“Iron Maiden Giant - Personal Project” © Phillip Zhang, accessed at his ArtStation here
[Commissioned by @coldbloodassassin. The 3rd edition Monster Manual III introduced the idea of “planar golems”, constructs that were infused with the essence of a particular plane in the Great Wheel cosmology. It had statistics for three of them, gloom (Hades), radiance (Elysium) and shadesteel (Plane of Shadow), but a lengthy sidebar discussing examples for most of the outer planes. The “shacklelock golem” was one of them, from the prison plane Carceri.
Two issues. One, these stray pretty far afield of what golems in D&D traditionally are–a mindless construct made out of a single substance. I didn’t like them when MMIII came out, and I have not changed my mind in the interceding 15 (!) years. Two, Pathfinder RPG has a different set of planes, and the planes that are in common often differ somewhat from their D&D versions. So my version is neither a golem, nor is it from Carceri.]
Shacklelock
CR 16 NE Construct
This humanoid giant stands taller than a building, its entire body made of metal. It seems able to split open down the middle, and chains are wrapped around its form and dangle from its waist. Its head sits low on its shoulders, and a collar of spikes bridges its neck and shoulders. Blood and bone fragments ooze from its interior, as if it were hollow inside. The stench of rotting meat wafts from the horrifying colossus.
Shacklelocks are unholy constructs made of quintessence and iron by daemons. They are modeled after iron maidens, or perhaps it is the other way around. They were devised by meladaemon mystics to generate more soul gems from the daemons’ victims without the fragile and unreliable cacodaemons to worry about. Creatures that die in the shacklelock’s spiked interior have their souls converted into gems automatically, which can be retrieved by the daemonic masters for consumption or trade. The construct’s very presence disrupts planar travel, making them excellent traps for other outsiders the daemons want eliminated.
A shacklelock wades into battle without fear or remorse, obeying the orders of their masters without question. Their bodies are perennially stained with blood and bits of rotting flesh stuck in their cracks and crevices, and their stench often precedes them. The chains on their belt can extend like tentacles, reeling in prey until it is close enough to grab and shove into the monster’s interior. Unless instructed to target a specific foe, the shacklelock will split its attacks in the joy of violence, as its only desire is to fill itself with the dead and dying.
Shacklelocks cannot be constructed by mortal casters, although they can be summoned through the use of gate spells. A shacklelock only accepts the sacrifice of good-aligned sapient creatures as payment.
jacobvanloon
turnnoffyourmind
kianamaiart
janainaart
discoholicmusic
annaxmalina
titsay
origamiaround
