The Beave-phant, coming to a swamp near you!

 Ok. So the wife picked up this thing on impulse:

Apparently it's a plushy called a Squishmallow. And although the character tag claims that this particular plushy (reportedly named "Mila") is an elephant wearing a beaver costume, we of the adventuring community know the truth.

This is yet another unholy chimera, redolent of the owl-bear. 

Do not let Big Plushy lie to you.

The Beave-phant:

Denizens of the meandering savannah rivers, the beave-phant is a dwarf pachyderm hybridized with a beaver by someone who thought it was a good idea.

HD: 4-6; AC 5/14; Atk: Trunk toss and tail slap (2x 1d6+concussion) or trample (2d8); Move 120’ (40’) (on land or swim); Saving Throws D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (3); Morale 8; Alignment Neutral; Number Appearing 1d4+2; Special: Concussion - save vs paralysis or be knocked unconscious 2d4 rounds. Drowning potential if victim lands in water.

Ancestor-elephant tusks have been substituted with large chewing teeth, which the creatures use to fell trees for construction of their dams and massive lodges. After felling the tree, the beave-phant will drag it to the waterway, manipulating the log with its trunk. The logs are then stacked and woven together and wattled with excavated mud to build their structures. The dams can block rivers, create lakes, and redirect waterways. Additionally, the beave-phants will excavate into the riverbed to create underwater accessways into their lodges. Where an infestation of beave-phants occurs, they can significantly impact river navigation, canal integrity, and riverside communities and agriculture.

Beave-phants live in small family groups, with a matriarch accompanied by one to two generations of her offspring. The females tend to have a retiring nature, and only act in defense of their family pods or lodges. 

Bachelor herds comprised of semi-aquatic, non lodge-building males migrate between water bodies, seeking mates and sparring with one another for territorial dominance. The males have been known to wreak havoc on crops, as well as excavating furrows through saturated ground during their foraging. The males tend to be overtly aggressive, confronting intruders into their territory, whether beave-phant, other large herbivore, or humanoid. The males will often occupy ponds and lodges abandoned by matriarchal groups or other beave-phant.

Abandoned lodges find other semi-aquatic occupants, including the lizard-folk, who may share the environment with the beave-phants. Beave-phants tend to be wary if not defensive towards lizardfolk, as the latter have been known to hunt beave-phant. If a matriarch or male recognizes lizardfolk who have hunted their kin, they will attack on sight, with no quarter. 

While these aquatic pachyderm-hybrids don't have the valuable tusks of their uncorrupted kin, the heavy chewing teeth can fetch a good price with some ivory collectors (1d6x50gp per tooth).

Not a Beave-phant, but a Platybelodon.
Because Nature is more random than I am.

Santicore 2017 entry

I seem to catch the Secret Santicore group project every other year....  But I remembered to enter Santicore 2017...

Well, Santicore 2017 came and went, and it seems that the editing process is a bit delayed.  So putting my contribution out as a bit of content...

This years 'gift' request:

"Oh great and dreadful Santicore, 
I gaze upon your visage with reverence and wish that you wouldst grant this lowly mortals request. I request with such respect as to make other respectful people look as though they aren't, that could you please make me a jungle based encounter.
I lay myself at your feet as your lowly humble servant.
R"

So off to the jungle we go, in search of illusory foe....

Download

And the name?  Well it came from one of those paint samples that you get at the store.  I've never quite figured out how the color names are generated, or how they reflect anything in the real world.  But of the green-tinged color chits I happened to be sorting through at the time, it seemed to best fit a small jungle excursion.

Inktober 9

"Screech"

I tried to do an owl, but I can't draw owls.  I can't draw pterodactyls, either, but here they are....

RPG Blog Carnival: Eclipse Magic

It's been a few months since I contributed to the RPG Blog Carnival, so here I am...

Kobold Press is hosting this month's RPG Blog Carnival, entry, themed 'Magic', with open-ended options on where to explore with the topic.

Sooo...  I think I'll noodle around on the topic with respect to another event this month, the August 21 total solar eclipse...

Although a lot of the online references/resources talk on the magical elements of eclipses with respect to the wiccan/pagan tradition, I'll leave Timothy Brannan to discourse on that...

However, taking a few of the traditional superstitions and themes of the eclipse...  An eclipse is: 1) a focal event, 2) a symbol of compressed time (a day in minutes), 3) an event of reformation/rebirth, and 4) a moment of the Moon suppressing the sun, and

I'm not providing many specific mechanics/spells/items, but more of a meditation on the themes and hopefully some seed ideas...

Focal Event:  The conjunction of the lunar and solar powers loosen the gateways and wards between planes of existence, and of the elements.

• Conjuration or summoning of extra-planar beings is eased.  Servants are summoned, demons more readily called to their binding circles (Although the bargains they press are still just as hazardous)
• Elementals may be summoned by lower-level mages and elementalists, and the command more stable, with the risk of loss of control reduced.
• The dead come closer to the veil of the living, their communications clearer, answers less ambiguous.  
• Perhaps even the gods bend a bit closer to the mortal plane, and entreaties to their ineffable ears heard with more clarity and openness.

Compressed Time:  A day is compressed into mere minutes, and those attuned will take advantage of the event as a catalyst.

• Spells and processes requiring time become instantaneous. Scrolls are transcribed immediately, potions brew spontaneously. 
• Caster levels required to utilize certain spells are reduced during the eclipse, temporarily allowing lower-level casters a glimpse into the powers they may eventually grasp.  This, as all magic, should be approached with great caution, or only under extreme circumstances, as the consequences of failure (or of the end of the eclipse during such machinations) can be catastrophic.

Reformation/rebirth: As the walls between the planes are thinned, the eclipse may offer a multitude of opportunities for reformative events.

• The deceased have an increased success for resurrection or reincarnation by the priests, with better outcomes, or fewer detrimental side-effects...
• Curses are more readily lifted, as positive energies may be accessed to wash away the liabilities.
• The pallor of the undead's touch is healed. Levels lost, such as from powerful undead, may be regained, bringing characters back to their hale and hearty selves. Likewise, faded attributes from magic, poisons, or disease may be recovered...
• The deities may show a certain forgiveness or clemency.  There may be chances for restoration of lost abilities, particularly lost Divine powers, especially those associated with lunar deities.

"Moon Power":  Like any celestial event, not all is positive energy.  The Night temporarily overcomes the Day for the briefest of moments, allowing dark forces a momentary advantage and freedom...

• The weakened boundaries between the planes don't benefit only the just, as the powers of Darkness, too, may be unleashed or amplified.  How many plot lines of devices has required the gateway of the eclipse to unleash a particularly maleficent force?
• Likewise, as the boundaries between the living and dead loosen, the necromantic arts feel a temporary amplification of powers - Creation or animation of the undead is catalyzed, and armies may be raised...
• Curses may be cast, having greater effects upon individuals, or ranging across wider areas...
• There comes a sudden eruption and fury of creatures of the dark. Knowing that their opportunity is brief (10-15 minutes of dusk, 2-7 minutes of totality), they mass at crypt doors, at sewer lids, waiting to flood forth.  Storming under the corona's haze, they swarm and feed in a frenzy.  Their numbers and powers magnify, making the turning powers of the holy warriors ineffective against their mass....

Bonus:
Here’s what you’ll see where you live.

Worms, real and imagined.

Working on some freewriting, but had to ponder on this little gem...

Monsters.  We make creations out of myth and nature, mix and match, try to come up with something just a bit odder, a little more not-quite-right.  Something that hasn't been seen before.

So I came up with the Barrow Worm.  Nothing too out there.  Just an extrapolation of a scavenger, based a bit on reality, a bit on make-believe, and make it big.

My wife - a microbiologist with training as a marine biologist - lent a hand with a quick illustration to make my creepy crawly come to life, including elements from some marine worms.

So I came upon a post a few days back.  With this leading bit of nightmare fuel:

source

Meet the Bobbit worm (Eunice aphroditois) a jawed marine worn that lurks in its burrow, awaiting any unsuspecting prey.

Video of the little nasty (complete with somewhat melodramatic narration).  Check out the uncompromising jaws vs. the conceptual mouth-parts of the invented critter, above :)

Seems the worms can reach lengths of 3 meters (Although they are only one to two inches in diameter).

Whatever we create - nature will have already come up with a version - occasionally even more extreme than our minds imagine...

And it sounds like I need to make my barrow worm bigger...

Update: IFLScience reposted the critter, as well.  And you never know why your fish may be disappearing from your aquarium...