Gloom golem

Gloom Golem
3rd Edition Statistics
Size	Large
Type	Construct
Subtype(s)	Evil
Alignment	Always neutral evil
Challenge rating	7
General Information
Homeland(s)	Mabar
Other Details
Vision	Darkvision, low-light vision
Appearance
Average height	10 ft (3 m)
Average length	950 lb (430 kg)
Skin color(s)	Gray
Distinctions	Faces in skin, howling void instead of a head
History
First appearance	Monster Manual III

A gloom golem, also known as a Mabarak golem or a doomhowler, is a planar golem powered by woe and despair. They are made on the plane of Mabar, the Endless Night.

Description

It has a crude and misshapen, ogreish body, some 10 feet (3 meters) in height and around 950 pounds (430 kilograms) in weight. Its gray flesh is taut and has a clay-like feel under a membranous hide. Disturbingly, faces in torment push out of this hide, as if trapped and struggling to escape. Stranger still, it has no head or face of its own, but rather a swirling black orifice that howls constantly in pain. It exudes a foul stink.

Behavior

True to their name and nature, the evil gloom golems inflict despair and misery on their victims and absorb their feelings of misery, sadness, and woe. They thrive on such feelings, which appear as the suffering faces beneath their hides; gloom golems do not absorb the bodies of their victims as might appear. They are otherwise mindless things.

They do not speak or communicate—they can only howl unceasingly.

As planar golems, they are incredibly difficult to control and carry the traits of their plane. Solitary, they lurked in the plane of Mabar.

Combat

A gloom golem typically attacks with its two claws, which are tainted by evil and can damage the morale of their victims. But they can also wield weapons, favoring mundane spiked chains, even able to use them to disarm and trip their foes.

Abilities

The unending howl of the gloom golem induces devastating despair in those who hear it. Within 30 feet (9.1 meters), those who lack the will to resist are demoralized and impacted in all areas, their despair only alleviated when the gloom golem is slain. This can be countered by a good hope spell.

The touch of a gloom golem's claws inflicts a permanent loss of happiness and hope in its victims. Those who can't resist grow despondent and withdrawn, ultimately falling into a coma wracked with nightmares.

Howling constantly, it's hard for a gloom golem to be quiet when needed.

Like other golems, they have total resistance to many kinds of magic and spells. Their evil clay flesh reduces damage inflicted on them, except from weapons of goodness.

Creation

The maker of a gloom golem needs moderate ability in spellcasting, deep knowledge of planar lore, a mastery of planar essences, great skill in sculpting, and, most of all, an evil heart.

First, clay is dug out of the banks of a river flowing through Mabar. The clay needs to comprise a single block, over 1,000 pounds (450 kilograms) in mass and valued at 10,000 gold pieces. The planar matter is difficult to shape and work has to be done on the plane itself.

Animating it involves trapping a spirit of the plane with a powerful magical item and binding it to the maker's will. The difficult of working with planar matter means the magical item is inevitably destroyed in the process. The necessary spells for this are crushing despair, limited wish, planar binding, and polymorph any object. The total cost of this stage is 25,000 gp.

A whole gloom golem is worth 40,000 gp to a very specific buyer.

Appendix

External Links

• Gloom golem article at the Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wiki for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.