⚔️ Frost Worm tokens on Patreon

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Slugtember Day 24: Beast/Animal

F is for Frost worm.

Apparently, I am unable to stick to a schedule. Ever.

It's a few days late but part of the reason I took up this challenge was to stop beating myself up when I fall behind. I find berating myself for falling behind does nothing to help me in the long-term goal of posting regularly and enjoying my art. it just makes me feel miserable and stops me from starting for for fear of failure.

Thanks to @bkh_gallery for this art piece!

Frost Worm

First Encounter Appearance: 1-39 Omens

Encounter Appearance: 2-117 The Tortoise and The Dare

Armor Class 18

Speed 40 ft, Burrow 30 ft

Immune to cold damage

Vulnerable to fire damage

Suggested Average, Max HP: 264, 416

97 damage taken

Snow Hare

Encounter Appearance: 2-117 The Tortoise and The Dare

Armor Class 13

Speed 20 ft, Burrow 5 ft

Suggested Average, Max HP: 1, 3

1 damage taken by Fjord

Tortoise

Encounter Appearance: 2-117 The Tortoise and The Dare

Armor Class Unknown

No damage taken, left alone on a frozen pond while magically reduced in size

It’s a snow bunny! It’s a tortoise! It’s... A frost worm!

In a method similar to the hamatulatsu masters, there are other monastic orders that use hell’s rigid law as a perfect model for their own discipline, and like masters of the hamatulatsu, they often live alongside devil-revering organizations or civilizations.

However, hellcats are very different in a few ways, having no gender restriction, and emulating the hellcat, rather than the barbed devil, for their fighting style. Rather than being punishers and torturers who prolong suffering to prove the veracity of their method with the broken bodies of their foes, Hellcats instead train to be deadly hunters and assassins, preying on the weak and undisciplined, as Hell does to its very core.

Swift and deadly, these are not foes to be taken lightly under any circumstances, but their devotion to emulating hellcats does lead them to inherit some of their quirks.

 In addition to their diverse selection of weaponry, which include crossbows and various club and mace weapons, as well as a variety of combat techniques geared towards agility, stealth, controlling one’s opponent, fighting in darkness, and unleashing one’s bestial side, these monks learn a similar, but different technique to the hamatulatsu, using their strikes like claws rather than spikes, raking their fingernails or claws with the intent to drawing as much blood as possible.

Training themselves to endure pain and fear allows them to overcome such things rapidly, stripping away their weaknesses.

This also hardens their body against assault and the elements, making only the most brutal foes and conditions a threat to them.

Their training also lets them use their ki in unique ways, enhancing their perception to see in the dark, allowing them easily get the jump on foes, warding themselves against flame, and even emulating the unique invisibility of true hellcats, becoming invisible in bright light, but visible in dim light or darkness.

Interested in a fierce, predatory monk as either a protagonist, or more likely, antagonist? This archetype can be a great and thematic addition to games that face off against devils and those that worship them. I recommend builds that rely on stealth and ambushing, taking advantage of the darkness and their superior mobility.

 There’s a certain measure of cruelty required to become a member of this monastic order, even if one claims neutrality in the balance of good and evil. Such cruelty would be reason enough to fail in achieving enlightenment in other sects, who likely show great disdain for diabolic monastaries. Likewise, these dark ascetics probably look down upon “weaker” traditions with derisive contempt for “coddling” their devotees.

  The frozen north has its own threats, frost worms, remorhaz’s, the occasional icy dragon, wendigos, and far, far worse things. One such mountain holds a secret monastery that blazes with heat, standing out from the cold, but providing no balm, only another extreme. There, hellcat monks train the bodies and minds of those foolish or wicked enough to seek them out, turning them into cruel hunters that shimmer and vanish when the bright light turns snow into sparkling, blinding white.

 Covered in sets of four long gashes, the body of Veldin Thatcher was presumed to be the victim of an animal attack. However, some are not so sure, citing the new church of The Pit Lord, and the black fingernails of some of its acolytes. It was certainly well known Veldin was a vocal decrier of the new addition.