Designing Monsters with Cairn2e
Review of Creature Building Tools
On a previous session of Blogstones, we used Cairn2e’s worldbuilding tools to make a nifty map. Now we’re back, and this time were using our dubious instruction-following and pencil-sketching skills to make monsters. Four of them, to the exact.
Alright let’s get started. Here are the basic instructions, as provided on page 106 of Cairn2e’s Warden’s Guide.
As we usually do, we’re rolling dice on charts as we go down the list, and no take-backsies (some take-backsies). Four monsters coming right up.
I notice these charts features a lot of animal traits (beak, horn, wings). I actually have a soft spot for our non-human friends, so we’ll see if that impacts the horror factor for our monsters. Animal parts are classic to monster design, but I don’t want my creations to be too reminiscent of animals. Just the parts. Maybe the stat rolls will add some chthonian flavor.
In Cairn, STR, HP, and Armor work in tandem to represent the monsters’ health or staying power, so our variance in those stats may add some interesting dynamics. It’s almost time to draw the monsters, but I want to add a little bit of extra texture, and it’s easy to do by using the Cairn Seed Tables on pages 118-123. Noun, adjective, and verb tables are quietly top tier TTRPG resources.
Excellent, now the impetus of creativity is upon us! It’s better to have a bit of a challenge to pressurize us into creating something unique. With pencil, pen, and paper, we add the rest the proverbial owl. With no further ado:
Subsentient Lakemuck
The plants at the bottom of the lake have grown tired of the dark and the cold. After decades of gradual congealment, they’ve gathered the necessary proton gradients and biotic compounds to emulate something unnervingly adjacent to sentience. The heap of pond grasses, lily pads, compacted fish skeletons, and bioluminescent scum finally dredged itself up and now it shuffles damply towards your village. It’s dripping profusely, glowing faintly, and it wants to schlep around the inside of your house. Perhaps you can hide in the pantry, for the lakemuck cannot see or hear, instead sensing its surroundings with a pair of prehensile vine-feelers. Be quiet now, for if it senses you, the rest of the cellulotic vines will grab you and rip you from the embrace of your family, and you will accompany the creature back to the lakebed. The next time it rises, the lakemuck might look a bit like you did in the old days.
Woodshrimp
Do not stray into the dark tranquil forest, lest you wander under the web of the woodshrimp. You will not see it until scrabbling claws grab you from above. The woodshrimp has lived in this vald a long time, much longer than you ever will. It’s covered in black armor, coated in slime, and will happily imprison you in cocoon stained crimson with your own blood. The luckier ones are first pierced through the heart with its massive venomous stinger. The very lucky are the ones who recognize the emanations of its slimy trunk, which fill your head like the buzzing of a thousand bees and the rustle of the wind through ten thousand leaves. If you hear it, run, and you might survive. Some must have made it, otherwise we’d know nothing of ancient woodshrimp.
The Oolagu
The captain claimed that the monster was probably a creation of some deeply disturbed wizard up in the shadowed mountains. It was the only thing he could say to keep his men from going mad. The captain later confided in us that he didn’t remember, couldn’t remember anything about what it looked like or what happened to his soldiers. Only the horrible hooting sound. Oolagu. Oolagu.
We’ve been able to cobble together a rough understanding from the fractured memories of the various survivors. The monster has a sharp black beak and its pupils are rectangular. It’s covered in scales except for its feet and the top of its pointy head, which is smooth and fleshy. Its arms are all curled up. It’s drawing unidentifiable symbols on the rocks in the hills, in a pigment made of some blue mold. That’s all we know, for if you look at the symbols, your memory is reversed. We’re not sure what that means, but see that it doesn’t happen to you.
Midnight Yak
Do not gaze at the midnight yak as it trundles by in the dark of night. Do not contemplate where it comes from, or where it goes. Even if it moves so ponderously slow, slow enough for you to creep up from behind, daring yourself closer, step by shuddering step, I beg you to hold back. Do not try to get a good look at the hardened dome of fur, matted down black like pitch. If you do, the farmer is sure to find your body in the morning, pale and dry as chalk and filled with tiny holes. And whatever you do, do not look in its eyes, for it will sing its fathomless rhyme into your heart, and one day you will rise from your bed and walk into the wilderness, never to return. Spend no time perceiving the midnight yak. Avert your eyes. Just let it watch you.
Finally, here are the four stat blocks in the Cairn format, cause I’m chill like that.
In conclusion, I’m quite happy with the finished product. The beasts are satisfyingly awful, and unique to boot. I would recommend the Cairn2e resources for anyone looking to create some new monsters. It’s not a bottomless resource, but I think I could use these charts to make around eight more original monsters before they start to resemble each other. That’s a win in my book.
Until next time on Gnomestones.
These are great. Really like the midnight yak.