Another Creature Catalog query for Dragon? (Pt 2)

[Piratecat]

We're doing the stwinger? The monster I suggested as unsalvageable?

Bwah ha ha ha ha!

Okay, Boz - the gauntlet is thrown. We can do this.

 

[Knight Otu]

Random idea:
These creatures are sages and oracles. However, they can only impart their wisdom whispered into the ears of their victims. Their victims don't have to be willing for that, but they have to be enduring, as they only relinquish small bits at a time, and in a voice that might put the most eager learner to sleep.

...

Yeah, it'll be tough to salvage this guy.

 

[Shade]

That's an interesting angle, Knight Otu.

We know they like to swing on hair and to collect hair to braid into ropes, etc. What if they were like the Lilliputians in Gulliver's Travels? Perhaps once they've had their fun and the victim passes out, they tie it up in ropes weaved from hair while they harvest its remaining hair. Perhaps evil ones weave foul magic using locks of victims' hair, while good ones safeguard the hair. I could see a quest to a stwinger's lair to recover the hair of a fallen comrade, as it is the only known bit of his body that can be found for a resurrection spell.

 

[Aspect of BOZ]

Here is the original blurb I wrote for them awhile back:

Stwinger
Fey, CR ½
These nauseatingly cute faeries like to swing from other creatures’ hair – which is more harmful than it sounds. After charming a creature into helplessness, this swinging deals nonlethal damage which can ultimately leave a creature unconscious. They are so incredibly cute that it requires a Will save to even attack one.
Originally found in Monstrous Compendium MC14 - Fiend Folio Appendix (1992)

...

Maybe they have a unique element to their origin (maybe they’re made form pure chaos, or descendents of some powerful beings, or emissaries to some god or something). Maybe they have a dark and hidden secret. Maybe they have unique alliances. Maybe a combination of the above, or something else entirely different. They’re enigmatic enough already that finding something to work with them shouldn’t be all that difficult.

Random idea:
These creatures are sages and oracles. However, they can only impart their wisdom whispered into the ears of their victims. Their victims don't have to be willing for that, but they have to be enduring, as they only relinquish small bits at a time, and in a voice that might put the most eager learner to sleep.

We know they like to swing on hair and to collect hair to braid into ropes, etc. What if they were like the Lilliputians in Gulliver's Travels? Perhaps once they've had their fun and the victim passes out, they tie it up in ropes weaved from hair while they harvest its remaining hair. Perhaps evil ones weave foul magic using locks of victims' hair, while good ones safeguard the hair. I could see a quest to a stwinger's lair to recover the hair of a fallen comrade, as it is the only known bit of his body that can be found for a resurrection spell.

This isn’t sounding too bad so far, actually. The silly, flighty, vapid way they normally behave is simply how they are known to most other creatures, since this is how they interact. While they swing from person to person, they whisper their sage-like knowledge almost as a game, which might lead creatures to seek them out. They harvest the hair of any victim who remains overlong (and can’t find a way to quiet them up and have a decent conversation) to make into ropes, maybe to enchant them as if they were scrolls or something.

 

[Piratecat]

I have this image of the fey plucking out someone's hair one by one, and with each hair comes a memory, and emotion, a secret. They need to immobilize their victim for this, of course. By the time a captive's scalp is plucked clean, the fey has effectively stolen their soul and left them a mindless, feebleminded hulk. Then the fey weave this hair into their homes and feed off the woven memories and secrets.

Sure, they look cute. But that's just protective coloring.

 

[Shade]

I have this image of the fey plucking out someone's hair one by one, and with each hair comes a memory, and emotion, a secret. They need to immobilize their victim for this, of course. By the time a captive's scalp is plucked clean, the fey has effectively stolen their soul and left them a mindless, feebleminded hulk. Then the fey weave this hair into their homes and feed off the woven memories and secrets.

Sure, they look cute. But that's just protective coloring.

I like it!

We've definitely got a dark streak around these parts, eh?

 

[BOZ]

with posts #134 and #135, i think we definitely have enough to work on, and these ideas definitely make them less shallow.

however, there are a lot of ideas going in a lot of different ways now... let's try to get to some sort of consensus on where we want to go with them.

i do like where PC was going, although it seems a bit *too* dark - i'd be fine with the exact same idea, if the feeblemindedness was temporary though. (X# of days would be fine by me)

 

[Shade]

i do like where PC was going, although it seems a bit *too* dark - i'd be fine with the exact same idea, if the feeblemindedness was temporary though. (X# of days would be fine by me)

...until the hair grows back?

Perhaps to make them less evil, they see themselves as plucking away sins/bad memories and giving the victims a fresh start with new hair?

 

[BOZ]

sure, all/any of that.

 

[Nightfall]

Boz,

Good luck with that!