Laghathti

Laghathti were cephalopodan obyrith demons that lurked within the oily black depths of the endless River Styx looking for prey. Like the sinister stream they inhabited, laghathti could siphon away memories with horrible speed, and could implant new ones just as easily.^[1]

Description[]

Laghathti had a loose resemblance to octopuses, but that description in no way summarized their alien appearance. For one, laghathti seemingly had no core; what passed for a body was a spherical mass of writhing tendrils, roughly 8 feet (2.4 meters) in diameter. Aside from that, a laghathti's form consisted of twelve, midnight-blue tentacles that, from tip to tip, spanned a length of 22 feet (6.7 meters).^[1]

Five of them had a pale underside riddled with hundreds of tiny mouths, another five were slimmer and ended in wide, paddle-like fins, and the other two were shorter, stronger, and ended in long, crocodilian jaws from which the creature's high-pitched wails emanated from. The cluster of storming tentacles weighed about 750 pounds (340 kilograms) overall.^[1]

Personality[]

Laghathti were rather unintelligent beings incapable of personally using rational thought, only understanding the concept secondhand by the experiences of others. They enjoyed consuming the memories of creatures and could live through them vicariously until they were digested. A special delight for them were especially miserable memories, which they sometimes spent hours or even days savoring and often shared with others, particularly targets that seemed susceptible to depression and despair. They had no use for physical things, releasing bodies once they'd taken their prey's minds.^[1]

Abilities[]

Though they could survive on land indefinitely, laghathti were much better suited to the water, being able to move much more easily when swimming than when on land. Their many tentacles allowed them to easily grab and constrict their prey, but the actual danger of a laghathti came from its effects on the mind. Simply being near a laghathti could immediately cause partial amnesia, and being bitten by them (no matter which mouth) put one at serious risk of losing many of their memories, with only healing spells of restoration strength or greater able to heal the victim. Potentially worse was that laghathti could modify memories at will, allowing them to not only implant stolen memories, but insert completely fabricated experiences.^[1]

Combat[]

Laghathti were ambush predators that preferred quietly waiting underwater for potential prey to draw near before darting directly towards them when they were close enough, bringing the full force of their seven mindwiping tentacles to bear against their victim. Normally they focused on an individual target, but would begin thrashing at anything nearby if surrounded. They were aware of the Styx's detrimental effects on others, and would unflinchingly retreat to its safety while still holding onto their targets.^[1]

Ecology[]

Typically laghathti traveled in schools of two or more, either lazily floating wherever the Styx took them or prowling its bleak shores for food. Rarely did they stray far from the river, almost always doing so alone and usually because they had become stranded somehow and were trying to find their way back.^[1]