Sunday, September 22, 2013

30 Day D&D Challenge: Day 22-Favorite Monster Overall

Favorite Monster overall?  That's a difficult one.  There are a lot of good ones out there that I like.  Goblyns (with a "y"), Ghouls, Wererats, Strahd Zombies...and so many more.  But I'm going to go with a monster I've never used in a game but just looking at the monster gives me a great idea for an adventure-ridden campaign.

The Zaratan.
The Zaratan, as you can see in the picture, is a giant tortoise with a full-sized tropical island on its back.  Its stays asleep for thousands of years, and when it does wake up it mostly just drifts along with the currents so any inhabitants of the island would likely never know of its existence.  What a great setting for a multitude of adventures!  A "Lost Island" that floats around the ocean, and if you're lucky enough to find it you'll probably never realize its actually a giant monster unless something happens to make the giant tortoise submerge (and then you're boned).  Or perhaps you could get swallowed by the Zaratan and if you don't die right away, there could be a whole civilization of shipwrecked pirates or sacrificial victims (from the cannibals populating the island on its back) living in the Zaratan's slowly-metabolizing guts.

So yeah, I guess I'm kind of cheating by picking a monster that really is a campaign in of itself, but there you go.  Plus I like turtles.

7 comments:

brando said...

I sure did play a lot of Golden Axe at Happy Joes.

Cory said...

I forgot about the Golden Axe turtle island. There was also a giant eagle city, right? Or was that Golden Axe II? They all kind of run together.

*kick* *kick* "Hey, don't take all the bottles! You'll just waste it!"

brando said...

I mostly loved riding on those lizard things.

Look at me!!! I'm making him bite skeletons! It's like a lizard motorcycle!

Wheeee!

brando said...

Oh, I forgot to state my favorite monster. It's pretty obvious.

It's an ettercap. I like ettercaps. They'll bite ya. It's a biped, humanoid spider. They're super creepy, and all you have to do it get bit once, and have to take a save vs. poison or instantly die. The blackest of poisons, so to speak. Also, their fangs are think. Like horns. When you see a zoomed in picture of a real wolf spider, and you think to yourself, "Why are their fangs 25 degree triangles. It seems like they were designed to be unnecessarily terrible. And a wolf spider's eyes and facial expression seems really dead and relaxed. So upsetting. They wouldn't even think twice about killing you. They COULDN'T even think twice. And the only thing that would make them more scary, would be to make them humanlike. What an abomination.

That's my favorite monster.

They lay traps,and come sprinting out of the woodwork. When adventures get so bold that your average orc raiding party is just booooring, a good ettercap attack will keep em your toes.

Cory said...

Everyone who's ever played D&D with you knows your favorite is the Ettercap, Brando. Probably because as soon as they survive their first goblin attack and are feeling all high and mighty about themselves they get some version of the old "Ettercaps are known to infest these woods as well as goblins..." foreshadowing. Followed soon by "Night is falling. Is anyone going to stand watch or are you just going to make camp? Because that's fine if you just wanna do that..."

brando said...

I know what you're doing with that I like turtles bit.

Timeless

Cory said...

Zombie kid for the lulz.