#ixitxachitl

Under the sea -- A devilfish cleric leads a party of undead guards (Terry Dykstra, Creature Cruible PC3: The Sea People by Jim Bambra, TSR, 1990). The devilfish was D&D's version of AD&D's ixitxachitl, during the period when TSR published two similar but separate game systems.

An old drawing from 2019, when my friend group was just getting into D&D. Obviously, I immediately was drawn to the monsters, having drawn a sizeable chunk of them the year (or two) before. As a patented forever DM, I was left to explain the difference between the different monster types to them. My initial idea was to draw a series of drawings like those above, with a character from our campaign and a number of low-level examples of that creature type. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out. Firstly because we simply didn't have enough time, and there aren't actually that many low-level monsters in certain categories. Try as hard as I might, but Celestials and Giants simply weren't conducive to the theme. So I abandoned the project. But, why let some perfectly good drawings go to waste? Of the one's I've finished, only two of them are really "presentable", this being the first. Aberrations are basically anything that's too weird for a world of metal-eating turtle-dillos and corpse licking worms. All of them are alien, whether in their biology or their point of origin. Many of them also tend to lean towards the psionic powers, rather then the arcane. Showing off our three specimens is Baron von Kaiserlicht, a wizard who was almost slaad-ed, but managed to save his skin. Or, rather, his bones. Kaiserlicht is just an ambulating anatomy looking for his skin, which happened to steal his magic as well. He's trying to wretch, but without any muscles or saliva he's gotta pantomime it. The quintessential aberrations are the ixitxachitl, the flumph, and the slaad tadpole. Ixitxachitl are sting-rays that evolved psychic powers. That's their origin. Because they lack teeth and thumbs, they have to rely on their barbed tails for defense. The idea of a creature evolving psychic powers to hunt prey and by accident evolving intelligence and a god-complex was funny enough for me to include them. Flumphs are the alien equivalents of paladins, seeking out evil creatures to eat. Their goofy appearance belies a sense of justice. And poisonous tentacles, can't forget those. Finally, slaad tadpoles are the first stage of the body-snatching slaadi, invaders from another dimension. They work xenomorph-style, plugging their young into people and then bursting out. Rather than going straight frog, I wanted to make it look like something that could only be described by making a vain attempt at connecting it to a preexisting animal. Because the tadpole uses people to incubate, its skin is actually made up of its host's skin, freckles and all. It's also leaking Limbo juice, to communicate its alien origins. And because they tend to be a little... unstable.

Me da que los conceptos de Pathfinder son un poco toscos. Como más adolescente todo.

“The Sea of Dread is home to several aquatic nations” including the tritons  (John and Laura Lakey cover for PC3: The Sea People by Jim Bambra, TSR, 1990)  Most of the sea people are enemies of the devilfish, evil intelligent rays adapted from the AD&D ixitxachitl.

An ixitxachitl glides past a metal hatch on the reef  (Erol Otus, AD&D module C2: The Ghost Tower of Inverness, TSR, 1980)  Ixitxachitls are intelligent evil rays with many clerics and some vampires among their number.  Some schools are known to be cultists of Demogorgon.  --  I’m taking notes on ocean encounters since my home campaign party is very close to capturing a ship.  Like many of the classic underwater monsters, the ixitxachitl first appeared in Dave Arneson’s 1975 Blackmoor supplement.

  Game Log: Chaos in the under city was originally published on Underdark: A Night Below