#mountain devil

[critter-creature-or-beast]

This is a...

critter

creature

beast

Remaining time: 4 days 19 hours

By KeresH - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

[bobobazarra]

[adventureswithteddy]

Teddy looked over from a distance to see this Honey Flower and felt an overwhelming urge to trot over to give it a quick hug. You have to be a bit more gentle when hugging a flower than you do when hugging a tree...

[little-creature-of-the-day]

little creature of the day: thorny devil

spiky lizard

image source

[bran-ridire]

The Battle of Ape Canyon

Carved into the southeast shoulder of Mount Saint Helens, is a deep and narrow gorge, the name of which is derived from a shocking encounter which was report...

As a child of the PNW, the Ape Canyon Incident always fascinated and scared the daylights out of me. As an adult, I’d really like to explore the narrow gorge.

[thecreaturecodex]

Mountain Devil

Image © Zach Taylor, accessed at the artist’s website here

[The Lone Pine Mountain Devil exists only because of YouTube. It originated in the short video “Mountain Devil Prank Fails Horribly”, a found footage piece less than four minutes long with some pretty-darn-good-for-amateur CGI. In the tradition of the Blair Witch, the producers of the video created a backstory for their monsters with a Jesuit priest surviving an encounter in Gold Rush days and posted it online, where it drifted to Wikipedia (evidence is scarce about this origin; I’m not sure if they posted it to Wikipedia themselves, or if someone else did). Once the cryptid community got hold of it, the Lone Pine Mountain Devil became difficult to eradicate, and additional lore built up around it. Most of the claims are that it’s a four winged dinosaur, a la Microraptor, and that it only attacks people who disturb the forest. But whether it’s furry or feathered, has membranes or feathers on its wings, or even what size it is are all based on whoever happens to be telling the story at the time. A real Rorschach “cryptid”.

This art came from A Field Guide to the Cryptids of North America, which is a bad book but has nice art. I like the imagining of the CGI monster from the short (which looks like a winged version of the Honeycomb Craver) as something closer to a real animal, and went with that approach for my statistics.]

Mountain Devil CR 4 N Magical Beast This creature looks like a large bat, about the size of a human child, with four wings and short hind legs. Its head is long and lizard-like, with an array of slavering teeth.

Mountain devils are carnivorous bats native to pine forests in high altitudes. They have no fiendish affinities—their name is instead a reference to their ferocity and the danger they pose to travelers. Mountain devils live and hunt communally, using pack tactics to overwhelm prey as large as a stone giant. Their saliva contains acidic venom, capable of turning the blood of its victims into corrosive acid. Corpses left behind when the mountain devils are done feeding are typically mutilated beyond recognition.

The roosts of mountain devils are found in caves, cliffs and old, durable trees. Mountain devils are communal breeders—there is no fighting over mates, and kits born to the same litter often have different fathers. If large prey is unavailable, mountain devils will hunt separately and return to their roosts to regurgitate food for those unlucky enough to have failed in the hunt. Although they could theoretically be domesticated by a trainer with patience and acid resistance, they do poorly when kept away from other members of their own species.

Mountain Devil CR 4 XP 1,200 N Small magical beast Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +5, scent Defense AC 16, touch 15, flat-footed 12 (+1 size, +3 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 natural) hp 37 (5d10+10) Fort +6, Ref +7, Will +2 Resist acid 10 Offense Speed 20 ft., fly 40 ft. (average) Melee bite +9 (1d4+1 plus 1d6 acid plus poison) Special Attacks swarming Statistics Str 13, Dex 17, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 8 Base Atk +5; CMB +5; CMD 19 Feats Dodge, Mobility, Weapon Finesse Skills Fly +11, Perception +5, Stealth +11 Ecology Environment temperate mountains and hills Organization solitary, pair, roost (3-6) or flock (7-18) Treasure none Special Abilities Poison (Ex) Bite—injury; save Fort DC 14; duration 1/round for 4 rounds; effect 1d3 Con damage and 1d6 acid damage; cure 1 save. The save DC is Constitution based. Swarming (Ex) Two mountain devils can share the same space without penalty. If both of these mountain devils attack the same opponent, they are treated as flanking as if they were in opposite squares.

[plantstudyspace]

Cambewarra, Sunday 19th December 2021

Day Two: Fitzroy Falls

[psikonauti]

Thorny Devil (Moloch horridus)