#meritursas

[ruttotohtori]

Meritursas/common octopus 🇫🇮 / Sony α55

[thecreaturecodex]

Meritursas

“Iku-Turso” © Traci Shepard, accessed at Arcane Beasts and Critters here

[My complain with the iku-turso in Pathfinder is the same as my problem with the leshys. Cool monster, should have a different name. Iku-Turso in the Kalevala is huge, and the humanoid eel look owes more to China Mieville and the D&D kopru than anything in Finnish mythology. Although what exactly Iku-Turso is supposed to look like is a bit of a mystery. According to Wikipedia, “tursas” is an antique Finnish word for walrus, and “meritursas” is the current word for octopus. And in the Kalevala, Iku-Turso is given the title “many horned”. So a walropus with antlers, like TAS’ illustration above, is a pretty solid supposition.]

Meritursas CR 15 NE Outsider (native) This creature is a massive chimera of land and sea life. It has the overall shape of a walrus, with tusks and clawed flippers, but the horns of a mighty stag and the tentacles of an octopus.

A meritursas is a physical avatar of pestilence, a great sea beast that spreads deadly and debilitating diseases. They are sometimes referred to as the “fathers of nine plagues”, and some scholars believe that the contagion spell is modeled after a meritusas’ breath. Iku-tursos are drawn to meritursases and venerate them as if they were divine. The meritursases, for their part, welcome such attention, and often direct their flock to spread illness, rendezvous with daemon cults, and otherwise increase the net suffering in the world.

A meritursas is a terror to behold; lesser creatures flee from its approach. It usually initiates combat with its breath, which inflicts random diseases on creatures caught in it. Then, the meritursas charges into combat with its branching horns. Its tusks can inflict lethal blows, but if a creature is struck once and survives, the meritursas will usually move onto different targets, if its tursas affliction is spread. Meritursas want to create more iku-tursos, and so spread strikes with their bite as widely as possible.

Meritursases believe in a warped version of survival of the fittest. Creatures that can become infected with their diseases and survive the process are to be respected, and those that die are to be pitied. Anyone who becomes an iku-turso is blessed to join the program of testing the world. Creatures that are inherently immune to disease may be allies if they recognize the power of infection, and enemies to be destroyed if they do not. Paladins and clerics of gods of healing are a meritursas’ greatest enemies, and a meritursas will stop at nothing to slay one of these healers.

A meritursas is approximately fifty feet long from its snout to the tips of its tentacles.

Meritursas          CR 15 XP 51,200 NE Gargantuan outsider (aquatic, native) Init +5; Senses blindsense 60 ft., darkvision 120 ft., Perception +22, sense disease Aura frightful presence (120 ft., Will DC 24) Defense AC 30, touch 8, flat-footed 28 (-4 size, +1 Dex, +1 dodge, +22 natural) hp 225 (18d10+126) Fort +18, Ref +7, Will +14 DR 15/cold iron; Immune charms, compulsions, disease, nausea, poison, sickened; SR 26 Defensive Abilities deep dweller; Weakness light sensitivity Offense Speed 20 ft., swim 90 ft. Melee bite +21 (2d6+7/19-20x4 plus disease), 2 claws +21 (1d8+7), gore +24 (2d8+7), 4 tentacles +19 (1d8+3 plus grab) Space 20 ft.; Reach 15 ft. (20 ft. with tentacles) Special Attacks augmented critical, breath of nine plagues, constrict (1d8+10), powerful charge (gore, 4d8+10) Statistics Str 24, Dex 13, Con 24, Int 11, Wis 16, Cha 21 Base Atk +18; CMB +32 (+36 grapple); CMD 44 Feats Blind-fight, Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Dodge, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Multiattack, Power Attack, Sickening Critical Skills Heal +19, Intimidate +24, Knowledge (dungeoneering, nature) +19, Perception +22, Sense Motive +22, Swim +26 Languages Aklo, Aquan, Common, Undercommon SQ water dependency Ecology Environment cold and temperate aquatic Organization solitary or cult (1 plus 2-8 iku-tursos) Treasure incidental Special Abilities Augmented Critical (Ex) A meritursas’ bite attack deals x4 damage on a successful critical hit. Breath of Nine Plagues (Su) Three times per day as a standard action, a meritursas can breathe disease in a 90 foot cone. All creatures in the area must succeed a DC 26 Fortitude save or be infected by one or more of the following diseases (roll a d10)

blinding sickness

bubonic plague

cackle fever

filth fever

leprosy

mindfire

red ache

shakes

slimy doom

roll twice, ignoring future rolls of 10

The disease is contracted immediately, ignoring the onset period. Use the disease’s listed frequency and save DC to determine future effects, but the save DC of the disease is increased by 2. If a creature is affected by the breath of nine plagues again and is exposed to the same disease, it takes additional damage as if another frequency had passed. A meritursas must wait 1d4 rounds between uses of this ability. The save DC is Constitution based. Deep Dweller (Ex) A meritursas is immune to damage from water pressure and cold damage from water temperature. Disease (Su) A meritursas’ bite inflicts a strange, supernatural disease called tursas. This disease causes the victim's skin to grow painfully scaly, causes strange hallucinations, and eventually transforms the victim into an iku-turso. Tursas: Bite—injury; save Fort DC 26; onset 1 minute; frequency 1/day; effect 1d3 Wis damage and 1d6 Cha drain; cure 2 consecutive saves. As long as a victim suffers any ability damage from tursas, it gains the ability to breathe water. A creature reduced to 0 Charisma by this disease transforms into a fully grown and healthy iku-turso—it immediately forgets its previous life and abilities and seeks out the nearest iku-turso community to join it. A wish or miracle can reverse this transformation. The save DC is Constitution-based. Sense Disease (Su) A meritursas knows if any creature it looks at is suffering from a disease, is capable of spreading a disease, or is immune to disease. If a creature is infected or capable of spreading a disease, the meritursas automatically knows what disease that is.

[ruttotohtori]

Meritursas/common octopus 🇫🇮 / Sony α55

[ruttotohtori]

Meritursas/common octopus 🇫🇮 / Sony α55

[lpbestiary]

Iku-Turso is a sea monster in Finnish mythology. He is known by many names, including Tuonen härkä (the ox of death) and tuhatsarvi (the thousand-horned.

Iku-Turso is described in certains stories as the father of disease, while in others he is identified as the son of the sky. In the epic poem Kalevala, he rises from the sea and burns a stack of hay, from which an oak tree grows, so large it blots out the sun.

Image source.

Monster master list.

Suggest a spook.

[notthatkindofnormalstuff]

Iku-Torso

Variations: Iku-Tursas, Iki-Tursas, Meritursas, Tursas, Turisas Location | Distribution: Finland The iku-torso (”the infinite Torso”) is a monster from Finnish mythology. It is said to be an evil sea monster with no exact appearance because of the different depictions and accounts it has. Varying literature and the accounts also tell Iku-Torso as the spreader of disease, and is also said to be the god of war.

[wiecovv]

meritursas replied to your post:

Give me a mug and I’ll come do it.

i was going to give you a mug anyway but ill gladly take this exchange

[wiecovv]

meritursas replied to your post:

The monster.

yes, the monster