Three Monstrous Microorganisms
I'd been struggling to come up with ideas for new monsters for a dungeon I've been working on, until I watched Ant Man with my Wife. It's an alright movie but importantly, it has a tardigrade in it, which reminded me that there are tons of weird and fucked up microorganisms. What if I made them big and changed them around a bit so they can beat up my players.
Tardigrade
- HP: 30
- Move: Half of standard, floats
- Damage: 1d6 claws
- Number encountered: 1
- Grapples the first target it reaches, then pierces them with stylets to pump fluids from the target into the Tardigrade (2d6 damage)
- Releases the gas held in its body when it dies, blinding everyone around it for 1d6 rounds and dealing 1 damage per decade it's been alive.
- Immune To poison, aging and fire.
- People also call them: Water bears, moss hogs
Many underestimate the tardigrade for its sluggish movement, but few live to tell the tale. The tardigrade is inevitable. It is the uncaring gasbag of bogs and rivers that knows nothing but sleeping and eating. Once you've been selected as its prey, it follows until it catches you. It never gets tired.
Caught prey is assimilated. The tardigrade consumes all the inner liquids of its prey, mixing them with the century-old gases within its body. Only a desiccated husk remains of its victim.
The tardigrade is frequently followed by quick, stealthy scavengers, happy to feast on what the tardigrade leaves behind. You can tell how old a tardigrade is by the amount of toxic gas floating near its lair. As tardigrades hunt more and mix more fluids with their internal gases, they release the most toxic of it into the air, marring their stomping grounds with dangerous, fetid air.
How I'd use the Tardigrade
I can think of two ways I'll be using a tardigrade in the future.
- In a low-level dungeon, a tardigrade can act as something of a stage hazard. As long as the party keeps moving, it will never catch them, but it does demand they keep moving, or find a large enough room to kite the tardigrade around while they snipe at it (if they're clever)
- For more dangerous dungeons, I'd include a tardigrade as part of a group of enemies, especially enemies that have slowing or grappling effects. The tardigrade can't catch players on its own, but if an enemy grapples you and the tardigrade starts closing in, that's a little scary!
The key is just that the tardigrade needs to be used in scenarios where either the constant movement it demands creates challenges, or where enemies are stopping you from constantly moving.
Things you Might Find on a Dead Tardigrade
| Thing | |
|---|---|
| 1 | If you kill one without popping it, you can harvest poison from its innards |
| 2 | Its shell is resistant to extreme temperatures, with enough of it you can make armor |
| 3 | A half-digested locket is soaked in the tardigrade's stomach acid |
| 4 | Its stylets, if they remain intact, can be used as short swords |
| 5 | If the tardigrade has eggs, they can be cooked and eaten like a ration, they go bad after a week. |
Rotifers
- HP: 6
- Move: Standard (twice standard in water), floats
- Damage: 1d6 spines
- Number encountered: 1d6
- Grapples the first target it reaches using its bristled corona, then drags them towards larger predators, or other rotifers.
- People also call them: Bristle mouths, shapeshifters
Rotifers skulk in the wake of larger predators, feeding on detritus and whatever is left over from the larger creature's hunt. Pristine bodies of water are just as often a sign of high rotifer population as they are good local care.
Skittish on their own, Rotifers are emboldened alongside other predators, almost gleefully tangling prey in their bristled coronas and dragging them to be devoured.
Rotifers have symbiotic relationships with local predators, aiding them in catching prey and cleaning their surroundings in exchange for the scraps the predator leaves behind. In dangerous situations, though, Rotifers reproduce asexually and evolve quickly from one generation to the next, allowing their children to take on new shapes and colors that are more favorable for avoiding creatures that prey on them.
How I'd use the Rotifers
I think Rotifers are kind of cute. They don't strike me as too scary on their own, but they can be a threat with other creatures. here are a couple of ways I might use them.
- Just using 1 or 2 to introduce players to my weird microorganism creatures. Being grabbed by the corona is pretty gross and sets the tone for these weird creatures.
- Using a bunch of them. 1 Rotifer is not scary, but 1 dragging you into a group of 4 of them that all want to munch on you? that's not good for one's health. It gives players a chance to try to save their ally by killing the Rotifer while they drag off their friend as well. If you want to make it scarier, have the rotifers drag the player characters towards a big, but slow creature, like the tardigrade.
Gastrotrich
- HP: 8
- Move: standard, floats, climbs
- Damage: 1d6 bite
- Number encountered: 1d6
- Sucks nearby enemies towards its mouth. Brawn save to avoid being knocked prone, or if you are prone, brawn save to avoid being sucked into its mouth.
- Crunches anyone stuck in its mouth and drains them of bodily fluids. 1d6 damage to the target, and the Gastrotrich recovers 1d6 HP.
- Can anchor itself to the ground using adhesive glands, making it impossible to move or knock over.
- People also call them: Hairybellies
Gastrotrichs almost look cuddly until they open their mouths. Their unassuming appearance leads children and naive adults to get close enough for them to suck them into their mouth, where they are promptly crunched and slowly drained of their innards.
Gastrotrichs love to hunt during heavy storms or climb onto unstable surfaces like small boats or rafts, where they can anchor themselves to the surface to gain an advantage against unbalanced opponents.
Smart communities take care of Gastrotrich infestations quickly. Their eggs take just 2-4 days to hatch, and their young become adults in less than a week. If they aren't swiftly put down, Gastrotrichs can decimate a local population with sheer numbers. They'll start eating each other after destroying other local sources of food.
How I'd use the Gastrotrichs
The most interesting thing about these guys to me are that they almost look cuddly, with the hair all over their body, and that they can anchor themselves to avoid falling over. Here are a few ways I might use them.
- Honestly, just put one in your game and see if a player will touch it. Or give them a naive NPC to do it instead. Either way, they'll either get to demonstrate caution as they investigate this weird creature, or they'll have to move quickly to get their friend out of the thing's mouth.
- Using them in settings with unstable ground. A giant that can cause earthquakes, a storm at sea, or a mountain during an avalanche. In all these cases, player characters will have to manage their footing and potentially fall over, but Gastrotrichs can just glue themselves to the floor! So they can be good minions for these sorts of encounters.