Lifeforms · Fauna · Tundra/ Arctic
Methranar
The Methranar The remnent of a much older time, the Methranar, the Icerender, the Lurker, is a figure prominant in the Megamoth Hunter's legends.
Codex introduction
Appearance:
This fell beast appears as a huge polar-bear like creature the size of an elephant. Its fangs and claws are of clear, blue ice and its eyes are cold, black pits. About it billows a cloud of noxious gas and condensed water vapor which largely obscures it except in the strongest of winds.
Origin and Background:
The Methranar were once a great horde of immense power, the pawns of the First Gods of Neyathis. However, they were eventually routed by the Invader Gods and their forces and what few survived scattered into the most cold and dark places of the world.
Combat:
Methranar are beings of immense cold, their forms including solid and liquid hydrocarbons, with ice forming their bones.
Methranar are enveloped by a cloud of bitter cold natural gas, cold enough to freeze most things solid in mere seconds. This cloud is the first thing that an opponent must deal with.
After this, the combatant must deal with the beast's huge size and strength. It's polar-bear like form provides it with ice claws stronger then steel, and massive jaws of similar strength. Still worse then it's freezing, suffocating cloud is its touch - a cold so intense that mortals simply cannot survive its clutches. To fight one of these beasts in close quarters would require either powerful magical or technological assistance.
The Methranar are fairly intelligent, and detest anything warm intensely. Their definition of warm is quite broad - anything above -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit).
Methranar dwell primarily within the depths of glaciers where they hollow out tunnels and carve chambers of unknown purposes. In their isolation and perhaps in madness they carve statues of dead gods, glorious and terrible at the same time.
Vulnerabilities
The Methranar can only exist in areas of extreme cold - temperatures above -10 C will eventually melt it, leaving nothing but it's bones of ice. Liquid water in large quantities (more then a gallon) will overcome it's magically generated cold and inflict damage similar to burning oil. Immersion in liquid water would result in its immediate death, but also result in a massive cloud of natural gas being released. This cloud is still intensely cold and will continue to freeze those nearby for several seconds before warming up to ambient temperature. This cloud, being natural gas, is both poisonous and highly flammable.
Fire based attacks are actually less effective then masses of water - the Methranar will only ignite if sufficient damage is inflicted by the fire to slay it.
Campaign Use
The Methranar are intended as a powerful Arctic/Antarctic or high mountain threat on par with a dragon or balrog.
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Updated: Another expellee from the workbin...
A way to fight this would be with packs of hot water and a hose as a *gun* to shoot it out. Even then it would take several people and not all would survive.
Epic. I am working on arctic fauna right now and this is inspiration. I would love to know more about their mythic origin and stuff like their carvings more than technical info though. Sweet idea.
Well written, but like MJS, would have liked more details on mythic origin and legends etc.
Neat idea, certainly plays fast and loose with physics...my PCs would have had hella fun time manipulating the physics of this system. You are also pretty scatter shot with the piece's perspective.
Where do you see the perspective changing? I thought it was pretty consistently in the gm perspective.
Nope, you're right, on the reread the perspective is pretty solid and consistent.
Like the Ms, I'd like to know more about these dead gods the Methranar carve from the ice. Are these 'general' dead gods from some ancient epoch that these frozen behemoths 'remember', or are these the gods of the Methranar themselves? If the latter, what do gods of these frozen monsters look like?
Great visual here, and a terrible surprise for a tundra-trekking band. A cloud of frosty mist comes into view...
4.5 will use saterday