[I’ve gone back and extracted some of the images from the PDF, because I quite like the art for First Level Foes. This creature was a one-off outsider in the original, based off of equal parts the sea monk and Ursula from the Little Mermaid. But making it a rakshasa made sense to me as I was going back over it. The name is a portmanteau of “calamari” and “pontifex”.]
Rakshasa, Calafex This bizarre creature resembles a scaled human from
the waist up, but has in place of legs eight stout tentacles. Two long thin
tentacles stretch from this mass, probing like eyeless snakes. A thick mantle
of rubbery flesh grows from its back like a cape. It clutches a trident in one
of its clawed hands.
Cold and calculating denizens
of the deep, the calafex are alien schemers who seek to sink other races to
their level of depravity. Even more than other rakshasas, calafex resent the
divine and seek to subvert the efforts of faith. Calafex often inveigle
societies with the express purpose of leading them away from true religions and
into the clutches of perversity and violence. Due to their amphibious nature,
neither societies above and below water are safe from their depredations. The
same calafex may even manipulate nearby settlements of terrestrial and aquatic
natures into war with each other, then feast on the bodies of the fallen and
make off with their riches.
Haughty beings, calafex have
little respect for other races. Of the creatures of the sea, they fear only the
mighty kraken, who sometimes can force a calafex to serve as a herald and
emissary to land-bound folk. When not destroying lives, calafex dwell in remote
sea-caves among riches collected over decades of ruin. These lairs are
generally guarded by powerful local monsters charmed by the calafex. Intensely
greedy creatures, calafex can sometimes be persuaded to use their magic in
exchange for a particularly valuable treasure.
A calafex stands about six
feet tall on land. When on land, a calafex pulls itself along on its tentacles
as if they were legs—the two longest serve as melee weapons. Despite their
spellcasting prowess, calafex enjoy the visceral thrills of combat. The unfortunate
soul grabbed by one of a calafex’s tentacles is soon pulled into their mass and
torn to shreds.
Calafex are persistent foes of the drifters, who remain vigilant for their depredations.
The goddess Talassa despises them, and her faithful mount the most significant resistance to their schemes. They are especially common in the waters around the Black Holds, where their conflicts with the dragons manage to divert resources that those wicked creatures would surely use against the rest of Gladia.
Shores of Swords 