In a lot of these entries I go on and on about monsters and
their likely places in a fantasy ecosystem—habits, predator/prey relationships,
evolution, blah, blah, blah.
There’s none of that with the scylla. Scyllas are aberrant even by aberration
standards. They have no natural
place in the world. They might be
the result of divine curses, the afterbirths of spiteful deities, the spawn of
spiritually incompatible outsiders, the hideous outcomes of pollution on a grand
scale, or some other vile irruption of evil into the world. (If you’re looking for a recent
published example, one makes a nice appearance at the end of the Shattered Star
Adventure Path.) They exist to be
nothing but menaces—less monsters than terrible landmarks to be avoided,
particularly if partnered with a charybdis, as in the original Greek myths. And if PCs mess with one, they can
expect a horrific fight—scyllas are CR 16, and just getting to their aquatic or
cliff face lairs will tax PC resources.
Should they succeed, they can also expect to be either heroes or the
hunted—removing a dangerous monster may be a boon to shipping, but killing the
daughter of a god, even one with wolf heads coming out of her waist, is never a
bright idea.
A scylla and
charybdis have guarded the Strait of Orkesh since time immemorial. If defeated, the shipping lanes to the
Jasper Coast will be opened to trade.
Yet adventurers trying to kill either beast will find themselves up
against unlikely zookeepers: a leonal and cetaceal. The agathions believe that removing the monstrous bottleneck
will enable the spread of devil worship north from Jasper.
Howling Gretchen
is a scylla who dwells in a river delta north of Iron Head. She has spawned countless
children—mostly skum and evil, fish-headed cecaelias that menace sailors in the
region. But recently she has given
birth to another scylla, and the ravenous hunger of two such beasts will
soon decimate fishing stocks (and fishermen) up and down the delta.
When Tanwe the Sea
Mother birthed the moon, according to legend, she left the birthing hut too
early—a taboo act that spoiled the purity of the arrival. Apparently she wanted to wash the
newborn moon in the waters of her ocean, but breaking custom allowed evil
spirits to enter her womb, infecting her placenta with alien vigor. The afterbirth came alive and morphed
into the first scylla. This
creature, an Advanced specimen of near-divine power, still lurks in the waters
of Lost Albatross Coast, if legends are to be believed, guarded by demodand
menservants.
—Pathfinder Bestiary 2
241
It’s still nice to be back!
Tumblr readers, take heart—we covered the charybdis on the
Blogger site way back here.
“Irruption”: It’s a word! Thanks, college Religion 101 class!
Forgot the link above. For the charybdis, go here.
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