Cavalcade of creepy-crawlies

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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Cavalcade of creepy-crawlies

Post by Jack Rothwell »

Name: Vilahar

Status: Not seen or mentioned.

Origins: Southern Continent

Description: The Vilahar shares a common ancestry with the vampire bat, although the former bears a moss-colored exterior and wings like clusters of vines to enable it to blend into its native jungle surroundings with great ease. Like the vampire bat, the Vilahar is nocturnal and feeds on the blood of larger animals for sustenance. It's bite contains a numbing agent to help prevent its meals from waking. Generally the creature isn't particularly fond of feeding on humans and only the sick and very young would run the risk of not waking up from a meal, although the Vilahar are known to sometimes carry diseases.

Other: Vilahar are linked to summoning magic, but given their limited usefulness (that being short range, aerial, nocturnal surveillance) are seldom used for that purpose.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Cavalcade of creepy-crawlies

Post by Jack Rothwell »

Name: Chittorick

Status: Not seen or mentioned

Origins: Southern continent (the underway)

Description: The chittorick is a creature which dwells in the miles of underground passageways, mines and caverns which make up the Underway of the Southern continent (which is practically a country unto itself). The creature is insect-like in appearance, resembling something like an over-sized cross between an earwig and a centipede, with a six-legged segmented body that stretches up to eight feet long and sporting pincers at the back end, mandibles at the front. The creatures are excellent predators, having serious toughness due to the thickness of their carapace and great strength in their piercing appendages. The Kobolds tell horror stories of unfortunate hunters found scissored in half after encountering the species. Chittorick's are also a hive creature, working in harmony with others, building nests, gathering resources and fighting off intruders at the behest of a much larger queen.

Other: Linked to summoning magic but rarely used due to the greater speed and venomous nature of the galdy.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Cavalcade of creepy-crawlies

Post by Jack Rothwell »

Name: Chittorick Matriarch

Status: Seen and encountered

First encountered: To the Southern Continent viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1663&start=160

Origins: The Southern Continent (the underway)

Description: The chittorick matriarchs are enormous creatures that dwarf the children they spawn several times over. A typical creature stands easily fifty feet in length with a centipedal body with dozens of legs to support it. They are armed with pincers and mandibles capable of tearing a horse into cutlets and a circular mouth lined with razor sharp needle-like teeth to process food as quickly as possible. Matriarch's are also possessed of the tough carapaces and strength of the chittorick soldiers and workers, albeit to a much greater degree.
The matriarch commands the chittorick swarms in a manner similar to a queen bee or ant, directing them to create great colonies in the underway of the Southern Continent. Given their typical position at the heart of these underground colonies, it is extremely rare to encounter a matriarch short of venturing underground, getting captured by a chittorick patrol and being dragged into the heart of the lair. However, the queens are linked to summoning magic and will, on terrifying occasion, be drawn to the caster's location provided enough people and power are utilized to do so. Summoners have found that controlling a matriarch is nothing short of impossible, although the creature will exhibit a typical response to being summoned by avoiding harming the person/people who called it forth.

Other: Matriarch's will always send a signal for help if involved in combat and other chittoricks are within range of the hive mind, however killing a matriarch effectively cuts off the head of the swarm and sends its remaining members into a blind frenzy until they've destroyed all living things around them or died in the attempt.
Alberich
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Re: Cavalcade of creepy-crawlies

Post by Alberich »

Name: "The" Kobold. (Not to be confused with those other kobolds.)

Status: Seen and encountered

First encountered: Goriel and Beyond, part 3

Origins: Magical construct, Goriel.

Description: "It was a manlike figure, a little over three feet high but extremely stocky and strong. In fact, it was about as broad as a full-grown man, with powerful, clawed hands and large feet. Its complexion was stony, its abundant hair and beard scraggly and mossy. The beard hung to its knees, and maybe that was for the best, for it wore no other clothes. In the matter of color, only the eyes stood out, for these were a sort of shiny [cobalt] blue. Its teeth were huge and stumpy - and made of something shiny." Its voice is resonant and can raise the echoes anywhere if it puts forth the effort.

The Kobold lives to consume silver. If given coins, it will eat them, and shortly after experience a "miracle of nature" in which it poops out similar coins made of cobalt. Just how it transforms silver deposits in mines - this has not been seen. But its clawed hands are pretty powerful and able to tunnel through stone given time.

It thinks very slowly and along simple lines, though its memory is actually pretty decent. It also has the power to detect silver by sniffing -- but if given silver freely, it is unlikely to check to see if there's more. It is not quite so indestructible as a modern-day Tsuirakuan familiar, but it is definitely very tough.

Notes: "The" Kobold was created over a century ago by a rarely powerful Gorielian mage in conjunction with a Tsuirakuan wizard. The mage's clan was in conflict with another that had silver and copper mines; its purpose was to threaten their wealth and prestige. And no one remembers the war or who won it. It claims to have a brother named "Nick" (or "The" Nick) that craves copper. (The brother has since been encountered and proved to be similar - except that copper with too much tin content makes him horribly flatulent.)

[These two goblins were inspired by the RW etymologies of cobalt and nickel.]
Last edited by Alberich on November 25th, 2012, 12:26 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Cavalcade of creepy-crawlies

Post by Jack Rothwell »

Name: Garlop

Status: Seen and encountered

First encountered: To The Southern Continent

Origins: The Southern Continent

Description: The garlop is one of the many delicious animals that are relentlessly hunted by the jungle-dwelling kobolds of the southern continent. It's appearance is similar to some species of warthog, although the harsh environment it lives in have given the animal a greater muscle mass and tusks. Garlops are herbivores and prefer descretion to valour although, as a few badly bleeding hunters would testify, approaching a garlop when in the company of its young is grounds for a severe grunting mauling.
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Re: Cavalcade of creepy-crawlies

Post by Alberich »

Name: Lernean Hydra's Uncool Cousin

Status: Seen, encountered, and slain

First encountered: Goriel and Beyond, Part 3

Origins: Unknown, but found in a mine in Goriel. One hopes it is unique.

Description: "Six feet high at the shoulder it was - but its heads made it much taller. Its legs bent out something like a lizard's and its heavy clawed toes dragged the floor with an ugly scraping sound, as did it heavy tail (it was nearly twenty feet long if you included the tail). Its thick, scaly hide was an unpleasant mottled gray and its body was bulky. Above each shoulder and hip was mounted a thick neck-stalk -- four in all -- and each of these was another six feet high, and ponderously flexible. Atop each stalk was a hairless oversized humanlike head, facing out from the monster's middle. Each was bald with red eyes, a flattish nose, and a disgruntled expression."

The creature's primary attack is shooting metal-tipped bone flechettes out of its mouths, with slow speed and little accuracy but great force. It never seems to run out. It also sweeps with its tail and (sometimes) butts with its head, but its primary form of attack is by shooting. One hit and you're down - and then even it can hit you. It lives on offal thrown down into its cave by the humans up above. Unlike the heavy, thick-hided body, the heads are vulnerable - but if you kill one (or even all four), a new head grows out of the stalk, splitting the other one in a gooey mess, and replacing it. It doesn't use the heads to eat, but sucks food up directly into its cloaca (and if anyone had tried to attack it by sticking a weapon up there to attack - that would've been a nasty surprise).

Notes: Given the size and toughness of its body, the best way to defeat this creature is to jump onto its back and dodge around, swinging around the neck-stalks, so as to trick it into shooting itself repeatedly. Which it is stupid enough to do. The ideal hero to slay this monster is someone with long experience as a rodeo cowboy and a pole dancer.

[Udo Fujomori thought the heads looked like "Sergeant Orimoto," apparently an old nemesis of his. In my original concept, when you killed a head and a new one regrew, it would look like someone from your past that you absolutely hated. Given its overall mindlessness and what I've seen of the Poe-verse, I decided that really didn't fit, so I left it out - but having it grow heads that looked like Jamie's unsuccessful suitors or kobolds Tamina used to fight with...well, it might've been fun.]
Last edited by Alberich on November 25th, 2012, 12:17 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Alberich
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Re: Cavalcade of creepy-crawlies

Post by Alberich »

Name: Glowy Tan Blob Monster With Ears And Things All Over It

Status: Seen and encountered

First encountered: Goriel and Beyond, Part 4

Origins: Unknown, but found in a mine in Goriel. One hopes it is unique.

Description: "The monster itself was like an ugly glowy tan pool filling the middle of the room, but piled up a couple feet high. Its surface was covered with little human-like organs...eyes, all closed in sleep, noses, all whistling in the same, mouths, all closed, ears, and even little fingers, doing nothing save twitching a little."

In repose, it's about 35 feet across. The glow is bright enough to see by, but not enough to hurt one's eyes. When awake and angry, it undulates and spreads out. However, it can't form long pseudopods or squeeze through tight spaces.

The little mouths have humanlike teeth and chatter in inhuman voices, voicing simple, one-word thoughts as befits a basically mindless creature. The thoughts are along the lines of "EAT! EAT! EAT!" when moving things are nearby and it's trying to eat them - or "HEAL! HEAL! HEAL!" if it's regenerating - or "HURT! HURT! HURT!" if it's being hurt - or "PEW! PEW! PEW!" if it's being subjected to a really foul odor. The mouths don't coordinate their shouts with each other, suggesting that its (minimal) intelligence is not centered in a single brain. The ears hear, the fingers feel, the eyes see, etc.

Notes: The creature has no particular vulnerable spots and it bites pretty hard. (In extremis, it can gouge with the fingers as well.) However, its flesh isn't all that tough, and it can be cut through with normal weapons or claws. The trick (well, one possible trick) is to be tough enough not to be bitten to death while you're cutting through it. It regenerates, but slowly - so if you can cut all the way through, your friends can follow you through before it gets them. A battlemage with a Yuuki staff can blast through without too much trouble. But a hapless miner caught in a small room with it is lunch.
Last edited by Alberich on November 25th, 2012, 12:18 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Cavalcade of creepy-crawlies

Post by Jack Rothwell »

Name: Heeka

Status: Heard, but not encountered.

First encountered: To the Southern Continent

Origins: The Southern Continent

Description: "A small monkey thing." Was the description given by Tamina in the thread. The heeka is a creature along the same lines as a howler monkey. A small primate (barely 18 inches tall) with an oversized mouth that subsists on smaller animals, fruits and nuts for sustenance. The heeka's biggest defense against larger predators is it's voice, capable of making an ear-splitting screech much louder and deeper than it's small frame would hint at. A pack of heeka can easily cause nervous hunters to flee from the area from the false fear of imminent dismemberment.
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Re: Cavalcade of creepy-crawlies

Post by Alberich »

Name: ManFireBug

Status: Seen, encountered, and slain

First encountered: The Southern Continent (Part Two)

Origins: Magical construct, encountered in an abandoned elf temple on the Southern Continent

Description: "Various red points around the wall of the domed chamber began to glow -- and now they detached themselves. With an evil buzzing sound they cycled around the room, then flowed to the center near where the pedestal had once stood, where they formed themselves into a roughly man-sized blob, glowing an evil fiery red, shaped like a long-armed, dome-headed eyeless ogre. Before the shocked eyes of the adventurers, the thing extended an appendage into one of the burning torches -- and they could see it glow brighter as it drew strength from the fire."

Whoever touches or gets touched by it will be burned, with extreme pain. The monster can move from place to place either by walking or by forming itself into a column and flying. While formed into a column it moves much, much faster than it does when walking, but for some reason it can only attack while in man-form.

The individual bugs are beetle-sized and when killed seem to be made of a brittle, crystalline stuff.

Notes: The bugs are immune to all nonmagical attacks, including blows, wind, and even water. Wind will not even blow them around. Fire simply makes them stronger. However, they are vulnerable to magic attacks (except those based on fire or that act on the intelligence, since the individual bugs have none, and the collective mind is not accessible). The bugs can dodge blows very quickly, so that even magical weapons (like durus blades) are unlikely to hit even one single bug, let alone the thousands that make up the creature. The creature's own blows are impossible to parry in the normal way, so even the finest magical swordsman before doing serious damage to this thing.

The trick is to have some kind of area-of-effect spell, or a creative way of making something dangerous and magical (like a lot of broken magical glass) fill the air around them.

When encountered in the game, the thing was set up as a magical trap, designed to attack an elf that entered its area of responsibility; it pursued the elf slowly, methodically, and single-mindedly.
Last edited by Alberich on June 13th, 2013, 3:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Alberich
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Re: Cavalcade of creepy-crawlies

Post by Alberich »

Name: Internal Familiar

Status: Seen, encountered, and slain

First encountered: Goriel and Beyond, Part 5

Origins: Magical construct

Description: A grey mass of stalks, tentacles, and lumps, small enough to fit inside a man's body. The lumps bear the shapes of the internal organs they've replaced. The stalks and tentacles have eyes and toothy little mouths. Normally the thing is invisible inside its host; but it can project itself through his wounds and orifices according to where it is and where they are.

Notes: Somewhere in Goriel - now buried under tons of rock - is a rough-cut block of stone. Crudely written on it, in runes related to the oldest kind used by Tsuirakuan mages, are the words "COMFORT TO THE DYING." If a dying man touches the stone, and accepts the help offered him by its voices, he will receive an internal familiar - which will replace his damaged internal organs and stay with him always. The host receives the following advantages --

- His magical abilities are considerably enhanced.
- Muscles replaced by the familiar are much stronger than ordinary muscles; ditto bones and other organs.
- The wounds to his skin do not heal (though he can sew them up if he wants to). He won't bleed from them anymore, though.
- If he accepts the kind of death-worship favored by the altar, then he won't suffer debilitating, sanity-destroying nightmares (as he otherwise will).
- If he doesn't sew up his wounds, the familiar can extend a tentacle through them during combat for a surprise attack.
- If his followers include a "doubting thomas" who wants to place his hand inside his wounds - that hand will be bitten off to the amusement of all.
- If the thing has replaced his digestive organs, his excretions will stink even worse than they normally do.
- Further damage to internal organs (including muscles) will allow the familiar to expand and replace them, too.
- If he's killed, the internal familiar may be able to avenge his death, especially if the killers get too close.

If these don't seem like advantages to you, then you probably do not want an internal familiar. The internal familiar is extremely hard to destroy, though not quite so much as a modern Tsuirakuan familiar. The one encountered in play took the combined efforts of several mages and warrior-mages to kill.
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