Monster Monday: Yara-Ma-Yha-Who - He Eats You When You're Sleeping

"Get up, young lazybones! Do not sleep under the fig tree! Did I not tell you who lives up there? I didn't? Well, I'm telling you now, so listen up and listen good! You want to grow up big and tall, right? Then don't do what I did. 

   "I used to be tall when I was younger. Taller than your father, in fact. Don't laugh, it's true. But I was lazy, like you, and I often stole away to nap in the shade of the fig tree instead of helping with the work. One day I woke up from my nap and found my skin had grown redder. I thought it was a sunburn, but it could not have been. See, even my back was redder! And when I went home, my mother thought I was shorter. And I had these round wounds on my neck. Father thought they were bug bites, but they were not from any bug we knew.

   "It was a long while before I fell asleep under the fig trees again. The next time I did, I woke up even redder and even shorter than before! I was even shorter than my old mum now! Well, I did not want this to happen again, but I did want to know what had done it to me, so I came up with a plan.

   "One day, when the sun was high in the sky, I went to the fig grove and pretended to sleep. I waited and waited, and sure enough, something came down out of the tree. It wasn't a bug, it was a little man - yea high - and bright red all over. He had a big head like an overripe fig, and a big mouth, and suckers on his fingers and toes like the suckers of the octopi we see at the beach. It came down the tree head-first, and as it opened its mouth to swallow me up, I leapt to grab it. I brought a sack with me, and I tried to wrestle it into the sack so that I could bring it back to the village to show everyone. But it escaped and ran up the tree and out of sight.

   "I think if it had swallowed me one more time, I would be just as short and just as red as it was. Think, I might even have turned into one myself! Do you wonder, now, why an old man like me is always going about his work, even in the hot sun? And why you never catch me napping here in the shade? It could happen to you too, boy! So get off your lazy butt and get back to work!"

Today's Monster Monday is the yara-ma-yha-who, a strange creature from Aboriginal Australian mythology. The yara-ma-yha-who is a short man with bright red skin, a round, oversized head, and sucker-tipped fingers and toes. It preys on victims who fall asleep under its tree, draining blood with its suckers and swallowing its victims whole. It does not eat those whom it swallows, though. It regurgitates them, leaving them redder and shorter than before. If an individual is swallowed and regurgitated enough times by a yara, it becomes one!

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2017 Jonah Bomgaars.

This short, red humanoid has an oversized head, a gaping, toothless mouth, and wicked suckers on the ends of its hands and feet

Yara-Ma-Yha-Who            CR 3

XP 800

NE Medium monstrous humanoid

Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +6

DEFENSE

AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 10 (+3 dex, +1 dodge)

hp 30 (4d10+8)

Fort +3, Ref +7, Will +5

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., climb 20 ft.

Melee touch +5 (1d8 nonlethal plus draining touch plus grab)

Special Attacks Shrinking Swallow

STATISTICS

Str 12, Dex 16, Con 15, Int 6, Wis 13, Cha 10

Base Atk +4; CMB +5 (+9 grapple); CMD 18

Feats Dodge, Improved Initiative

Skills Climb +13, Perception +6, Stealth +10, Swim +5

Languages Aklo

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Draining Touch (Ex)

When a yara-ma-yha-who makes a successful touch attack with its sucker-tipped hands, it deals 1d8 points of nonlethal damage, and the target must make a DC 14 Fortitude save or suffer 1d4 points of Constitution damage. Once the yara-ma-yha-who has reduced a creature’s Constitution score by 8 points, that creature falls into a waking torpor and becomes helpless until it regains at least one point of Constitution. The draining touch of the yara-ma-yha-who is painless, and does not usually wake a sleeping victim. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Shrinking Swallow (Su)

The yara-ma-yha-who can swallow any helpless Medium or smaller creature as if it were a Large-sized creature with the swallow whole ability. The swallowed creature does not take any damage inside the yara-ma-yha-who, but it does permanently lose 1d6 inches of height and its skin takes on a reddish hue. This transformation happens once each time the creature is swallowed. Once a creature has been so affected, it is immune to that yara-ma-yha-who’s shrinking swallow ability for 24 hours. Any creature that loses a total of 12 inches or more in height due to being swallowed multiple times by yara-ma-yha-whos must succeed on a DC 14 Fortitude save or be transformed into a yara-ma-yha-who. Lost height and red skin caused by a yara-ma-yha-who can be reversed with a remove curse, wish, limited wish, or miracle spell. The save DC is Constitution-based.

ECOLOGY

Environment warm forests

Organization solitary, pair, or gang (3-6)

Treasure standard

The yara-ma-yha-who is an insidious and truly bizarre predator whose goal is not to eat his prey but to turn them into another yara-ma-yha-who. They resemble short little men, about four feet tall, only their skin is red and their oversized head features a large, toothless mouth. Their hands and feet are covered with toothed suckers like those of a squid, which they use to drain the blood from their victims, leaving behind a puckered rash. They prefer to attack sleeping prey, but in desperate times have been known to attack conscious targets, hoping to subdue them with their draining touch. Once a yara-ma-yha-who has drunk its fill, it swallows its prey, sucking away its height and imparting a reddish tinge to its skin; those who repeatedly fall victim to the yara-ma-yha-who risk becoming one themselves.

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-your goolar d20 despot