Pickled Punk

*Barely contained in thick glass, this deformed humanoid creature wriggles in its jar.*

**Pickled Punk CR 1**

**XP 400**

NE Tiny undead

**Init** +1; **Senses** darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +1

**DEFENSE**

**AC** 13, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+1 Dex, +2 size)

**hp** 11 (2d8+2)

**Fort** +1, **Ref** +1, **Will** +4

**DR** 5/bludgeoning; **Immune** undead traits

**OFFENSE**

**Speed** 15 ft.

**Melee** bite +4 (1d3–4 plus attach)

**Space** 2-1/2 ft.; **Reach** 0 ft.

**Special Attacks** attach, death throes, irritant

**STATISTICS**

**Str** 3, **Dex** 13, **Con** —, **Int** 4, **Wis** 12, **Cha** 13

**Base Atk** +1; **CMB** +0; **CMD** 6

**Feats** Weapon Finesse

**Skills** Bluff +2 (+10 when playing dead), Stealth +13; **Racial Modifiers** +8 Bluff when playing dead

**Languages** Common SQ opportune

**SPECIAL ABILITIES**

**Attach (Ex)**

When a pickled punk hits with a bite attack, it automatically grapples its foe, though the target is not considered to be grappling the punk. Each round the pickled punk is grappling its foe, it automatically deals bite damage each round.

**Death Throes (Ex)**

When a pickled punk is destroyed, it discorporates into a fleshy sludge. Any creatures adjacent to a pickled punk when it is destroyed must succeed at a DC 12 Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1 round.

**Irritant (Ex)**

The water in a pickled punk’s jar is highly irritating to all living creatures. A creature damaged by a pickled punk’s bite that deals damage to pickled punk with a natural weapon or unarmed attack, or that otherwise comes into contact with a pickled punk or the water in its jar, must succeed at a DC 12 Fortitude save or break out in an itching rash. A creature affected by this rash takes a –2 penalty to Dexterity and Charisma for 24 hours (multiple allergic reactions do not stack). Remove disease or any magical healing removes the rash instantly. This is a disease effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.

**Opportune (Ex)**

Though Tiny, a pickled punk can extend its deformed limbs to make attacks of opportunity as if it had a reach of 5 feet. This ability doesn’t allow a pickled punk to attack adjacent creatures as if it truly had a reach of 5 feet.

ECOLOGY

**Environment** any

**Organization** solitary

**Treasure** none

Grotesque curiosities, pickled punks are deformed, often-humanoid fetuses raised by necromancers and stored in jars of embalming fluid. Every pickled punk is different and the level of deformity spans a spectrum between the mildly lopsided to the utterly unfathomable. Though they seem harmless at first—even laughable—pickled punks are hungry creatures that attack without provocation when freed from their jars. Some pickled punks rock and wriggle in their jars in hopes of falling off a shelf or table and shattering their glass prison (such jars typically have hardness 1 and 2 hit points). Once freed, a pickled punk pulls itself across the ground with its malformed limbs in search of sustenance. Unless weaned from its taste for blood or constantly controlled, pickled punks become a danger to their creators.

Some necromancers (especially those on the edge of sanity) and some intelligent undead cultivate a fondness for pickled punks and regard them as their children. They talk to their various jars in cooing tones and are known to even carry around favored specimens on outings and social calls, often granting them names and imagined personalities.