Bestiary 6’s
mapinguari may not exactly line up with the version that’s come down to us
through Amazonian folklore—for one thing, it’s usually described in folklore as
red—but it’s hard to complain about the lizard-skinned, cyclopean-eyed, giant
ape we ended up getting (especially given how awesome David Melvin’s
accompanying illustration is). It’s got
a supernatural frightening howl that can be heard from a mile away, and up
close is literally paralyzing (which could be downright deadly if the
mapinguari surprises a PC—note the +19 Stealth in forests—and then achieves a
claw/claw/rend combo while the PC is frozen).
And it’s got a classic folklore vulnerability: The mapinguari is afraid
to cross running water. That’s a great
bit of flavor, a nice excuse for why the mapinguari is rare, and is both a
great tactical option for smart PCs to take advantage of and a nice out for GMs
who want to scare cocky PCs without achieving a TPK. (“Good thing you made it to the bridge, huh
guys? Maybe a side quest or two will
help you get some experience before you tackle that spooky ape temple.”)
Of course, you can play with the look of the mapinguari all
you want—if you want to boost the South American feel of the beast, you could
easily describe it as looking more like a giant sloth, a New World monkey, or a
monstrous iguana. Also, many legends say
the mapinguari has backward-facing feet, which is a great excuse for using it
as a guard animal for powerful rakshasas.
Some legends even mention the mapinguari having a second mouth on its
belly, which might be a terrifying extra attack you can add to an Advanced or
fiendish version of the creature if you like mucking around with stat
blocks. Just some food for thought…
Now swallowed by the
jungle, the city of Tnochitl was once crisscrossed by numerous canals and
lochs. Adventurers who brave the ruined
city will find the canals to be an effective deterrent against the jungle’s
deadly mapinguaris, who can only traverse the city’s vine- and silt-choked
northern district. The same canals that
keep the mapinguaris out also keep certain other threats in…including the
vampire blood priests of Cama-Zotz in the Temple District, whose limited diets
have left them feral and ravenous.
A rakshasa noble
has a pleasure park full of dangers, including several living topiaries and a
semi-tame mapinguari. The beast’s
terrifying howl helps keep the neighbors out of the hedonistic fiend’s affairs,
and its backward-facing footprints mask the rakshasa’s own twisted tread.
Mapinguaris have such
well-defined territories that each section of the Davo Jungle is actually
named after the legendary mapinguari who used to live there. The only tribes who can safely live in the
Davo are skinwalkers or werespiders whose taste the local mapinguaris find
repulsive.
—Pathfinder Bestiary 6
183
No stats for the mapinguari online yet, but you can
obviously find them here.
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