Monster Monday - Bilegut (Patreon)

Heavy thuds followed the footsteps of the huge, mechanical beast as it prowled the remnants of the crashed ship. It resembled an immense toad and as it ambled onto the scene, a tongue erupted from its maw, hooking onto a hatch that it tore open as it retracted its tongue. It tilted its head quizzically as it regarded the opening that was decidedly to small for it to enter through. Bristling, it launched a salvo of spherical shapes from pods on its back that impacted near the shuttle before whirring and clicking. They 'hatched' into drones that blinked with a soft blue light as they lifted into the air. After hovering for a moment before the mecha-toad, the insect-like drones darted inside the hatch from which seconds later, the sounds of buzzing electricity and tearing metal were heard. The bilegut settled into the ground, waiting for its minions to strip the valuable resources hidden within.

Bounding into the brouhaha, this bionic bullfrog brings a bunch of buzzing buggy buddies to bear as it bounces and batters bands of braves.

It's time for another collaboration with Cameron McLoud! The bilegut featured in the Burning Shores expansion of Horizon: Forbidden West, and was a fairly powerful creature. This led to the use of a high level for the creature, which I like as it really plays into the froggy design they used for it. Aside from its habit of hopping and its long, prehensile tongue, this theme is further explored with its ability to deploy insect-like drones that aid them in combat. This ability to regularly call forth little allies led to a somewhat unique design for it with it honestly being the closest to a brute if anything.

The big central ability of the bilegut is its Launch Eggs, which is an ability I deliberated a lot over. Cameron designed it to have two effects on a singular cooldown, but I was worried about them being equally worth using. I endeavored to make them of similar value, so its glue trap uses a high DC and actually grabs targets within its area instead of reducing their speed or do something less severe. Furthermore, the area remains for a while and Escaping it also requires a high DC, something which I usually avoid doing. But that's because I had to balance that with its ability to spawn stingspawn. For this, I reference amelekana and caypin alike though the wording follows the latter given its more recent release. Their attacks veer very much towards the low values but I think even with that, adding extra enemies to the battlefield is potent. Even if the heroes can take out these stingspawn in one hit, that's an attack not being used against the bilegut. And in those instances where they ignore the stingspawn to instead focus on the bilegut, after getting in some cheap shots, the bilegut can go ahead and use Recycle. The healing this provides is based off of the Consume Flesh ability of the ghoul, and even carries over the manipulate trait found there. This does remove a stingspawn from the field, but that might not be bad for the players.

As for some of its other abilities, the bilegut actually has the Improved Grab ability on its tongue Strike, contributing to its moderate damage, and once the bilegut has a creature captured, it can follow that up with Reel In. I referenced the culdewen for this one but the bilegut does have an added benefit here. If it managed to pull a creature all the way in, it can trigger its Snacking Snag reaction. This is a very basic reaction that just allows it to make a jaws Strike, which has its high damage. The other benefit of this is that it pulls creatures into its Corrosive Exhaust. This aura is based on Cameron's design and is simply below unlimited use area damage at a moderate DC for enemies that get too close. But in those cases where the enemies won't get close, it can go to them with its Bounding Slam. This is a High or Long Jump that deals unlimited use area damage upon landing, all against a high DC. This does have the added benefit of potentially knocking creatures prone, and part of its damage is acid damage. Fortunately, this acid damage, and that of its Corrosive Exhaust, can potentially be disabled by targeting its Metalbite Sac components, which use a high Armor Class.

ENCOUNTER HOOKS

Buzzing Bayou Buddies: Although it would require further set-up, an encounter with a bilegut that has a full-on swarm of stingspawn at its disposal could be fun. This would likely require designing a stingspawn troop, but having a bilegut that is content to sit in the back and let its stingspawn handle the work for itself. As an aspect of this, it could use its tongue to drag enemies into range of its pet swarm.

Frogs and Frags: Honestly, the bilegut ended up being a bit of a lockdown master. This would make it an excellent companion to run with other creatures. One that is able to evade its adhesive bombs, such as a ranged or flight capable combatant, would likely fit the best. An example that comes to mind is the dreadwing, giving us a bit of a witchy crew between a bat and toad!

Have a monstrous Monday!