What Animals Do They Keep?

[Dannyalcatraz]

5) I think the idea of Grippli domesticating Carrion Crawlers is one of the coolest things in the world. Imagine the little frog people riding giant centipedes into war, and then hopping up into the trees and using poisonous darts against the archers while the crawlers paralyzed the front ranks of the enemy. Am I the only person who thinks that is worth basing a campaign around?

I think they'd make a nice campaign element, but not a campaign focus.

When I read this, I thought I could see the Grippli as horticulturists of some renown: keeping giant carniverous plants to protect their communities, raising exotic plants for powerful healing potions...or poisons. That kind of thing.

And they could use domesticated harvester ants to keep it all just so.

 

[Bleys Icefalcon]

This threat makes me want to revisit my old Taladas campaign we used to run on the tablelands - home to the various barbarian tribes, each of whom had a symbiotic relationship with their clan Totem, which manifested in the form of a animal spirit. The last time we played that game, our adventurers were from the House of the White Owl. These creatures were subservient to the clansman they were attached too, but it was also a relationship of mutual respect, reverence and love. There are several clans: the Old Bear, Shaggy Wolf, White Owl, Hidden Serpent, Hairless Rat, or Dawn Falcon just to name a few.

Towards the end of our campaign all of them had gained their True Shape, and could, at will shift into the form of the Clan Totem Spirit, a White Owl.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Dwarf's keep guinea pigs, sort of a more robust chicken, fur is used in weaving.
Halflings are know bee keepers, even gaint ones, which they will ride.

 

[DMH]

Dragon 357 had 2 dogs bred by green dragons and duergar and 2 raptors bred by drow and beholders (the latter could reflect rays).

I really liked the idea of dragons breeding monsters and used giant ants and termites, bats, giant cockroaches, various fungal beasts and worms. A character would never expect 3' long worms to be able to undermine a castle wall and allow a dragon's army to invade.

Beholder abominations had a few creatures they bred back in Spelljammer and I, Tyrant. I never did much with that because I find beholders silly.

As for kobolds, I just posted a rat that explodes with positive energy for use in Oathbound over on Epidemic's website. It is the only reason kobolds still exist in Eclipse. I have also used several altered vermin (giant robber flies make great mounts and bees can make all kinds of interesting alchemical substances when fed correctly) and lizards (living alarms and bulldog like protectors).

An article I wrote in Skirmisher's magazine had a stone ant queen (ie a construct) that spontaneously generated giant ants for construction, farming and defensive purposes. Human and dwarven wizards use them when they (or the government) can get enough cash to make one.

Primal Urge's euqsam are parasitic plants that ride animal life. They really dislike taking wild creatures (which is why most humans are safe around them) and breed their own monsters. So many different kinds of hosts for different purposes. The various cities compete for the best and this drives the diversity even farther.

Something I have been working on is a leech that trolls breed. The infusion of trollblood over many generations has given them regeneration and a bit more intelligence. Now the worms are used sort of like hunting dogs, just underwater.

And then there are the psionic crocodile werevultures that use fleshcrafting (from Dreamscarred) to alter themselves and their pets.

Treants usually use natural creatures but occasionally make a few living magical items (Complete Guide to Treants) and they have all kinds of options. A boar may very well rust a party's armor while a hawk hits them with a cold variant of magic missle or entangle. Don't screw with nature, it can bite your head off.

I will have to look in my notes for others. I have a lot of them.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I can see gaint ants being used by any number of underdark races - they get released to do the raiding of the surface world, bringing back food, tools, slaves and other resources.

 

[DMH]

Something I forgot was humans. Dragons and other supercritters keeping humans as pets, livestock and for other uses (like magic and psionic research). I even came up with the lab human- little intelligence and can bud to increase reproduction rate.

What would make a good pet for a cloaker? Darkmantle, lurker above, sinister (a kind of bat) and cave fisher come to mind, but what do you think?

 

[Raven Crowking]

Not every creature keeps pets, and some might think it creepy that we do. This reaction might range from "Why do you burden yourself with parasites?" to "Ugh! Keep your vermin away from me!" or worse. The idea of keeping animals might feel some species with unspeakable horror, making them want to blot out the "wrongbad" the perceive in creatures that do......

 

[Hand of Evil]

What would make a good pet for a cloaker? Darkmantle, lurker above, sinister (a kind of bat) and cave fisher come to mind, but what do you think?

Something like cave crickets, which would become silent when their area is invaded but figure Grimlocks would get a lot of use out of them.

 

[DMH]

I can see gaint ants being used by any number of underdark races - they get released to do the raiding of the surface world, bringing back food, tools, slaves and other resources.

The problem is controlling them. Using magic/psionics is best (obviously) but crude chemical methods may work as well.

I just created a new race that subverts this trope (again on Epidemic's forum). It is a large, nomadic road runner that herds plants. It is also very much a slave to a species of psionic cactus that is only found around its camps.

 

[DMH]

One thing that frustrated me about Lords of Madness was the lack of information on skum (like the process that induces the changes from human to fishman) and what other creations aboleth keep around as pets and warriors. So I came up with a few of my own-dwarves become something like beavers (i.e. they create more aboleth habitat), elves become eel like (ambush and strike troops), halflings become wall climbers and look like bats without wings (sentries) and half orcs gain the strength of mantis shrimp (i.e. they can shatter rock and provide the dwarves with raw materials for their dams). And that is just the humanoids- aboleth have adapted everything from gricks to umber hulks for various purposes.