Monster Monday - Nu Udra (Patreon)

Amidst the sweltering heat of the craggy cavern, the rogue warily eyed the walls and ceiling. She regarded a few of the stalagmites suspiciously but after deciding none were darkmantles, she relaxed slightly. As she rested a hand on the pommel of her shortsword, the cleric and wizard excitedly discussed the crystals they had recovered. Mere feet away from them, the wizened fighter kept a patient eye on them, like a father watching his children at play. The rogue shared a gentle smile with him before she glimpsed motion out of the corner of her eyes. Her body tensed, blades sliding easily from their sheaths, but the sight that met her gave even the veteran adventurer pause. Pulling itself from a crack in the floor was a multi-limbed creature that had no business fitting in the hole it had emerged from. Its expanding body was covered in a dark, gritty film that it smeared across the floor as it wriggled aboveground. Hook-lined tentacles lifted into the air as points of glowing light appeared on their tips, seeming to angle towards her...

Ostensibly an octopus and accordingly armed with ocho offshoots, our overland offender obscures its oddbod in oil that it obliterates in an obscene ostentation.

In a similar vein to the uth duna and rey dau, we have the apex monster for the Oilwell Basin. Apparently, a creature needs two names to qualify for that role. In addition to its unique position, the nu udra is notable for using a new sort of design in Monster Hunter with a cephalopod form. Some of its powers are admittedly related to its environment as it covers itself with oilsilt that it lights ablaze, but I included that as a basic factor of its overall design. In addition to its octoploid structure, the nu udra is interesting for it lack of which, which seems to be compensated by sensory organs on the end of its tentacles, which I decided to reflect through Motion Sense.

As we get into this, the nu udra is notably lacking in Components. I decided against them in this instance because the only notably breakable part on the nu udra are its tentacles, but it has six of them. This meant that when designing a component, I had to either have it be broken six times for a noticeable effect, design an incremental effect, or disrupt the fantasy by having an effect after breaking it once. I decided it was easier to simply skip the concept entirely and focus on other aspects of its kit instead.

It has a few similarities to more traditional octopi with the Compression ability and Writhing Arms ability both coming from the giant octopus. The latter of these abilities resembles the wind up and slam or thrash attacks that it regularly makes while the former resembles its ability to squeeze itself into holes and gaps. More unique to the nu udra, though share some similarities to the ajarakan, is its Ignite Oilsilt. When I was studying the nu udra, it looked like creatures near it when it enraged in this manner took some damage. To account for this, it deals unlimited use area damage with a high DC in the area immediately around it. Once it's in this state, the damage of the nu udra's Strikes increase to about high damage and some of its abilities gain fireblight-esque effects.

Abilities such as its Belch Fire! For a brief moment, when I first started watching videos on the nu udra to figure it out a bit, I didn't realize this was something it could do outside of its tentacular grapple, which I did also intentionally feature. Baseline, this ability deals limited use area damage with a high DC saving throw. However, a creature caught in this area and in the nu udra's tentacles takes an additional penalty on their save to represent the very personal pyro presentation it provides. It finishes out its fiery abilities with Enflamed Thrash, which is its big attack. It is limited to using this when it's enflamed from its Ignite Oilsilt and it again deal limited use area damage, but uses an extreme DC because when it does so, it also ceases to be enflamed. This should maybe also have a cooldown, but it might get a bit predictable if it just keeps cycling between Ignite Oilsilt and Enflamed Thrash.

We get a bit more mundane with its Sweeping Swing. I noticed that the nu udra has a habit of knocking opponents about and tripping them up, which this was inspired by. I considered including it on its Strike or an ability, but having it be a reaction felt the most fun.

Similar to the ajarakan, I did decide to design armor from the nu udra. The effects are based more on the abilities of the nu udra itself rather than any effects on its armor though I did add that the damage effects that it provides are increased when the wearer at half health or lower. This is based on the Resentment skill found on the nu udra's armor as well as the unique skill set that it has related to Resentment.

ENCOUNTER HOOKS

Tentacular Terrors: This might require a little bit of invention, but I like the idea of the heroes wandering into a cavern that is home to a nu udra. However, while the nu udra is content to crawl through the cracks and emerge from the underground, the roof of its lair is covered in a troop of darkmantles. The darkness caused by these lesser creatures doesn't interfere with the motion sense of the nu udra, making them a deadly combo though the darkmantles would certainly need a bit of a pick-me-up with a troop design to be a challenge to any party that should be facing a nu udra.

From the Depths: The nu udra's Compression ability honestly makes it an excellent option for any random encounter. If the heroes wander into the terrain of the nu udra, it could become increasingly aware of their presence as they make noise, get into fights, and the like. You could consider keeping a sort of 'alertness points' for the nu udra that, once they've built up enough, triggers the nu udra crawling from a crack to attack them - which might even happen mid-battle with another creature.

Have a monstrous Monday!