CREEPING PIT
by Dan Proulx
FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: Not applicable
MOVE: 12?
HIT DICE: See below
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: See below
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 engulfment
DAMAGE/ATTACK: See below
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Engulfment, cast
victims into Astral Plane
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Immunity to
physical and magical attacks
MAGIC RESISTANCE: See below
INTELLIGENCE: Unratable
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
SIZE: L (6? diameter, 10? deep)
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: VI/1000
An extremely curious and rare phenome-
non, a creeping pit is created when a bag of
devouring (see DRAGON® issue #89,
"Ihagnim" in Creature Catalog I) is placed
within a portable hole. The combination of
these two magical items opens a rift to the
Astral Plane, which closes in one hour. The
closed rift then changes, for reasons un-
known, into a creeping pit.
The creeping pit has a quasi-sentience,
and it seems to stay in the general area in
which it was created. The pit looks exactly
like a mobile portable hole, and it is always
6? in diameter and 10? deep. It can move
freely over any fairly level surface, and can
travel up and down ramps (but not stairs).
Any live creature coming within 30? of
the creeping pit will be ?attacked? by it; the
pit attempts to slide under the creature?s
feet, causing it to fall in. The only way to
avoid falling in the pit is to jump to any
available area not occupied by the pit. To
see if the creature has avoided the pit, roll a
20-sided die; if the result is below or equal
to that creature?s dexterity, then the crea-
ture has avoided falling in. If the result is
higher, the creature has fallen into the pit.
There must be available floor space to
which a potential victim can jump in order
to even try to avoid the pit.
A creature falling into a pit will usually
take 1-6 hp damage when hitting bottom,
but sometimes (10%) there will be sufficient
garbage at the bottom to break the fall
without harm. Any victim may easily get
out of the pit if the means are at hand, but
that creature will then be subsequently
attacked by the pit, and the victim may find
himself in a new area. (The pit is always on
the move and can easily slide under doors).
Creeping pits are not affected by any type
of magical spell or weapon attack. The only
way to affect a pit is to create another extra-
dimensional hole inside it. This can be done
by casting a gate within it, or by throwing a
bag of holding or portable hole into the pit.
This will reopen the pit?s interdimensional
rift, and creatures and objects within a 10?
radius of the pit must make a save vs. spell
or be swept into the Astral Plane. This rift
will then close in one hour, the creeping pit
destroyed. Creatures in the Astral Plane
will not be able to use the rift to get back
into the Prime Material Plane, as it is a
one-way opening only.
Even if a creature cannot escape from a
creeping pit, it will probably end up in the
Astral Plane. For every hour that material
(living or non-living) is in the pit, there is a
25% chance that it will ?fade? into the
Astral Plane.
Even though a creeping pit cannot be
killed in the conventional sense, experience
points should be awarded by the DM if
characters overcome it by creating a hole
within the pit as outlined above, or by
filling it with some substance, making it
easy to walk upon..