Lets Make a Monster: The Messenger
Got a shiny new book as a birthday present, the Tome of Adventure Design, so figured I may as well start using it for the Worm Jam. I'll likely do a blog post about the book itself at some point but I want to get some experience using it before I write anything concrete. Since I already have some ideas for the dungeon itself, I figured the first thing I would use it for is trying to come up with a neat beastie in the dungeon. So lets do that!
Step 1. Type of Monster
I rolled a 49 which means I'll be working on a Horror today which are described as follows:
Horrors are monsters utterly alien to the surface world, dwelling deep beneath the ground, in the dark depths of space, in the realms of dreams, in horrid and alien dimensions, or in the distant past (or future).
Step 2. Generating the Type of Horror and its Physical Form
On the first table here I got a 63 and 34 meaning a "Horror out of the freezing depths of space that is barely intelligent.
This in itself is giving me some decent ideas that fit well into the setting, though I'm going to interpret it being from space more as something out there having created it. Conveniently I have some good old cosmic horrors in space looking to invade and usurp the material world from its Goddess so a creation of theirs should be perfect.
Lets see the creature's physical form.
Basic form: 21, Centipede/scorpion
Attributes of: 49, Fungus
Skin/exterior: 47, Pulsing tubes and veins
Other Feature: 73, Multiple eyes
Horrors are supposed to also get some special features. Lets see what we get on that.
Think I'll try to roll for a movement system: 69, Through tunnels burrowed in the walls, ceilings, or floors.
Lets also give it a special attack as well since I want this to be a sort of mini-boss ruling over an area.
Delivery Method: 35, Gives off gas
Type of Attack: 05, Acid Damage (save for half damage).
Somewhat of a stereotypical result but I'm alright with that, our creature excretes an acidic gas which it likely uses to break down biomass.
And finally a Special Defense: 87, Transforms self to energy form: acid.
Huh, that one is rather interesting and fitting. Perhaps when it is slain it dissolves into what appears to be a puddle of acid, but in reality it lives on as a smaller organism that will reconstitute itself over time.
Step 3, Putting it Together
Alright an interesting selection, gives me a decent mental image. Its shaping up to be a perfect monstrosity from the Celestial known as Bestia, the Wild Hunger who just so happens to have a lot of influence in the region already. For some additional inspiration I look around at the margins of the book which are filled with minor prompts and my eyes are drawn to the prompts "delivering a message","diamond", and "an important message went astray". So I'm going to say this creature was meant to be a messenger from Bestia, though her messages are rarely if ever simple or mundane. Perhaps she grew tired of the the stagnation the Dreadnought has caused in the region or of the stagnation of the Leviathan the Dreadnought once was. I'm thinking the message wasn't to the ancients but to the Barreleye itself, meaning to free it from its docile stasis. Perhaps the diamond is a magical stone the creature is capable of producing that was supposed to free the Leviathan, but something went wrong, the crew of the Dreadnought intercepted the Messenger and imprisoned it before it could deliver it.
The Messenger itself is originally a small fungus-like growth that the Dreadnought consumed while drifting on its patrols. It quickly began consuming other organic matter in its surrounding, like fishes and plants the Dreadnought consumed along with it as well as some of the crew who first stumbled upon it most likely. Its body grew into a long mass that crawls around using hundreds of tendrils which it uses to grab its prey. It doesn't require sustenance, but it needs to consume in order to grow and create the stone it was meant to deliver. Before it could do so the crew managed to subdue it and locked it away in an abandoned section of the ship. It has since transformed this area using its acidic excretions to burrow tunnels it can move through with ease. Getting overall the vibes of the protagonist of the game Carrion.
Occasionally one of the crew has to enter to preform maintenance in the area which provides the Messenger the chance to hunt. When it consumes a creature it breaks down all of their flesh and adds it to its biomass, except for the eyes which have holy significance among the followers of Bestia, it instead attaches the eyes to itself along its long body so no matter which end danger approaches from, it can always perceive it.
Conclusion
I could keep adding onto this thing, but I think I'll stop here before it becomes a bit too over complicated. I feel like I have a pretty interesting mental image of what this thing looks like, how it might act, and quite a few fun scenarios if players happen to wander into its area without realizing, especially so if they leave the entrance open. For this post I'll leave things there, next time I think I'll try to work on specifically figuring it out in terms of His Majesty the Worm's ruleset. Overall I really enjoyed my first experience with the Tome of Adventure design, flipping through the tables can be a little cumbersome with how big the book is, but it creates some damn good brain fuel, and the margin prompts are an absolute godsend.