Malbolg
Added 2024-05-13 14:00:43 +0000 UTC
Skill 8
Stamina 14
Initiative 2
Armour 1
Damage as Spear or Modest Beast
Mien:
1. Surveying
2. Prodding
3. Searching
4. Standing deathly still
5. Gulping down something unspeakable
6. Hunting
## Quiddity
The sea caves of Mt. Typhon are the destination of the dead who, in life, ate sea bass on the Feast Day of St Evander without repentance. The damned grow from cysts in the seaweed that fill the tidal pools of the caves, re-birthed into the afterlife spluttering on brine. The plants are dutifully maintained by the Malbolg; they split and propagate the damned, dragging them from depths to shallows as the season demands; they bite off desperate fingers which grasp for the surface; they guard the entrance to the caves of Typhon against those wishing to rescue their loved ones; and they harvest the damned to trade and pay tithes of protection to other Princedoms of the underworld.
## Violence
The Malbolg prefer to use their fearsome jaws as a tool and punishment against the damned who grow like grass in the pools of the sea cave, rather than as a weapon in combat. The length of their necks offers them the flexibility to reach down into the water for any who shrink away from their ministrations but makes for an easy target for others. Instead, they prefer to use their prongs and shears to defend themselves.
## Ecology
The Malborg are considered minor demons with no great knowledge by serious infernalists so they are summoned primarily as servants. No Prince has taken control of their caves because of the value of their trade and the difficulty in assaulting it.
## Lair
The sea caves of Mt Typhon range from narrow passages to vast caverns so large one can't see the roof. All are at least a few inches under water, hiding submerged holes filled with grasping dead or sucking riptides. When summoned to the overworld it is usually to act as dungeon keepers and torturers, so they are sometimes found in the basements of abandoned wizard's manses.
## Special
Their long neck can strike anyone, over around or above, in combat with ease; there's no way to block them from doing so. However, their bite puts their neck in peril. Any attacks versus their bite, on a damage roll of 6, do double damage as it strikes their neck.