Thursday 2 February 2017

Though so stupid were they that they could hardly pronounce the word

Headless Sopater and the Euoplocephalus

Sopater of Apamea was known as a man of extraordinary brilliance who went to the court of Constantine to convert the emperor to the study of philosophy. For a time Constantine held him in the highest regard and even asked if Sopater could purify him after he murdered his son. But jealousy on the part of those "so stupid that they could hardly pronounce his name" was soon Sopater's downfall and he was beheaded after being falsely accused of controlling the weather.

A mythago of Sopater now serves Abu Yaqub Al-Sijistani and he can be found roaming far and wide on errands from his master. Headless, he relies for vision and all other senses on two primitive ancestral bats, clinging to his arms or back, who use their echolocation to sense their surroundings, and dig their teeth and claws into his dead flesh to guide him. He cannot speak but gestures for communication with his hands and fingers. He rides on the back of the undead skeleton of a euoplocephalus - a six-metre long ankylosaur covered all over in armoured slabs of bone and huge tusk-spikes.

Sopater of Apamea

7th level cleric
28 hp, AC 12, AB -, Move 90

Sopater is blind and the guidance from his bats is not quick enough to allow him to function effectively in combat. Without the bats he can see nothing at all. They have 1hp each and are adept at hiding themselves from attacks (their AC is 14 but only a hit on a natural 20 will actually hit a bat if it is attached to Sopater's body; otherwise the blow hits Sopater).

He is undead and immune to normal attacks, cold-based attacks, sleep, charm, etc.

The Skeleton Euoplocephalus

HD 8, AC 20, AB +8, ATT Trample 1d6+2, Tail 2d6+2, Move 90
*AC 14 against bludgeoning weapons
*Tail attack can only strike backwards; trample attack can only strike forwards
*Can charge, in which case trample attack hits everything in its path automatically
*Always loses initiative

The skeleton euoplocephalus is unthinkingly and fanatically loyal to Al-Sijistani and hence Sopater. They give its existence meaning amidst the chaos of the catastrophe that befell it and the rest of its kind.

3 comments:

  1. I was actually a bit disappointed that I misread and there's no creature called Soap Eater.

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  2. Good to see that you're working on this again!

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    Replies
    1. I have been working on it more or less continuously but mainly in my head! I have been doing quite an extensive re-think of basic concepts.

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