Monster Monday: Bemohla, Giant Icy-Winged Eagle

Today's Monster Monday is the bemohla is a mighty weather-controlling bird with power over ice and winter storms. Think of the bemohla it as the Articuno to the thunderbird's Zapdos. Aside from being a giant ice eagle, the bemohla also has a pair of moose antlers on its head. These wintry birds live on mountaintops, employing blasts of icy wind and sudden storms to keep human hunters off of their mountains.

The bemohla - also known as the pomola, bmola, bumole, and several other similar variations - is a creature from the mythologies of the Abenaki and Penobscot peoples of northeastern North America. According to some sources, it had moose antlers, but according to most sources it definitely hunts moose. It's not hard to figure out how an oral story about a giant eagle carrying off a moose could morph, through some confusion or a bad translation, into a giant eagle with its own antlers. In any case, the stat block below shows a bemohla with moose anlters, because that's badass.

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2018 Jonah Bomgaars.

This giant eagle has the antlers of a moose and is surrounded by swirling icy winds

Bemohla     CR 11

XP 12,800

N Gargantuan magical beast

Init +7; Senses low-light vision, darkvision 60 ft., stormsight; Perception +20

Aura ice storm aura (100 ft.)

DEFENSE

AC 25, touch 10, flat-footed 21 (+3 Dex, +1 dodge, +15 natural, -4 size)

hp 147 (14d10+70)

Fort +14, Ref +12, Will +9

Immune cold, electricity

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., fly 120 ft. (good)

Melee 2 claws +17 (2d6+7/19-20 plus grab), bite +17 (2d8+7/19-20), gore +17 (1d8+7)

Space 20 ft.; Reach 20 ft.

Special Attacks icy blast (8d6 cold plus staggered, DC 22 halves, 20 ft. cylinder or 60 foot cone)

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 11^th)

   At will – control weather

   3/day – ice storm (DC 15)

STATISTICS

Str 24, Dex 17, Con 21, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 12

Base Atk +14; CMB +25 (+29 grapple); CMD 39

Feats Critical Focus, Dodge, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Critical (claw), Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Power Attack

Skills Acrobatics +9, Fly +12, Perception +20, Sense Motive +7; Racial Modifiers +0 skill

Languages Auran

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Ice Storm Aura (Su)

A bemohla is surrounded by a 100-foot-radius spread of severe winds that blow out from the center, dissipating swiftly at the limit of the aura’s range. All creatures in this area take 4d6 points of cold damage per round (DC 22 Fortitude halves) as they are battered by snow and freezing winds.

   In the area of effect, ranged weapons (but not siege weapons) take a -4 penalty, and exposed flames are extinguished. Small creatures must make a DC 10 Strength check (if on the ground) or a DC 20 Fly check to move toward the bemohla, while tiny or smaller creatures can be knocked backward (1d4x10 feet if they are on the ground and fail a DC 15 Strength check, or 2d6X10 feet if they are flying and fail a DC 25 Fly check). Creatures on the ground that are pushed back take 1d4 points of nonlethal damage per 10 feet, and flying creatures that are pushed back take 2d6 points of nonlethal damage regardless of the distance they are pushed.

   The save DC for the cold damage is Constitution-based.

Icy Blast (Su)

With a beat of its mighty wings, a bemohla can channel a blast of icy wind as a standard action. This can take the form of a 20-foot-diameter cylinder up to 100 feet high filling up the area directly below the bemohla, or a 60 foot cone emanating out from the bemohla’s space. All creatures caught in the blast take 8d6 cold damage and are staggered for 1 round (DC 22 Fortitude save halves the damage and negates the staggered condition. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Stormsight (Ex)

A bemohla ignores all vision penalties and concealment from weather effects, including those created by fog cloud, obscuring mist, and similar spells.

ECOLOGY

Environment any mountains

Organization solitary

Treasure none

The bemohla is a mighty weather controlling bird of the mountains known for calling down winter storms. Each bemohla is the guardian of a single mountain on which they make their nest, and they use an array of weather-changing abilities to keep mortals from ascending their mountains. Bemohlas hunt large animals such as moose, elk, and bears. They hibernate in mountain caves in the summer. While they are hostile to most other creatures, bemohlas are generally friendly with their cousins the thunderbirds.

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Plot Hooks and Encounter Ideas

• The legendary white elk that the PCs are hunting has fled to a mountain guarded by a bemohla. Will they risk going up the mountain and triggering the wrath of the winter bird, or will they let the white elk go and abandon their mission?
• A mysterious cloaked visitor arrives in town offering a large sum of strange electrum coins to anyone that slays the bemohla at the top of the nearby mountain. The stranger is a thunderbird in disguise, seeking vengeance against the bemohla who murdered his brother. But the high priestess of the Sky God is allied with the bemohla and will go after anyone who attempts to climb his mountain.
• Something has woken the bemohla out of its summer hibernation and driven it off of its mountain. The bird is wreaking havoc on crops with its off-season frosts. Can the PCs drive off the bemohla - or better yet, figure out what has taken over the bemohla's mountain and defeat it?

-your antlered d20 despot