Octorilla
Image © Emperor's Choice Games, by William Watt.
[Commissioned by @crazytrain48. The octorilla is an Arduin monster with a long, but strange, history. An illustration first appears in the second volume of the Arduin Trilogy, Welcome to Skull Tower, and that book includes them on encounter tables. But there aren't stats for them (at least, I think. I only have a compilation of the Arduin Trilogy rather than each book separately). The first time I could find statistics under this name is in the Arduin Eternal edition, which coincided with a very nice miniature from Emperor's Choice Games.
Edit: Thanks to @crazytrain48 for pointing out that the octorilla is the "snake ape" from All the World's Monsters, David Hargrave's first monster specific book.
Note also that the octorilla only has six limbs. The name is clearly a portmanteau of "octopus" and "gorilla", ala the term "owlbear", rather than a description of their limbs.]
Octorilla CR 9 CN Magical Beast This creature resembles a humanoid ape, except that it has a beak instead of a mouth, and four slimy tentacles in place of its forearms.
Octorillas are yet another form of hybrid creature created by transmuters in an attempt to create useful servitors and warriors. By combining the clever problem solving of octopuses with the social structure of gorillas, the original creator of the octorilla was hoping that the resultant chimera would be a useful fighter and willing to follow orders. This had mixed results. Octorillas are smarter than, say, an owlbear, but they are independently minded and they are usually resentful of creatures that try to impose their will on them. Although some octorillas are still in captivity serving as moat monsters or palace guards, most of them are free living and free willed.
An octorilla is a fairly simple combatant—they wade into melee and grab prey with their slimy, suckered tentacles. If they don’t have a prey item grabbed, they can use their tentacles to swat arrows and bolts out of the sky. Their tentacles ooze a sticky slime that is mildly acidic. This helps octorillas break food down into small enough pieces in order to consume easily (like their octopus ancestors, their gut passes through the brain, limiting the size of what they can swallow). Octorillas are immune to toxins and resistant to corrosives, which allows them to live in a wide variety of environments, including polluted swamps, radioactive wastelands, or other challenging areas. They require plenty of water, but can survive in both salt and freshwater. Octorillas lair in areas with three dimensional structures to climb on, such as sea caves, coral reefs or tree-filled swamps.
Octorillas remain solitary for most of their lives. When the urge to mate takes them, multiple females will gather at a place with still water, and a male will mate with each of them. This harem will care for their eggs together, with the male assisting by provisioning food when females cannot hunt for themselves. Once the eggs hatch, the mating clutch disperses, but octorillas can recognize their own young and sometimes assist the larvae by bringing them prey. Juvenile octorillas are fully aquatic for their first year or so of life and amphibious thereafter.
Octorillas can be taught to understand a spoken language, and even to speak a few words roughly, but communicate amongst each other without one.
