Friday, April 13, 2012

Beast of the Week: Charybdis

Following from last week's Scylla, here is her partner in crime, Charybdis.  A nasty aquatic monster for this Friday the 13th.

Charybdis*
AC: -1 (21)
HD: 10*
Move: Swim 150 (50)
Attacks: 1 whirlpool
Damage: 3d6
No. Appearing: 1 (1)
Save As: F10
Morale: 8
Treasure Type: A
Alignment: Chaotic
XP:1600

Charybdis (singular and plural) appear to be gigantic maws surrounded by fins or flippers, attached to a bladder-like body.  They live in shallow waters, where they wait for ships to pass by.  When a ship passes, they suck in water, creating a whirlpool.  The whirlpool causes 3d6 points of hull damage to ships, and similar damage to any creatures unfortunate enough to be in the water at the time.  The following round, the Charybdis spews for the the water, again damaging the vessel.  Swimmers and sailors may save vs. Dragon Breath to take half damage from the expectoration, but not from the whirlpool intake.  Charybdis then repeat this attack pattern every two rounds until the ship is destroyed.  Charybdis are only damaged by magical weapons or spells.

2 comments:

  1. Charybdis was one of my favorite Greek monsters once I learned it was basically just a sack with a mouth attached. It's super-effective!

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  2. Cool! I am currently reading Avram Davidson's The mirror and the phoenix and one of the characters just mentioned the terrible "Cherub Dys," who lives in a cave over the pillars of Hercules and watches passerbys, killing those it disapproves of. A nice variant.

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