Blackwater Catfish

Huge Animal (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 8d8+32 (68 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares), swim 40 ft.
Armor Class: 16 (–2 size, +1 Dex, +7 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 15
Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+18
Attack: Bite +8 melee (2d6+6)
Full Attack: Bite +8 melee (2d6+6) and tail slap +3 melee (1d8+3)
Space/Reach: 15 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Improved grab, swallow whole, thrash
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, scent, murky water adaptation
Saves: Fort +10, Ref +7, Will +3
Abilities: Str 22, Dex 13, Con 18, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills: Listen +8, Spot +7, Swim +14
Feats: Alertness, Toughness, Weapon Focus (bite)
Environment: Warm rivers, swamps, and bayous
Organization: Solitary or pair
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 9–12 HD (Huge); 13–18 HD (Gargantuan)
Level Adjustment: —

DESCRIPTION

The Blackwater Catfish is a hulking predator of slow, tannin-dark waters where visibility is measured in inches and sound travels farther than sight. Its long, whiskered face drifts just above the riverbed, barbels tasting the currents for movement, blood, and the subtle tremors of living flesh. Its hide is thick, slick, and dark as drowned wood, often scarred from territorial battles or failed attempts by desperate prey.

Measuring between eight and twelve feet in length, these creatures are deceptively still hunters. They settle into silt or beneath submerged roots, becoming indistinguishable from the environment until the moment they strike. What follows is not a chase, but a violent, sudden absence - a splash, a churn of mud, and then silence.

COMBAT

A Blackwater Catfish attacks from concealment, preferring targets at the water’s edge or wading in shallow depths. It attempts to grapple immediately, dragging prey into deeper water where resistance quickly turns to panic and drowning.

Improved Grab (Ex): If the catfish hits with its bite, it may attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking attacks of opportunity.

Swallow Whole (Ex): A Blackwater Catfish can swallow a grabbed opponent of Large size or smaller. A swallowed creature takes 2d6+6 bludgeoning damage plus 1d6 acid damage per round. The gizzard (AC 13) requires 15 damage to cut free. Capacity: 2 Large, 4 Medium, or 8 Small or smaller creatures.

Thrash (Ex): While grappling, the catfish violently twists, dealing an additional 1d8+6 damage each round it maintains the grapple.

Murky Water Adaptation (Ex): The catfish ignores concealment penalties from silt or dark water and gains a +4 racial bonus on Listen and Spot checks in aquatic environments.

Skills: A Blackwater Catfish has a +8 racial bonus on Swim checks and can always choose to take 10 on Swim checks, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming in a straight line.

LORE

Locals rarely agree on much, but on this they are unified - if the water is black enough to hide your hands, it is deep enough to hide a catfish. Livestock vanish. Dogs refuse to drink. Boats drift back empty. And always, the water returns to stillness too quickly, as though nothing at all had happened.

These creatures are not merely opportunistic feeders - they learn. Those that survive long enough begin to recognize patterns: the hour fishermen arrive, the places children play, the habitual crossings of livestock. In time, a Blackwater Catfish does not simply hunt - it waits for you specifically.

Some riverfolk leave offerings of meat or blood at certain bends, believing it will keep the larger specimens satisfied. Others say this only teaches the creature that humans are a reliable source of food. Neither group has proven the other wrong.

Blackwater Catfish, Striped Venomtail

Huge Animal (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 9d8+36 (76 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares), swim 40 ft.
Armor Class: 17 (–2 size, +2 Dex, +7 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 15
Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+19
Attack: Bite +9 melee (2d6+7 plus venom)
Full Attack: Bite +9 melee (2d6+7 plus venom) and tail slap +4 melee (1d8+3)
Space/Reach: 15 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Improved grab, swallow whole, thrash, venom
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, scent, murky water adaptation
Saves: Fort +10, Ref +8, Will +3
Abilities: Str 24, Dex 15, Con 18, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills: Listen +9, Spot +8, Swim +15
Feats: Alertness, Toughness, Weapon Focus (bite), Improved Initiative
Environment: Warm swamps, bayous, and blackwater rivers
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 6
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 10–14 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment: —

DESCRIPTION

This variant of the Blackwater Catfish is immediately recognizable to those unfortunate enough to have seen it and lived. Its body bears a muted olive-green coloration that blends seamlessly with algae-choked waters, broken only by a faint, shadowy black stripe running along its underside. This marking is rarely visible from above, rendering the creature nearly invisible until it turns - often at the exact moment it strikes.

Its barbels are longer and more sensitive than those of its kin, constantly tasting the water for signs of movement. Up close, subtle ridges can be seen along the jawline and near the base of the tail - the source of its venom. Wounds inflicted by this creature are often deceptively small, yet far more dangerous than they appear.

COMBAT

The striped venomtail relies on the same ambush tactics as other Blackwater Catfish, but it is notably more aggressive once it has made contact. It often bites and releases smaller prey, allowing the venom to weaken the target before returning to feed at its leisure. Against larger prey, it grapples as normal, letting the toxin hasten exhaustion and drowning.

Improved Grab (Ex): As Blackwater Catfish.

Swallow Whole (Ex): As Blackwater Catfish.

Thrash (Ex): Deals an additional 1d8+7 damage each round it maintains a grapple.

Venom (Ex): Injury, Fortitude DC 18, initial damage 1d4 Strength and 1d4 Dexterity, secondary damage 1d6 Strength. The save DC is Constitution-based. A creature reduced to 0 Strength by this poison is unable to swim and immediately begins to drown if in water.

Murky Water Adaptation (Ex): As Blackwater Catfish.

Skills: A Blackwater Catfish, Striped Venomtail has a +8 racial bonus on Swim checks and can always choose to take 10 on Swim checks, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming in a straight line.

LORE

Among those who live along blackwater shores, this creature is often treated with greater fear than its larger cousins. Not because it is bigger - but because it is cruelly efficient. Victims are not always taken immediately. Some are found hours later, half-submerged, unable to move, their bodies failing them while the water quietly claims what remains.

Fishermen tell of lines going slack without struggle, only to find the catch gone and the hook bent or broken. Others speak of a sudden numbness in their limbs after brushing against something unseen, followed by a creeping weakness that leaves them unable to stand, let alone flee.

There is a saying in the bayou: “If the water takes you fast, be grateful. If it lets you linger, it’s the striped one.”

More troubling still is the relationship between these creatures and the Mireborn. At a distance, they resemble people - thin, stooped, and watchful. Up close, that illusion rots away. Their skin bears a sickly olive cast, stretched too tight in some places and sagging in others, as though the body beneath has forgotten its proper shape. Their hair hangs in long, damp strands resembling Spanish moss, often clotted together with filth and stagnant water. Their eyes are wrong - not in movement, but in stillness, as though they receive the world rather than look at it. Boils, lesions, and slow-weeping sores mark nearly every inch of exposed flesh. The smell that follows them is brackish and faintly sweet, like something long steeped in still water. They rarely speak as individuals. Instead, they murmur - overlapping whispers that only form meaning when heard together.

It is said the Mireborn seek out the striped venomtails with patient, deliberate intent, luring them into shallow, choking waters where nets of woven reed and bone await. They do not kill the creature quickly. They wound it. They bleed it. They take from it what they need.

The venom is collected in crude vessels - hollowed gourds, skulls, or thick glass when such things can be stolen - and worked into their weapons with unsettling care. Spears, hooks, and jagged blades are coated in the toxin, not for swift death, but for the slow undoing of those struck.

Those who have survived such wounds speak of a familiar sensation - not pain, but surrender. Muscles loosening. Strength fading. The body forgetting how to resist.

And in the distance, through the reeds and still water, the Mireborn murmur together - not in triumph, but in something closer to recognition.