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You are likely to be eaten by a grue.  Or are you?

The Grue in the MM obviously needs some serious errata here people.  Its fellow Foulspawn will work just fine with their low-light Vision - but how, I ask you, is the Grue supposed to devour hapless adventurers in the dark without some kind of Darkvision or Blindsight?

Invoke the Rule of Cool!  We must unite the disparate concepts of the D&D grue and the one we all know and fear deep in our heart of hearts!

EDIT:  In fact, I thought this such a travesty I went and made my own!  (see below) 

Grue  Level 10 Lurker Small Shadow Beast  XP 500
Initiative +14 Senses Perception +7; darkvision
Mind-Blowing Soul-Crushing Fear (Fear) aura 1; Enemies that start their turns in the aura are dazed.
HP 81; Bloodied 40; see also Grue The Day
Regeneration 5
AC 24; Fortitude 23, Reflex 24, Will 21
Vulnerable 10 Radiant
Speed 6
M Slavering Fangs (Standard; at-will)
+15 vs. AC; 2d6+6 damage and the target takes ongoing 5 damage (save ends) and is grabbed (until escape).
M Razor-Sharp Claws (Standard; at-will)
+15 vs. AC; 1d8+6 damage and the target is grabbed (until escape).
c Horrible Gurgling Noises (Minor; recharge 456) ♦ Fear
Close burst 5; deafened creatures are immune; +12 vs Will; the target moves their speed away from the grue.
m Gruesome (Standard; at-will)
The grue makes a Slavering Fangs attack and a Razor-Sharp Claws attack.
m Very Likely (Minor; at-will)
Targets a creature that is grabbed by the grue; +13 vs Fortitude; the target is swallowed, no longer grabbed, and is restrained and takes 10 damage at the start of the grue's turn.  The swallowed creature has line of sight and effect only to the grue, and no creature has line of effect or sight to the target.  The swallowed creature can only make melee or close attacks.  The grue can inexplicably hold one medium size creature or smaller in its stomach.  If it dies, it explodes in a puff of fur and the swallowed creature appears in its square.
Eek! (Immediate Interrupt; at-will) ♦ Teleportation
Usable when the grue is in a square of bright illumination.  The grue teleports up to 6 squares, to an area of dim illumination or darkness if possible.
m Grue The Day (Standard; encounter)
Usable when bloodied in bright illumination.  The grue flies into a berserk rage.  It shifts 6 squares and makes one Razor-Sharp Claws attack against each enemy within reach at any point during the move (it does not grab with these).  If the target of an attack is holding a light source that is worth 50gp or less, it is destroyed.  Other sources are dropped and covered in fur.
It is Pitch Black
A grue always has total concealment in areas of dim illumination or darkness, even against enemies with darkvision or blindsight.  It appears as a fuzzy black blot in dim illumination.  In bright...oh gods...so many teeth...
It Burns!
A grue takes a -2 penalty to all defenses when in bright illumination and loses its regeneration.
Alignment Unaligned  Languages None
Skills Stealth +15
Str 19 (+9)  Dex 21 (+10)  Wis 14 (+7) Con 15 (+7)  Int 14 (+7)  Cha 9 (+4)

Umm... I just read my MM and the Foulspawn Grue is someone who's been twisted by the Far Realm. I assume this is a revamp of the 3.5 Grue for 4th Edition? If so, I'd rename this critter since it has no similiarities at all to the pre-existing Foulspawn. And for what it's worth, the MM Grue is pretty freakin' nasty. It teleports, claws, and does horrible things to people.

D&D versions of the grue are either bad imitations or not the same creature as the more general meme of grues, as popularized by the Zork series.  See here.

I like the foulspawn grue, I'm just goofin' around and thought I'd convert this more-iconic version to 4e.

EDIT: In retrospect, the only thing I might change is to make Very Likely a minor action.  With the speed at which PCs are able to whip out new light sources on their turns, it's likely the grue would never be able to swallow an adventurer.

PROTIP: Want to make your grue even scarier?  Give it a Darkskull from Adventurer's Vault to use on the PCs.

I love the classic Zork grue, and agree 4E didn't quite do it justice. Granted, with the availability of light sources, a classic grue is REALLY easy to defeat in 1 round or less (each adventurer kit has 2 sun rods in it).

Recommended changes:   

• Aura radius: A heroic creature should not have an aura 5, especially one that dazes.  Make it aura 1 (and pity the defender).
• Size SMALL? Really? It should be size medium.Especially if it swallows adventurers on a regular basis.
• Melee basic attacks only when swallowed: this categorically hoses most implement users and is IMO overpowered. If anything, disallow ranged attacks, or allow melee/close (and remove the MBA part).
• Teleport 6 movement mode: remove. Eek should be changed to move or run. Yes, the grue will grant a plethora of OAs, but that kinda makes sense since it HATES light and will move recklessly to get out of it.
  

Thanks for the response!
 - I got the aura from a paragon creature, you're right, that should be shrunk.
 - I went with Small to underscore the impossibility of a small creature swallowing a medium one, with the grue being a "humor monster"...I think I'll leave it as-is, but it's an easy fix (no mechanic changes even) for any DM who wants it Medium.
 - Yeah, I'll change Very Likely too.  I got the MBA-when-swallowed stuff from the purple worm, but the remorhaz has what you describe and is in MM2 so that's probably the better way to go.  I agree it hoses implement uses too much.

 - Agreed on the tp speed, though I'm going to leave Eek! with teleport.  I think of it as more "violent scurrying" than actual teleportation, but Eek! is vital to this Grue's combat function - it is designed to be in bright illumination for a round at a time at most before they have to re-illuminate it (unless they have something brighter than a torch like a sunrod).  If they have *no* sunrods (rare but I've seen it...maybe they ran out and forgot to buy more), it's a constant game of cat-and-mouse as they chase it across the board while it mauls anyone crazy enough to step into dim light.  This wouldn't work as well if Eek! wasn't teleportation, because there's a lot of things tp can get you free of that other movement can't.

I'm also going to mess with Very Likely as I said above, so that when it Eek!s it potentially takes a PC with it.  :P

Not a torch or a match in your inventory?

Seek out some helpful advice from your friendly neighborhood MC.

Haha, yes!