The largest of the pinnipeds, walruses are an important
source of meat and blubber (and ivory for more merciless parties). They also make excellent animal companions in coastal campaigns.
The Gargantuan emperor walruses…well they’re on another
scale altogether. But something
has to eat all those shark-eating crabs, right?
A wikkawak witch
doctor takes walrus form to evade capture, courtesy of a magical belt. Her disguise is not perfect however,
thanks to a blotch over one eye in both forms. But to male walruses she appears as one of their herd, and
they will rise to her defense while she makes her escape.
Adventurers take
advantage of a polar ice bridge to lead a beleaguered people to new
lands. Once the ice bridge melts,
the folk will finally be safe from their enemies. But along a particularly thin patch, they arouse the ire of
an emperor walrus herd. The great
beasts lumber to attack. Worse yet,
their bulk threatens to crack the ice.
Adventurers need to calm or subdue the beasts before they destroy a
major section of the bridge.
Particularly observant adventurers may also discover later that the
emperor walruses seem to have focused their rage on a certain family clan long
rumored to be tieflings.
In order to get help
from a shaman adept in the ways of the Spirit World, adventurers must first
bring her “a gift”—emperor walrus ivory.
She claims she needs the ivory to construct a magical sledge. In truth, she is constructing a
powerful tupilaq she intends for dark purposes…and the doll’s first victims
will be the adventurers, so no one can connect her to the difficult-to-obtain
ivory.
—Pathfinder Bestiary 4
271
Among the scholars who have weighed in on walruses: one
J.R.R. Tolkien.
Something seems off in the Bestiary 4 description of the emperor walrus, given that a
45-foot-long elasmosaurus is only Huge but a 20-foot long male emperor walrus
is Gargantuan. Maybe because of
its bulk? But that’s the kind of
nitpicking I leave to the message boards…the point is, it’s ginormous!
First time commenting. This blog is awesome. The adventure seeds are always interesting. As for the size thing ... Pathfinder is an excellent rpg but there a few oddball issues here and there and since I have a strong interest in animals and dinosaurs, this size category issue stands out for me a bit. Another example is the gorilla in the first bestiary being listed as large but even a large male gorilla standing up on its hind legs won't hit 6ft and humans and elves in PF both exceed that but are listed as medium. I guess it is based on weight or just a loosening of things generally from 3.x where the size categories were well defined.
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