dragonzzilla

[dragonzzilla]

Dungeon Meshi - Chimera

According to the Adventurer's Bible Faligon is 11m from head to tail while red dragons are between 19-25m from nose to tail, in imperial that would be Faligon 36ft and Red Dragon 62-82ft

The height chart shows the red dragon standing besides a scale around 39ft and Faligon standing around 19ft.

Tried to match the scales.

#dungeon meshi

[dragonzzilla]

In these parts, they say, if you are lucky when wandering the wastes between city and town, you may encounter a truly exemplary creature. Its skin, like that of the rhinoceros, plates its body in geometric folds; its feet are like four enormous sand-dollars, pleasing to the eye and rapid in their movement. Its snout is broad with the same placid strength as a great ox and its breath is heavy and warm as the same, but its eyes flash so like those of a lion at night that no traveler could believe it truly tame for long. The name of this beast? Toyota Corolla.

[dragonzzilla]

For what it's worth, I rather like the characterization given to them in Pathfinder 1e's Dungeon Denizens Revisited, wherein Otyugh are cast as intelligent beings with their own culture - living up to the phrase "One man's trash is another man's treasure." The quintessential otyugh is Oscar the Grouch, give or take a few tentacles!

Otyughs communicate with one another through a series of tentacle gestures and the release of faint smells into the air. Because otyughs are most often encountered in a sewer, most creatures would never detect their olfactory communication, but to other otyughs, the scents are quite clear. An otyugh can communicate basic messages and emotions via scent up to a mile (or more if the receiver is downwind), even through a twisting maze of passages.

Otyugh are in fact devoted mates! Courtship is a lengthy affair, with both otyughs offering progressively nicer gifts to the other (all of which are made up of garbage and refuse). After a month of courtship, if both partners are sufficiently impressed, they exchange half of their assembled trophies with each other to seal the bond. Most otyughs mate for life, but they maintain separate lairs, joining one another daily to hunt and spend time together. Such forays are usually done in silence, with the only communication occurring through scent. Otyughs genuinely show affection for their mates and will take terrible revenge on those who harm their spouses.

Young otyughs spend the first year of their lives with their parents (with parents taking turns rearing the children), learning the skills they need to survive. When an otyugh first learns to speak, the event effectively becomes their "birthday" - celebrated annually with a feast of the most delectable morsels the otyughs can find.

Although they live alone, otyughs do consider themselves part of a loose community of sewer dwellers (or swamp dwellers), which may include non-otyughs. Whenever there is a threat to their environment, the eldest otyugh in a community calls for a moot by releasing a smell like ammonia, one that all otyughs recognize. Despite any differences or rivalries, all otyughs respond to this call and gather together to discuss the problem and come up with a solution. Most moots are called to discuss a new, and possibly dangerous, inhabitant to the area or to determine what is to be done when the food supply dwindles. Occasionally moots are called to discuss an alliance with a local group or to resolve a territorial dispute before it gets too violent. Although it is a very rare practice, moots are sometimes convened to elect a leader in times of crisis or war.

Otyughs frequently use such gatherings as a time to settle grudges and disputes over territory. Such matters are always decided through physical combat, with the opponents squaring off in a large, open space, while the rest of the community observes and shouts advice. During these bouts, each otyugh is given a single object by the community elder that the otyugh must hold onto throughout the fight. The victor is the last otyugh to maintain possession of their item. The objects used are usually identical, although they vary from match to match (such as a single flower, crumbling brick, or rotten apple).

What trash otyughs cannot eat, they might collect as "treasure" - but of course, they've a different sense of what is valuable. They collect items that last in their damp environment; the bigger, the better. An otyugh might pass up a small gold ring in favor of a metal shield with no straps, valuing such an item based on its size and overall condition, as opposed to its material. A clever adventurer might be able to trade an ordinary helm that is in good shape to an otyugh for a crushed golden crown. Otyughs also value objects with strong odors, as these are things that stand out in their stinky environment. A basket of rotting fish is worth a lot to an otyugh, but they know that over time, such things lose their stench as they decompose, and value such items accordingly.

Otyughs know that others see them as monsters, and in places that treat them as pests to be culled (carried out by the city militia or outsourced to adventurers), one might attack without bothering with diplomacy. But one might surrender if bloodied, surprising adventurers who were led to believe they were exterminating simple animals.

"Outside their obvious roles as a sewer and swamp monsters, otyughs make for fascinating roleplaying encounters. They're frequently aware of all the happenings in their environment and can make for interesting information brokers. Convincing an otyugh to part with its knowledge is no simple task, as an otyugh does not value money, magic items, or other conventional treasure. Instead, those wishing to deal with an otyugh must often bring it a list of unusual items. While rarely expensive, gathering up a cart full of rotting pumpkins and hauling them into the sewer might lead to the local townsfolk asking some embarrassing questions. In addition, otyughs collect strange and unusual items, meaning that if something gets thrown away, it might very well find itself in one of their treasure hoards. Locating and retrieving such an item should be difficult, especially if the local community of otyughs is large enough to pose a serious threat to would-be thieves. Characters might find themselves being forced to undertake unusual missions to garner their reward. Clearing up a clogged sewer drain or convincing a butcher shop to dump its leftovers into a particular trash heap might not seem like the work of an adventurer, but it does make for an interesting encounter or side quest."

Adventure Hook: "In the ancient Taldan city of Zimar lives a self-proclaimed otyugh king, lording over the entire undercity. Known as Gulreesh, Lord of Filth, this massive otyugh holds court in a gigantic cistern, and those wishing to enter his domain had best treat him with respect, for it is rumored he devours those who offend him. It is unclear what connection Gulreesh has with the actual rulers of Zimar, but one thing is certain: the rulers aboveground take no actions against Gulreesh or his otyugh servants, leading some to believe that he is hiding some terrible secret about the rulers of the city, and they fear moving against him because of it."

This got long, but! Since not everyone has access to the book, better to err on the side of "Here's a ton to work with; pick and choose what you like."

Footnotes on Foes #1

agent-none

How about the otyugh?

The Otyugh has never really crawled out of the garbage pit it was born to occupy, mainly because it’s ostensibly neutral and generally has few desires beyond “eat filth”. They’re pretty much flavorful dungeon flora the kind you’d see in the background of a Jim Henson or Starwars project. 

If you want to give a party a reason to interact with these creatures, make it a fairly simply nature check (fairly common knowledge among adventurers) that Otyughs’ incredibly aberrant biology leads to them developing fruit (or even melon) sized pearls in their digestive tract, much like an oyster does when protecting its soft flesh from irritation. 

Suddenly your party has something new to consider when encountering a mostly docile stink beasts: is attacking this non-hostile, though fearsome, creature worth the reward? Are they going to go digging through the guts of a semi-sentient creature and is that any different than attacking a dragon to take its horde? 

This also gives other underdark denizens a reason to keep the Otyugh around/seek them out, as the wealth a well fattened stenchbeast can provide plenty of motivation. 

#dnd

[dragonzzilla]

4賢者wip

#art #owls

[dragonzzilla]

Footnotes on Foes: Psurlon/Moonbeasts

There are way too many aberrations in d&d who’s whole deal is “these gross aberrations use their psionic powers to practice slavery, and will likely eat you” a niche that’s already more than filled out by the illithid,  who have enough material lore to spawn more adventures than all of these creatures combined. There’s even more when (like me) you collect 3rd party and homebrew material looking to flesh out your enemies roster spelljamming adventures.

As such, I decided to cram two of these baddies together to create a far more interesting beast, the idea of which I largely credit to a writeup by @thecreaturecodex, who’s discussion on how the creature’s lore changed over editions gave me a solid idea to work with.

Travellers of the deep desert tell tales of strange temples built atop subterranean warrens, of the things that lurk beneath blind and witless, and how on some nights these creatures emerge and are transformed: growing in intelligence and cruelty and engaging in raids or wild revels, before the sun rises and they return to a bestial state once again.

Given the name “moonbeasts” for their habit of reaching toward the darkened heavens with their mass of facial tendrils as part of their nocturnal ritual, these creatures were infact hosts for a seperate group of entities called the Psurlon. This alien species had “ascended” beyond the need for physical bodies but periodically inhabited the flesh of the moonbeats to enjoy all the corporeal pleasures they could. The Psurlon believed that this ascension over flesh made them inherently superior, and led them to view the lives and bodies of other creatures, including sentients, as material to be dominated, enjoyed, and consumed.

Adventure Hooks:

On their own, moonbeasts are relatively harmless, subteranian scavengers more than actual predators, living alone or in small packs. They only truly become dangerous when the stars are right and they are possessed, or when they are are compelled to gather food for the Psurlon’s feasts and end up hunting people and animals alike in order to stock their larders. In a mixed bit of fortune psurlons prefer to consume their prey alive, giving captured creatures a chance to escape or be rescued from the cavernous pits where they are stored before the stars align and the Moonbeasts drag them out for eating.

Above all Psurlon want comfort and indulgence, and will willingly squat in a decaying ruin/moonbeast lair for centuries. When they do get bored of their surroundings, one of their leaders uses planeshift to warp them to a new world where they can find some locals to bully and enslave. The Psurlon’s set themselves up as gods or lords to be worshiped and provided tribute, choosing  or constructing new hidden cave warren for their moonbeast hosts and having their subjects build a temple around it to deliver riches and sacrifices to. In this way the Psurlons hop from world to world, leaving moonbeasts and crashpads in their wake.

While they have an easier time inhabiting the minds of the animalistic moonbeasts, Psurlons are capable of overtaking any humanoid with psionic talent using physical contact one of their regular hosts as a sort of “signal booster”.  The process of prying the victim’s mind free of their body takes hours, and leaves them drifting lost in the astral sea while the Psurlon acts as a physically and socially clumsy imposter. The alien invaders mostly consider this to be a dumb party trick, but occasionally use their stolen vessels as blackmail material, or to lure others to the feast. 

#dnd

[dragonzzilla]

Dungeon Meshi - Chimera

According to the Adventurer's Bible Faligon is 11m from head to tail while red dragons are between 19-25m from nose to tail, in imperial that would be Faligon 36ft and Red Dragon 62-82ft

The height chart shows the red dragon standing besides a scale around 39ft and Faligon standing around 19ft.

Tried to match the scales.

#dungeon meshi #makes sense

[dragonzzilla]

fellatio is such an awesome word. sounds like a pasta. but be careful! wouldnt want to order that at a restaurant ... lest some nasty little creature get ahold of that thang

[dragonzzilla]

#art #love these guys

[dragonzzilla]

Ma'am did you seriously just gainax while crushing a woman to death

#dungeon meshi

[dragonzzilla]

#elephants

[dragonzzilla]

briefly forgot that porn was a thing and googled "doctor sex" looking for the tf2 meme. big mistake

[dragonzzilla]

[dragonzzilla]

POV you are a tasty creature or beast of some kind.

[dragonzzilla]

in the hour or so it took me to draw this op turned reblogs off

[dragonzzilla]

Kind of hilarious to me how poorly the title "Mob Psycho 100" localized to English-speaking areas. To someone whose first language is English, it scans as:

Mob (Yakuza, Mafia)

Psycho (violent person with "crazy" behaviors)

Thus: a particularly violent member of organized crime.

But in Japanese it scans as:

Mob (background characters in crowd scenes in manga or anime)

Psycho (short for psychic)

Thus: a psychic who looks/acts like someone you'd never pick out of a crowd scene in a comic.

[dragonzzilla]

i hate all FNV mods that restore/add an option to convince Mr. House to broker a truce between himself and the Brotherhood of Steel because it's not just a symptom of a completionist, goopy goblin gamer brain that doesn't want to miss out on any of the CONTENT, but also because Mr. House's inflexibility on his desire to see the Brotherhood of Steel exterminated is such a significant character moment. Because it's a moment where this autocrat who views himself as purely rational, purely objective, and purely motivated by an altruistic desire to protect (what he thinks are) the best interests of humanity is forced to let his mask slip in front of the lackey on which he completely depends. He has zero reasonable rationale to want the Brotherhood destroyed and he knows it, he just hates them, and he hates them just because he thinks that they're just fucking lame. He, personally, finds the cultish medieval technoknight schtick obnoxious enough to justify total obliteration, and the fact that he will not back down on this is supposed to be revealing! It makes sense, too, if you understand how aesthetically driven his vision for the future of Vegas and humanity is and how badly a bunch of LARPers in power armor wandering around outside clashes with that aesthetic (he is, literally, a RETVRN guy, except he wants to "retvrn" to everybody looking like they're going to see the Rat Pack perform in concert). Mr. House's stubbornness on this issue is intentionally frustrating, especially if you're someone who up to this point may have found him otherwise agreeable! The Brotherhood of Steel is also something of a mirror, or a competitor even, to Mr. House's vision of himself as the sole worthy heir to the splendor of pre-war technology and control thereof, but that's actually far less important than the fact that he just hates their pussy

[dragonzzilla]

Dungeon Meshi - Chimera

According to the Adventurer's Bible Faligon is 11m from head to tail while red dragons are between 19-25m from nose to tail, in imperial that would be Faligon 36ft and Red Dragon 62-82ft

The height chart shows the red dragon standing besides a scale around 39ft and Faligon standing around 19ft.

Tried to match the scales.

#dungeon meshi