Bellowheart
Image by Guido Kuip, © Monte Cook Games LLC. Accessed at the Monte Cook Games site here.
[The bellowheart is a monster from the first Ninth World Bestiary that has a lot of mystery baked in: the entry suggests that it's the adult form of a creature that can assume human guise or otherwise lives with people, but does not elaborate. The combination of oversized mouth and tendrils had me thinking "mimic", and in Pathfinder, mimics are the creations of the aboleth. So I associated these with faceless stalkers, another aboleth creation that can assume human form. I also gave them an ability to make their bellowing mechanically meaningful: why name a monster after a trait and then not make it relevant?
If you like what I do and want to support me financially, please check out the Creature Codex Patreon here]
Bellowheart CR 12 CE Aberration This creature has no face but a gaping maw with disturbingly human teeth. Four barbed tendrils grow where arms would be on a saner anatomy, and its two legs are elephantine.
The bellowheart is a bestial predator with surprising intelligence, capable of speaking (and shouting) all languages. They are hypertrophic forms of the faceless stalkers, and call themselves ugothrells. A faceless stalker’s metamorphosis into a bellowheart is not well understood, even by the creatures themselves, but seems to be motivated primarily by gluttony. Ugothols cannot digest solid food, and must consume blood, broth and other liquids. An ugothol that becomes obsessed with the idea of eating may transform into an ugothrell, its body losing the ability to shape itself into a humanoid form in exchange for developing a robust digestive system.
What shapechanging abilities a faceless stalker had manifest in a bellowheart in an eerie flexibility and the ability to tailor make toxins. A bellowheart has four whipping tentacles, each ending in a barbed sting, and each capable of injecting a number of vile substances into their prey. In addition to dealing straight damage or slowing reaction times, as many normal poisons do, bellowheart venom can blur vision, create disorientation similar to a confusion spell, or even stun victims. Ugothrells tend to spread their stings around, poisoning multiple foes with multiple different venoms for the sheer joy of confusion. If enemies seem to be resistant to poison, the bellowheart simply bites or tramples it to death.
Bellowhearts are blustering and belligerent even when well fed, and their name comes from the robust shouts and curses they make while patrolling their territory. They can be negotiated with, but a wise negotiator brings plenty of fresh meat as a bribe and shows complete deference to the monster. Most ugothrells are less interested in deception than they were as ugothols, but they have little loyalty to anyone but themselves, and may turn on a temporary ally if they see an opportunity for a better deal. Ugothrells are usually solitary, but if multiple faceless stalkers who associated with each other transform into bellowhearts, they may continue their association as long as food supplies are sufficient. Bellowhearts do not reproduce sexually.














