Choker

Chokers were hideous monsters that hid underground and strangled their prey to death.

Description
Chokers had a torso that appeared something akin to a halfling with spotted skin, but the similarity ended there. The flesh of a choker felt rubbery. Some scholars reported that it could alter its skin color to match its surroundings.

A choker's arms and legs were long and thin, being more like tentacles than arms or legs of normal creatures.

Its hands were shaped somewhat like a starfish. The hands had a spiny surface that permitted them to grip tightly to the surfaces of walls and ceilings.

While there was some debate about the anatomy of a choker's skeleton as a whole—some claimed that the skull, spine, and rib cage were of bone, others claimed of cartilage —all scholars agreed that their limbs were cartilaginous  and multi-jointed. They moved their limbs with the fluidity of tentacles.

Standing little higher than and weighing in at about, they were more dangerous than they appeared.

Abilities
Chokers had low, almost animal, intelligence,  but they were preternaturally quick of movement. Like most subterranean beings, they could see in the dark.

A choker's flexible skeleton allowed it to enter through a gap as narrow as wide! And it could climb walls  or even travel along a ceiling like a spider.

Personality
Although some suggested that they were not truly malicious, chokers' actions were those of chaotic and evil beings. They were cowardly beings and relied on stealth to survive. They liked to collect little trinkets from their victims. Their greed for such objects sometimes gave a victim a means to negotiate for its life.

Combat
Chokers took advantage of their flexible bodies and squeezed themselves into narrow cracks in the stone of their cavern homes, where they waited for unsuspecting victims, whatever happened to come by. Other favored spots for ambushes were the intersections of cavern rooms or above wells or staircases.

After making a kill, a choker often left the corpse nearby, within its long arms' reach, both so that it could have easy access to a snack and so that it could use the body as a lure. If a curious creature came close to inspect the body, it would be the next victim.

Chokers actually favored attacking creatures their size or larger, but would usually avoid attacking a group, unless very hungry, in which case they attempted to pick off the last in line.

To attack, the choker would lash out with both of its tentacle-like arms,  snapping them like whips. The tiny spikes on its hands could puncture a victim's skin. The choker would then try to choke its victim, either with a strangle hold  or by pressing the victim's throat against the wall. It could often do this without having to leave the safety of its hiding place. It goes without saying that a victim could not speak or cast spells with verbal components while being choked.

Chokers that were attacked while currently trying to choke a victim would often use the victim as a body shield.

Society
Chokers were primarily solitary creatures,  but they all preferred similar habitats, so finding one meant that other independent chokers might also be nearby. While they were generally terrible at the job, because of their stupidity, some goblins, gnolls, and other evil humanoids paid chokers food and treasure to guard their lairs or assassinate rivals.

Chokers communicated with creepy howling sounds that were hard to pinpoint in caves because of echoing. There was debate among scholars about which languages, if any, chokers could speak, perhaps because their low intelligence kept their vocabulary so low. Among languages suggested were Deep Speech, Common, Undercommon, and a language unique to their kind.

Ecology
The natural habitat for chokers was underground. However, there were actually two separate subspecies of choker, cavern chokers and feygrove chokers. The cavern choker was more commonly known and is described here. Its larger cousin lived in the Feywild and hid among its trees.

Another group of tree-dwelling chokers lived in the Forest of Amtar, having migrated there from the Underdark. They had adapted to the new conditions and heat of that forest.

Uses
Perhaps only in jest, the famous wizard Mordenkainen once suggested that short wizards obtain a choker as a familiar as an alternative to using ladders, since they could reach such great heights with their long arms and legs.

Appearances

 * Stardock Under Siege