Tuesday, January 13, 2015

ECHOLALIACS


Number Appearing: 2-8
Size: 10' to peak of cone
Armor: Rolls of thick, dense hide as plate armor
Resilience: As 8 human warriors
Intelligence: Stupid, musical geniuses
Communication: Blast one another with projected sound waves featuring a very limited variety of meanings
Disposition: Idiotic, famished
Violence: Stuns with focused sound waves emitted from mouth, delivers savage bite, blows hurricane-force gusts
Enemies: Ghost Beetles, everything else is food
Aims: Bewilder and devour humans/humanoids, produce and emit incredibly loud music
Peculiarities:
  • Developed by extinct Genocide Beetle bioengineers as living musical instruments, able to record and produce all manner of sounds with complex auditory organ atop cone. After fall of Beetle civilization the echolaliacs went feral, vowing to forevermore produce music only for their own edification, becoming a successful predator of Underworld humanoids
  • Able to sustain itself on variety of protein sources but ideal diet consists entirely of human-like creatures due to Beetle policy of breeding scads of experimental humanoids and utilizing those unfit for other duties as feed animals for their other enslaved monstrosities
  • Uses bits of previously recorded conversations (renewed habitually during periods of inertia between meals) to lure humans into striking distance of sonic stun wave (60'): calling out for aid, begging for respite from terrible loneliness, offering rare objects for sale, inquiring about the daily news, etc. etc. Syntax and appropriateness will be approximate at best. If PCs attempt to engage the echolaliac in conversation, sooner or later it becomes obvious that they speak with an idiot trying to hide the fact that it has no idea what its talking about, a realization often enough made far too late.
  • When inert, echolaliacs curl up their musical organs and attempt to blend in with the stalagmites
  • At need, able to take in enormous volumes of air into its body cavity via the musical organ atop its cone, swelling to gross immensity before blasting forth a powerful gust of reeking breath from its mouth lasting several seconds during which it may be aimed in multiple directions. Anything human-sized caught in this surge of unpleasantness, barring firm anchoring or extreme good fortune, is tossed about helplessly for 2-40 feet of random smashing into things 
  • After a fulfilling meal of human flesh, echolaliacs turn to their secondary passion and emit highly complex and subtle symphonic compositions of stirring, eerie majesty that echo through the Underworld, providing involuntary musical entertainment for denizens within a 5 mile radius. These performances last until the creature becomes hungry once again, after 2d12 hours
  • Underworld humanoids sometimes dare to draw out conversation with echolaliacs, remaining carefully outside the range of their sonic stun ability, in an effort to glean information overheard in the recent past
  • Echolaliacs think plain strider songs are fine, if you like children's music
Treasure: Interesting indigestible items may sometimes be found in great pools of vomit near echolaliac territories (their sole means of eliminating waste)

3 comments:

  1. This has a lot of potential for both roleplaying and combat. Bravo!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This has a lot of potential for both roleplaying and combat. Bravo!

    ReplyDelete