#gryllus

the european field cricket (gryllus campestris)

g. campestris is a species of cricket found throughout western europe in dry, sunny, grassy plains.

even though g. campestris is a species of insect displaying hemimetabolism, it is flightless and exclusively uses its wings to make that iconic cricket noise that we all know and love. due to the flightlessness of g. campestris, it cannot migrate long distances (unlike a lot of its fellow orthopteran peers).

even though the IUCN red list lists g. campestris as least concern, its population is decreasing, especially in great britain.

Die Konzerthalle der Grillen

@sleepysnek​ submitted: A jet black cricket i found last night! Little dude got scared by me and jumped towards my cat so I spent a good coulple of minutes trying to catch them before the cat ate them. Found in southern Illinois

“Pantagruel 39″ © Fabrizio Riccardi, accessed at Monster Brains here

[The word “gryllus” means cricket, and was also the name of a character in a dialogue by Plutarch, one of Odysseus’ crewmen who argues that he’d rather stay a pig after being transformed by Circe. The name was applied to medieval-style grotesques by Marina Warner in her book No Go the Bogeyman, which draws some rather spurious conclusions about these creatures and their purpose. She claimed, for example, that they almost always had two faces to represent the duality of them as figures of fun/fear. The original was two-faced by default, but now I’ve added it as an option on a random table of weird features. Because everyone likes monsters with random tables, right?]

Gryllus CR 1 CN Monstrous Humanoid This stunted little creature is somehow simultaneously pitiful, comical and unnerving. Its body is a disproportionate mishmash of animal and human parts with a leering, monstrous face.

The victims of a potent curse, the grylli are embodiments of vice and folly. Not exactly evil, grylli are instead short-sighted, foolish and selfish creatures prone to fits of greed and gluttony. In some communities, lone grylli are seen as mascots to be pitied and cared for, but a mass of the little creatures is still cause for alarm. In groups, grylli wander the countryside attempting to prove to each other which among them is capable of the greatest feats of strength and cunning, neither of which are qualities grylli have in any amount. Bumbles of grylli entering a settlement are prone to mischief such as raiding henhouses, stealing clothes off of clotheslines and pinching the bottoms of farmer’s daughters.

Violence is not a gryllus’ first instinct, but if harassed or in a foul mood they attack with needle-sharp teeth. a gryllus’ whining voice is capable of giving cry to ear-piercing wails, unsettling all who hear them. The most feared ability of the gryllus is their contagious nature—one attacked by a gryllus becomes more fool-hardy, reckless and prone to indulge their worst natures. The least fortunate of these victims are rendered insensible and slowly shrink and warp into the form of a gryllus over the course of a day. Only magic capable of relieving curses is effective at transforming a gryllus into the man he once was. Grylli remember only scattered memories of their former lives, which they may relate if properly motivated (with shiny objects or rich food).

A gryllus stands about three feet tall and weighs fifty pounds. No two grylli look exactly alike—one may have three hoofed legs and a face growing out of his belly, whereas another might be little more than an oversized head on feet. All, however, freely mix humanoid and animal features. Grylli do not age and do not die except by disease or violence. Although most are free-wheeling and wild creatures, some are the servants of the spellcasters that transformed them.

Greater Grylli When an especially powerful or noble individual is the subject of a create gryllus spell (see below) or succumbs to a gryllus’ create spawn, they may transform instead into a greater gryllus. A greater gryllus retains more of its reason than its lesser brethren as well as all of its memories of its former life. As such, most tend to be brooding and bitter creatures that turn their back on the world that cursed them. A greater gryllus has a more symmetrical shape, appearing as some sort of chimeric humanoid. A greater gryllus is a gryllus with the advanced and giant simple templates and is a CR 3 creature.