Ancient Gully-maw

The Ancient Gully-maw is an enormous fungal plant-beast native to the Fen, the mist-drowned swampland that lies beyond the Greygate. Standing roughly thirty feet tall and encrusted from root to crown in mushrooms of every size, the creature is best known for the eerie circles of glowing blue mushrooms it uses as bait and for its unfortunate encounter with the Heroes of Eastport, during which it swallowed the cleric Panda (Sean Gardner) whole and was killed after the cleric was pulled back out.

Description

The Gully-maw's body is a hulking mass of gnarled bark, root-tendrils and swollen fungal flesh, carpeted in mushrooms. The cluster crowning its shoulders and head burns with an intense electric-blue bioluminescence, the same cold light that rings the mushroom circles it leaves to draw prey. In place of a face it bears a great gully-like maw, from which it takes both its name and its preferred method of feeding.

Behaviour

The creature lies dormant beneath the swamp until disturbed, ringing itself with a circle of glowing blue mushrooms that lure the curious in through the fog. Contact with one of the mushrooms rouses the beast, which erupts from the ground already mid-attack. The Heroes of Eastport encountered exactly this in the Fen: the warlock Skaf from Yonder, "ever curious," touched one of the mushrooms, and the Gully-maw rose from the earth and set upon the party at once, seizing Panda in its maw and swallowing him.

The Will-o'-the-Wisps

The Gully-maw does not fight alone. During the battle a host of will-o'-the-wisps—ghostly, floating orbs of pale blue light—channelled crackling arcs of lightning into the creature's hide, knitting its wounds closed as quickly as the party could inflict them. The wisps' healing proved so troublesome that the druid Brogmar Mossbeard, who had summoned an army of blink dogs and sprites to the fight, ordered his sprites to break off and loose their little bows upon the wisps. The ranger Elion Ashhar-Rah'oul added his great longbow to the effort and felled one of the wisps outright.

Notable Encounters

The only documented confrontation with an Ancient Gully-maw took place during the Heroes of Eastport's passage through the Fen. Skaf used magically enhanced strength to pull Panda from the creature's belly while Brogmar Mossbeard healed him. The party then killed the Gully-maw with arrows, eldritch blasts and the sustained application of not being swallowed.

Recovered Materials

Brogmar recovered the creature's heart, a vial of sap and a scorched conductive vine. He gave the heart, a cluster of woven wood and vines, to the Peddler to find a craftsman capable of refining it. The sap was not believed dangerous but remained in need of investigation. The three specimens represent the recorded results of the party's examination of the creature.