Making My Own New Crobuzon

I saw that this post by The Githyanki Diaspora has come up to the surface, and thought I'd give it a go as a way to ease myself back into blog posting (been very busy this past month, hence the drop in activity and relatively low quality of this post).

The concept is straightforward: take three monstrous humanoids and three monstrous monsters. These are the residents of your New Crobuzon (based on the city within China Mieville's Bas Lag trilogy). I've decided to go with monsters found in 5th edition D&D to the surprise of none.

Styx by Circle Art

The City

A canal city, founded across a Stygian archipelago. The dead wash upon their shores and float through their canals, providing nutrients and income. Those that aren't quite dead bring with them a willingness to do anything to survive - a willingness that is fully exploited and is an essential part of the city's biome.

The city is simply known as 'the city' to many. The Styx's influence on the memory is strong, and trying to place a name on things is harder still when every bit of water within the city is tainted with the Styx's influence. Over time, all residents lose themselves, becoming a caricature of who they once were and an archetypal resident.

The Residents

Myconids: Decomposers of the bodies that wash up within the city; their mycelium stretch out across the canals and bridges. Many myconids escape within the shared spore-driven dream, clinging onto their shared memories to maintain a state of remembrance and cultural identity. Their physical forms meanwhile remain docile and drugged, used as labourers, messengers, and ferrymen.

Sprites: Sprites are the keepers of law and authority within the city. The city's law is not that of the book, but of the heart, for they can see the true colours of those they touch. They make their homes in the slumbering myconid sovereigns, where they cast judgemental looks at the fiends that they share the city with.

Succubi/Incubi: Where there are souls willing to give themselves willingly to anyone able to give them even the briefest respite from the end, there are fiends ready to be of service. Whilst this was the original reason for their settlement, succubi have grown to enjoy the lack of attention they get here; there are few unwanted lustful looks to be had from mushrooms. Their natural aptitude for charisma leads incubi and succubi to take roles in diplomacy and bartering, whilst their superior ability to defend themselves over myconids and sprites also lends many of them to take security roles.

Crokek'toeck from Baldur's Gate - Descent into Avernus

The Outsiders

Crokek'toeck: This lumbering beast is a mascot of sorts to the city, acting as transport between the city's main islands. It is unaffected by the influence of the Styx, and many theorise that, if it were only smarter, it would be an invaluable resource of information on the city's history and residents.

Intellect Devourers: A customary assassination involves providing the target with an elaborate chest, within which is an intellect devourer that has been chosen to start a new life in the city, taking the victim's place and aiming to amend or avoid the mistakes they made. Many parasitise Crokek'toeck or lurk in the undercity, waiting to ambush unsuspecting victims.

Ixitxachitl: Below the waters of the Styx, the ray-like ixitxachitl act as the city's criminal underworld. For an extortionate price, they'll help those that fall into the waters; for an even higher one, they'll give them back to their families after holding the victim for ransom and taking glee in watching their memories and minds deteriorate.

Sources:

Crokek'toeck - Baldur's Gate – Descent into Avernus, pg 230
Intellect devourer - Monster Manual, pg 191
Ixitxachitl - Out of the Abyss, pg 225-226
Myconid - Monster Manual, pg 230-232
Sprite - Monster Manual, pg 283
Succubus/Incubus - Monster Manual, pg 284-285

10 Monster Setting – Absolem's Pearl

This is my response to #tenmonstersetting by 3 Toadstools. For this one, I've gone without the suggested creature categories, and all creatures have been taken from 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons.

Underwater by Kiarya

Absolem's Pearl is the lair of the eponymous Absolem, a morkoth that has travelled across the planes on its rocky vessel of petrified dead gods. Kept hot and humid, the lair's ecology is based on the trinkets and 'pets' that Absolem grasps. Once they've landed on the Pearl's beaches and traversed into the coral forests, there is little escape from the morkoth's clutches.

In Absolem's infancy, many of their attempts to collect shiny trinkets and baubles fell prey to the deceptive ploys of mimics. The Pearl is now infested with these ambush predators, leaving adhesive trails across the rocks and shorelines as they take the forms of half-buried swords and hidden escape hatches. Some older mimics have gained great size, becoming curiosities that outweigh Absolem's original desire for whatever petty object they were presumed to be at first.

Mimics have found larger, but simpler-minded prey on the Pearl, allowing them to take on simpler disguises to lure their dinosaur victims. These huge reptilians provide much of the food, heavy labour, and transport of Absolem's loyalists. Many have adapted beyond their initially recognisable forms as they have become more accustomed to an amphibious lifestyle.

Reef by Tim Blandin

The Pearl's riches and captives lure many adventurers to seeking it out; an endeavour that Absolem happily encourages; many of the morkoth's most prized pets are champions, dominated and conditioned into being servitors for their new god. Few of these adventurers last long without getting used to dinosaur steaks and learning to be paranoid of every object around them.

The descendants of Absolem's first prisoners have been shaped by a world of hunting dinosaurs for food and being hunted by shapeshifting ambush predators. Relying on senses beyond their vision to avoid mimics and becoming more zealous and feverish in their worship of the morkoth, these grimlocks consider themselves the chosen ones of Absolem, birthed from rock and salt, created to worship him so that they may one day tear away the skin that covers their eyes and behold the treasure troves of the paradise they live in.

The grimlocks are led by Andromeda, a medusa that has resigned herself to her current fate, simply content that the champions that cross her path are typically too busy trying to run away from an allosaurus to try and challenge her. The grimlocks see her as a powerful sorceress, able to kill enemies before she can smell or hear them. She assures them that one day they too will see, and sends them on errands to fill her demi-lair with treasure and jewels to adorn her sea krait hair.

Not all creatures on the Pearl are inherently prisoners; the berbalang see themselves as seasonal guests, for Absolem makes no attempt to force them to stay. Their ability to whisper to the bones of the dead and be whispered to in return allows them to learn of the whereabouts of lost treasures, which they barter and trade with Absolem in return for access to more precious skeletons or locations of other oddities. Absolem worries that the berbalangs may offer the same services to other residents of the island.

The apex predators of Absolem's Pearl are the various chimera that Absolem pulls through. Somewhat of a pet project, the morkoth finds itself heavily interested in the mix-match creations of cultists and transmuters, bringing the oddities onto the island to observe the interactions between the various creatures. No one chimera looks the same,

Chimeras are, however, not Absolem's truly desired prize. Above any relic, artifact, or slave, what Absolem truly desires is a unicorn of their very own. Several have, over the centuries, found themselves ripped from their woodlands and placed in a barnacle-encrusted world. Their bodies wasted away as the plants they tried to summon got drowned in brine and their connection to the natural world faded away. From their cadavers, corpse flowers have bloomed. These roaming plants provide nutrients to dinosaurs, and the herds of grimlock corpses- easy to gather due to the grimlock's heightened smell making them more vulnerable to the flower's pollen- provide both food for mimics and protection from trapped adventurers.

Underwater Coral Forest by Veikka Somerma

Adventure Hooks (idea taken from Archon's Court):

1. A t-rex has started to show signs of a corpse flower growing on its flesh. If the plant isn't destroyed before the t-rex's necrotised wound claims it, the flower will have a giant skeletal dinosaur army at its disposal.
2. A berbalang has found the location of a powerful magic item, and is receiving offers to trade from both Absolem and Andromeda. It needs help deciding which offer to accept.
3. The grimlocks have been infiltrated by an intelligent mimic, but without the ability to see, they cannot tell which is the imposter.
4. Absolem is on the lookout for a mage able to create some dinosaur chimeras. They've spent so much time wondering whether they could do such a thing that they completely ignored the question of whether they should.
5. A champion ancients paladin has purposefully been captured in order to rescue the most recently abducted unicorn. She needs help to do this, and the grimlock cultists are hot on her trail.

Creatures used:

1. Morkoth - Volo's Guide to Monsters, pg 177-178
2. Mimic - Monster Manual, pg 220
3. Dinosaurs - Monster Manual, pg 79-80; Volo's Guide to Monsters, pg 139-140
4. Champion - Volo's Guide to Monsters, pg 212
5. Grimlock - Monster Manual, pg 175
6. Medusa - Monster Manual, pg 214
7. Berbalang - Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, pg 120
8. Chimera - Monster Manual, pg 39
9. Unicorn - Monster Manual, pg 293-294
10. Corpse Flower - Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, pg 127