Red 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.
The biggest and worst of the tatzylwurms: a fire-colored giant that hunts by heat. Made for Tir Hathar, as a cousin of the Black Tatzylwurm.
What it is. A massive serpent, thirty feet or more, with rust- and ember-colored scales and a crest of spines down its back. It has the black's cluster of eyes, but its gaze doesn't hold prey still. It terrifies them. Pits along its jaw sense heat, so it hunts as well in pitch darkness, smoke, or ash as in daylight, and anything cold-blooded or built is all but invisible to it. Its venom burns: wounds keep bleeding and blistering long after the bite.
The hunt. Solitary. It lairs in warm ground: caves near hot springs, lava tubes, and old mine shafts that still hold the earth's heat. It hunts from ambush, rises, breaks the prey's nerve with its gaze, and runs down whatever flees.
In Tir Hathar. The third tatzylwurm, and the rarest.
Stats¶
First draft, built from WWN's baseline stat lines.
| HD | AC | Atk | Dmg | Shock | Move | ML | Inst | Skill | Save | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Tatzylwurm | 7 | 16 | +8 x2 | 1d10 | 3/15 | 40' | 10 | 5 | +1 | 12+ |
- Dread gaze. Once per scene, as its Main Action: everyone within 30 feet who can see it makes a Mental save or spends their next turn moving away from it. NPCs who fail check Morale.
- Burning venom. A creature damaged by its bite makes a Physical save or takes 1d6 more damage at the end of each of its turns for 1d4 rounds. A Main Action and a Heal check against difficulty 8 stops it early.
- Heat sense. Darkness, smoke, and ash don't hinder it. It has -4 to notice anything cold-blooded or built, such as Lizardfolk, Warforged, or constructs, that isn't moving.
- Serpentine. It can't be knocked prone.
Still open: playtesting the numbers, and where they live. Suggested, not settled: the volcanic slopes of Azlotl, near Sonnengruft, the lost Dwarven kingdom (see Dwarven Kingdoms), which would explain how a Dwarven name ended up on a creature of Azlotl.