Fantasy is never as strange as Real Life.
Real life is weird as fuck, especially things that you don’t necessarily pay attention to/show up on your daily radar. You know what there aren’t enough of in D&D imo? Fungus enemies. Let’s fix that shit.
This is a weird little fungus known as Clathrus Archeri, aka the Devil’s Fingers or the Octopus Stinkhorn. It starts out in an egg-like sac before bursting free of it. It then spreads its ‘fingers’ and waits. The inner lining of the fingers is coated with a sticky black gooey substance. “Why would that be?” you ask? Because this thing reeks of rotting flesh and attracts flies, which then get stuck on the goo, liquefied, and digested. Metal.
STEP 1: THINK OF A COOL ASS NAME
Here’s the thing: Real life has given us that as well. BUT! We have options. Clathrus Archeri Devil Finger Octopus Stinkhorn… How to combine this? Well fun fact: Clathrus is the genus of this particular fungus which means… THERE ARE OTHER TYPES OF FUNGUS THAT DO A SIMILAR THING. You know what that means? Multiple creatures.
Archeri Devil Finger Octopus Stinkhorn… We don’t want to use Archeri because that’s just the thing’s real life name and isn’t crazy enough. BUT… let’s use Devil Finger because that sounds metal as shit and gives everyone at the table an immediate idea of what this thing does.
Clathrus Devil-finger it is.
STEP 2: THINK OF COOL ASS ABILITIES
It bursts open into long finger-type appendages? REACH.
It grows 4-7 appendages? MULTIATTACK.
It’s covered in black goo? GRAPPLE ABILITY.
It liquefies insects? ACID DAMAGE.
Smells like Rotting Flesh? CON SAVE VS CONDITION.
This is a fantasy game? MAKE IT LARGE.
STEP 3: ABILITY SCORES, LANGUAGES, ETC.
All of this is arbitrary and depends on how high a CR you want the creature to have. SO FUCK IT GO BIG OR GO HOME.
HP: HIGH
AC: LOW
STR: GOOD
DEX: SHIT
CON: DECENT
INT: ENOUGH TO EAT
WIS: NOPE
CHA: LOL
ATTACKS PER TURN: HOW MANY ARMS DOES IT HAVE? ROLL FOR IT.
ATTACK AND DAMAGE MODIFIERS: HIGH
DAMAGE PER ATTACK: BLUDGEONING, PRETTY DECENT. PLUS GRAPPLE EFFECT ON SUCCESS. ACID DAMAGE ON GRAPPLED TARGETS. SAVE FOR HALF DAMAGE.
EXTRA STUFF: If you really want to get weird, give it telepathy, but it only speaks Infernal (but because it’s telepathy people understand it, even if they don’t speak it. Let’s also give it Blindsight so that it can see its meals. Yup.
STEP 4: MAKE UP SOME COOL ASS LORE
The Clathrus Devil-Finger is a strange mushroom that grows in the deepest parts of forests, and damp, dark areas (like caves, or the Underdark). The Devil-Fingers grow slowly over time, sapping nutrients from the surrounding area until they grow to an enormous size. They grow in an egg-like sac, camouflaged to appear as nothing more than a boulder.
Once they reach full size however, nutrients from the soil don’t provide enough sustenance, and so they burst from their sac and split a large number of ichor covered tentacle-like appendages (typically between 4 - 7, but some have been noted to have up to a dozen).
The full grown Devil-Finger exudes a stench of decaying flesh, attracting to it all types of scavengers and pests. It uses its appendages to slam down on these creatures, crushing smaller prey instantly, and ensnaring larger prey in its sticky ichor. The trapped creatures are slowly liquefied by the acid laced ichor, and absorbed into the fungus.
It is not uncommon to encounter Otyugh, Swarms of Rats, Giant Vultures, or other such creatures when there is a Clathrus Devil-Finger in the area. Because of the increased presence of these aggressive carrion crawlers, it’s not unheard of for fatigued adventurers to get overwhelmed and never be heard of again. Particularly old specimens have even been rumored to be able to communicate with sentient prey, luring them close with dark whispers of promises of power or riches, though this has never been confirmed.
I never advocate for a DM to directly try and kill your party, after all, this is a fun game meant to be a collaborative story telling experience, but that doesn’t mean that the story doesn’t have any close calls, dark twists, or breath stealing moments. Use your new big bad ass monster to fuck your party up, but be careful to make sure they can survive the encounter, if only barely. THIS IS A TOUGH ENEMY, BUT DEFINITELY KILLABLE, AND DEFINITELY INTERESTING.
jacobvanloon
germansingergirl
dailybridgerton
janainaart
tangentwithtanner
kaledo-art
yousharknotpass
