Bestiary

When the gods created each of the animals on earth, giving each one a purpose and a shape, they made a large mistake: They made the grootslang.

With the head of an elephant and a body of a snake, the creatures originally known as grootslang were powerful and cunning monsters, able to live on land and underwater as well. These creatures were violent, too, using their strength and intellect to run rampant upon the earth. And so, the gods decided to split the grootslang into two separate animals, turning their heads into elephants and their bodies into snakes. Almost every grootslang was separated this way; one, however, was sly enough to hide away underwater and escape the justice of the gods. Now known as the Grootslang, he’s still alive today.

The last of his kind, the Grootslang lives in large lakes, where he lures elephants and people to the water’s edge. When his prey lower their heads to drink from the water, he wraps his serpentine tail around their legs, pulls them in, and drowns them. Once they’re dead, he devours them whole, with a powerful jaw full of sharp teeth that can gnash bones to pieces and a body that digests food like an anaconda’s: slowly and near-completely.

Grootslang’s one weakness is his love of jewels. He’ll hoard enormous amounts of precious stones (especially diamonds) in a nearby cave, and then guard them with fierce intensity. Folks who wish to trap or divert Grootslang leave jewels laying around in order

to lure him. Considering, though, that he’s still around, that’s probably not a successful strategy. Grootslang, on the other hand, often feeds himself by using the same trick; when people who lust after diamonds seek those riches out in lakeside caves, they may fall prey to Grootslang’s hunger. He coils in the depths of mineshafts, too, eating the miners who seek jewels in the dark. Did the gods truly make a mistake when they left a single Grootslang alive, or is this immortal monster a living lesson about the awful price of greed?

Attributes: Strength 6, Dexterity 5, Stamina 6, Charisma 1, Manipulation 2, Appearance 1, Perception 4, Intelligence 5, Wits 4

Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 4, Awareness 3 Brawl 3, Cosmology 2, Enigmas 3, Occult 3, Intimidation 5, Stealth 5, Survival 5

Willpower: 6

Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, ‒1 ‒1 ‒1, ‒1, ‒2, ‒2, ‒5, ‒5, Incapacitated

Armor Rating: 4 (10 soak dice, total)

Powers/Advantages: Bite for Strength + 2 lethal damage; gore for Strength +3 lethal damage; crush for Strength + 2 bashing damage / Armor (4 pts.); Fangs and Horns (tusks); Flexibility; Needleteeth; Tunneling; Soak Aggravated Damage; Unaging; Venom (6 pts.)

Image: Nightmarishly huge, the Grootslang has thick black skin, a probing trunk, long tusks, a cavernous mouth that opens wide beneath his tusks, and a long serpent’s body that stretches out into the darkness of the caves he loves.

Roleplaying Notes: The tiny lights in the darkness belong to you. Only to you. Your immortal mind recalls the rise and fall of empires, and though you’ll occasionally spare a trespassing mortal snack so you can learn more about the world beyond your caverns and lakes, you get hungry in the void, and so, you feed.