Cytillipede

Cytillesh is a mold from Pathfinder’s Golarion setting, a poisonous fungus that boosts brainpower and longevity while causing birth defects and insanity.  Derros being derros, this is a trade-off they're quite willing to make, and the glowing blue fungus features in many of their mad experiments. 

Of these sick lab protocols, cytillipedes are a rare success: Large magical beasts (their Int 6 score being far too high for mere vermin) covered in glowing fungus that they can flash in a disorienting manner.  Naturally, derros are immune to the cytillipedes’ flash and poison, and they use the creatures as guard and mounts.

So how do we make the cytillipede interesting?  Well, when a monster is part of a natural pair…remove the other half of the pair.  Here are three options for derro-less cytillipedes:

Adventurers cross into the Green World.  There in the misty faerie borderlands, glitter gnomes cling to the fey natures denied the rest of their gnome cousins.  (Treat them as gnomes with the fey creature template.)  A diet of hallucinogenic and even poisonous fungi helps keep the Small Folk in the Green World and gives them their luminescent hair and eyes but saps their constitution as well.  Moreover, glitter gnomes must always be on watch for cytillipedes, who are both quite intelligent and happy to prey on fey and mortal alike.

Aquatic cytillipedes (add swim 40 ft. to their stat block) live in the deepest seas where little light shines.  They attempt to immobilize prey with their stunning flashes—a highly effective tactic in the black water.  The flashes also tend to attract giant anglerfish and other aquatic predators, eager for their share of stunned meat.

Adventures fight through the bowels of a Gormlish Render Cube, where androids and humanoids are flensed alive for their biomechanical data.  Along the way the adventurers must fight swarms of flashing cyanopedes that skitter through the sewer-like ducts, conveying information and devouring organic infections as they go.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 5 65

The Green World is also a Dar Williams album I highly recommend.

Yes, I know it's been a while, and I should be well into the letter D or even E right now.  Birthday plus hospital duties plus Easter travels plus this week’s launch of Light City kept me far away from my computer and game books.  (I did buy more books, though—I’ll post pics soon.)  Again thank you, thank you, thank you for your patience.

And if you live anywhere near Baltimore you really should check out Light City this week.  I would be heading to a DJ set by Rob Garza of Thievery Corporation right now if I weren’t about to fall asleep on my feet.

Last night’s radio show was the kind of show you get when your boss keeps you at work writing scripts till 8:30 at night—pretty much totally unplanned and utterly free-form.  Reader/listener bootchieahah wrote in to say, “Those are the most fun shows to do, right?”  Damn right…if a tad scattered.  You can be the judge here.

(Link good till Monday, 4/4, at midnight.  If you have any trouble with the stream, just click the link and Save As an mp3.)