(1d6) Aquatic Terrors From the Flooded Decks (For Gus)

A Luminous Bristle-Maw

The HMS Apollyon is a massive, decaying Mega-Vessel adrift on the Seas of Fate like a vast floating Gormenghastic Megadungeon crawling with Merrow Men, Gun Wights and all sorts of other wild and demented monsters. The level of creativity and inventiveness lavished on this setting is nothing less than awe inspiring. If you've never visited the Dungeon of Signs blog before, you really ought to do so now.

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Here are (1d6) Aquatic Terrors from the Flooded Decks of the HMS Apollyon...

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1. The stagnant water in this area is oily and smells of rotten fish. By your third step through this shallow, stinking muck you notice dozens of tiny, glistening, fat yellow leeches squirming across your boots...
   

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   Tiny Yellow Leeches (5d10) [AL N, MV 20' (60'), AC 9[10], HD 1d4 each, #AT 1, DG 1 hit point per round, SV F1, ML 12 (fearless), Special: These things are tenacious and persistent. They will wriggle their way into every and any available nook and cranny in their insatiable pursuit of fresh blood. Covering them in salt causes them to burst, inflicting 1d2 damage per burst leech in a 10' radius. If captured and held inside a clear container, they can serve as a yellow-tinged light-source, but will shrivel and die within 1 day without receiving fresh blood.]

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2. There are slick, black spikes jutting out of the otherwise still waters of this chamber. There are several Archer Urchins clustered around a rusted and broken pipe spilling fresh water into the otherwise brackish stuff in here.
   

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   Archer Urchins (3d6) [AL N, MV 20' (40'), AC 46[13], HD 2, #AT 1d4, DG 1d4, SV F1, ML 8, Special: Each Archer Urchin shoots 1d4 spines out to a range of 30'. If a spine misses the intended target, there is a 60% chance that it will ricochet from a bulkhead or wall, allowing it to attack a secondary target with a penalty of -2 to hit. The spines are often poisoned, but it is more a nuisance-toxin causing dysentery, blindness, or incapacitating nausea than anything outright lethal or damaging.]

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3. Wet gray and black hoses and cables dangle from the ceiling. The shadows are a bit peculiar in here, due to all the dangling stuff. You might notice that some of those hoses have begun to sway sinuously, if you are exceptionally observant, otherwise...
   

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   Ceiling Lampreys (2d8) [AL N, MV 20' (120'), AC 7[12], HD 2, #AT 1, DG 1d4*, SV F2, ML 7, Special: These things get a +2 bonus on their first attack and inflict double damage any time they roll a natural 19 or 20 to hit. On a successful attack the Ceiling Lamprey can opt to forego the damage they would have inflicted in order to wrap around their target and commit a boring attack for 2d6 damage as a free attack next round. It requires a STR of 22 to remove one of these things, but doing so inflicts 1d6 extra damage to the victim. However, if they are exposed to open flame, they will recoil and seek to escape without causing any further harm.]

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4. The floor slopes down. It gets pretty steep right up to the point where it abruptly drops off into a deep chamber-lake of cold, black water. The floor is covered with loose rust, grit and small debris, making it mildly treacherous to navigate. If someone does slip, they have a good chance to slide into the water. Nothing will happen for the first few rounds...then you see all the pretty pink, yellow and green lights swirling around them...
   

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   Glowing Piranhas (6d4) [AL N, MV 0' (120'), AC 4[15], HD 1d4 each, #AT 1, DG 1d4*, SV F2, ML 9, Special: Only 4 of these things can attack a single victim in a given round. The rest swarm about and try to prevent their meal from escaping. Their bioluminescent glands are incredibly toxic (Save -1 or suffer 3d4 damage) and can't be extracted without a lot of time and patience, though Merrow Men are reputed to have specialized tools and techniques for just this sort of thing, and they also know how to use the teeth for arrow-heads and the like.]

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5. The water in here has a definite current moving through it deep below. It's also salty. Maybe there's a connection to the outer waters deep below...
   

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   Metallicized Barracuda (2d4) [AL N, MV 0' (140'), AC 3[16], HD 4, #AT 1, DG 3d4, SV F5, ML 12 (fearless), Special: If one of these things makes a successful bite attack, the rest gain a +1 bonus to hit the same victim. They inflict double damage on anyone wearing leather or similar, soft armor-types.]

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6. There is a milkiness to the stale water. It reeks of some sort of cheese. There's also a thick mat of some sort of dark weeds just below the surface...
   

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   Sargassoan Kill-Kelp [AL N, MV 10' (60'), AC 9[10], HD 4, #AT 4, DG 1d4 each, SV F4, ML 12 (fearless), Special: Immune to mind-influencing effects, this plant-terror waits patiently for one likely victim to get close enough to it for the thing to lash out with all of its attacks at once. Once it makes a single successfully attack, it wraps around the target and begins to drag them under the water, hopefully to drown. It requires a STR of 16+ to break one strand and there are up to 4 strands to deal with before getting free. If properly harvested and dried, this stuff can make really good rope.]

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