Sand Dweller
Image © Loic Muzy, accessed at his ArtStation here
[You knew we would get to the Cthulhu Mythos eventually, right? The sand dweller is a minor monster from “The Gable Window”, a story by everyone’s favorite Mythos punching-bag August Derleth. In the original story, they’re described as having “koala-like” heads, but not even Lovecraft himself would be scared of a koala. Recent Cthulhu games have tried to spice them up in various ways. In the most recent edition of Call of Cthulhu, sand dwellers are literally made of sand, and can combine into bigger monsters. Sandy Petersen, who has called sand dwellers his least favorite monster, made them psychic parasites in his 5e 3pp books–they grow inside the minds of serial killers before bursting out through their skin. I went a different approach. In “The Gable Window”, they’re accompanied by a mysterious tentacle, the origin of which is never seen. What if they made it themselves? That, combined with sort of a philosophical approach to “why sand?”, inspired my take on this monster.]
Sand Dweller CR 5 CN Monstrous Humanoid This humanoid creature has leathery skin studded with small, sandy scales, wide staring eyes and rounded ears. Its hands and feet end in shovel-like claws, and its teeth are small and sharp, with prominent incisors.
Sand dwellers are monkish hermits of chaos, devoted to meditating on decay and erosion. They refer to themselves as scorrhex when they bother to talk to outsiders. They live in desolate places such as salt flats, sandy deserts and caves, the better to reflect on natural processes of destruction. Their religion is an odd mix of venerating protean lords, beings of elemental earth and Great Old Ones, and their practices rarely make sense to outsiders. These practices do include occasional sacrifices, which is the most likely times they come into conflict with others.
Scorrhex prefer to attack from ambush. They can swim through sand easily, and often attack from below. Their mastery of earth and chaos allows them to create tentacles of sand and rock that lash out at their enemies. Sand dwellers usually fight in numbers; with some hanging back to command their tentacles while others engage in melee.
Sand dweller culture is egalitarian and ascetic. They require little food and no water, and are capable on living on a combination of plant and animal matter. Their teeth never stop growing, suggesting some sort of relationship to rodents, and so they wear these down by gnawing on hard objects. This is seen as a personal relationship to erosion, and therefore of religious significance. They do not collect much treasure, and what valuables they have are likely to be sand blasted, gnawed on or otherwise worn down.
Keep reading
Honestly the idea that every critter from stories should be seen as a dangerous monster and can’t just be flavor was the stumbling block here.
Like what’s next? statblocks for the pterosaur people that took over the planet for a few million years after the great race of yith abandoned that epoch to escape to future?
Sure, why not?
I am a biologist, and in my youth was a Star Wars fan. Both of those influenced my outlook–everything has its own story. Every individual, every species, no matter how briefly glimpsed, is part of the world and can be explored and fleshed out. That may not be your writing philosophy, but it is mine.
Besides which, if there’s anyone who would appreciate having a brief mention expanded into a whole entity complete with an elemental affinity, it would be August Derleth.
so pterosaur people statblock wen
