The Ecology Of The Chuul (unpublished 3.0 version)

[Richards]

"Look, there's a light up ahead," said Federico.

"It's flickering: Torchlight," identified Ardorrak in a low voice. "No telling what's up ahead, but if it's carrying a torch, it's intelligent!" The dwarf smiled a wicked smile; intelligent foes meant worthy combat, and had a better chance of carrying valuables to be plundered.

"Weapons out and ready," ordered Thorvin to the others, grasping his short sword and shield eagerly.

"Out and ready," echoed Haaj, gripping his battleaxe.

The six continued down the passageway, toward the flickering light. The stone corridor opened into a vast cavern, with a pool of water just ahead and a fast-moving stream just beyond, the source of the noise Federico had picked out. Over to the right, beyond the pool, was a side-cavern, from which spilled the torchlight.

"We'll rush in on three," said Ardorrak in a low voice. "One...two..."

"Wait!" whispered Shandrilla, putting a restraining hand on the dwarven fighter's shoulder. "Are you going to just barge in there and attack indiscriminately?"

"That's the idea, yeah."

"But what if it isn't an enemy? Or what if it is, but we're outnumbered?"

"Then we finally get a fight worthy of us," grinned the dwarf. "Okay, on three--"

"Why don't I go check it out first?" suggested Shandrilla in a whisper, handing her torch to Javorik. "I can sneak up there and at least see what it is we're up against. Or if we're even up against anyone; there's no guarantee that whoever lit the torch is still around."

"Makes sense to me," put in Javorik.

"We'll know in a minute anyway," argued Ardorrak. "On three, then--"

"Wait, wait," hissed the human thief. "At least let me--"

"By the Gods below! THREE!" yelled Ardorrak at the top of his lungs. Whooping with battle-lust, the three dwarves rushed headlong into the shallow pool, splashing their way toward the illumination in the side cavern. A mere fraction of a second later they were joined by Federico, not willing to be shown up by a bunch of dwarves.

"So much for subtlety," remarked Shandrilla dryly.

"It's their culture," pointed out Javorik. "Come on, let's give them a hand."

But by the time they joined the others it was apparent that no assistance was necessary. The three dwarves looked around in disappointment, failing to find an enemy to destroy. Shandrilla almost laughed aloud at the looks of utter dejection on their bearded faces.

Then the chuul rose silently up out of the pool behind her and leapt to the attack.[18]

Javorik screamed out a warning. Shandrilla instinctively dropped flat, submerging under knee-deep water. As a result, the chuul landed almost on top of her, straddling her prone form with its four armored legs while its left pincer-claw snipped the air where she'd just been standing. Failing to get its first victim, the creature faced the dwarves and gnomes in its treasure cavern, pincers wide open and poised to strike.

Javorik struck first. He blurted out the words to a magic missile spell, sending darts of energy flashing into the beast's carapace, then dropped back as the dwarves pushed forward, eager for combat. "Garbug!" yelled Thorvin in surprise as he swung his sword at an armored claw.[19]

Meanwhile, Shandrilla crawled to her knees at the side of the great beast, sputtering out a mouthful of half-swallowed water. She saw the dwarves swinging their weapons wildly, shouting in jubilation as they battled the armored monstrosity. As she watched in horror, though, the beast struck forward with blinding speed, catching both Thorvin and Haaj in its serrated pincers. Ardorrak swung his warhammer into the side of the beast's head, with little effect.

The monster lifted the two armored dwarves with seemingly no effort, then used its left pincer to swing Thorvin into Ardorrak's side, spilling the dwarven leader into the water and knocking Thorvin unconscious. Both dwarves dropped their weapons. Federico waded up to take Ardorrak's place, but the water was nearly waist-deep to the little gnome and he made slow progress.

In the meantime, Haaj was slamming his battleaxe against the chuul's hardened exoskeleton in an effort to free himself from the beast's right pincer-claw and Javorik cast the last of his magic missile spells. Shandrilla waded out of the water and stepped, dripping, over to the illusionist's side. "Look, tentacles!" she said, pointing at the writhing appendages dangling from around the creature's mouth.

As they watched in horror, the monster brought Haaj up to its mouth and grabbed him with its grasping tentacles. Haaj cried out a dwarven curse and froze in position, his battleaxe swung back for a mighty blow that never came. This freed up the creature's right claw, which it snapped at Federico. Fortunately, the little gnome's size worked to his advantage and he ducked under the snapping pincers with ease.

"Quick, load me up!" commanded Shandrilla, whipping off her backpack and unfastening the top. Javorik looked around at the monster's treasure hoard, choosing the heaviest items he could find: Pieces of dwarven platemail, a hefty hammer; each went into Shandrilla's pack. Javorik considered a skull or two but doubted their weight would matter much for the room they would take up; then, with a grin, he swatted two skulls out of the way and picked up the flat rock on which they had been prominently displayed. "This oughtta do it, Shanny," he said, squeezing it in.

Shandrilla shrugged the heavy pack back onto her shoulders, slid her short sword back into its sheath at her side, and waded into the pool, heading directly for the lobster-monster. Well, it worked against that carrion crawler, she thought, why not again?

"Hey, monster, OVER HERE!" she cried, waving her arms in the air to attract its attention.

By this time, the chuul had captured Federico in the claw freed up by Haaj. Ardorrak, after some fumbling about in the shallow water, had regained his warhammer and was wading to the attack. Facing a battle-hungry dwarf with its tentacles and both pincers full, the chuul dropped the unconscious Thorvin from its left claw.[20] Shandrilla waded up behind Ardorrak, but the beast lunged at the dwarf before she could reach them. Ardorrak was snatched up in a flash.

"No, ME!" cried Shandrilla, waving frantically. "Come and get ME, you stupid monster! Look! No metal armor! Easy pickings!"

The chuul seemed unimpressed.[21]

Javorik waded out into the water and pulled the unconscious Thorvin up onto the stone, lest he drown. This took some effort on his part, for the waterlogged dwarf weighed nearly triple the diminutive illusionist's weight even without the metal armor, but with much determination and a Tenser's floating disk spell he eventually managed the task. Even as he struggled, though, he was glad for the dwarf's armor, for without it he knew Thorvin would likely have been cut in two by the creature's jagged pincers.

Shandrilla, meanwhile, gave up on waiting for the stupid lobster-beast and took matters - quite literally - into her own hands. She jumped at the tentacles holding Haaj, grabbing one in each hand so that when she became paralyzed the weight of her heavy pack would pin the monster's head to the ground. Realizing that she was pulling this stunt in an underground pool, she took in a deep breath in case she ended up underwater at the end of her little ploy.

She needn't have bothered. Even as her movements ceased, the chuul lifted its head and waded backwards to deeper water. It didn't seem the least bit inconvenienced by the extra weight.[22]

Javorik, meanwhile, had finally gotten Thorvin to safety and was wracking his brain for a useful spell from his inventory. He had a fireball ready, but didn't dare use it with his friends in the way. There was his old standby, mirror image; lacking any better ideas, he cast it. Arcane words spilled from his lips and suddenly there were four Javoriks wading out toward the chuul, each pulling a dagger from his belt.

NOTES

18. Many are surprised at the chuul's jumping abilities. This is an understandable reaction, given the chuul's heavily-armored carapace and lobsterlike build; jumping isn't something one would normally expect from a creature built like a clawed tank. Nonetheless, a chuul's four powerful hind legs can send the creature springing forth over great distances. The chuul was not built for running, though; most of its leaps are from a standing position.

19. Garbugs (from earlier editions of the game) are closely related to chuuls and the two species are easily confused at first glance. Garbugs basically look like winged lobsters. The males are about 6 feet long and have black carapaces, while the females are purple and reach about 9 feet. Both sexes have six paralytic tentacles clustered around their mouths and exhibit cannibalistic tendencies.

Both chuuls and garbugs are believed to have been brought from the illithid homeworld (along with carrion crawlers and many species of amorph) as the mind flayers traveled from world to world. In fact, chuuls are often found as thralls in the service of mind flayers, or, less frequently, beholders.

20. While fighting, a chuul tries to keep at least one claw free for battle, even if it means dropping a potential meal. Chuuls are vicious in battle, preferring to prolong a fight even if they already have victims to spare, as long as they're winning. Of course, if the battle starts to turn against it, a chuul has no qualms about grabbing up what victims it has and fleeing, usually by swimming backwards with its powerful tail into deep water.

21. Confident in battle (sometimes overly so), chuuls don't always go after the easiest victims. While the chuul is usually sure that it can overcome everyone in a party of adventurers, often in the back of its mind it's picking and choosing individuals based on which potential victim has the most impressive treasure with which the chuul can add to its hoard. Thus, fighters in shiny metal armor or wielding impressive weapons are often attacked first, even if doing so isn't strictly logical. Of course, chuuls are no fools - they have the standard Intelligence rating of a normal human, after all - and if one party member dishes out all of the damage, the chuul's likely to try to take her out first.

22. Chuuls have a Strength rating of 20; as Large creatures, they can lift up to 800 pounds without difficulty.

 

[Richards]

The chuul was having a bit of difficulty with its enemies. Despite being held tightly in the beast's pincers, the dwarven and gnomish fighters were still using their weapons to full advantage. The little gnome's sword had managed to chip fragments of the chuul's armor off at the wrist; this being the creature's weakened right wrist, it was justifiably concerned. On the other hand, the dwarf's hammer seemed just as deadly, and he was the stronger of the two humanoids; the chuul's hardened carapace was cracked and bleeding in more than one place. The female dangled motionless by the chuul's tentacles in front of the paralyzed dwarf, whose armored body was difficult to chew and also prevented the chuul's mouthparts from reaching the human. And worse yet, the chuul couldn't extricate her on its own, for her paralyzed fingers had an excellent grip on its front tentacles. And now four unarmored and undoubtedly easily-chewed gnomes approached the chuul, but it had no appendages free to grab them.

All in all, it was a very frustrating situation, but there was an easy solution. The chuul backed up into deeper water and lowered its pincers, submerging two of its enemies. It also dipped its head below the water level, hoping to drown the other dwarf and the human as well.

Suddenly a sharp pain ran up its right forearm: the gnomish fighter had managed to hack through one of the weakened pincers, freeing himself. Bluish blood stained the waters and the chuul screamed in silent pain.[23] The little gnome backed off toward shallower waters, fearful of drowning in his plate mail.

There was another pain as a blade cut into the monster's right mandible: The dwarf entwined in the chuul's tentacles had shaken off the paralytic secretions and finally completed the axe-swing he had started before. This was the final straw; the chuul decided to cut its losses. It swiped at the female with its damaged claw, hoping to pierce her with the serrated edge of the one pincer remaining on its damaged limb, but it got caught instead between her backpack and back. Shaking its wounded limb free, the chuul tore the woman from its tentacles even as the backpack was ripped from her back. The pack rapidly sank to the bottom of the pool; the woman, still paralyzed, was pulled by the currents, blood spilling from the gash in her back inflicted by the chuul's jagged claw.

As the monster backed rapidly toward the stream, it clamped down hard on the dwarf still held in its left pincer, hoping at least to save this one last morsel for itself, especially since he wore shiny armor that would add nicely to the chuul's treasure hoard.

NOTES

23. Lacking vocal chords, chuuls make no vocalizations. They have no language of their own, but can learn to understand a language spoken by others.

 

[Richards]

Federico, standing neck-deep in water, looked above the escaping chuul and saw a cluster of large stalactites hanging down. "Look!" he cried to his cousin. Javorik saw the opportunity thus afforded, raised one hand above the water, and spoke the words to his fireball spell, his mirror images repeating the action in unison. Four tiny spheres raced to the cavern ceiling to converge upon the stalactites and explode in a shower of flame. Large chunks of the ceiling rained down upon the chuul, cracking and piercing its hardened carapace.

It died immediately.

Federico gave Javorik a big grin and a hearty slap upon the back. There was a commotion behind them; it was Thorvin, waking to consciousness by the noise of the fiery explosion. He grinned wickedly at seeing the chuul's demise, but then a flicker of concern crossed his face. "Where're the others?" he asked.

As if on cue, Haaj waded up out of the water, supporting a grievously wounded Ardorrak. Blood flowed freely down the sides of Ardorrak's armor, mute testimony to the fact that metal armor could only hold out against the pressure of a chuul's pincers for so long. Ardorrak winced in obvious pain and stumbled to his knees once out of the water. Thorvin laid a hand on his shoulder, an unspoken showing of support for his companion's heroism in battle.

That left only one unaccounted for. "Where's Shanny?" asked Javorik suddenly. He looked around in sudden panic; she was nowhere to be seen. The illusionist bolted back toward the dead chuul, ducking under the water with his multiple duplicates still mirroring his every move. Federico quickly shrugged out of his heavy armor and followed suit. Frantically they searched the pool for their friend, hoping to find her safe, dreading to find her drowned, but desperate to find her regardless. Haaj and Thorvin settled Ardorrak down comfortably on the hard stone and joined the search; together, they combed the pool, recovering only their dropped weapons and Shandrilla's torn backpack.

After an interminable time, Javorik stumbled back out of the water, dripping and exhausted, his mirror images long since expired, followed by his cousin and the two dwarven fighters. The little illusionist looked back at the underground pool, with its dead chuul and its flowing stream, and screamed out "SHANNY!" in a pain-torn voice.

The name reverberated throughout the cavern, but there was no response.

Shandrilla was gone.

 

[Richards]

...And that's it, as originally written.

I just want to point out a couple of things here, lest my motives be misconstrued. While I greatly prefer the "fiction and footnote" format of the "Ecology" articles to their current format, I'm well aware that not everyone shares my opinion. Although I find the current "Ecology" format to be a bit of dry reading, even I admit that the current format has several advantages over the previous one. It's easier to find specific information about the creature in question when you don't have to read through a bunch of fiction to find it, and I really like the introduction of the "DC Knowledge Check" charts in the recent "Ecology" articles, which allow you to determine what a given character might know about the specific creature. Likewise, my posting of my version of the "Ecology of the Chuul" is in no way an attempt to take away from Mike Mearls' recently-published version; I think he did a great job in the new format, and his "origin" of the chuul - while ignoring what to me seems an obvious close ancestry with the garbug (again, something he probably wasn't allowed to touch on, given that the garbug's existence in the current D&D world is questionable since the 3.0/3.5 "reboot") - fits in nicely with the information in the new Lords of Madness book from Wizards of the Coast.

Johnathan

 

[demiurge1138]

That's pretty cool. I haven't read the others of the series, but that's good prose and good ecological info for your version of the chuul. It's a nice alternative from the sorcery-gone-amok chuul of the 3.5 ecology article and Lords of Madness, which I like as well.

Demiurge out.

 

[zoroaster100]

Thanks for posting this. I like your take on the chuul's origin (brought by mindflayers from their homeworld, along with carrion crawlers) better than the "mad scientist" origin in the 3.5 ecology (though that one was interesting as well). I like ecology articles, in either format. They add more depth to monsters, which is sorely needed for new creatures in the Monster Manual since monsters now a days are usually published with nothing but the barebones stats.

 

[Richards]

Actually, the idea that carrion crawlers and several other "standard" D&D creatures originated on the mind flayer homeworld was a concept introduced in "The Sunset World," a mind flayer article that appeared in Dragon #150. (If I remember correctly, it was written by Stephen Inniss.) I thought that was a brilliant idea, and since it says in the chuul description in the Monster Manual that chuuls often work for mind flayers, I thought it only made sense to add them to the list. (That, plus there's the obvious "tentacles on the face" connection hinting at a possible ancestry, or at least parallel development on the same world.)

Johnathan

 

[pogre]

Thanks for sharing this - very cool stuff.

 

[humble minion]

Is it wrong that I was barracking for the chuul all the way through this article?

*sniff* Poor little crustaceanic abomination. You will be missed...

 

[Mortepierre]

I much prefer the 'fiction & footnotes' type of Ecology article because that's how they appeared in the old (1E & 2E) issues of Dragon and that's what got me hooked to it. I concur with you that the new version makes it easier to get crucial tidbits in a hurry but it sure does make for a dry reading. Bleh!