FLUMPH MOTHER
FREQUENCY: Rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 8
MOVE: 3"
HIT DICE: 4
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 0
DAMAGE/ATTACK: Paralysis
SPECIAL ATTACKS: As above
SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Non-
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
SIZE: L (20' wide, 20' tall)
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Flumph Mothers are so named because of their symbiotic relationship with flumphs (see the Fiend Folio, p.39). They are a large spherical fungus that contains numerous bladder-like chambers within which flumphs mate and deposit their young. After successfully breeding, the flumphs die and their bodies provide sustenance for the Mother. Despite their ungainly and bizarre appearance, seeing one is regarded as good luck by farmers, who welcome the deposits of fertilizing nutrients the Mother occasionally produces as it moves from place to place. At the same time, wilfully destroying one of them is seen as inviting bad luck, and will provoke the ire of the flumphs that reside with it.
The Mother has no means of attacking opponents but does have several ways of defending itself. Its skin and the numerous growths that festoon it will paralyse any creature that touches them (unless they make a successful save vs paralyzation). There is a 1-3 chance (on 1d6) that striking the Mother will create a small rupture from which noisome fluids will spurt forth out to a range of 1". These fluids create an appalling stink that lasts for 1-3 hours and any victim struck by them must be shunned by their companions out to a distance of 50 feet. This stink will also attract wandering monsters who feed on carrion or waste.
The Mother will always be accompanied by a swarm of 2-8+2 flumphs, who will normally not attack unless provoked or if the Mother itself is attacked. 2-16 flumphs will reside within the Mother and will only venture outside to defend it if their host loses more than 50% of its hit points. If the Mother is destroyed, it will burst into large pieces that quickly become a vivid green and release great quantities of the liquids described above (with the same chance of being struck it them). Any creatures within 3" also have a 1-2 chance (on 1d6) of being struck by a caustic form of the liquid, which inflicts 1-3 points of damage for 1-6 turns unless it is negated by magical means. Flumphs are unaffected by this fluid. The destruction of the Mother will also attract wandering monsters (as described above) and pollute the ground below it for 2-8 years.
Flumph Mothers have a limited form of mobility, being mostly carried by the direction of strong breezes or draughts. Gasses contained within them (created by rotting matter) provide some buoyancy and they possess wing-like appendages that provide a limited form of propulsion when needed. These creatures are usually encountered in foothills and similar places close to mountains, and it's thought that this is where they might originally spore and grow. However, no-one has ever seen examples of this nascent form. One theory posits that flumphs themselves have the ability to create the Mothers by affecting mundane forms of fungus in some way. Flumph Mothers will only be encountered in dungeons possessing very spacious rooms and corridors, and even then only those connected to large and voluminous cave systems where they may have become trapped. If one of these creatures is encountered near a settled place, it will have been blown there. As it is so large, the flumphs that accompany it have no ability to steer it in any way.
Description: Flumph Mothers are yellowish white in colour and have random semi-opaque patches, within which indistinct shapes can be seen. Flumphs access the interior via a large tube-like growth close to its topmost part. The creature's body is resistant to both mundane and magical cold and fire attacks but is affected normally by those that are lightning-based. Flumph Mothers seem to have a lifespan of 10-20 years and their remains at the end of its life become bright red. These are highly prized by farmers as an additive to fertilizers and mulches, and they will pay up to 2000 gps for each hit dice-worth of remains they wish to acquire.
