Wanted: Sea Monster Sighting Reports!

[labdishwasher]

Sea? The Unknown? http://www.bloopwatch.org/thebloop.html Even here in Earth, there are things in the darkest depths of the ocean that are, by our best oceanographer's estimations, larger than any known creature and producing intelligent-sounding noises much like whales and dolphins, but more complex. I love listening to the real-time recording of the Bloop sound - it's beautiful, and gives me the chills.

[NeoTiamat]

Quick question. Anyone have suggestions on possible marine lycanthropic phenotypes?

So far, I've got:

Were-seals / Seawolves (Their own chapter)

Were-Orca
Were-Sharks
Were-Eels
Were-Ray
Were-Squid
Were-Lamprey
Were-Sea Serpent (Very rare)
Were-Stonefish


Other thoughts?

[Isabella]

Was Joel doing were-octopi (octopuses)?

Things like barracuda, swordfish, and giant jellyfish like the Lion's Mane or the Portuguese Man-o-War could be frightening (only the Barracuda is terribly dangerous), but those may be a little too esoteric to be included as a lycanthrope phenotype (not to mention that jellyfish don't have much of a nervous system).

There are the venomous sea snakes (were-sea serpent?) or Australia and Hawai'i, although if you were going to turn that into a phenotype you might need to make them... bigger. Same might go for the loggerhead turtle.

[NeoTiamat]

Were-Octopi? No idea.

Problem with Were-Barracuda, Were-Swordfish, and Were-Sea Snake is a question of 'niche'. What purpose does a were-barracuda serve if there's already a were-shark? And just make your were-eel venemous with a Salient ability, and ta-da, no need for a were-sea snake.

Were Sea Serpent is a good idea however. Possibly something powerful and mystical and such. Were Sea Turtle... hmm... Were Dragon Turtle? I will consider.

Were-Jellyfish.... hmm.... A character that explodes into a swarm of deadly poisonous jellyfish is cool, but probably beyond the scope of a lycanthropic phenotype. I'm probably stretching it as is with the were-squid.

[NeoTiamat]

Just had a thought. Would a were-dinosaur qualify for the book? Were-Pliesiosaur or however you spell it?

What about a Were-Polar Bear?

[Isabella]

What about a Were-Polar Bear?

Doesn't that come back down to the question of "niche", as it were? Couldn't you just slap a swim speed on a normal were-bear?

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Sea turtles would be out, as they're not predatory (eating jellyfish hardly counts for that), and Ravenloft's werebeasts are always flesh-eaters, be it as carnivores, omnivores, or scavengers.

Stonefish might be interesting, as IIRC there isn't really a camouflaged, ambush-hunter type of werebeast yet. Their humanoid sides could be prone to being fat, lazy, and irritable as hell.

Were-plesiosaurs might be pushing it, as AFAWK there aren't any such prehistoric reptiles in Ravenloft. Maybe if someone introduces a "Lost World" domain, there could be some there, but I think we'll have plenty to do with the canon domains' seas.

I agree that a were-polar bear isn't really necessary when we have the standard werebear. Even if we want one, we'd have to call it something else, as Ravenloft doesn't actually have polar regions.

[NeoTiamat]

Hmm..... Touche'

Perhaps an appendix to the Marine Lycanthrope Chapter? Kind of a....

• Here's a few lycanthropes, but if you want to make more obscure kinds, here's how you do it:
  
  Were-Polar Bear: Take a Were-Bear, give it a Swim Speed of X, and add X to it's Str and Con.
  
  Were-Sea Snake: Take a Were-Eel, and give it a venomous bite, DC X, XdX Con/XdX Con

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Sounds like a plan. Perhaps a "sea lycanthrope" template could be used to convert a land species to an aquatic one? We could probably reverse-engineer one using seawolf stats and standard werewolf stats.

[Isabella]

Stonefish might be interesting, as IIRC there isn't really a camouflaged, ambush-hunter type of werebeast yet. Their humanoid sides could be prone to being fat, lazy, and irritable as hell.

Or a were-deep sea anglerfish, hee hee... although when a party would ever encounter that I don't know. So maybe not. Would be creepy as hell, though, those things are all teeth.

It would be interesting for someone to run a Ravenloft sea or underwater campaign, for sure, but we'd probably need the netbook to even attempt it.

[NeoTiamat]

Well, between this and the Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer, that should be quite possible...

Also, Rotipher, sent you an email with the first half of the Sea Wolf chapter, would appreciate any insightful commentary.

[doctor-evil]

Hmmm - pliesiosaurs in Ravenloft... there isn't a 'lost world' on Ravenloft, but what about in the swampy waters of Souragne. Perhaps even mosasaurs...

[DocBeard]

That'd make a cool Cluster, too.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Hmmm - pliesiosaurs in Ravenloft... there isn't a 'lost world' on Ravenloft, but what about in the swampy waters of Souragne. Perhaps even mosasaurs...

Wrong ecosystem, I'm afraid: they either wouldn't find enough to eat in fresh water, or they'd resort to eating all the alligators and thus, change the "Louisiana bayou" feel of the domain. That's not to say that one or two might not crop up in one of the seas (Saragoss would probably be best) via Mist-napping, but a breeding population seems excessive.

If we want dinosaurs and their contemporaries in Ravenloft, we really should give them their own domain, IMO. Perhaps a Lamordian who'd set out to become Ravenloft's first paleontologist, and resorted to murder when his crackpot ideas about "giant lizards" were laughed at, could be rewarded with such a savage, brutal Island of Terror?

[DocBeard]

If we want dinosaurs and their contemporaries in Ravenloft, we really should give them their own domain, IMO. Perhaps a Lamordian who'd set out to become Ravenloft's first paleontologist, and resorted to murder when his crackpot ideas about "giant lizards" were laughed at, could be rewarded with such a savage, brutal Island of Terror?

That's a good idea, but I think the 'murder via rage' is a little played out.

What if he desicrated bodies in order to produce skeletons of the "missing link"-cave men, neanderthals and the like? His (or her) crossing over the line could be killing to protect the secret, or because he had ran out of old bones to use and needed a new sample to secure investors.