Giant & Nymph Water Striders

Looking for an unusual mount?  If it’s a river or swamp-based campaign, you could do a lot worse than a giant water strider.  (Tremorsense that works on water?  That’s a nice mix of nature and game mechanics right there.)  And when you need to woo a fetching lady boggard, a gift of nymph water striders will do nicely.

Adventurers ally with river gnomes to ferry them across a great swamp.  The gnomes’ water striders are not the easiest beasts to manage and they attract the notice of giant water spiders, but they get the party across the swamp in days instead of weeks.  It might be best if the adventurers do not get too cozy with their guides, however, as the gnomes are smugglers who are happy to let adventurers take the rap should a patrol stop them.

Hunting nymph water striders is a rite of passage for young folk in Teller’s Ford.  Doing so means negotiating with—or fighting— young lizardfolk out on a nymph hunt of their own.  The lizardfolk also know a secret: The changing currents of the swamp have revealed the slumbering form of a giant stone statue.  Its style is that of the impossibly far-off Cerulean Raj.  Upon finding the statue, adventurers will come across a very confused undine who rides a giant water strider and speaks only Rajan, as well as a dagger-shaped raktavarna up to no good.

A boggard’s curse shrinks adventurers down to a miniscule size.  An atomie friend (who now towers over them) knows a hedge witch who may be able to change them back, but that means crossing a swamp full of suddenly giant animals.  These include nasty giant water striders and a cat sith (see the Familiar Folio) who apparently believes chasing the adventurers will toughen them up.  When they arrive at the hedge witch’s tree hut, the atomie reports that the animals who live in the area all say the witch has “gone in a cloak of feathers to sweep the moon.”  Deciphering what they mean may be the key to getting the party back to normal size.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 4 273

Can't get enough of the water strider?  Of course you can’t.  Good news!  The water strider swarm appeared in Pathfinder Adventure Path #49: The Brinewall Legacy.

As I mentioned last Friday, no radio show this week.  Here’s an old one from 2011 if you’re hungry for a fix.  It’s delightful, I promise!  Listen to Givers, the Rondelles, and hear me try to avoid saying Fucked Up’s name on the air.