Note: The Mountain Golem was originally presented as a web enhancement. It is included in full here for ease of reference.

Mountain Golem

Colossal Construct

What you took to be a typical mountain peak suddenly stirs into motion with a deafening sound of stone grinding and clashing on stone. Ledges and folds in the rock form the ridges of a rough-hewn face with a cavernous mouth filled with teeth-like stalagmites and stalactites. Raising its boulder-like fists to the sky, the creature bellows as it towers above you.

Towering over one hundred feet tall, a mountain golem is only roughly humanoid in shape. Its torso and head are all one single, tapering block, while its arms and legs are massive arches of stone. Its thick, stone body offers it little flexibility, but nearly limitless strength.

Created by the supernatural powers of the trondar, mountain golems are quite literally mountains that have been brought to 'life'. They serve as homes, vehicles and defenders for the trondar pod that created them. The trondar live within the golem, and direct its movement from place to place, confident that it will be able to deal with most dangers they encounter. Granted only enough intelligence to follow instructions, a mountain golem which somehow loses its trondar companions continues to follow whatever instructions it was last given. For instance, a mountain golem that was ordered to remain still might do so for decades, and be covered in ice and snow, or even have communities of humans living upon them: communities that will have a terrifying and probably fatal surprise should something ever rouse the golem.

A mountain golem on the move is a majestic and terrifying sight. It does not deviate its course for any obstacle, simply crushing most buildings, trees or creatures underfoot. If it encounters something large enough that it cannot trample it underfoot, it simply batters its way through, destroying whatever delayed it in the process. News that one of these creatures is on the move often sparks mass panic as people flee in fear for their lives.

Combat

A mountain golem relies on its immense physical power in combat, making frequent use of its power attack feat. It often picks up particularly troublesome opponents and hurls them hundreds of feet away, which gets rid of the creature for several rounds, even if the damage doesn't kill it.

A mountain golem is usually accompanied by the trondar community that created it. In general, half of these creatures cling to the exterior of the golem and attack any character attempting to climb it, while the other half protect the interior of the golem from any intruder that makes it that far. The trondar rarely if ever venture off the golem, relying on it to deal with any dangers further afield.

Devastating Blow (Ex): Whenever the mountain golem strikes a nonliving, immobile object, it inflicts its slam damage to every square in a 15 ft. by 15 ft. area, usually smashing a large hole in its target.

Earth Beast: A mountain golem is made of rock and earth. A trondar in contact with a mountain golem does not suffer any penalties from its earth reliance special quality.

Fissures (Ex): Stone fissures constantly open and close in the surface of the mountain golem. At the beginning of their turn each round any creature climbing on the mountain golem must make either a DC 28 Reflex save or Climb check in order to avoid being caught in one of these fissures. A caught creature suffers 2d6+10 points of damage and cannot move from their current square during their turn (although they

Freeze (Ex): A mountain golem can hold itself so still it appears to be a normal mountain. An observer must succeed on a DC 30 Spot or Survival check to realize the mountain golem is an animated creature.

Immunity to Magic (Ex): A mountain golem is immune to any spell or spell-like ability that allows spell resistance, except the Transmutation: Alter Object method. These spells affect the mountain golem normally. Each point of hardness the mountain golem loses reduces its damage reduction by one.

A trondar's earth shift and entomb powers also work on a mountain golem's body, though they do not cause it any harm.

Improved Grab (Ex): The mountain golem can initiate a grapple as a free action against any opponent it strikes with its slam attack. This grapple does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

Mighty Hurling (Ex): The mountain golem can hurl any object of small, medium or large size, including creatures it has successfully grappled and pinned, as a thrown weapon with a range increment of 100 feet. The object or creature hurled suffers damage as if they had fallen whatever distance they have been thrown. Any object or creature struck by the attack suffers damage depending on the size of the thrown creature or object:

Mountainous: A mountain golem is an immense creature. Opponents of large size or smaller can literally scale up the creature's sides with a successful Climb check (DC 20). Doing so allows them to reach special areas on the mountain golem, described below.

A mountain golem can use its slam attack on creatures that are climbing on its body, but to do so it must first make a successful Spot check, opposed by the climbing creature's Hide check, in order to locate them on its body. Its skin is too thick to feel their presence, and it can easily lose track of such intruders.

Squeeze (Ex): If the mountain golem makes a successful grapple check to damage an opponent, it inflicts 6d10+21 damage.

Trample (Ex): A mountain golem can trample creatures of huge size or smaller, dealing 6d10+31 points of damage. Opponents who do not make attacks of opportunity against the golem can attempt Reflex saves (DC 56) to halve the damage.

Mountain Golem Areas

A mountain golem can be fought not just from the outside, but also from the inside.

Maw: A creature of large size or smaller which climbs at least 90 feet up the mountain golem can enter the golem's body through its mouth. The mouth is 20 feet deep and is filled with grinding stalagmites and stalactites. Any creature moving through this area must make either a Reflex save or Tumble check against the mountain golem's base attack check. If they succeed, they suffer no damage. If they fail, they suffer 8d10 points of piercing damage.

Veins: A mountain golem is laced with vein-like tunnels along which its Trondar companions can move throughout its body. These tunnels are generally about 10 feet in diameter. The Trondar within the golem actively seek out any intruders in the veins. 1d4 Trondar are in range to locate the intruder each round. If the intruder is engaged in combat or not moving silently, these Trondar automatically move to engage the character. If the intruder attempts to go undetected, they must make an opposed move silently check against the Trondar's Listen checks each round. Remember the -10 penalty to the character's move silently check for the Trondars' tremorsense ability.

Characters in the golem's veins hear a dull, slow booming noise, like that of a massive drum. This is the creature's 'heart'. Each round, a character may attempt a DC 25 Listen check to determine from which direction the noise is coming. A character who makes four successful Listen checks and moves at least 30 feet in the appropriate direction after each check reaches the golem's heart.

Heart: As a construct, a mountain golem has no actual anatomy, but the magic which sustains it is channeled through a massive crystal deep in the creature's body. This crystal has Defense 0, 30 hit points and benefits from both the golem's damage resistance and its immunity to magic. If the crystal is destroyed, the golem becomes a normal mountain once more, albeit in a new location.

Creating a Mountain Golem

The creation of a mountain golem takes many months of effort by the trondar, as they must first burrow deep into the heart of a mountain, then compress the stone they have excavated into a single, massive crystal some five feet across.

Once the crystal has been formed, at least twenty trondar must enter a deep trance, similar to that which they use to effect the Great Transformation. The trondar must stay in this trance for 10 days, at the end of which the crystal pulses to life, and the mountain peak tears free of the ground, becoming a mighty mountain golem. An individual trondar can participate in this trance only once per year.