The lake’s surface is calm and serene, and a cool morning mist rises from it. Suddenly, it is alive with activity as a massive pseudopod, towering dozens of feet into the air, erupts like a cyclone.
Living Lake CR 22
XP 615,000
N Colossal ooze
Init +4; Senses blindsight 60 ft., tremorsense 120 ft.; Perception +40
9th—antipathy (DC 25), mass cure critical wounds, regenerate, summon nature’s ally IX
8th—control plants (DC 24), earthquake, sunburst (DC 24), whirlwind (DC 24)
7th—animate plants, control weather, heal, sunbeam (DC 23)
6th—greater dispel magic, liveoak, move earth, stone tell, summon nature’s ally VI
5th—animal growth, baleful polymorph (DC 21), insect plague, summon nature’s ally V, wall of thorns
4th—blight (DC 20), command plants (DC 20), flame strike (DC 20), scrying, summon nature’s ally IV
3rd—call lightning (DC 19), dominate animal (DC 19), poison (DC 19), sleet storm, water breathing
2nd—animal trance (DC 18), bull’s strength, flaming sphere (DC 18), heat metal (DC 18), hold animal (DC 18), lesser restoration
1st—calm animals (DC 17), charm animal (DC 17), cure light wounds, obscuring mist, produce flame, summon nature’s ally I
0 (at will)—detect magic, flare (DC 16), purify food and drink, virtue
Environment any land
Organization solitary
Treasure double standard
Hundreds of feet across, a living lake, also called an agrath-ogh in the language of the orcs, is an ooze of truly colossal proportions. The first living lake is said to have fallen from the heavens ages ago at a time so ancient that no eyes were around to witness its fall. The protoplasmic body of a living lake is fluid in nature and transparent in water, such that one of these creatures could remain unseen and unknown for centuries.
Unlike most oozes, a living lake is a not a mindless blob of muck. It is intelligent, but it is also highly receptive to the thoughts and beliefs of any large group of intelligent creatures that live near it. A living lake can become a god – so to speak – because of the will of the creatures that worship it. Thus, it responds in a manner dictated by its own worshipers. The god is created by the worshiper, instead of vice-versa. Unfortunately for the world, living lakes are generally found in hills and badlands – the very same environs favored by orcs. Living lakes worshiped by orcs are cruel, chaotic, destructive things, since those are the qualities most revered in orcish deities.
Once it has been ensconced as a god, a living lake uses its abilities to live up to the expectations of its worshipers. It can reward a tasty sacrifice with a life-giving rain, or punish insolence with a plague of insects.
A living lake attacks by forming pseudopods from its oozy form and pummeling its opponents. A grabbed foe is constricted or engulfed in the creature’s body, usually only released when it dies or falls unconscious. Against powerful opponents, or those that press the combat, the living lake mixes its spells with its natural attacks, usually summoning animals or animating plants to help it. A living lake usually forms at least one pseudopod per opponent it faces. It can form a maximum of one pseudopod per 3 Hit Dice it possesses.
Living Lake from the Tome of Horrors Complete, Copyright 2011, Necromancer Games, Inc., published and distributed by Frog God Games; Author Erica Balsley.