I am designing a bossfight and it's going to be a Manticore. My question is in the title, and I am going towards "no" at this point, but am I being stingy? I am thinking about decking the lair out with ordinary things - but who really knows what is on the mind of a Lionbird?
I mean, it would keep a treasure in so much as the loot from things it has killed may be strewn about its lair or used in nest making. If you think of a Manitcore as a weird flying human-faced cat monster then...sure, it should have some loot laying around. My cat has toys and stolen hairbands and who knows what else stashed all over the house for no good reason.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
They're not particularly avaricious creatures, but as Metamongoose said, they'd probably have some loot scattered throughout their lair from other failed adventurers, or perhaps the manticore took over the lair of something that did hoard treasure and it's just too lazy to clean it up.
Yeah, I guess I will scatter some odds and ends together - general goods and lots of manticore droppings! HA! Okay then - maybe a skeleton with a flute close by and a ring of protection that had somehow provoked a megalomaniacal bard into thinking he was king of the jungle... Thanks for replying.
I have now also stocked the Manticore cave with the body of the Bard and a lurking apprentice wizard who is hired by the family of the bard to go search for him. There is a contract on the body of the apprentice - and this will be an open lead to go east. Man, I freaking love this!
You know, the manticore itself could be the treasure. There could be a bounty on it from a nearby city. A noble family who lost their son/daughter to the manticore might want revenge and a manticore rug in their library. Maybe it has a young manticore in its lair that a distant collector wants.
You know, the manticore itself could be the treasure. There could be a bounty on it from a nearby city. A noble family who lost their son/daughter to the manticore might want revenge and a manticore rug in their library. Maybe it has a young manticore in its lair that a distant collector wants.
True, true! I already have a young apprentice wizard spying on the manticore and the gnolls in the cave through the use of an invisibility scroll (that is about to run out when the characters arrive). He will (hopefully) survive long enough that my wizard nephew can swap a spell or two from his spellbook after the fight. The apprentice (who is a hireling of a noble family from the East) has tracked the family's lost bardic son to this area, where the apprentice has been searching the countryside for about a fortnight (NO, not Fortnite!).
Coming upon this cave, the wizard went in to investigate and saw partway in a broken flute that he knows belongs to the family's son. The problem is that further into the cave (where the gnoll leader - a Fang of Yeenoghu) + the manticore lurk about lies the almost freshly rat-picked corpse of the son...with the +1 ring of protection still attached to his left ring-finger. The force of the two combined + the random parties of gnolls going to and fro, the wizard youngling simply has not had the option of blowing them out of the sky. Lvl 3, dammit! :D. The Ring of Protection was initially what promoted the obnoxious and slightly megalomaniacal son to seek adventures - partly out of boredom and partly to spite his parents, who are too invested in the family business to really pay enough attention ("Oh, I'll show 'em!...) .
Should the wizard apprentice (who is ofcourse an entry level apprentice in the Guild of the Blue Birds - oooops, a spot for apprentice wizardry just opened up!) die, he has a fully signed and valid contract from the family on his person along with his spellbook. What can possibly go wrong here :-). Should my nephew and my NPC succeed in overthrowing this little local threat, they might choose to cut off the manticore's head (where have I heard of this before..:-D ? ) and bring it to Helm's Hold which is my "quest hub" for this part of the campaign, for a sizeable reward (possibly a minor deed to a plot of land nearby). My goodness I love this game. We initially kicked off a session of "Lost Mine of Phandelver", and 7 sessions in, we have digressed in time and space to the point where we never set foot in the initial goblin cave...Sociologist fame-boy, Anthony Giddens would be proud - I have single-handedly neutralized the rules that govern time and space.
Anyway...back to marking more senior students' exam papers...yawn. :-D
I realise this is an old post, but I thought it worth mentioning that in the introductory campaign Dragons of Icespire Peak, there's a manticore in an early quest attacking the home of the local midwife. It can be paid to go away for a mere 25 gp, but the module mentions that not killing it means you may have to contend with both it and its mate later on.
Presumably extortion is a method that works for them, so they could have quite a stash on hand in their lair, and it may not be just gold, but all manner of shiny and valuable items.
I am designing a bossfight and it's going to be a Manticore. My question is in the title, and I am going towards "no" at this point, but am I being stingy? I am thinking about decking the lair out with ordinary things - but who really knows what is on the mind of a Lionbird?
I mean, it would keep a treasure in so much as the loot from things it has killed may be strewn about its lair or used in nest making. If you think of a Manitcore as a weird flying human-faced cat monster then...sure, it should have some loot laying around. My cat has toys and stolen hairbands and who knows what else stashed all over the house for no good reason.
They're not particularly avaricious creatures, but as Metamongoose said, they'd probably have some loot scattered throughout their lair from other failed adventurers, or perhaps the manticore took over the lair of something that did hoard treasure and it's just too lazy to clean it up.
"The Epic Level Handbook wasn't that bad, guys.
Guys, pls."
Yeah, I guess I will scatter some odds and ends together - general goods and lots of manticore droppings! HA! Okay then - maybe a skeleton with a flute close by and a ring of protection that had somehow provoked a megalomaniacal bard into thinking he was king of the jungle...
Thanks for replying.
I have now also stocked the Manticore cave with the body of the Bard and a lurking apprentice wizard who is hired by the family of the bard to go search for him. There is a contract on the body of the apprentice - and this will be an open lead to go east. Man, I freaking love this!
You know, the manticore itself could be the treasure. There could be a bounty on it from a nearby city. A noble family who lost their son/daughter to the manticore might want revenge and a manticore rug in their library. Maybe it has a young manticore in its lair that a distant collector wants.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
True, true! I already have a young apprentice wizard spying on the manticore and the gnolls in the cave through the use of an invisibility scroll (that is about to run out when the characters arrive). He will (hopefully) survive long enough that my wizard nephew can swap a spell or two from his spellbook after the fight. The apprentice (who is a hireling of a noble family from the East) has tracked the family's lost bardic son to this area, where the apprentice has been searching the countryside for about a fortnight (NO, not Fortnite!).
Coming upon this cave, the wizard went in to investigate and saw partway in a broken flute that he knows belongs to the family's son. The problem is that further into the cave (where the gnoll leader - a Fang of Yeenoghu) + the manticore lurk about lies the almost freshly rat-picked corpse of the son...with the +1 ring of protection still attached to his left ring-finger. The force of the two combined + the random parties of gnolls going to and fro, the wizard youngling simply has not had the option of blowing them out of the sky. Lvl 3, dammit! :D. The Ring of Protection was initially what promoted the obnoxious and slightly megalomaniacal son to seek adventures - partly out of boredom and partly to spite his parents, who are too invested in the family business to really pay enough attention ("Oh, I'll show 'em!...) .
Should the wizard apprentice (who is ofcourse an entry level apprentice in the Guild of the Blue Birds - oooops, a spot for apprentice wizardry just opened up!) die, he has a fully signed and valid contract from the family on his person along with his spellbook. What can possibly go wrong here :-). Should my nephew and my NPC succeed in overthrowing this little local threat, they might choose to cut off the manticore's head (where have I heard of this before..:-D ? ) and bring it to Helm's Hold which is my "quest hub" for this part of the campaign, for a sizeable reward (possibly a minor deed to a plot of land nearby). My goodness I love this game. We initially kicked off a session of "Lost Mine of Phandelver", and 7 sessions in, we have digressed in time and space to the point where we never set foot in the initial goblin cave...Sociologist fame-boy, Anthony Giddens would be proud - I have single-handedly neutralized the rules that govern time and space.
Anyway...back to marking more senior students' exam papers...yawn. :-D
I realise this is an old post, but I thought it worth mentioning that in the introductory campaign Dragons of Icespire Peak, there's a manticore in an early quest attacking the home of the local midwife. It can be paid to go away for a mere 25 gp, but the module mentions that not killing it means you may have to contend with both it and its mate later on.
Presumably extortion is a method that works for them, so they could have quite a stash on hand in their lair, and it may not be just gold, but all manner of shiny and valuable items.
Although this is a old post I am interested might a manticore have the remains of a caravan with skelotons armour and weapons strewn around?
I also have the ability to manifest my thoughts in ways that cut people. I call this power words. -Tasha
I play 3.5E…sometimes.
Come swim over to the Bloody Barnacle! The Bloody Barnacle against the world!
They/them
My avatar is stuck in Archeon help would be ideal.
Silhouette of determination! Thanks drum!