| Climate/Terrain: | Any Underdark |
|---|---|
| Frequency: | Rare |
| Organization: | Solitary |
| Activity Cycle: | Night |
| Diet: | Carnivore |
| Intelligence: | Average (8-10) |
| Treasure: | None |
| Alignment: | Lawful Neutral |
| No. Appearing: | 1-2 |
| Armor Class: | 3 |
| Movement: | 12 |
| Hit Dice: | 7+7 |
| THAC0: | 11 |
| No. of Attacks: | 6 (tentacles) or 1 (bite) |
| Damage/Attack: | 1-4 (x6) or 3-36 |
| Special Attacks: | Ram |
| Special Defenses: | Spikes |
| Magic Resistance: | Standard |
| Size: | H (24’ long) |
| Morale: | Fanatic (18) |
| XP Value: | 5,000 |
Creations and servitors of the illithids, the vampire squid are tools of the mind flayers, meant to extend their masters’ reach into the waters of the sunless seas below the earth. It has lambent blue-green eyes and can see up to 150 yards through dark water; this sight, combined with its ability to reach an underwater “sprint” of up to 33 make it a deadly predator
Combat: Though its tentacles are too weak to constrict its prey, the vampire squid has a maw full of spiky, needle-sharp teeth. It uses its tentacles to direct prey to its maw, where it can be dispatched quickly. Each tentacles that successfully holds a victim grants the mouth a +2 bonus to the attack roll; for example, a drow warrior held by three tentacles would suffer 1-4 points abrasion damage and (if the squid were to attempt to bite him) it would attack with a +6 bonus to the roll
When it sights its prey, the vampire squid prefers to attack by surprise, gathering speed as it approaches on a collision course. The end of its body is a hardened shell; any creature struck by the squid at full speed suffers 2-24 hp damage and may drop any object it is holding if it fails a Wisdom check.
Furthermore, as a defensive measure it can turn its maw inside out, putting spiky teeth on the outside. This turns a retreating vampire squid into a mass of sword-sized spikes, much like an underwater hedgehog. Anyone attacking the vampire squid while it is in this form suffers a damage equal to the attacker’s AC (creatures with negative Armor Class suffer no damage)
Habitat/Society: Vampire squid are entirely devoted to their creators, the illithids, and obey their every command without hesitation. However, they are not innately evil, and if they can be charmed or otherwise lured away from their masters they are honorable, trustworthy creatures. Those few vampire squid that have been captured by other races often serve as transportation, able to pull great rafts or war-barges through the water; however, these captured vampire squid never reproduce; it is believed that they cannot bear young without magical or psionic assistance from the illithids, and that this accounts for their loyalty to the mind flayers.
Ecology: The vampire squid eat hundreds of pounds of fish, insects, and mollusks; they are almost always solitary for this reason as two such predators sharing the same space quickly destroy the local fish stocks. They gather together only to mate or to serve their masters, who provide them with land-based foodstuffs.