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Phantasmal Glyptodon 76

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by

Dale
in

Original Life Forms Referenced:

  • Class Insecta: Bombardier Beetle (Brachinini)
  • Class Mammalia: Wolverine (Gulo gulo)
  • Class Cephalopoda: Cuttlefish (Sepiida)
  • Class Reptilia: Armadillo Lizard (Ouroborus cataphractus)

Appearance: The Phantasmal Glyptodon has the low-slung, immensely powerful, and stocky build of a wolverine, giving it an appearance of immovable ferocity. Its body is covered not in fur, but in heavy, overlapping, spiny scales reminiscent of an Armadillo Lizard. These scales, however, are made of a dark, chitinous material like a beetle’s carapace. The creature’s entire skin and scales are covered in a dense network of active chromatophores, allowing it to change its color, luminosity, and even apparent texture with the speed and complexity of a cuttlefish. Its head is reptilian and wedge-shaped, possessing the powerful jaw musculature of a wolverine, capable of snapping bone. Four short, writhing, cuttlefish-like tentacles surround its mouth, constantly tasting the air and manipulating objects. Its abdomen is segmented and flexible, ending in two hardened, directable nozzles. Its eyes are large and alien, with W-shaped pupils that seem to watch everything at once.

Size: It is a dense and heavy creature for its height. It stands only two feet tall at the shoulder but is nearly four feet long from snout to tail. A mature adult weighs between 60 and 80 pounds of solid muscle and armor.

Speed: The creature moves with a relentless, shuffling gait rather than a swift run. Its overland speed is moderate at best. However, it is a surprisingly adept climber, using its powerful claws to find purchase on rocky surfaces, and it is a shockingly fast burrower, able to dig itself out of sight in soft earth in under a minute.

Stat Modifiers

  • Strength (STR): +3
  • Agility (AGI): -1
  • Constitution (CON): +4
  • Intelligence (INT): +0
  • Perception (PER): +2
  • Willpower (WIL): +4

Skills

  • Active Camouflage: Can alter the color and texture of its entire body to perfectly match its immediate surroundings, rendering it nearly invisible when stationary.
  • Hypnotic Display: Can flash its chromatophores in a rapid, pulsating, and disorienting series of hypnotic patterns to confuse and mesmerize prey or threats.
  • Caustic Jet: From the nozzles on its abdomen, it can spray a boiling, noxious chemical compound. The spray is short-ranged but causes severe chemical burns and a choking, acrid stench that can incapacitate foes.
  • Chitinous Plating: Its interlocking scales provide exceptional protection from physical attacks.
  • Vicious Mauler: Its bite is incredibly powerful, and it attacks with a tenacious fury, often refusing to let go once it has latched onto a target.

Behavior: The Phantasmal Glyptodon is a solitary and intensely territorial predator. It fears almost nothing and will aggressively defend its chosen territory, which can span several square miles of terrain, from any creature its size or larger. It is an ambush hunter, using its active camouflage to lie in wait for prey to wander past. When a threat is detected, its first instinct is to flash a bewildering hypnotic light show. If this display of intimidation fails, it attacks with explosive, unyielding ferocity. If wounded or overpowered, it will turn to flee, firing its caustic jet behind it to cover its escape before burrowing into the ground or scaling a cliff face.

Diet: It is a hypercarnivore with a brutally efficient metabolism. Its diet consists of anything it can ambush and kill, from large grazing animals to smaller predators, other monsters, and unwary travelers. Its powerful jaws are capable of cracking through armor, shells, and bone with ease. The small tentacles around its mouth are used to dexterously guide pieces of a carcass into its gullet.

Emotions: This creature operates on a very simple and primal set of emotional drivers: constant, simmering aggression towards any potential threat, a deep-seated territoriality, and a voracious, insatiable hunger. It does not appear to experience fear, joy, or any form of social connection, viewing all other living things as either a meal or a threat to be eliminated.

Environment Where Found: The Phantasmal Glyptodon is highly adaptable but prefers rugged, broken terrain that offers ample opportunity for ambush and defense. It is most commonly found in rocky badlands, deep canyons, ancient and tangled forests, and magically-warped scrublands. They often make their lairs in caves, under large rock outcroppings, or in deep, self-dug burrows.

Tags: Feral, Solitary, Territorial, Armored, Ambusher, Carnivore, Magical Beast, Chemical-Defense, Camouflage, Hypnotic, Burrower, Climber, Chitin-Plated, Tentacled, Ferocious, Tenacious, Chimera, Medium

Age

The Phantasmal Glyptodon possesses a rugged longevity forged from its tenacious wolverine heritage and reptilian resilience. A typical lifespan in the wild ranges from 25 to 30 years, though most succumb to territorial battles long before old age. They reach physical maturity at a rapid pace, growing from a vulnerable, soft-shelled pup to a fully armored and ferocious adult in just two years. The young, known as “kits,” are born with pliable, leathery scales that take a full year to harden into the creature’s signature chitinous plating, making their first year of life exceedingly perilous.

Mating

As intensely solitary and territorial creatures, the mating habits of the Phantasmal Glyptodon are a rare and violent spectacle. There is no courtship, only a brief and brutal concession to biological necessity. Once a year, during the height of the dry season, females release a potent musk that draws males from neighboring territories. When two meet, the encounter begins with aggressive intimidation displays, with both creatures flashing chaotic, hypnotic patterns across their scales. After a brief and violent coupling, they separate immediately and with extreme prejudice, often with one or both parties bearing fresh wounds.

The female will later find a secluded, defensible spot, typically a small cave or a deep burrow, and lay a clutch of 2 to 3 large, leathery eggs. She guards this nest with unparalleled ferocity. In a strange biological quirk blending its reptilian and mammalian ancestry, the kits hatch from the eggs but are born underdeveloped. They remain in the protected nest for three months, feeding on a protein-rich, milk-like substance secreted from glands on the mother’s underbelly. After this period, they are driven from the nest and forced to fend for themselves.

Tactics

The Phantasmal Glyptodon is a master of ambush and psychological warfare, relying on its unique abilities to overpower prey and deter threats.

  • Ambush Protocol: The creature’s primary hunting tactic is to find a well-trafficked game trail or canyon pass, where it will use its Active Camouflage to become functionally invisible against the terrain. It can remain motionless for hours, waiting for prey to wander into striking distance. Just before it lunges, it will often use its Hypnotic Display, flashing a disorienting ripple of color to momentarily stun its target. This is immediately followed by an explosive charge, aiming to land a disabling bite on a leg or the neck.
  • Defensive Escalation: When confronted by a creature it cannot immediately ambush or overpower, it follows a strict defensive protocol. First, it will attempt intimidation, puffing up its body to appear larger and rolling its skin through a series of startling, aggressive color shifts. If the threat does not retreat, it will unleash its Caustic Jet, aiming the boiling spray at the aggressor’s face to blind and choke them. The Glyptodon uses the ensuing confusion to execute an escape, either by burrowing into the ground with astonishing speed or by climbing a nearby cliff face. It will only fight to the death if completely cornered with no option for retreat.

Actions

  • Vicious Bite: The creature lunges forward and bites with its powerful, bone-cracking jaws.
  • Shredding Claws: A secondary attack where the Glyptodon rakes with the long, durable claws on its forelimbs, capable of tearing through leather and hide.
  • Caustic Jet: A ranged defensive attack where the creature fires a 15-foot cone of boiling, noxious chemicals from the two nozzles on its abdomen.
  • Hypnotic Flash: The creature flashes a rapid, disorienting series of colors and patterns across its entire body. Any creature watching must make a test of its mental will or be mesmerized and unable to act for a moment.
  • Chameleonic Vanish: If near suitable terrain, the creature can use an action to remain perfectly still and engage its camouflage, becoming hidden from sight.
  • Territorial Roar: A surprisingly loud and guttural roar, amplified by a sudden shift in its scales to bright, threatening colors like crimson and black. It is used to ward off rivals and establish dominance.

Other Interesting Information

  • Alchemical Chitin: The scales of the Glyptodon are shed once every few years. While the chromatophores cease to function shortly after being shed, the chitin itself remains incredibly durable and retains a beautiful, iridescent quality. Alchemists prize this “molted chitin” for its resistance to both physical damage and magical influence, and it is a key ingredient in certain high-end defensive potions and armor coatings.
  • Independent Nozzles: The two nozzles used for the Caustic Jet can be aimed independently, allowing the creature to spray two different pursuers in a wide arc behind it as it flees.
  • Lair and Hoard: A Glyptodon’s lair is a grim gallery of its successes. The tunnels are littered with the splintered and cracked bones of its victims. Uniquely, they seem to hoard shiny, metallic, or crystalline objects, much like a magpie. Adventurers who brave a Glyptodon’s lair might find a small hoard of coins, gems, and discarded bits of armor amidst the carnage.
  • Magical Singularity: Sages and monster hunters have noted that the Phantasmal Glyptodon population is densest in areas with high background magic or near places where the fabric of reality is thin. This has led to the prevailing theory that they are not a product of natural evolution, but rather a chimerical species born from a powerful, chaotic magical event in Saṃsāra’s ancient past.

An encounter with a Phantasmal Glyptodon 76 is rarely a simple affair. These creatures are not mindless beasts, but cunning, territorial, and superlatively equipped predators. A party of adventurers might find themselves facing one for a variety of reasons, ranging from calculated, high-stakes hunts to sudden, terrifyingly unexpected ambushes.

Reasons to Search for a Phantasmal Glyptodon

Intentionally seeking out one of these chimerical monsters is a task only undertaken by the brave, the desperate, or the foolish. The rewards, however, can be substantial.

  • A Quest for a Rare Reagent: A renowned alchemist-armorer in a major city posts a lucrative public contract. She requires the primary gland that produces the Glyptodon’s caustic spray. She believes she can reverse-engineer the biological process to create a powerful acid or an alchemical agent that can dissolve magical wards. The contract stipulates that the gland must be harvested from a freshly killed specimen and preserved in a special container she provides. The party must not only hunt and kill the notoriously durable beast but do so with enough precision to not rupture the very component they were hired to collect.
  • The Vengeance Killing: A remote mining outpost on the edge of the badlands has been terrorized. A particularly large and aggressive Phantasmal Glyptodon has claimed the canyon where the mine is located as its territory, killing several miners and prospectors who ventured too close to its lair. The mining consortium, unable to escort its caravans safely, hires the adventurers to eliminate the threat permanently. This is a direct extermination mission, pitting the party against a monster on its home turf, where it knows every cave, cliff, and ambush point.
  • Retrieval from the Hoard: A noble’s prized griffon, carrying a satchel with sensitive political documents and a unique signet ring, was forced down during a storm over a Glyptodon’s territory. The beast, drawn to the carnage, dragged the griffon’s carcass—and the satchel—back to its lair. The noble, desperate to retrieve the items before they fall into the wrong hands, hires the party for a delicate infiltration mission. Their goal is not necessarily to kill the creature, but to sneak into its deep, winding burrow, navigate the bone-strewn tunnels, locate the satchel amidst the Glyptodon’s hoard of shiny trinkets, and escape undetected.
  • A Scholar’s Dangerous Obsession: A sage from a metropolitan academy, convinced the Glyptodon is a living relic from a past magical cataclysm, requires live observation to complete her research. She offers a handsome grant to a party of adventurers willing to act as her research assistants and bodyguards. The mission requires tracking the creature, documenting its habits using specially provided scrying devices, observing its hypnotic displays and hunting tactics, and collecting samples from its environment—all without being detected. The ultimate prize, for which she will pay a legendary sum, is the live capture of a juvenile kit.

Accidental and Unavoidable Encounters

Often, adventurers do not find a Phantasmal Glyptodon; it finds them. These encounters are a brutal test of a party’s ability to react to a sudden, extreme threat.

  • The Wrong Shelter: Fleeing a sudden, violent sandstorm or a pursuing band of marauders, the party spots the entrance to a cave in a canyon wall. It seems like the perfect shelter. As they move deeper, the air grows thick with an acrid, chemical stench. The light from their torches reveals walls scored by massive claws and a floor littered with the splintered bones of unidentifiable creatures. They soon realize they have not found a refuge, but have walked directly into the lair of a sleeping Phantasmal Glyptodon, trapping them between the storm outside and the territorial nightmare within.
  • The Invisible Threat: The party is traveling through a dense, ancient forest, following a map to a forgotten ruin. One of the adventurers leans against what they believe is a moss-covered boulder to catch their breath. The “boulder” suddenly shimmers, and the texture of its surface ripples. An alien, W-shaped pupil opens less than a foot from their face. The party has inadvertently stumbled upon a perfectly camouflaged Glyptodon, and its silent patience has just run out. The encounter begins with a terrifying, point-blank hypnotic flash.
  • Drawn to the Fray: In the middle of a desperate battle against a rival mercenary company, the sounds of shouting, the smell of blood, and the raw chaotic energy of the conflict attract unwanted attention. A Phantasmal Glyptodon, whose territory they have been fighting in, is drawn from its lair by the commotion. It perceives both sides as intruders and threats. It crashes into the melee, a whirlwind of claws and caustic spray, attacking both the adventurers and their enemies with equal, indiscriminate fury, turning a simple battle into a chaotic three-way struggle for survival.
  • Guardian of the Goal: The adventurers’ quest requires them to retrieve the flower of a rare moon-petal lotus, which only grows in the misty micro-climate of a specific, isolated desert oasis. After a long and arduous journey, they arrive to find the oasis and its surroundings have been claimed as the territory of a Glyptodon. The creature views the life-giving water source as its personal property. To get to the lotus, the party must somehow get past the highly aggressive, perfectly camouflaged guardian that considers their very presence a capital offense.

A successful hunt of a Phantasmal Glyptodon 76 yields a wealth of rare and potent materials for a skilled harvester. Its unique, chimerical biology means that nearly every part of its body has some value to alchemists, enchanters, armorers, and sorcerers. Proper harvesting requires a steady hand and specialized tools, as many components are dangerous even after the creature’s death.

Below are the items and ingredients that can be harvested from their corpses and their uses:

Glyptodon Chitin-Plate

The heavy, interlocking, spiny scales that form the creature’s primary defense. Each plate is as hard as steel but significantly lighter, with a beautiful, dark, iridescent sheen.

  • Use in Armorcraft: A master armorer can incorporate these plates into custom-made shields or suits of armor. Armor crafted with Glyptodon plates is prized for granting not only exceptional physical protection but also a measure of resistance to magical effects. A shield made with a large, intact section of the carapace is said to turn aside curses and minor hexes.
  • Use in Alchemy: When ground into a fine powder, the chitin acts as a powerful stabilizing agent and magical insulator. It is a key ingredient in high-end potions of magic resistance and elixirs designed to protect against petrification or polymorphing effects.

Phantasmal Hide

The membrane-like skin that lies beneath the chitin plates, densely packed with the chromatophores that grant the creature its camouflage and hypnotic abilities. This hide must be carefully flayed and expertly tanned to preserve its magical properties.

  • Use in Tailoring: A skilled leatherworker can craft the hide into cloaks, boots, and armor linings. A “Cloak of Shifting Hues” made from this hide allows the wearer to blend into their surroundings with unnatural skill, granting a significant bonus to stealth.
  • Use in Enchanting: The chromatophores can be carefully extracted and refined into a liquid pigment. This “Phantasmal Ink” is highly sought after by enchanters and scribes for creating illusionary scrolls. When used to draw a map, the ink can make the terrain appear to shift and change, hiding secret locations from all but the intended reader.

Caustic Gland

A pair of volatile biological sacs located near the rear of the creature. They contain the two chemical precursors that mix to form the Glyptodon’s boiling, noxious spray. Handling these requires extreme care, as a rupture can be devastating.

  • Use in Alchemy: When carefully drained and kept separate, the two chemicals can be used to create powerful alchemical explosives or acids. A single vial of the mixed compound is one of the most potent corrosives known, capable of eating through metal locks, stone, or iron bars in minutes.
  • Use in Trap-Making: A skilled trapper can rig the glands to a pressure plate or tripwire, creating a devastating defensive trap that replicates the creature’s own caustic jet.

Sensory Tentacles

The four short, dexterous tentacles that surround the creature’s mouth. They are packed with hyper-sensitive nerve clusters attuned to vibrations, scents, and magical energies.

  • Use in Scrying: When preserved in brine and saltwater, a single tentacle can be used as a powerful focus for divination and scrying rituals. It is said that holding the tentacle allows a seer to “taste” the future or “feel” the presence of hidden things.
  • Use in Potion-Making: When distilled, the nerve clusters yield an essence that is the primary ingredient for a “Potion of Heightened Senses,” which can grant the imbiber dramatically improved hearing, smell, and even a limited ability to sense vibrations through the ground.

The Tenacious Heart

The creature’s surprisingly large and dense heart, believed to be the source of its legendary ferocity and unwillingness to die. It continues to beat for several minutes after the creature’s death.

  • Use in Alchemy: Consuming a small, prepared portion of the heart is said to grant a warrior a temporary, berserker-like rage and an incredible tolerance for pain. It is the core component of powerful alchemical draughts known as “Wolverine’s Fury” or “The Berserker’s Brew.”
  • Use in Rituals: A whole, intact heart is a powerful component for rituals of binding and endurance. It might be used to create a “guardian spirit” for a fortress or to imbue a champion with unwavering courage before a great battle.

The Alien Eye

The large, W-pupiled eyes of the Glyptodon, which are capable of perceiving a wider spectrum of light and energy than a mortal eye.

  • Use in Artifice: A master jeweler or artificer can set a preserved eye into a helmet, monocle, or amulet. Such an item would grant the wearer the ability to see in near-total darkness, and potentially to perceive the faint auras of magical enchantments on people and objects.
  • Use in Potion-Making: The vitreous fluid within the eye can be extracted and used as the base for an “Elixir of True Sight,” a rare and expensive potion that allows the user to see through magical illusions and invisibility for a short time.

Fable of the Four Unforgiven

In the time before the endless ocean drank the tall mountains, when the magic of the world was a young and angry thing, there were four great people who were masters of all they saw. But each was a master of only one thing in their heart.

The first was a Hunter, and his heart was a knot of rage. He knew no joy but the kill, and his strength was the strength of the wolverine, which does not know how to stop. He wished to be the spirit of the ultimate hunt.

The second was a King, and his heart was a small, soft thing hidden by fear. He built his castle of rock and wore armor of overlapping plates, for he feared the touch of the world. He wished to be the spirit of the ultimate defense.

The third was a Spy, and her heart was a shifting whisper. She wore many faces and her skin could be like the shadows or the light, and no one knew her true thoughts. She wished to be the spirit of the ultimate deceit.

The fourth was a Sorcerer, and his heart was a vessel of burning spite. His words were poison, and his anger was a hot fume that choked his enemies. He wished to be the spirit of the ultimate curse.

And the telling says these four were not content. They heard the whispers of a place at the world’s heart, a wound where a god had bled raw magic onto the land. They believed that if a person drank from this wound, they could become a god themselves. And so they came together, though they did not trust one another, and they made a journey to this place.

They found the canyon where the air itself shimmered and the rocks hummed with power. In the canyon’s gut was a pool, and it was not full of water, but of swirling light and pure, untamed magic. The Four Unforgiven made a pact. They would all drink at the same time, so that none could steal the power from the others.

So they knelt by the pool. The Hunter, the King, the Spy, and the Sorcerer. They lowered their heads to the bubbling font of creation.

But the magic of Saṃsāra is not a thing to be owned. It is a mirror. It looked at the four who drank, and it did not see four great people. It saw four great flaws, four unforgiven sins. It saw Rage. It saw Fear. It saw Deceit. It saw Spite.

And the magic did not make them gods. It made them truth.

In a great and terrible flash of light that was also a sound, the four were taken and unmade and woven together. The magic took the Hunter’s rage and his unceasing heart and made it the hot blood of a new thing. It took the King’s fear and his scaled armor and fused it to the new thing’s back, an eternal shield for a heart that was now only rage. It took the Spy’s many faces and her illusions and stitched them into the new thing’s skin, so it could hide from the world it hated. It took the Sorcerer’s spite and his poison words and poured it into the new thing’s belly, to be spewed not as speech, but as a boiling, hateful jet.

When the light faded, the four people were gone. Standing where they had knelt was one creature. Its body was the Hunter’s strength. Its back was the King’s armor. Its skin was the Spy’s lies. Its breath was the Sorcerer’s poison. It looked at the world not with human eyes, but with the strange, alien eyes of a beast that knew nothing of wishes or greatness, only of territory and hunger.

This was the first Phantasmal Glyptodon. It was not a god. It was a cage made of four sins, and inside it, four souls were forever trapped, their minds gone, their single, unforgiven flaw now the whole of their being. And the creature, feeling the echo of the great magic that made it, burrowed into the humming earth of the canyon to begin its long and lonely hunt. And this is why its children are still drawn to places where the world’s magic is strong, for they are forever seeking the power that unmade them.

The Moral of the Story: Be wary of becoming a master of only one thing in your heart. For if you ask the world to make you a god of your single, greatest pride, it may instead make you a monster that is a slave to it.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

The Unspeakable Glyptodon A Chimerical Entity from the Elder Eons

This creature is a walking violation of natural law, a fusion of disparate life forms that could only be born from a place of intense, magical chaos. Its very existence is a testament to forces beyond human comprehension, and to witness its impossible abilities is to invite madness.

Characteristics STR 85, CON 90, SIZ 70, INT 25, POW 80, DEX 45 HP: 16 Damage Bonus: +1d6 Build: 1 Move: 7

Attacks

  • Fighting (Brawl) 60% (30/12), damage 1d3 + damage bonus
  • Bite 40% (20/8), damage 1d8 + damage bonus
  • Claws 60% (30/12), damage 1d6 + damage bonus

Armor: 6 points of chitinous plating.

Skills: Dodge 30%, Stealth 75%.

Spells/Special Abilities:

  • Chameleonic Hide: The Glyptodon’s skin ripples with colors and textures, allowing it to blend perfectly into its surroundings. Investigators must succeed on a Hard Spot Hidden roll to notice it before it attacks. Witnessing it materialize from seemingly nowhere costs 0/1d3 Sanity.
  • Hypnotic Display: As an action, the Glyptodon can flash a series of strobing, non-Euclidean patterns across its carapace. All Investigators who witness this must succeed on an opposed POW roll against the creature. Those who fail are mesmerized, unable to act for 1d3 rounds. This sanity-shattering display costs 1/1d4 Sanity to view.
  • Caustic Jet: Once per encounter, the Glyptodon can spray a 15-foot cone of boiling, noxious chemicals. Anyone in the area must make a Hard Dodge roll or take 2d8 damage. Even those who succeed take 1d8 damage from the splash.

Sanity Loss: 1/1d8 Sanity points for seeing an Unspeakable Glyptodon.

Blades in the Dark

The Badlands Abomination

A lone, territorial horror that haunts the shattered badlands outside the city. Some say it’s a failed experiment of a Sparkwright, others that it’s a demon that crawled out of the earth. Whatever it is, it is rage, armor, and poison given form, and its territory is a death sentence for unwary smugglers and explorers.

This creature is a powerful, solitary threat. It does not lead a gang, but it controls its territory with the same ferocity. Its Quality is equal to the crew’s Tier +1.

Drives:

  • To hunt and consume any living thing that enters its territory.
  • To hoard shiny or strange objects in its subterranean lair.
  • To viciously defend its territory from all intruders.

Abilities and Moves:

  • Vanish into the Terrain: It can become invisible at will, its skin mimicking the rock and scrubland perfectly. This can start a Clock for “Ambush!” or add 2 ticks to an existing danger clock.
  • Unleash a Hypnotic Pattern: It flashes a dizzying array of colors. All who see it must Resist with Resolve or suffer level 2 harm: “Mesmerized,” as they are unable to act for a crucial moment.
  • Spray Boiling Caustic Fumes: It unleashes a torrent of chemical horror. This is a wide area-of-effect attack that inflicts level 3 harm: “Chem-Burned” on anyone caught in the blast.
  • Attack with Unstoppable Fury: It lunges with bone-crushing jaws and shredding claws. This is a powerful melee attack that will inflict severe harm.
  • Shrug Off Injury: Its thick, chitinous armor and sheer tenacity make it difficult to harm. It has an effective armor rating.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Phantasmal Glyptodon Medium monstrosity, unaligned

Armor Class 17 (natural armor) Hit Points 93 (11d8 + 44) Speed 30 ft., burrow 20 ft.

STR 17 (+3), DEX 9 (-1), CON 18 (+4), INT 3 (-4), WIS 14 (+2), CHA 7 (-2)

Skills Perception +5, Stealth +2 Damage Resistances poison Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15 Languages — Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

Chameleonic Carapace. The glyptodon has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide. It can attempt to hide even when only lightly obscured.

Tenacious. If the glyptodon takes 15 damage or less that would reduce it to 0 hit points, it is reduced to 1 hit point instead.

Actions

  • Multiattack. The glyptodon makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws.
  • Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) piercing damage.
  • Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) slashing damage.
  • Hypnotic Display (Recharge 5–6). The glyptodon flashes a dazzling, disorienting array of colors from its carapace. Each creature within 30 feet of the glyptodon that can see it must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or be stunned until the end of its next turn.
  • Caustic Jet (Recharge 6). The glyptodon sprays a 15-foot cone of boiling chemicals. Each creature in that area must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw, taking 22 (5d8) acid damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Knave

Glyptodon, Chromatic

HD 6; Armor as Plate (18); Morale 11 Attacks: Bite (1d10), or 2 Claws (1d6/1d6)

  • Tenacious: The first time it is reduced to 0 HP during a combat, it immediately returns to 1 HP. It will fight to the death thereafter.
  • Surprise: Its natural camouflage is nearly perfect. It surprises its targets on a roll of 1-4 on a d6.
  • Hypnotic Flash: As its action, the glyptodon can flash a hypnotic pattern. All creatures who see it must save versus Spells or are unable to take any action on their next turn.
  • Caustic Spray: Once per day, it can spray a 15-foot cone of boiling chemicals as its action. All creatures in the cone take 3d6 damage. A successful save versus Breath Weapon halves the damage.
  • Feral Rage: If it takes more than 10 damage in a single round, it gains an additional claw attack on its next turn.

Fate

The Unseen Badlands Terror

This creature is a powerful, solitary threat, best represented as a main antagonist for a scene or scenario. Its abilities are designed to control the battlefield and viciously punish anyone who wounds it.

  • High Concept: Ferocious Chimeric Ambusher
  • Trouble: Blinded by Territorial Rage
  • Other Aspects: Armor of Chitin Plates, Skin of Shifting Colors, Belly Full of Caustic Hate

Skills:

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

Stunts:

  • Chameleonic Hide: Because it can change its skin, the Unseen Terror gets a +2 to Stealth rolls to create advantages like Perfectly Hidden or Unseen Threat.
  • Hypnotic Display: Once per conflict, it can force every character in its zone who can see it to make an Overcome action against its Provoke skill. Any character who fails is frozen with indecision and cannot take an action on their next turn.
  • Caustic Jet: Once per conflict, it can use its Fight skill to attack every target in an adjacent zone. Each target must defend against the attack separately.
  • Tenacious Fury: The Unseen Terror gains a +2 to its Fight roll against any character who has successfully inflicted a consequence on it during the current conflict.

Numenera & Cypher System

Chroma-Carapace Predator

A bizarre, chimerical beast that stalks the magically-saturated badlands. Its body is a fusion of seemingly impossible biologies, making it an unpredictable and highly dangerous predator.

  • Level: 6
  • Motive: To hunt, to defend its territory.
  • Environment: Anywhere remote and rugged, especially ancient ruins or canyons.
  • Health: 24
  • Damage: 6
  • Armor: 3
  • Movement: Short; Short burrowing.
  • Modifications: Resists poison as level 7. Tasks involving stealth and hiding are level 8 due to its natural camouflage.
  • Combat:
    • Vicious Maul: The predator attacks with its powerful jaws and claws, dealing 6 points of damage.
    • Hypnotic Flash: As its action, the creature can flash a series of disorienting patterns from its carapace. All creatures within short range who can see it must succeed on an Intellect defense task or lose their next turn, mesmerized by the display.
    • Caustic Spray: Once per encounter, the creature can spray a cone of boiling acid that extends to short range. All targets in the area take 6 points of ambient damage (which ignores Armor).
    • Vanish: As its action, if the creature is near rocks or foliage, it can activate its camouflage and become invisible. Spotting it after it has vanished is a level 8 task. The creature remains invisible until it moves or takes another action.

Pathfinder (2nd Edition)

Glyptodon, Phantasmal Hunter Creature 5 Uncommon, N, Medium, Beast

Perception +14; darkvision, scent (imprecise) 30 feet Skills Acrobatics +11, Athletics +13, Stealth +15 Str +4, Dex +0, Con +5, Int -4, Wis +3, Cha -2

AC 22; Fort +14, Ref +9, Will +12 HP 85 Tenacious Ferocity [R] Trigger The glyptodon is reduced to 0 Hit Points. Effect The glyptodon avoids being knocked out and remains at 1 HP, but its wounded value increases by 1. It cannot use this ability if it is already wounded.

Actions

  • Speed 25 feet, burrow 15 feet
  • Melee [A] Jaws +15, Damage 2d8+7 piercing
  • Melee [A] Claw +15 (agile), Damage 2d6+7 slashing
  • Caustic Jet [AA] The glyptodon spews a 15-foot cone of boiling chemicals. Each creature in the cone takes 6d6 acid damage (DC 22 basic Reflex save). The glyptodon cannot use Caustic Jet again for 1d4 rounds.
  • Hypnotic Display [AA] (visual, enchantment, mental) The glyptodon flashes a disorienting light pattern. Each creature within 30 feet must attempt a DC 22 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 for 1d4 rounds.
  • Perfect Camouflage The glyptodon can use the Hide action even if it doesn’t have cover or greater cover. It does not need a background or feature to Hide against; its skin mimics the terrain itself.

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)

Badlands Terror

This ferocious chimerical beast is the apex predator of its territory. It combines thick armor, natural camouflage, and a host of terrifying biological weapons.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6(A), Spirit d10, Strength d10, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d10, Notice d8, Stealth d12 Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 10 (3) Edges: Berserk Special Abilities:

  • Armor +3: Thick, chitinous plates.
  • Bite/Claws: Str+d6.
  • Burrow (6”): Can move through loose earth at its Pace.
  • Camouflage: Opponents suffer a -4 penalty to Notice rolls to see the Terror when it is motionless.
  • Caustic Spray: As an action, may place a Cone Template. Targets within the cone must make a Vigor roll at -2 or suffer 2d10 damage. This can be used once per encounter.
  • Hypnotic Display: As an action, may make a Test against all targets in a Large Blast Template using its Spirit. If successful, targets are Distracted. With a Raise, they are also Shaken.
  • Tenacious: The first time this creature is Shaken from exceeding its Toughness, it ignores the Shaken result.
  • Size 0: About the size of a large wolverine.

Shadowrun (6th Edition)

Chromacode Wolverine

This is a highly dangerous paranatural critter, believed to be a product of a magical accident in a corporate biolab. It has since escaped and established small, tenacious populations in polluted and magically active badlands. Its adaptive camouflage makes it a nightmare for standard sensor systems.

Attributes Body: 7 Agility: 5 Reaction: 5 Strength: 6 Willpower: 5 Logic: 2 Intuition: 4 Charisma: 2 Edge: 3 Essence: 6 Magic: 6

Initiative: 9 + 2d6 Matrix Initiative: N/A Astral Initiative: 8 + 2d6

Skills: Athletics 4, Close Combat 5, Perception 4, Stealth 6

Powers

  • Armor: 10
  • Camouflage (Level 3): The creature’s skin is a riot of shifting chromacode, granting it +3 Edge on any Stealth test when attempting to hide.
  • Corrosive Spit: As a Major Action, the critter can spray a cone of acid. This is a ranged attack using Agility + Athletics with a DV of 8P, AP -4. It can target up to 3 targets in a cone in front of it.
  • Hypnotic Pattern: As a Major Action, the critter can flash a dizzying psychic pattern. Anyone who can see it must make a Willpower + Logic (4) test. Those who fail are disoriented and suffer a -2 dice pool penalty to all actions for their next turn.
  • Natural Weapon (Bite/Claws): The creature’s melee attacks have a DV of (STR/2)+2 P, AP -2.
  • Tenacity: The creature has 2 extra boxes on its Condition Monitor that can only be marked off by damage. It ignores all modifiers from damage until both of these boxes are filled.

Starfinder

Glyptodon, Phasic Predator XP 1,600 N Medium magical beast Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +13

Defense EAC 17; KAC 19 HP 75 Fort +9; Ref +9; Will +6 Defensive Abilities tenacious

Offense Speed 30 ft., burrow 20 ft. Melee bite +14 (1d8+9 P) Melee claw +14 (1d6+9 S) Offensive Abilities caustic jet, hypnotic display

Statistics STR +4; DEX +2; CON +3; INT -4; WIS +1; CHA +0 Skills Athletics +13, Stealth +18

Ecology Environment desolate badlands, canyons, and ancient ruins Organization solitary

Special Abilities

  • Caustic Jet (Ex) As a standard action once every 1d4 rounds, the glyptodon can spray a 30-foot cone of boiling acid. Creatures in the area take 6d6 acid damage (DC 15 Reflex save for half).
  • Hypnotic Display (Su) As a standard action, the glyptodon can cause its hide to pulse with disorienting colors. All creatures within 30 feet who can see the glyptodon must succeed on a DC 15 Will save or be stunned for 1 round. This is a mind-affecting, sense-dependent effect.
  • Tenacious (Ex) When the glyptodon is reduced to 0 Hit Points, it can spend 1 Resolve Point to stay alive with 1 Hit Point. If it has no Resolve Points to spend, it dies.
  • Perfect Camouflage (Ex) The glyptodon can use its Stealth skill to hide even when it has no cover or concealment.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

The Armored Chameleon-Beast of Halos-IV

A notoriously aggressive xenobeast found in the rocky badlands of the Halos system. It is a solitary ambush predator responsible for the disappearance of several survey teams. Its hide is prized by big-game hunters, but acquiring it is a monumentally dangerous task.

UPP: 86A343 TL: 0 Hits: 16 Speed: 12m Skills: Stealth 3, Recon 2, Melee (natural) 2 Attacks: Bite (3d6), Claw (2d6) Armor: 4 (chitinous plates) Traits:

  • Territorial: Will attack any creature larger than a small dog that enters its claimed territory.
  • Advanced Camouflage: The creature’s skin mimics its surroundings perfectly. It confers DM+4 on any Stealth checks when motionless. It always counts as being in cover for the purposes of ranged attacks unless the attacker is at Close range.
  • Hypnotic Display: As an action, the creature can flash a series of disorienting colors. All who witness it must make a Willpower 8+ check or be unable to take any action on their next turn.
  • Caustic Spray: The creature can spray a jet of chemicals up to 10m. This is a ranged attack using its Melee skill (effectively Skill 2). On a hit, it deals 2d6 damage and a further 1d6 damage for the next two rounds as the chemical burns. It can use this attack 3 times before its internal sacs are empty.
  • Tenacious: The creature will fight until killed and will never check for morale.
  • Burrower: Can move through soft ground at half its normal speed.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition)

The Spite-Scale Mauler

A terrifying beast of the deep woods and shattered badlands, the Spite-Scale Mauler is a creature born of raw, chaotic magic. It is a walking engine of rage and territorial aggression, its hide shifting in impossible patterns that can mesmerize and confuse onlookers before it charges to rip them apart.

Main Profile WS 55, BS 0, S 50, T 55, I 45, Ag 30, Dex 15, Int 10, WP 60, Fel 5

Traits: Armour (3), Bite +9, Fear (2), Magical, Tenacious, Territorial, Tracker, Vicious, Weapon +9 Skills: Athletics 45, Climb 45, Cool 70, Endurance 65, Intimidate 60, Melee (Basic) 65, Perception 55, Stealth (Rural) 50 Talents: Berserk Charge, Combat Aware, Furious Assault, Relentless

Special Abilities:

  • Chameleonic Scales: The creature’s hide ripples with color, making it difficult to target. When hidden, it is considered to have 2 bonus Success Levels on its Stealth Test. In combat, all melee and ranged attacks against it suffer a -10 penalty.
  • Hypnotic Display: As an action, the Mauler can flash its scales in a dizzying display. All characters who can see it must make a Challenging (+0) Cool Test. On a failure, they gain 2 Stunned Conditions.
  • Caustic Spew: As an action, the Mauler can vomit a spray of acidic bile. This is a breath attack that uses a Cone template. Anyone touched by the template takes a Damage 10 hit with the Corrosive and Unreliable Qualities.
  • Tenacious: This creature is immune to the effects of all non-magical Psychology. When it suffers a Critical Wound, it may make a Hard (–20) Endurance Test to ignore all modifiers from the Critical Wound for one round.