User:LaughingLemon

Living Rainbow

"Living Rainbows are elementals of light and color, believed to be descendants of the very first rainbow that ended the Great Flood. These elementals are said to be the most elusive of all, as they in many ways the living embodiments of beauty on Earth." - Ananiel, the 14th Watcher

Physical Description

Living Rainbows, sometimes known as Rainbow Serpents, are beautifully radiant beings indistinguishable from ordinary rainbows while completely stationary. However, when living rainbows move their colors begin to shimmer and glow and solidify into brilliant serpentine scales as they slither their multicolored bodies across the sky.

History

The origins of the living rainbows remains shrouded in mystery, as many do not even know of or believe in their existence. According to some legends, living rainbows are descendants of the very first rainbow which brought about the end to a mighty, apocalyptic flood. Others have told of a hidden Valley of Rainbows, from which all rainbows are created. Whatever the case may be, little is known of their history, as they do not form societies or settlements, choosing instead to live their lives are nomadic hermits at peace with the nature that surrounds them.

What is known about them largely comes from the legends of individuals who have encountered them on their journeys deep into the wilderness. Throughout their history, Living Rainbows have been renown for their ability to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Once a living rainbow found a home, it could remain sedentary for decades, simply observing the world around it, catching all the small occurrences of the natural world as they changed the environment day by day. They despised all that is evil and treasured all that is benevolent, vibrant and beautiful, even when hidden inside the unlikeliest of places.

Gastrosapiens are said to have originated from the snails that lived in what are now their swampy homes. These snails allegedly gained a higher intellect after a roaming band of mages abandoned a stock of potions near the water's edge. Soon after, these enlightened snails' bodies grew with their minds, and became the beings that are seen today. They are commonly and erroneously thought to have come from the Feywilds.

Behavior

Whereas other elementals tend to be chaotic manifestations of natures’ fury, rainbow elementals are born imbued with light, and will manifest the harmonic properties of nature throughout their lifetime. This fusion caused living rainbows to have a harmonic bond with the nature that surrounds them, driving them to immerse themselves deep inside the most wild and remote locations and avoid discordant human civilizations.

Gastrosapiens were once thought by ancient peoples to be walking stomach sacs, hence their given name, which is literally "wise stomach." Today, they can be seen in large bogs and swamps in the far south in crude villages made from the rotten wood and damp earth that surrounds them. These villages are governed by a council of elders, who are fiercely respected by villagers. Occasionally, a few will leave their homes in search of supplies for their village, or to find adventure away from their humble start. Regardless of their motivation, a gastrosapien will venture tirelessly until they have accomplished their goal.

Gastrosapien Names

Gastrosapien names are usually soft and vowel filled, such as "Uugo". As gastrosapiens are hermaphrodites, like normal snails, they don't worry about male or female specific names.

Gastrosapien Names: Pogo, Odda, Baga, Uugo, Yog, Poggers, Uyeth, Yuul, Bob, Ombus, Wambo, Quag, Gorf, Omni, Plumb, Vog, Augus, Albo, Nabu

Gastrosapien Nicknames: Jello, Slime, Blob, Splat, Shelly, Softy, Jelly, Ooze

Cave Ape

Horrors that dwell in the deep underground caverns of the world, cave apes are beasts who long ago lost their vision in pursuit of a life beneath the ground. They are most known for their infamous ability to use a primal form of telepathy that allows them to sense the emotional state of potential prey nearby. Perhaps more terrifying however, is that this form of telepathy also allows any creature nearby to sense the emotional state of the Cave Ape. Travelers of the Underdark tell tales of sensing the thoughts of some predator stalking them from the shadows, constantly repeating “I WANT TO EAT YOU, I WANT TO EAT YOU, I WANT TO EAT YOU” into their heads.

Cave Apes can be difficult to spot due to the low visibility within the underdark, as well as their hairless grey body which melds into the surrounding rocks found inside caves. When they hear voices echoing down their cave systems, they will silence themselves and lurk in wait for prey to pass by before leaping ontop of them and pummeling them to death.

Despite this, Cave Apes arent particulafrly known for wandering

“We wandered through the hole into a large cavernous opening, dimly illuminated by massive glowing fungi that sporadically filled the cave system

“Tired” “Tired” “Tired”

“Come In”

“I sense you out there!”

“I sense you”

“I know you’re there”

“Dont run”

“Dont run”

“I want to eat you!”

“Let me eat you!”

“Go away”

“Leave me alone”

What is that?

“Whos there?”

Basilisks were lazy and cowardly creatures, but evilly cunning. They made their lairs in dark underground caves where there was a ready and easily accessible food and water supply. They were easy to anger, though they never fought to the death if it could be helped. They were observed to be irrational and possibly insane half the time but shrewd hunters the other half. When hunting, they pounced from hiding and attacked with their petrifying gaze and vicious bite. They only needed to eat one large meal (the size of a deer or a humanoid) a month, owing to their slow metabolisms, though would apparently gorge themselves to death if provided with enough meat.

Cave Apes appear to be able to sense when a creature nearby is sleeping, and will use this to their advantage to hunt basilisks living in the underdark. Cave Apes will find the basilisks layer by sensing its presence through their telepathy, though they will avoid hunting it while its awake. Basilisks that have never encountered Cave Apes may be startled or surprised by the sudden telepathic transmissions of the Cave Apes Telepathy, but may continue with its day without a second thought once the transmissions cease. The Cave Apes will then return later in hopes thats the basilisk has fallen asleep, at which point they will dig into the basilisks burrow and slaughter it before it has the chance to open its petrifying eyes.

Cave Apes also use this with bats when they stumble upon a cave of sleeping bats, creeping upon them and silently snacking upon the bat colony until one wakes in a panic and alerts the rest into flight. Cave Apes cannot however use the basilisk hunting technique on the bats, as the bats will sense the cave apes predatory intent and move to a new area.

“Fear! Fear!”

“A Predator!”

“Fly!”

“Food!”

Other Underdark creatures huntec in this manner include Cloakers, however a cloaker may occasionally flee quick enough to avoid being eaten by Cave Apes

Due to the Behirs power and predatory nature, whenever a Cave Ape wanders near a Behir, its telepathy would simply alert the Behir of its preys presence and send them into pursuit of the Cave Ape. When a Cave ape senses that creature nearby does not fear it or is hunting it, it has no problems with fleeing to maintain self preservation, and is not at all immune to being frightened. In these cases it is likely the cave ape will simply go back through the same path it came from and return to its tribe , leading to a large scale fight for survival between the behir and the entire Cave Ape tribe.

Because of the Behirs size and power, Cave apes typically didn’t attack it even in its slumber, and when they did encounter a slumbering behir, would use the opportunity to migrate the tribe to a far away location out of range of the behirs hunting grounds. During these migrations, nearby creatures could sense the behirs repeating phrases like

“Fear, Behir, Predator, Run, Quiet, Faster”

“Prey!”

“Dragon”

“I will Kill you”

“Die, all of you!”

“Run Haha”

Another creature cave apes avoid are the occasional subterranean aballin. An aballin, also known as living water, was a fluid ooze[1] that resembled a clear puddle of water.[ acid.

Woe to the Cave Ape that encounters a Beholder in the underdark. Many Tribes have become enslaved by beholders when they settled to close to a beholder liar.

Driders have learned to deal with Cave Apes and either steer clear of their layers or exterminate them with an organized assault, but if a drider wanders or gets lost alone in the underdark, they can easily become prey to a Cave Ape. However, a little known fact about cave apes is that Cave Apes only rarely eat their prey on the spot. Instead they usually quickly incapacitate their prey before, dragging them off and dumping them into large, lush caverns filled with underdark wildlife and vegetation.

Another misconception about cave apes is that they live in these vast caverns, however instead they simply use the lush natural caverns as a sort of pen in which to keep prey and cultivate them so that their tribe may have a constant supply of food whenever they need it.

Cave apes themselves will establish their lairs in all the tunnels and caves that enter into or connect to the Lush cave to ensure that any prey that attempts to escape winds up in the jaws of a hungry ape.

They will guard either entrances of the cave with their strongest apes, and live and rest withing the length of the cave, eating, feeding their young, and resting in preparation for expeditions beyond their territory.

Troops of cave apes would patrol the immediate areas around their lair, and explore any cave system which could possibly lead to more pey.

Perhaps the most successful ape tribes where the ones that settled nearby a settlement of intelligent underdark dwellers with a large population which they could slowly abduct and feed upon accordingly to their need, with the resident entirely unaware of the horrible cavern hidden to their with all their enslaved missing citizens.

One civilization Cave Apes would not want to settle near is an Illithid establishment, as they would immediately become enslaved.

Another creature Cave Apes will generally avoid is Minotaurs, as 1 on 1 minotaur have a fair shot at felling a cave ape, and even in a small group can be a difficulty. Additionally, cave apes recognize that minotaurs have a better sense of peception than they do, and will only seek a fight with a minotaur in a large ambush gang to prevent it from discovering their layer and divluging its location to othes of its kind.

Cave Apes Also dread an encounter with the legendary purple worm, and the burrows they leave behind can be a threat to security

Cave Ape Traits

Blind subterranean primates
Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.
Age. The average lifespan of a cave ape is slightly shorter than that of humans, with the oldest known specimen having lived to the age of 65. Cave apes seem to reach adulthood around age 15.
Alignment. Most follow a neutral path, behaving mainly on natural instinct.
Size. A Gastrosapien's height may range from around 5'5 to as tall as 6'0. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your climbing speed is 25 feet.
Primate Build. You have proficiency in either Acrobatics or Athletics.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray. Light Sensitivity (suggested). While in bright light, the meenlock has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight. In addition, the meenlock must succeed a DC 8 Wisdom saving throw or suffer the frigthened condition until they escape the souce of light.
Slime Coated. Attempts made to grapple you have disadvantage due to your skin's thick coating of slime. This does not apply when you are in Shell Defense mode, or while you are dehydrated.
Shell Defense. As an action or a reaction, you can withdraw into your shell. Until you emerge, you gain a +4 bonus to AC, and you have advantage on Strength and Constitution saving throws. While in your shell, you are prone, your speed is 0 and can't increase, you have disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws, you can't take reactions, and the only action you can take is a bonus action to emerge from your shell.
Salt Vulnerability. Salt is detrimental to Gastrosapiens. If you make any significant contact with salt (at least a handful), you must make a Constitution saving throw (DC = 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus), unless you are dehydrated, in which case your saving throw automatically fails. On a failed save, your Constitution score is reduced by 1d4. This effect also triggers if you are exposed to oceanic rain, but you only take 1 damage on a failed saving throw. If your constitution is reduced to 0 by salt damage your body loses its structural integrity, and you die. Otherwise, the reduction lasts until you finish a short or long rest.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Gastrosapien. Gastrosapien is a sibilant language that uses the Elvish script.

Variants

Gore. Your pointy antlers are natural melee weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal piercing damage equal to ld6 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.

Colony Sense. You immediately know if there is another gelruss within 60 feet of you.

Screaming Gorilla Mask: This mask is the screaming face of a dire ape. While wearing this mask, the wearer may make an Intimidate skill check as a swift action during combat.

Powerful Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.

Fear Aura. Any beast or humanoid that starts its turn within 10 feet of the meenlock must succeed on a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened until the start of the creature’s next turn.

Fear Aura (suggested) . Any beast or humanoid that starts its turn within 10 feet of the meenlock must succeed on a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for 1d4-1 rounds.

Mental Harassment (suggested). The meenlock targets one of the party member. Every hour the target must succeed a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw or suffer the temporary loss of 1 point of Dexterity, Intelligence, Strength, and Wisdom (the loss cannot be more than half the initial score). While harassed, the target suffers disadvantage on all hit rolls and, if he is a spellcster, his targets gain advantage on all saving throws.

Blindsight. Cave Apes don't have eyes, but can effectively see through echolocation. By constantly vibrating your head slightly, you emit an inaudible frequency and detect its reflection. Using this, you have blindsight up to 60 feet away, regardless of light. You are blind beyond this radius, however, and cannot perceive light, color, or any other visual phenomenon. You can't be blinded by light, but while deafened, you are considered to be also blinded.

Abilities

As embodiments of all the colors of nature, rainbow elementals had the power to create rainstorms, speak with plants and animals, fuse with rivers as a rainbow-colored liquid, and part storm clouds in order to reveal the sun. However, the most powerful ability living rainbows possessed was the power to transform non-living objects into vibrant versions of themselves and even into living beings, though living rainbows seldom used this power, only reserving it for objects truly worthy this gift. Contrary to common belief, living rainbows do not grant this blessing upon the most beautiful or vibrant objects, but to those that show the most potential for beauty; a hidden inner power to become something more than what it is.

Objects that were transformed by the magic of living rainbows include:

• An old abandoned monastery, transformed into a cemetery with the names of all of the temples past attendants.
• An ancient oak, transformed into a wise and benevolent Treant.
• A field of flowers, transformed into various colorful birds after they helped the rainbow survive an attack from demons.
• A cloud shaped like a whale, transformed into an atmospheric beast.
• The skeleton of a forgotten warrior, resurrected into their child form, much to their confusion and dismay.
• A simple pebble, transformed into a massive boulder covered in runic engravings.
• A wilting garden, transformed into a dense jungle of gigantic fruits.

Swampling

“	We come from the muck of the swamp. The mud and dirt that you look upon with disgust, is the same soil that gives life to all the flowers and trees of this forest, and us as well.	”
—Elder Garragg, A Wandering Swampling.

Physical Description

Swamplings are short elemental creatures made of mud that are deeply attuned to nature and the natural balance of things. Although they are mainly composed of mud, stones and small plants may cover sections of their body as a form of natural clothing. Swamplings will often grow plants on their heads to serve as hair, with hanging mosses and ferns being a common choice for most, with more exotic plants being reserved for the elders of their communities.