#5e beast

[vivi-the-goblin]

The oilslick spider is a giant spider with flint-like mandables. It's got a really simple strategy. Dig a hole, put a web over it, cover with detritus. climb up above, occasionally dripping oil onto the trap below. Eventually something slips in, light it all up. If they roast, great! if they break free first, they fall 10 feet and the spider has the high ground. Which of course it will use for more web and oil shenanigans

Turns out it's hard to come up with a spider that the drow haven't already invented. They even made one with sword-legs! This was the best I got, one that you CANT kill with fire, the opposite in fact. I made this for a video on the Ettercap, in which I replaced all pictures of spiders with a friendly flumph to assist with arachnophobia. Every other video fills the screen with spiders since they're obsessed with them and herd them, but if you at least handle the looks of the ettercap then you can watch this one. It's here if you're interested.

[thewildshapeshop]

Maneater update

[vivi-the-goblin]

Fun fact- lickitung couldn't learn lick in gen 1. It was exclusive to the Ghastly and Jynx lines. And...look, it's the end of the year. I'm gonna be real, my creativity's a bit burnt out from the holiday rush. maybe I'll come back and add encounter ideas later, but I'm just kinda out of it. Seriously, every entry for both of these just says it has a big tongue with paralyzing saliva. I've got little to go off here. and all my searches just say they're based on a yokai that licks the walls of old bathrooms? Which exists for some reason? So we're doing this without the descriptions like I used to. I'm gonna take a small hiatus to recover now, but I'll be back to posting when I can! I'll be back, and in the meantime will still be on youtube and posting the stuff I make for there. I know, it's not the same, but I need to take a break from one of the two to get any amount of freetime. The youtube algorithm will sweep away all my progress in 2-3 weeks, tumblr won't. I'll come back. I always do.

[vivi-the-goblin]

It's time for the tadpoles, and kingly frog. Poliwag are tadpoles the size of infants with see-through but surprisingly resiliant skin over thier intestines. They're strong swimmers but spend a lot of time on the shore learning to walk. Eventually they lose the tail and grow into...a tadpole the size of a halfling called poliwhirl. If exposed to a large enough area or significant source of elemental power, they'll grow into a tadpole the size and breadth of a dwarf. They don't seem to mature as they age, just grow limbs and get angry, as if they're frustrated about never fully turning into a frog. While it seems they've forgotten how to finish maturing, there is one way to trigger it. If given something resembling a crown or symbol of office, a well traveled poliwhirl who can finish their growth into a politoad. These territorial creatures have thunderous croaks that command all local poliwag and poilwhirl. They're occasionally known to band together to sing outside their mating season. here are a few example encounters- - A village raises poliwag to keep insects in check, and their waddling march from the breeding pools to the local lake is a sign of a good harvest. This year something has been thinning the flock however, and if none remain the villagers fear their crops are doomed... - A local lord has made Poliwhirl a protected species, as they are a cure to his insomnia. The townsfolk have long relied on fish to survive however, and the overpopulation of frogs is swiftly devouring them all. Something needs to be done before the villagers starve! - A trio of Politoad have banded together into a coven, changing the weather to constant rain and gathering an army of all lesser forms. While being approached by locals desperate to stop the flooding, a supremely annoyed poliwrath appears to guide and aid the party, furious at the toads for hypnotizing its clutchmates.

[vivi-the-goblin]

You may not like it, but this is what peak performance look like. Six times nature has asked "What if this was more like a crab? wouldn't that be better?" And 6 times it was correct. Krabby has pinch pinch. Kingler has pinch pinch pinch WHACK. This is all you need. Look idk what you want from me, it is literally just a mildly magical giant crab. Beware the crab, they are beholden to none but themselves. - Last year they were screaming "Kill the dragon, the dragon is evil!" This year they're screaming "The dragon was the only thing keeping the krabby population from swelling in an endless wave of gnashing claws, save us!" An adventurer's work is never done. - If desperate enough, krabby will bury themselves in sand and filter food from it. That's enough to keep them alive, but not happy. Clever kobolds have been using starved krabby like landmines, being light and sneaky enough to sneak by without noticing. Player characters are not, for are large and carry gear. - The tides are unusually violent tonight. The beach is being flooded by the cult of C.R.A.B. (The C stands for Crab, the rest also stands for crab, you do not need other words). The tides are reacting to a ritual, most of the village has been captured and are being turned into krabby one by one! Their leader (a kingler) must be stopped before it's too late!

[thewildshapeshop]

Better Tiger

[vivi-the-goblin]

Farfetch'd: Kid with STICK SWORD! Galarian Farfetch'd: kid with stick sword who played too much final fantasy. Can't tell if they're edgy or about to mug you for your shoelaces. SirFetch'd- That guy who does the whole 'ladies man' routine, but has enough dumb charisma and raw confidence that people think it's a hilarious parody and fall for it. The one you think is a "Nice Guy" but are shocked to find they actually are just nice and not wanting anything, they just have a weird vibe. Seriously though, Farfetch'd just a pun about freak fortune (duck showing up carrying the vegetables you'd roast it with). They have the size and disposition of a Canadian goose with a baseball bat. The Galatian one is no different, but even braver and wielding a 1 meter (3.2 foot) greatclub. Sirfetch'd is a heel turn, having the honed confidence and skill of a paladin and wield a sword the size of a lance. Note that all of these are the average size of a halfling, and that means halflings are the size of geese. If your mind wasn't broken by that fact like mine was, have some encounter ideas! - Farfetch'd are strong and smart enough to avoid or disarm many traps, so while they are a delicacy they are rarely hunted. This is an issue, as they turn ponds into warzones during spring and overpopulation attracts much more dangerous creatures. The party is tasked with driving off a portion of the local farfetch'd by any means. (obviously killing works, but scaring them or harvesting all the best leeks works as well) - Galarian farfetchd travel in smaller flocks and cultivate riverside plants to massive size. A cauldron of stew cooked with one of thier leeks counts as 4 minor health potions that cure most diseases. However, one must be wary of their guardians... -Sirfetchd are the guardians of the wilds of the world, especially near fey portals. Seelie fey think they're hilarious guards. A duck with bedroom eyes wielding giant vegetables and poorly understood code of chivalry? That's is exactly the sort of thing they'd come up with. The party may not even be aware of the portal it's guarding, but you can bet it's gonna guard it! Bonus points if it later returns asking for help, because while it was attacking the party an actual threat slipped through the portal. - Reoccuring NPC that's just a Sirfetchd constantly picking fights out of his league because of ridiculous misunderstandings. Create a less problematic Don Quixote. Duck Quixote. Don Quaxote.

[vivi-the-goblin]

Thought I'd forget the giant tentacruel, didn't you? :D...wait, a lot of you won't remember that, it was removed from rotation after 9/11, 2001. Season 1 episode 19 featured a chemically altered tentacruel taking revenge on a background character for trying to destroy its reef to build a theme park. It was taken out of rotation in the US, not because of her shooting it with 2 uzi and an RPG, but because it destroys 2 towers...despite the intro staying the same. Better fate than its BANNED sibling episode, where said background character's sister holds a swimsuit competition and James continues to prove his unparalleled ability as a makeup artist. Seriously, the blending on the edges of his prosthetic chest must be godlike to hold up under that scrutiny, I'd kill for half that skill... *AHEM* UM, ANYWAY, giant jellyfish squid! Tentacool is weak to piercing because it's 99% liquid, 1% thin membrane around this poisonous water balloon. That's why there are so many I assume, few survive long enough to grow that thick mantle plate and become an ambush hunter. Tentacool are more of an environmental hazard, flowing with the currents and just attacking things that draw near. Tentacruel are active hunters that rely on ambushes among rocks and reefs due to thier relatively slow swim speed. The Titancruel is a sentient deep-sea guardian created in an alchemical attempt to kill it, basically a miniature kraken. It just wants to be left alone, and if that means bloody retaliation it won't hesitate. Anyway, enough rambling, here's the encounter ideas. - Kuo-toa have been harrassing fishing ships and trading vessels, but following them to their lair has been made difficult. They've taken to honoring thier self-made jellyfish god by leashing tentacool to rocks, forming mazes of poisonous landmines. Bonus points if their belief actually managed to make a titancruel. - A druidic circle's attempt to preserve nature worked too well, a bloom of tentacool has become a swarm of tentacruel. This is terrible news, as they have started to voraciously hunt down all wildlife and overwhelm the usual predators. The circle have placed a temporary bounty on them before the reef is destroyed. - A cult to the Kraken has formed near the abyssal domain of a Titancruel. In an attempt to destroy what they believe to be a mockery of the kraken, they plan to blow up a portion of the reef then sail to the closest large city, making it think they were from that port. Either the city kills the mockery or their deaths create a large enough sacrifice to summon an actual kraken. This is going to get bloody unless they're stopped.