Dawn of the Plane of the Apes: Gigantopithecus, Dire Ape

Today's Monster Monday is part III of our month-long series about apes. This week, we're looking at the dire ape, or gigantopithecus. Gigantopithecus stood nearly 10 feet tall at full extension, making it a gigantic hulk of an ape. Older depictions of gigantopithecus often make it look like a giant gorilla, but the closest living relative of this giant Asian ape is actually the orangutan.

Gigantopithecus blacki, by KaekArt, via Wikimedia

We don't have a lot of fossils of gigantopithecus - mostly teeth from caves in China, India, and Vietnam. One thing missing are its pelvic bones, so we don't know for sure whether it walked upright like a human or on all fours like most apes. Given its bulk and the rarity of upright locomotion, it seems most likely that it used its arms and legs to walk, like a gorilla. But that hasn't stopped cryptozoologists from speculating (unfounded speculation is what they do, after all) that relic populations of gigantopithecus are responsible for sightings of sasquatches and yeti. That is, of course, dumb, but it is a gigantopithecus fun fact.

Since I reworked chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas, I had to rework the dire ape as well. As previously statted up, the dire ape was a CR 3 monster with 19 Strength. That would make them less powerful than my gorillas. Heck, it puts this giant ape roughly on par with a walrus. So the new dire ape is a CR 6 monster with 23 Strength. It has two slams, a bite attack, and rend. In combat, the gigantopithecus will bring its incredible strength to bear on any attackers, rending them limb from limb.

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Monster Monday: Sivatherium - Dire Giraffe?

Today's Monster Monday is sivatherium, a prehistoric giraffe that had a moose-like head of antlers. Sivatherium was not as long-necked and spindly as modern giraffes. While its neck was rather long, this beast was thicker and stockier, weighing more than the average adult giraffe at around half the height. I guess you could think of it as a condensed giraffe. With antlers.

photo by Hiuppo, via Wikimedia

Sivatherium reconstruction in the Museum of Evolution of Polish Academy of Sciences

The sivatherium ranged across Africa and India during the Pliocene epoch and survived in some areas up until 8,000 years ago. It also had a really cool looking skull:

photo by Ghedoghedo, via Wikimedia

Skull and leg of sivatherium giganteum in the Natural History Museum, London

In a campaign setting, a sivatherium would stand out as an attractive target for a hunt, as it is tall and distinct enough to spot from far away, it is packed with almost a ton of meat, and its skull and hide would make distinctive trophies. It would also be challenging to hunt, as its high vantage point would give it advance warning of approaching enemies, and its long legs and neck would allow it to lash out at attackers with surprising reach.
The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2018 Jonah Bomgaars.

Monster Monday: Amphicyon, Prehistoric Bear-Dog

Today's Monster Monday is amphicyon, also known as the bear-dog, a prehistoric predator related to both bears and dogs, which had features of each. The largest bear dog species had the size and power of grizzly bears, while smaller bear-dogs acted more like wolves. The bear dog statted up below is somewhere in between - a predator with the bulk and strength of a black bear, but a more wolf-like head and tail.

Reconstruction of the amphicyonid Ysengrinia
from an article by Borja Figueirido, Juan A. Pérez-Claros, Robert M. Hunt, Jr., and Paul Palmqvist, drawing by Óscar San−Isidro, via Wikimedia

Amphicyonids in all their myriad forms roamed across North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa from 46 to 1.8 million years ago. The larger, more bear-like species were probably omnivorous, but ate more meat than modern brown and black bears. The smaller amphicyonid species could be represented by the stat blocks for wolf, dog, or dire racoon, or by applying the young simple template to the stat block below. Giant amphicyonids like amphicyon ingens can be made by applying the giant simple template.

Also, I bet their cub-puppies were adorable.

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2017 Jonah Bomgaars.

Monster Monday: Platybelodon, the Shovel-Tusked Elephant

Today's Monster Monday is platybelodon, the weirdest elephant ever. This prehistoric elephant-like creature is distinguished by its four tusks, the lower two forming a shovel-like growth jutting out below the trunk.

Platybelodon sculpture by Sean Cooper & Martin Garratt, photo by RobinGoodfellow_(m) via Flickr

Platybelodon and related amebelodonts were gomphotheres - elephant-like creatures that roamed the earth 12 million years ago up until the end of the last ice age. While most gomphotheres had four tusks, amebelodonts had these specialized shovel-like plates. It was once thought that they used them to literally shovel up their food, but according to recent reconstructions of their life and diet, these creatures used their shovel-tusks to scrape tree bark and even as a saw to cut down small saplings and shrubs while their flexible trunk held them in place.

It also has one of the most terrifying skeletons of any herbivore:

via Wikimedia

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2017 Jonah Bomgaars.

Monster Monday: Giant Camel and Two-Humped Camel

Today's Monster Monday is a twofer: both the two-humped camel and the giant camel, two sure-footed pack-animals specialized at living in harsh conditions.

Tang-Dynasty model of a Sogdian riding a camel, via Wikimedia
Modern camels aren't as big as that tiny rider makes this one look, but the scale is about right for someone riding a
prehistoric giant camel like titanotylopus. Also, the rider looks like a lawn gnome, which amuses me.

The two-humped camel is more commonly known as the Bactrian camel, but Bactria is a real place on Earth, so that name is probably not suitable for most fantasy campaign settings. The one-humped dromedary or Arabian camel has already been statted up, but I felt the need to stat up their hardier, stronger, and more wide-ranging two-humped cousins as well. Two-humped camels have higher Strength and Constitution scores, making them ideal for hauling heavier loads in harsher environments than dromedaries, and also making them more formidable in a fight - both of which are characteristics that adventurers in camel-country might want to look for in their mounts and pack animals.

Bactrian camels resting in Jiayu Pass, by Emcc83, via Wikimedia

Prehistoric North America was home to many species of camel, including the gigantic megacamelus, titanotylopus, and gigantocamelus (those last two are considered by some paleontologists to be the same). These giant camels could be roughly 12 feet high and weighed over 5,000 pounds, making them about twice the size of the largest modern camels. In your campaign, giant camels might be employed by wealthy merchants to ship large quantities of goods across the desert, or they might be ridden by desert giant warriors. They could even be used as fighting platforms similar to war-elephants; imagine a giant camel draped in scale barding armor, with two archers firing from its back and two pikemen fighting from armored baskets hanging on either side of the beast.

(Don't forget to check out the encounter ideas and adventure hooks for these camels below the stat blocks!)

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2017 Jonah Bomgaars.

Monster Monday: Beaver and Dire Beaver - Those Dam Rodents

Today's Monster Monday is a twofer: the humble beaver and the moderately less humble dire beaver which had six-inch teeth and was roughly the size of a black bear.  Why am I talking about dire beavers like they were a real thing?  Because they were.  Castoroides leiseyorum roamed southern North America 1.4 million years ago.  Its relative, Castoroides ohioensis ranged across what is now the northern United States and Canada from about 130,000 years ago up to at least 18,000 years ago.  Ice Age North America wasn't just mastodons and saber-toothed cats; we had all kinds of crazy shit, like cheetahs and camels and saber-toothed salmon.

fossil C. ohioensis skeleton, via Wikimedia

There is some debate among paleontologists as to whether Castoroides built lodges and dams.  The shape of their teeth would have made them less efficient at cutting down trees than modern beavers, but it is known that a closely related genus of prehistoric beaver (Dipoides) built lodges, and a Castoroides fossil was found in association with what may have been a giant lodge in 1912.  Regardless of paleontology, the dire beaver statted up below definitely builds giant beaver dams and lodges, because that is too cool.  Modern normal-sized beavers have a tremendous effect on their local ecosystems by creating artificial ponds.  Imagine that but an order of magnitude greater.  Giant beaver dams would create huge ponds that attract all sorts of other creatures, from mundane fish and birds to nixies and shambling mounds.  A giant beaver dam might flood valuable farmland, creating conflict between farmers and the local circle of druids.  An older giant beaver dam might have become corrupted, home to oozes, aberrations, and - of course - skeletal dire beavers.

Lest we forget, normal-sized beavers are statted up below as well.  While they are less likely to serve as foes for low-level adventurers, beavers can act as familiars, granting their master a +3 bonus on Knowledge (engineering) checks.  They can also be prime targets for hunters and trappers, as they were in real life.  Beavers were historically prized for their water-repellent fur, which was used to make, among other things, top hats.  Beavers - both North American and European - have also traditionally been hunted for their castoreum, the secretion of the scent glands.  Castoreum is used in perfumery and in some traditional medicines.  In the Middle Ages, it was even used to increase the production of honeybees.  Any hunter or trapper who bags a beaver stands to profit not only from its fur but also its extracted castoreum.  Fun fact: because the castor glands are located near the beaver's testes, an ancient legend first attested in the works of Aesop but carried on by ancient and medieval naturalists says that beavers will gnaw off their own ballsacks to escape hunters.

via Wikimedia

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2016 Jonah Bomgaars.

Monster Monday: Glacioth, the Ice Mammoth

Every year since the wall of ice collapsed, the mammoths had come south through Eagle Pass at first snow.  Kennetwe had been the first to notice this, and so Kennetwe had been given the honor of leading the hunt ever since.  No longer did the Arokatcha eke out a living eating boiled roots and trading black squirrel pelts to the neighboring tribes.  Thanks to Kennetwe (and the melting ice), they grew fat on slabs of mammoth meat, grew strong defending the pass from their jealous neighbors, and grew rich trading ivory and hides to the River Cities.  

It was on one such trade expedition last summer, in the walled city or Urtalik, that Kennetwe had found the magic spear.  Crouching behind the grassy hummock and waiting for the other hunters to catch up to him, he admired the fine prize that he had traded five great tusks for.  The haft was made of a pale wood that looked almost like bone.  The spear head was broad and never needed sharpening.  Silver lightning bolts ran down either side of the head, framing a seated human figure that the Urtalikan had claimed was a god named Banatu.  At the time, Kennetwe had laughed - the gods do not take the shape of man! - but now he was convinced.  The spear crackled with power whenever he hefted it.  When he cast it, it flew straight and true, and badly scorched whatever it hit.  He was eager to try it on a mammoth.

Kennetwe readied the spear as the other hunters arrived.  He motioned them to follow, then leapt over the hummock down into the dry stream bed which ran with fast melt-water in the spring.  They advanced silently up the natural path, using the high banks as cover.  Mammoths spooked easily at the sight of man, and spooked mammoths would do no one any good.  The scent of mammoth was strong when they neared the killing field.  Stronger than ever.  This might be Kennetwe's most successful hunt yet.  He peered over the stream bank and his stomach sank.  The field was full of mammoths, all right.  Dead mammoths.  

He clambered out of the stream bed, the other hunters following.  A whole herd of female mammoths and their yearlings lay dead between the stream and the cliffs.  Did Tartakan hunters dare penetrate so deeply into Arokatcha territory?  Impossible.  Besides, there were no spears broken off in the mammoths.  No meat had been cut from their bodies, no tusks removed.  Kennetwe examined the closest mammoth.  It has been gored through its flank multiple times.  Its meat was cold and frosty.  A younger mammoth lay nearby, trampled to death by something very heavy.  

A trumpeting call ripped through the air, and the ground rumbled ominously.  Kennetwe looked up from the carnage.  A huge mammoth like none he had ever seen charged down the slope at them.  Its shaggy fur was white, and its skin was tinted blue like a frozen lake.  Its mighty tusks were made not of ivory but of ice, still dripping with blood and gore from the mammoths it had killed.  Four young hunters rushed in from the side and cast their throwing spears.  The brazen move would take down an aurochs but would be foolhardy in a mammoth hunt and was suicide against this beast.  The creature rounded on the boys and let loose a blast from its trunk.  A spray of ice crystals ripped into the first-year hunters, freezing them dead in their tracks.

Spears and arrows rained down on the beast from more cautious hunters taking cover behind dead mammoths.  Few found purchase in the monster's thick hide.  The white mammoth charged a pair of archers and skewered one on its icy tusk.  The archer's aborted scream hung in the air like a cloud.  This devil of a mammoth would not just end the hunt, it could end the whole Arokatcha tribe.  Kennetwe stepped up onto the corpse of a mammoth and belted out a war cry.  The white mammoth turned to him, snorted, and started to charge.  

He hefted the spear in his hand.  "Banatu, strike down this monster!"  The hairs on his arms stood on end as the spear trembled with power.  The white mammoth bore down on him, shaking the earth with every step.  Kennetwe took aim between the beast's eyes and let the spear fly.  

Today's Monster Monday is the glacioth, a snow-white mammoth with icicles for tusks that blasts cones of frost out of its trunk.  It's like a cross between a mammoth and a yeti, basically.

Whether you are running an ice age campaign (as I one day hope to do) or your party is venturing through the frigid northlands, a glacioth makes for a challenging foe.  It not only brings the power of a mammoth to bear, but also magical ice attacks.  Glacioths also make suitable mounts for yetis and frost giants or weapons of war for northern kingdoms.

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Monster Monday: Sabertooth Salmon - Deadly and Delicious

I've mentioned before that I'm really in to prehistoric animals and that I would try to bring more of them into Pathfinder.  Well, for this Monster Monday I'm bringing you a pretty unusual one: the sabertooth salmon.

(c) Ray Troll.  Prints of this piece are available for sale on his website.

Yes, that's a real thing that existed.  Oncorhynchus rastrosus (formerly known by the more colourful Smilodonichthys rastrorsus) were 8-10 feet long, 300-400 pounds, and equipped with a pair of sharp fangs.  They lived about 5 million years ago along the Pacific coast of North America.

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is (C)2014 Jonah Bomgaars.

Monster Monday: Chalicothere, Prehistoric Clawed Horse-Beast

Today's Monster Monday entry is the chalicothere, a prehistoric creature related to horses and rhinos with long, powerful arms and curved claws.

source: wikipedia

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is (C)2013 Jonah Bomgaars.