Black Tatzylwurm
GM's Eyes Only
Spoilers. This page is written for the GM, and players who read on will learn things their characters don't know.
A many-eyed, pack-hunting serpent with a hypnotic gaze and blinding venom. Source: Iron Kingdoms Monsternomicon, p. 80.
What it is. A glossy, obsidian-scaled serpent over fourteen feet long that can rear upright on its coils. Its cluster of eyes sees as well underwater as in air, and light moves in strange patterns deep in them. Anything that meets its gaze can be held in place. Its bite, and the stream of venom it can spit about twenty-four feet, blind for a short while. It can unhinge its jaw to swallow a person whole, and backward-curving teeth make sure nothing comes back out.
The hunt. Packs of up to six adults lurk along game trails and riverbanks at morning and dusk, when they vanish into the shadows of the underbrush. A leader rises from the brush, drops from a branch, or surfaces from the water and fixes the prey with its gaze while the others strike from the flanks. If the gaze fails, it spits. Defending their territory, they pick off stragglers one or two at a time. Nests sit in soft soil under tree roots, with dozens of young that an adult always stays back to guard.
In Tir Hathar. Interesting enough to keep around. It has two cousins made for the setting: the leaping, poison-breathed Green Tatzylwurm of the mountains, and the huge, heat-hunting Red Tatzylwurm.
Stats¶
First draft, built from WWN's baseline stat lines.
| HD | AC | Atk | Dmg | Shock | Move | ML | Inst | Skill | Save | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black Tatzylwurm | 4 | 15 | +5 | 1d8 | 1/13 | 30' (swim 30') | 8 | 5 | +1 | 13+ |
- Transfixing gaze. Main Action: one living creature within 30 feet that can see it makes a Mental save or is held in place until the end of its next turn, losing its Move and Main actions.
- Blinding venom. A creature damaged by its bite makes a Physical save or is blinded for 1d3 rounds. Once per scene it can spit the venom instead, a ranged attack out to 25 feet that does no damage but forces the same save.
- Pack ambush. Packs of up to six. The leader rises from cover and fixes the prey with its gaze while the others strike from the flanks.
- Serpentine. It can't be knocked prone.
Still open: playtesting the numbers, and where they live. Suggested, not settled: the rivers and jungles of Azlotl, with the name coming from Sonnenreich's Dwarves. The Tatzelwurm is Alpine folklore with a German name, which matches the Dwarven kingdoms' names.