The world shakes and trembles before the earth itself splits open, erupting in a spray of sand that cascades around the vast, whale-like figure erupting from beneath. The fighter holds his shield beneath him, riding the beast’s rows of fangs before pushing off of it to crash into the sand. He grunts as the shadow of the great beast blots out the sun overhead, having fully pulled itself from the earth. Its immense bulk causes the earth beneath it to shudder as strange tunes lilt from hollow projections extending from atop its skull and along its heavy arms. A keen, siren call arose from its great maw but before it could bite at the downed warrior, a lance of light shot into its side, throwing it off-balance. As it reeled, the silver-haired rogue slipped alongside the fighter and lifted him to his feet, bolstering him to stand against the looming poborubarumu.
Returning to the seemingly bottomless well of Monster Hunter, I bring the poborubarumu, a living hunting horn! This whale-like creature is found in a region filled with plateaus where it tunnels through the earth before erupting from the ground like a whale breaching. Aside from its tremendous physical power, the poborubarumu uses its head, arm, and tails to create tunes that empower it and as a weapon. It can heal itself, increase its defenses, and enhance its attacks, but nearby hunters might be able to steal some of those enhancements. Aside from the ability to buff itself, it also demonstrates the power to confuse hunters and unleash sonic waves through the earth to topple foes. Foaming water often appears around the poborubarumu's wounds as a sign of it healing.
To start the build, poborubarumu is magical beast to facilitate the utilization of its buffing abilities, which are represented through its bardic performances. It has a limited list of songs it can draw upon to empower itself, and nearby creatures can attempt gain the effects of those songs with stolen song to represent the ability of nearby hunters to gain the effects of the songs it uses. To represent its ability to burst from the earth to make an attack, I gave it burrowing breach, an ability that I've used before with other creatures. While it doesn't do so, the animation involves it swallowing the hunter, so I included the swallow whole ability among its arsenal. It uses its delirious drone to confuse enemies though this ability can be a little more dangerous than the random emotes characters perform in Monster Hunter. The poborubarumu can unleash its sonic power through the ground to damage and down foes with its echoes through the earth. However, the dissonance power of its tail is a wholly unique creation. I wanted to include this as an ability to slightly represent its ability to crack the earth with its tail slams but because I thought it would be a fun sort of ability to grant weakness to those hit by it.
Pathfinder 1e:
In my initial pass of the 2e poborubarumu, I designed its buffing powers to function differently. They were instead different 'tunes' that it could activate as a single action to grant it a buff. However, as I was working on the 1e version, I realized the similarity these powers had compared to bardic performances, and decided to copy that effect into the 2e version. In the test of the poborubarumu, we couldn't find any issues with it, so this didn't go through any changes following the test!
Pathfinder 2e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Bard to the Bone: A bard with grander designs has managed to use music to tame a pod of poborubarumu to use as muscle for his plans. He has commanded them to attack a town and while they cause devastation throughout, he has brought the most powerful under his direct command. The heroes, who are in the town either in response to the first attack or by happenstance, soon find their attention drawn to this greater threat. Seated atop the poborubarumu, the bard uses his magic to enhance or harmonize with the beast’s own music, making its effects even more devastating. The bard maintains his control over the poborubarumu with a song. If the heroes are able to outperform the bard or somehow stop his song completely, they can disrupt his control and possibly turn the creature on its master.
Sound and Fury: A mine dedicated to the excavation of certain magical crystals has experienced several accidents that have collapsed tunnels and buried miners. Attempts to rescue the miners have uncovered nothing – only the remains of blood and gore. The heroes are called in to investigate the strange happenings and can find burrows leading through the area. By investigating these tunnels, they discover that they have been created by a poborubarumu. But the greatest danger is that the poborubarumu has discovered a pitch that destabilizes the arcane crystals and causes them to explode. It has been detonating the crystals in the mine to bury miners and then feast upon their corpses.
If you're interested in joining the discussion on what creatures I'm working on or just discussing your own homebrew works, check out our Discord! If you want to get some teasers or help us get to our yet unlisted milestones for extra content, check out the Twitter.
Have a monstrous Monday!
Comments