Monster Monday: Giant Sea Slug, Stinging Mollusk of the Reefs

Today's Monster Monday is the giant sea slug or giant nudibranch. These colorful, poisonous, acid-spitting creatures lurk in reefs or the open sea, feeding on coral and giant jellyfish, occasionally swarming shipwrecks or attacking castaways.

Clockwise from top left: Nembrotha aurea, Berghia coerulescens, Glaucus atlanticus (sea swallow or blue dragon), and Hexabranchus sanguineus (Spanish dancer). Via Wikimedia.

Sea slugs are carnivorous shell-less mollusks, far more varied and colorful than the garden slugs with which we are all familiar. Some crawl along the seafloor, others - like Glaucus atlanticus - cling to the surface tension of the water, and still others - like the Spanish dancer - can ripple and undulate through the water. In nature, sea slugs become poisonous by absorbing the stinging cells of jellyfish and hydrozoans that they eat, thus turning their prey's defenses into their own.

Giant sea slugs, as statted up below, combine elements from many different real species of sea slug, except instead of being tiny they are ten feet long and capable of feeding on giant jellyfish and even humans.

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2018 Jonah Bomgaars.

Monster Monday: Sawfish, A Toothy Sword-Faced Fish

Today's Monster Monday is the sawfish, a large shark with a tooth-lined sword nose that it sweeps back and forth to shred fish. Okay, actually sawfish aren't sharks, they are rays. And their noses (rostra) aren't lined with teeth, they are modified tooth-like scales (dermal denticles). But there are a similar group of saw-nosed sharks, but they are much smaller than the sawfish, which grows up to about 23 feet in length.

Common sawfish (pristis pristis); Photo by David Iliff (License: CC-BY-SA 3.0), via Wikimedia

With that said, sawfish are awesome monsters and I am surprised they haven't appeared in a Bestiary yet. Not only does their saw-nose make for a memorable combat experience, but it can also be fashioned into a macuahuitl. If you are going for a more prehistoric experience, saw-nosed sclerorhynchids lived from about 130-55 million years ago - most were Small-sized like modern saw-nosed sharks, but onchopristis was 26 feet long with an 8 foot saw lined with barbed teeth. There was also the saw-nosed ichthyosaur eurhinosaurus that you can find back in this old post.

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2018 Jonah Bomgaars.

Monster Monday: Mantis Shrimp - The Fastest Claws in the Sea

Today's Monster Monday is the giant mantis shrimp, a man-sized version of the little rainbow-colored tropical shrimp that can punch so fast they boil the water around their claws and create a shockwave, and whose eyes are so good they can see colors we can't even imagine.

photo by prilfish from Vienna, Austria, via Wikimedia

If you've been on the internet in the last few years, you may have noticed a growing interest in these fascinating, terrifying, badass little rainbow murder shrimp.  Now you can bring that interest to your gaming table!

photo by SSR2000, via Wikimedia

WHOA! THAT IS FREAKY!

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2015 Jonah Bomgaars.

Monster Monday: Argonaut - Giant Ship-Killing Nautilus Used as a Living Submarine

Today's Monster Monday is the argonaut, a species of gargantuan nautilus that hunts the vast ocean depths, preying on whales, sea-serpents, and even ships.  Some aquatic races have even learned to control these mighty beasts, modifying the empty chambers of their shells and using the creatures as living submarines.

Photo: Manuae via Wikimedia

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2015 Jonah Bomgaars.

Monster Monday: Giant Starfish

Today's Monster Monday is a two-fer: the giant starfish and the giant thorny starfish, two related creatures that won't fit in your average tidepool.  Use them in conjunction with the giant sea anemone for a surreal, slightly rubbery beach-party brawl!

source

The OGL, PFSRD-compatible monster is available after the jump.
The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is (C)2013 Jonah Bomgaars.