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Platy Gila Cuttlesecretary 650

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by

Dale
in

Original Life Forms:

  • Mammal: Platypus
  • Bird: Secretarybird
  • Reptile: Gila Monster
  • Cephalopod: Cuttlefish

Appearance: This creature is a bizarre fusion of disparate anatomies, resulting in a formidable semi-aquatic predator. It stands upon two long, powerful legs, reminiscent of a secretarybird, which terminate in broad, webbed feet ideal for both wading and swimming. Its body is low-slung and stout like that of a Gila monster, covered in beaded, scaly skin with striking patterns of black and salmon-pink or orange. From its shoulders sprout two boneless, muscular tentacles like those of a cuttlefish, which are typically kept coiled close to the body. Its head is perhaps its strangest feature, dominated by the soft, leathery, duck-like bill of a platypus. A crest of long, quill-like feathers crowns the back of its head. The entirety of its skin, from its beaded hide to its tentacles, is covered in advanced chromatophores that can produce rapidly shifting colors and dazzling, hypnotic light displays. It possesses a thick, fleshy tail, like a Gila monster’s, where it stores fat reserves. On the inner ankle of each leg, hidden among the scales, is a sharp, venomous spur.

Size: The Platy-Gila Cuttlesecretary is a medium-sized creature. It stands about 3 feet tall due to its long legs, but its body length from bill to tail is closer to 5 feet. It is heavily built, weighing between 150 and 200 pounds.

Speed: On land, it has a steady, deliberate walking speed of 30 feet. In the water, it is an adept swimmer, using its webbed feet and powerful tail to achieve a swim speed of 40 feet.

Stat Modifiers:

  • Strength: +3
  • Dexterity: -1
  • Constitution: +5
  • Intelligence: -4
  • Wisdom: +3
  • Charisma: -4

Skills:

  • Athletics: It is a powerful swimmer and can deliver crushing stomping attacks with its legs.
  • Perception: Its primary sense for hunting underwater is not sight but electrolocation, using its bill to detect the faint nerve impulses of prey buried in mud and silt.
  • Stealth: While physically clumsy, it uses its hypnotic light displays to misdirect and dazzle observers, creating a form of optical confusion that serves as camouflage.

Behavior: This creature is a patient, semi-aquatic predator that divides its time between lazing on muddy riverbanks and hunting in the murky shallows. It is generally sluggish and slow-moving, conserving energy until a hunting opportunity arises. In the water, it hunts by sweeping its sensitive bill back and forth across the riverbed, detecting hidden fish and crustaceans. For larger prey on land, such as unwary animals coming to drink, it employs a unique strategy. It will generate a series of strobing, hypnotic pulses of light and color across its body, disorienting and transfixing its victim. It then rushes forward to deliver a series of powerful stomps with its legs or a swift kick with its venomous ankle spurs. If threatened, it can eject a dense cloud of black ink into the water from a specialized siphon, allowing it to escape under the cover of total darkness.

Diet: The creature is carnivorous. Its diet primarily consists of fish, freshwater crustaceans, and large amphibians. It uses its powerful legs to stomp and kill snakes and other reptiles. It will also prey on any small mammal or bird it can ambush at the water’s edge. After a large meal, it can survive for weeks off the fat stored in its tail.

Emotions: Its emotional range is extremely limited and reptilian in nature. It is driven by basic needs: hunger, territorial defense, and survival. It operates with a slow, patient deliberation that can be mistaken for laziness, but it can explode into focused, violent action in an instant. It shows no signs of social behavior or complex emotions beyond a rudimentary territorial instinct.

Environment Where Found: It is found exclusively in and around freshwater systems. It prefers slow-moving rivers, murky swamps, muddy estuaries, and large marshes where the water is opaque and the banks are soft enough to dig large burrows for lairing.

Tags: Aberration, Amphibious, Electrolocation, Feral, Hypnotic, Ink-Cloud, Poisonous, Predator, Semi-Aquatic, Solitary, Swamp-dweller, Venomous, River-dweller, Stomper, Wader, Burrower, Beaked, Tentacled, Spurred, Bioluminescent

Age The Platy-Gila Cuttlesecretary has a respectable lifespan, often living for 40 to 60 years in a stable river system. They reach maturity slowly, only becoming capable of reproduction after their first decade. Mating is a rare and aggressive affair, after which the female will dig a deep, humid burrow into a riverbank, well above the water line. There, she lays a clutch of two to four large, leathery eggs. She guards the burrow entrance until the eggs hatch, living off the significant fat reserves in her tail. The young are born with fully functional bills and spurs, and after a few weeks are driven from the burrow to fend for themselves in the river.

Speed The creature’s speed is entirely dependent on its environment. On land, it is a slow and ponderous creature, moving with a deliberate, waddling gait at a speed of 30 feet. It is not built for chasing prey on land. In the water, however, it is a different animal. Its webbed feet and powerful tail propel it through the water at a speed of 40 feet. It is a graceful and silent swimmer, capable of sharp turns and sudden bursts of acceleration to catch aquatic prey or evade threats.

Tactics This creature is a master of the ambush and employs different tactics for land and water.

  • Aquatic Hunting: When hunting in the murky river water, it relies almost exclusively on its electrolocation. It will close its eyes and methodically sweep its bill back and forth across the riverbed, creating a three-dimensional map of the faint electrical fields generated by the muscle movements of hidden fish, crustaceans, or amphibians. Once a target is located, it lunges with surprising speed, using its tentacles to help manipulate the prey towards its mouth.
  • Terrestrial Hunting: For prey on the riverbank, it uses a unique form of aggressive mimicry and distraction. It will remain partially submerged or lie motionless on the bank. As a target approaches, it flashes a dazzling, strobing series of hypnotic patterns across its skin. The purpose is to confuse and disorient the victim’s visual system. While the prey is transfixed, the creature rushes forward to deliver a powerful, bone-shattering stomp from its secretarybird-like legs, or a swift, venomous kick with its ankle spurs.
  • Defense: When threatened, its first instinct is escape and confusion. In water, it will instantly eject a large cloud of thick, black ink, completely obscuring vision in the immediate area while it swims away. On land, it will lower its body to protect its softer underside, presenting its armored back and venomous spurs as a formidable deterrent. It will not hesitate to kick at any aggressor who gets too close.

Actions

  • Crushing Bite: The creature uses its powerful jaw muscles and bill to crush the shells of crustaceans and turtles or the bones of small mammals.
  • Stomp: A powerful downward stomp with one of its long legs, capable of shattering skeletons and disabling foes.
  • Venomous Spur: A fast, inward kick that drives the sharp spur on its ankle into a target. The venom is not a neurotoxin, but causes immediate, excruciating pain and rapid, debilitating swelling, incapacitating most victims even if the wound itself is not lethal.
  • Hypnotic Flash: A disorienting display of strobing light and color from the chromatophores on its skin. Creatures who see it are often dazed and confused, making them easy targets.
  • Ink Cloud: Usable only in water, this action releases a large cloud of opaque ink, heavily obscuring a 15-foot radius sphere for several minutes.
  • Electrolocation Pulse: The creature can focus its senses, sending out a faint electrical field and reading the distortions to pinpoint the exact location of any living creature within 30 feet, even through mud, silt, or thin barriers.

Other Interesting Information The creature’s thick, Gila monster-like tail serves as a vital energy reserve. After consuming a large meal, its tail will swell noticeably. It stores fat and water in the tail, allowing it to survive for months without eating during periods of drought or scarcity, and enabling a female to remain at her nest for the entire incubation period of her eggs. The beaded, scaly skin is not just for show; it is incredibly tough and provides significant protection from the bites and claws of other river predators. The two cuttlefish-like tentacles are not primary weapons but are used with surprising dexterity to manipulate food, clear debris, and anchor the creature in place against strong river currents.

An adventurer’s path would cross with a Platy-Gila Cuttlesecretary for reasons as murky and complex as the swamps the creature inhabits. Encounters are rarely straightforward, often stemming from the unique intersection of the creature’s bizarre biology and the insatiable needs of civilization for resources, security, and knowledge.

A primary motivation for deliberately seeking out this creature is the promise of harvesting its unique components, which are highly prized by the world’s most innovative and unscrupulous artisans. The venom from its ankle spurs is of particular interest. Unlike fast-acting lethal toxins, this venom causes debilitating, localized pain and massive swelling, incapacitating a target without killing them. This makes it a perfect source material for alchemists developing advanced non-lethal agents, such as crowd-control gases for city guards or potent pain-inducing compounds for interrogators. The creature’s skin, covered in advanced chromatophores, is another treasure. An artificer could integrate the preserved hide into a shield or cloak, creating a piece of gear capable of generating dazzling, hypnotic flashes to disorient foes in battle, a priceless tactical advantage. Furthermore, the platypus-like bill, with its ability to sense electrical impulses, is a biological marvel. A research guild would post a substantial bounty for a specimen, hoping to reverse-engineer its function to create devices that can detect hidden magical circuits, find invisible entities, or even track the faint neural pathways of living beings.

Parties might also be hired for the far greater challenge of live capture. A wealthy and eccentric noble, bored with mundane pets, might desire this strange beast as the centerpiece for their private menagerie. The adventurers would be tasked with subduing the creature without permanent injury and transporting it from its remote river home to a city estate, a logistical nightmare fraught with peril. In a more brutal context, an arena promoter might hire a team to procure a healthy specimen, seeing its combination of hypnotic lights, powerful stomps, and venomous spurs as a perfect spectacle for the gladiatorial games.

More often, an encounter is the result of conflict arising from exploration and expansion. As populations grow, new riverways are charted for trade. A merchant consortium might hire adventurers to act as security, clearing a path along a swampy river that has become too dangerous for their barges. The crew might report strange, disorienting lights from the banks at night causing sailors to become confused, or that those who fall overboard are being attacked by an unseen creature in the murky depths. The party’s job would be to hunt and eliminate the territorial Platy-Gila that has claimed the trade route as its own.

An accidental encounter is almost always a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. A party of adventurers could be navigating a dense marsh in pursuit of a different goal—perhaps tracking bandits or seeking a lost ruin. In the disorienting environment, they might mistake the entrance to the creature’s riverside burrow for a small cave and attempt to take shelter, provoking a violent territorial defense. Alternatively, a character might be separated from the group and wander to the river’s edge to refill a waterskin. Standing alone and distracted, they would be the perfect target for the creature’s hypnotic ambush, and their sudden, transfixed silence would be the only clue to their companions that something is terribly wrong.

From the strange corpse of a Platy-Gila Cuttlesecretary, a harvester can procure a number of exotic and highly specialized ingredients, each prized for its unique properties in the fields of alchemy, artifice, and gear-crafting.

Spur Venom Gland Nestled near the creature’s ankles are two glands that produce its debilitating venom. The substance is not typically lethal but is a complex agent that causes immediate, excruciating pain and massive, prolonged swelling. Alchemists value this venom highly for creating non-lethal subdual agents; a single drop applied to a weapon can incapacitate a foe through sheer agony without killing them. It is also a key ingredient in potent pain-inducing potions used for interrogation or as the base component in powerful anti-inflammatory salves, should one be able to reverse its properties.

Hypnotic Dermis The creature’s entire beaded, scaly hide is embedded with a network of advanced chromatophores capable of generating dazzling light patterns. When carefully tanned by a specialist, the hide retains this ability, though it may require a small magical charge to activate. This “Dazzle-Hide” is a priceless material for crafting unique defensive gear. A shield faced with this dermis can be made to flash a disorienting pattern upon command, stunning an attacker. A cloak made from it can create subtle, confusing shifts of light and shadow that make the wearer a difficult target to focus on.

Electrosensitive Bill The soft, leathery bill is a complex sensory organ, filled with thousands of receptors that detect faint electrical fields. It is useless to a common butcher but a treasure to a skilled artificer. If the bill is preserved correctly in an arcane solution, it can be integrated into helmets or sensor devices. This allows the user to gain a form of electrolocation, granting the ability to “see” living creatures through murky water or mud by detecting their bio-electric signatures. In the high-magic, high-industry world of Saṃsāra, this can be adapted to detect the flow of energy through magic circuits and power conduits.

Cephalic Ink Sac Located within the creature’s body is a large sac containing a thick, black, disorienting ink. The contents of this gland can be carefully drained and stored in sealed pouches. When released, the ink expands rapidly, creating an instantaneous cloud of absolute darkness that hangs in water or even in the air for a short time before dissipating. This makes it a perfect tool for a quick escape. The pigment itself is also valued by scribes and enchanters for creating exceptionally dark, permanent inks used in the inscription of powerful runes and scrolls.

Rendered Tail Fat The creature’s thick, fleshy tail contains a massive store of nutrient-rich fat. This tallow can be rendered down and purified. In its simplest form, it is a high-energy food source that can sustain an adventurer for days. When refined further, it becomes a clean-burning, smokeless fuel for high-efficiency lamps or specialized, small-scale steam engines. Alchemists also prize it as a perfectly neutral and stable base for creating magical ointments, salves, and cosmetic products.

Leg Bones and Tendons The long, solid leg bones are incredibly dense, designed to withstand the immense force of the creature’s stomping attacks. When ground into a fine powder, the bone is used as a reinforcing agent in the creation of magical ceramics or cements, valued for its durability. The tendons that drive these legs are just as impressive; once cured, they become incredibly strong and elastic cords, sought after by bowyers for making powerful composite bows and by engineers for use as resilient drive belts in delicate machinery.

Grasping Tentacles The two boneless, muscular tentacles are composed of a unique hydrostatic muscle structure. If preserved and cured correctly, they remain incredibly strong and flexible. They can be fashioned into exotic whips or grappling weapons. A master artificer specializing in prosthetics could even use a tentacle as the foundation for a fully functional, boneless replacement limb, capable of grasping and manipulating objects in ways a normal jointed arm cannot.

Judge Who Tasted Lies

In a city of merchants, there was a judge. It was so. His name was Kaelen, and his face was sad because his work was to find the truth, and the truth is a small fish in a great, muddy river of words. He would sit on his high chair and listen. A man would say, “He stole my horse.” Another man would say, “The horse was mine.” Their tongues made the same sounds. Their faces looked the same. Judge Kaelen would make a choice, but his heart felt no peace. He thought, “A man’s word is a painted cloth. It can show a flower, or it can hide a snake. I can only see the paint. I cannot see the snake.”

One day, an old river-man was brought to him. The river-man had seen a crime. The judge asked him, “Are you sure of what you saw?” The old man laughed. He said, “A man’s eye can be fooled. But the river-thing cannot be fooled. It lives in the slow, muddy water. It has no good eyes. It has a mouth like the bill of a duck, soft and wide. It puts this bill in the water and it does not see the fish, no. It feels the fish’s life. The spark. The truth of the fish hiding in the mud. A rock has no spark. A fish has a spark. The bill tastes the spark. It tastes the truth.”

The judge’s heart heard this. He could not sleep. He thought of the bill that tastes the truth. He thought, “A man also has a spark. A lie must make the spark burn differently. If I had this bill, I would not need to listen to the painted words. I would taste the spark of the man. I would know the truth.”

So Judge Kaelen left his high chair. He left his city of walls and went to the great marshes where the river was slow and old. He was not a hunter. He was a man of books. But his wanting was a great fire. He watched the water for many days. He saw the river-thing. It was a low, slow creature. He saw it push its wide, soft bill into the mud. He saw it ignore a sunken log, but then, snap, it pulled a hidden eel from the darkness. The judge saw that the river-man’s words were true.

The judge knew he could not kill the creature. He could not fight it. He thought, “What does the creature want? It wants life. It wants the spark of the fish.” He made a great decision in his heart. He would offer his own spark. He took off his robes and he walked into the slow, muddy water. The river-thing felt his coming. The spark of the man was great and strange. The judge stood still. He did not have fear in his heart. He did not have lies. He had only one great, true wanting. He wanted the truth.

The creature came to him. It was not angry. It sensed the great, true spark of the man. It opened its mouth and it bit the judge’s arm. The bite was strong and crushing. The judge cried out. In the struggle, a small piece of the creature’s soft bill was torn away. The creature, startled by the taste of such a strange spark, blew a cloud of black ink into the water and was gone. The judge, wounded and bleeding, held the small, soft piece of the bill in his hand. He had his prize.

He returned to his city. He had a smith put the piece of bill on a chain to wear around his neck, under his shirt. He sat again on his high chair. The two merchants were brought before him again. The first man spoke, and the judge felt a cool, smooth feeling from the bill on his chest. It was the taste of truth. The second man spoke, and the judge felt a hot, jagged feeling, like a sharp stone. It was the taste of a lie. The judge smiled. He pointed to the second man and said, “You are the liar.” And it was so. His judgments became perfect. He was called Kaelen the True.

But the taste did not stop. He walked in the market, and he felt the hot spark of the woman who said her old fruit was fresh. He sat with his friends, and he felt the jagged spark of a compliment that was not meant. He went home to his wife. She kissed him and said, “I love you.” He felt the cool, smooth spark of her love, but beside it, he felt a tiny, hot spark of an old anger she had not spoken of. He tasted all the world’s truths. He learned that a lie can be a kindness. He learned that love can have true anger inside it. He learned that no spark is pure. The truth was a great, ugly noise.

The judge could no longer sit with people. The taste of their small, secret lies was a torment. He could not un-taste the truth. He left his high chair forever. He went back to the great marsh. He threw the amulet with the bill into the deepest part of the muddy water. But he could not throw away the knowing. He built a hut of reeds and mud and lived there by himself, far away from the sparks of men, as quiet and as solitary as the river-thing itself.

The Moral: We ask for the truth, but we live in a world held together by the gentle lies we tell ourselves and each other.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Dungeons & Dragons

Marsh Stomper Medium monstrosity, unaligned

Armor Class 15 (natural armor) Hit Points 114 (12d8 + 60) Speed 30 ft., swim 40 ft.

STR 17 (+3) DEX 8 (-1) CON 20 (+5) INT 3 (-4) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 7 (-2)

Skills Athletics +6, Perception +6, Stealth +2 Senses Blindsight 30 ft. (while underwater only), passive Perception 16 Languages — Challenge 6

Amphibious. The marsh stomper can breathe air and water.

Electrolocation. The marsh stomper’s blindsight is active only while it is submerged in water.

Actions

Multiattack. The marsh stomper makes two attacks: one with its Stomp and one with its Tentacles.

Stomp. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.

Tentacles. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 14).

Venomous Spur (Bonus Action). The marsh stomper makes a melee attack against one creature it is grappling. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or take 14 (4d6) poison damage and be poisoned for 1 minute. While poisoned, the creature has disadvantage on all attack rolls and ability checks due to excruciating pain.

Hypnotic Display (Recharge 5–6). The marsh stomper flashes a dazzling array of strobing lights from its skin. Each creature within 30 feet that can see the stomper must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or be stunned until the end of the stomper’s next turn.

Ink Cloud (Recharges after a Short or Long Rest). While underwater, the marsh stomper can emit a 20-foot-radius sphere of magical darkness that lasts for 1 minute.

Call of Cthulhu

The River-Light Horror A creature of legend among those who live by the great, slow rivers. They speak of it in hushed tones, a thing that walks on two legs like a man but has the skin of a serpent and the face of no known animal. They say it can steal a man’s senses with lights that dance on its skin, and that its touch brings a pain from which there is no recovery. It is a violation of nature, a thing best left undisturbed in its muddy home.

STR 85 CON 95 SIZ 70 DEX 40 INT 15 POW 70

HP: 16 Damage Bonus: +1d6 Build: 2 Move: 6 / 8 (Swimming) Magic Points: 14

Attacks Attacks per round: 1 (It may Stomp or use a Venomous Kick)

Crushing Stomp: 60% chance, inflicts 1D10+DB damage. Venomous Kick: 45% chance, inflicts 1D6+DB damage. A victim hit by the spur must make a Hard CON roll. Failure means the victim is overcome with debilitating agony, taking a penalty die on all actions for 1D6 hours and suffering 1 point of damage each round until the venom is treated with specialized medicine.

Armor: 4 points of tough, beaded hide.

Skills: Stealth (in water) 70%.

Spells: None.

Sanity Loss: 1/1D8 Sanity points to witness this unnatural creature.

Hypnotic Lights: As an action, the creature can flash a series of disorienting patterns. All Investigators who can see it must succeed on a POW roll or be mesmerized, unable to take any action on their next turn. Ink Cloud: While in water, the creature can instantly create a 20-yard radius area of impenetrable darkness to cover its escape. Electrosense: The creature is immune to surprise attacks while it is in the water.

Blades in the Dark

The Canal Stomper A beast rumored to live in the deepest, most polluted canals of Doskvol, a relic of some forgotten alchemical experiment. Barge-folk and smugglers whisper tales of its strange, strobing lights seen beneath the murky water just before a rival goes missing or a body is found, swollen and disfigured by some agonizing poison. It is a territorial, semi-sentient horror of the city’s dark waterways.

Threat: A Tier IV, elite, territorial enforcer.

Qualities: Amphibious, Heavily Armored, Crushing Stomps, Debilitating Venom, Hypnotic Lights, Ink Cloud.

Drives: To defend its small, muddy territory with extreme prejudice; to ambush and brutalize anything that intrudes upon its hunting grounds.

Mechanics & Clocks: The Canal Stomper is a powerful close-range combatant whose abilities are designed to disable and punish intruders.

  • [6-Clock] Dazed and Confused: Start this clock when the Stomper activates its hypnotic lights. Tick it as a consequence. When full, a PC is mesmerized, unable to act until they take harm or an ally breaks them out of it.
  • [8-Clock] Agony Overload: When a character is hit by the venomous spur, start this clock. Ticks represent the venom’s agonizing effects. When full, the character suffers Level 3 Harm “Debilitated by Pain” and cannot take strenuous physical actions.
  • [4-Clock] Vanishes in Ink: When the Stomper is threatened or wounded, start this clock. When full, it has successfully used its ink cloud to escape into the murky canal, repositioning for another ambush.

Knave

River-Stomper Level 7 Hit Points 28 Armor Defense 16 Morale 10

Attack: Stomp (d10) or Venom Spur (d6) Qualities: Amphibious. The creature can breathe and move freely in water. Its swimming speed is 40ft.

Hypnotic Lights. Three times per day, the creature can use its action to flash a disorienting light pattern. All who can see it must pass a Wisdom saving throw or they are stunned and cannot act on their next turn.

Ink Cloud. Once per day, if in water, the creature can use its action to create a 30ft radius sphere of magical darkness that blocks all sight.

Venomous Spur. A character hit by the creature’s spur attack must pass a Constitution saving throw or be wracked with such intense pain that they have disadvantage on all attack rolls, saves, and ability checks for one hour.

Fate

The Dazzling River-Tyrant A sluggish but powerful beast that lords over a small stretch of murky river or swamp. It is not overtly aggressive, but its territorial instincts are absolute. It views anything that enters its water as a potential meal and anything that approaches its burrow as a threat to be brutalized and driven off with extreme prejudice.

Aspects

  • High Concept: Hypnotic Swamp-Dwelling Brute
  • Trouble: Sluggish and Predictably Territorial
  • Other Aspects: A Skin Full of Bewildering Lights; Agony-Inducing Ankle Spurs; I Can Taste Your Spark in the Water

Skills

  • Great (+4): Physique
  • Good (+3): Fight
  • Fair (+2): Athletics, Will
  • Average (+1): Notice, Provoke

Stunts

  • Hypnotic Flash: Because it has A Skin Full of Bewildering Lights, the River-Tyrant can use Provoke to make a special attack against every target in a zone who can see it. This attack inflicts mental stress.
  • Agonizing Spur: Because of its Agony-Inducing Ankle Spurs, when the River-Tyrant succeeds with style on a Fight attack, it can place the lasting aspect Wracked with Debilitating Pain on the target with a free invoke.
  • Ink Cloud: When in water, as an action, the River-Tyrant can create a Cloud of Black Ink situation aspect with two free invokes that it can use on Stealth actions to conceal itself or escape.

Stress: [1] [2] [3] [4] Consequences: One mild, one moderate, one severe.

Numenera & Cypher System

Hydro-Stomper This creature is a heavily-built amphibious predator, believed by some xenobiologists to be a bio-engineered living siege engine from a prior world, now gone feral. It moves with a slow, deliberate purpose, conserving its energy for sudden, explosive bursts of violence.

Level: 6 Health: 24 Damage Inflicted: 6 points Armor: 3 Movement: Short, with a swimming speed of Medium. Modifications: Perception tasks to detect living creatures underwater are level 7.

Combat The Hydro-Stomper typically begins combat by using its Hypnotic Display. All creatures within short range who can see it must succeed on a level 5 Intellect defense task or be dazed, unable to take any action for one round.

Its primary attack is a Crushing Stomp that inflicts 6 points of damage. A GM Intrusion could be that this attack also damages the target’s armor or another piece of gear.

It can also make a faster attack with its Venomous Spur. This attack inflicts only 4 points of damage, but the target must succeed on a level 6 Might defense task or suffer an onslaught of agony. This inflicts 4 points of Intellect damage (which is restored at the normal rate) and stuns the target so they cannot act on their next turn.

If it is in water and wishes to escape, it can use its action to release an Ink Cloud, which creates an area of total concealment in an immediate radius that persists for one minute.

Pathfinder

Marshland Tyrant Creature 6 N, Large, Amphibious, Beast

Perception +14; electrolocation 60 feet (imprecise, in water only) Skills Athletics +16, Intimidation +13, Stealth +10 Str +6, Dex +0, Con +5, Int -4, Wis +4, Cha -1

AC 23; Fort +17, Ref +12, Will +14 HP 100

Ink Cloud [one-action] (prerequisite: the Tyrant is in water) The Tyrant emits a cloud of black ink in a 20-foot burst. This area is filled with darkness, and creatures within it are concealed. The cloud dissipates after 1 minute. The Tyrant can use this ability once per hour.

Speed 30 feet, swim 40 feet

Melee [one-action] Stomp +17 (reach 10 feet), Damage 2d10+8 bludgeoning. Melee [one-action] Tentacle +17 (agile, reach 10 feet), Damage 2d6+8 bludgeoning plus Grab. Melee [one-action] Spur +17 (agile), Damage 1d8+8 piercing plus Tyrant’s Venom.

Hypnotic Display [two-actions] (visual, emotion, mental) The Tyrant flashes a series of disorienting lights. Each creature in a 30-foot emanation must attempt a DC 23 Will save.

  • Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
  • Success The creature is dazzled for 1 round.
  • Failure The creature is stunned 1 and dazzled for 1 round.
  • Critical Failure The creature is stunned 3.

Tyrant’s Venom (poison) Saving Throw DC 24 Fortitude; Maximum Duration 6 rounds; Stage 1 2d6 poison damage and enfeebled 1 (1 round); Stage 2 3d6 poison damage and enfeebled 2 (1 round).

Savage Worlds

Mire-Lord A powerful and highly territorial amphibious beast that dominates the swamps and rivers it inhabits. It is a slow but implacable foe, relying on its extreme toughness and debilitating abilities to overwhelm its opponents.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8, Strength d10, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d10, Intimidation d8, Notice d6 Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 11 (2)

Special Abilities

  • Aquatic: The Mire-Lord’s Pace is 8″ in water.
  • Armor +2: Tough, beaded hide.
  • Brawny: The Mire-Lord is exceptionally tough. Its Toughness is 11(2) instead of 9(2).
  • Hypnotic Lights: As an action, the Mire-Lord can make an opposed Intimidation roll against the Spirit of all targets in a Large Burst Template. Any target that fails is Distracted. With a raise, they are Stunned.
  • Ink Cloud: While in water, the Mire-Lord can use its action to create a cloud of ink, completely obscuring vision in a Large Burst Template for 1d4 rounds.
  • Spur/Stomp: Str+d8, AP 2. A target hit with a raise must make a Vigor roll or become Stunned from the agonizing pain of the venomous spur.
  • Tentacles: The creature’s tentacles give it Reach 2″. On a hit with a raise, it can immediately make a grapple attempt as a free action.

Shadowrun

Sewer Strobe-Maw A heavily bio-engineered or SURGE-afflicted creature that has found a perfect niche in the vast, polluted sewer networks and industrial canals beneath major sprawls. Its hide is tough enough to shrug off most small arms fire, and its strange combination of hypnotic lights and debilitating venom makes it a terrifying territorial threat for unwary smugglers, sewer-crawlers, and corporate extraction teams.

Attributes

  • Body: 9
  • Agility: 3
  • Reaction: 4
  • Strength: 8
  • Willpower: 6
  • Logic: 1
  • Intuition: 4
  • Charisma: 1
  • Edge: 3
  • Essence: 6.0

Derived Stats

  • Initiative: 8 + 2D6
  • Physical Condition Monitor: 13
  • Stun Condition Monitor: 11
  • Defense Rating: 6

Skills: Close Combat 6, Perception 5, Stealth 4 (7 in water)

Critter Powers

  • Armor: The creature’s tough, beaded hide provides a rating of 10 Armor.
  • Amphibious: The creature is at home in water and can breathe indefinitely while submerged.
  • Hypnotic Flash: As a Major Action, the creature can emit a confusing strobe of lights. Any character who can see the creature must succeed on a Willpower + Logic (4) test or suffer a -2 dice pool penalty to all actions for 1d3 combat rounds.
  • Ink Cloud: When in water, the creature can use a Major Action to create an area of opaque, magical darkness with a 10-meter radius that lasts for 1 minute.
  • Natural Weapon (Stomp): This attack has a Damage Value of 10P and an Armor Penetration of -2.
  • Natural Weapon (Tentacle): This attack has a DV of 7S and the Grab quality, allowing it to initiate a grapple on a successful hit.
  • Venom (Spur): This is an Injection-vector Toxin with a Power of 8. The effect is Agonizing Pain; the target resists with Body + Willpower. The toxin has a Speed of 1 Combat Round, and for a duration of 1 hour, the victim suffers a -4 dice pool penalty to all actions.

Starfinder

Hypnotic Mire-Beast Creature 6 XP 2,400 N Large magical beast Init +0; Senses blindsight (electrolocation) 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +13

Defense EAC 18; KAC 20 Fort +10; Ref +6; Will +9 Defensive Abilities Fortification (50%)

Offense Speed 30 ft., swim 40 ft. Melee stomp +16 (1d8+11 B) or tentacle +16 (1d6+11 B plus grab) Offensive Abilities Debilitating Spur, Hypnotic Pulse, Ink Cloud

Statistics STR +5; DEX +0; CON +4; INT -4; WIS +2; CHA -2 Skills Athletics +18, Stealth +13 Other Abilities Amphibious

Ecology Environment swamps and rivers Organization solitary

Special Abilities Debilitating Spur (Ex) As a standard action, the mire-beast can make a special melee attack (+16 to hit) against an adjacent creature. If it hits, the target takes 1d6+11 P damage and is afflicted with a debilitating venom. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Fortitude save or be wracked with such agony that they are sickened and flat-footed for 1d4 rounds. Hypnotic Pulse (Su) As a standard action, the mire-beast can emit a 30-foot-radius burst of disorienting lights. All creatures in the area must succeed on a DC 14 Will save or be stunned for 1 round. The mire-beast cannot use this ability again for 1d4 rounds. Ink Cloud (Ex) While in water, the mire-beast can use a move action to create a 20-foot-radius cloud of ink that provides total concealment. The cloud disperses after 1 minute.

Traveller

Aquatic Stomper A large, semi-aquatic predator found in the swamps and slow-moving rivers of temperate and tropical worlds. It is a powerfully built creature, relying on its extreme toughness and a host of strange biological defense mechanisms to dominate its local ecosystem. It is highly territorial and will attack any large creature or vehicle that intrudes upon its stretch of water.

Animal Profile: A 4 A 8 A 2 Hits: 25 Speed: 15m (Swimming 20m) Armor: Armour-4 (Tough, beaded hide) Weapons:

  • Stomp: Melee (crush) 4d6 damage.
  • Venomous Spur: Melee (pierce) 2d6 damage + Toxin.
  • Tentacles: Melee (grapple).

Skills: Athletics (swimming)-2, Recon-1, Stealth-1

Traits:

  • Aquatic: Breathes water and has a listed swimming speed.
  • Obscuring (Ink): The creature can release a dense cloud of ink to obscure a 15m radius area in water as an action.
  • Sensor (Electrolocation): The creature can automatically detect any living organism within 20m while in water, regardless of visibility.
  • Stun (Hypnotic Lights): As an action, the creature can flash a disorienting light pattern. Any target that can see it must make an INT 8+ check or be stunned for 1d6 rounds, unable to take any action.
  • Toxin (Debilitating): Injection. A creature hit by the Venomous Spur must make an END 10+ check or suffer DM-4 to all physical actions (DEX, STR, END) for 1d6 hours due to extreme pain and swelling.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

Bog Strider A hulking, monstrous beast that haunts the great swamps and marshes of the Empire. It is often mistaken for a mutant River Troll, but it is something far stranger. It lumbers through the mire on two powerful legs, its body covered in glistening, beaded scales and its head a bizarre mockery of a duck’s bill. Those who survive an encounter speak of disorienting, flashing lights and an agonizing venom that does not kill, but leaves a victim helpless.

Main Profile

  • WS 50
  • BS —
  • S 55
  • T 65
  • I 30
  • Ag 25
  • Dex —
  • Int 10
  • WP 45
  • Fel —

Secondary Profile

  • A 3
  • W 32
  • SB 5
  • TB 6
  • M 4
  • Mag —
  • IP —
  • FP —

Traits

  • Amphibious: Can breathe water and is not slowed by marshy terrain.
  • Armour (Body): 2
  • Fear: 2
  • Size (Large): Its Weapon attacks gain the Damaging quality.
  • Dazzle: As a main action, the Bog Strider can flash a hypnotic pattern of lights. All opponents who can see it must pass a Challenging (+0) Willpower test or gain 3 Stunned conditions.
  • Venom (Agonizing): Any character wounded by the creature’s Venomous Spur must pass a Difficult (-10) Toughness test or suffer a -20 penalty to all tests for 1d6 hours due to overwhelming pain.
  • Weapon (Stomp) +9: This attack has the Pummel quality.
  • Weapon (Tentacles) +9: This attack has the Entangle quality.
  • Weapon (Venomous Spur) +9