I finally found a 5e conversion for one of the craziest monsters I know. The Tall Mouther.
I want to build a game session around one or more of these beasties. But I do not want a normal game. This needs to be as fun and crazy as the monster. and I am having writers bloc.
a Brainstorm is where you toss out a whole slew of idea with the hopes that one in ten will be usable. I do have a party halfling.
Just a few ideas I have. a nemesis of the halfling is introduced and killed by the party. He is reincarnated as a Mouther and understands the party can be dangerous...but he still wants to kill (and now eat) our intrepid Halfling.
A mouther wants to join a thieves guild but is on the outs because he keeps eating the halflings. He is intent to start one of his own. The mouther wants all the comforts of civilized wealth but is way too chaotic. He has managed to gain about three human followers and is intent on starting his new guild in a small town where the PCs are staying. A rash of senseless robberies and missing halflings have intrigued the PCs.
These are workable ideas but they are not crazy enough...
Ok, I don't know much about this monster and I can't find lore about it. Why is it one of the craziest monsters you know? Just because of how it looks, that it has 5 attacks, that it targets halflings specifically or is it something else?
Since it doesn't seem to be in 5e monster manual, maybe you could invent lore for it? Like, a wizard was tired of halfling children getting into their lawn so they made something to scare them off and went overboard.
Or it could pretend to be a god and lead a halfling cult just to get sacrifices as lunch.
Or it could be that it uses its many arms to work in a post office and doing paperwork and their bosses think it eating halflings is an acceptable price to pay.
Or you could get the halfling player on side and ask him if he is willing to roleplay as it, and have the Mouther pretend to be the halfling who was transformed into a monster. The halfling would either be captured somewhere else to serve as lunch or already inside the monster and waiting to be saved. Alternativelly, since it speaks halfling it pretends to be a random transformed one.
Or the mouther is accused (rightfully) of eating the halflings and thus the monster asks the party to help them find the real culprit while claiming it was just accused because of how it looks.
Or a halfling village had been accosted by the monster for a while an surviving by offering one of them as sacrifice every summer. Three days before the date, the party reaches the town and as they see the halfling in the party the townsfolk decide, "hey, if we give them this guy then we don't have to kill one of our own!" and thus are super nice or inventing fake problems to ensure that the party remains long enough in town to sacrifice to the monster.
Or a rich halfling bought one of those as a pet without knowing what it is and asks the party to figure out what the hell does it eats since it refuses most things.
Or it is the main attraction of a circus and it asks the party to free it, then if thye d they have to catch it again once they learn what it does (the circus owner was keeping it quiet so as to not scare clients).
Or they run into a Monster racing circuit and it is one of the mounts. The monster tends to eat the competitors in order to cheat.
That monstrosity looks like something a Kuo Toa would make on accident while worshiping a poorly-drawn medical diagram; lots of limbs and doesn’t make sense to almost anyone.
An illness is plaguing a group of Tall Mouthers. It is discovered that a halfling has been experimenting with poisons that don't affect a halfling but make a Tall Mouther violently ill. After a vicious attack on the town, the halfling scientist decided he no longer had time to test the long term affects on the halflings and secretly introduces the poison to the town's water supply. It succeeded in stopping the attacks but now the halflings are falling ill and the Tall Mouthers have developed an immunity.
Or re-write West Side Story/Romeo and Juliet. A halfling and a tall mouther have developed a forbidden love.
I finally found a 5e conversion for one of the craziest monsters I know. The Tall Mouther.
I want to build a game session around one or more of these beasties. But I do not want a normal game. This needs to be as fun and crazy as the monster. and I am having writers bloc.
a Brainstorm is where you toss out a whole slew of idea with the hopes that one in ten will be usable. I do have a party halfling.
Just a few ideas I have. a nemesis of the halfling is introduced and killed by the party. He is reincarnated as a Mouther and understands the party can be dangerous...but he still wants to kill (and now eat) our intrepid Halfling.
A mouther wants to join a thieves guild but is on the outs because he keeps eating the halflings. He is intent to start one of his own. The mouther wants all the comforts of civilized wealth but is way too chaotic. He has managed to gain about three human followers and is intent on starting his new guild in a small town where the PCs are staying. A rash of senseless robberies and missing halflings have intrigued the PCs.
These are workable ideas but they are not crazy enough...
https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-L2RB8hLxtZGSPWIIr5o
Tall Mouther
Large aberration, neutral
Armor Class 14
Hit Points 105 (14d10 + 28)
Speed 40 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
20 (+5) 19 (+4) 15 (+2) 8 (−1) 10 (+0) 7 (−2)
Skills Perception +3, Survival +3
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages Common, Halfling
Challenge 5 (1,100 XP)
Arrow Evasion. The mouther's whirling arms and constantly shifting head impose disadvantage on all ranged weapon attacks made against it.
Actions
Multiattack. The mouther makes five attacks: one with its bite and four with its slams.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) piercing damage.
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d6 + 5) bludgeoning damage.
Ok, I don't know much about this monster and I can't find lore about it. Why is it one of the craziest monsters you know? Just because of how it looks, that it has 5 attacks, that it targets halflings specifically or is it something else?
Since it doesn't seem to be in 5e monster manual, maybe you could invent lore for it? Like, a wizard was tired of halfling children getting into their lawn so they made something to scare them off and went overboard.
Or it could pretend to be a god and lead a halfling cult just to get sacrifices as lunch.
Or it could be that it uses its many arms to work in a post office and doing paperwork and their bosses think it eating halflings is an acceptable price to pay.
Or you could get the halfling player on side and ask him if he is willing to roleplay as it, and have the Mouther pretend to be the halfling who was transformed into a monster. The halfling would either be captured somewhere else to serve as lunch or already inside the monster and waiting to be saved. Alternativelly, since it speaks halfling it pretends to be a random transformed one.
Or the mouther is accused (rightfully) of eating the halflings and thus the monster asks the party to help them find the real culprit while claiming it was just accused because of how it looks.
Or a halfling village had been accosted by the monster for a while an surviving by offering one of them as sacrifice every summer. Three days before the date, the party reaches the town and as they see the halfling in the party the townsfolk decide, "hey, if we give them this guy then we don't have to kill one of our own!" and thus are super nice or inventing fake problems to ensure that the party remains long enough in town to sacrifice to the monster.
Or a rich halfling bought one of those as a pet without knowing what it is and asks the party to figure out what the hell does it eats since it refuses most things.
Or it is the main attraction of a circus and it asks the party to free it, then if thye d they have to catch it again once they learn what it does (the circus owner was keeping it quiet so as to not scare clients).
Or they run into a Monster racing circuit and it is one of the mounts. The monster tends to eat the competitors in order to cheat.
That monstrosity looks like something a Kuo Toa would make on accident while worshiping a poorly-drawn medical diagram; lots of limbs and doesn’t make sense to almost anyone.
An illness is plaguing a group of Tall Mouthers. It is discovered that a halfling has been experimenting with poisons that don't affect a halfling but make a Tall Mouther violently ill. After a vicious attack on the town, the halfling scientist decided he no longer had time to test the long term affects on the halflings and secretly introduces the poison to the town's water supply. It succeeded in stopping the attacks but now the halflings are falling ill and the Tall Mouthers have developed an immunity.
Or re-write West Side Story/Romeo and Juliet. A halfling and a tall mouther have developed a forbidden love.
I get the feeling that no one will get this reference, but... "It was a one eyed one horned flying purple people eater"
It's not the official video (due to the song being very old) but...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jV-E09efRE
Making the tall mouther be a bard or former halfling bard that sings and dances as it roams around could be interesting.
Edit: the song could also describe a beholder as well, you just have to figure out how it got a horn.