The rogue grunted, pressing a hand to her side as she tried to stifle the pain that throbbed there. It wasn’t a deep wound, but she could feel the venom the bite had left behind coursing through her veins, leaving her skin clammy and her breath short. She winced, trying to get her breath under control as she leaned back against the counter of the abandoned bar. Earlier in the day, their party had arrived to the jungle outpost only to find it seemingly deserted, drenched in the stench of decay. There had been signs of struggles, of the occasional splatter of blood, but they had been few and there were no bodies left. They had went on guard following the scene but a mistake had left her in her current predicament. As she tried to slow the ache starting to spread through her body, she heard the doors of the saloon swing open – and then the rasp of claws against the wood. Her eyes flitted to a bottle laying askance on the floor where she saw a three-headed, quadrupedal figure stalking slowly towards her hiding spot. Its squat central head was flanked by a pair of heads on sinuous necks that craned and weaved back and forth, seeking their prey. Numb fingers wrapped around a dagger as it drew closer and closer until the feelers of a centipede entered her periphery. Less than a second later, the chittering head of the gu appeared, joined by its hissing, serpentine head but before either could strike, there was a creak from the second floor and the fighter came barreling down, sword and shield at the ready as it tackled the toxic terror.
Illustration by SethMonster
First off, I want to apologize for the lateness of this post. I won’t waste your time on the why and leave it at a sincere apology.
This is a monster that I have been wanting to present for a while but as is often the case, I needed art for beforehand. That art has been graciously provided by SethMonster in a beautiful display of this blighting beast. The concept of the gu originates in Chinese folklore and mythology with a practice of trapping a host of toxic creatures – snakes, centipedes, and the like – inside an urn. Creatures within would fight to the death, concentrating all the poison into the sole survivor, which was then used in dark magic practices. My take on the gu is a chimeric creature born from a variety of venomous villains and it demonstrates that toxicity with the full extent of its considerable kit.
Having seen the damage that poison can do in my home games, I was a little cautious with its numbers – many of its numbers veer towards moderate. Its Armor Class, Health Points, most of its attacks, and most of its damaging Strikes veer towards these moderate values. Even its various venoms tend towards using a moderate save DC with the exception of its Flatworm Venom, which is because it comes from a Strike that deals no damage. Potentially the most unique of the gu's abilities is its Aerosolize Venom, letting it turn one of its multitude of venoms into a gaseous cloud that conceals it and also threatens to envenom creatures that step into it though at an even lower DC. Unlike some other spined creatures, the gu's spines don't deal damage but are based on the urticating spines of the likes of caterpillars and spiders. They cause sickened at a high DC as they are mostly an irritation rather than an outright damaging effect. It does have Perfected Poisons to play more into the classic origins of gu, being the distilled essence of toxicity that can afflict even otherwise immune creatures.
Many of the gu's activated abilities are based on action efficiency with Pinning Fangs and Triple Threat interacting with the multiple attack penalty in a way similar to the chimeras's abilities. Its Pounce lets it get into the fight quickly and is the most representative of my envisioned hunting style for the gu - emerging from hiding to strike at prey and envenom them before retreating to let them succumb to the toxin.
Pathfinder 2e:
The Pathfinder 1e conversion of the gu did see some considerable simplification from the Pathfinder 2e version. This is largely due to the loss of action efficiency abilities from 2e though this gu does still have pounce, which is actually different from the 1e version. Its primary poisons target the main physical ability scores, leaving its flatoworm venom to instead slow a creature affected by it. Given that poison damage isn't a thing in 1e and that resistance for it isn't direct, immune creatures get a bonus against the effects due to perfected poisons. In regards to its feats, the gu has Deep Toxin to extend the duration of its poisons and builds into Spring Attack so that it can demonstrate its main hunting style of darting in and out of combat. Combat Reflexes is a very dangerous feat for the gu to have, letting them strike at and possibly envenom creatures when they trigger attacks of opportunity.
Pathfinder 1e:
Between the action efficiency abilities as well as the multitude of poisons present in the creature, Blue felt as though a D&D 5e version of the gu wouldn't be a good fit. As such, we regrettably don't have anything for it next week, but should have a monster next week!
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Poisonous Pair: The heroes have become the target of an assassin who has a trained gu as a companion. During the course of the fight, the gu can reapply poison to its master's blade from any of its envenomed strikes. The gu and assassin fight in tandem, operating as one and the PF1e gu may have the Precise Strike feat to better exemplify this.
Lost Outpost: While journeying through a jungle or another wild area, the heroes have a plan to stop off at a small outpost to rest and recover. However, they find it depopulated and if they investigate the area around, they can find tracks of others attempting to flee the site. A gu has been hunting the inhabitants of the town to extinction and welcomes new arrivals to its larder, preying upon them when they're vulnerable.
You can of course check out the video and I hope you do!
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Have a monstrous Monday!
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