Giant Squid and the Kraken - Aquatic 4E Controllers for your Game
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 09:48AM "She [Scylla] has twelve splay feet and six lank scrawny necks. Each neck bears an obscene head, toothy with three rows of thick-set crowded fangs blackly charged with death... particularly she battens on humankind, never failing to snatch up a man with each of her heads from every dark-prowed ship that comes."
- Homer, The Odyssey
We're going to need a bigger boat...
Marine life of all kinds has always been dreadfully fascinating to me, and the idea of creatures unimaginably huge and driven by alien instincts and base needs is terrifying. Stories like those of the bloop, and our limited knowledge of giant squid and colossal squid really feed my imagination, and as I've complained in the past there are no aquatic creatures in the 4E MM. With that, please help me welcome the level 20 Giant Squid and the level 28 Kraken to the Critter Crate.
You'll see that I left out any mention of their barbed whips (two killing tentacles that are much longer than the standard feeding arms, bringing the squid's total tentacle count to 10), but I felt that they were powerful enough already. No ink cloud, either, for the same reason.
I dunno, Ed. I'm betting that sucker could eat your subaru...
The best part about these critters is that you can use them even if you don't want your PCs to even dip a toe into the water. Any coastal campaign, or any boat trip, can become a terrifying battle with an enormous sea creature. Here are some hooks to work these critters into your D20 game.
* A coastal city is plagued by the sudden rise and fall of terrible storms. In their wake are crushed and broken boats, but the remains of the sailors and fishermen are never found. After several weeks and maybe a high-profile disappearance, the PCs are dispatched to discover the cause.
* Kuo-toa have always plagued merchant shipping routes, but only recently have entire boats failed to reach their destinations. When the Behemoth, a flagship navy vessel, is found drifting at sea with no one but gibbering madmen aboard, the PCs are tasked with discovering how this came to be.
* After 30 years of harmony and success, a coastal village famous for its rich waters is fast becoming a ghost town, threatening to ruin the livelihood of friends of the PCs. The sea life has moved on or is in hiding, but when several dead whales covered in lacerations and circular scars drift to shore the PCs know something is up. (hopefully)
Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy!
4E, marine, monsters, squid in 4E, Dungeons and Dragons Monsters, Monster Design 
Reader Comments (2)
Also, I forgot to mention that if you like horrific stories about sea creatures, be sure to check out Peter Benchley's books. They're educational, and also a little terrifying. Beast was the first book of his that I read, but I'm sure you're also familiar with Jaws.
Skip the Beast movie, though. It's awful. :)
The discovery channel had a program on about squid that was really eye opening....