Here’s something that should put the willies up any players you have...
The Gulper - Chaos Cliff Toad Spirit Monster
South of Pavis, West of the River of Cradles is a feature known as Toad’s Claw (see Shadows on the Borderland), the Claw is infested with cliff toads and within the palm of the Claw lies a deep dark pool, swimming down into this pool would allow you to enter another spiritual realm known as the cliff toad’s graveyard where all the cliff toads go to die. Naturally there are legends that say this graveyard is full of treasure that cliff toads have swallowed over the years...
There is a (chaos) guardian spirit of the graveyard known as the Gulper, which is prevented from leaving the graveyard by another spirit known as Red Toad, the worship of Red Toad has faltered recently due to events in Bad Rock (see Shadows on the Borderland again) and this has allowed the Gulper to partially escape from the graveyard and manifest in the physical world.
Manifestations of the Gulper are as follows:
WEIRD ACTING CLIFF TOADS - These are toads which are much more magical,
chaotic and cunning than normal ones.
SPIRIT TOADS - These are (undead like) spiritual toads released from the
graveyard by Gulper, they have the special ability to swallow other
spirits.
GULPER MANIFESTATION - This is the Gulper manifesting temporarily in the
Gloranthan physical world, it takes the form of a giant (house sized)
cliff toad, very magically powerful, very chaotic and quite inclined to
gobble up whole adventuring parties in one bite. If killed it turns out
to be made of earth and rock as the Gulper’s other runic association is
Earth.
Once the Lunars hear of this fabulous creature they will try to enslave it as a war weapon for the Goddess (similar to the Crimson Bat but not as tough!), other people may wish to stop this...
Notes
The Gulper may be worshipped as a Chaos/Earth spirit cult (should
provide some sort of swallowing magic), doing this will of course
release the Gulper much sooner.
Altering the amount of worship of Red Toad will affect when and if the
Gulper will escape from the graveyard.
Going to the graveyard and using magic to re-bind the Gulper could also
be tried (by extremely hard people!)
THE GULPER
This is a gigantic cliff toad chaos monster, it is approximately 10m
tall and 25m long weighing about 50 tons, its right claw is missing and
the stump constantly bleeds caustic blood that burns. The mouth is
capable of swallowing half a dozen horses and riders at once, and has
three tentacle tongues that lash out and drag victims into the maw, the
tongues can attack physical creatures and spirits. It’s hide is so
thick that a sword cannot penetrate it even if plunged in to the hilt
and any wounds bleed blood that is hot and caustic causing hideous burns
to anything it touches. The creature can attack using it’s swallow,
it’s three tongues, it’s left claw or the bleeding stump. Anything
swallowed is magically devoured and gone forever, the creature is
cunning and highly intelligent (not to mention mean).
These are just a few notes but should lead in the right direction.
Robin Brown
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