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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Megapede
A megapede, an enormous purple centipede with neon green highlights. Copyright 2010 Wizards of the Coast. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.
The Lore
The Lore of the Megapede is fairly uncomplicated. They’re the logical endpoint of the Giant Centipede Arms Race. The largest, strongest, Darkest and Sunniest giant centipedes on Athas. And they’re also psychic, because of course they are.
Megapedes lair underground, in burrows or natural caves where they lay their eggs. They hunt by tunneling through the sand, erupting from beneath their prey, and fighting a battle of attrition they will likely win with their venomous bite, hundreds of flailing legs, and corrosive psionics. Sometimes unlucky travelers taking shelter in a cave might find it’s already occupied by a megapede when it drops down from the ceiling on top of them.
Sometimes, they’ll share their lair with a couple of wild cilopses, who are their distant cousins, but they tend to just eat anything else, and no one has ever managed to tame them.
The Numbers
Megapedes are Huge Natural Beasts and Level 15 Elite Brutes with 368 HP. They have Darkvision, a ground speed of 8, a burrow speed of 6 in loose earth, and a climb speed of 8. Their overall power level is on par with that of an Athasian drake.
Their basic bite attack has Reach 2 and does a potent blend of physical and poison damage. Their most common at-will attack will be Legs of the Megapede, which attacks all enemies in a Close Burst 2 for similar damage and lets the megapede bite someone for free as an effect. Its Lashing Body (recharge 5+) works as a minor-action melee attack that does a little less damage than the Legs.
As mentioned above, the monster is also psychic! Once per encounter it can use Psionic Erosion to attack the Fortitude of enemies in a Close Blast 5. On a hit, this deals immediate and ongoing psychic damage, which starts at 10 and decreases to 5 after the first successful save. On a miss, it deals half damage. Slightly more often, it can cause a Psionic Detonation on an Area 1 Burst Within 5, which deals “psychic and force” damage and slides targets 3 squares. This recharges when it’s first bloodied.
Finally, when it hits with either of its single-target physical attacks, the megapede can use Psionic Augmentation to deal extra psychic damage on the attack. This also recharges when it’s first bloodied.
Encounters and Final Impressions
As mentioned above, the most likely megapede encounters are against a mated pair or against one of them plus 2-3 leveled-up cilopses.
Lore-wise this is basically a Giant-er Centipede, so I’m not all that excited about them. If that’s your bag, tough, they’re awesome. Mechanically, you can use a megapede anywhere you’d use an Athasian Drake - they’re about as powerful and arguably a lot more common. You could also reskin their stat block as a drake or other suitable giant creature.
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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Kirre
A kirre, looking like a horned green tiger with eight legs. Copyright 2010 Wizards of the Coast. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.
The Lore
Kirres manage to feel like exotic alien creatures both to us in the real world and to characters in Athas. To us, it’s because they have eight legs and a pair of horns. To Athasians, it’s because they’re fur-covered mammals.
These felines live in Athas’ rare forests and jungles, such as the Crescent Forest and the same Forest Ridge where halflings live. They gather in small prides, and are clever and cautious hunters.
Instead of simply charging in, a kirre who isn’t desperately hungry will stalk its prey for hours to evaluate its capabilities and behavior, and will adapt its tactics to ensure their success. With some, they might be extra-sneaky and attack when the prey’s guard is down. With others, they might harass and make noises to scare the prey into making a foolish mistake.
The book entry mentions that kirres are only one of several species descended from ancient great cats. Other names mentioned are tigones and “the reptilian lirr”, though these two aren’t present in the book.
The Numbers
We only have one stat block here.
Kirre
The kirre is a Large Natural Magical Beast, and a Level 13 Skirmisher with 131 HP. It has a Speed of 8.
It has two basic attacks: a bite and a slightly weaker claw that slows for a turn on a hit. The Double Attack at-will ability lets it make two claw attacks in one action.
Springing Pounce lets the kirre bite, shift 4 squares, and bite again. This becomes a nice fight opener when combined with the Scattering Leap move-action encounter power, which lets the beast jump 6 squares, push adjacent enemies at the destination 2 squares, and then shift 2 squares to follow one of those enemies. The Pounce recharges when the creature is bloodied, which also makes it useful for escaping a dicey situation.
Once per encounter it can also use a Forceful Roar that attacks the Fortitude of enemies in a Close Blast 3. On a hit it deals force damage, pushes 2 squares, and knocks prone.
When an enemy moves to a square where it flanks the kirre, it can use its Barbed Tail to fend then off, making a Reach 2 melee attack that knocks prone and inflicts 10 ongoing damage (save ends) on a hit.
Encounters and Final Impressions
Kirres are smart enough to ally with creatures of other species, though they demand that their allies be at least as smart as themselves. Those who aren’t will be treated as prey instead. This is a low bar for other sapient creatures to clear, which means they will sometimes even accept humanoids as pack mates. They can be most often found in the company of halflings, though goliaths and giths that live in greener areas are also known to ally with kirres.
They’re regular monsters, but their spread of abilities means they fight like elites! An encounter featuring a pair of kirres and a handful of humanoid allies will give PCs quite a fight.
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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Kestrekel
A flock of kestrekels, who look like vultures with oversized serrated beaks. Copyright 2010 Wizards of the Coast. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.
The Lore
Kestrekels are not to be confused with kestrels, which might not even exist in Athas. They’re basically Darker and Sunnier vultures, with a habit of gathering around creatures that are about to die in the wastes. They’re a lot more enthusiastic about hurrying the process along than their mundane counterpart, and while a single kestrekel isn’t much of a threat a whole flock of them can be very dangerous.
Those who want to turn the tables and hunt the birds instead might be able to draw them closer by feigning injury, but this rarely works - they’re a bit too clever for that tactic.
The Numbers
Kestrekels are Tiny Natural Beasts with a ground speed of 2 and a flight speed of 6. We get two stat blocks here.
Kestrekel Carrion Eater
This one represents a single individual. It’s drawn to movement, so even a traveller who isn’t wounded or dying might find one or three of these staring at them from a distance, and following them for a while.
The kestrekel is a Level 1 Minion Skirmisher. Its claw attack is stronger against bloodied targets, and its Darting Rake at-will ability lets it shift 3 squares and make a claw attack.
Kestrekel Blood Flock
You might get a whole flock like this one on battlefields and similar places, where carrion abounds and its smell carries great distances. This is a Medium swarm of kestrekels, counting as a Level 2 Controller with 35 HP.
The flock has all standard swarm traits: half damage from melee and ranged attacks, vulnerable 5 to close and area attacks, can occupy enemy spaces, can squeeze past any opening large enough for a Tiny creature.
Its Swarm Attack aura (1) deals a bit of physical damage to enemies caught inside, and also slows them for a turn when that happens. Its basic attack is a swarm of Scrabbling Claws, which does standard physical damage with a small bonus against bloodied targets.
The flock’s sheer bloodlust is also a weapon: the Loathsome Feast ability is a psychic attack that can be used if the flock is adjacent to a bloodied enemy. It attacks enemy Will in a close burst 3, deals psychic damage, and pushes each target hit a number of squares equal to their speed.
Encounters and Final Impressions
Whether you’re dealing with a few individuals or a whole flock, kestrekels are very opportunistic. They’ll stay away and watch until they see their victim is injured, sick, or dying. Then they dive in. Spilled blood also drives them into a frenzy, so they’re sure to join in on any fight that they see starting, intent on eating the combatants.
These things don’t exactly spark joy in me, but it feels like they’re an interesting addition to any battlefield, where they’d be a constant hazard.
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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Kank
A jhakar, a stocky dog-lizard hybrid with a pug-like face. Copyright 2010 Wizards of the Coast. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.
The Lore
Kanks are giant, beetle-like hive insects. A wild hive will viciously attack strangers and intruders, but they’re actually relatively easy to domesticate: just start feeding them. After a while, the kanks will start seeing those who bring them food as members of the hive.
Each hive has a queen that does little more than continuously lay eggs. The larvae that hatch from these eggs can specialize in one of two ways:
Kank spitters are the hive’s workers. Their duty is to forage for any sort of organic matter and process it into a nutritive nectar that is used to feed the hive (and extracted to feed people). They can store the noxious byproducts of this processing and spit them at intruders as a form of defense, hence their name.
Kank soldiers are very straightforward: they’re big, they’re strong, they have huge mandibles. Their duty is to protect spitters from threats. When properly trained, they’re also extremely popular war mounts.
The Numbers
Kank queens are too immobile to get combat stats, but we do get stats for the other two types. Both are Natural Beasts with a ground speed of 8 and Resist 5 Acid and Poison.
Kank Spitter
Spitters are Small but not defenseless. They’re Level 2 Artillery with 30 HP. Their bites do a mix of untyped and acid damage. Their Kank Spit has range 10. On a hit it does a little bit of physical damage, inflicts ongoing 5 acid damage, and slows (save ends). If the target was already slowed, it is immobilized instead.
Kank Soldier
These Large kanks are Level 4 Soldiers with 54 HP and the Mount tag. Their bite is rather weak to start with, but it grabs on a hit. Once the soldier has a grabbed victim, it can only bite that victim, but its bite attack gains +2 to attack and +10 to damage.
The soldier can instead choose to inject the victim with Kank Venom (recharge 5+), an attack that targets Fortitude, slows, and deals ongoing 10 poison damage (save ends both). After the first saved throw, this worsens to immobilized.
If serving as a mount, their benefit is Grabbed Advantage: this gives their rider combat advantage against the kank’s grabbed victim.
Kank soldiers don’t have marking mechanics, but they don’t need them. They’ll focus on a victim and try to keep it grabbed by their mandibles, using the venom as a parting shot if they have reason to release the grab.
Encounters and Final Impressions
I keep hearing about kanks in other Dark Sun Let’s Reads, so it’s nice to finally put a (bug) face to the name, so to speak. They feel more interesting to me than crodlus, both because they’re beetles and because they have a use other than “war mount” to their humanoid caretakers.
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Let's Read the 4e Dark Sun Creature Catalog: Jhakar
A jhakar, a stocky dog-lizard hybrid with a pug-like face. Copyright 2010 Wizards of the Coast. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.
The Lore
Described as “small, squat, and pugnacious”, these round boys are reptilian dog equivalents with keen senses and a vicious streak. On the wild they follow your standard pack hunter structure, but they’re also frequently “tamed” by people for use as combat, guard, and tracker animals.
“Tamed” is in quotes here because jhakars don’t form bonds of loyalty with their handlers. They respect strength and pain, but they also nurse grudges. So the process of training a jhakar is quite cruel and results in a creature that’s likely to turn on their handler as soon as it sees a chance. Ironically, because of this owning a trained jhakar is seen as a sign of strength.
The Numbers
Jhakars are Small Natural Beasts with the Reptile tag. They have a ground speed of 6 and Low-Light Vision. Their signature ability is Uncanny Senses, which makes their attacks ignore concealment.
Jhakars don’t have supernatural tracking abilities like some of the monsters we saw before, but you can probably consider them as good at it as a trained mundane hound.
Jhakar Tracker
This specimen is a Level 1 Skirmisher with 28 HP and all standard jhakar traits. As mentioned above, it’s probably as good at tracking as a mundane dog, but its stat block focuses more on what it does once it finds its prey.
The tracker’s bite does standard damage with a sizable bonus against targets granting combat advantage to it. The attack also lets the tracker shift 1 square as an effect.
Once per encounter the tracker can use an Opportunistic Chomp as a reaction when an enemy ends its turn within 2 squares. It lets make a free bite attack with the damage bonus.
Trackers are unlikely to stay in one place for very long. Their free shift with a bite lets them move in, bite, and then dart away.
Jhakar Trapjaw
This beefier specimen is a Level 3 Soldier with 47 HP. Its Bite is a bit stronger, grabs on a hit, and lets the trapjaw make a secondary attack against Fortitude. If that one hits, the grabbed victim takes 5 ongoing damage until the grab ends.
The trapjaw can also Drag Down a grabbed victim, attacking their Fortitude. If they hit, they deal heavy damage and knock the target prone. It can’t get up until the grab ends either! This recharges when the creature is first bloodied.
Unlike trackers, jhakar trapjaws are set up to choose a PC and make their day extremely bad. They’ll do exactly that, positioning themselves as the center of attention to let their quicker buddies attack the party while they’re distracted. This works no matter who those allies are, so it’s appropriate for both wild and domesticated jhakar.
Encounters and Final Impressions
This entry is short and to the point, just like the creatures it describes. You’ll never ever need to include normal dogs or wolves in our Dark Sun Campaigns if this book has anything to say about it.
An encounter group of wild Jhakars will probably include one or two trapjaws with trackers making up the rest of the numbers. And of course any of the other doglike creatures in this or other books could be reskinned as a jhakar. They also work in any mixed encounter as trained beasts, as they are fairly common in that role.
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