The ranger whittles her arrows automatically, her focus remaining upon the surrounding forestry. Keen eyes probe the shadows sent dancing by the party’s fire, which she keeps to her back towards. She pauses, lithe body tensing as she swears she sees something move and her ears strain as she listens, but she hears only the crackling and popping of the logs on the fire. With a scoff and a shake of her head at imagined threats, she returns to the arrow, holding it up to check its straightness. Pleased with her work, she goes to set it alongside the others that she has prepared only for a realization to dawn upon her – the world about her has gone completely silent. There is no distant chittering of nocturnal beasts, no snoring of the barbarian, even the crackling fire has gone quiet. She whirls, springing to her feet to see the sorcerer’s feet kicking in the air, half of her seemingly vanished. With a noiseless cry, she leaps forward, driving her arrow into the air and finding purchase. Blood leaks from the impact and the legs of the sorcerer leap through the air before she is summarily spat up while the vast beast slowly becomes visible – a burly creature with the body of a six-legged reptile but the head and wide maw of a white-eyed toad. The ranger kicked the sleeping form of the barbarian just as a thick tongue lashed from the whowie.
Illustration by Vildevitus
The whowie hails from Australian Aboriginal myth where it was described as a giant six-legged goanna with the head of a toad known to dwell within a cavern. It emerged periodically to gobble up entire villages. It did so with extreme, unnatural stealth, allowing it to escape unscathed until one tribe finally had enough. They gathered bundles of sticks and woods and piled them in a great heap at the mouth of the whowie's cavern that they lit on fire. Smoke billowed into the caves and after seven days, the whowie emerged, blinded and disoriented by the smoke. The tribe leapt upon it and slew the beast.
With some art original art, I sought to bring the whowie to life, much like other creatures from myth such as the chimaera or wendigo. I knew that I wanted to capture its unnatural stealth through its Silent Aura, which has effects akin to a 4th-level silence spell. This gave me a base level that I wanted to make the whowie, and I felt comfortable building it as an 8th-level monster. To further capture its stealth, it also has Swift Cloak, functioning akin to invisibility but with fewer actions and a much shorter duration. This forces an action tax on the whowie if it wants to remain invisible, offering some balance to its effect. To counter the defensive and offensive properties that Swift Cloak provides, it has a lower Armor Class and its attack bonuses are between a moderate and high value. Initially, I built its jaws Strike with only Grab, but I envisioned this creature slipping into villages, grabbing a sleeper through an open window, and swallowing them whole before disappearing into the night. Having just Grab slowed it down too much to make this a possibility, so I accelerated it to Improved Grab.
With some frog/toad-like attributes, it felt natural for the whowie to have a tongue Strike with the Tongue Grab ability, but I also reached back to some 1e for its Tongue Drag (though much of the actual verbage comes from the cave fisher). Giant toads in the like had pull in 1e, and I wanted a similar effect though I added that the whowie could Swallow Whole a target that it pulls adjacent to it.
Pathfinder 2e:
For the PF1e version, it's a pretty faithful translation. As mentioned, I took the pull ability from 1e and covered the whowie's ability to swallow a creature with it through the description of its tongue. I wanted to keep its ability to disappear quick and so I designed its vanish from sight to function as a move action, but I was slightly worried that this would be too powerful, so I added a cooldown to it as well. I borrowed the wording from silence again, but the writing seemed less specific and more meandering, so I tried to capture the pertinent parts
Pathfinder 1e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Disappearances in the Dark: A village has been plagued by disappearances in the night for weeks. They beseech the heroes for aid and if the heroes investigate, they discover a pair of whowies invading that night. One of them escapes with its quarry in the night, forcing the heroes to track it down. If they follow it back to its cave, they discover that it has been trained as the pet of a kidnapping and slaving ring. These reprobates attack alongside their minion, seeking to add the heroes to their stock.
Careful Watch: A simple encounter, the heroes are resting for the night when one of them is on watch. A whowie slips into camp, silent and invisible to attempt to swallow one of the sleeping allies before disappearing into the night, triggering an encounter.
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I had some fun putting together the video for the whowie and I hope that comes through in it. I also tried putting together a sort of intro, so lemme know what you think of that! Feel free to check it out or share it with others, and then let me know what you think. Still learning how to best make these.
Have a monstrous Monday!