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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Huckleboar Blood

On the rejected monsters post, Omlet suggested something I hadn't thought of: using huckleboar blood in traps. I imagine something like: victim triggers a trap that drops a fragile container on the victim's head; victim gets splattered with huckleboar blood (perhaps diluted;) trap also releases catches on cages all around the perimeter, releasing ferocious beasts who head immediately towards the tasty-smelling victim.

That's actually not something I had thought of; I was thinking that adventurers braving the huckleboar fens would be gathering blood because of its value as a flavoring. The trap idea is pretty good, though. It makes me think there would also be some use for huckleboar variants. Imagine there are multiple colors of huckleboar, and the blood of each variety has a different effect. The blue-tipped huckleboars have the blood that induces hunger cravings. Other varieties:

  • Greenback Huckleboar: scent causes extreme territoriality; all wild animals, including normally docile ones, act as if cornered or protecting young, and tame animals turn on their masters.
  • Rednecked Huckleboar: rage-inducing odor causes beasts to attack anyone splattered with this blood; if the blood-splattered victim can't be reached, the effect is the same as greenback huckleboar blood.
  • Whiteflecked Huckleboar: fear-inducing odor paralyzes any who smell it; if attacked by a wounded whiteflecked huckleboar or someone splattered with its blood, frightened creatures either flee or react as if exposed to greenback huckleboar blood. 
  • Goldentail Huckleboar: alcoholic blood causes confusion in those who smell it; monsters are randomly enraged or frightened by a random target; used to make huckleboar beer.
  • Blackspotted Huckleboar: soporific odor causes sleep; drinking two vials of undiluted blackspotted huckleboar blood is potentially poisonous.

Prices for a vial of goldentail huckleboar should be double or triple normal, while blackspotted huckleboar blood is probably worth closer to ten times normal (but also probably illegal.)

1 comment:

  1. Trap without the monster-filled cages should me more subtle, especially if players don't know what actually happened (don't know the nature of the blood) - increased number of appearing monsters can be really confusing and / or surprising.

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