Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 8790007" data-attributes="member: 6915329">As much as I love the next monsters, I hesitate to update them for Level Up. We have finally gotten to the creatures that live on the mind flayer’s homeworld, and mind flayers aren’t in Level Up. So I guess the question is: can they function as their own creatures and not something that’s illithid-adjacent?There are four monsters in this article. Three of them were redone in 3x’s Lords of Madness book. Surprisingly, the creature I’m converting today, the cessirid, wasn’t. A second creature, the kigrid, has become a variant of the cessirid. Of the other two, the embrac is far too similar to the balhannoth (from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes and more recently, Monsters of the Multiverse) to need to be converted, and the saltor is basically mind flayer-lite. So I guess I'm only doing the cessirid and kigrid.Also, remember the <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/a-leveled-up-bestiary.689467/post-8738475" target="_blank">kaoulgrim</a>? They are specifically mentioned as being enemies of the cessirid. Because of course githdogs hate illithidogs.This article is connected to another article called The Sunset World, all about the mind flayer’s home planet/dimension. It’s described as a tidal-locked world with a very eccentric orbit of 140 or so days around a dark red sun that always stays low on the horizon, where the wind never changes direction (this has actually altered how plant life grows) and the habitable zone is a damp, chill place filled with stagnant marshes and ancient ruins and black-leaved plants. It’s home to countless “amorphs” (oozes, ropers, trappers, and mimics), fungi, and, of course, the members of the illithidae family. Which includes carrion crawlers, FYI. This article provided me the imagery that still shapes how I see mind flayers, even decades later. When I think of the Far Realms, I think of the world described in this article. (it’s also accompanied by what is still my favorite picture of the mind flayers—I’ve yet to see an illustration of them that’s as eerie and alien as this one.)[ATTACH=full]263151[/ATTACH]This article seems to use the idea that every world is its own plane of existence—they’re not alternate Primes or pocket dimensions, but literally different planets (or potentially solar systems). It’s definitely an interesting way to allow for world-hopping games without resorting to Spelljammers or going through the Outer Planes.[ATTACH=full]263149[/ATTACH]Art by Tom BaxaCessiridThe Dragon’s Bestiary, Dragon Magazine #150Created by Stephen InnissRoughly canid in form, cessirid are hideous pack hunters of the caverns below. Their slimy skin is an unpleasant pale gray, a ridge of spikes run down their spines, and their heads are a mass of tentacles and barbed beaks dominated by oversized, glowing eyes. Their beaks hide inner pharyngeal jaws that scissor prey’s flesh while injecting toxic, acidic secretions into the wound. Cessirids are utterly quiet, never deliberately making any sort of sound.Intelligent Beasts. Cessirid are as smart as most humanoids, but that fact is obvious only from the tactics they use when they hunt. They think like cruel, rabid animals, caring only for the thrill of the hunt. They enjoy sending gruesome images to their prey in order to disturb and confuse it. Cessirid live together in tightly-knit packs, working together silently and efficiently to bring down prey of any sort. They prefer intelligent prey—the smarter the better—both to eat and to deposit larva in.Single-Minded. Although they care for little beyond food and reproduction, there is one other thing that perks a cessirid’s interests, and that is other creatures with psionic powers. Such creatures are always seen in one of two ways: they are either creatures to avoid, or creatures to kill and devour. There is no in-between there. The choice they make doesn’t seem dependent on the psionicist’s strength or power level, but based on myths and ancient grudges. Against truly powerful foes, such as gem dragons, multiple packs may choose to band together.Legends and LoreWith an Arcana or Nature check, the characters can learn the following:DC 10. Vicious pack hunters, cessirids are intelligent beings who can scent thinking minds and can teleport between dimensions.DC 15. The bite of a cessirid injects a corrosive venom that causes muscle weakness.DC 20. Cessirid reproduce by laying larvae in fresh corpses to feed until they metamorphize into adults. A side-effect of the enzymes the larvae secrete causes the corpse to not otherwise decay. Some larvae grow into extra-large adults that have powers of levitation and invisibility.Cessirid EncountersTerrain: caverns, dungeonsCR 3-4 3-4 cessirids; kigridCR 5-10 2d4+2 cessirids; 1-2 kigrid and revilock.Treasure: vial of medicinal salve, tome written in grimlock writing, ring of psychic resistanceSigns1. Sudden flash of horrific imagery.2. An acid-burned corpse.3. A severed facial tentacle, still twitching.4. A sour-yogurt sort of smell.Behavior1. Silently pursuing a terrified humanoid.2. Guarding a larva-filled corpse.3. Playing cat-and-mouse with a creature they have no intention of actually eating.4. In battle with a wyrmling gem dragon.CessiridSmall aberrationChallenge 1 (200 XP)AC 14 (natural armor)HP 45 (10d6+10; bloodied 22)Speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft.STR 12 (+1) DEX 14 (+2) CON 12 (+1)INT 10 (+0) WIS 12 (+1) CHA 9 (-1)Proficiency +2Maneuver DC 12Skills Perception +3, Stealth +4Condition Immunities charmed, confused, frightened, unconsciousSenses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13Languages telepathy 120 ft. (can transmit but not receive thoughts and images)Flexible Bones. The cessirid can pass through an opening large enough for a Tiny creature without squeezing.Keen Hearing and Smell. The cessirid has advantage on Perception checks that rely on hearing and smell.Mindsense. The cessirid can smell the mind of creatures that have Int 5 or higher and are able to understand at least one language within 500 feet.Pack Tactics. The cessirid has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of the cessirid allies is within 5 feet of the creature and not incapacitated .Psionic Spellcasting (At Will). The cessirid can innately cast dimension door, requiring no components. Its spellcasting trait is Intelligence.ActionsBite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) acid damage, and the target must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 minute. A poisoned creature falls prone, and it requires the creature’s entire movement to stand up. At the end of each of its turns, it may make a new Constitution saving throw, ending the poisoned condition on a success.CombatCessirids hunt much like wolves do, harrying preyVariant: KigridSometimes, one or more larvae in a batch produce kigirds, large mutant cessirids. They are larger and bulkier, with glistening, tar-black hide and oversized claws. A pack of cessirids will drive a matured cessirid away and a pack may choose to kill one they come across, and kigrids themselves battle fiercely amongst whenever they meet. Kigrids rarely tolerate each other long enough to reproduce, and when they do, most of their offspring are cessirids.Strangely, unlike cessirids who have a flight-or-fight mentality when it comes to other psionicists, kigrids are more often willing to ally themselves with psychics such as revilocks. While doing so, they also manage to suppress their other antisocial tendencies, and a revilock may have a small pack of kigrid allies.A kigrid is Medium and is CR 3. It has 55 (10d8+10; bloodied 27) hit points. Its armor class is 15 (natural armor), it loses the Pack Tactics trait, gains the following new trait, and its Psionic Spellcasting trait has been altered:Long Jump. The kigrid can long jump up to 25 feet.Psionic Spellcasting. The kigrid can cast innately cast the following spells, requiring no components:At Will: mage hand (the hand is invisible), dimension door3/day each: invisibility, levitationThe kigrid gains the following new attack:Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d8+2) slashing damage. If the kigrid moves at least 20 feet straight towards the target before the attack, the target makes a DC 12 Strength saving throw, falling prone on a failure.Additionally, it gains the following new bonus action:Opportune Bite. The kigrid makes a bit attack against a prone creature.</blockquote>

Verification