Wanted: Sea Monster Sighting Reports!

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Yeah, that's a lot better. The Piltdown scam, Ravenloft style!


BTW, NeoT, I was thinking about the "were-sea serpent" idea, and I think it'd probably work a lot better if there's one unique maladictive example of that phenotype than a whole strain of them. Perhaps it can be a Dread Possibility? Otherwise, weresharks and even wereorcas are going to look pretty piddly by comparison.

[doctor-evil]

Did anyone see the BBC version of Arthur Conan Doyle's "Lost world".
In that, Peter Falk (playing an evolution-denying missionary), marooned the heroes on the "lost world" plateau, including his ward. He did this because the dinosaurs did not meet with his world view, and did not want the outside world to find evidence of evolution... Anyway, he went mad and met a sorry end.

What if this part of the Amazon jungle was translocated to Ravenloft, complete with the with the missionary's outpost. The missionary to be eternally tormented by both the dinosaurs in the jungle nearby, and the sacrified his adopted daughter/ward.

[doctor-evil]

FYI - a newly discovered 'sea monster'...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,333509,00.html

[Joël of the FoS]

I'll give Reavers a try. I used them recently in my game and had nasty battle ideas and tactics for these critters.

Was Joel doing were-octopi (octopuses)?

The original were-octopus concept is from JWM, in the A-Z monster thread.

John, will there be such a monster detailed in this file, or should / could we takle this beast?

Joël

[Jakob]

Hi,

Any news on the articles I sent? Corrections to be done? Anything?

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Good time to ask: I'll have some revisions and requests to return to you and cure tonight!

[cure]

Good time to ask: I'll have some revisions and requests to return to you and cure tonight!

Please send them along, but I won't be able to see to them for a few days.

[Jakob]

Good time to ask: I'll have some revisions and requests to return to you and cure tonight!

Please send them along, but I won't be able to see to them before for a few days.

The same here.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

No biggie. I've made you guys wait long enough, not getting them back to you weeks ago, and I've got several other submissions to work on for the time being. Certainly, you're welcome to take your time reading through these revised first drafts, and making or recommending those changes you think are called for.

So, Rokushiman monsters and jolly rogers are on their way to your e-mail accounts now, guys. Others will follow, over the next few days ... and thanks, again!

(Don't worry, DoctorEvil and dhampire: your stuff's on my To-Do list for revisions, too! )

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Hey folks, got some bad news for you. I've received word from Jakob that he's in the hospital with a respiratory infection. Get-well e-mails will surely be appreciated, although he won't be able to access them for a while.

Until he gets back on his feet, I'm withdrawing Jakob's offer to produce illustrations for the sea-monster book. Isabella's offer is still open, so if you can think of any scenes that would go well with the topics you're working on, pm her with a description.

[Boris Drakov]

I've just been reading the thread and wanted to add this for inspiration if you didn't already know it:

Alfred Tennyson's poem, the Kraken:

Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumber'd and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.


And it's very late in your process and all but Norwegian folklore is teeming with marine superstitions and sea monsters if you need any more.

[Jakob]

Hey folks, got some bad news for you. I've received word from Jakob that he's in the hospital with a respiratory infection. Get-well e-mails will surely be appreciated, although he won't be able to access them for a while.

Until he gets back on his feet, I'm withdrawing Jakob's offer to produce illustrations for the sea-monster book. Isabella's offer is still open, so if you can think of any scenes that would go well with the topics you're working on, pm her with a description.

Back on track, guys and gals.
Ok, I'm about to send the second draft of the caller text and the fluff about Rokuma monsters.

As soon as I can get in touch with my friend, we'll start working (read: I tell here what I want, she works ) on illustrations for my monsters and (hopefully, it depends on my friend's freetime) a scene from the caller's article.

Yes, the report of my death was an exaggeration.

EDIT: Thanks for the concern.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Great to have you back, Jakob!


And Boris, thanks for suggesting the poem. It looks like a fine pick to lead off Nathan's chapter on krakens, if not the whole netbook. We've got plenty of creatures lined up for a full chapter's write-up already, but there's plenty of room for sidebars or new variant creatures, if you have anything specific in mind.

(Norwegian folktales, eh? Any ideas there for scrags [= marine trolls]? They're canon for the Ravenloft setting, and could use some fleshing out, like Gaz V did for goblins.)

[DocBeard]

Maybe you could throw in that some seagoing peoples worship the trolls, feeding them with dark rituals and dread pacts, allowing said troll to grow beyond the standard D&D monster into the king of fae-esque beast of Scandinavian myth...

[Boris Drakov]

A link to a pic of a kind of seatroll from coastal Norway:

http://home.c2i.net/elysnes/draugen.html

Link to a pic and old real life sea serpent sightings, unfortunately only in Norwegian.
But the pic is over 400 years old so there's no copyright on it I believe.

http://www.mjoesormen.no/deeldstebeskri ... vormen.htm

The main character of Norwegian marine folklore is the draug:

http://www.answers.com/topic/draugr

There are also many tales of shouts of warnings coming from the sea/lakes/rivers when a storm is approaching or when someone is to die.
Couldn't find an English source for this.