creature – Page 3

Creature seed: Octo𝜋.

My wife (who knows much more math than I do) is apparently dubious about this one. I feel that this merely validates the concept.

Octo𝜋 – Google Docs

Octo𝜋

Octo𝜋 was apparently summoned during a particularly unfortunate seminar on pure mathematics; judging from surviving notes (before said notes devolved into the traditional inhuman, babbling screams) a professor was attempting to demonstrate what pi might look like in an eight spatial-dimension space, and… well. He apparently succeeded. He just wasn’t expecting Octo𝜋 to be hungry when it arrived.

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Creature Seed: Jack-O-Wisps.

Be danged if this doesn’t read like something I’ve already written. Weird.

Jack-O-Wisps – Google Docs

Jack-O-Wisps

Description: the faintest green flicker of several connected speckles of light. There is perhaps a faint smell of dirt and burnt fiber. A Jack-O-Wisp that touches human flesh will cause that flesh to shiver slightly.

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Creature seed: Mesopotamian Marsh Slugs.

Mesopotamian Marsh Slug – Google Docs

Mesopotamian Marsh Slug

deroceras plaga

Description: a foot-long slug, mottled brown and gray. It can live anywhere there’s standing water, eats anything it can scavenge, and exudes a foul-smelling slime that lingers worse than week-old skunk spray. The Mesopotamian Marsh Slug has no natural predators, except for time travelers.

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Creature Seed: Neighbor Bees and Slaver Ants.

Neighbor Bees and Slaver Ants – Google Docs

Neighbor Bees and Slaver Ants

To begin with: neither species is sapient. At least, that’s the conclusion that three generations of xeno-biologists have come to. Both species seem to operate on an instinctual level; neither shows any indication of having language, history, culture, or self-awareness. This makes them extremely frustrating to xeno-biologists, because the whole issue of Neighbor Bees and Slaver Ants could be more easily settled if only either species was intelligent.

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Creature Seed: Ghrups.

Ghrups – Google Docs

Ghrups

Description: basically, a mini-shoggoth (8 lbs); only it glows faintly blue, and doesn’t try to eat you. Ghrups absolutely look slimy, but they’re not. They smell like various metal ores; Dwarves at least find Ghrup-scent pleasant and comfortable. The species generally makes no sounds on its own.

Ghrups are what you get when you take a slime mold that lives in caves and expose it to High Magic for a while. The result is a slime mold that’s amorphous, boneless, active, mobile, and mildly curious. Ghrups generally eat plant matter, lichens and fungi, and whatever insects they can catch, by a variety of methods. Some Ghrups spread themselves out into a thin film and wait for prey that way; other Ghrups construct long tongues out of their bodies to target flying insects, or turn themselves into intricate webs. Food is absorbed through the ‘skin’ and dissolved, in classic gelatinous fashion. Inorganic residue is usually excreted every few days.

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Creature Seed: Freemason bees.

Bees came up a lot today.

Freemason Bees – Google Docs

Freemason Bees

(Apis mellifera futurae)

Description: Freemason bees are easily distinguished from the European honey bee via the distinctive design on its abdomen (which really does resemble the Freemason’s Eye in the Pyramid). Freemason bees are slightly larger than other honey bees, rarely stings, can sting without killing itself, and their venom has a mildly euphoric and analgesic effect on most humans. Research as to whether the venom is addictive to people is ongoing. Freemason bees are infertile with any other species of bee.

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Creature Seed: Ballistic Squid.

Ballistic Squid – Google Docs

Ballistic Squid

This species of alien mollusk (about the size and general shape of the largest Terran giant Pacific octopus) shows obvious signs of genetic tampering; it absolutely should, considering that it can launch itself out of the water and travel about a hundred feet up before gravity takes control again. This is not a survival mechanism; Ballistic Squid can survive the experience if it lands in the water again, but if it hits anything metal the Squid’s body pulps itself. More genetic engineering, probably.

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Creature Seed: Gatebusters.

Gatebusters – Google Docs

Gatebusters

Description: six-foot long centipede-like creatures covered in somewhat offensive-smelling mucus; said mucus is not completely compatible with regular human physiology). Gatebusters seem to feed on the energies that are generated by teleportation or interdimensional travel; the ‘mouths’ filled with razor sharp teeth found on either end of their bodies seems to be merely for defensive purposes. Fortunately, they generally remain passive, only attacking when provoked (which includes keeping them from feeding). Gatebusters are also somewhat impressively armored; military weaponry can shift one, but regular civilian arms will simply just tick the creatures off.

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Creature Seed: The Dreamer in the Ice.

Dreamer in the Ice – Google Docs

The Dreamer in the Ice

Description: a thirty foot tall, admittedly monstrous-looking (what you can see of it), frozen entity in the middle of a glacier.

Well, that’s what the fishermen out of Skarsvåg, Norway call it. They never actually talk to outsiders about the Dreamer in the Ice, because they know that the Dreamer doesn’t want them to. But they talk to it. The Dreamer comes to them in their own dreams; large, cold, of a form not native to Earth. From its sets of lips drip alien lore and uncanny whispers. And the whispers cajole, they do. The Dreamer can offer many things; good fishing, for one. The Dreamer has many mysterious and arcane powers. All the fishermen need to do is provide in return what the Dreamer requests. Such simple things, really. Mere baubles.

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Creature Seed: Riding Sloths.

Riding Sloths – Google Docs

Riding Sloths

Description: it’s a giant ground sloth, maybe a bit smaller than Megatherium. The species is also a good deal less fussy about its plant-based diet than Megatherium was, and has adapted to grain- and fungi-based diets with some enthusiasm. Riding Sloths have also been somewhat adapted for humanoid riders at this point. The species instinctively herds, even in captivity.

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