Real Sea Monsters

[heirodule]

All in one place for your perusal.


http://www.who-sucks.com/animals/real-life-sea-monsters-24-bizarre-creatures-of-the-deep

D&D already has a sonic stunning crab.

Does it have a light-flashing squid?

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Ooooh, that's an awesome site! Thanks for feeding my fear of the sea!

 

[Aeolius]

Let's see... how many of those have I used in my games, in one way or another

I have an abyssal beholder who uses a glowing eye on an elongated stalk as a lure.
I devised the blinogo, or sea goblins, inspired by the goblin shark.
My sea flayers were fashioned after the blue-ring octopus.

The picture of the firefly squid doesn't do it justice. You need to see them in the dark. They can squirt phosphorescent ink, to confuse predators.

Here's another one that surfaced in the news again, recently:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/07/photogalleries/wip-week38/photo4.html

And equally freaky:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/photogalleries/frilled-shark/

A personal favorite, the globster (in my games, an undead):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globster

Since Shark Week starts this Sunday (look over the 20 Coolest Sharks):
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/sharkweek/sharkweek.html

How could I forget hagfish? (mbayaq.org has some great webcams, as well):
http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/living_species/default.asp?hOri=1&inhab=198

 

[D.Shaffer]

I was always partial to the vampire squid.
Sure, the ones we KNOW are only a foot or so long...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_squid

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I approve 100% to the practice of using natural critters to make PCs afeared!

Check out Piers Anthony's novel Spider Legs and also look up Cone Snails, Mantis/Bullet shrimp and others...

 

[joshhg]

Whoh, those are cool! Some of those would be really nasty to meet in real life (you know, besides being underwater at +3x atmoshperic pressure).

However, this is chock full of pictures I may use to show the effects of bull strenght on a animal or mage-bred livestock.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Since Shark Week starts this Sunday (look over the 20 Coolest Sharks):
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/sharkweek/sharkweek.html

That video mixer's kind of cool.

 

[Tonguez]

And equally freaky:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/photogalleries/frilled-shark/

Wow thats cool. and that pic is great I can just imagine that swimming towards me in a nightmare! (I love living fossils)
So is it missing a dorsal fin or doesn't it have one?

Oh a good to see you're back Aeolius, we've been missing your fishy contributions

 

[Kae'Yoss]

What does this thing's form remind me of?

 

[Aeolius]

...I can just imagine that swimming towards me in a nightmare!

Here ya go... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFLjNq8Xatc
Let me know how the nightmares turn out

...good to see you're back Aeolius, we've been missing your fishy contributions

"Heirs of Turucambi", my new undersea chat-based game, has had two sessions, thusfar... I've been cooking up all sorts of undersea nasties, of late.