisdom of the eldest manasaputras derives from their mortal existence during a previous incarnation of the multiverse itself. Certainly the manasaputras themselves favor doctrines of cycles such as reincarnation. Some mortal followers believe that manasaputras from the previous multiversal cycle were the first to inhabit the soulless husks that would ultimately become mortals, but as usual the manasaputras themselves favor riddles over straight answers on the matter.

The Seven Kumaras, the most powerful of all manasaputras, exist at the heart of all creation, each exemplifying a facet of the multiverse. These enigmatic entities rarely leave the Cosmic Fire of the Positive Energy Plane, communing with this source of all life in the multiverse and witnessing events across all creation through psychic rapport with a consciousness they (and the like-minded aeons) refer to as the Logos.

The Seven Kumaras Seven glory-clad kumaras lead the manasaputras on their spiritual journeys. Each occasionally acts as a personal messenger or spirit guide for mortals with profound psychic gifts or particularly promising souls. While spellings often differ depending on the esoteric source consulted, their number is thought to include the following.

• Ameuritati, the First Immortal • Ashavashitra, the Righteous Truth • Asoshu Mana, the True Purpose • Auramiti, the Holy Devotion • Hourvetat, the Circle of Ages • Ksathras, the Dominion • Sraosha, the Cleansing Wings Manasaputra–Manasaputra, Manu Manasaputra, Manu A toned, regal human radiates a shifting aura of many colors and murmuring voices that seem strangely familiar.

Source: Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 5