Moulis
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Waving its myriad of oddly flexible, root-like appendages, the moulis scuttles about its home area. It is not known what the moulis searches for, as observations have usually yielded a quick death for the observer, yet it is known that the moulis is an intelligent, lethal foe capable of commanding the forces of magic as well as a powerful physical attack. It appears to be nothing more than a writhing mass of tubers, roots and thin hair strands in various shades of brown--until a vicious attack springs from the center of the creature.
Hunting strategies
Moulis are generally a fairly easy enemy to fight. They are fairly average melee users who possess a handful of Wizard spells which they use on a somewhat frequent basis, some warding, some bolt.
Splinter
They have a few unique quirks that complicate things; first, they have a fairly unique maneuver in which they fling wooden splinters of themself at you. These are fairly easy to dodge, unencumbered, even for a pure, but on minor failures, they will inflict a minor on most or all limbs and pin you to the wall, incapable of moving for around 20 seconds, perhaps more, followed by your falling to the floor prone. Functionally, it is like being inflicted with Bind, but does not seem to have a way to break the immobility. The moulis will attack immediately following the maneuver, often offering them a chance to stun you in a now weakened state. Major failures can hit more significantly, causing major wounds or critical deaths, but are uncommon for unencumbered characters.
A moulis spins and whips its fibrous appendages around, flinging several slivers of itself towards you. Your hasty attempt to duck out of the way brings you directly into the line of flight of the splinters. One pierces skull! ... 15 points of damage! Beautiful head shot neatly slices off your ear! Roundtime: 7 sec.
Sprouts
Another interesting quirk involves their ability to spawn new moulis if their arms are severed. Similar to Troll Kings (though without the regeneration) once an arm is severed, it falls to the ground as a scraping, which will slowly grow every 3 or 4 attack cycles through various phases, including a bud and a sprout. The new moulis is fairly weak, but not helpless once it reaches its full form. Moulis spawned this way do count towards Adventurer's Guild culling tasks, and likely other tasks as well.
Reproductive Cycle
If a moulis should be in the presence of dead body, they will plant eggs of some sort in the body of the dead individual, which will hatch sometime later, perhaps 20 to 25 minutes later. This is enough that if a body is not revived and decays, the newly decayed player will still have them, at which point they will burst out of his or her chest, killing him all over again. To this end, it is best to keep the corpse preserved until such time as the moulis leave the body.
The messaging for being implanted is:
A moulis sends one of its fibers slinking along your chest. Suddenly it begins to burrow into your chest cavity. Even while dead you can feel what would have been excruciating pain as the fiber moves around your insides. The fiber flips away from your body and retreats back into the moulis leaving only a small hole where it had entered.
Again, make sure that the eggs hatch and the moulis scrapings erupt from the body prior to being raised, or the body will die again shortly after:
A searing pain hits you and knocks you prone, your body jerking spasmodically. As you watch, your body rips open and several moulis scrapings burrow out and drop to the ground!
While the body is in a sanctuary, moulis eggs will not hatch but will incubate indefinitely, so it is advisable to keep the body out of towns while waiting for the scrapings to come out. Under very rare circumstances (such as invasions), living characters may be afflicted with the necrotrophic effect, which will likewise delay triggering while they are in a sanctuary.
Other
Otherwise, they are fairly simple enemies. Their maneuver is uncommon, and their bolts are very easy to dodge for a pure. Their CS is average, and not particularly difficult to ward off, and their TD is very much the lowest in the Labyrinth. They have been known to leave area-cast ice patches around the Labyrinth if you allow them to prepare spells and then leave the room.
References
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