Wednesday, February 17, 2016

5 Monsters for the Heartsblood Marsh

The Heartsblood Marsh is the artificial ecosystem created by the mad druid Afrindi Gunterhix to process the Tarrasque blood and other waste leaving the city of Salt in Wounds via the Red River. The following list is a selection of some creatures that can be found there.



Grippli/Bullywug

Pathfinder Version / D&D 5e Version MM Pg 35



Heartsblood Marsh is full of savage Grippli. Most of these creatures worship the Fungal Sieve as a god and nearly all of whom are relentlessly hostile to outsiders. A large portion of
these creatures exhibit the rage like abilities of barbarians or the powers of sorcerers thanks to a diet heavily tainted with Tarrasque blood.



Green Dragons (Wyrmlings and Young)




While (a still mortal) Afrindi was exploring a southern swamp while searching for fungal cultures he was confronted by a territorial green dragon. After a tremendous battle the gnomish druid emerged victorious and discovered a wonder; a clutch of unhatched eggs. After transporting them back to the HeartsBlood Marsh, Afrindi now keeps them in a special chamber within the Fungal Sieve where he uses alternating hot and cold to perform a staggered hatching schedule.

When the dragon hatchlings first emerge, Afrindi attempts to infest them with mind controlling fungus. However, this has largely been an unsuccessful effort and (besides of cadre of fiercely loyal young and wyrmling green dragons) Heartsblood Marsh is now home to dozens of uncontrolled green dragons all vying for dominance and prey. The incredible fecundity of the marsh supports a higher population than would be possible elsewhere but does nothing to temper the territoriality of the dragons. Some ‘heretical’ bands of grippli serve the most powerful of these green dragon young instead of the fungal sieve.



Giant Invertebrates (Use Giant Centipede)

Pathfinder Version / 5e Version MM pg 323



Afrindi bred and magically transformed numerous species of regular invertebrates and insects to serve as important links in the Heartsblood Marsh food web. These creatures are preyed upon (and sometimes prey on) the other occupants of the marsh in addition to being trained and utilized as beasts of burden/mounts by certain grippli clans.



Giant Frogs

Pathfinder Version / 5e Version MM pg 325



Where there are giant insects, so too are giant frogs; the largest of which can measure up to twelve foot long.



Leshy/Blights

Pathfinder Version / 5e Version MM pg 32



Formed from the fungal tendrils that are woven throughout Heartsblood Marsh, these mushroom shaped blights differ little from similar creatures formed of vegetative matter. One key difference however, is that all Heartsblood Marsh blights are formed with a direct connection to the Fungal Sieve and created with a specific purpose in mind. However, once that purpose is served, they are generally left to their own devices (which usually involves laying in ambush for prey). It should be noted that, even when directly connected to the mind of Afrindi the former druid’s madness can see various groups of blights working at apparent cross purposes.



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