MezlanAn amorphous blob coalesces, forming into a humanoid figure. As
it stabilizes, intricate details emerge.Mezlan CR 14Source Bestiary 6 pg. 186, Pathfinder #66: The Dead Heart of Xin pg. 90
XP 38,400
N Medium ooze (shapechanger)
Init +11; Senses blindsight 120 ft.; Perception +20DefenseAC 30, touch 18, flat-footed 22 (+7 Dex, +1 dodge, +12 natural)
hp 195 (17d8+119); regeneration 5 (acid)
Fort +12, Ref +14, Will +11
Immune ooze traits; SR 25OffenseSpeed 40 ft., climb 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
Melee 2 morphic weapons +22 (2d8+10)
Ranged morphic weapon +19 (2d8+10)
Special Attacks sneak attack +3d6, store spells (chain lightning
[DC 19], dispel magic, mage armor)StatisticsStr 30, Dex 25, Con 24, Int 15, Wis 18, Cha 17
Base Atk +12; CMB +22; CMD 40
Feats Alertness, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning
Reflexes, Point-Blank Shot, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Stealthy
Skills Acrobatics +15, Bluff +14, Climb +18, Disguise +25, Escape
Artist +9, Linguistics +11, Perception +20, Sense Motive +20,
Stealth +25, Swim +18; Racial Modifiers +12 Disguise,
+4 Linguistics, +4 Stealth
Languages Aklo, Common; versatile speech
SQ morphic body, no breath, skill poolEcologyEnvironment any
Organization solitary
Treasure noneSpecial AbilitiesMorphic Body (Su) As a standard action, a mezlan can assume the appearance of any Medium or Small creature (other than creatures with the elemental, incorporeal, or swarm subtype— the body assumed must be solid). This ability affects only the mezlan’s outward image. Its creature type doesn’t change in this new form; it gains none of the mimicked creature’s special abilities, and it retains all of its normal statistics and abilities as depicted above. This is a polymorph effect.
Morphic Weapons (Su) A mezlan can manipulate its body to mimic a wide array of potent weaponry wielded by its various forms. While the weapons may look different, they are considered natural weapons and they all do the same amount of damage. Morphic weapons deal bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage, and are treated as magic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. Once per round, a mezlan can extend one of its limbs to strike at a distance up to 15 feet away with one of its morphic weapons. A mezlan can also attack with a morphic weapon by hurling a portion of its body as a thrown weapon with a range increment of 60 feet (the mezlan swiftly regrows thrown portions of its body after using this attack, while the hurled portion melts away into slime after dealing damage to a target).
Skill Pool (Ex) A mezlan has a special knack for solving problems. Five times per day, it can apply a +4 competence bonus to any skill check, even checks for skills it has no ranks in and skills that can only be used trained. A mezlan can use any skill, even those that would normally require it to be trained.
Store Spells (Su) A mezlan can store up to 10 levels of spells that it can then cast freely. The spells imbued into a mezlan are each activated with the same casting time as the original spell, and are cast at the caster level of the spellcaster who provided the spells. A mezlan can store and use arcane, divine, and psychic spells, and can carry spells from any number of casters at a given time. To fuel this ability, a caster must cast her spells into the mezlan as if storing a spell in an item like a ring of spell storing. The mezlan must be aware of the incoming spell, choose to lower its spell resistance, and ready an action to absorb it. Only spells that have the mezlan as a target can be absorbed in this way; area spells can’t be absorbed. If a mezlan already holds 10 levels of spells, it cannot absorb more spells, and any spell of a level exceeding a mezlan’s available spell level is not absorbed and affects the mezlan normally. Once a spell is absorbed in this manner, the mezlan can use the spell as its own.
Versatile Speech (Ex) A mezlan has a talent for parsing spoken languages. After spending 1 minute listening to a speaker use a language it doesn’t already know, a mezlan can understand that language. After listening for 1 additional minute, the mezlan can speak the language. This understanding lasts for 24 hours before fading from the mezlan’s mutable mind. To understand the same language again after this time, the mezlan must spend another minute listening to a creature speak that language. The mezlan doesn’t have to be engaged in a conversation to use this abilityDescriptionBuilt by ancient arcanists and engineers to serve as spies and elite troops, units of mezlans were deployed to engage in extractions, infiltrations, and quick strikes on well protected locations. Scholars believe that at the height of those ancient civilizations, close to 1,500 mezlans were created. The difficulty of destroying mezlans leads scholars to believe that at least half of them still exist to this day.
Mezlans blur the lines between constructs and oozes, a mixture made even more strange by the fact that they have unique, previously human personalities. Each mezlan was once an exemplary living soldier graced with superior skills and intelligence. Upon being chosen for this new duty, these soldiers were given a full explanation of the changes they would undergo and signed a contract agreeing to serve as mezlans. Each was then subjected to numerous magical and technological procedures to extract her consciousness, preserve it, and inject it into her new form. Sometimes the process didn’t take, resulting in an incomplete and flawed mezlan. Indications of these flaws didn’t always reveal themselves before the creatures were deployed, and many such mezlans abandoned their missions to pursue their own mysterious agendas.
Most mezlans were recruited from the ranks of the military, and thus most of them had martial-related or skill-related class levels; however, a few of these creatures were once wizards who traded their magical talent for an amorphous form and near immortality.
Without the need to eat, sleep, or breathe, mezlans are practically immortal. When they are defeated in battle, they simply discorporate and begin seeping down into the soil or cracks in the ground. If the material making up a mezlan isn’t contained in some way or destroyed by subjecting it to continued energy damage, the creature lies dormant for 10 years before reforming. When a mezlan reincorporates, it is treated as if it had 16 negative levels. These negative levels are removed at a rate of 1 per month.
Mezlans retain a portion of their previous memories and experiences, but the extent of those memories varies from individual to individual. Some mezlans slowly regain their memories, some immediately remember everything from their previous incorporation, and others never fully recall their previous selves. A mezlan that retains its living memories typically has several class levels, although it should be noted that not all skills and abilities humanoids have in life translate directly to life as a shapeshifting ooze. One notable exception is a mezlan’s morphic weapons. While these attacks are natural weapons and a mezlan thus cannot gain iterative attacks, a mezlan who has feats or class abilities that bolster specific weapons can apply the effects of those feats or abilities to its morphic weapons, provided the weapons are of the right shape. For example, a mezlan with Weapon Focus (longsword) would gain a +1 bonus on attack rolls with its morphic weapon attacks when they are in the shape of a longsword. This limits the damage type dealt by the morphic weapon to a damage type appropriate to the weapon being duplicated.
From all appearances, mezlans seem to get along well with each other; however, to normal, living creatures, they often appear strange and unnatural in both form and behavior. They are very observant creatures that study everything they encounter, especially animals and humanoids—a frequent use of their skill pool ability. Some mezlans become accustomed to a particular form or body and use it as a default. Others keep dozens of regular guises and take on the ones most appropriate for particular duties they need to complete, using appearances and personalities as tools throughout their day-to-day activities. A few purists keep an amorphous, bloblike form unless they need to resemble something else. Strange mezlans who have gone mad over the years constantly shift their forms, flickering between hundreds of different shapes.Becoming a MezlanThough not constructs, mezlans
are still created beings—each
is a marriage of transformative
magic and a living soul. Only
the prohibitive cost of creating
mezlans, rather than any shortage of
volunteers, prevented their creators
from manufacturing thousands more
of them. The sheer volume of rare
metals needed to create a mezlan forced
their creators to grant the honor of the
transformation to only the best of the
best, greatly increasing their worth.
The complex and expensive
method for creating a mezlan
has long been lost, but rumors
hold that one of them retains
the knowledge to produce
more of its kind. Other tales
suggest that the ritual of
creation survives to
this day in a long-lost
repository of ancient
knowledge hidden deep
under the ocean.
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