I'm a bit stumped for what monster to use for a game, I've got 3-4 PC's about level 8 who are going to an arakocra town built on a tor (hill/outcrop), they find its been abandoned as something is sucking the houses and people underground and they must go after them.
I'm looking for a big monster to put under there, I had thought about maybe having the hill actually be the buried ruins of a city long forgotten which something has inhabited or woken up in? I've looked through the monsters and not found what I'm looking for, I thought maybe to have some minor monsters like an angry sorowsman and an umber hulk in there. And to use an Alkilith on an arch deep in the complex which enabled something to come through from the abyssal plane.
But for a final monster I'm not sure: I did wonder about a purple worm, a adult deep dragon but they just didn't feel like what I was wanting. Maybe a giant juiblex which is reaching through but not able to fully pass through?
Unspeakable Horror (CR 8) - Looks really freaky, has a long list of strange actions it can take, and would work well as an "unthinkable monstrosity long sealed below the hill" that just so happens to be on the verge of breaking out when the party arrives. Can be supplemented with other weird aberrations like Gibbering Mouther, Grell, and/or Psurlon cultists trying to free it.
Anhkolox (CR 9) - Kind of looks like someone tried to build a giant undead spiked mole out of other, more dangerous, animal parts. Might have tunneled under the village and is causing minor tremors throughout the area as it moves. Could be supplemented with other undead remains of things it has half-eaten and/or corrupted plant-life like a group of Wood Woad that have been agitated by the unnatural emanations of the undead beast.
Frost Salamander (CR 9) - Kind of beefy, has a cool breath weapon (pun intended). They like to burrow and make extensive ice cave lairs underground. They also seek out heat sources to feed from. It would not be odd to find one holed up under a village, popping out every now and again to raid a local bonfire celebration or massacre the local inn, trying to get at the warm hearth within. Traditionally from the Plane of Ice, there may be some sort of planar magic at work or a small rift opened nearby spilling out other similar elemental creatures as well like Galvanice Weirds, Ice Mephits, or Ice Spiders.
metamongoose has some cool ideas, but consider homebrew.
an enormous creature that can chew through stone and flesh alike, that was sealed away many years ago by some adventurers, but the wizard who sealed it away died, relaesing the devouerer. it burrows underground, chewing through the earth, opening sinkholes benath the houses and devouering the inhabitnts. as for waht it looks like, no on has ever lived to see mor than its cavernous maw
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Pronouns: Any/All
About Me: Godless monster in human form bent on extending their natural life to unnatural extremes /general of the goose horde /Moderator of Vinstreb School for the Gifted /holder of the evil storyteller badge of no honor /king of madness /The FBI/ The Archmage of I CAST...!
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Fun Fact: i gain more power the more you post on my forum threads. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Araumycos - subterranean fungus that lives in the underdark and is several hundred cubic MILES in size. (The creature is in the Out of the Abyss adventure)
In Out of the Abyss, Araumycos is being corrupted by the Demon Lord Zuggtmoy - its mind being corrupted. In OOTA, the characters along with Myconid allies enter the mind of Araumycos on the astral plane, break the creature from its trance induced by the demon lord, learn that a corruption is growing in its mind that Araumycos can't defeat and the characters are tasked with destroying the corruption before it completely takes over Araumycos.
In your case, the disappearance of buildings could be linked to Araumycos being corrupted and "directed" to begin destroying the surface world for the demon queen. The characters could encounter oozes and various other creatures if they start to explore below the ground. Curing Araumycos and stopping the damage to the surface could be only the first step in dealing with the demonic influence. (though this does lift plot elements from the Out of the Abyss adventure).
Have you considered the behir? It's not quite as large as you want, but otherwise it fits everything else, and the size could always be homebrewed. It's also CR 11, which means that 4 level 8 PCs should be able to defeat it (as written. I don't know what your homebrew will do) although you might want to provide a few boosts just in case it rolls well. (3 level 8 PCs will probably lose.)
(If you want to make it into a more epic fight, I have a blog [dragonencouters.com] and I wrote an entire article about strategies it might employ. Give it a look.
DM, writer, and blog master of https://dragonencounters.com/ a blog dedicated to providing unusual, worthwhile encounters for each monster, making each one unique.
Also, suggestions for which monsters might be found together (for people tired of dungeons full of one humanoid race, and perhaps a few beasts and undead.)
I might go with something that is to Umberhulks what Mother Hydra is to Sahuagin. So some sort of Ultrahulk, something that was once just an Umberhulk, but time and exposure and so on turned it onto something else, maybe some sort of Umberholder, an insectile body (not an orb) with a multitude of eyes with various mind-affecting effects. Also, it can displace large amounts of rock, and this is how it's sucking the village underground.
Would be terribly annoying to fight, obviously. The danger of mind affecting monsters is that the party might lose, and feel they couldn't really have done anything different. It tends to not feel fair, if Confusion, Suggestion, Charm and/or whatever means the party is just killing itself while tbe BBEG is just laughing merrily along while munching on the halfling.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
If you want to go homebrew, you could always just make a Purple Worm that is level-appropriate for your party. Then you'd be doing minimal editing anyway. Plus, Purple Worm is THE subterranean boss monster (at least in my opinion).
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
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I'm a bit stumped for what monster to use for a game, I've got 3-4 PC's about level 8 who are going to an arakocra town built on a tor (hill/outcrop), they find its been abandoned as something is sucking the houses and people underground and they must go after them.
I'm looking for a big monster to put under there, I had thought about maybe having the hill actually be the buried ruins of a city long forgotten which something has inhabited or woken up in? I've looked through the monsters and not found what I'm looking for, I thought maybe to have some minor monsters like an angry sorowsman and an umber hulk in there. And to use an Alkilith on an arch deep in the complex which enabled something to come through from the abyssal plane.
But for a final monster I'm not sure: I did wonder about a purple worm, a adult deep dragon but they just didn't feel like what I was wanting. Maybe a giant juiblex which is reaching through but not able to fully pass through?
Any inspiration would be welcome please :)
Top of the head options include:
Unspeakable Horror (CR 8) - Looks really freaky, has a long list of strange actions it can take, and would work well as an "unthinkable monstrosity long sealed below the hill" that just so happens to be on the verge of breaking out when the party arrives. Can be supplemented with other weird aberrations like Gibbering Mouther, Grell, and/or Psurlon cultists trying to free it.
Anhkolox (CR 9) - Kind of looks like someone tried to build a giant undead spiked mole out of other, more dangerous, animal parts. Might have tunneled under the village and is causing minor tremors throughout the area as it moves. Could be supplemented with other undead remains of things it has half-eaten and/or corrupted plant-life like a group of Wood Woad that have been agitated by the unnatural emanations of the undead beast.
Frost Salamander (CR 9) - Kind of beefy, has a cool breath weapon (pun intended). They like to burrow and make extensive ice cave lairs underground. They also seek out heat sources to feed from. It would not be odd to find one holed up under a village, popping out every now and again to raid a local bonfire celebration or massacre the local inn, trying to get at the warm hearth within. Traditionally from the Plane of Ice, there may be some sort of planar magic at work or a small rift opened nearby spilling out other similar elemental creatures as well like Galvanice Weirds, Ice Mephits, or Ice Spiders.
Hope that helps.
metamongoose has some cool ideas, but consider homebrew.
an enormous creature that can chew through stone and flesh alike, that was sealed away many years ago by some adventurers, but the wizard who sealed it away died, relaesing the devouerer. it burrows underground, chewing through the earth, opening sinkholes benath the houses and devouering the inhabitnts. as for waht it looks like, no on has ever lived to see mor than its cavernous maw
Pronouns: Any/All
About Me: Godless monster in human form bent on extending their natural life to unnatural extremes /general of the goose horde /Moderator of Vinstreb School for the Gifted /holder of the evil storyteller badge of no honor /king of madness /The FBI/ The Archmage of I CAST...!
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Fun Fact: i gain more power the more you post on my forum threads. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Araumycos - subterranean fungus that lives in the underdark and is several hundred cubic MILES in size. (The creature is in the Out of the Abyss adventure)
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Araumycos
In Out of the Abyss, Araumycos is being corrupted by the Demon Lord Zuggtmoy - its mind being corrupted. In OOTA, the characters along with Myconid allies enter the mind of Araumycos on the astral plane, break the creature from its trance induced by the demon lord, learn that a corruption is growing in its mind that Araumycos can't defeat and the characters are tasked with destroying the corruption before it completely takes over Araumycos.
In your case, the disappearance of buildings could be linked to Araumycos being corrupted and "directed" to begin destroying the surface world for the demon queen. The characters could encounter oozes and various other creatures if they start to explore below the ground. Curing Araumycos and stopping the damage to the surface could be only the first step in dealing with the demonic influence. (though this does lift plot elements from the Out of the Abyss adventure).
Have you considered the behir? It's not quite as large as you want, but otherwise it fits everything else, and the size could always be homebrewed. It's also CR 11, which means that 4 level 8 PCs should be able to defeat it (as written. I don't know what your homebrew will do) although you might want to provide a few boosts just in case it rolls well. (3 level 8 PCs will probably lose.)
(If you want to make it into a more epic fight, I have a blog [dragonencouters.com] and I wrote an entire article about strategies it might employ. Give it a look.
the url is https://dragonencounters.com/behir-attempting-the-deadly-pursuit/
DM, writer, and blog master of https://dragonencounters.com/ a blog dedicated to providing unusual, worthwhile encounters for each monster, making each one unique.
Also, suggestions for which monsters might be found together (for people tired of dungeons full of one humanoid race, and perhaps a few beasts and undead.)
I might go with something that is to Umberhulks what Mother Hydra is to Sahuagin. So some sort of Ultrahulk, something that was once just an Umberhulk, but time and exposure and so on turned it onto something else, maybe some sort of Umberholder, an insectile body (not an orb) with a multitude of eyes with various mind-affecting effects. Also, it can displace large amounts of rock, and this is how it's sucking the village underground.
Would be terribly annoying to fight, obviously. The danger of mind affecting monsters is that the party might lose, and feel they couldn't really have done anything different. It tends to not feel fair, if Confusion, Suggestion, Charm and/or whatever means the party is just killing itself while tbe BBEG is just laughing merrily along while munching on the halfling.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
If you want to go homebrew, you could always just make a Purple Worm that is level-appropriate for your party. Then you'd be doing minimal editing anyway. Plus, Purple Worm is THE subterranean boss monster (at least in my opinion).
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?