Monster Man entries 2: Glowber-tuttle to Man-Tain

(This is just one of several pages of monsters for the Monster Man contest. To see the rest of the entries, click here!)

Glowber-tuttle

by Kit Chapman

The glowber-tuttle is a friendly, stupid, docile creature that lives at the bottom of dark holes. Any dark hole will do, dry or damp, hot or cold – the glowber-tuttle doesn't seem to mind. One of the happiest creatures in the realms, the glowber-tuttle walks around with perpetual benign smile that mages have categorised as 'a little dopey', seemingly content with every aspect of its uninspiring life.

Resembling a very large turtle, the glowber-tuttle is known to exist in a variety of colours and is usually found in large colonies deep underground, milling about slowly with other glowber-tuttles and living on a diet of lichen and moss.

A naturally inquisitive animal, the glowber-tuttle sadly has limited darkvision, making it poorly suited to its choice of natural habitat. The good news is that this dimwitted cave-botherer has evolved a natural light source. Deep inside its carapace, organs conspire to mix acidic substances, resulting in a form of bio-luminescence. Thanks to this, the glowber-tuttle lights up when disturbed, allowing it to see what is going on as it merrily makes its way toward whatever new adventure is approaching.

Unfortunately, this bio-luminescence is highly unstable. As the glowber-tuttle gets excited, it begins to pulse its light, hoping to increase the brightness and see what wonderful new thing has stumbled into its world. The light becomes brighter and brighter, until the glowber-tuttle explodes in a shower of overjoyed illumination, covering anything nearby in acidic goo.

Mages have speculated as to why the glowber-tuttle has such a tendency for spontaneous combustion. The leading theory is that this prevents the glowber-tuttle colony from ever venturing into an area too rife with excitement, and acts as a natural defence mechanism against predators that stumble too close to the colony breeding grounds (nobody has ever witnessed glowber-tuttles breed, so one can only speculate that, given they don't seem to explode while fornicating, they must be very boring lovers).

Despite its lack of ill will toward visitors, the glowber-tuttle is a peril for any journey to the deep. One exploding glowber-tuttle is uncomfortable (though rarely deadly) but tales have spread of entire parties being wiped out by an excited gathering of glowber-tuttles, each bursting apart in a shower of eagerness to see what all the fuss is about.

Medium beast, unaligned

AC 15 (natural armour)

Hit points 30 (4d8+12)

Speed 10ft

Str 12 (+3) Dex 8 (-1) Con 13 (+1) Int 2 (-4) Wis 10 (+0) Cha 6 (-2)

Skills Perception +3
Senses Darkvision 10ft, passive perception 11

Languages –

Challenge ¼ (50XP)

Brave. The Glowber-tuttle has advantage on saving throws against being frightened.

Illumination. When curious, the Glowber-tuttle sheds dim light for an additional 30 feet. Should the Glowber-turtle use flash, it will shed bright light for 30 feet and dim light for an additional 30 feet. If the turtle uses flash a second time, it will explode (see Boom), shedding bright light for 90 feet and dim light for a further 30 feet.

Boom. When the Glowber-tuttle dies, it explodes. Creatures within 5 feet must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw, taking 7 (2d6) acid damage on a failed save, or half damage on a successful one.

Actions

Flash (Recharge 6). The Glowber-tuttle emits a bright flash of light over a 15-foot cone, pleasantly smiling as all around are blinded. Creatures within 15 foot must succeed on a DC14 Constitution saving throw or be blinded for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself with a success.

Jellybender

by Logan Howard

Solitary, Large, Devious, Amorphous

Spore (1d8+2 damage)

10 HP

0 armour

Special qualities: Amphibious, Blind, Multiplying, Unharmed by fire, lightning, or mundane weapons, Vulnerable to freezing

Jellybenders are large gelatinous salamanders that can be found in deep streams with little or no light. They can grow to the size of a small horse eating everything from bat guano to goblins and humans. They are mostly transparent but may be tinted with a variety of colors depending on their usual diet. While they are completely blind and don’t hear very well, they are keenly aware of vibrations, ripples, changes in pressure, or other activities in their environment.

Jellybenders are difficult to spot when they are submerged and will often take prey by surprise. An adult can lurch out of the water to land on top of its victim. Being held under water by a slippery, burning mass is a terrible way to go.

Lightening or chopping attacks will sometimes cause them to divide into multiple jellybenders. Because their acid skin is the primary danger, a small specimen is no less harmful than the original. Their inner body is in constant motion churning food and oxygen to all extremities. Although they are usually found in cold water, ice or freezing attacks are particularly effective against them and make them slow down or die from asphyxiation.

Instinct: Eat those tasty visitors!

•       Burn through armor

•       Stick to a weapon or body part

•       Switch between sticky and slippery

Koosh Lion

by Ted Prodromou

FREQUENCY: Rare

NO. APPEARING: 1-2

ARMOR CLASS: 5

MOVE: 12”

HIT DICE: 10

% IN LAIR: 25%

TREASURE TYPE: B

NO. OF ATTACKS: 3

DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-6/1-6/1-12

SPECIAL ATTACKS

 Subdual (see below)

SPECIAL DEFENSES

 Bounce, Move Silently

MAGIC RESISTANCE: None

INTELLIGENCE: Animal

ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Good

SIZE: L

PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil

   Attack/Defense Modes: Nil

The Koosh Lion was created by a benevolent but mad wizard as a way to keep his guards and soldiers on alert and entertained. The creature is a quite gigantic (12’) bipedal lion with a cheerful smile.

The Koosh Lion can Move Silently as if it were a 10th level thief, despite its great size. It stalks those who look somewhat like guards (this definitely includes adventurers.) Once it gets close enough, it pounces upon them. The Koosh Lion intends these attacks playfully, and will attack only for subdual damage (using the subdual damage rules in the Player’s Handbook). Its attacks consider of two claws and a bite.

If adventurers fight back in the same spirit of playful companionship (and subdual damage), the Koosh Lion will consider them friends, and join them in travels as long as it is well-fed and not harmed. It will try to help them by fetching objects, and will do leaps and tricks and pranks to keep them entertained.

If the Koosh Lion is ever attacked with lethal attacks (or damaging spells), it becomes surprised and upset. It gives unhappy warning yelp the first time, then retaliates with lethal attacks at further betrayal.

A Koosh Lion’s hide is rubbery and bouncy. Whenever an attack against it misses, the attacker has a 50% chance of being knocked away 10” by the bounce of force. The Koosh Lion is cunning in using this bounce to its advantage.

LEGOM

by Bob Faulkner

The Legom - should and will be made out of whatever lego you have to hand. I have provided a visual guide above on how to scale your LEGOM to an appropriate challenge rating.

The LEGOM is an ancient and mystical art, developed by the Wizard Aeki as a means of flatpacking magical war robots, the art of building the LEGOM has been lost in the annals of time.

Here are some rumours about LEGOMs:

• Every part of a LEGOM is a LEGOM. The smallest unit of LEGOM is a Brick.
• All LEGOMs can be constructed out of other LEGOMs using nothing but an allan key.
• LEGOMs were used in the "Constructors War" where they faced off against the dreaded legions of the Meccanom.
• LEGOM "Bricks" are highly prized artifacts in their own right, if you know the proper sigils and rituals, they can be adapted to any number of menial tasks.
• LEGOM speak an ancient language that nobody understands.
• LEGOMs can combine themselves together to make bigger LEGOMs
• LEGOMs can break themselves down into smaller LEGOMs when they need to multitask
• LEGOM land is sometimes marked on ancient maps, and the location of such a place would be of great interest to many treasure seekers.
• LEGOMs are dismissed as an interesting failed experiment by some, who prefer custom built golems constructed out of hardier materials to serve a specific function.

Legoms are suitable for any genre of game, and can form castle features, or spaceships with equal ease.

Man-Tain (and Banino)

by Kris

Man-Tain, The Plantain That Walks Like A Man

Solitary, LargePlantain Club (d10+3 damage) 

16 HP

1 Armor

Close

Special Qualities: Plant, Produce a banino instantly (can only have one at a time)

Put your ear to the ground. Hear that “thump, thump, thump”? The plantains, they are restless tonight. Man-Tain comes -- the fabled, putrescent plantain who walks like a man -- and he absolutely will not stop, ever, until we are mashed.   

Instinct: To mash living things

• Bleed slippery mush when damaged
• Stink
• Torpedo out of peel in a suicide attack
• Trample villagers

BaniñoSolitary, Small, StealthyGnawing Teeth (d4 damage) 

3 HPClose

Special Qualities: Plant, Grow into a Man-Tain in one week (only if progenitor is destroyed)

“LEAVE MY BANANA SON ALONE!”  

Instinct: To protect precious seeds

• Bite into sword arm/casting hand and hang on
• Disappear into the jungle when Man-Tain is destroyed
• Get underfoot