Jab’s Builds! (Lawnmower Man! Samus Aran! Metroids!)

[Jabroniville]

The Nuckelavee is actually of the most horrific monsters of Scots legend, considered a demonic spirit which spreads pestilence, famine, and even drought; apparently it was kept in check by a sea god/benevolent spirit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuckelavee

I got to learn a whole new word-"Orcadian"-from looking up the creature. Thanks Jab!

All my best.

yeah, I knew the vast majority of the things in this line, but that took me completely by surprise. I've never seen it ANYWHERE.

[Jabroniville]

Also.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oflCcjxYmqw


ELSA HAS HER HAIR DOWN, EVERYBODY!!! ELSA HAS HER HAIR DOWN!!!!

[Jabroniville]

98) THUNDERDELL
Origin: Mythological Creature (Cornwall)
Role: Large Brute, Man-Eater
PL 10 (91)
STRENGTH 11 STAMINA 14 AGILITY -1
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE -2 AWARENESS -1 PRESENCE -2

Skills:
Athletics 3 (+12)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 9 (+7)
Expertise (Survival) 6 (+4)
Intimidation 10 (+8, +14 Size)
Perception 5 (+4)
Ranged Combat (Rocks) 3 (+7)
Stealth 4 (+3, -9 Size)

Advantages:
Fast Grab, Improved Critical (Club), Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 4

Powers:
Growth 12 (Str & Sta +12, +12 Mass, +6 Intimidation, -6 Dodge/Parry, +1 Speed, -12 Stealth) -- (48 feet) (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Continuous) [25]
"Giant Senses" Senses 2 (Low-Light Vision, Acute Scent) [2]
"Giant's Size" Strength-Damage +2 (Feats: Reach 2) [4]
"Giant Stride" Speed 3 (16 mph) [3]

"Two Heads" Enhanced Advantages 2: Second Chance (Perception Checks, Mind Control) [2]

Offense:
Unarmed +9 (+11 Damage, DC 26)
War Club +8 (+12 Damage, DC 25)
Initiative -1

Defenses:
Dodge +5 (DC 15), Parry +7 (DC 17), Toughness +14, Fortitude +14, Will +5

Complications:
Prejudice (Monster)

Total: Abilities: 6 / Skills: 32--16 / Advantages: 9 / Powers: 36 / Defenses: 25 (92)

-Another obscure "deep cut" in the line, Thunderdell is a two-headed Giant of Cornwall, slain by Jack the Giant-Killer in those fabled stories- I didn't realize the giants ever got named! Chanting "fee fau fum", Thunderdell invades a banquet for Jack, but is decapitated after getting stuck in a drawbridge. The unpainted MIMP figure is actually one of my favorites in the line, being this brutal-looking, muscular two-headed giant with tons of detail and a great pose. He boasts a pair of weapons, a sash made of skulls, a mohawked Cyclopean face, and a shorter, bearded one.

-Thunderdell takes my Cyclops build and adds the "Two-Headed" thing to it. Only so many ways to build a Giant.

[HalloweenJack]

The Winged Panther was something I'd always wondered about.

The only time I can think of one used in pop culture was in an episode of The Real Ghostbusters, the one where Ray goes back to his home town and the Busters end up fighting a giant winged panther ghost juiced by negative energies.

[Jabroniville]

57) TARASQUE
Origin: Fictional Creature (French Story, 1260-ish)
Role: Monstrous Dragon
PL 11 (95)
STRENGTH 8 STAMINA 10 AGILITY -2
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE -3 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE -3

Skills:
Close Combat (Unarmed) 4 (+10)
Expertise (Survival) 6 (+7)
Insight 1 (+2)
Intimidation 12 (+9, +11 Size)
Perception 5 (+6)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Diehard, Extraordinary Effort, Fast Grab, Fearless, Improved Critical (Unarmed) 2, Improved Grab, Last Stand, Startle, Takedown, Withstand Damage (Trade Defenses For Toughness)

Powers:
"Animal Senses" Senses 4 (Low-Light Vision, Acute & Extended Scent, Extended Hearing) [4]
"Six Legs" Extra Limbs 2 [2]

"Natural Size" Growth 5 (Str & Sta +5, +5 Mass, +2 Intimidation, -2 Dodge/Parry, -5 Stealth) -- (18 feet) (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [11]
Strength-Damage +4 (Feats: Reach 2) [6]
"Thick Layer of Skin" Protection 4 (Extras: Impervious 11) [15]

Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+12 Damage, DC 27)
Initiative -2

Defenses:
Dodge +2 (DC 12), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +14 (+4 Impervious), Fortitude +12, Will +6

Complications:
Disabled (Animal)- The Tarasque cannot speak to humans, nor use its paws to easily manipulate objects.

Total: Abilities: 14 / Skills: 28--14 / Advantages: 12 / Powers: 38 / Defenses: 17 (95)

-The Tarasque is most famous to nerds for its use in Dungeons & Dragons as the ultimate unkillable monster, but hails from a French story about St. Martha. A lion-headed monster with six legs, an ox's body and a turtle shell, it was kind of a mix & match creature, and was said to be the child of the Biblical Leviathan and a bison-like creature called the Onachus. The creature assaulted everything it encountered in France, and proved immune to all harm, but Saint Martha found the beast and "charmed it with hymns and prayers", taming the monster and bringing it back to the city, where the terrified populace attacked it. The creature, fully cowed and offering no resistance, was killed. The people, regretful over their action, became Christianized and changed their town's name to Tarascon. A similar Spanish creature, likely inspired by this story, is the Tarasca.

-The MIMP figure is actually quite awesome, being a very detailed leonine creature with a mane, six legs, and a snake-like tail.

-The Tarasque is merely said to be "thicker than an ox" and difficult, but not impossible to kill, so I went with a PL 11 monster with +14 Toughness- enough to die if attacked by tons of people.

[Jabroniville]

79) SIREN
Origin: Mythological Creature (Ancient Greece)
Role: Tempter of Sailors
PL 10 (70)
STRENGTH 1 STAMINA 5 AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 2 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Deception 2 (+5)
Expertise (History) 4 (+4)
Persuasion 4 (+7)

Advantages:
None

Powers:
"Siren's Song" Affliction 10 (Will; Dazed/Compelled/Controlled) (Extras: Cumulative, Area- Perception-Ranged) [30]
Immunity 1 (Aging) [1]

Offense:
Unarmed +2 (+1 Damage, DC 17)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +2 (DC 12), Parry +2 (DC 12), Toughness +5, Fortitude +7, Will +4

Complications:
Motivation (Destruction)- For whatever the reason, Sirens hide away on their small island and lure ships into wrecking themselves upon its shores.

Total: Abilities: 30 / Skills: 10--5 / Advantages: 0 / Powers: 31 / Defenses: 4 (70)

-The Sirens represent another great aspect of Greek Mythology- the existence of these random-ass things way out in the wilderness as more of a "Chapter Two" foe than a Main Event-level threat. They were everything men feared about beautiful women- temptation personified, they could take control of men via their wiles, luring them to disaster- in this case, their beautiful songs would lead sailors to crash their ships on the pointed rocks surrounding the Sirens' cove. Naturally, this has made them iconic as seductresses, with their name being used as a kind of insult. Most famously, they tempted Odysseus and his crew- the clever King used his wits and had his men fill their ears with wax so they'd be deaf to their charming song. They also threatened Jason and the Argonauts (Orpheus drowned out their song by playing his lyre).

-Plato suggested there were three "types" of Siren, each working for Zeus, Poseidon or Hades. Early art shows them as a prettier version of the Harpies- bird bodies and womanly heads- later images are of comely maidens with bird legs, while anything post-Greek is usually Mermaid-esque, as this seemed to fit their "Sea Creature" identity better. Initially, they could be either sex, but only women persisted after 500 B.C. Homer gives their number as two, while as many as five exist in other tales, and their names are never consistent because Greek Mythology has worse continuity than any comic book universe you can name. In most stories, they are the daughters of the river god Achelous, via one of the Muses, but their origins differ even after that- Demeter could have punished them for failing to find the abducted Persephone and cursed them, or the Muses plucked out their feathers and left them on an island after beating them in a singing contest.

-The MIMP figure is yet another Shreddies/Big Boy giveaway, and has all the typical "MIMP Female Figure" traits, with a long, body-obscuring shawl, long hair, and a weird woman's face. Most of the female figures in the line could be mistaken for each other pretty easily. Here, they are said to be part-fish, like in many post-Greek retellings of the story.

-Sirens are non-combatants, but their song is so powerful a lure that even Odysseus was affected- he was curious about what their song was, so allowed himself to be tied to the mast of his ship as it sailed by- he demanded his fellows release him immediately, but they refused, passing by the island unharmed.

[Jabroniville]

24) WINDIGO
Origin: Mythological Creature (Eastern Canadian Indigenous Tribes)
Role: Cannibal-Themed Cursed Spirit
PL 8 (104)
STRENGTH 6 STAMINA 6 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 10 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Athletics 2 (+8)
Expertise (Survival) 4 (+7)
Insight 3 (+6)
Intimidation 9 (+11)
Investigation 2 (+5)
Perception 5 (+8)
Stealth 7 (+10)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Fast Grab, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Improved Hold, Improved Initiative 2, Power Attack, Startle, Takedown

Powers:
Senses 4 (Low-Light Vision, Acute & Extended Scent, Tracking) [4]

Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+6 Damage, DC 21)
Initiative +11

Defenses:
Dodge +7 (DC 17), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +6, Fortitude +7, Will +5

Complications:
Obsession (Consumption)- Windigos are spirits formed by utter greed- never satiated, they are constantly in search of more human flesh to consume.

Total: Abilities: 68 / Skills: 32--16 / Advantages: 9 / Powers: 4 / Defenses: 7 (104)

-The Wendigo is most certainly known to comic book fans as the basis for the recurring Marvel Comics character, and it's rooted in the belief systems of Algonquin-speaking people across Eastern Canada. Though differences abound, given the distance between tribes, nearly all of them view the Wendigo as a malevolent, cannibalistic spirit. Reeking of death, these emaciated monsters hunted and ate people- gluttonous spirits, they were never satisfied, and constantly hunted for more victims. A human being would transform into a Wendigo after being overcome by greed. Certain tribes featured a controversial condition known as "Wendigo Psychosis", in which a regular person would resort to cannibalism with seemingly little provocation- this stopped once the tribes gained more access to Western civilization, which carried some uncomfortable questions. As the cases were largely sensationalized and were over a hundred years ago, little can be properly gleaned from them.

-The MIMP figure is called a "Windigo" (one of the alternate spellings), and is a bit... odd. There's a lot of variance in Wendigo tales, but this one ends up looking like a fuzzy-headed humanoid with light fur on the neck, forearms, and privates, and a nasty, roaring face. It features in the final stage of the NES game, being summoned in pairs by the Final Boss, the Warlock.

-A Windigo isn't really dissimilar from Jenny Greenteeth or any other number of savage, PL 8 killers. I gave it All-Out Attack and greater Intimidation, though, befitting how frightening the Algonquin found this creature.

[Jabroniville]

Haha, holy shit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3ifnN9xNEQ

Lions fighting hyenas.

"He who greets with fire. HE is the HYENA-KILLER".

Absolutely epic.

[Woodclaw]

57) TARASQUE
Origin: Fictional Creature (French Story, 1260-ish)

-The Tarasque is most famous to nerds for its use in Dungeons & Dragons as the ultimate unkillable monster, but hails from a French story about St. Martha. A lion-headed monster with six legs, an ox's body and a turtle shell, it was kind of a mix & match creature, and was said to be the child of the Biblical Leviathan and a bison-like creature called the Onachus. The creature assaulted everything it encountered in France, and proved immune to all harm, but Saint Martha found the beast and "charmed it with hymns and prayers", taming the monster and bringing it back to the city, where the terrified populace attacked it. The creature, fully cowed and offering no resistance, was killed. The people, regretful over their action, became Christianized and changed their town's name to Tarascon. A similar Spanish creature, likely inspired by this story, is the Tarasca.

I always suspected that the inclusion of the Tarrasque in the D&D mythos was actually the work of Bruce Heard, who was actually born in Nice and moved to the USA only in 1985.
I actually met him in Lucca in 2013 and he told me that one of the biggest issues he had working at TSR back in the day was explaining to some of his colleagues that putting vital resources for a medieval/fantasy town (such as a river) 3 miles from it didn't make any lick of sense.

[kirinke]

That's... That's actually kinda true. Most towns and villages were on the water of some sort.

[greycrusader]

Yeah. I recently worked on a project where I was researching a much more recent historical period, and even in the relatively recent past, settlers needed to be near water-lakes, rivers, or even just streams and creeks-in the age just prior to mass industrialization, being near a source of potable water was a must for survival. Likewise, congregating on coasts-while humans can't drink saltwater, ocean water still meant rain (so people built catch basins and reservoirs), fish, and vegetation.

This also explains why so many cultures around the world have various flood myths, or storm myths, btw.

All my best.

[Ares]

-The Sirens represent another great aspect of Greek Mythology- the existence of these random-ass things way out in the wilderness as more of a "Chapter Two" foe than a Main Event-level threat.

Yeah, Mythic Greece seemed to actually have a legit Random Monster Table where you could randomly stumble across siren, centaur, cyclops, nymphs, sphinxs, gorgons, minotaur and so on. It's no wonder so many of their mythic monsters made their way into the Monster Manual.

Going over older mythology, I actually tried to find "monsters" that would have made player character races. Our idea of Elves and Dwarves comes from Norse mythology, while gnomes, various "little people", goblins and the like are spread over European folklore. But elves and dwarves tended to be closer to actual Asgardian gods in terms of relative power and ability (dwarves forged all of the really cool stuff for the gods), while the "little folk" tended to be more like house fairies or wood fairies that would either bring you good fortune or completely ruin you life.

Beings like centaur, mermaids and the like seemed to better fit the whole "D&D race" thing, being mortal beings who frequently had relatable human emotions. But beings like that don't generally play into folklore or mythology because, well, these kinds of creatures were never meant to have their own civilizations or be someone humans could see as equal to themselves, they were either threats to the hero or sources of training/useful gear. It would be kind of fun to go back through the MIMP builds and see which creatures could potentially make good PC races.

[squirrelly-sama]

Also.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oflCcjxYmqw


ELSA HAS HER HAIR DOWN, EVERYBODY!!! ELSA HAS HER HAIR DOWN!!!!

Blink and you'll miss it but she has a loose pony tail in a couple of scenes.

[Ares]

Something else I thought of recently when going through my old mythology books and watching videos on gods, kami and the like, and that's how our modern concept of "gods" differs from how they were portrayed in the myths. And I don't mean things like Thor having blonde hair or myths being sanitized like other fairy tales. I mean more how we tend to think of gods as these all powerful, all knowing, invincible beings far above mortals . . . when in most mythology they really aren't. The gods of the Norse, Egpytian and Greek pantheons as well as the Kami of Japan, the Tuatha de Danann of Ireland and the various spirits/gods of Africa were not all powerful or all knowing. They often didn't have the whole picture of what was going on, they frequently got tricked by mortals, and in several cases we had mortals thwart, defeat or outright injure these beings. True, you rarely saw this happen to guys like Zeus or Odin, but almost everyone else was fair game.

The idea of gods being all powerful seems to stem more from Judaeo-Christian notions of an omnipotent and omniscient creator deity, when most pantheos were definitely neither all-knowing or all-powerful. The closest we get is the Hindu/Indian pantheon, but they're this kind of weird hybrid of a pantheon and mono-theism, where there's basically one "God" and all of the other gods are different aspects / avatars of said being, who in turn frequently have multiple avatars and incarnations themselves.

Side-note, Hindu mythology has this cool concept called "astra", where you can use incantations to summon either attack or defensive magics, or get a magical copy of a legendary weapon. It'd be like knowing an incantation to summon a magical replica of Thor's hammer, though more powerful astra tended to have limitations and requirements that would bite you in the rear if you ignored them.

[FuzzyBoots]

One of the difficulties of the "Hindu" mythology is that the idea that it's all one religion was something largely externally imposed by British colonists. You'd might as well try to merge the mythologies of all Native Americans (which many do) or try to explain European mythology by merging Greek, Roman, Christian, and Pagan mythologies into one system.

Of course, frankly, Greek and Roman mythology have some degree of that too since people people largely conflate Greek and Roman mythology despite them kind of evolving in parallel from a common Indo-European religion that was also parent to Norse and Slavic mythologies.