Vargouille: Difference between revisions
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[[Image: Vargouille-5e.jpg]] | [[Image: Vargouille-5e.jpg]] | ||
'''Vargouilles''' are floating [[Neutral Evil]] heads with bat wings and small floppy tentacles | '''Vargouilles''' are floating [[Neutral Evil]] heads with bat wings and small floppy tentacles. Their origin is "Tarterus" so those "deepest pits of the lower planes" (not necessarily [[Carceri]] although, yeah, they're there), and areas where such planes are meddled-with, are the most likely places to find them. Luckily they are blind in natural sunlight and they dislike light generally. (Or so it went in First Edition.) | ||
The | Their bite is venomous, such that - failing the saving-throw - those 1d4 hitpoints are lost ''forever'', excepting a [[wish]]. Again: so first-edition went. | ||
Third-Edition, raising this thing to the Monster Manual, nerfed the poison but added other horrendous abilities to compensate. First, a shriek effect: to [[paralyze]] nonvargouilles within 60 feet, making the kissykissy easier. The most-feared attack (and mode of reproduction) is to kiss you on the lips ([[Rape|''muah''!]]), clearly easier if you already can't move. This, failing a saving-throw, passes on a [[disease]]: over time, your head takes on vargouille traits until, at the end, the body is shunted aside and the head floats away. They also omitted the disabilities in sunlight but, honestly, that was dumb. | |||
The vargouille might seem to [[gargoyle]]s as [[jermlaine]] to [[gremlin]]s: some Frenchified way around a public-domain term such as to make it ''not'' public. In this case the second [[Monster Manual]] attempted more creativity. And it's under the OGL anyway so [[D&D]] and [[Pathfinder]] parties can enjoy this old-school monster together. | The vargouille might seem to [[gargoyle]]s as [[jermlaine]] to [[gremlin]]s: some Frenchified way around a public-domain term such as to make it ''not'' public. In this case the second [[Monster Manual]] attempted more creativity. And it's under the OGL anyway so [[D&D]] and [[Pathfinder]] parties can enjoy this old-school monster together. | ||
[[Monte Cook]] seems inordinately fond of | [[Monte Cook]] seems inordinately fond of this beastie. The Vargouille Knife is a bane in the [[Banewarrens]] of [[Ptolus]]; if you hit someone with it, his/her head turns into this. Also there's a plane in [[Beyond Countless Doorways]] where vargouilles flit around swapping bodies. | ||
==Gallery== | ==Gallery== | ||
Revision as of 20:42, 6 March 2023
Vargouilles are floating Neutral Evil heads with bat wings and small floppy tentacles. Their origin is "Tarterus" so those "deepest pits of the lower planes" (not necessarily Carceri although, yeah, they're there), and areas where such planes are meddled-with, are the most likely places to find them. Luckily they are blind in natural sunlight and they dislike light generally. (Or so it went in First Edition.)
Their bite is venomous, such that - failing the saving-throw - those 1d4 hitpoints are lost forever, excepting a wish. Again: so first-edition went.
Third-Edition, raising this thing to the Monster Manual, nerfed the poison but added other horrendous abilities to compensate. First, a shriek effect: to paralyze nonvargouilles within 60 feet, making the kissykissy easier. The most-feared attack (and mode of reproduction) is to kiss you on the lips (muah!), clearly easier if you already can't move. This, failing a saving-throw, passes on a disease: over time, your head takes on vargouille traits until, at the end, the body is shunted aside and the head floats away. They also omitted the disabilities in sunlight but, honestly, that was dumb.
The vargouille might seem to gargoyles as jermlaine to gremlins: some Frenchified way around a public-domain term such as to make it not public. In this case the second Monster Manual attempted more creativity. And it's under the OGL anyway so D&D and Pathfinder parties can enjoy this old-school monster together.
Monte Cook seems inordinately fond of this beastie. The Vargouille Knife is a bane in the Banewarrens of Ptolus; if you hit someone with it, his/her head turns into this. Also there's a plane in Beyond Countless Doorways where vargouilles flit around swapping bodies.