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Wild grell

Grell are a minor[1] spacefaring race in the Spelljammer campaign setting.[2][3]

Overview[]

A grell is a fearsome carnivore that looks like a giant brain with a vicious beak and dangling tentacles. Some grell are solitary ravagers while others live in small family units. "Civilized" grell are colonial creatures, much like ants or bees, who live in a hive. Colonial spacefaring grell are similar to the feral subterranean grell native to Oerth, except they are far more intelligent, arrogant, and dangerous.[2][3]

Description[]

A grell resembles a giant floating brain, 4-feet in diameter, with a vicious beak and ten 6-feet long dangling tentacles. Grell have a weird language composed of bird-like squawks and chirps, combined with tentacular motion and limited telepathy. Grell can, however, communicate directly via telepathic link with both grell philosophers and the highly intelligent grell patriarch. Other creatures cannot learn the grell language, and they in turn refuse to learn the languages of "lesser beings" (synonymous with "food" in their language).[3][2]

Personality[]

Arrogant and vicious, grell hunt an area to exhaustion, then move on to more fertile regions. Their (re)discovery of Known Space means only a rich storehouse of meat to these monsters. A spacefaring grell's arrogance surpasses all other intelligent beings, and they acknowledge no equals, regarding even terrestrial grell as "lesser beings" (i.e. "food").[2][3] Anyone captured by grell faces enslavement and eventual consumption as part of the grell's food supply.[2]

Combat[]

Grell use strategy and tactics in their battles, and can engage more than one opponent at the same time. They are intelligent enough to utilize their tentacle attacks in the most advantageous manner, but will only use their beaks on immobilized prey. Grell battle tactics show a distinct preference for using their levitation ability to hide in the upper reaches of large chambers, before silently ambushing their prey.

Their ability to function in groups allows them to mount vicious assaults, wielding tip-spears and lightning lances. A tip-spear is a socketed metallic edged-weapon that fits over the tips of a soldier-grell's tentacles. A grell can use the tip-spear to make slashing attacks or to stab their victims; any victim impaled on a tip-spear is immobilized and is subject to attack from the grell's other tentacles. A grell lightning lance discharges a powerful electrical attack once every minute and has 36 charges.[2]

Unarmed grell can attack using all ten tentacles; for each tentacle that hits, the grell attempts to grapple their victim, immobilising them. When immobilised, a grell can attack their prey with their remaining tentacles at will. With two tentacles gripping their prey, a grell can lift them up and devour them when desired. A grell automatically hits paralyzed prey each round.

Grell can regenerate lost or damaged tentacles in 1 to 2 days, and are immune to electrical attacks.[3]

Society[]

Grell have a distinct hierarchy. Each hive is led by a patriarch, who gives orders to the philosophers, who direct the soldiers and workers in their every day tasks. A hive can occupy a spelljamming vessel[2] or an underground complex. According to rumor, all spacefaring grell answer to a mysterious Imperator, a grell of great power who can unite all hives for a common cause; to conquer a realm, a territory, or even a world.

A grell mates but once in its 30-40 year life span. The female later lays a clutch of up to 8 eggs. Young are born active and self-sufficient, but will take ten months to reach adulthood.[3]

Soldier/Worker[]

Worker or soldier grell form the bulk of a hive or a raiding party. They are limited in intelligence and perform minor maintenance aboard ship.[2] Occasionally, a worker or soldier will become separated from its fellows, and goes rogue. These feral grell carry no weapons, collect no treasure, and avoid sunlight.[3]

Colonial grell

Philosopher[]

Philosopher grell serve as intermediaries between the patriarch and the workers, and have limited authority to lead soldier grell in organized raids. Some philosophers wear a ring of protection, while 1-in-10 can cast spells as a mage. There is one philosopher for every 10 worker or soldier grell.[2][3]

Patriarch[]

Each hive has a solitary patriarch who directs all lesser grell. A patriarch is a huge, sedentary sessile mass of flesh approximately 30-feet in diameter. If installed within a vessel of some kind, the patriarch can graft its tentacles into the ship and animate it; the patriarch can even make it fly through wildspace to other worlds.[3] The patriarch's enormous brain controls the higher functions of all grell within the hive, ensuring that all other castes serve them.[2]

Imperator[]

The Imperator holds absolute sway over all spacefaring grell and can unite them as a single fighting force. Known as the Legion of Gold, due to the uniform golden color of their spelljammers, this horde sweeps through wildspace like a swarm of locusts, leaving nothing but debris in its wake.[2]

Signature Spelljammers[]

None. A grell patriarch can bond with any suitable vessel. In wildspace, grell ships do not spelljam so much as submerge and surface in space, traveling “beneath” space using some bizarre dimensional passage that the grell patriarch generates. When out in the Flow, the front end of the ship opens, exposing a hollow tube that runs the length of the vessel. The grell ship then ignites the inrushing phlogiston, ejecting the exhaust gases from the rear in a motion similar to that of a squid. The spelljamming patriarch controls the size of the phlogiston burn.

In hopeless situations, the grell patriarch can transform its ship into a vaguely humanoid form via telekinesis. The giant armored figure is armed with an oversized halberd which can deal up to 10 hull points of damage. The halberd can also discharge an electrical arc once a minute which deals up to 18 hull points in damage. Alternatively, the giant figure can strike with each of its fists, dealing up to 3 hull points of damage each.[2]

Appendix[]

External Links[]

References[]

  1. Jeff Grubb. AD&D Adventures in Space; Lorebook of the Void, TSR, Inc., 1989, Major and Minor Races side bar (pp.50, 52 and 54)
  2. 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 Newton Ewell, MC9 Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix II, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Grell, Colonial entry
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Tim Beach et al, Monstrous Manual, 1993, (TSR Inc.), Grell entry, page 173
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