Dwergo Alchemical Revenants

Dwergo are the ‘true dwarves’ of legend; six foot, 500 hundred plus pound savants who lost their war against the elves after suffering from a reproductive curse that caused them only to be able to give birth to the greatly diminished dwarves of the modern era. They have been extinct extinct for 2000 years.
In their ruins below Salt in Wounds –the deepest rooms of the CapCaps- a frigid tomb was discovered by explorers which held the preserved corpses of several thousand Dwergo; many of which featured intricate clockwork prosthesis. Knowledge of this discovery

5 New Monsters: Hatchet Beaks, Infiltrex Harpies, Alchemical Oblate, Stunted Stone Giant, Clot

Hatchet Beak

This diminutive subspecies of axe beak (a supposed cross-bread with blood hawks) is a creature common to Salt in Wounds although many more thousands have been exported in recent years. These riding dog sized birds can readily serve as mounts for small creatures in addition to providing home & property defense or even serve to bolster militia forces. While not

Ramora Fleas

These gigantic vermin –roughly the size of a horse- are one of dozens of native species of parasite & symbiote that live upon or within the Tarrasque. However, they are one species that has managed to thrive even post-binding and represent a continued threat to the citizens of Salt in Wounds and its environs. Ramora Fleas resemble exactly a titanic version of an ordinary flea that can be glimpsed under a magnifying lens; all chitonous plates and oversized legs. When not feeding upon the Tarrasque, they can grasp a creature with their forelimbs before plunging their mouthparts into flesh, and their ravenous thirst can drain a man in less than a minute. They are also capable of leaping hundreds of feet, even whilst holding a screaming duergar.
Due to their mobility, Ramora Fleas represent a fast moving hazard to the entirety of the city and beyond. God-Butchers regularly scour the surface of the Tarrasque to kill these creatures and destroy their eggs; issuing city-wide warnings when they plan to disturb a patch of the things… anticipating that dozens if not hundreds will flee over the walls of the fortress Salzinwuun into the districts beyond. Certain individuals with racial or magical control over vermin prize these creatures as incredibly powerful servants and mounts.


(For some of my thoughts about the size of Salt in Wounds' Tarrasque/how horse sized creatures could hide on it - check out some of my design notes here.)


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Tarrasque Fed Template

Tarrasque Fed Creature (Simple) (CR +2)


Creatures in and around Salt in Wounds often take on the qualities of the Tarrasque. These monsters are usually more powerfully built, with thickened, armor like skin, and the ability to heal from wounds quickly. Creatures with the Tarrasque Fed template are fiercer, driven by a powerful hunger and thus more likely to attack than their ordinary cousins.


Quick Rules: +2 on to hit and damage rolls; (melee), +4 to AC; +5 Fast Healing.


Rebuild Rules: AC Increase natural armor by +4; Ability Scores +4 to Strength. Special Add Fast Healing +5




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This post made possible by the Salt in Wounds Patreon Supporters. Make more Salt in Wounds happen and become a Patron today!


This post may make use of an Open Game Licence. Check out the OGL page for more information.

New Monster: Testing Apparatus (Construct)

This small, hand-sized construct is an odd assortment of brass clockwork, bone, and sinew. Usually constructed by an alchemist looking to help discover medical data, these devices have six copper legs that end in hooked talons with a mosquito like 'face' that is a thick syringe. Small clear vials of brightly colored, viscous liquid cover its back.
When encountered, the testing apparatus rushes the least armored target

Stone Giants of Salt in Wounds & The Granite Shard War

The Mammoth Wardens were (are) the tribe of indigenous stone giants native to the area in and around Salt in Wounds. The Granite Shard war was (is) a conflict that took place between them and the defenders of the Fortress Salzinwuun.


The Mammoth Wardens


Since the binding of the Tarrasque a decade prior to the onset of hostilities, tensions had been rising between the stone giants and the polyglot of adventurers, military forces, and merchants encamped around the beast. The continuing presence of the Tarrasque had scared away most big game (including the titular mammoths on which the giants relied

Tarrasque Flesh Golems

Tarrasque Flesh Golems are terrifying constructs utilized in and around Salt in Wounds while being virtually unknown beyond city limits. Crafted (primarily) from the freshly extracted flesh, carved bone, and neural tissue of the Tarrasque; these golems are pulsating, oozing figures which seem to pulse with life even as their creators insist that they are 'merely' constructs. As a result of the material used in their creation, these golems move faster and are stronger than those composed of other bodies. Even worse for would be

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

Tuska

There are places throughout the planes where torture beyond mortal comprehension takes place. Devils & demons have their hells and stranger, more twisted creatures have odd pits where cruelties are inflicted eternally. And, there are pockets on the mortal plane where incredible evil and torment exist: the labyrinthine dungeons of a mad king perhaps, or upon the sacrificial altars of a heartless summoner. But pain on the mortal plane is always limited by the lifespan of and resiliency of the creature suffering. However, the hundreds of years of torturing the (immortal, regenerating) Tarrasque has created something new.

Something unique.

Something dangerous.

The agony of the Tarrasque has created

The Fungal Sieve

This piece originally appeared on Tribality.com as part of my System Agnostic column. You can read about this concept (not related to Salt in Wounds, with notes on how to adapt it to your scifi or fantasy game) there.

The Fungal Sieve

Controlling Dungeon/Creature at the Core of Heartsblood Marsh

History


After spending decades of his life establishing Heartsblood Marsh, Afrindi Gunterhix despaired. Given its artificial nature, he didn’t have faith that the marsh would continue serving its purpose without a steward. The grippli he’d imported had descended to base savagery, and every other druid he contacted considered his life’s work an abomination. Without other options,

The Heartsblood Marsh

The imprisonment of the Tarrasque has been a catastrophe for the native ecology around the city of Salt in Wounds. This would have been an even more severe and far reaching problem if not for Heartsblood Marsh, created to act as ‘waste management’ for the outflowing essence of the Tarrasque. However, the seeds (or more exactly spores) of a tremendous threat even now bud amidst the fungal blooms and towering mushroom stalks of Heartsblood Marsh.

History of the Heartsblood Marsh


When the binders of Salzinwuun used

More Monsters for Salt in Wounds

These are monsters likely to be encountered by adventurers in and around the City of Salt in Wounds.


This post is part of a multipart series, and you can find information about more monsters here.


Harpy
5e Monster Manual pg 181 | Pathfinder Version


Numerous flocks of harpies roost in the mountains around Salt in Wounds, harassing travelers and traders. Uniquely, these harpies include a large number of witches, many of whom have forged a pact with Agony. (Agony is the largely secret, sentient embodiment of the Tarrasque's suffering which acts as patron to many of the witches of Salt in Wounds.) These harpy witches (and the flocks they lead) are used as assassins and operatives to further Agony's schemes.


Otyugh
5e Monster Manual pg 248 | Pathfinder Version


Before the legalization of ghouls in Salt in Wounds, hundreds of imported otyughs were used to help dispose of the masses of rotting meat. After 5th House and its sanctioned undead picked

6 Monsters for Salt in Wounds

The following monsters are often encountered by adventurers in and around the city of Salt in Wounds. You can find even more monsters here.


Animated Objects
5e Monster Manual pg 19 | Pathfinder Version


Animated Objects, used as inexpensive sentries and guards, are a common hazard to thieves or 'explorers' in Salt in Wounds. Alternately, magical instructions placed to guide these objects tend to decay with time or were inexpertly applied in the first place; leading to more than one incident of an unwarranted attack about town.


Ankheg
5e Monster Manual pg 21 | Pathfinder Version


Ankhegs are a native apex predator to the region around