A great cry echoed from the immense rooster, the runes on its feathers flaring with a celestial light as its voice rose to shake the heavens. The ground followed suit, rumbling and fracturing beneath the shout. Wincing at the keening cry, the fighter set his feet against it, hefting his shield into place as the earth surged beneath him. Tightening his grip on his sword, he lashed out with the blade, cutting a line of red in its resplendent plumage. An ire filled its eyes and it flapped its wings furiously before throwing its head back with a tumultuous cry. Summoned by its call, the skies darkened and spectral figures began to rise from the earth, clawing at the assembled heroes and attempting to drag them.
Illustration by SethMonster
This week explores a creature from Norse mythology, the gullinkambi. Within the myths, this is one of the roosters that crows to signal the start of Ragnarok. It's a little dangerous trying to build mythological creatures for Pathfinder 2e because you never know what Paizo is going to draw from. Case in point, a long while back, I built the aoyin for a Monster Monday. One of the solicitations for a Tian Xia book mentioned that it was going to have an aoyin in its bestiary. This one's maybe a little more obscure so hopefully it won't be usurped by official material.
Given its roots and origins, I wanted to build it as a bestial form of aesir, akin to the einherji and valkyrie and actually built it between the two, level-wise. It has a low Armor Class compensating for a high pool of Hit Points while on the offensive side of things, it has a high attack bonus with a high damage beak and low damage spurs. Its beak has the forceful trait, which can potentially increase its damage to extreme if it can string together enough Strikes and helping with that is Feathered Fury, which is effectively its version of a Flurry of Blows. I was inspired by the awesome art from SethMonster to include its spurs rather than talons and added the fatal trait to these lethal-looking blades.
This Ragnarok-a-doodlin' rooster has two abilities that allow it to bring about a bit of the end times. Cataclysmic Cry is more of a standard effect with limited use area damage in a cone that also fractures the earth, leaving it difficult terrain. Alternatively, it can make trick the spirits into thinking that the end has come with its Wake the Dead, letting it stir up spirits in an area to deal unlimited use area damage that it can sustain. The initial save to escape the grasping spirits is an extreme DC while avoiding the damage and its doomed condition is a high DC save, like its other cry. If the gullinkambi can't maintain its cry and lets it drop, it then goes on a longer cooldown. Defensively, the gullinkambi has Ferocity, which is a pretty standard effect but works with its Vigorous Defiance to make it hastened. This idea is inspired by the stories and personal experiences of chickens running around with their heads cut off, which I considered more accurately representing but it seemed more troublesome than it was worth.
Pathfinder 2e:
There isn't much more to say about the Pathfinder 1e gullinkambi - it's a pretty faithful copy of the 2e version. It does have some damage reduction based on a similar reduction shared by valkyries and also gets a little more use out of its flight with feats such as Flyby Attack. I did end up separating the DCs of its two cries. Cataclysmic cry is kind of it just belting out this powerful cry and thus uses a Constitution-based DC while its wake the dead is about calling spirits and the like, lending to the use of Charisma-based DCs.
Pathfinder 1e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
I specifically designed the gullinkambi with the intent of it being used alongside other aesir. Perhaps the heroes are making an incursion onto their planes and run afoul of einherjar defenders and their pet gullinkambi. The heroes may be fighting a valkyrie for the soul of their friend who is accompanied by her pet gullinkambi. Alternatively, foul forces may have captured and gullinkambi in a nihilistic attempt to corrupt it and bring about the end of the world sooner.
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Have a monstrous Monday!
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