Cave Moth Ooze?

[Arillius]

Alright, my DM has pulled out a rather nasty weapon that uses these buggers called cave moths to kill in 3 turns by drowning the victims. Their basically floating oozes that wrap around peoples heads and suffocate them. The DM is saying that it skips the holding your breath part by sucking out all the air in your lungs, so we have three rounds to live if we roll badly, which is likely with some of us. Now I saw them in a book, but I can't find anything on them. Does anyone know what book they come from, or even better if you've seen these things and know you actually get the 2x constitution score number of rounds or if we really need to get this thing of the cleric.

[Starbuck_II]

Alright, my DM has pulled out a rather nasty weapon that uses these buggers called cave moths to kill in 3 turns by drowning the victims.
Their basically floating oozes that wrap around peoples heads and suffocate them. The DM is saying that it skips the holding your breath part by sucking out all the air in your lungs, so we have three rounds to live if we roll badly, which is likely with some of us. Now I saw them in a book, but I can't find anything on them. Does anyone know what book they come from, or even better if you've seen these things and know you actually get the 2x constitution score number of rounds or if we really need to get this thing of the cleric.

Warhammer Quest has them according to google.

It says:
Almost transparent, the cave moth is a common hazard for warriors in early training, appearing at first glance, as it clings to the wall, as nothing more than a wet brick. It is silent, it is airborne and it is deadly! By releasing gasses it can propel itself through the air, and tracing the movement of breath in the air, it can position itself right above the head of a potential meal, drop onto it and slowly suffocating the creature.
Cave moths are almost transparent, and, therefore, need not be represented on the board.

[Arillius]

thank you very much

[Asheram]

Oh dear. Took some google-fu to find it, but It's a really obscure book it's from.

Anyhow. I won't say what book it's from, nor the stats, since I believe that your DM would be pretty cross with me if I did. But I think the phrase that your Dm hangs onto is the "A victim is considered to be drowning until the moth is killed or dislodged." and it doesn't say anything about holding your breath.

Since it's a 3.0 reference, I broke out my old 3.0 DMG as well, and unfortunatly it's worded "When the character finally fails her constitution check, she begins to drown. In the first round, she falls unconcious, in the following round she drops o -1 hit points and is dying. in the third round, she drowns."

Let me say that it's an exceptionally poorly worded monster since it says "Drowning" and not "Suffocating"

edited: for style
edit 2: For your interest, it doesn't say anything about sucking the air from peoples lungs, that's just fluff. And the actual attack is called "Smother."

[Arillius]

hmm, that smother bit my give me an argument. Thanks for the help. He let us see the things stats, the way he see's it its on our faces so attacking it just hurts us.

Tried google myself, and bing, and ask jeeves, and yahoo. What were the search words that finally coughed up the answer?

[Irreverent Fool]

Water Elementites from the Planar Handbook have a similar ability that is perhaps better defined:

Drown (Ex): Water elementites swarm over and into any creature in the same space, filling its lungs (or other breathing apparatus). Holding one’s breath is not possible in the middle of the swarm; a victim is immediately at risk of drowning and must make a Constitution check every round (see Drowning, page 304 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide).

The ability specifically mentions that the victim must make the drowning checks each round, which is almost certainly how the Cave Moths are meant to behave. No creature should have an ability that allows it to immediately set a character to 0 hp with no save.

Edit: I searched for "Monster Index" and "Cave Moth". The resultant index led me to the Sword & Sorcery Creature Collection, which I happen to have buried on my shelf. After dusting it off (not much call for 3.0 material lately), I found that the cave moth's "Suffocate" ability listed therein is significantly weaker. It says that the "victim must hold his breath or begin taking suffocation damage". I don't recall "suffocation damage", but it specifically says a character may hold his breath. Whether this means normal 2x Con Modifier rounds (or Con Modifier rounds while performing strenuous tasks) or the forced Constitution checks each round is up to interpretation, but the ability to hold one's breath while afflicted by the ooze is very clear. "Unless" implies an alternative which your DM is clearly not allowing you.

[Asheram]

buried on my shelf. After dusting it off (not much call for 3.0 material lately), I found that the cave moth's "Suffocate" ability listed therein is significantly weaker. It says that the "victim must hold his breath or begin taking suffocation damage".

...What's the printing year of your book? It doesn't say any of that in mine.

[TheLaughingLich]

...What's the printing year of your book? It doesn't say any of that in mine.

Mine is a first edition (though I wasn't aware there had been more), and likewise has no such clause. "A victim is considered to be drowning until the moth is killed or dislodged."

[Asheram]

Mine is a first edition (though I wasn't aware there had been more), and likewise has no such clause. "A victim is considered to be drowning until the moth is killed or dislodged."

Just to clarity.
It hasn't the following clause? Or it has no such clause, this is what my book says about it?

[Arillius]

Gotta find out which eddition he has, probably the drowning till pulled off one. Drowning in 3.5 pathfinder gives you x2 con score time for breath right?

edit: I think he has the first edition one, I remember dust when he showed us the book.

[Escheton]

Shall we move to citing ways to fix the problem such as heavy duty gasmasks and spells and such?
I know of them, but can not search-fu them fast enough to be bothered myself, sorry.

[Starbuck_II]

Shall we move to citing ways to fix the problem such as heavy duty gasmasks and spells and such?
I know of them, but can not search-fu them fast enough to be bothered myself, sorry.

The Auran Mask in Completye Champion:
Auran Mask: Move action to place on, lasts 1 hr. +5 Fort vs. inhaled toxin. In addition while underwater grants water breathing for 10 minutes.
Buy: 60 gp, 25 Craft

So, drown the thing back by going underwater with the mask on.

[Asheram]

Gotta find out which eddition he has, probably the drowning till pulled off one. Drowning in 3.5 pathfinder gives you x2 con score time for breath right?

edit: I think he has the first edition one, I remember dust when he showed us the book.

The problem is as I stated before is that the Drowning status comes after the suffocating one. If you were just Suffocating, you'd get the constitution checks, but the drowning status is three rounds before dead.

[Another_Poet]

The problem here is that the real source for the creature is your DM's notebook. Sure he got it from some other book but he has already ruled that in his world they do not allow holding your breath. DMs get to change monsters. We can have a LG red dragon if we want. A blood-drinking unicorn.

Much of the fun of D&D is that you don't know what your enemies are capable of. You might have memorised the entire MM but the DM can still surprise you. Instead of trying to track down a creature description to argue that your DM is doing it wrong, I would suggest you use the in-game knowledge you've gained (these things get on your face and strangle you FAST!) and come up with a plan for the next time you encounter them.

[Arillius]

Err, its not so much an encounter as a weapon. Our weapon. Got ambushed and had it turned against us. Its somethign that shoots these things in our face.

Alright, worked out a plan. He changed them a bit so they dislike light, or because they are stuck in the box for so many days/weeks, it bothers them. Cleric has a light spell orison. I dropped like three of them in the last guy who go tone of these on them, dropped the dc to get it off quite a bit.

Still have 3 rounds to live, but now its an easy check to beat with most of our group their to assist.

[Another_Poet]

Remember the Aid Another action too. While the cleric spams light spells the others can roll an Escape Artist or Grapple check to help the guy who's suffocating. If they roll 10 or higher they add a +2 to his check.