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 Blue Ring Octopi /Anguilians of the Underdark

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T O P I C    R E V I E W
sleyvas Posted - 24 May 2017 : 14:20:38
In looking at the "other monsters" listed in Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the underdark yesterday for info on the bainligor, I noted several second edition monsters that I guess never saw much attention (or maybe I never paid much attention to them?).

One of these was the blue ring octopi. I'm just wondering, was anything ever really done with them? Along with Tako this could be another race that could have led to the land based batrachi.

Then I also saw the Anguilians, which I couldn't even picture till I found them in stormwrack (which is 3rd edition, so they must have been in some other product in 2nd edition)

Also, while we're at it... there's also some race of subterranean "amphibious" lizard folk called the Varkha. Anyone know of any real information on them other than what's found in the aforementioned resource (where their only real mention is serving some dragon).
10   L A T E S T    R E P L I E S    (Newest First)
Markustay Posted - 26 May 2017 : 17:00:10
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

quote:
Originally posted by AuldDragon

quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

"sealed him at the moment of his birth"..... hmmm, probably not what they intended but could be interesting to have an Atropal version of one of these.



I'm not sure what that is.

Jeff


Undead baby gods. And in my opinion, the concept is more ridiculous and poorly thought-out than that description implies. A real low-point of the 3.x era, and that era had some crappy things. A lot of good stuff, but some real stinkers, too.

Yeah, 'undead gods' is hard enough to explain (within the 'rules structure' of the D&Dverse cosmology), and 'stillborn gods' just takes that to whole 'nother level.

Provided link above, in case anyone actually wanted a 'visual'.
TomCosta Posted - 26 May 2017 : 16:03:19
Thanks Jeff. I should've added that in there.
AuldDragon Posted - 26 May 2017 : 02:55:56
quote:
Originally posted by TomCosta

• Giants: Monstrous Manual, Giantcraft, Dragon #__, “__” (undead giants article)


For those whose interest may have been piqued, the issue with the undead giants is Dragon #254, page 90.

Jeff
TomCosta Posted - 25 May 2017 : 22:53:51
Blue ring octopi appeared in an issue of Dragon Magazine. To quote an old Q&A with Eric about that source:

Q: Eric, pray tell where in the Abyss did you find all those monsters you threw out left and right? Found Dark Creepers (Fiend Folio), Gohlborn (MCA-4), but where are Blue Ring Octopi and Dire Coorbies from? An appendix stating where you can find each of the monsters rattled off would have sure been helpful.

A: When I do a turnover, I always turnover a detailed list of citations (source and page number) for each and every design decision I made based in part on existing Realmslore. This is solely for my benefit and the benefit of the editor and is not intended to be published.
In addition, in my turnover for DDGttU, I chose to include references (just product names only) at the end of each section. These references were not included in the published version for a variety reasons. In addition to space considerations, the inclusion of such references (while helpful) can create a false impression that the reader needs all of the listed sources to use the product. Moreover, many of the references are essentially of interest only to a fact checker, as the referenced material is wholly subsumed into the DDGttU write-up.
In any event, here are the references we considered including at the end of each race write-up in Chapter 3 - Civilized Races. This should cover 99% of the obscure monster references. Please note that these sources ARE NOT REQUIRED by any means. Moreover, there is a lot of duplication here ... if a monster was covered first in Dragon and then reprinted in a MC Annual, both references appear here. These references are not intended to be exhaustive, simply a good source for info on the race in general.
Without further ado...
• Aboleth: Monstrous Manual, Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume 2, The Night Below, Dragon #222 - “Secrets of the Sunless Seas.”
• Beholders: Monstrous Manual, I, Tyrant, Ruins of Undermountain, Ruins of Myth Drannor, SJR2 - Realmspace, Dragon #76 - “Ecology of the Beholder,” Dragon #93 - “Ecology of the Eye of the Deep,” Dragon #188 - “The Wizards Three,” Monstrous Mythology.
• Cloakers: Monstrous Manual, Menzoberranzan, Dungeon #70 - “King of the Ghouls.”
• Drow: Monstrous Manual, FOR2 - Drow of the Underdark, Menzoberranzan, Demihuman Deities, D3 - Vault of the Drow, Complete Book of Elves.
• Dwarves: Monstrous Manual, Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume 3, FR11 -Dwarves Deep, Demihuman Deities, Complete Book of Dwarves.
• Illithids: Monstrous Manual, Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume 1, Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume 3, The Illithiad, Monstrous Mythology, Dragon #255 -”The New Illithid Arsenal.”
• Ixzan: Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume 2, The Night Below, Monstrous Manual, Sea of Fallen Stars, Dragon #85 - “Ecology of the Ixitxachitl.”
• Kuo-toa: Monstrous Manual, The Night Below, D2 - Shrine of the Kuo-Toa, Sea of Fallen Stars, Elminster’s Ecologies, Monstrous Mythology.
• Svirfneblin: Monstrous Manual, Demihuman Deities, Complete Book of Gnomes & Halflings.

• Anguiliians: The Sea Devils, Sea of Blood.
• Bainligor: Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume 4, Dragon #227.
• Bi-Nou: Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume 2, Ruins of Undermountain II.
• Blue-ring Octopi: Dragon #227.
• Chitines: Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume 1, Dragon #223 - “Ecology of the Chitine.”
• Dao: Monstrous Manual, MC13 - Al-Qadim Monstrous Compendium.
• Dark Creepers: MC14 - Fiend Folio.
• Dire Corbies: AD&D1 Fiend Folio, Sojourn.
• Dopplegangers: Monstrous Manual, City of Splendors.
• Dragons: Monstrous Manual, Draconomicon, Cult of the Dragon.
• Giants: Monstrous Manual, Giantcraft, Dragon #__, “__” (undead giants article)
• Gaunds: MC11 - Forgotten Realms Appendix.
• Gibberlings: Monstrous Manual, Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting - Shadowdale.
• Glouras: Dragon #227.
• Goblins: Monstrous Manual.
• Grell: Monstrous Manual.
• Gremlins: Monstrous Manual.
• Grimlocks: Monstrous Manual.
• Kobolds: Monstrous Manual.
• Orcs: Monstrous Manual, Hellgate Keep, Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting -Shadowdale.
• Phaerimm: Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume 3, FR13 - Anauroch, Ruins of Myth Drannor.
• Pech: Monstrous Manual.
• Quaggoths: Monstrous Manual.
• Ropers: Monstrous Manual, Demihuman Deities, The Illithiad.
• Sharn: Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume 3, Ruins of Undermountain.
• Skulks: MC5 - Greyhawk Monstrous Compendium, Faiths & Avatars, Dragon #241 - “Legacies of the Suel Imperium.”
• Thaalud: Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume 3, FR13 - Anauroch.
• Troglodytes: Monstrous Manual, MC11 - Forgotten Realms Appendix.
• Varkha: Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume 4, Dragon Annual #1.

A quick comment here ... I tried to keep 95% of the book usable to someone who only has a Monstrous Manual. As it happens, there is a great deal of Underdark lore out there on deep-dwelling monsters that has never been “collated” into a single book. Many of the most interesting races first appeared in Dragon or generic adventures. As such, to make the setting come alive, it was necessary to include references to some of the more obscure races, but hopefully in a manner that does not detract from the enjoyment of the product if the sources are unavailable.


Wooly Rupert Posted - 25 May 2017 : 03:28:22
quote:
Originally posted by AuldDragon

quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

"sealed him at the moment of his birth"..... hmmm, probably not what they intended but could be interesting to have an Atropal version of one of these.



I'm not sure what that is.

Jeff



Undead baby gods. And in my opinion, the concept is more ridiculous and poorly thought-out than that description implies. A real low-point of the 3.x era, and that era had some crappy things. A lot of good stuff, but some real stinkers, too.
AuldDragon Posted - 25 May 2017 : 00:22:57
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

"sealed him at the moment of his birth"..... hmmm, probably not what they intended but could be interesting to have an Atropal version of one of these.



I'm not sure what that is.

Jeff
sleyvas Posted - 24 May 2017 : 20:17:20
"sealed him at the moment of his birth"..... hmmm, probably not what they intended but could be interesting to have an Atropal version of one of these.
AuldDragon Posted - 24 May 2017 : 16:38:16
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

quote:
Originally posted by Thauramarth

I'm pretty sure that Anguillans were mentioned first in "The Sea Devils" (in the Monstrous Arcana series).



Thank you. So a really really deep sea race of humanoid'ish eel, but they live deeper generally than sahuagin. Hmmm, liking them as a little known race around the "western" continents of Katashaka/Maztica/Anchorome that possibly preys on other undersea races to curb their numbers (merrow, shalarin, etc..). They can come to the surface though... they just generally don't need to. Sounds like I need some undersea city built (or seized) by surface dwellers that's found some kind of resource that people on the surface really want.



Their history was covered in the adventure series that accompanied The Sea Devils, especially the third one, Sea of Blood. They once worshiped a deity named Anguileusis who used his divine essence to power pseudo-magical, pseudo-living items. According to the material, elves who wished to use magic to create sea-dwelling elves (prior to the descent of the drow and the appearance of sea elves) discovered the anguiliian civilization and an attempt by their deity to be reborn as an immortal god-king on the prime material plane, and sealed him at the moment of his birth; having lost the power source for the technology that made their civilization possible, it collapsed and they turned into small wandering tribes of hunter gatherers. Some migrated to shallower seas, where they were discovered by Sekolah and transformed into the first sahuagin.

Obviously, much of that is apocryphal for the realms. Personally, I would treat anguiliians as immigrants from off world through some undersea portals, and disregard them as an origin of the sahuagin. I expanded upon Anguileusis recently:
http://blog.aulddragon.com/2017/03/anguileusis-the-abiding-one/

Also, I suspect there is some weak connection between Anguileusis and Blibdoolpoolp, but I haven't explored that too much yet (I will do so when I write up her entry).

quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

Also, while we're at it... there's also some race of subterranean "amphibious" lizard folk called the Varkha. Anyone know of any real information on them other than what's found in the aforementioned resource (where their only real mention is serving some dragon).


Dragon Annual 1996 (#1) and Monstrous Compendium Annual #4 have the MC sheets for this creature, which I think is the only other place they've appeared.

Jeff
sleyvas Posted - 24 May 2017 : 15:42:21
quote:
Originally posted by Thauramarth

quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

Then I also saw the Anguilians, which I couldn't even picture till I found them in stormwrack (which is 3rd edition, so they must have been in some other product in 2nd edition)
I'm pretty sure that Anguillans were mentioned first in "The Sea Devils" (in the Monstrous Arcana series).



Thank you. So a really really deep sea race of humanoid'ish eel, but they live deeper generally than sahuagin. Hmmm, liking them as a little known race around the "western" continents of Katashaka/Maztica/Anchorome that possibly preys on other undersea races to curb their numbers (merrow, shalarin, etc..). They can come to the surface though... they just generally don't need to. Sounds like I need some undersea city built (or seized) by surface dwellers that's found some kind of resource that people on the surface really want.
Thauramarth Posted - 24 May 2017 : 15:27:00
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas

Then I also saw the Anguilians, which I couldn't even picture till I found them in stormwrack (which is 3rd edition, so they must have been in some other product in 2nd edition)
I'm pretty sure that Anguillans were mentioned first in "The Sea Devils" (in the Monstrous Arcana series).

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